Setting The Ladies’ Straight: The Truth About Hair Tools

Recently at a ladies’ getaway weekend I had the opportunity to talk about hair styles with my girlfriends and then witness the transformation between day and night time hair styles. It was very interesting to learn that some of the ladies I was with, didn’t believe in using their hair tools for daily use, only for going out at night, or for special occasions. I was shocked, because I use my hair straightener every day.

When I asked why they saved their hair irons and curling irons only for special occasions, there were two main answers: 1) they thought that frequent use of their tools would damage their hair, and 2) they thought it was special if they reserved the looks that hair tools gave them for nights out.

I argued against both of these points, and I’ll share them with you as well because I’m pretty sure they’re common misconceptions.

The first point, that hair tools will damage your hair if you use them daily, is absolutely false, unless of course you are using cheap, low quality hair tools and if this is the case, you need to value yourself and your hair much more. High quality, professional quality hair tools will not damage your hair if you use them frequently. In fact, ceramic hair tools infuse your hair with moisture giving it a shiny, healthy look and if you choose hair tools with tourmaline, the negative ions will seal each hair cuticle allowing your hair to lay flat against your head, protecting it from damage and a bad case of the frizzies.

If you do use a low quality, inexpensive hair tool that uses metal plates or a metal barrel, you may burn your hair because there are hot spots, or snag or pull your hair causing it to rip and tear. So the answer to this question is, if you use a good quality, ceramic hair tool, you will not damage your hair, even if you style it everyday.

For the second argument, that they wanted to save their special hair looks for night time or going out, I have to argue. Hair tools are great at creating both day time looks and fancier and more sophisticated evening looks. Just because you’re headed to the office, or driving your kids to school, should you look as if you don’t care about yourself? Absolutely not! Every day should be an occasion and an excuse to do your hair. Obviously, if you want to keep it simple during the day, use your straightener to flatten your hair out and give it a sleek look. When it’s time to go out for that special date, or a nice dinner, take your straightener and give yourself a few sassy curls, or some flips out for the ends of your hair. You can use your hair tools to create versatile looks that are good for both day and night.

In my opinion, if you are going to invest in a professional hair iron or curling iron, get your use out of it. Use it every day and experiment with some fabulous styles for when you go out at night or for that special dinner with your husband. Everyone deserves to look fabulous every day!

Use Hair Clippers At Home To Keep Him Groomed

If you are like most women, you probably have your own arsenal of hair styling tools. You may have a hair straightener, a hair dryer and a curling iron. These are all popular tools that are extremely useful for creating beautiful hair styles. If you look over on your husband’s side of the bathroom counter, what type of hair tools does he have? For some men, they may have their own hair dryer, but often that is it.

It’s true, that for most men they don’t tend to need a lot of hair tools or styling products, for them getting ready in the morning is a simple affair that doesn’t usually take very long. Trips to the hair stylist or barber are short, and fairly simple affairs and they usually involve clippers.

If you want to help your man maintain that clean and polished look that he has right after he gets home from a hair cut, you should make the small investment in a pair of quality hair clippers. It’s easy and fast to keep your guy looking great with this simple tool. Even between hair cuts, your man might need a little bit of clean up around his neck, under and around the ears, and his side burns.

The great thing about using hair clippers is that they don’t require a lot of training before you use them. Choose a pair that comes with an adjustable guard so you can choose the length that you want to cut down to. Some guys want to get rid of their neck hair right down to the skin, but what if you’re trimming a beard? You’ll need to set the guides so that all of the beard hair is the same length.

One of the popular styles for men’s hair right now, is to simply shave the hair off. If you don’t want your guy to have to spend money at the salon to simply shear his head, you can quickly and easily do this at home. With a set of clippers, not only can you shave his head down to bare, you can also adjust it for different lengths if he’s not ready to go completely bald. And once you get practiced at shaving his head, try a gentle transition around his ears and neck by adjusting the length guides as you go.

Clippers are a great way to keep your son’s hair under control as well. If you need to do a quick touch up on your child before school pictures, having a pair of clippers in your bathroom is perfect. Quick and easy clean ups are a snap when you have the right tool and your child will never have to leave the house looking messy or scruffy again.

