Know What You're Putting On Your Hair?

The colorful bottles standing at attention on the shelves in the hair care aisle bristle with promise, don't they?  In that they all promise you something if you'll but give them a chance.  Some promise cleaner hair.  Others shinier hair.  Others still say they'll make your crowing glory more manageable in one way or another.

Still, given many of these bottles contain mostly water how likely is it they can seriously enhance the look of your flowing locks?  Not to mention the effect the mysterious sounding ingredients listed on the label can have on your hair - good or bad. 

Those selling these products, and that would include your neighborhood stylist, insist that today's hair care products are better than they ever have been. They work more reliably, do so with fewer harsh chemicals plus most do what they say they will. 

Salon chatter aside, you can still get caught up in the upsell hype and pay too much for a salon product when there's a perfectly good equivalent waiting for you at the drug store.  How do you avoid that costly mistake?  And how can you really know for sure what you're putting on your hair? 

Well, instead of downing ice cream by the quart worrying about it, let's see if we can't shed some light on the subject.

Basically you can pigeon hole most hair care products into three broad categories.  There are cleansers.  There are conditioners.  And there are the so called after care or finishing products. 

The number of products in each category has exploded over the years.  In part because we've gone from washing our hair maybe once a week back in your parents' day to where most guys lather up daily.  And the typical gal will shampoo her hair roughly every other day. 

Combine this more frequent washing will all the coloring, perming and straightening going on and you can see why there has been a proliferation of products to counteract all the damage being inflicted on our hair.  Not to mention the effect flat irons, curling irons and hair dryers are having on your mane.

Yet when you get right down to it, all conditioners and shampoos pretty much follow the same witches brew.  Were you to check out the recipes, errrrr I mean formulations, you'd basically see all have got your cleaners, your lathering agents, fragrances and preservatives all mixed together in varying amounts. 

Yet do you really need to be adding things like cyclopentasiloxane, glycerol stearate, cocamidopropyl, ethylparaben to your tresses? 

Well the first one allegedly smoothes your hair. 

The second is an emulsifier that keeps all the ingredients mixed together.

The third is a detergent. 

And the fourth chemical is a preservative that deters the growth of bacteria. 

Now don't you wish you had paid more attention during high school chemistry class?  Suffice it to say some ingredients are critical to great looking hair and others not so much.  But they do help with the marketing of the product.

Yet all this may not matter.  You simply want results.  You want the product to do what it promises.  And to be honest I really can't help you there with specifics or recommendations.  At least not in a brief overview of what hair care products do or do not contain.  Besides it would be kinda silly not knowing your tresses the way you know then.

Okay so these products may not improve your love life as the ads suggest but you still want to know that others are watching.  Casting admiring glances.  Some envious ones too.  All the while wondering what they can do to have hair that looks as great as yours.  And if you can pull that off, it may not really matter what you're putting on your hair.  Am I right? Of course I am.

You Don't Have to Suffer From Do-It-Yourself Hair

Don't you just hate those friends of yours who seem to look effortlessly hot and sexy? 

There's nothing do-it-yourself looking about them.

Hair perfect. 

Makeup flawless. 

Teeth blindingly white. 

What's up with that?  Surely there must be more to looking coolly chic and looking like there's nothing to it? 

There is actually.  And if you'd like to achieve the "hey, check me out" look effortlessly too, maybe some hair care secrets for doing so might be helpful so keep reading.  Some very useful tips that can help you declare your independence from do-it-yourself hair are coming right up. 

Tips For Hair That Is Sophisticated, Smart And Downright Gorgeous

First things first.  Believe it or not, oh-so-stylish hair begins when you're sitting in the stylist's chair. No it's not what you think. There really are tips you can pick up that you can do yourself.  So you want to pay attention to what's being done when and with what. 

Yeah I hear you.  While it can be oh so relaxing to have someone else in charge of styling your hair you won't learn much if you zone out and don't watch they are doing.  You can actually learn quite a lot if you like watch which brush is used, knowing that a round brush produces a different outcome than a flat one.  Or when hair spray is used as opposed to styling gel.  Tidbits like this becomes all the more important when you are feverishly, or is that desperately?, working to replicate that salon look at home.

