Color Treated Hair

Inquiring minds wanna know!

I recall the day I announced to my colleagues in social work that I would be switching careers from social work to hair care. They were all very excited for me. "What will you do, what will be your areas of expertise?" Those were the questions of the day. I would happily respond, "I will specialize in Trichology and hair coloring." I hope to travel the world teaching the masses how to do their own hair and in between engagements color the world beautiful!" They would all smile. Then one day, my dearly beloved colleague, Ellie Heiser overheard my response. She called me over to her office and said,"Ladosha, I'm a little old Jewish lady who spends a lot of money and time in hair salons. And though I don't know much about hair care for black women, I can tell you that women of all colors want to have their hair colored by a colorist who specializes in hair color who also has her hair colored."  I laughed so hard as I looked in the mirror at my black hair with a serious skunk streak going off center down my entire head of hair. 

The rest they say is history. At that pivotal moment, I decided I needed to step my A-Game up and learn more about what I was to specialize in and of course, re-vamp my image. I turned to my very southern belle of a cousin, Nickcole to help me in the image department. And boy did she pluck every hair that didn't belong, threw out my standard social work jacket, cut down my nails and urged me to fix my smile. Ahh, nothing like the brutal honesty of family!

Now that my image was all together, I still had this skunk streak I needed to get rid of. The interesting thing about becoming a colorist was learning the truth about hair color. So in my quest to get my tresses colored properly, I quite naturally devised a list of things to consider about coloring my hair. As a colorist, I have pretty much stuck to that list and only modifies it when a new technology enters the scope of services. 

So for those of you who are just dying to know the secrets to great hair coloring; read on!

There are five simple things to consider if you are interested in having your hair colored. Perhaps you are having problems with getting your gray hair to cover properly or maybe you are simply afraid of getting your hair colored. 

When it comes hair color, don't sweat the small stuff. The five tips I put together will surely help you if you want your hair colored or like me; want to become a colorist.

Money makes the world go
round and your colorist too!

Number one, the cost. Not in the spirit of you get what you pay for. The cost has to do with technology, ingredients and availability. That scenario includes what you purchase over the counter and who you pay to formulate and apply it.

Second is the formulation. Now this is where the cost and the results could increase or decrease; improve or worsen. A true colorist and a forthright company will formulate according to the desired outcome the person is looking for. If you are coloring your hair at home, this can be difficult. I suggest you call the company's 1-800 number for advice instead of re-reading the box trying to figure it out. Coloring your hair is nothing like polishing your nails. As for paying a professional, the colorist should always do a consultation upon every visit and prior to mixing anything up in the back. If your colorist at the salon is saying things like, "So are we keeping the same color?" Run for the door!

Applying hair color is not like
applying nail polish.

Third is the application. Applying hair color is as intricate as painting the walls in your home or finishing your hardwood floors. Meticulousness to details. In addition, a "method to the madness" always brings about flawless mouth dropping results. Apply color in haste not only makes waste, but it also brings about blotchy inconsistent patchy results.

Fourth, is maintenance. What you maintain your colored tresses with is as important as what you color your tresses with. Shampoos, conditioners and styling agents that are formulated for color treated hair are always best. These products are more gentle. These products have the technology and ingredients to prevent color from fading. They also help your hair from becoming brittle as well as afford you to chemically alter your hair by way of Keratin treatments, chemical relaxers, flat ironing and perming your hair. I recommend that you follow the manufacturers suggestions if you are coloring your hair at home. Do not play in this area. Doing so, almost always results in damaged hair and faded color. If you are going to a salon, purchase what your colorist recommends without hesitation. Almost all products are money-back guarantee; therefore you are never stuck with a product.

Framesi's Color Lovers
line for color treated hair is
one of the best on the
market. 

Read the technology and care
Framesi put into their
Color Lovers product line.

Do not be tempted or duped into buying products according to race and lifestyle. Quality hair care products are like soap. They are formulated to address the skin/hair condition; not the race of the person. I mean have you ever heard or read a Dove soap commercial say, "Dove, formulated for dirty white people only?" Neither should hair care products. There is something unique in all hair textures not just Blacks and minorities. There is also something unique in every individual. So while a certain group of people may be of the same race, they are all individuals. Customize your hair care just like you do your skin care. 

