Hair Realities
In a world of instant gratification, your dream hair will never be available for overnight shipping, unfortunately. Good hair takes a bit of time and effort. Something I love about hair is the ability to switch things up. Do you want to have a Brigitte Bardot fringe? Go for it! Or do you want a Julianne Moore warm and sultry red? I am here for this!
When a client brings in an inspiration photo, I love it! Pictures are a great tool for your hairstylist to understand exactly where your head is at. I like to break down the photo and pinpoint what about the style draws in my client. Is it the color? The cut? The way it’s styled? Or all three?
Being realistic with the time and effort you are willing to put into your hair is the first step of accepting your hair reality. Do you love that sleek and straight look, but your natural texture is curly and you know you will never pick up a blow dryer or straightener? It’s best to find a style that works with your texture for your day-to-day lifestyle. This isn’t to say you can never wear your hair in that sleeker style, but exploring styles for curly hair is going to cure a lot of frustration.
When it comes to cuts and hair color, committing to a certain shade or shape also means committing to its maintenance schedule. Some cuts and colors require you to come in every six weeks for a touch-up and others require a visit every six months. Shorter lengths will require you to come in more often, whereas longer lengths allow you to stretch the time between cuts. Some examples of high maintenance colors are platinum blondes, shades of red, and vivids. Lower maintenance colors are a lived-in balayage, dimensional highlights, and lowlights that complement your natural hair color.
Another piece of this puzzle is at-home hair care products. Imagine you just spent hours in the salon achieving your dream hair color for a good amount of money. You then go home and wash your hair with Pantene in a scalding hot shower, then proceed to use heat to style your hair without a heat protector. Your color is probably fading faster than you can say balayage!
Your stylist should recommend products and procedures to keep that color lasting as long as it should, but it’s up to you to truly implement it.
Think of salon quality products as an insurance policy for that color that you just spent hundreds on in the salon. There are plenty of them out there that won’t break the bank. Additionally, you don’t need to use nearly as much product when applying them, which means they last you so much longer!
There are tons and tons of products out there, so don’t get discouraged if you use something and aren’t crazy about it. Talk with your stylist about what products would work best with your hair, and which hairstyles would be ideal for your lifestyle.
Here’s to more happy hair days!
