Archive for October 9th, 2006
Getting your hair color right isn’t a science. It’s really quite simple: Stick to the colors that compliment your skin tone, figure out if you’re
best off with all-over color or highlights & then decide if you’re going to pay someone else to do it or do it yourself.
Here are 7 tips & tricks only your hairdresser knows, from how to avoid the wrong color to exactly how to do it yourself.
1 Pick the right color. Your hair color should suit your complexion. Any hair color will look good on pale skin. If you have pink skin, avoid shades of red or golden blonde. Opt instead for ash tones to neutralize your coloring. Sallow complexion? Stick with deep reds & avoid yellow, gold or orange tones. If your skin is olive, stick with dark colors & add richness with lowlights in red or brown shades.
2 To color or to highlight, that’s the question. If you have short hair, avoid highlights & opt for full color. Subtle highlights around your face will brighten your complexion if you have longer hair. Keep in mind that due to root growth, all-over coloring will need to be touched up every 4 to 8 weeks, while highlights can last up to 2 or 3 months.
3 Different types of highlights. There are basically 4 types of highlights: basic foil highlights, bialiage or ‘hair painting’, chunking or ‘piecing’ & lowlighting.
4 Doing it yourself? Home-color kits have come a long way in the past few years & are perfect for busy people & those who want cut the cost of professional colorings. (We know of a couple top fashion editors who color their hair themselves!). Some great hair coloring kits include:
L’Oreal Natural Match Hair Color
Clairol Nice and Easy
Some home hair coloring tips: Rub Vaseline around your hairline as a protective measure before applying color. To remove after coloring, rub a small amount of cream cleanser & wipe off with cotton balls. Always wear gloves & wrap an old dark-colored towel around your shoulders. Rinse your eyes with water if you get color in your eyes. If you forgot the Vaseline & stained your skin, rub the area with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol-based toner.
5 Don’t like the color? Don’t be afraid to go back to the salon & talk to your stylist. There are all sorts of ways to fix color that’s just not right. If you did it yourself with a semi-permanent color, use a body-building shampoo to wash away the color faster.
6 After care. Refresh your color by using a color-enhancing shampoo & conditioner once a week. These products deposit miniscule amounts of color into hair.
7 Root rescue. You can expect your color to last about 6 to 8 weeks before your roots show. If you’re hair is colored, you’ll want to get your roots touched up or do them yourself with a kit you can buy at the store like Clairol Nice and Easy Root Touch Ups. Be sure & test the color first before applying.
If you have highlights or lowlights, you can avoid having your whole head colored by asking your stylist to do your hairline, crown & part. A word of warning: Foil highlights require precise application & fixing dark roots is nearly impossible. Ask about easier to maintain highlighting techniques.
Information: Marie Claire ‘Hair & Makeup’, ‘Total Beauty’ by Sarah Stacey & Josephine Fairley.
October 9th, 2006
Talk about going back to your roots…
The average British woman spends an astonishing £36,903.75 on her hair in a lifetime, according to new research.
She will spend the equivalent of just under two YEARS of her life washing, styling, cutting, colouring, crimping and straightening her locks in salons or at home.
A whopping 650 days will be dedicated solely to creating a ’salon look’ in her own bathroom. The average woman splashes out a monthly average of £10.08 on shampoos and conditioners, £14.03 on home styling products and £301.14 a year on haircuts and colouring.
She spends the equivalent of 41 minutes at home every day washing, styling and restyling. A third of women say their hair is the most important part of their appearance, and they spend more time styling their hair than doing their make-up.
The poll of 2,500 women was conducted by Boots in conjunction with the launch of the UK’s first ever home lotion-based straighten kit.
Over two thirds of women prefer straight hair to a head of curls and 48 per cent of those polled regularly try to achieve poker-straight hair.
Some desperate women even resort to ironing their hair in a bid to look like stars such as Davina McCall, Jennifer Aniston and Cat Deeley. Other wacky home hair remedies include washing hair in beer (14 per cent), smearing hair with raw egg (10 per cent), tying hair in rags (14 per cent) and washing hair in lemon juice (27 per cent).
Brunette is the hair colour most favoured by 43 per cent of women, 33 per cent would like to be blonde, whilst 12 per cent strive to be redheads.
A spokeswoman for Boots said: “We recognise that poker-straight hair is a look most women want to achieve, as sales figures show we are selling more straightening irons than ever before.
“In response, we have launched the Boots straighten kit, which works to permanently straighten hair, reducing the amount of time a woman will spend with her straightening irons.”
October 9th, 2006
Surgeons say transplant surgery for hair loss should be considered only after a doctor’s evaluation and a months-long test of less drastic remedies.
