I hate when I forget to do before pictures! New client, Denise, got a refreshing update this weekend. She came in with much lighter and badly faded color; and an out of shape bob. I gave her my patented Rich Bitch Brown mocha color and boy, did it make her beautiful blue eyes pop!

Denise is a busy nurse and grand momma! The bob is very versatile for her and her naturally curly hair. The strong brow grazing fringe adds even more youth to a vivacious lady. This cut will look great on her curly for work days, straight and under or even tucked and flipped.

I know the calendar says summer isn’t for a few weeks, but we all know it really starts Memorial Day weekend when we hit the lakes and start cranking up those grills. This is a great time to remind everyone of how to take care of summer hair. You invest a lot in your do – don’t let the summer sun ruin it! Follow these tips for beautiful hair all summer without compromising summer fun.
Let’s take care of that summer hair!

We all know the sun (UV) is damaging to skin. Well, it’s also a killer on your hair – especially if you color your hair. Ultra-violet rays act like a catalyst, similar to the developer we use in hair color. UV reacts with anything that is in your hair – shampoo residue, styling products, clorine, anything – causing lifting of the color (either artificial or natural) and drying out the hair. It is nearly inevitable your hair will lighten in the summer months.

Rule #1: Thou shalt cover thy head.

If you’re going to be outside for an extended period of time in the sun, wear a hat. You’ve got a bazillion choices, from the trusty baseball cap to the ultra-girly big floppy straw hat. Even if you’re just going to and from the car, you’re still being exposed to a lot of UV rays when you live in our part of the country. Consider a cute parasol to cover yourself going from car to buildings or out shopping. That little tote size umbrella you keep handy for rainy days would be just the ticket.

Rule #2: Protect yourself from pool hair!

Your hair is most vulnerable to UV when you’re having fun in the water. This means pool water, lake, or beach. To keep from getting that nasty stiff pool hair, start with wetting your hair with clean water. Next, apply some very cheap conditioner. For this, I say go with whatever is least expensive at the drug store. If the hair is full of good things, prior to getting into the water, it can’t take on as much of the bad. Then refer to Rule #1.

For extra protection, you can also add sunscreen to your hair. There are several products out there specifically designed to protect hair from UV. My fave is Color Extend Sparkling Shield Leave-In Smoother from Redken.

You can use plain sunscreen in your hair. I strongly recommend using the lotion kind and NOT the spray on. Just be advised, any of these products with sunscreen in it, leave the hair feeling heavy and a little greasy. This shouldn’t be a problem because…

Rule #3: You WILL shampoo your hair after sun activities! 

It is imperative that you shampoo your hair after being in the water. While everything I have mentioned above will help stave off UV damage, you’re still going to get some chlorine, other chemicals, and salts in the hair. You must shampoo and condition as soon as reasonably possible after ending the fun in the sun. If you’ve taken the steps above, you do not need to use a clarifying shampoo. Those can be very hard on the color, too.

Rule #4: Don’t forget the kids!

Your kids are even more vulnerable to pool hair than you are. Children’s hair is more fine than adult hair. It needs protection as much as yours does. While you probably won’t get them to adhere to Rule #1, you can definitely do Rules #2 and #3. If you have a girl with long hair, I strongly advise putting the hair in a braid (doesn’t need to be French or fancy) after Rule #2. This will also help to keep the hair from being a tangled mess and eliminate fights later when you’re trying to comb it out.

This is a great time of year. Go out and enjoy! Just remember to take care of your investment in your hair! And take care of those kiddos.

Pinterest Pin of the Week - I instantly fell in love with this do – it’s big, it’s bold, it’s retro, it’s modern, it’s glam.  The easiest way to achieve this look is by using a faux ponytail so you have lots of hair to fold – unless of course, you have lots of long hair.  This also lends itself to accessorizing with flowers, jeweled pins, ribbons, glitter – any number of things.  But the hair alone makes a statement.

Grab a pony at Sally Beauty and bring it in for an easy glam look for your holiday party or New Year’s Eve! Don’t be afraid! Be bold!  Be fierce!

Happy hair!
Diane

Product Review:  Redken’s Spray Starch

This week’s product review is hands down my FAVORITE styling product of all time.   I literally cannot do my own hair without Spray Starch.

Spray Starch is a memory heat styling product.  It protects the hair from the heat of styling tools like flat irons, curling irons, hot rollers, crimping irons, etc.  It also makes those tools work better – like a setting spray.  Spray Starch gives ‘sizing’ to the hair, similar to that of `starching clothes before ironing.  This allows the style to hold longer whether straight or curled and gives memory to the style. Most important, it protects the hair from the heat of those tools.

