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Jun 26

Dealing with Hair Breakage, Hair Damage, and Hair Loss

Having a bad hair day can steer anyone into a negative mindset, but did you know it could be more than an occasional problem? Hair can suffer from breakage and damage from various things and this sometimes can lead to hair loss which is even more tragic and terrifying.

When it comes to understanding hair breakage, damage, and loss it is important to single out the reason why this may be happening. Stress, certain hair care products, lack of hair care regimens, and what you eat can attribute to whether or not you have healthy hair. If you are stressed out, use products like boxed hair dye on the regular, and avoid the hair salon for trims, you may be stuck with hair that needs some help.

Stop Stressing

Stress is one of the biggest factors in human health that can readily affect every organ and function in the body. Hair is included in this psycho-physiological system. When you get stressed the cortisol hormone floods the body. This constant supply of cortisol wears out the hair follicle faster, causing them to reach a resting stage where they come loose from the scalp.

The good news is that hair will usually regrow when the stressors are gone and the person has returned to a level of homeostasis both in mind and in body. This is an odd reason for hair to act up, but it should be noted and ruled out before considering any serious measures to fix damage, breakage, or loss.

Hair Care Product Don’ts

A lot of the hair care products that are found on drugstore and grocery store shelves are cheap and easy to find. Unfortunately, this also means that the ingredients are full of chemicals and additives that are really bad for your hair. Some of the worst products you can use on your hair from the store include:

  • Boxed Hair Colour. Boxed hair colour contains chemicals and additives such as metallic salts that bind to the natural keratin in the hair. The dye will then alter the hair color in an unnatural way by coating it with pigment thus causing damage throughout the strand.
  • At Home Bleach or Lightening Kits. If you want to lighten or bleach your hair it is best not to do it at home. These kits are the absolute worst in both quality and procedure. The ingredients will damage your hair every time you use them. These kits can cause extreme frizz, stripping the hair of natural moisture. This can lead to further breakage, damage, and hair loss that can be permanent.
  • Perm Kits. The chemicals in these kits can be flat out dangerous to your health, not just your hair. Some of these chemicals can cause nausea and headaches on top of damaging your hair. Perm kits can burn the hair and if over-processed can permanently damage hair strands. Not to mention most perm kits do not curl the hair evenly, causing a chaotic look that cannot be easily fixed.
  • Chemical Straighteners or Hair Relaxer Kits. These also have chemicals and additives that are dangerous to your overall health. If done incorrectly the damage that these chemical hair treatments will cause can be substantial and long-lasting.

These type of hair products have chemicals and additives that will strip the hair strand to its core in various ways. This will cause breakage, damage, and potentially could end up in hair loss that is permanent. It is best to avoid doing these types of hair treatments unless in a professional hair salon setting to limit the amount of damage done to the hair.

Not Caring for Your Hair

Cut It

It is recommended that you get a trim or a full haircut every six months, even if you are growing it out. This helps to eliminate split ends that will otherwise keep splitting up the strand and can reach the follicle, itself, causing it to die and come loose from the scalp.

Wash It

Use more natural daily hair care products to eliminate dangerous sulfates and extreme Ph balancing that leaves hair in sad shape. Don’t wash your hair every time you shower. This sounds odd, but when you shower and wash your hair too frequently then it strips the hair of natural oils that protect the strand and shaft from dryness and damage.

Moisturize It

This is especially important if you live in a hot and dry climate. The hair needs to maintain inner moisture in order to produce a healthy gloss and shine. Use natural moisturizing products in your hair in a regimen that works for your type of hair. Neglecting to keep moisture in the hair will lead to breakage, damage, and hair loss that can sometimes be permanent.

Brush It

It is best to keep your hair well maintained to prevent rat’s nests, matting, and other tangles. While over-brushing can cause damage (no need to use 100 brush strokes), not brushing your hair can lead to damage caused by having to detangle the hair eventually. Tangled hair also doesn’t grow as well and will lead to tension in the scalp that can pull or break hair easily.

Wear It

How you wear your hair also can affect how healthy the hair will be. If the hair is worn tightly to the scalp or pulled into a tight bun this can cause breakage, damage, and loss to the hair. Traction alopecia is a temporary type of hair loss that is caused by a chronic ponytail or bun wearing. Keeping the hair wrapped up so tight creates tension on the hair and can cause breakage, damage, or will eventually pull out the entire follicle. If this continues, the hair follicle will eventually not even return leading to permanent hair loss.

Conclusion

A lot goes into taking proper care of your hair so you don’t become the victim of breakage, damage or loss. Stress, cheap hair products, and lack of proper hair regimens will add to the likelihood that your hair will become damaged. There are steps you can take to get your hair healthy again including limiting stressors, avoiding damaging chemicals in products, and adding a trim to your schedule every six months.

