Trends in Hair

Trends in hair care are essential in the world of hair styling and hair care. As a cosmetologist, being on the pulse of what consumers are looking for are very important. In my last blog, I highlighted the top five worst trends in hair care last year. In this blog, I will highlight the importance of discovering your hair and it's texture, style ability, care and it's uniqueness.

The purpose of the previous blog was to inform readers about gimmicks used in the one size fit all approach to hair care. Understand that hair care is unique and different for every head of hair. There is certainly a discovery process in trying different things to learn what will and will not work for your hair. So quite naturally, taking a chance to try out some these hair care antics are par for the course in discovering. However, under no circumstances should no one get to the point of discovery where the health of the hair and scalp is compromised. My goal in hair care, hair styling and blogging is to prevent hair damage and hair loss.This is my passion. 

This year when you research or look up what the trends will be in 2016 for hair styling, your search will come up with: braids/twists extensions, tree braid extensions, straightened hair, short pixie cuts, and wash & wear hair. I doubt very little that there is much difference in hairstyles this year compared to last year. With the change of hair additions going from long, straight and wavy to long braids and twists; adding hair will pretty much be the same. As a matter of fact, hair extensions still trump as the most sought after of all hair styling options. 

As a hair stylist, quite naturally I am not anti hair additions or any hair style that gives one a myriad of creative options wear their hair and express what makes them unique. So, go with the trend or be a daring trend setter. Either way, I'm a happy hair care camper. Just be sure to keep your hair on your head.

I love this look for the trend in 2016!

What concerns me as a hair stylist about hair styling is not so much as the trends. What concerns me is this massive collection of untrained and unskilled people encouraging them to "follow." The follow me, like me, tweet, and give me hearts trend in hair care is scary from my perspective of working behind the chair. Why? For some reason, the follower translates what they are seeing and watching as their own hair. What I see are women who are devastated by the level of damage done to their hair, time and money lost trying out what the see on their phones, pads, computers and other devices. Don't get me wrong, I love looking at pictures that are posted on all the social networks. I also enjoy reviewing videos on YouTube to see what folks are doing and creating with hair. But when following and copying becomes synonymous, like it has in hair care and hair styling, "Houston, we've got problems."

Videos, blogs, periscoping, tutorials and photos main purpose are simply to inspire; not duplicate. Of course I can't watch look at every post and watch every video, but I do find the key words of "inspiration" are lacking. Many creators of these pages, links and videos are leaning towards a "monkey see - monkey do" indirect approach in their efforts to get viewers to buy into their act. Copying what someone does to their hair and trying it out on your hair is risky. In my opinion that is the equivalent of using someone else's toothbrush. Yep. hair care and hair styles like toothbrushes are great. They all have a universal appeal. One can watch videos and go to as many dentists as they like to learn how to properly care for their teeth. Yet, you will not find one dentist or person who will suggest that you use someone else's toothbrush and brush your teeth as they do. As a matter of fact, it is when your dentist customizes your visit that makes your experience more individualized. You get a sense of concern and care when your dentist demonstrates how to care for your teeth and gums and how "this' toothbrush is for your teeth and your teeth only. Imagine if your dentist reached over and took that toothbrush from another person's mouth and said, "here, do it like her" and walked away?

Follow for inspiration. Do not copy.

It is the individual and personal level of instruction and care that must be given to every person from all over the planet who will someday do their own hair that is important. If you are in the spirit of looking, liking, following, reading, listening, and watching things about hair, remember, those are guides. Do not copy it verbatim. 

Instead, read up on your product first. Call or visit the company's social media of the product you want to try. Companies love hearing directly from their consumers. Often times they will send samples or coupons that will give you the opportunity to try before you buy. Also, only buy travel size or travel size kits of the products you want to try. If you make smaller purchases, your closets and cabinets will not end up in a heap of unwanted clutter. Another option is to allow your hairstylist to try things out. This will give you the hands on chance to actually try and get instructions. Most hair stylists will give you pointers in caring for and styling your hair. If not, find a new one.

In addition,cosmetology schools and salon clinics are great places to try things out on your hair. Most cosmetology schools and salon clinics are offering service much cheaper than a hair stylist or regular salon services. Provided the service you want to try out do not require chemicals, you should be safe. Wait, don't turn your nose up to these options. The trade of are the free or deep discounted services and assistance you would receive in the form of a one on one about your hair.What is the worst case scenario? None, because you will not have spent much money and you can simply wash out the unwanted style. Your hair will be in tact. The style can be washed out or un-braided if you really don't like it. Lastly, keep in mind that even the greatest of hair stylists were students first. You would surprised to the many talents inside your local cosmetology schools! When I was in cosmetology school, I was very sought after. I tried many things out under the instruction of my instructors and the the help of my fellow students. The prices were well under 10 bucks.