Depending on your preference you can find clippers that run on batteries, that use a charger so they are cordless, or some clippers that you plug in. They come in different weights and sizes, so it’s important to find one that is comfortable for you to use.

Plan Ahead For Great Vacation Hair

Do you have a vacation planned? Maybe you’re trying to get away from your cold winter at home or you just need a break from every day life? Whatever your reason for getting away, that’s great! Everyone needs a vacation once in awhile, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t want your hair to look great while you’re away.

When it comes to packing your regular hair tools and styling supplies while you are on vacation, you might be overwhelmed and not really sure where to begin. If you are like a lot of women, you probably have a drawer full of styling tools and equipment and you may not want to take them all with you when you travel.

The first thing you need to decide is what you want your hair to look like while you are away. If you are going to an all inclusive beach club and are going to be spending most of your time by the pool or by the beach you probably don’t need to bother with straightening your hair or curling your hair everyday. I mean why spend precious vacation minutes styling your hair when it is only going to be ruined the minute you jump into the pool? So instead, leave the straightener behind and try a different technique. If you hair is naturally curly, go with it. In fact, the extra humidity of tropical locations will enhance your curls so pack some mouse or gel and scrunch them up.

If you don’t want your curls to become unruly, treat yourself to some new hair accessories and get some headbands, barrettes and pony tail holders to keep your hair off your face and looking stylish.

Of course, you may be traveling somewhere where you want to look great all the time. In that case, you will have to pack your hair tools. But maybe you don’t need to pack everything? Depending on how long you are going to be gone, it might be okay to only pack your hair straightener. In fact, your hair iron is the most versatile hair tool there is, so if you want straight hair one day, loose sexy curls the next day, and a sleek look with flirty flips on the ends, you can achieve all of that with only one hair tool.

Depending on where you are traveling and staying there may be a hair dryer available to you in your hotel room. But if you like knowing what type of hair dryer you are using, you should bring your own. A good travel dryer can save you a lot of time and energy drying your hair and will also fold down and fit in your suitcase easily.

Where ever you plan on escaping to this winter, you can look stylish and fantastic, it just requires a little bit of planning on your part. Remember, your hair should be a secondary consideration when you’re on holidays. Your primary concern should be having a great time and enjoying your time away.

Everyone Has Time To Straighten

All too often I hear the excuse of, “But I don’t have enough time to style my hair every day.” Or, “Using hair tools takes too much time.” And to all those people who say that, I have one word to say to you…”Bologna.” It’s simply not true that styling your hair with hair tools takes too much time. And people who say that are generally people who have not ever bothered to use a hair straightener or curling iron.

I have a simple question for all of those who say that getting ready to face the day by using hair tools takes too much time, “Have you ever tried them?” For most people, the answer will be no. It’s the simple perception that hair tools take more time than simply air drying or blow drying your hair in the morning.

There are a few things that you can do to speed up your morning routine if you are truly short on time, or simply like to sleep in. I have a good friend who has very thick hair, so she washes it at night instead of the morning. This way, she simply has to get up in the morning, and run her hair straightener through it and she doesn’t need to take the extra time to dry her hair with a hair dryer every day.

This brings me to another point. Using a hair straightener is extremely easy, and you can accomplish a beautiful sleek style in only minutes. Professional hair straighteners heat up in seconds, not minutes so you don’t need to wait around waiting for your tool to come to the appropriate temperature. Be sure you choose a hair iron that uses ceramic plates because ceramic retains heat extremely well which means that you don’t have to worry about the straightener losing heat during your styling. You also don’t have to worry about hot spots throughout the plates that will burn your hair. If you really want to speed up your styling, look for a hair straightener with tourmaline. Tourmaline is a natural source of negative ions which infuse the hair locking in moisture, and creating shine. Also, tourmaline helps to dry the hair from the inside – out which means it styles much quicker.

If you blow dry your hair every morning before styling, choose an ionic hair dryer because the negative ions in these dryers works the same way – drying the hair from the inside – out, so your hair dries up to 65% faster which means you are out of the door and ready to go much faster.

When it comes to using your hair straightener, they are extremely simple to use. Simple section your hair, and pull the iron down each section. Depending on the length and thickness of your hair, you should be able to have it completely straightened in between five to ten minutes. And you get faster as you get practice.