The best flat irons for the price.

Fifth, are the styling tools. If you are using heating implements that are too hot; you will cause the color molecules to dissipate and your color will fade faster. If you are using heating implements that are not hot enough you will cause your hair to feel rough, brittle and the color molecules will dissipate. Your hair will break, your color will fade and damaged hair is again almost always the result. Invest in a quality pair of flat irons that have the technology built in just like your hair color and hair care products. Remington Flat irons have some of the best technology that is safe and effective for all hair textures at prices under $70.00.

As you can see, dying to know about hair color not only gets you the answers, it will also bring life back to your hair. The responses will have you thinking more responsibly about coloring your hair or having it colored. If money and time are "true" concerns, then do not apply hair color or have color applied to your hair. It does not matter if the hair color line is organic or synthetic; temporary, semi, demi or permanent .... they are all chemicals and they all chemically alter your hair. 

So now that you have the answers, you can get back to living with your hair!

Best Hair Care Products

Ooo, please let this product work on my hair!

Hair care among women is very important. Once upon a time, hair was all about style. Women wanted to adorn themselves with nice clothes, shoes, a purse, some exotic perfume topped off with a perfectly coiffed hairstyle or wig. That was back in the day before women entered the workplace, ran for office, became physically fit and so on to name a few. A hair style was an easy accessible affordable luxury that many turned to spruce up or change their image. 

Fast forward to today and hair means something totally different. One thing is for certain and two things for sure, a hair style is no longer about sprucing up. "I am not my hair," a song that many women from all over the world chant, say or simply sing along with the talented singer India Arie. She brought that sentiment to light for many. Women no longer associate femininity with size, skin tone, nails, attire, money, marital status, children or not and of course hair. 

As a matter of fact, a hairstyle is the last thing on most women minds. Regardless the race or texture, women feel they sincerely so much more than a selection between male and female. We can go on for days about the advancement of women and their growth. Now, hair care? That is another thing. Sometime during the turn of the millennium, women became fed up with hair styles and moved over to hair care. No one can exactly pinpoint what catapulted this paradigm shift from hairstyle to hair care. But it did. In my opinion, the internet is solely responsible for the end of hair styling and the beginning of hair care. I also feel that cocky, under trained and under educated hairstylists promoted the choice for many to ditch the hairstyle and the hairstylist who came with it.

The internet opened the world up to individuals who were fed up with incompetent, late and hairstylists with attitudes. Versus being controlled by the images they saw on the little screen, viewers of the internet could do something with the screen that television would never allow: INTERACTION!

While the internet can expose people to concepts from all over with the click of a button and without leaving their chair. In all its glory, it still can't do something humans can do; touch. I obviously like the internet too. If I did not, I would not be a blogger.  The paradigm shift became very visible back in the late 90's when I was a social worker. As a cosmetologist with a degree in social science, I admit I have a bad habit of merging the two together. I do something I call, "social cosmetology." I study the behaviors of people who consume and use hair care products and styling tools...lol

Though there is no such thing as "social cosmetologist," there is something very obvious in the behaviors of both customers and cosmetologists. That one behavior is purchasing. Mintel, a very reputable marketing firm reported "in 2012 hair care sales reached a whopping 864 million.They also reported by 2017 that number will have jumped exponentially to "761 million." 

Yeah, I know we have read those reports hundreds of time. People worldwide want to know, how? How are consumers and professionals spending that kind of money? Well as a "social cosmetologist," I can sum it up for you very quick and simple; purchasing the wrong products.

What if customers were to go back to the store to return all the wrong products they purchased for their hair?  They would get a refund. Those milions and millions of dollars in slaes would quickly be reduced in half. 

I just love the way the economist and researchers throw those million and billion dollar figures around. They report that as if consumers are frivelous in their spending. In reality, most people who purchase hair care products are purchasing them because they are buying what they need. They are buying what they are told will work best and what looks on their hair. Some of their purchasing choices are also make via print and media.  

