Hair, skin and nails

I have answered so many of your questions on twitter, so I thought I would bring my services over to the forum. Sometimes it would be easier to have more than 140 characters, so bring your questions here! I have been a licensed cosmetologist since 2002 and I am currently in training to be a cosmetology instructor. I am licensed to do hair, skin and nail services, but my expertise lies in the hair department. For those of you who don't want you questions made public, feel free to PM me. Also, any images posted in this thread can only be viewed by members of the forum not just anyone passing by. Your questions can be viewed by all, but not your pictures. Sometimes when it comes to hair questions a picture can go a long way! I do however, understand all of our need for internet privacy, so again, feel free to PM me if you don't want your pic on the forum.

Okay, ask away:!:

So, I have had my hair 'highlighted' often. I usually blow dry it and use a straightener on it every day. My hair is kind of messed up from all this. I have what I think is a pretty good hairstylist, and I have heard her recommend a 'conditioning treatment' to other clients. It costs about fifteen dollars. Is that something that will really help or is it just something to get money?

Great question, Tatershell.

I really like conditioning treatments, as long as you use the right products and process. They really do work, however, if you don't want to spend the money at the salon, they are really easy to do at home. When you do a proper conditioning treatment, you want to put the product on your hair, then add heat. Heat opens the cuticle (the outer layer of the hair shaft) and allows the product to penetrate into the hair strand. After you have added heat, you rinse the product out in cool water (really as cold as you can stand). The cold water closes the cuticle and seals the conditioner inside. What I don't like is when salons offer a conditioning treatment and don't put you under the dryer. If they are selling you a really thick conditioner and leaving it on a few minutes at the shampoo bowl, I think that is a rip off. If you invest in a 20-30 dollar bottle of conditioning treatment product, you can very easily do this process at home many times, for the cost of one or two treatments at the salon. One of my favorite's is Biolage Conditioning Balm or Joico K Pak Deep Penetrating Reconstructor. I think the Joico would be better for your hair (as you have described it to me) because it was meant for this process. You can buy plastic processing caps very cheap at Sally's or Walmart and your hair dryer is all you need!

Step one: Shampoo your hair and lightly condition if it makes it easier to comb through. Towel dry and comb out the tangles.

Step two: Apply the conditioning product. Be sure to coat very well from scalp to ends. Put your processing cap on, be sure all of your hair is in the cap, you don't want the conditioner to dry because then it won't be doing what you want it to.

Step three: Add heat. Using your blow dryer on high heat move it around your head to evenly apply heat to your hair. You could also use a hot towel method, but that would be time consuming and might not work as well. (Let me know if you want the hot towel steps.) Keep the heat on your head for 10-15 min, or as long as you can hold your blow dryer ot your hair

Step four: Rinse. Again, use as cold of water as you can stand. Repeat the process as often as you feel it's needed. Probably not more than once a week, but if your hair is in really poor condition, you could do it more often at first then back off once you hair feels better.

To me, those are the proper conditioning treatment steps. Buying the bottle of conditioner and doing it yourself will be cheaper, but you can try it at the salon and see if you even like it. I would ask them what they use and what their steps are to see if it is worth it.

Good luck and feel free to ask more questions if I wasn't clear or if you need further explanation

Thanks, Kacy. I will give it a try. I have used the Biolage products in the past. My hair is almost shoulder length (I wore in much longer for many years) and although it is baby-fine, I have a lot of it. Anytime I get my hair cut, I get a 'Wow, you're hair is thick.' or 'Girl, you have got some hair!' It isn't that my hair is courselike thick, it's just there is so much of it.

So, when putting the heat on it, you do it with the processing cap on? I do that when I put velcro rollers in my hair sometimes. Thanks for the help! I will let you know how it goes...

tatershell wrote:Thanks, Kacy. I will give it a try. I have used the Biolage products in the past. My hair is almost shoulder length (I wore in much longer for many years) and although it is baby-fine, I have a lot of it. Anytime I get my hair cut, I get a 'Wow, you're hair is thick.' or 'Girl, you have got some hair!' It isn't that my hair is courselike thick, it's just there is so much of it.