Spray Starch is a styling product – you would spray this on a section of hair before applying a hot tool – iron or hot roller.  You can also use these with velcro rollers.  It does require some heat to activate the holding power. This product is used on DRY HAIR – not damp or wet.  I will sometimes use this while I’m blow drying hair if I want to some extra smoothing while drying – like using it as a polishing spray that also gives me hold.

Hot Sets is Spray Starch’s stronger counter part.  I only use Hot Sets on bridal and specialty styles that really have to last hours.  For thicker, more coarse or heavy hair, Hot Sets may actually be a better fit.

Happy hair!
Diane

Pinterest Pin of the Week This is just a super cute quick and easy updo, great for a holiday party!  Pair it with a simple sparkly dress and let your hair be an accessory.  You CAN do this and no(!), it’s not too young for you!  Try it!

There are two things I am guaranteed to try if I see a new product:  anything for fine hair and anything for curly hair.  These are the two most common issues clients have.  Align from Redken is the best straightening lotion I have used to date.  It is one of 3 straightening lotions Redken makes.  Align is the mid level in terms of straightening power.

Align is great for helping you control your curl while still leaving your hair soft and protecting it from the heat of your hair dryer.  It will not get your hair straight without some heat as it works with the heat.  Align can also help control very curly hair if you want to wear it curly, but just want to relax the curl some.  It’s also great at keep down the frizz both straightened and if you wish to wear it curly but relaxed.

Align is applied to clean damp hair.  I strongly recommend using no more than a nickle size dollop in your hand.  Too much product can make the hair feel gummy.  It’s better to go back with a little more than to over do the first application. Apply from the mid-shaft down, then go back up around the scalp and the hairline, where hair is often curliest.  My very best recommendation for getting the most out of the product is apply it and comb the hair straight back away from your face, and leave the product on as long as possible without touching it.  The longer you leave the product in without touching it, the smoother your hair will be.    It will get ever so slightly ‘crunchy’ as it dries on its own, but as soon as you put heat to it and a brush, it smooths right out.

In the salon, I apply the product and put the client under a warm dryer to pre-dry for about 10 minutes.  If you have a diffuser, you could accomplish the same thing.  The idea is to not touch it as long as possible for max smoothing.   When you do start to dry with a dryer, remember to keep the dryer BEHIND your brush going down the hair for max smoothing.

Align is a great start to smooth straight hair.  At the VERY least, it will help you cut down on drying time, frizz, and flat iron time – hopefully even the NEED to use your flat iron!  Align will also leave your hair with some body  and movement.  As always, I’m available for a private lesson to help you get the most out of your style and your products!

Happy hair!

Diane

Pinterest Pin of the Week

This Monday’s Pinterest Pin of the Week: If you’re looking for an easy and glam hairstyle for your company Christmas party, start here! The pictures alone are self explanatory along with my notes. The pins are easily acquired at Sally Beauty supply and very inexpensive. I do strongly suggest you buy the plastic, not metal, pins – more consumer friendly and less apt to get tangled in your curls.

Happy hair!

Diane

I was going to write this post myself today, but I found this on Tip Nut and just didn’t feel like I could add anything!  So, today’s How To: Clean a Curling or Flat Iron.  Easy peasy!

A couple of notes:  be VERY careful about using damp cloths on a hot iron.  Water conducts heat.  You could burn yourself.

I disagree with the one part of Tip Nut post about using a toothbrush dipped in alcohol.  I wouldn’t use ANYTHING that could scratch the surface of your iron, even a little bit.  You want your irons to glide as smoothly as possible through the hair.  Even little scratches can reduce the glide and cause uneven results, as well as breakage on delicate hair.

If the iron has really caked on product, you can remove it with a relaxer cream.  I only recommend this if it’s REALLY bad.  You would apply the cream to a hot iron with a popsicle stick or something like it – DO NOT TOUCH EITHER YOURSELF.  You’ll see the product bubble off, wipe with a DRY cloth.  After the product is all off, let the iron cool down and wipe it again with rubbing alcohol to take off any relaxer residue.  This is an important step – if there is any residue left, it can burn your hair the next time you used the iron if it’s not completely removed.

You really should give your iron a once over at least once a week (or more if you use the iron a lot).  This helps maintain the ‘slip’ of the iron and protects your hair.

If you have any questions, I’m here to answer them!

Happy hair!

Diane

Last we talked about how long to go between hair appointments, we focused on cuts.  This time, let’s talk about hair color.

The most important factor in determining how long to go between coloring is contrast.  How much contrast between new growth and color can you tolerate.  The closer you are to your natural color, the longer you can go between color visits.  The second, factor is how much hair color you have – all over color? or highlights?

