To Blow Dry or Air Dry? - Advantages and disadvantages

To Blow Dry or To Air Dry?

Should the hair be blow dried or air dried?
It is a matter of preference, actually. Some people do not have much time to devote to styling their hair, or want to achieve the maximum styling they can get for their hair, so they opt for blow-drying it. On the other hand, there are some people who think that blow-drying is a waste of electricity and is the quickest way of damaging the hair, so they opt to have it air dried.

Which is better, you may ask?
Both ways of drying the hair have their advantages and disadvantages, and there are proper and improper ways of doing both. Read on and find out what these are.

Air drying. Air drying is usually done by people who have short and low-maintenance hairstyles, or by people with curly hair. There are also people who have long hair yet have their hair air dry, as air drying does not subject the hair to excessive heat. Therefore, the hair is not as susceptible to damage as hair that is blow dried.

If you are going to have your hair air dried, it is very important to remember that the hair is at its weakest when it is wet. So, take care not to rub your hair dry with the use of a towel. The friction caused by rubbing the hair with a towel will make the hair brittle and eventually break. Rather than rubbing it, you should instead blot the moisture out of your hair with the towel. Also, be careful not to tug or pull at your hair that much when it is still wet. Once the water is blotted out of the hair, fluff it out with your fingers.

Blow Drying. Blow drying the hair is the most convenient way of doing it, and because most people live fast-paced lives, blow drying the hair is the way most people want to do it. Moreover, drying the hair using a blower adds volume to the hair. But inasmuch that blow drying is very convenient, it is also dangerous to the hair, especially if overdone. It can make the hair very brittle.

If you blow dry your hair, make sure that it is not soaking. Blot the water out with a towel first. Do not hold the dryer too close to your head; keep it at least six inches away from your hair and move the dryer constantly around your head. Protect the outer strands of your hair from being over-dried by bending over and blow drying your hair with your hair hanging upside down. Also, try not to dry your hair completely with the blow dryer. Stop while the hair is still slightly damp.

Whether you air dry your hair or you blow dry it is completely your own choice based on your own lifestyle and preferences. But whatever you do, always remember that the hair is fragile. Be careful while handling it.

Shake Dandruff Flakes Away - Control dandruff with proper hair care

How To Shake Dandruff Flakes Away

If you have dandruff, do not worry about being alone with your problem. With one out of every two people in the entire world having, or having had, that same problem as yours, you are definitely not alone with it. Dandruff is a common hair problem. Embarrassing indeed, but a very, very common problem nonetheless.

What causes dandruff? Well, you see, our entire skin, from our scalps to the soles of our feet, sheds dead skin cells on a daily basis. We get a complete coating of new skin every 28 days or so, but we hardly even notice it.

Our bodies also play host to a lot of microorganisms like bacteria and fungi, feeding off on the sebaceous oils that our skin produces. Our scalp in particular is home to a kind of fungus called malassezia fungus, and its food is the oils produced by the hair follicles of our scalp. Dandruff happens when, for some reason or another, the malassezia fungus goes crazy and irritates our scalp, causing the dead skin to shed a lot faster. So, instead of shedding the dead skin cells of our scalp for a month, the shedding happens in less than two weeks, and the oil that our hair follicles produce cause these dead skin cells to clump together and become dandruff. Until now, the factors that trigger this phenomenon with the malassezia fungus are still the subject of research.

Dandruff is an embarrassing hair condition, and it can recur despite your best efforts. But with proper hair care, the recurrence of dandruff can be controlled. The best way to keep the flakes at bay is to shampoo your hair every day - picture perfect hair.

Dandruff can, of course, become stubborn, so if washing everyday with your regular shampoo does not stop the flakes from becoming haywire, the next best thing to do would be to start using anti-dandruff shampoos. Look for anti-dandruff shampoos with zinc pyrithione, selenium sulfide, salicylic acid or ketoconazole as the active ingredient. To keep your scalp from developing immunity to these shampoos, go ahead and rotate brands at least once a month.

For optimum results, you can lather your hair with the shampoo of your choice twice. The first wash will clear the scalp of the flakes and the oil buildup. The second one would let the chemicals in the shampoo get absorbed by the scalp - haute hair.

You can also try homemade remedies to wash the flakes away and to keep the dandruff from recurring. What is considered the best homemade remedy to dandruff is a vinegar wash. Mix two teaspoons of vinegar with six teaspoons of water and rub it against your scalp before you go to bed, then wrap your head with a towel. Apply the same solution to your hair once again in the morning when you wake up, then rinse it with water. You do not have to worry about the smell of vinegar in your hair, as the smell of vinegar does evaporate eventually.

