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Here's why: I spent several hours this month camped out in the styling lab at Hair by Bennie & Friends on Frankfort Avenue, along with a couple of dozen readers of our Her Scene magazine. (The team at Bennie's had agreed to plan a little VIP workshop for readers who had called for an appointment.) We had a table full of hors d'oeuvres, some drinks and carte blanche to direct our hair-care or styling questions to Kelly Kraemer, the senior stylist of the award-winning salon.
Kelly ran this little beauty brain trust from a stage where she had a full arsenal of ready-to-go styling tools and a chair and cape just waiting for willing candidates. It didn't take long for us to start firing away with our styling dilemmas -- big, small and medium.
The goal, according to Bennie Pollard, the owner/stylist who kicked off the evening, was to give us the kind of practical, real-world solutions that would make a difference in the shower and at the vanity tomorrow morning. While Bennie didn't promise we'd achieve styling perfection, he assured us we'd all leave with advice that could improve our hair immediately.
And, more important, Kelly did a very good job of demonstrating and explaining the advice so it could be replicated in our own bathrooms.
Any one or two of their tips could be the change that makes all the difference for you tomorrow morning -- and all year.
LET YOUR HAIR TYPE DICTATE THE SIZE OF YOUR SHAMPOO DOLLOP
I knew that most American women use far too much shampoo, but I'd never heard that the amount that you pour into your hand should be determined by hair type.
"If you use too much, you can make your hair dry and flyaway, but if you use too little, you'll leave oils and styling residue," Kelly said. So here's your guide:
If you have fine hair: Use a dime to a nickel size.
If you have thick hair: Use a nickel to a quarter.
RETHINK 'LATHER, RINSE, REPEAT'
The key word, we were told, is "lather." "Oil prevents hair from lathering, so hair won't lather until it's clean," said Kelly.
In other words, if your hair lathers up into a full, frothy foam in the first washing, you're finished. If it doesn't, then, by all means, "repeat."
WRING BEFORE YOU CONDITION
This falls into the "why didn't I think of that before" category. Conditioner doesn't penetrate into soaking wet hair. "Hair can only absorb so much," Kelly explained, "so if it's full of water when you apply your conditioner, it won't absorb the conditioner."
Rectify the situation simply by squeezing your strands to remove excess water before you slather on conditioner. Your hair will be much softer, silkier and healthier as a result.
(And I'm sure you already know that you should only be conditioning where you need it -- which is near the ends for most of us, but all over for women with dry, coarse or damaged hair.)
GO A LITTLE CRAZY WITH SPRAY VOLUMIZER
Unlike mousses, creams, waxes and gels, it is virtually impossible to get diminished styling returns from adding a little more spray volumizer or thickener. "If you're trying to pump up your hair, you really want to go ahead and blast 20 to 30 spritzes of volumizer into it," said Kelly, who did just that while demonstrating on a reader.
"But you have to keep it moving. Spray from underneath, up and into the hair … and spray all over the head, in different sections." (Do this all before you blow-dry and after you towel-dry, of course.)
It looked like a lot of spritzing, but, boy, did it do the trick. And the stuff is invisible and flexible.
DON'T STYLE SOAKING-WET HAIR
"Your hair should be 98 percent dry before you even touch it with a brush," Kelly instructed. "Everything you do before that point is wasted energy because the hair won't hold a style."
In fact, if you use a brush from beginning to end, you're just increasing the risk of roughing up, breaking and damaging your hair. So stop that.
KNOW YOUR BRUSHES
You need to be using the right brush for your styling objective and hair needs. That would be: Large-barrel round brush for volume at the roots, boar bristle for shine and medium metal round brush for defining or creating waves and curls.
ADD VOLUME BY ELIMINATING YOUR PART
According to Kelly, precise, obvious parts have gone the way of the beehive. If you blow your hair back and forth in the front while you're styling, you can make that line disappear, however. And that means you'll have a little extra volume where most women need it most.
Said Kelly, "Having the strands bend back and forth in different directions creates lift at the crown, which looks more modern and generally more flattering."
PREPARE YOUR HAIR BEFORE YOU FLAT-IRON
Comb through your strands first. "Otherwise, it's like ironing clothes without smoothing them -- you just press the wrinkles in," Kelly said. "You'll get better, faster results if you smooth it with a comb."
THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO CREATE A CURL
We were all transfixed as we watched Kelly demonstrate how you can get completely different types of curls from two slightly different techniques. Here's the deal:
If you wrap a section of hair loosely around a flat iron and pull it slowly downward through your hair, you'll get soft, loose, natural-looking waves.
If you wrap it tightly around a curling iron and hold it there for a few seconds, you'll get perfect, bouncy corkscrews.
NATURAL CURLS NEED NO BRUSHING — OR TOUCHING
Some curly girls live by this rule, but if you don't, you probably should. "Curly hair frizzes when brushed," Kelly said. "So every woman with curly hair needs a blow-dryer with a diffuser and a built-in pick.
"Blow the hair section by section, holding the diffuser still until an area is dry. Then move onto the next section -- spraying each one with a shine-enhancing spray as you go. If you do that, you'll get great, defined curls and no frizz."
And keep a little spray-bottle of shine enhancer in your bag for late-day frizz fighting -- especially if it's snowing, sleeting or raining. |