Written by Victoria Walker
Properly caring for your hair can result in healthier looking & shinier hair. Simple changes, like soft bristle brushes, never brushing your hair while it is wet and avoiding hot appliances, in regemine can have dramatic results.
Not everyone is born with beautiful hair, but by learning a few hair care facts, you can make your hair look its best. Healthy, attractive hair should shine. Whether your hair is long or short, light or dark, it should look smooth, silky and shiny. Hair that is dull, dry, brittle or frizzy is unhealthy and unattractive. Everyday events such as shampooing, brushing and blow drying can do great damage to your hair, causing the dry, brittle, frizzy appearance.
When you shampoo your hair, you should use a shampoo for your specific type of hair. If you have permed or color treated hair, you should use a shampoo for chemically treated hair. Many people believe that baby shampoo is very gentle and safe to use on their hair. This is a big misconception. Baby shampoo is actually quite harsh: its main purpose is to remove cradle cap from an infant’s scalp. Leave the baby shampoo for your baby. If you are not sure what your hair type is or what type of shampoo to use, ask your hairdresser. Your hairdresser can recommend a specific shampoo and conditioner to keep your hair healthy and shiny.
Brushing your hair can actually help improve the shine. Brushing evenly distributes the oils from the scalp throughout the hair shaft. If you have long hair that tends to tangle on the ends, you should start brushing on the ends to remove any tangles, and work your way up to the scalp. You should never brush wet hair. When hair is wet is it much weaker than when it is dry. Wet hair will break very easily if it is not combed very gently. If you have long hair, you should squeeze the excess water from your hair with a towel. Never rub your hair between the towel to dry it, this can cause severe breakage. Before combing, a leave-in conditioner should be sprayed on the hair to help restore shine and help remove tangles. Using a wide tooth comb, comb hair from the ends and work your way up.
Blow dryers are very convenient and many of us use them daily. If they are used incorrectly, they can cause severe heat damage to your hair. Blow drying can cause your ends to be dry, brittle and frizzy. You should allow your hair to air dry until it is about half way dry. Set your blow dryer on low or medium heat, and keep the blow dryer about six to eight inches away from your hair. Using a blow dryer set on high heat is very damaging. If you notice stray hairs that are shorter than the rest, that tend to look frizzy or out of place; those are the effects of breakage caused by harsh brushing and treatment of wet hair and blow drying.
If you follow these healthy hair practices, you should notice an improvement in the condition of your hair within two to four weeks, depending on how damaged your hair is. While you are working to improve the condition of your hair, there are several hair care products on the market that help improve the shine and decrease the frizziness. Many of the products work remarkably well. See your hairdresser or visit your local beauty supply store for more information on available products.
May 9th, 2006
Coloring your hair is perhaps the quickest and most dramatic way to change your look.
It is also an excuse to go out and buy a new wardrobe of clothes, because you’ll find that what suited you as a brunette looks rather drab on a new blonde.
There are two types of hair dyes: permanent and semi-permanent, with variations of each.
A) Permanent Tints:
Must be mixed with hydrogen peroxide to lift hair color. The peroxide opens the hair cuticle so that the tint can penetrate the cortex and form the color. The higher the level of peroxide, the quicker and lighter the result.
B) Semi-Permanent Colors:
They don’t actually lift the color - you can either vary the tone within your natural highlights or go darker. Quasi-color contains ethanolamine and 3% peroxide which slightly opens the cuticle. This means that the color can last up to 20 washes and will softly fade as you shampoo, causing no regrowth problem.
C) Semi-Permanent Vegetable Colors:
Contain only vegetable extracts and natural ingredients, so no color is stripped from your hair. It is similar to henna but it doesn’t coat the hair (adds shine though). This color sits on the hair’s surface and will wash out after about 8 shampoos.
Different coloring methods suit different hair styles, so get some expert advice when deciding which one to go for…
Skin Tone: Your new hair color should complement your skin tone. Light-skinned people don’t look good with very dark hair because it draws color out of their skin. Dark, tanned skin doesn’t look great when mixed with a one-tone blonde, but four or five blonde, chestnut or honey tones look fabulous.
BLONDE:
If you would love to be blonde, talk the process through with your colorist (or stylist) before you go for it. It should be relatively painless on virgin dark brown hair, but if your hair has been permanently tinted then the process will become a long saga.
Never attempt this kind of dye job on your own for the first time.
RED:
Red is the ultimate sexy shade, for color that cries out for attention. Hair holds on to red-toned pigments well, so going copper-top can be easy for most people.
But be warned - if you are blonde you will usually have to go two or three shades darker than your natural color to achieve a rich red (brunette), and it’s not easy to reverse it.
BROWN:
Brunette is always a safe choice as it suits nearly every girl in town. Varying the shade with highlights can achieve a huge range of looks. From chocolate brown and bronze shades to honey or dark blonde, combinations of natural tones gives incredible shine as darker-pigmented tints add condition to your hair.
BLACK:
This is by far the easiest color to accomplish because the molecules in black tints are larger and will cover all hair types very effectively. Caution is needed when using black as it only tends to look good on people with darker and olive skin tones. it’s great for getting the goth look, but definitely not for your granny.
Some popular coloring questions:
* Will coloring my hair damage it?
Only if the wrong level of peroxide is used or you are over-processing (too many permanent colors are applied) your hair. If you constantly change your hair color , especially if you go from blonde to brown and back to blonde, you must regularly use deep conditioning treatments.
* Why can colored hair look dull?
Over-processing is the biggest reason. If your hair is starting to look dull, use semi-permanent colors where the pigments sit on top of the hair adding plenty of tone and shine.
* What’s better for my hair, semi-permanent or permanent color?
Semi-permanent color give your hair a higher shine and enhance condition, but they won’t lift natural hair color. Also, a semi-permanent tint will not cover large amount of grey hair (more than 50%).
If a permanent tint is used correctly, you will always achieve a beautiful effect and semi-permanent tints can be used to maintain these permanent treatments, adding condition.
May 9th, 2006