Carefully follow manufacturers instructions. Resist cookie
 cutting the directions.

With these tips in mind you can continue to follow, like, tweet, and watch without totally compromising your hair or wasting time and money. Remember, no two heads are alike. What you see and watch on a screen rarely results in what you will see in your mirror at home.And that is okay. Be patient, work with your hair in smaller sections, purchase travel sizes, keep your receipts and lastly try a hair stylist or your local beauty school to get the one on one attention your hair needs. 

Hopefully, by the time you read this and try out some of my tips, the only thing you will be following are the directions! 

5 Worst Techniques in Hair Care

January 1st marks the 7th day of Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is a celebration of family, community, and culture. Founded by Dr. Maulana Karenga, he provides 7 Principles of the Nguzo Saba for us to live life more purposefully. Wouldn't it be nice if we had 7 Principles of Hair Care?

Well, after I count down the Top 5 Worse Techniques Hair Care in 2015, I think I just might develop a few principles in hair care myself. 

The rise of textured hair has returned to the spotlight once again, and I think this time it is here to stay. As a reader of my blog, you probably know by now that I have a serious disdain for the term/phrase "natural hair." If I typed it once, I'll type it again, if it grows from your scalp, it's natural. How one chooses to manipulate, enhance, cut off and design their tresses makes it all natural. I know, I already blogged about that!

Hair care to me is like body care. Both result in beauty when you care for it from the inside out. While many like to refer to "natural" hair care as they would vegetation care, to that I would say, "Watch out for the poison ivy!" In 2015, the trends in hair care got about as tacky as those "Instagram Eyebrows." Professional makeup artists worldwide were like, "Clutch the eyebrow pencils." To say they were pissed at the dumbing down of professional makeup artistry would be an understatement. Without a convention, summit, or hearing of any sort; they united to get rid of the Gawd awful "Instagram Brows." My sentiments, exactly. It is my mission to report and galvanize the masses to get rid of this notion on "natural" hair care. I will be starting with...drum roll please:

#5 Monistat and Hair Growth Mixture
"Hell to the naw naw," with is this concoction. In my opinion, this is the "swine" of hair care. It is so dirty and so not practical in hair care. According to dermatologists at the famed MayoClinic, "The scalp has two types of sweat glands; apocrine and eccrine. The eccrine is responsible for the smell and the eccrine, when combined with the sebaceous oil that the scalp produces, creates yeast when they come into contact with each other." Understanding the
function of the scalp will enhance one's hair care exponentially. The scalp is the foundation of a beautiful, shiny and unique hairstyle. Regardless, the texture of your hair and the infinite styling options you have with it; if the scalp is not clean; no cigar chief. The concept and practice of mixing Monistat with another hair care product, particularly if the hair care product's main ingredient is oil, you are actually creating more yeast. In reality, your scalp combined with the Monistat concoction becomes a Petrie Dish of sorts. And we all know about them Petrie Dishes, don't we?  Provided that you do not have any scalp or hair disorders that prevent your hair from growing, simply clean your scalp and hair as needed. It is going to grow anyway. 


#4 Water Wash

What the "french toast" is this all about? It appears the concept behind water washing is again, to be natural. To not use synthetic, natural or organic products on your hairs. Followers of this regimen want the hair to do what it would do natural. They want you to squeeze, not comb it too much and umm, wash it with water. To that I ask, "Would you "water wash" your vagina?" Next.


#3 Protective Hair Styles
Now, why in the "baloney sammich" would someone want to get on the bandwagon of a hair care trend named, "protective" hair style? Let me explain this to you as if you were a 2-year-old. There are three strengths in hair. Fine being weak. Medium being kinda strong. Coarse being very strong. The varying strengths are comprised of a number of layers called "cuticles." They look like fish scales. Whenever you cause friction against those cuticles, you are physically

popping them off or breaking them just as you would using a knife to descale the fish. Friction causes heat and the heat loosens the cuticle Sooooo, rather you are braiding, flat ironing, coloring, relaxing, twisting, locking, gluing, bonding, wrapping, tying down, laying down on your hair, adding hair, covering and so on to your hair; you are not protecting it; you are compromising it. When you style your hair in any hair style, you will compromise it. You can reduce the likelihood of damaging the cuticle layers by protecting it with products that have the ingredients that are designed to do so. You can not protect hair by styling it. 

