Saturday, December 29, 2007

Hair Today....Gone tomorrow?

There are many things we do to butcher our hair. Don't get me wrong. Hair torture is my business.. my livelihood if you will. I don't think things have changed much since our parents were our age either. Although they used clothing irons and harsher chemicals- we have our own forms of hair torture such as- irons (that can get hotter than the irons from "back in the day" ) -okay maybe not as hot as when they use to cook iron rods over fire and then curl their hair, but you get the picture. We also use these "friendlier" chemicals on our hair, and we use them so often that I'm willing to bet it cancels out the friendliness.So what do we do about it? Well the best thing possible is to get a deep conditioning treatment once a month and never put heated or chemical products to our hair ever again. And since that would be no bueno for me- We have to take drastic steps to protect our hair.
First, like I said, a monthly deep conditioning/protein treatment will definitely help. Beware of stylist or salons that try to tell you to do it more often than that (Some cases..rare ones may require a bi-monthly treatment but only until your hair is back on track). Too much protein in your hair will cause it to be brittle and break even more easily. You can however, use a cleansing shampoo once a week or if that dries you out too much try twice a month. But if you don't use any hair products such as gel, hairspray, or even shining serum you can either skip this step or cleans once a month.
Schedule a regular maintenance trim every 6 weeks. This will keep hair looking healthy and keep dead ends at a minimum.
If you wash your hair every day try to cut back to every other day. If you have extremely oily hair and NEED to wash your hair on a daily basis, stick to shampooing the scalp and just running your fingers through the ends just a bit. Shampooing daily, even with a moisturizing shampoo can dry out your scalp and wash out the much needed oils to keep your hair strong and healthy. There are a variety of great products out there for people with oily hair and that need a quick fix. Bumble and Bumble has a great dry shampoo.
If you use a curling iron, flat iron, or blow dryer, I'm not going to tell you to stop using them, because quite frankly, they're awesome! But if you use them every day try to cut back to every other day. There are products out that claim to help protect your hair if you do use these tools. And although I am not a scientist, I have no idea if they truly work or not. But give 'em a try. If you see that the physical condition of your hair is worsening..stop using it. And for the last but most important thing you can do to keep your hair health.. drum roll please...... Live healthy. Drinking plenty of water, take your vitamins, eat nutritiously, and don't smoke! All of these things are truly the BEST thing you can do for your hair. Oh and your figure!
So even though our hair is here today, it could possibly be gone tomorrow. So lets do our best to keep it healthy and thriving!

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