On average, all over color (not highlighting) needs to be refreshed every 4 – 6 weeks.  The more gray and/or the higher the contrast, the more frequent the need for color.  For example, if you have 50% gray or less and medium brown or lighter, you can easily go up to 6 weeks between hair coloring as the gray is probably less noticeable.  The lighter the hair and contrast, you can push the coloring out a little farther.  HOWEVER, and this is a big however, it is NOT recommended to go any further out than six weeks for ANY color that is placed on the new growth/root area.   The reason has to do with how the keratin of the hair hardens as hair grows from the scalp.

Keratin is the main building block of protein that is hair.  When hair first grows from the scalp, the keratin is much softer.  As it continues to grow it gets harder and the cuticle becomes more dense.  This effects how hair takes color.  To go too far past that initial stage, the hair color doesn’t ‘lift’ – or lighten – as easily as it does in that first few weeks.  This creates ‘banding’ in the color and it will not be even from scalp to end.  Maybe you’ve seen someone with with obvious horizontal stripes of color where you can see each time they colored their hair – that’s banding.

Banding will be especially prominent in hair colors that are more high contrast from the natural.  The darker the hair trying to go lighter, the more important it is to get your hair color done every four weeks, in some cases, every 3.  50% gray or more on darker hair also requires more frequent coloring to stay even.

Highlighting is a lot different.  Because we’re not coloring every hair on the head, we have a lot more flexibility to the time between services.  On average, highlights only need to be done every 3 to 4 months.  However, like all over color, the farther we get away from the natural, the more often it needs to be done.  Personally, I don’t like for highlights to be retouched until there is a minimum of 2 to 2 1/2 inches of new growth.  It takes this much new growth to maintain the balance of contrast for highlighted, or low lighted,  hair.

Highlighting is such a great way to get some punch to your color without nearly the same amount of maintenance.  Highlighting is a TECHNIQUE – it’s not a color!  We can put any color in the foils.  For clients with who are just starting to gray, it’s a great way to camouflage the gray without resorting to the higher maintenance of all over color.

Please note these are general rules that apply to home color as well as professional color.  When I work with a client, I try very hard to give choices that fit a person’s lifestyle and budget, as well as give them the hair color they really desire.  I hope this explains the whys as much as the whens of our suggestions when it comes to hair color visits.  As always, if you have any questions, please ask!

Happy hair!

Diane

Pureology PureVolume Blowdry Amplifier

In Dallas, big hair rules.  We were raised on the adage the higher the hair, the closer to God.  Since most of us weren’t blessed with tons of naturally volumized tresses, we’re always on the look out for an  edge to make us look like we were.  Pureology’s PureVolume Blowdry Amplifier is a great start.

I was recently given a few samples of this product by my distributor.  First opportunity I had, I tried it on my own hair.  LOVE.  This is a clear gel like blow dry lotion.  My hair is too long to get mass volume just from a quick blow dry; but even on my hair, I noticed the finish was very cushy.  I wasn’t even trying to add volume with any proper blow dry technique – just using my big paddle brush – and I could tell it added probably 25% more volume to my hair. I can imagine even more if I’d tried!

I also loved the finish on my hair.  I don’t have a great blow dryer at home; not one that helps with frizz, like a good ionic or ceramic dryer.  With this product, didn’t need it.  The finish was really lovely and I wasn’t even inclined to to curling iron my hair for polish or more bump on the ends.  It was that awesome on the finish. I could tell from feeling the hair it had a really nice ‘sized’ finish – like sizing from lightly starched clothes.  On my days off, I’m really lazy about putting on full hair, so I didn’t go back and style this hair until the next day.  The finish was still great and took my regular styling routine (Spray Starch, big iron, velcro rollers) beautifully. Best of all, it lasted longer till my next shampoo.

The product retails for about $22 for a 250ml/8.5 oz bottle at Ulta. Pureology is, in general, a higher price point product line.  This is worth it.  I was given a 5 ml/.17 oz sample.  I could get two applications out of that little packet and I have long hair (good application technique will be covered in a post soon!). So, using this as base, I believe you can easily get between 75 and 100 applications out of one bottle.  That’s only about .30 cents an application.  Pretty good value for the money!  I believe this product is absolutely worth it.

The link next to the picture above will take you to Pureology’s website with more information on the product including the goodies inside.  I agree that it’s non-sticky and most importantly, not flaky.  The aromatherapy part isn’t so important to me.  That is pure marketing by hair companies – smell sells.  But good hair products do NOT smell in the hair after styling – hairsprays and other finishing products will be the notable exception because they do go on TOP of the hair.

I’m pretty lazy about products in my own hair, but this is going to be added to my own routine.  I just couldn’t get over the beautiful finish and it definitely helped my style last longer – even though my own hair is over due for a cut! Bottom line – LOVED IT.

Happy hair!

Diane