The Best Way to Healthy Hair

Healthy hair!

I love my job. It is one that I describe as up front and personal with humans and their whimsical journey through life. So what makes me use a word like "whimsical?" It's the funny naive things that customers say and do as it relates to hair care and hair styling that makes it so whimsical!

For example, I find it funny that many customers really think they have bad hair or no hair. I also find it funny how they will spend more money for products when they already have a supply underneath their bathroom sinks! Lastly, I find it even more funny, when they say they can not do their own hair; when most have never even tried or have been taught. This is where I am at my best!

I love showing people how hair care and hair styling does not have to be costly, intimidating or time consuming. To make hair care easy to digest, I will define hair care as "the act of making time to care for hair via cleansing, stimulating, nourishing and styling." Many people thinks hair care means to either tie it down, pull it into a ponytail, comb it back smooth or simply wash-n-wear and let it go. For the most part, that is the just of it for the sake of time and skill. However, as it relates to the "healthy" part of hair; well there is more. 

More? That is correct, but not a whole lot more. The operative word in this blog is "healthy." To make hair care healthy hair, you have "to do" the act. The acts of getting healthy hair is to actually clean it by way of using the correct shampoo for your hair texture (wavy, kinky, curly, straight and Afro) and type (fine, medium or coarse). Next, you have to use the balls of your fingers with some good old fashioned elbow grease to stimulate your scalp by way of massaging it as you shampoo or massage it. You can also provide stimulation by combing, brushing your hair. Yes, you add certain essential oils to promote blood flow. Blood flow is responsible for nourishing your hair to make it healthy. The last part of healthy hair is creating a style that flows with your image and one that will not promote breakage.  Whew, that wasn't so bad!

Amka, Latin for friend is excellent for all hair types and
is outstanding for color treated hair! 

Keep in mind; styling tools, hair care supplies and hair stylists makes hair look and feel healthy. But the true health of the hair starts with you do the act of caring for it from the inside out as you simultaneously do your part at home to protect your hair care investment.

Rid yourself of those misconceptions in hair care that you either have to pay someone or buy expensive stuff. That is an option for the masses.  For those, like me, who deliberately looks for practical solutions in a busy world; get involved in your hair care and hair styling at home. Wait a while before you re-book another salon appointment, shop online or go into the supply store buying everything hair you see. Please spend some time with your hair. Just as your mechanic gives you tips to extend the life of your car and the doctor gives you tips to maintain your health; your hair stylist can show you few hair care do's and don'ts to preserve and improve the health of your hair. 

In my professional opinion on the best way to healthy hair, is to look in the mirror because the best way to healthy hair is you!

Get involved!

Don't Blame it on the Alcohol

Don't blame it on the alcohol!

One of the things I love as a cosmetologist are my "Bootleg" cosmetologists. "Bootleg" cosmetologists are the people who know everything about the nothings, the wrongs, the myths and the incorrects of hair care. Bootleg cosmetologist can tell you about hair color, relaxers, weave and growing hair. They can even tell you about hair care ingredients. They are experts at warning about the dangers of alcohol in hair care products. This is one of my favorite "shut 'em" topics. I recall a time, I sold a guest a moisturizing mousse for her curly tresses. Her bootleg cosmetologist daughter had her return it because it had alcohol in it. When I used my ingredient book to show the guest what alcohol meant in scientific terms and what the source of that particular alcohol was; she was shocked!

Caring for hair; be it textured, straight, chemically altered, locked, weaved and everything in between can be something of an enigma for many (rather you have your bootleg cosmetology license or not). If it is not the styling tool, then it is the hair itself. The enigma in hair care for many lies not only in what to put on it but what is IN what we put on our hair. So the point of the bootleg cosmetologist who warns that alcohol is bad for your hair, there are varying kinds of alcohol based on their molecular weight and the source of the alcohol that determines if it is bad or good.

Regardless the texture, hands down, the top two ingredients people hate in hair care products are oils and alcohols. Now hold on before you start rubber necking and nodding your head in agreement, I can explain again. Some consumers are more lenient and is more willing to try a product if it has some oil in it. But, now if it has alcohol in it, that is the determining factor to ditch the product.