Jun 12

Why You Must Never Use Box Hair Dye Colours

Comparing hair colour from a professional hair salon to a box colour is not generally considered until the at home oops happens. When walking down the aisles of the store and seeing the multitude of brightly coloured styles on the boxes at an affordable price can be very tempting. Boxed hair dye is always sold at a cheaper price and this is a deciding factor for many people.

Unfortunately, those that fall for this ease of convenience for their wallet are also likely to fall prey to an absolute disaster-piece of a hair style when they are done. There are many reasons why you should forego boxed hair colours and visit a professional.

The DIY Trap

First and foremost, hair dye that comes from the local grocery store is full of nasty surprises. Boxed hair dye is cheap for several reasons:

  • Low quality dyes are sold at cheaper prices.
  • There are tons of chemicals and other hair-destroying additives:
    • Ammonia
    • PPDs
    • Nitro dyes
    • Metallic salts

Box dyes are considered to be progressive, but not in the good way. The metallic salts strip the hair, bind to the keratin, and allow a build up of pigment on the hair strand over time that will lead to severely damaged hair.

The Risks

Doing your hair colour alone at home can involve several risks. Even the most careful person can experience mishaps when using boxed hair dye. Some of these risks are that:

  • You can end up dyeing your hair, dyeing your skin, dyeing your clothes, and dyeing your bathroom. Consider yourself lucky if the dye doesn’t leave stains behind after the initial clean up.
  • You will miss. Even the most experienced and patient hair DIY veterans will miss spots or sections towards the back of their head. A professional gets a 360-degree view of the clients head and are trained to look for and treat common spots missed when flying solo.
  • Looking like you have tiger stripes or leopard prints is one of the biggest problems. When hair is not sectioned properly or saturated fully when doing it at home, the hair colours will look choppy and spotted.
  • You could end up with green/orange/ashen/gray hair resulting from an out-of-the-box dye job.
  • Box-dyed formulas are one size-fits all, and this isn’t necessarily true. Box dye only has one pre-measured mixture that can’t be tailored to fit one’s individual hair needs.
  • The results will not look the same as the person on the box. Although it may seem fairly cut and dry, box dyes will not do the job correctly and give you the desired effects that you see on the box. Box dyes will not differentiate between the individual and you will end up with a limp, matte looking finish.
  • Hair can be thin, thick, coarse, light, dark, colour-treated or chemically processed. No two people’s hair is exactly identical. A professional stylist is trained in how to customize the products for the individual client’s hair needs.
  • One of the biggest and most-feared risk is hair damage when bleaching or lightening at home.
    • The milder risks associated with this is having green or orange hair as a result.
    • The more detrimental risks include frizz, extreme damage, and eventually breakage.
    • Sometimes a full disintegration of the hair from follicle to end can occur where the hair will literally just crumble away from the scalp. This is truly terrifying when it happens to someone and is the biggest reason why bleaching or lightening of the hair should be done professionally for the best outcome.

Professionally Speaking

Professionals gauge their client’s hair needs by several factors. These factors will help the stylist decide how to approach a client’s hair colour:

  • Skin tone
  • Eye colour
  • Hair type
  • Current colour level
  • Hair porosity
  • Condition of hair
  • If it has ever been colour-treated before
  • If the client has allergies

Different formulas must be mixed accordingly to provide the right colour and appropriate coverage of hair. Sometimes it can be necessary for four or more formulas. Professional stylists understand how hair colours and levels work. They have the skills to achieve most hair colours and can fix most mistakes.

Professionals Have Higher Quality Products.

Professional hair colour does not contain near as many additives and does not contain metallic salts. Metallic salts are notorious for binding to the keratin in your hair, forever altering the strand and causing (at times) irreparable damage.

Some products will include mending formulas that will improve the quality of your hair after a colour done at the salon. The professionals have taken the time to learn about all the odds and ends of the chemistry of hair colour and the techniques needed to achieve their client’s preferred results.

The Dreaded Colour Correction

Colour correction services are used to lift pigments off of the hair, but if box dyes have been used and used often, it will make this more difficult, if not impossible to revert hair back to its more natural state. Just one application of cheap boxed hair dye can become an extremely expensive fix.

Boxed colours can be easily over-processed at home and this results in a darker than expected colour and damage to the hair. A professional will have to lighten  or change the level of the hair, using colour correction products. They may also need to use hair restoring products because leaving the hair damaged will cause split ends and extreme frizzing.

Conclusion

When considering between boxed and professional colour, it is important to weigh the pros and cons. Box colour is the bane of every hair stylist because colour corrections are more difficult, time consuming, and expensive, than starting from fresh in the professional salon environment. Cheap hair dyes contain additives and chemicals that can cause serious damage to the hair.

It is always best to seek a hair professional when desiring a change of hair colour so it is done correctly with minimal damage. Professionals are able to access high-quality products for their salon’s use and this is why the price tag for the salon is higher. You get what you pay for, so if the cost is what’s keeping you away from the salon, remember that having a dye job go wrong at home can cost even more.