So, when putting the heat on it, you do it with the processing cap on? I do that when I put velcro rollers in my hair sometimes. Thanks for the help! I will let you know how it goes...

Yeah, you put the heat on with the processing cap. If you can get it, I would use the Joico product because that is what it is meant for. If you can't, or if you what to try out the process first, regular conditioner will work. It just won't be as good. Best of luck

Question, I've tried numerous leave ins for my hair, and they seem to work at first, then after awhile they stop and my hair goes all frizzy funny. What, in your opinion is the best leave in to try? Thanks for any advice you can give!

FiRocks wrote:Question, I've tried numerous leave ins for my hair, and they seem to work at first, then after awhile they stop and my hair goes all frizzy funny. What, in your opinion is the best leave in to try? Thanks for any advice you can give!

What are you wanting to use the leave in for? Conditioning, frizzy for straight, frizzy for curly? It does make a bit of a difference. A basic leave in that is my 100% favorite product ever is... "It's a 10" Miracle Leave-In Product. It softens, detangles, controls frizz, thermal protector and lots of other stuff. I'm not sure if the It's a 10 brand tests on animals or not, if that's a big deal to you I could do a bit of research on that. I love this stuff, I use it and I know my mom uses it and loves it as well. She even has me go to the supply store for her so she can give it to her friends who were having issues with their hair. I'm not going to lie though, it's pretty pricey. If you let me know what you want out of your leave-in, I can give you some more options, this one just covers a whole variety of things at once

Kacy, I think my hair is toooo red. What can I doooooo?
Laurie

Well, I hate to say this, but red is the hardest color to get out of your hair. Assuming that you box colored your hair, do you have the number and letter that you used? ex: 6RB, 7A... If I have that, I might be able to steer you in the right direction of another color to put over it that would tame the red a bit. You could also go out and pick up a green shampoo. The green would help cancel out some of the red gradually. I know redken makes brown, purple, and red shampoos, but I will see if I can find out where you can find a green one.

What do you think of hot oil treatments, like V05? Suave also makes them. It seems to help my hair, but some things that seem to help just damage hair more.

aunt_melmel wrote:What do you think of hot oil treatments, like V05? Suave also makes them. It seems to help my hair, but some things that seem to help just damage hair more.

I really don't have much experience with hot oil treatment. If I wanted a deep conditioning treatment, I would use a really good conditioner and then put a bit of heat on it with a blow dryer. Sorry I wasn't more help

No worries, Kacy! I'm thinking of trying the Joico that you recommended to Christy. I'm guessing I need to go to a salon to buy it?

Yeah. There might be a generic at Sally's if you want to try that first.

Kacy wrote:

FiRocks wrote:Question, I've tried numerous leave ins for my hair, and they seem to work at first, then after awhile they stop and my hair goes all frizzy funny. What, in your opinion is the best leave in to try? Thanks for any advice you can give!

What are you wanting to use the leave in for? Conditioning, frizzy for straight, frizzy for curly? It does make a bit of a difference. A basic leave in that is my 100% favorite product ever is... "It's a 10" Miracle Leave-In Product. It softens, detangles, controls frizz, thermal protector and lots of other stuff. I'm not sure if the It's a 10 brand tests on animals or not, if that's a big deal to you I could do a bit of research on that. I love this stuff, I use it and I know my mom uses it and loves it as well. She even has me go to the supply store for her so she can give it to her friends who were having issues with their hair. I'm not going to lie though, it's pretty pricey. If you let me know what you want out of your leave-in, I can give you some more options, this one just covers a whole variety of things at once

I mostly use one for my hair when I blow dry because without it, my hair just becomes a poof ball, also, it's suppose to help protect it from the heat, right? Hmmm. . . I'll check out the "It's A 10" stuff on line to see if it tests and/or has any animal by products. Thanks for the information.