So for everybody who says that they don’t have time every morning to use a hair straightener on their hair, I have only one thing to say. “You don’t have time not to use a straightener.” These are the ultimate time saving tools. Plus, you’ll leave the house looking fantastic!

Love What You Have

Hair styles change so quickly, that it’s hard to keep up with what is currently in style and what’s out of style. It generally depends what hot celebrity wore her hair in a certain way on the red carpet at the latest awards show. But what doesn’t go out of style or change with any frequency is the natural hair that you were born with. Sure, it’s easy to say that you would like a different type of hair. After all, we all seem to want what we don’t have. But, it’s much more effective and better for your self esteem if you learn to embrace what you were born with and learn how to love it.

For better or worse, we were all born with a certain type of hair. Some of us have naturally curly hair, while others have bone straight hair. It seems that we are always yearning for what we don’t have. And sure, it’s great to grab your hair tools and mix it up a little bit giving your normally curly hair a straight look, but what’s wrong with your hair every day looking the way nature intended it? Nothing.

I believe that you should never wear your hair the same every day. After all, that gets boring and isn’t it more exciting to keep people guessing and wondering what you’re going to do? But the first thing you need to do is love the hair you have. Even if it’s not the style that you would have given yourself had you been handing out the hair styles, it’s your hair and you’re stuck with it. So if you have naturally curly hair, instead of using your hair straightener every day, why not wear it curly some of the time? After all, those of us with straight hair will go green with envy for your beautiful natural curls.

Likewise, if you have straight hair, you don’t have to spend all that time in front of the mirror with your curling iron creating luscious waves, because straight hair is sexy too.

When it comes to the thickness of your hair that is something that you can’t really do much about. Those people born with thin hair often bemoan the fact that they want more body in their hair, and would love to have it thicker. But think about the other side of that. If you have thick hair, it can take more than twice as long to blow dry it, it becomes tangled, and often it will look puffy because there’s so much of it. Never mind how hard it can be to pull it back into a simple pony tail. There are always two sides to everything, and as women, we often forget to look at what we have and appreciate it. It’s too easy to covet something that we don’t have.

Hair tools are great, and I think that everyone should have a professional hair straightener and curling iron in their arsenal of styling tools, because they give us options. We can magically turn our naturally curly hair into a sleek style one day and wear it free and curly the next day. But no matter what type of hair tool you have, and what style you create, learn to love what nature gave you because you are the only one with hair like yours.

No Need to Damage Your Hair While Excercising

Does exercise affect the quality of your hair? This may seem like a strange question, but it can be true, and a very real concern for people who are affected by this particular problem.

I recently had a friend of mine tell me that she had to quit swimming laps in the pool, an exercise that she really enjoys because it was affecting her hair. My friend was experiencing dryness, breakage and discoloration of her hair because of the chemicals in the pool and she didn’t want to use her usual hair tools to style her hair for fear of further damage.  Her solution to the problem was simply to quit swimming, however there are other options, and your solution does not need to be quite so dramatic.

If your favorite exercise option is swimming, there are defiantly things that you can do to protect your hair so you can continue to enjoy your favorite sport. The first thing you should do is wear a swim cap. These latex or rubber caps won’t keep out all the water from reaching your hair; however they dramatically reduce the exposure that your hair has to harmful chemicals in the pool. Plus, the swim cap also has the added benefit of keeping the strap of your goggles away from your hair which can cause tearing and ripping.

When you get out of the pool the very first thing you should do is to rinse your hair. Be sure that you get as much of the pool water off your body and out of your hair. Always follow this with a deep leave in conditioner that can sit on your hair, saturating it with the conditioning. And remember, never brush wet hair. Always use a wide toothed comb to release tangles when your hair is wet. Use an ionic hair dryer to dry your hair with the least amount of damage. By following these few simple tips, you shouldn’t have to worry about excessive damage to your hair from swimming.

Other people experience damage to their hair from exercising because they tend to pull hair up in a pony tail for most activities. If you use the wrong type of pony tail holder, there could be tearing and ripping of your hair, and often you will see damage at the crown of the head, right where a pony tail would be.