You can only protect hair by using hair care products whose molecules are tiny enough to enter the cuticle then go directly to the cortex (that second layer that actually gives your hair its strength) to fortify it from within. You can also use products that include ingredients with very tiny molecules that can coat the cuticle layers.  If the tiny molecules are proteins or fillers they will act a band-aid of sorts on those broken or missing cuticle layers. Then, they will temporarily hold the tiny cuticle layers together as it is styled to keep the hair from breaking. That is protection!

Covering your hair with a scarf, braiding it up or covering your hair with artificial hair will not protect your hair. It will only keep your fingers out of it. 

The above explanation about the friction: covering hair, braiding it up and adding artificial hair will actually break the cuticle layers and at times expose the cortex. That results in damaged hair. The integrity of your hair is now compromised. So while you may see where your has grown in a few months, you will conclude that it wasn't so protected after all. When you uncover it, take it down, uncover it, and comb your hair; it will be limp, dull and lifeless. 

Then the vicious cycle of re-covering it with a wig, scarf, hat or adding artificial hair or human to your hair starts all over again.

#2 Co-Wash
Co-wash; hog-wash. If this concept is so cool, then why isn't it practiced in other cleansing methods? For example, you can't co-wash a floor, dishes, cars, and the likes. Back in the day, whenever I wiped something off, my mom would yell, "Don't half clean my shit. If you gone do something, do it right or don't do it at all" If you had one of them, "keepin it real" mommas, then you know Co-Wash is hogwash. The concept of using a conditioner or a conditioner like

product to clean a yeast producing orifice is paradoxical to cleaning. While I agree that soap and sulfates are not the only way to clean something, you do need some sort of cleansing agent to effectively clean away the dirt, yeast and hair care products from the scalp and hair. So to this I ask, "Would you wash up with lotion?"

#1 YouTube
The greatest thing since sliced bread? Well, if you don't have a million dollar budget and a marketing team; it is. I absolutely love YouTube. I can catch up on all my old Flinstone cartoons, music and James Wright (no relation) singing about the Patti sweet potato pie.  In addition, I too am a fan of the many YouTube how-to channels. However, when you couple those how-to YouTube channels with hair care; start singing, "self-destruction, you're headed for self-destruction." I do understand and love the premise of watching something to get the just of its functionality. I also understand that most hair stylists are not teaching hair care from behind the chair. And both explains the exodus from customers walking away from salons and is moving to their computers and mobile devices to learn how to care for their hair. Women all over the world are looking for help with their hair; especially those with textured hair. So they are turning to the internet to find help. But, it is a choice in futility. Watching a video so you can learn how to cook, dance or exercise won't produce the same results. Why? Because, unlike food, ingredients and dance moves; hair on humans are rarely the same. In other words, no two heads of hair are alike. So watching what one person does to their hair will not produce the same results on yours. Watching those videos and expecting the same results with your hairstyle or hair color reminds me of watching those Sears and JC Penny commercials around Christmas time and wishing just half of it would show up under your Christmas Tree. It never happened, did it? So, to conclude, watching YouTube so you can learn how to care for your hair ranks as the worst technique in hair care in 2015. Again, why? I will quote the famed R&B singer Chris Brown a.k.a Chris Breezy, "She ain't you."

Happy Kwanzaa and Hotep to all my readers. 2015 was great. In spite of all the ridiculousness, many strides were made in hair care. Because I serviced so many women, men, and children who all have fallen victim to the hype of the "natural hair" movement, I thought this blog might help more followers of this movement. It is with my greatest expectations that this blog will liberate you and encourage you do what you know and feel is right about taking care of your hair.

In the end, I get the point of movements, rhetoric and extensive forms of hyperbole in hair care. It makes the sale. It's all about the benjamins baby. Right? Yes. It is also about inflating the egos and pockets of people who for the most part do not like themselves. It also about getting "followers" on  these social networks so they can be social network famous. So, they create hype. They dress it up very well. They filter the heck outta them photos. They shoot their photos from slenderizing angles. They create cool hashtags so we can find them quicker. In the end, they end up spewing a certain kind of hair care ignorance that result in confusion of self. It also results in damage to the scalp and hair that often times are irreversible.  

So, as my blog was inspired by the Nguzo Saba, I will use the 7th principle of the Nguzo Saba, Imani. I will practice Imani to develop my own principles in hair care for the righteousness and victory. For too long, many have fell victim to the myriad of hair scams brought on by the money and fame seeking hair texture violators. This year, let's put an end to the trend of following and watching them. Educate yourself more about your hair. Start with yourself, the mirror and from there; the world is yours!

Happy new year!