Town Talk

More Tips for Beautiful Hair

I used to be a hairdresser. The reason? I had this horrendously bunchy, bumpy, curly, wavy hair and I lived in high humidity year round. While everyone else had straight, blond hair, my head of tresses stuck out like a freaking, big fat fever blister on the lips on date night. So I’ve done every trick in the book to figure out what to do with my hair. And, in figuring out what to do with mine, I managed to mess up a lot of hair on other people along the way. Finally, after all these years, I’ve got it all straight—my hair, first, and a ton of great tips on how to do just about anything to just about any type of hair to make hair look great.

Here are just a few tips. (You can find more hair tips and tricks here, and also learn how to cut your own bangs here.)

If you want to cut your hair but you’re dastardly afraid of how it might look, try face framing under your length. What do I mean? Put all your hair into a ponytail or chignon… just pull it off your face and clamp it back. Then, with a comb, section off a small bit of fringe all around your face. Then cut it as short as you want. You’ll have an idea of what you’ll look like with shorter hair, and you’ll be able to judge if you need to cut shorter or not as short. If you think it all looks horrible, let your hair down and the majority of the fringe will be hidden within the longer hair, and what isn’t hidden won’t look bad at all.
Hair that has been chemically processed needs good shampoo. Do not buy cheap shampoo. Also, many times colorists and hairstylists get a commission from the products they sell, so make sure you trust your colorist before you go plunking money down on hair products. Having said that, do support your local hair salon and colorist, if what they say makes good sense to you. If you need to save money, don’t buy the conditioner. A bad conditioner can be heavy and weigh your hair down, but it won’t hurt your hair.
The rule of thumb for washing hair so that your color stays longer: wash only the roots and let the suds run down the strands; condition only the strands so that the roots don’t get so greasy so fast.
It’s hard to do, but if you can delay washing your hair an extra day, that’s an extra day your color will hold longer.
If you have curly hair and you want to cut bangs, make sure that the section around your face is not too thick. Start with fringe and make sure to blend the fringe in an upside down u-shape. Do not cut straight across until you’ve first tried this.
If you have bone straight hair and you want to wear curly hair for an important date, make sure to set the hair that you’ve curled with a curling iron, onto brush rollers while the hair is still warm, e.g, curl with curling iron, pop onto brush roller, go to next strand to curl. Spray with setting spray or hair spray. Let the hair sit on the brush rollers while you apply makeup. Then remove the rollers. This gives the cuticles time to “settle” in and tighten up into a better holding curl.
For those who have curly hair and want straight hair, I swear by the ghd IV Ceramic Styler. I’ve been caught walking three miles solid in a heavy mist, and my hair stayed bone straight. I really cannot recommend this ceramic iron enough. Every penny I plunked into it has been paid back in two solid years worth of good hair days. Enough said.
Hair products are not something I’m really crazy about, because, for the most part, they just gunk up the hair. But when making curly hair go straight with a ceramic iron, TIGI S Factor Dream Drops make hair so shiny. It’s really a great product for ceramic straightening.

For more reading on Hair:

Come visit me on Twitter.com/StyleAve.

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Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/31/09 at 12:34 PM