Before you place the product back on the shelf, do a little Google search on your phone and look up the alcohol you are concerned about. In case you did not know alcohols come in two categories. The categories are of course in molecular weight and source. And the molecular weight is based on the way the company extracts the alcohol (ingredient) from it's source. The two categories are short chain alcohols and fatty alcohols.

Short Chain Alcohol

The first are the short chain alcohols have more of the water molecules left on them and they are used to kind of like soak up or/and break down the waxy film from other ingredients in the care products. That explains why alcohols such as SD Alcohol, SD Alcohol 40 and Denatured Alcohols makes the hair feel very dry.

The second category of fatty alcohols are pretty much derived from coconuts or feedstock (corn, palm seed and the likes). These carbons and molecules are larger thereby making the hair care product thicker or creamier; which translates to easier to apply and get through your hair. It could also mean a few extra bucks. If ingredients like Cetyl, Stearyl or Cetaryl to name a few reads familiar, do not panic; these are the good alcohols. These fatty alcohol are what gives your favorite moisturizing conditioner or styling agent slip, they smooth the cuticle (the outer layer of hair); thus making hair shine. Other fatty alcohols such as lauryl, myristyl or behenyl actually hydrate hair! 

Fatty Alcohols

 

So as you can see when it comes to alcohol there are some bad ones and some good ones. Do your own research. Do not allow people who know nothing of what they are talking about tell you different. Always follow the manufacturers instructions. Purchase your products from stores who will take returns (not exchanges). Try your product out by rubbing all over your hands like lotion versus sniffing and smelling. If you do not like the way a product feels on your hands, then you will not like the way it feels on your hair (unless you want it a lil tacky in the case of certain gels and mousses). If you do not like it, then do not buy it. If you try it and do not like it, then return it. But whatever you do; don't blame it on the a-a-a-a-alcohol!

Growing Dandruff

My career as a cosmetologist is full of funny stories, old wives tales, myths and a few down right dirty lies. Every time I think I have heard them all; woops, here comes another one. Of the many interesting things I have heard in the name of growing hair, it is the "growing dandruff" myth and questions I get that makes me say, "Really!"

Gone and brush your shoulders off!

So to answer the question, to debunk the myth and to expose the lie about growing dandruff, here I go. Is there really a such thing as growing dandruff? 

 Before I finish typing this blog, I have to make it abundantly clear that I am no dermatologist. I also have to make abundantly clear that no where in the United States of America is a licensed cosmetologist qualified to diagnose or cure dandruff by any means. This information in this blog is from research.

Now, back to this growing dandruff stuff. In as much that dandruff is actually a species, micro-organism or fungus that actually lives on the scalps of most healthy adults without causing any problems, it can no by no stretch of any scientific imagination grow hair. According to the folks over at the MayoClinic, there are two popular school of thoughts as it relates to dandruff. First, dandruff is not about hair and how often you wash it. Second, dandruff is not a contagious fungus that humans can pass to each other because almost every human being already has the actual malassezia fungus living on their skin; not growing hair. There are three factors that promote dandruff: dry weather, external factors like shampoos, conditioners and scalp pomades along with scalp diseases/disorders such as psoriasis, eczema, dermatitis and the likes. They are all culprits to the scalp's skin cells that grow and die off too fast causing those flakes we do not like to see. For others, that scaling and flaking is the immune system's natural response by overreacting to the fungus (malassezia) that is naturally on the scalp. Based off the above information; dandruff, fibrin (dead skin cells) or flakes are sloughing off; and again, not growing hair. Furthermore, hormones are responsible for hair growth.

So while there are many myths out there surrounding the "growing dandruff" phenomena; scientists and dermatologists are still doing the research to learn more about it. In the mean time, do not play doctor with your scalp. Do not allow your hair stylist to play doctor on your scalp either. Dandruff is a medical terminology. It is best diagnosed and treated by a dermatologist or wholistic practitioner. Whenever a customer tells me they have dandruff, the first question I ask, "Who told you that you have dandruff? Your mother, grandmother or doctor?" Beware of using hair care products formulated to alleviate the symptoms of dandruff and you have not been diagnosed properly. Doing so may result in unwanted itchy scalp, dry hair and flakes all over your clothes, asking "Got some dirt on my shoulders, could you brush it off for me?"

You have just read a blog by the greatest!