In 95 percent of cases, thinning hair in men and women results from a hereditary condition, androgenetic alopecia. In men, the loss usually begins at the temple and the crown. Women have a gradual thinning over the entire head.
When hair loss occurs, a doctor should also rule out other conditions, especially if the bald spots are in patches. For instance, an autoimmune disease, alopecia areata causes distinct bald patches to form. Lichen planopilaris is an inflammatory disorder in which small flat raised areas form on hairy parts of the skin, and they are usually very itchy. Another autoimmune disorder, lupus, can also cause hair loss.
Among the drugs that doctors prescribe for hair loss is minoxidil, approved by the Food and Drug Administration for men in 1988, and for women in 1991. Applied to the scalp twice daily, the original formulation, with 2 percent minoxidil, was shown to cause moderate to dense regrowth in 26 percent of men from 18 to 49, with an additional 33 percent showing minimal regrowth, according to the F.D.A. Among women from 18 to 45, 20 percent can expect to see moderate to dense regrowth using minoxidil in its original formulation, and an additional 40 percent can expect minimal regrowth.
The stronger formula, with 5 percent minoxidil, brings significantly better results, according to Pfizer, which acquired Rogaine, the original branded version of the drug, when it bought Pharmacia Upjohn.
In 1997, the F.D.A. approved Propecia as the first pill for treating hair loss. Approved only for men because it can cause birth defects in women of childbearing age, the drug blocks the male hormone dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, which plays a central role in male-pattern baldness.
In the clinical trial that won Merck approval for the drug, Propecia resulted in maintenance or regrowth in 83 percent of patients, compared with 28 percent of those taking a placebo.
‘’Rogaine steps on the gas, Propecia takes your foot off the brake,'’ said Dr. Ken Washenik, the medical director of Bosley Inc., a large provider of hair restoration surgery and the former director of dermatopharmacology at the New York University Medical Center.
Many men have been scared off Propecia, however, by reports that it can cause a loss of sexual desire, difficulty in achieving erections and a decrease in semen. Studies suggest that the sexual side effects occur in 2 percent of the men taking it and that the effects are resolved when the medication is stopped.
For people considering surgical transplants, the first question is cost. The going rate is at least $10 a follicle, with most procedures involving 700 to 1,200 follicles. Patients willing to be scheduled at the last minute for an opening in a surgeon’s schedule can sometimes negotiate lower fees, Dr. Anthony P. DiBiase of Bosley said.
Practitioners agreed that it was best to find a doctor who performed the surgery frequently.
‘’It’s one of those subspecialties that you must do a lot of, almost every day, if you’re really going to be good at it,'’ said Dr. Rod J. Rohrich, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and chairman of plastic surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Patients might also want to check whether the doctor belongs to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, the largest medical group of transplant specialists, or has passed the exam of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery.
‘’The bottom line is, it’s a safe, simple outpatient-surgery procedure, but it does require some sound judgment and a lot of aesthetic skills,'’ said Dr. Carlos J. Puig of Houston, the president of the examination board and a member of Bosley’s biggest competitor, Medical Hair Restoration.
Relatively mild complications like bleeding or postoperative infections occur in 0.5 to 1 percent of patients, Dr. Puig said. There have also been a few cardiac arrests reported during surgeries, ‘’just as in dentistry,'’ he said, adding, ‘’You want to be sure the physician has the proper equipment in the office to manage those emergencies, but they’re very, very rare.'’
October 9th, 2006
To the Editor:
If Carol E. Lee needs an altruistic reason to knit, I suggest hooking up with those of us who knit ‘’chemo caps.'’
We make these soft, fashionable mohair caps and donate them to women who are undergoing chemotherapy and suffering from the resulting loss of hair.
My hands are busy for the good of someone who needs help.
Phyllis S. Levin
October 9th, 2006
Dilemma
Fiona has very long, fine hair. She would like a feminine style without losing the length, and wants to experiment with colour.
Solution
Long hair doesn’t need a drastic restyle to be updated. We gave Fiona seamless layers running all around her head to remove some of the hair’s weight. The length remained the same but without the flatness. We also blended the fringe into the rest of the hair, making it versatile: she can pin it up, wear it sleek or use heated rollers to create loose, irregular curls such as this — ideal for a party. By adding three shades of contrasting blonde highlights, the look can be given a gorgeous sun-kissed colour.
Reaction
I emerged from the salon with fantastic curly hair — a complete makeover. I never thought it would last all night, but it did.
Hair dilemma? For the chance to have your hair styled free at Hari’s London salon and to feature in his column, send one photograph with a brief description of your hair dilemma to Hari’s Hair Column, times2, 1 Pennington St, London E98 1TT, or e-mail with pictures as jpg attachments to hari@thetimes.co.uk. Travel expenses with proof of purchase up to £120 will be refunded.
October 9th, 2006