Dec 01

Balayage The Hand-Painted Highlight

When it comes to getting your hair colored, there are a lot of options to choose from. When you have finally decided on a style you like, it is also wise for you to research which method you want your stylist to use when it comes to bringing your hair to the color you desire.

It is always best to bring visual examples of what you want your hair to look like, even if you do not know the name of the color or style. Chances are, your stylist will know it!

A lot of people really enjoy the carefree look of balayage hair. This hairstyle is akin to highlights, babylights, and lowlights. Balayage hair still looks great when it grows out, and every style done for each person is truly unique and individualized.

What is Balayage?

Balayage (pronounced BAH-LEE-AHGE) is a technique used to give highlights to the hair. It is a French-based word that comes from a word called “Balayer”, which means “to sweep”. Balayage refers to the method of the sweeping motion one makes when hand-painting or brushing a highlight hair-lightening product onto the hair.

With this method, highlights can be added to the hair in a freehand manner by brushing on the product by hand. The colorist can choose whether or not to separate the hair and how they want to do it. They can use foils or clips, but this is only to separate the highlights and prevent bleeding or spotting onto other pieces of hair that are not meant to be highlighted.

Generally, highlights are applied from root to tip and are usually wrapped in foil while they are being processed. Balayage is different from other methods of highlighting since less care is needed for the placement of the lightener. The painted areas are also not wrapped in foil to process. Because there are no fine lines and defined edges, balayage hair appears as a natural gradation from dark roots to lighter ends.

Balayage is a Way to Apply Hair Lightener or Color; Not Necessarily a Style

Balayage is a technique to apply hair lightening products or colors and can be used to create different end results. Some of these results may form contrasts that create portions of dark and light hair called ombrés and sombrés. While balayage might be done for parts of an ombré, an ombré is not specifically categorized as a balayage hairstyle.

Balayage Versus the Ombré and Sombré

There are two types of distinct multi-colored hair called ombré and sombré. Balayage is often compared to these two styles, although it is not necessarily the same because it is a way to apply hair lightener rather than and end result.

Ombré

An ombré has the last half section of hair lightened, often with the tips fully saturated in lightener. Balayage focuses on smaller, more subtle lines and piece placement, focusing on individual strands rather than sections.

Balayage looks more natural like what is caused by spending summers in the sun. This is a stark contrast from other highlighting methods that might be more pronounced and defined. Because there are no fine lines and defined edges, balayage hair appears as a natural gradation from dark roots to lighter ends.

Sombré

A sombré is a softer and more natural look with a gradient rather than a cutoff point. Balayage is a good technique to employ to get a natural-looking sombré. The sombré does not have a definite contrast division line but rather flows in a natural gradient from dark to light.

Ombrés are typically available in any color and lift level while sombrés only provide one or two levels of lightening. Often these types of hairstyles are still incredibly noticeable when grown out.

Highlights, Babylights and Lowlights

Highlights and babylights can both be the outcome of balayage handiwork. Highlights that are separated and planned out for face-framing and hand-painting are called balayage. Babylights can be applied with balayage but are noted for their tiny presence within the root hair color. Babylights are wispier than highlights and neither of these types of hair-lightening styles are chunky or ultra defined.

Another trendy end result of using the balayage method is creating lowlights or darker pieces of hair. These compliment from an undertone rather than a bright one. Lowlights also define certain areas that can frame the face or blend in with the full body of hair to create the illusion of thicker hair. Lowlights are great for anyone who already has a lighter hair tone and wants to try something different without fully committing.

Subtly Sun-Kissed

Balayage offers a natural “sun-kissed” look that is more subtle when it starts to grow out. Rather than a full color or chunky ombrĂ©s, balayage will naturally define your face until it grows past your shoulders and then it looks like naturally lightened ends from being out in the sun. This look requires less maintenance than other highlights or coloration and rarely presents stark contrasts or chunky lines.

Genuinely Unique

There are no two styles that are exactly the same. Because of this, balayage hair is unique. Due to the fact that everyone’s hair has a different color, length, and texture, the final result will always be unique and individual. An authentic balayage must be performed by someone who has been educated in how to perform such a treatment.

Balayage is one of the most popular hair coloring methods because it is very easy to use and it gives you a great deal of flexibility to change up your look. When the education and certification for balayage became more accessible, the popularity of the technique exploded.

In regards to highlights, there are many ways to present them, but with balayage they can be conjured up as natural-looking, sun-kissed hair that is modestly flashy. By hand-painting pieces of hair with the right colors, the hairdresser is able to frame the face and other areas, so that the hair appears to be multidimensional. Choosing each individual strand of hair adds a personal touch to balayage hairstyles, and no two will be identical in the end.

Balayage  Experts

If it all sounds confusing, don’t worry. At Twisted Scissors Hair Design we are experts in Balayage. Contact Celine if you are interested in Balayage Hair and she will make it super simple to understand. You will be delighted with the results.

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