Again, because things get lost in translation, print and video gives way to what things seem to be versus what things are. Caring for and styling Afro, wavy, curly or combination textured hair has some rules. Rule number one, no heavy products on the hair. Heavy products leave hair feeling stiff, pasty, dull, waxen, sullen, brittle and lack luster. All those guarantee to coat hair, promote hair disorders, scaly scalps, smelly hair, pasty scalps and hair damage. 

Because there is a popular mindset and mode of Operandi that promotes infrequent shampooing, spongy moist hair and shiny hair; people with textured hair flock to these claims like paper clips to magnets. Afro, wavy, curly, kinky and combination textured hair is not meant to feel and look moist, super shellacked and spongy. 

Products that coat hair seem to really be doings something great to hair. They are not. Initially, hair will feel great. However, after using heavy products, over a period of time your scalp and hair will become compromised. I can see how many users do not want to let these products go. But, what they don't tell you at the hair salon is those products can no be rinsed away with water or shampooed out with regular shampoo.

The Wrong Stuff

Coating hair is not the name of the game. Coating your hair will only make hair care more expensive and hair styling more difficult. Coating your hair with heavy products will dull and alter your natural hair color. Using heavy products that coat hair will also defintely alter your texture. Infrequent shampooing regimens such as bi-weekly, monthly and the likes are sure to promote thinning and damage. Infrequent shampooing also promotes build up of yeast that naturally comes from the scalp during the scalps ability to cleanse itself. Using heavy products promotes balding and thinning by clogging the follicle (the little tiny hole that hair grows out of), thus making it difficult for hair actually grow out and it makes the hair grow in thinner. You may not notice just how damaged your hair is until 6 months to 10 years down the line. Depending on how long you have have been using the products. In my experience as a cosmetologist, I find nothing more sad than to see the look on a person's face who is upset about their hair that is severely thinned and damaged. They almost always know the products were the culprit. 

After you shampoo and condition your hair, you should only be using 1-2 products to style your hair. It does not matter if you are twisting, braiding, adding hair, rolling hair, curling hair, straightening hair, pressing hair, locking or wrapping hair. Because your scalp makes it's on oil, you should not be putting anything on your scalp. Products for your scalp should be prescribed or biodegradable. Lastly, you should never apply any kind of essential oil to your scalp or body without using some kind of carrier oil.

Oooh, pick me!

So as you can see, coveting, holding on, clinging to and swearing by heavy products does nothing for the scalp and hair texture. In the beginning things will appear to be making progress. However, as the days and years go on with continued use: thinning, limp, damaged, dull and broken hair is almost always the results. In addition, your money continues to go into a pool of millions that only inflates the pockets of the people, the companies who make them. They go under you bathroom sink to sit and be kicked to the curb like "Woody" in The Toy Story hoping to be selected as the number one hair care product in your life again. 

Be wise. Seek a consultation about your hair. Understand that advertisement, videos, magazine articles and other forms of marketing are just that. Marketing. They are trying to sell you something. And what they are trying to sell you is the thought you have in your head about your hair that was put there by someone else who doesn't even know your hair. They are selling the dream of care free natural hair. NEVER readers. That will never happen. For there is no such thing as CARE FREE hair. 

Add caption

You know your hair. And you know you should not be putting all that heavy stuff on your hair.

Lies

I recall the time when I first shared the concept of opening a salon that teaches women how to do their own hair with my best friend Krissy. Her response, "Dude, you are so cool!" 

The concept of opening a salon that teaches customers how to do their own hair also reminded of a statement my biology professor once said about another concept for helping people diagnosed with AIDS, "Sounds good in theory; but not in practice." Hmm, I wonder what ever happened to Professor Clavesko, he was so sharp and smart. Oh, I digress!

How to care for hair is often times cultural.

Understand, hair styles are often influenced by trends and fads. But hair care is often times culturally. Hair care techniques are passed down from person to person based off of what is being taught to them by their very first hair care giver. 

So what was a former social worker to do with this concept of teaching women how to do their own hair in a hair salon who's business is supposed to be made off of doing their hair in the salon? I came up with a very creative way to do it.  However, the reality of folk's hair speaking the truth about their hair without them even talking would often times conflict with what they were saying to me. This was a challenge. Because I somehow had to find a nice way of saying, "You are lying." I also had to find a way to ask if I could do their hair.