Whatever you do, never, ever scratch the clumps with your fingernails. It will cause wounds on your scalp.

Dandruff is an embarrassing hair condition, but it is not unmanageable. Just take good care of your hair and the flakes will go away.

Blonde Hairstyles - What would you do to go blonde?

Tragically Blonde Hairstyles

Blonde Hair What would you do to go blonde? Female Fatale, Rebel without a Cause is one determined blonde-haired woman.
You see them everywhere and against all natural odds - they are blonde. Sort of. They sit in the stylist's chair with frizzy blonde, black-roots begging for more bleach. Their hair is screaming for moisture. See picture on the left...

For under $20 dollars you could help fix that problem with some products that could actually make your hair blonde, healthy and shinny. Maybe even natural? Blondes do have more fun - see Jessica Simpson hairstyles, but if you are not in the Salon cutting your hair every 3 months, and have dry, damaged hair, don't despair.

Should I blow Dry?

Even if you do not blow dry 100% pure natural hair, it becomes damaged creating split ends, by ingredients like climate, dryness, over highlighting and mostly by avoiding your stylist. If you are using a moistening condition for dry hair, or a re-constructer for damaged hair, should able you to blow-dry just fine.
Adding heat from a blow dryer weakens the strands and sometimes it breaks off in extreme cases. So put the proper conditioning treatment in your hair and ask a Salon that has a good reputation to help you find that product that you need.

Conditioner or Re-constructer?

Blonde Hair If you have just a few blonde highlights, mixed in with a few other colors, you probably just need a moisturizing conditioner. Try Joico's Moisturizer or K-Pac Daily Conditioner, Redkin's Extreme Shampoo, or Sebastian's Potion 9.
If you are heavily blonde, and haven't been dark since you can't remember when, then try bc bonacure's Repair Treatment, one of the best quick fixes out there. It's a honey/wheat protein base to help strengthen the hair. For longer term results try Joico's K-Pack Re-constructer. Both products do a great job.

Lowlights?

Lowlights might be the way to go and can add a lot more moisture to your hair. Lowlights are usually sliced through the other lightening foils to add depth and darken some of your over stressed blonde hair. Giving it a chance to recover and absorb its lacking pigment. The good thing is that you could go more a natural blonde or golden, if you're brave go for a caramel or a darker color. Pick your blonde back up in the summer, after it 's healthy and rejuvenated. You'll look good and feel better.

If you can't live with the idea of adding some lowlights (and they can be dark blonde lowlights) to your platinum do, then let's fix it the easy way.
Blonde Hair After Blow-drying and assuming you are using your conditioner apply a small amount of Farouk's Bio Silk Therapy. It's silk in a bottle. It will also protect your hair from the damage it sustains without bleaching or blow-drying. The amount of no more then a dime rubs into your hands before you apply the clear less lotion to dry hair. Instantly all your fly away ends and dryness is gone. Until you wash it, of course.

For an extreme shine finish use Joico's Spray Glaze, Shine-Enhancer. It smells nice and really gives a nice shine. Keeping shine, keeps moisture and helps make you condition process that much easier. There's a reason why blondes have more fun! You go girls!

Right Way To Wash Your Hair - You might be washing our hair the wrong way!

Right Way To Wash Your Hair

Most of us think we have this all down pat, but for all we know, we might be wrong. After all, we have been washing our hair all our lives. How could we go wrong with something like washing our hair? However, we might be washing our hair the wrong way and contribute to its damage without actually knowing it.

What we should remember about our hair is that the individual strands of our hair, no matter how thick or strong it looks, is actually very delicate. So we cannot just tug and pull at it, or else it would break. We would not want to have hair breakage, would we?

So, what is the right way of washing the hair?
The first thing you should do is to comb the tangles out of the hair before you wet it so the hair would wash easily and the tangles would not worsen. And then, wet your hair thoroughly under the shower. You can use either warm or cold water if you like, but for best results, you can wet your hair with warm water to open the scale-like cuticles of the hair and wash all the oil and dirt off. And then, you can rinse your hair with cold water afterwards to close the cuticles and add to the shine of your hair.

Rinse your hair under the shower to rid it of the leave-on conditioner and styling aids you have used previously, using gentle strokes of your fingertips. Then, pour a dollop of shampoo in the palm of your hand. Rub your hands together, and then apply the shampoo to your scalp. Take note that you should put the shampoo on your scalp and not at the ends of your hair, as the shampoo would dry your hair's ends and cause it to weaken and split. Also, do not mix your hair all over your head as you shampoo because it will get all tangled up. After this, rinse the shampoo off.

