Flair for Elderly Hair

The beauty of  white hair!

Fear enters our lives in many facets. From the moment we see the unexpected crawl of a bug or feel the rapid beat of our heart brought on by public speaking; everyone has something they fear. While the appearance of gray hair doesn't crawl and startle you or causes your to beat rapidly when you speak in front of crowds, for many, gray hair coupled with aging is a pain in the watoosi (otherwise known as the butt)! Gray hair and aging can be difficult. Some dislike having it, some anticipate it, and others downright embrace it.

Whether you embrace your gray hair and age or fight it every step of the way with make up, color sticks, mascara, Bigen or hair dye, there are a few key things everyone who is aging as their hair turns gray must always consider...

Hair definitely changes as we age.

Complaints about aging typically includes a fuss about gray hair. The complaints primarily focus around four issues. Limpness,  turning yellow, style ability and unruliness. The complaints are not so much related to aging. On the contrary, they are attributed to hair styling issues. Infrequent shampooing, not combing hair enough and using the wrong kinds of hair care products and styling agents are what makes gray hair look bad as opposed to how old you are.

Gray hair is an actual disorder that causes hair to loose it's pigment (color). Many people believe gray changes the structure of your hair. It does not. Often mistakes are easily seen and happen more frequent on gray hair because of the optical illusion that gray hairs are more tedious and less attractive to those who have it. Your gray hair is not difficult now compared to when it was darker. Your gray is is just as attractive as you was when you were younger. It is only the difference in color that sometimes changes one's attitude when their hair become shunned.

I don't know whose worse at selling bogus hair care products; social media, info-mericals or the myriad of home shopper programs. Whatever the options, selling visions of long hair from yesteryear, all modalities are like buying a cheese burger someone one took a bite from. If you are looking to revitalize your aging hair or your loved one's aging hair avoid buying products claiming to return hair to it's youthful luster, revert your gray hair to it's natural color or making your hair thicker. Anatomically and biologically, hair changes as we age. Yep, that is correct. As we age, hair naturally become thin, gray and thinner for most people. I attribute the changing of your thick strands of hair to thin strands of hair to the mouth of follicle (the tiny hole your hair grows from). As we age, the mouth of the follicle shrinks in diameter; thus shrinking the diameter of our hair right along with it. Hair care products and supplements can not revert this naturally occurring phenomenon. Therefore, buyer beware.

Au naturale

While aging may be the inevitable, there are ways to make maximize the optical illusion of younger, fuller and with more shine without trying to look like someone you are not. The easiest and most affordable way to enhance and modify the appearance of graceful aging are: haircuts, hair coloring wigs and head wraps/turbans. I advise everyone, short of the shampoo, a haircut is thee most important aspect of a salon visit. A haircut is to hair what fashion design is to fabric. Yes! Haircuts are that important and magnanimous. Hair coloring is a great way to camouflage, enhance or outright hide the changes that occur with aging hair. In earlier times, people wanted to return to their younger years as it related to their hair color. Not today. Today hair color is art. You can do what you like. To be exact, going darker is not the best way to reverse the signs of aging. Because of loss of pigment in the skin as we age, going darker makes most skin tones look stark and pale. Wigs are quick, easy and flexible. You can purchase a wig in any style and hair color, makes wigs a great alternative. Wigs can be removed whenever you want which makes wigs an even greater alternative. Wigs can be bought in most neighborhoods, online or via a catalog makes them one of the greatest alternatives. Head wraps or turbans are great for showing cultural pride and a sense of style. They sell head wraps and turbans in varying prints and colors. Some are pre-made. While others require intricate twists and turns of fabrics, cloths and for some even old t-shirts. Whatever your style, there is a fabric just right for your style. Covering your hair is also a great way to protect your hair from the sun and will suffice for a quick fix when all else fails or if you want to boldly steal the scene!

African head wrap!

The flair for elderly hair definitely ain't the ol' gray hair it used to be. Gray hair can be natural, short, spiked, sassy, colored or covered. Gray looks great on everyone at every age. Today's attitude towards hair, "It's mine and I love it." Regardless the texture, rather it is thick, thin, or balding, long or short, natural or colored; gray hair is on the minds of many. How to care for it and alter it means a lot many. Be sure to continue to make purchases for your gray hair according to it's texture and type, using the right products, the right tools and the right techniques.

Roll Out

To hell with what "they" say.

Hair stylists listens to a lot of shop talk in the hair salon. Shop talk ranges from topics hot off the press such as the most recent preposterous government shut down for a wall to keep the country safe from people entering the country illegally, to the latest R. Kelly fiasco, to unjust killings of innocent African American men, to America's history of mistreatment of women, and of course thee old hair care do's and don'ts.

