Hair Care Tips
There is nothing like a good haircut to improve the condition of your hair and your mood! At the same time, healthy hair is very much a reflection of your general health and well-being.
When it comes to haircare, there are so many choices. How do you select the right shampoo and conditioner? What is the right colour choice for you? What is the best haircut to suit your unique individual image and lifestyle?
Your Little Happy Hair Guide is designed to provide you with some of the answers. We give your ideas to help you to maximise the condition and quality of your hair, your health and your happiness.
Be Happy!
1. Eat well, sleep tight and avoid excess alcohol
Your hair and skin reflects the condition of your general health. If you eat a balanced diet, get a good night’s sleep and don’t drink too much alcohol or smoke, then your hair will reflect your healthier lifestyle. It is also important to drink plenty of water.
Your hair and skin are the last thing to receive nourishment. Diets that are high in sugar, salt and animal fat are a ‘No! No!’. The best foods for healthy hair include proteins from lean meat, fish - particularly oily fish such as sardines, tuna and mackerel. Other good healthy hair foods include fruit and berries, flaxseed oil, nuts, seeds, omega 3 oils and yeast.
Regular exercise decreases stress and improves your emotional well-being and this is excellent for your hair and skin. If you are experiencing thinning of the hair - while you still have it - we recommend a good scalp message. A massage to the affected areas stimulates better blood circulation to the hair follicles and encourages better hair growth as a result. We can show you the correct massage technique at our salon.
Redken have an excellent product called Intra Force, which is massaged into the thinning area and this product helps stimulate hair growth.
2. Get a great haircut
Fashion comes and goes, but with a really good haircut, you can throw on a pair of jeans and still look great.
At David Marshall, we cut for the individual hair type: be it fine, medium weight, thick, course, curly, wavy or straight. We don’t follow trends and cut everybody’s hair to look the same. There is a particular way to cut each hair type and this must be taken into consideration, together with finding the correct length to suit your face. Of course, we are influenced by the ‘mood of the moment’, be it the 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s, and now it is the 10’s. The current mood is very feminine - with a certain sophistication.
A high quality precision haircut should work easily with your day-to-day activities. A good haircut should enhance your best features and give you oodles of confidence.
3. Use a high quality shampoo and conditioner
Detergent shampoos have an adverse effect on your hair – leaving it dry and lifeless - like a dried-out leaf. Choose a high quality, detergent free shampoo and a suitable conditioner for your particular hair type.
Look out for protein rich products, with molecule breakdown small enough to penetrate under the cuticle to the cortex. This will help to strengthen your hair and add more body. We recommend a Salon protein treatment followed by an acid-balanced finishing rinse which closes down the cuticle layer and protects the protein in the enriched hair. This salon treatment once a month should leave your hair in optimal strength and condition.
For follow up home care
There is a suitable shampoo and conditioner for every hair type, be it fine, oily, course, thick or dry. Ask your hairstylist to recommend one. We recommend Redken.
4. Use a blow-dry lotion
Select a well-recognised blow drying serum to help protect your hair from the heat of the hairdryer.
Over time the heat from hairdryers, the sun and air-conditioning can have an adverse effect on your hair. Cold weather can also cause damage. A high quality blow-drying serum can help to protect your hair from the elements.
If you spend time in the hot sun, use a little leave-in moisturising conditioner, followed by a small amount of serum over that.
5. Top conditioner
Everyone can have a well conditioned, high gloss finish to their hair. Always use a suitable conditioner. When you shampoo your hair, some essential oils are removed. Therefore, it is important to use a good conditioner on the ends after shampooing.
If your hair is thick, course or dry, I recommend leaving a little conditioner in the ends. If you have fine hair, just apply conditioner to the ends and not to the roots of your hair and rinse thoroughly.
6. Think style not fashion
Coco Chanel once said: ‘Style never goes out of fashion.’ Chanel’s wisdom particularly applies to hair. Fashions have changed a lot through the decades. However, it is not only how the hair is cut, but also how it is dried that adapts to the mood of the moment.
A flattering haircut takes account of your bone structure, your face shape, your hair type and your overall image.
How you style your hair – reflects the atmosphere of the times you live in. The 50s were about rollers and grooming. The 60s were more short geometric haircuts. The 70s were more natural and so on.
Today we have a resurgence of elegant grooming and femininity.
7. Colour Code
Colour also definitely shows off a good haircut. We look at the skin tone and the colour of the eyes when choosing the right colour for our clients.
The right colour can also have a terrific impact on your hair. A well applied colour should make your hair glow.
Your colour needs to be reapplied about once a month to keep it in tip-top shape.
8. Luke warm water
The temptation to use hot water to shampoo your hair is strong, particularly on a cold morning. To keep your hair in good condition, I suggest that you wash your hair using luke warm water.
Hot water strips your hair of nutrients and oils and leaves it dry and lifeless. Luke warm water is gentler on the hair and definitely gives it more bounce.
Rainwater is great because it is slightly more acidic which helps to keep the cuticle closed and gives the hair a beautiful healthy shine. The old-fashioned way to collect rainwater was in a barrel out the back of the house.
9. Get a Gloss
Clients at the salon love our conditioning gloss. A plant extract, rich conditioner that boosts the protein content of your hair and gives it a rich and beautiful shine.
A gloss lasts for up to 4 to 5 shampoos and with frequent use, the benefits last even longer.
10. Go Grey Gracefully
Grey hair can be very attractive. Actresses Dame Judy Dench and Helen Mirren sport their grey hair very well. It is vital that grey hair is cut extremely well.
How you care for grey hair is of critical importance. In the salon, I have a magic potion for grey hair that gives a beautiful silvery finish. It also gets rid of all the yellowish / orange tones.
A good cut is very important for all hair types. You don’t necessarily have to cut your grey hair short to have it looking great. Medium or long hair also takes just as much time to be cut properly and looks really good with grey tones.