Next you'll want to see if salon quality shampoos work better with your hair than drug store brands.  Some may.  Some may not.  Regardless, the trick here is not to be in a hurry when sudsing away.  You got it.  You want to lather up for a couple two three minutes just like your stylist does for you.  (Or at the very least 30 seconds.  Surely you aren't in THAT big of a hurry!) Taking care to massage the cleanser through your hair thoroughly.  Especially the hair nearest your scalp while taking pains to attend to every strand. 

Second, be sure to rinse your hair completely.  100%.  Or no suds left behind.  Because there is nothing worse than left over shampoo residue weighing your hair down.  Robbing it of volume and oomph.

Third, water temp is key.  Sure you may love to luxuriate in a hot steamy shower.  But guess what?  Your hair doesn't care for it so much.  Let's assume that asking YOU to give up the hot shower routine is asking too much. Got it.  Then you want to wash your hair in the sink using lukewarm water. 

Here's why.

Hot water raises the cuticles and expands the hair shaft.  This in turn aids in the escape of hair dye.  Plus it doesn't do much for the shine factor either.  You avoid all that unpleasantness by washing your locks in water that would be at best described as baby bottle warm. 

Another point about water temp.  Go cooler still when conditioning only. And keep a wide toothed comb handy for when conditioning too.  The idea is to comb the conditioner through your tresses after you've toweled most of the water out.  And much like the shampoo routine, you don't want to rush the product.  Give it a good two or three minutes to do its job before you completely get it out of your hair.

A fifth pointer to tattoo to your forehead is that shampooing too often can dry your mane.  Yet it seems like shampooing every day is in our DNA, doesn't it? It's a right we have and we do all we can to exercise it.  Problem is your hair pays the price when all that sudsing up leads to dry, damaged hair.  

Granted how often is not quite as simple as some simple rule you learn then apply.  The bigger idea is less often is better.  And whatever the frequency is that works best for you you'll likely find it holds more often than not that less is more.

Salon Pointer:  Don't get lazy when it comes to maintaining your style.  Fact is there is nothing worse than trying to control hair that has grown out somewhat, lost its shape, and is borderline wild and crazy.  Let's be honest.  It's doubtful you're up to the challenge.  Besides challenging hair is the last thing we need.  To avoid all this grief make regular appointments as the challenge of styling a cut that has outgrown its style is more than most of us can manage.  This holds regardless if you tend to wear your hair up, down, straight or curly. 

How to Use Your Blow Dryer To Get A Little Oomph

Okay now no overview of how to get the look you want would be complete without talking about your blow dryer.  Sadly many of us experience an epic fail here and so our locks are doomed from the start.  That might be because again we're in too big of a hurry to click on the blow dryer taking aim at our wet locks before they have been properly prepped?  (I hope you're getting this that being in too much of a hurry is seldom good for our mane.)

Prepped?  What does that mean?  Glad you asked.

You never want to blow dry hair that hasn't been towel dried from top to bottom.  Clicking on and pointing the blow dryer at hair that is still drippy wet isn't smart.  Once you've accomplished that towel dry stuff, you want to focus the dryer on the roots FIRST.  Yet jumping into styling too soon is another "hurry up" mistake too many make.  Instead take aim at the roots and lift your hair with a round brush at the same time to blow in the volume. 

You see, here's the problem with directing the hot air on the lower part of your strands first and then getting around to the roots later.  You'll have a hard time avoiding flatness near the scalp.  And flat roots don't do much for any style no matter how great it looks on the celeb in the photo you saw. 

For even more body, shoot to dry your locks in the opposite direction you will wear them. For example if you normally wear your bangs from left to right, initially dry them going the other direction. Then flip them when the moisture is about blown away.

Also avoid the maximum power setting.  You want to use only enough heated air to do the job.  And if you towel off your hair first, the required setting will be well below the blast to the max setting. 

Granted, to get the most from your blow drying takes practice.  No doubt about it.  But the results of that practice (practice makes perfect?) can be most gratifying. 

And while it seems to many the magic only happens in the salon, you can make the magic happen at home if you'll but follow tips like these. 

Anyway, the next time you find yourself staring at the mirror, your fingers sticky with foamy mousse, arms weary from blow drying remember what you read here.  Hair freedom is possible.  You don't have to be stuck with a terminal case of do-it-yourself hair.  In many cases all you need do is take your time and take care with your hair to get the hot look you want.