As an alternative to a pony tail, try braiding your hair for exercise. This can be much gentler on your hair, reducing the pressure from the elastic bands. Or, if your hair is short enough, pull it back with a head band to keep it out of your face? If a pony tail is your only option, be sure to choose the right type of elastic. No-tear elastic that is completely rubberized is a good choice. These bands do not have metal pieces that can cause snapping. Also, look for cloth covered elastics, these will be soft on your hair. When you are done exercising, be sure to gently remove the elastic and comb out your hair.

If you are exercising in the hot summer sun, it is a good idea to wear a hat to protect your tresses from sun damage. The sun can fade out your hair and make it dry and brittle, so cover up.

There is no reason that you cannot enjoy your favorite sport or activity without causing damage to your hair, you simply need to think ahead and perhaps take a few extra precautions. When you’re done working out, you can grab your hair straightener and style your hair as you normally would, confidant that you’re looking your best every day.

Four Simple Tips to Healthy Hair

Have you ever looked at a friend or coworker and wondered how they got such healthy looking hair? No matter what you seem to do to your hair, you can’t get it to look as luscious, soft and healthy. It can be frustrating if you think you are doing all of the right things to treat your hair well only to suffer from continual split ends, breakage and dry frizzy hair. But don’t worry; healthy hair isn’t only for a select few. Everyone can have healthy looking hair, and it isn’t that hard to achieve. With only a few simple steps, your hair will soon be touch ably soft too.

1) Take a look at your diet and water consumption. In order to have healthy hair, you must be healthy and if you are filling your body with all sorts of bad food, your hair will reflect that as well. Be sure you are eating from the four major food groups, getting enough fruits and vegetables as well as lean meats.

Water is also an essential component for good health and amazing looking hair. You may have heard the rule that you should drink at least eight, 8oz glasses of water a day, and while this is a great starting point, a better rule is to drink half your body weight in ounces every day. For example, if you want 150 pounds, you should be drinking at least 75 ounces of water everyday.

2) You also may want to consider taking supplements in order to boast your health and the health of your hair. The B-6 vitamins are a great aid in boosting healthy hair as well as folic acid, vitamin C and minerals including zinc, magnesium, sulfur and silica. A good multi-vitamin may be all you need to improve the health of your hair.

3) Be sure you always use professional hair tools on your hair. It is easy to convince yourself that you are saving yourself money by buying the cheaper hair straightener or curling iron at Wal-Mart, but you are not doing your hair any favors at all. A good hair straightener should have ceramic plates because hair irons with ceramic plates are quality heat conductors which mean that there won’t be any hot spots on your iron that could lead to burning your hair. Also, ceramic infuses the hair with moisture so you aren’t drying your hair while you style. If you really want to improve the look of your hair, choose a hair straightener with tourmaline. Tourmaline produces negative ions that infuse your hair locking in natural oils and moisture as well as sealing the cuticle causing the hair to lay flat which gives your hair a smooth and healthy look. The right hair tools will actually improve the look and health of your hair.

4)  Use the right products for your hair type. If you have colored or treated hair, be sure that you use shampoo and conditioner that provides extra moisture while not damaging the color. Likewise, if your hair is oily, there are products that will help you control that while not drying out the hair. Choose your products appropriately.

While these are only a few tips to help you achieve healthy and beautiful hair, they will get you started on looking your best and having the gorgeous and touchable hair that makes all your friends envious.

Grab Some Hair Tools and Try Something Different.

When you get ready in the morning, do you do the same old thing every day? Are you sick of the same hair style? We are creatures of habit and when something becomes a habit or a routine, it becomes all too easy to fall into a rut. And that is just as true for our hair styles than anything else in life. If you are used to wearing your naturally straight hair down, without doing much too it, you will likely do that everyday. Likewise, if you always pull your hair into a pony tail, it becomes all too easy to do that everyday.

Well, it’s time for a change. There is no reason that you have to do the same thing with your hair all the time. Just because you always wear your hair one way does not mean that you have to stay that way. Mix it up. Many women use the excuse that “It’s too hard to try something new.” Or, “I don’t have time in the morning to do anything different.” Those excuses don’t hold any water, because there are a lot of easy and quick ways to change things up. All you need are the right tools.

