Passing On My Wisdom...... (Hair Tips & Advice)

Member Name: mythdata

Product:	Hair Tips & Advice
Date:	20/02/09 (682 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: DIY Hair, Save on excessive salon prices....

Disadvantages: I loose money.....

INTRODUCTION

I have been a hair stylist for over twelve years, six of which I have been running my own hair salon. Everyday I come into contact with people who struggle to maintain their hair and I have to advise them and sometimes correct any DIY jobs that they have inflicted on their hair.

Today I had a client that had bleached her own hair she was aiming for a white ice blonde look but ended with white roots, yellow mid length and red ends. She had had the common mistake of applying the colour to here root area first and then taking it through to the ends, therefore resulting on the miss matched colour.

So with this it gave me the idea to review any hair problems that people come into contact with on a daily basis, I am going to share my wisdom with all of you and hopefully you may learn a thing or two and improve you hair at the same time.

COLOURING YOUR OWN HAIR DARK

Firstly I would not recommend this try to pay a professional to do it, I have to say that as I will soon go out of business if I told everyone that they can do their own if they did it correctly.

If you are dark in colour this really very easy to do, just apply it according to the instructions on the colour box. You can't really go wrong with a dark colour as this only contains small amount of peroxide as it is only deposited into the hair, the peroxide opens up the hairs cuticle and deposits the colour. Once you have removed the colour the cuticle then closes and leaves your hair nice and healthy with a stunning shine.

Colour selection is vital when you choose to go dark, as some of the shop bought colours can go really dark almost black in fact, once it has been coloured the only way to remove of lighten the colour is to bleach or strip it therefore resulting in damaged hair, so you must be careful when choosing the right colour for you.

When you go dark you can struggle to remove all of the colour from your scalp and hairline, I have lost count of how many people I have see walking around with a dark scalp and hair line where they have not removed the colour correctly and it has stained their head.

To avoid this remember tint removes tint, when you are removing the colour just gently rub some colour from the top of you head into the areas where the colour has stuck and it will lift off when you rinse your hair, if you fail to do this you can apply Vaseline before applying the colour and this will lift it straight off.

LIGHTENING HAIR WITH COLOUR

This is the main one that everyone seems to mess up, purely because they like what the colour looks like on the box and just slap it on before considering some of the major factors like, what they have on their hair already and if their hair is in good enough condition to lighten it.

Applying a blonde colour is very different to applying a dark one, as it contains high amounts of peroxide so it will lift the existing hair colour. I have to stress that any blonde hair colour will only lift 3-4 shades lighter than your hair was before applying it.

I feel that hair colour manufacturers mislead buyers as they show stunning colour on the box, which makes the buyer think that they can have the same colour. In my opinion if you go dark then yes you can have any colour you want but going dark to blond can be a very different story.

So the rule to remember is that you will only go 3-4 shades lighter, with a shop bought colour.

BLEACHING HAIR.

This is the bug bear of my life, I feel that bleach should be left to the professionals as it is a very strong chemical that should not be used with out having the knowledge as it can severely damage your hair and scalp.

The first mistake people make is applying it to the roots and then the mid length and ends, this is wrong as you will get colour banding of red, yellow and blonde tones through out your hair.

To apply this correctly apply it to your ends and wait until it goes yellow in colour, then apply it to the mid length and when the two colours match in the length and ends apply it to the scalp. If you follow this advice you will get a nice even colour.

Bleach always takes a lot quicker at the root area as this is new hair that has never been coloured and the heat from your scalp also quickens up the process. So you must start from the ends and work up.

Bleaching hair works in four stages, first it will go red, then yellow, then blonde and then white. As a hairdresser it is advised that colour is removed as it hits the blonde / white stage, if it is not removed you will damage the cuticle and your hair will then become stretchy, chewy and may even result in breaking off at the roots.

Even if your hair is still red in the middle parts, but the roots are blonde you must remove it as it will snap from the roots as bleach is a product that never stops working. If you have to remove the colour and it is still patchy you can correct this by applying the bleach to the darker areas once again.

I know I have just made this sound very easy but it is in theory, but in practice it can be very hard and it can ruin your hair completely.

HAIR CUT MYTHS

Many people believe that if they don't cut there hair it will grow quicker, this is nonsense as your hair will dry, damaged and spilt.

The split ends will snap the hair and eventually work their way up the hairs length, if your split ends are snapping how can it possibly grow.

It is a proven fact that if you have a trim every 2-4 months your hair will grow, it will not have spilt ends and it will be completely healthy.

GENERAL HAIR CARE

Many people wash their hair everyday, this is a really bad thing to do as it strips out all its natural oils and results in dry, dull and life less hair. If you can get away with only washing it 2-3 times a week you will notice a vast improvement with a few weeks. If your hair is greasy try a dry shampoo this works wonders, you will only need to put up with awful greasy hair for a few weeks until your hair get used to you only washing it a few times a week.

If you have blonde hair it can go very dull and dirty looking and sometimes contains a yellow tinge, many go to the hairdressers and get it re coloured to brighten up the colour long before it actually needs doing. If your roots are fine but it just looks dirty put tomato ketchup on to your wet hair and leave in ten minutes before washing it out. I know it sounds crazy but the red dye in the ketchup will eliminate any yellow tones and pull out any dirty tinges, your hair colour will then look refreshed and clean without the need to visit the salon.

For dry, brittle hair I recommend putting an over night conditioner on you hair and rinse it out in the morning, if you have very dry hair then mayonnaise works very well. By placing mayo onto dry hair it will add moisture leaving it nice and shiny. I would only recommend this it your hair is dry to the point of snapping off.

BALDING THINNING HAIR.

Sorry folks this is down to old age so there is not a thing you can do about it, just go bald gracefully.

On a serious note there are medications on the market that actually work and stimulate hair growth, making hair a lot thicker and fuller looking. These medications are expensive but you have to take them all of the time, as soon as you stop taking them your hair will just fall out again.

I hope this has helped you and if there is any other advise I can give you at all please comment and I will reply with the best of my ability.:O)

Summary: Twelve years of my wisdom, you lucky people...