More often than not, we need to shampoo our hair for a second time. The purpose of the first shampoo is to clean the oil and dirt off; the second shampoo is supposed to let the shampoo treat our hair. So, repeat the process, but let the shampoo sit on for around a couple of minutes. Rinse the hair completely after this.

To get the excess water off your hair, just squeeze the water out. Do not pull or tug at the hair because the hair is at its most delicate when it is soaked. When the excess water is out, apply a dollop of conditioner - mane event - and apply it along the hairline, the nape and the ends of the hair. Pile your hair then inside a shower cap and let the conditioner stay there for around ten minutes. And then, rinse it off completely.

The process described here does seem tedious and time-consuming. But remember, having great hair takes time and effort. And it is definitely worth it for a picture perfect hair.

Best Hairdos - The best hairdo for your face

The best hairdo for your face
A woman�s hair is her crowning glory. It frames her face and completes her appearance. She can talk with her hair, and there are so many ways that a person can tell about her by simply looking at her hair. It is therefore very important for a woman to take care of her hair, to keep it clean, moisturized and trimmed, so that it would remain soft, shiny and neat.
Most women cut their hair to different styles in an attempt to enhance their looks. Some like their hair long and straight, while others like to wear their hair long and with abundant curls and ringlets. There are others who go for the minimum, no-fuss look and always have their hair cut short and simple, while others wish to strike a balance between femininity and practicality and keep their hair at mid-length. And there are still others who like experimenting on color and highlights, not just with the length and cut of their hair.
Unfortunately, not everyone can wear the same hairstyle and look good in it. Some hairstyles look great on some women, but sadly look like bombs on others. Many things can be taken into account as to why this is so, but mostly it is because the hairstyle does not flatter the face.
The way you do your hairdos must flatter your face and enhance your best features. After all, that is what the hair is supposed to do, aesthetically speaking � to frame your face and to help bring out your best features. Whether a hairstyle will look good on you or not depends on the shape of your face.
There are many, many types of hairstyles out there, but not all will look good on you unless the hairstyle fits the shape of your face. Below are the different hairstyles that are considered most flattering for each shape of face.
An oval face. The oval face is the perfect face. Almost any hairstyle will go with it, whether it is long or short, straight or curly. If you have an oval face, you will do well with having layers near your chin or cheekbones to draw attention to them. However, try to avoid hairstyles that add volumes to the top of your head � it will make your face look longer.
A long face. If you have a long or oblong face, you should create the illusion of width to balance it out. You can add width to your face by doing your hair with long, side-swept bangs or chin-length bobs. You will also do well with curls and waves that frame the face.
If you have a long or oblong face, you should avoid letting your hair grow extremely long or having your hair cut extremely short. Such extreme hairstyles will take the width from your face and emphasize its length.
A round face. If people with long faces need to add width to their faces, people with round faces need to take some of the width and bulk off by adding length. If your face is round you need to create the illusion of length, and to do this, you can have your hair cut just below your chin, or in graduated layers. Do not do your hair in short, one-length, blunt cuts, as it will only draw attention to the roundness of your face.
A square face. Having a square face means having an angular jaw. The hairstyle trick with having a square face is drawing attention away from that jaw. This is done by putting texture to your hair. Short curls do exactly this, as well as long layers that start just below the jawline. If your face has a square shape, you should try not to have your hair cut in one-length bobs or wear bangs that are cut bluntly. It will only emphasize the squareness of your face.
A heart-shaped face. Heart-shaped faces are pretty Valentines, but the pointed chin draws attention away from the eyes. If you have a heart-shaped face, you could bring focus to your eyes by wearing side-swept bangs, a fringe on your brow or long layers at the top. Or you could let your hair grow and have it done with layers that touch your cheekbones.