While attending cosmetology school, I recall being advised to keep our opinions out of religious and political school of thoughts. To date, I do as advised. I merely listen because they truly do get heated. But, now when it comes to topics about hair, I'm mouth all mighty.

People enter salons with all kinds of notions about hair care. The notions, I must say are all pretty much entrenched from cultural practices to the ever popular and most credited, "they." Yaaaaaas huntee, you know what "they" trumps anything and everybody; including hair stylists. This particular statement was stated around the holiday. A customer entered the salon to purchase some hair care products. She entered the salon with a head full of curls. As everyone complimented her, the customer I had just styled asked in amazement, "How do you keep your curls looking so nice and lasting so long?" "Easy, I roll my hair every night on sponge rollers," she happily replied. In astonished unison, all the other customer responded, "Sponge rollers!" "Yes. Sponge rollers." She was bombarded with statements and questions about how bad sponge rollers were for hair.

Sponge rollers are great for preserving curls.

The customer chimed in very loud, "Ladosha, did you hear what she said? What do you think about sponge rollers?" I replied, "Well, considering I told her to use them, I think they are great for what they are designed to do." Everyone was shocked. You would have thought I took my shirt off, or sneezed without covering my nose, or said I voted for Trump. With haughtiness, they were disdained by the mere endorsement and approval of sponge rollers on hair; let alone to be used to preserve curls. They all had much to say about what "they" say about rollers on hair. There were so many poignant comments about "they," Their comments were coming at me like a swirling scene straight out of Stephen King's 70's thriller movie, Carrie. It was as if everyone's comment was swirling in my ears, "They're all gonna laugh at you. They're all gonna laugh at you." I literally put my head over my ears and yelled, "Who are they?"

The bombardment of comments were silenced. "Who are they," I asked? Everyone looked around at each other, but had no response. My sentiments exactly. In hair care and hair styling refrain from what "they" say. Ignore the comments in your head about what "they" say. Ignore, any comments or suggestions from what "they" say. I honestly have no proof of who "they" are but If I could make a good guess, I'd say, people who don't know much about how curls are created and recreated.

"They" are typically the people telling people things with no merit, rhyme, reason or truth. "They" are typically the people who do not read any instructions per the manufacturer. "They" are typically the people who have lost all or most of their hair from doing too much to their hair. "They" are typically the people who did not complete their training or continue their education in cosmetology or trichology. You see, "they" are not the people anyone should be listening to as a source of credibility or assistance.

For the records, all curls are created in many forms of a rolling, twirling or winding fashion. Be it rolling a curling iron barrel, twirling of marcel curling irons, turning of flat irons, winding hair in a circular motion using two index fingers, or physically rolling hair onto a roller; in order for hair to curl, it must be rolled. Therefore, it is very obvious, for the varying manipulations used to achieve curls are all done in some rolling, twirling or winding fashion; it is practical to do the same to preserve the curls.

The ludicrous claim that sponge rollers pulls or snatches hair out is the same claim "they" make about combs. Just as people refrain and refuse to use rollers to preserve and maintain their curled hair, they refrain and refuse to use a comb to comb out their hair for the same reasons; what "they" say. Rollers not combs pull hair or take hair out.

For the sake of Pete and Pam, please stop listening to "them." Them people will not be there in the morning when you wake up and your curls are gone because you did not roll your hair. Them people will not pay for your hair to be curled daily. Them people will not be their help you with your hair, but you will. Hair styles are not like sculpting and molding a statue. Hairstyles are like sculpting and molding the blankets on your bed. Once you get out, you have to make it back up. Once you get out, you have to make it up. Hair styles like making up your up bed. Once you roll out, you have to make it up as soon as you get out the bed. The longer you wait, the more you pile things on it as you get ready for your day; thus make making your bed more difficult.

The same rules apply for rolling your hair as it does rolling out your bed. Rolling hair is best done the moment you've lived in the hairstyle and is ready to preserve it for the next day to wear it and live in it!

Keep it simple. Roll your hair with sponge rollers to keep your curls. The plastic rollers are not best for all hair textures like the sponge. Plastic rollers may fall out. Sponge rollers snap in and hold through the night. If you are seeing hair in your sponge rollers, it is probably because you did not comb your hair out thoroughly prior to rolling your hair, your hair is dirty (dirty hair sheds profusely) or simply you are seeing hair that is naturally shedding.

Now as for what "they" say about rolling hair?  Put on some Ludacris, motivating you to have them... Rollout (My Business) and roll your hair!