Hair speaks to me!

Many do not know nor did they have the faintest idea that their hair would whisper to me, "She's fibbing." Yeah, kinda like the animals talking to Eddie Murphy in "Doctor Dolittle." But, how could I let the customer know that their hair was telling me something entirely different from what was coming out of their mouths. For example I would ask, "When was the last time you colored or had someone color your hair?" They would reply, "Oh last year. No it was over 3 years ago." When I anaylized their scalp and hair, I could visibly see and feel the color and cast on their hair. Another example, "Why do you have these tiny bald spots on your scalp?" That customer would reply, "Oh, I have a hair lost disease." When I could clearly see the residue from the hair glue and the very visible distinct horizontal pattern of patches of what appeared to be a result of a track of hair weave that had been snatched out. Now keep in mind, I most certainly did not want to call them a liar or imply that they were indeed lying? Things that make you go hmm.

So, I went back to my orimginal source, Krissy. "Krissy, help me!" I turned to Krissy because when were kids we had this fascination with words. We were in awe of the meanings of words and their origin. For some reason, we never played sports, did girly things or even play. But one thing we did do, was read. We'd read the bible, poems, history books; you name it. Hell, we even read the darn dictionary...lol Yep, we did that thang. After telling Krissy my dilemma, she quickly came up with a simple solution. The solution started with a few questions, "So are you saying people's hair fibers talk to you?" I was like, "Well, sort of. Their hair tells a story of how it is being handled, what has been and is being put on it, what they are eating or not. How much water they are drinking or not and so on." "Hmm." She replied. "So, in other words, their hair is speaking to you telling a story about the treatment of the hair externally and internally?" "Yes!" I frantically nodded. "Man Ladosha, you are more weirder than I thought." Then she himmed and hawed. Moments later after sucking her teeth, she said the magic word, "ADUMBRATE."

Everybody, meet Krissy!

If I never loved Krissy, that was one of those moments when the lawd shined the light from sky above onto this one special person; Krissy. I mean, the Golden Child was before me. Hmm, another Eddie Murphy movie...lol I gave her the biggest hug one could give.

Anyone thinking of becoming a hairstylist and is under the assumption that actually styling the hair is the whip. It is not. First of all you need hair when styling is the goal. Second you need hair that you can work with. The hair must be pliable, reliable, strong and resilient if you want to do anything to it. In addition, you have to assess what is it that your are toucthing and feeling before you to decided which route to take. 

Consultations are for more important, more fun, more creative and more money making than hair styling. Because consultations require a kind of je ne sais quoi that one cannot get in school or during testing at state board; they simply minimize, dumb it down or just do not do it at all. Shame. Because they hair adumbrates, it is imperative that we be honest with our customer each and every time they sit in our chair. 

Because so much has happened in between salon visits (rather 2 days or 2 months from the last salon visit), their hair is not the same.  At the salon where I work, it does not matter how frequent a person visits the salon, we do a consultation before every service. We also remind them how their hair adumbrates or tells a story about what is really going on before they utter a word. 

Teaching

Teaching our customers about the meaning of adumbrate BEFORE we even touch them, reduces the likelihood of them lying to us about things such as: when the last time they shampooed their hair, rather or not they put a chemical on their hair, rather or not they smoke weed or do drugs, rather or not they are on medicines or have allergies and so on. Teaching our customers the meaning of the word adumbrate also gives us permission to let them know how we know they are lying.

The goal is to never insult. Instead, the goal is to be honest. When you enter a salon you are making an investment in  yourself.  My job is to help you protect your investment. The best way I can do that is to always assess the current hair situation. Then I can tell you how to get the best bang for your buck. From their we provide a hair style that will fit your ability to re-create the look based off of your skill set to do your own hair and what is in your bathroom under the sink. 

Your words are important to us at the salon where I work. To be able to take care of your hair to get the style that you want, honestly is the best way to help a hair stylist get you there. Providing consultations to assess the scalp and hair before every service is a beautiful thing. From there, we can be honest about what it will really take to make your hair look nice.

Honest. No lie!