Healthy Hair

A Recipe For Healthy Hair
Forget hair revitalizing shampoos, great nutrition is the most effective way of getting awesome hair!
Shiny, healthy hair is a reflection of a healthy body, so it's like two for the price of one. Just like your body, your hair needs a balanced, nutritious diet to stay healthy. So follow this recipe for healthier hair, and be amazed at the difference it makes!
Water
Water makes up one-fourth of the weight of a strand of hair. Moisture makes the hair supple, so make sure you get plenty of fluids. A key point is NOT to wait until you're thirsty. If you're thirsty, it means your body has already lost more water than it should have, and it's urging you to fill up the tank. Water not only hydrates your body, but helps keep your hair silky and shiny. Ideally, you should drink between eight and ten glasses of water a day.
Protein
Protein is the building block of hair, so a diet for healthy hair contains an awful lot of protein! Protein will give the shaft of your hair more strength, and will reduce the likelihood of dame through snapping and splitting. You can get protein from foods like fish, meat, milk, cheese and cereals.
Minerals
Iron helps to carry oxygen to the hair. Without enough iron, hair and its follicles get starved of oxygen. This means that the �goodness� in the root of your hair is much less effective along the length of the strand. You can increase your iron intake by eating red meat and dark green vegetables, or by iron supplements.
Zinc builds hair protein which helps to prevent hair loss. Meat and seafood are the foods highest in zinc.
Copper is involved in the pigmentation of hair. You can optimize your natural color with a diet with plenty of copper. Who needs hair dye and fake color! Shellfish, liver, fresh vegetables, nuts, seeds and meat are all high in copper.
Vitamins
Vitamin A will give you a healthy scalp, because it�s great for the skin! You can get vitamin A from foods like vegetables - in particular, in carrots. (So it�s good for the waistline too!)
Vitamin B and C are important for good circulation, hair growth and hair color. If you ensure that you have enough vitamin B and C, you�ll have strong, supple strands of hair that do not split. You can get these vitamins from eating foods like fruit, vegetables, cereals, eggs, milk and bread.
So follow this healthy guide� be sure to add in a hefty dose of daily exercise to keep that blood pumping� then add proper hair care on the surface! Go ahead! Try it!
Soon enough you'll be turning down offers to do shampoo commercials!

pro salon styler software

Salon Styler is the salon industry's leading hairstyle imaging software, used by the top hair salons and beauty schools world wide. In a digital makeover session you can quickly fit your clients with hairstyles from Salon Styler's database of 1,000s of hairstyle choices. Plus, you can apply makeup from the most popular seasonal color pallets and much more.

Salon Styler is loaded with exclusive features you will find nowhere else!

● Huge database of hairstyles, eyeglasses and more...
● Powerful makeup tools
● 3D simulation of your clients (with selected hairstyles)
● Add your own hairstyles to the database option
● Apply two different hair colors in two levels of a hairstyle!
● Proven money maker
● EZ to setup - EZ to learn - EZ to use
● Windows 95, 98, NT, XP

Features overview
Salon Styler Pro is a powerful hairstyle imaging software for professional use in beauty salons, hairstyling schools, and by makeup artists and cosmetic surgeons. In a digital makeover session you can quickly fit your clients with hairstyles from Salon Styler's database of 1,000s of hairstyle choices. Plus, you can apply makeup from the most popular seasonal color pallets and much more.

Salon Styler Pro works with three view of the client for 3D hairstyling simulation. When a hairstyle is chosen, the program automatically rotates the head to the proper view and fits the hairstyle to the client's photo.


Hairstyles
Salon Styler Pro comes with the world's most extensive database of hairstyles ready to fit on your clients photos. It has more than 850 hairstyles for men, women and children. They are organized into six collections (wedding, parties, everyday styles, etc) and can be accessed by hair length, angle of view, hair type (smooth, wavy, etc) as well as by hairstyles with and without bangs. Salon Styler Pro also displays variations of each of the hair styles that can be fit to the client's photo by simply clicking on the hairstyle. In total there are more than 46,750 choices ready to try with a click of the mouse.

Once a hairstyle is set, it can be modified in many ways. You can cut, lengthen, add body, reshape, lighten, darken, color individual locks, change the color of the hairstyle to customize it for your customer. You can add two different colors to the hairstyle in one time. These powerful editing features allow you to modify the existing styles and add them as new styles to your library for future use in Salon Styler Pro.

Make up
Not only does Salon Styler change hairstyles but it also allows you to do a complete digital makeover by applying makeup.

The makeup colors can be selected from seasonal color pallets or from a custom color picker. As you apply the makeup, you have control over the size of the area effected, the brush size and the pressure of the application tool. If a mistake is made, it can be undone with a mouse click. Salon Styler Pro allows for unlimited undo and redo.

With the contour morphing feature you can simulate face lifting, body shaping and other major changes of the face and body.

EZ to Setup - EZ to Use
While Salon Styler Pro is a powerful program meant for professional use, it was designed for ease of use. No special computer experience is needed to master it. It works with all kinds of web cams, digital cameras and scanners. When using a TWAIN type camera (virtually all digital cameras except for Sony and Olympus) the client's photos are loaded directly into Salon Styler and are ready for a digital make over session. With non-TWAIN cameras the photos must first be saved to the system's hard drive and then can be opened in Salon Styler Pro. The interface is clean and logically laid out and was designed for many hours of use without tiring the eye.


Other Features
Salon Stylers Pro is loaded with many high-end features. With it you can change a photo to preview the results of plastic surgery or weight loss. It comes with an extensive library of designer eyewear, mustaches and beards. You can easily add your own hairstyles to Salon Styler Pro's database. There are a wide array of ways of displaying Salon Styler Pro's makeovers, everything from slide shows were one image morphs into another for a Hollywood effect, to multi image layouts.

Available in English, Spanish, Catalan, French, Russian, German, Finnish and Chinese languages.

Download Home Styler Free Version Download Demonstration Version

Hair Attack - Why the 80's are always back

Hair Attack - Why The 80�s Are Always Back
You can make fun of the 80�s all you want, but chances are you still tied to this era more then you think. Maybe you aren�t break dancing or wearing one glove but maybe you have color or a haircut that is blaring out your personality. When you go to a wedding, a bar or even on a date, most girls tease their way into fun and you can too. You might not even know it.
The blunt always suits a certain type personality and face, the more defined and angled the more 80�s it is. The 80�s let you be an individual; it didn�t matter if you liked Boy George and Madonna. Hair was everything. And let�s face it now if you don�t look good, how can you feel good? Change the height of the problem and tease some of those roots.
Take a handful of hair at the crown holding it straight up. This would be your top layer. Take a brush and tease the back of the handful for 15 strokes from a-top-to-bottom tease. Then let the hair fall and smooth it over with a brush to your desired style. Use Joico�s Ice Finisher for a non-scented medium hold. Spray and now you are a tease!

Get Rid Of Frizz - Guaranteed to have great results

Get Rid Of Frizz
Frizz-Off!
No matter what you do, how hard you try, you just cannot seem to get rid of that frizz. While it is starting to build up, you ignore it, because it mostly starts to show the most in the back of your hair. But you don�t see the back, right? Well, you can�t actually prevent the frizz from becoming the lion you don�t want it to be.
The reason for frizz even shows is that the ends are split and have split up towards the root. Elements like weather, blow-drying, elastics, clip, a forgotten trip to your stylist and a bad conditioner are the reason. Plain and simple.
Hair grows from up through the root and downwards to your desired length. If the end of a single strand of hair is split, then the hair will grow into two weak strands of hair as oppose to one healthy one. Considering you have an average of 150 000 hairs on your head that is an average 300 000 split ends. The ends are dry, and won�t grow. Well, they will grow, but upwards to become an even bigger split end. That�s when the halo of frizz begins to form around the center of your hair.
The hair is weak from process beyond your control and vitamins and nutrients have to be put back in. It will revitalize the elasticity in your hair, and give you a natural shine. Healthy hair, healthy shine.But there are ways to get rid of it. Doing any one or all of the following things are guaranteed to have great results and you can have the frizz to Frizz-Off!

Visit your Stylist if the last time you saw her was over 6 months ago.
Visit Wal-Mart or your local drug store and buy the quick fix VO5 Hot Oil Treatment. Use as directed and continue treatment once a week until product is finished. It helps put he moisture right back into your hair.
Go to your Salon and ask them to give you a consultation. BC Bonacure and Joico�s Hair Repair Line have earned their reputation. Ask your stylist to suggest the best one for you.
Leave your conditioner on for longer then 2 minutes while you bathe.
Use BioSilk on dry hair to get rid of those stubborn hairs.
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Good luck, ladies!

Red Hairstyles - Red is always in

Red Hairstyles - ReD-dy for a Change?
Are you sick of your hair color?Your stylist knows you are dying to make a statement. Shock them - go red. Red is always in. Any shade, any tone and depth and for any type of hair.
It�s nice to change the color you�re born with once and a while. If you are blonde you may not want to go fire engine red, but shades like strawberry blonde, light copper, and dark copper blonde are some suggestions to ease your way into red. Add a gold highlight to the mix and you have natural, strawberry-blonde looking hair. Although the golden-blonde and plum highlights do give a nice warm tone.
If you are a light brunette to a very dark blonde, you might be a little braver, and try copper highlights, dark golden-blonde copper highlights, or for the daring a nice deep rich copper or fire red. For more subtle try a light mahogany red or deep plum as a lowlight.
If you are a dark brown to black, red looks usually the best on this type of colour. You can try fire-engine red or berry red highlights; mahogany, copper, and even plum will enhance any brunette. Have a little fun. If you want a subtle approach try a red-brown highlight or a dark-plum for more a natural, subtle look. If you like the dark colours and want them to show, ask your stylist to make them sliced highlights. You see them more noticeable in the hair if you ask your stylist to do sliced-highlights.
So, ready now for a change? Be a redhead.