With a hair straightener, you can achieve a wide variety of new and interesting styles and it doesn’t have to take much time at all. For example, if you normally wear your hair straight, take your hair straightener and try flipping up the ends of your hair, or curling the ends under slightly to make an easy bob style. Just this one simple change, will give you a completely different look and it doesn’t take any longer than just straightening your hair would.

If you want to try something that offers a little more change, take your hair straightener and use it to create loose, waves and curls. This look is very easy to achieve and doesn’t take long at all to create a completely different look on days you want to change it up.

Of course if you have naturally curly hair, you can change it up by using a hair straightener with ceramic plates to straighten your hair. Ceramic plates are the best choice because they use far infrared heat to infuse your hair with moisture, locking in the moisture in the hair, so your hair doesn’t look frizzy or damaged. It’s quick and easy to straighten your hair if you have the right iron at your disposal.

Beautiful hair styles can also be created by using a mixture of curls and straight hair. Consider putting your hair in a half pony tail and using your hair straightener or curling iron to curl the hair that has been pulled up.

There are a lot of options available to you that don’t need to take a great deal of time. The best thing to do is to experiment and try out a number of different looks. After all, there is no reason your hair needs to look the same everyday. In fact, you may discover that you like it a lot better a different way.

Protect Yourself From Winter Hair

It’s January and winter is in full swing with record snow falls and cold temperatures all across North America. When you get ready to get outside, you always think to bundle up, covering your hands and face, but what about your hair? That’s right. Your hair needs to be protected from the cold winter weather too.

If you forget to care for your hair in the winter, you will notice that it becomes drier, more damaged, flyaway and harder to style. Winter hair. Winter hair happens because there is often less moisture in the air during the colder months, and without moisture, your hair will eventually become stripped of the essential moisture that it needs to keep looking good. Besides the cold weather outside, once you get inside, you’re faced with heaters running full blast, blowing dry stale air into the environment which just adds to the dryness in your hair.

So what can you do to protect your hair this winter? There are a few easy steps you can take to keep your hair looking its best despite the temperature outside. The first thing you need to do is to protect your hair. Just as you put gloves on your hands, wrap your hair in a scarf or hat to keep it protected from the wind and the harsh elements. It is important to be sure that while it’s protecting your hair, you don’t want it to be so tight that it restricts circulation to your scalp which will only cause damage as well.

Even if you don’t use conditioner on a regular basis, it’s important to use it everyday during the winter months. If you are worried about the conditioner weighing down your hair, or causing your hair to become greasy, apply only to the ends of your hair that are most likely to be affected by the wind.

Be sure to never go outside with wet hair. Despite increasing the risk that you will get sick, you could cause major damage to your hair. If your hair freezes, it can easily break and become damaged. Also, you will lose valuable moisture by taking your hair outside while it’s still wet.

Try to limit the amount of exposure you have to heat styling tools that don’t lock in moisture. By this, I mean hair styling tools that use heat to dry the hair and do not retain moisture. However, this does not limit you to not styling your hair at all. There are hair styling tools on the market that will actually benefit your hair because they lock in moisture instead of stripping your hair of it.

Look for ionic hair dryers that utilize negative ions to infuse your hair, locking in the necessary moisture and natural oils. These hair dryers also dry your hair up to 65% faster than other dryers which means you aren’t exposing your hair to as much heat. Hair straighteners that use ceramic plates or titanium plates are also a good idea because they seal in natural oils and moisture so your hair will not become dry and brittle. Hair irons with tourmaline are especially good because the tourmaline creates negative ions that seal the cuticle, so that hair is protected and healthy looking.

By taking the proper precautions and using the correct hair tools this winter, you don’t need to suffer from winter hair this year. Instead you will have luscious looking hair all year long.

Resolve To Have Style In 2009!

So it’s a new year, and if you’re like most people, you probably have a New Years resolution or two. And if you are like most people, you may have already broken those resolutions by now, the first week of January. So why not make a resolution that you can actually keep? Make the New Years resolution that you are going to pay more attention to your style and give your hair the treatment that it deserves.

Too many people take their hair for granted. Giving it a quick brush in the morning, or throwing it up in a pony tail. But your hair can be so much more, and it should be. So why not utilize your hair to its full potential and use it to really show off your style. Your hair is actually an extension of yourself, and with a little bit of care and the right hair styling tools, you will easily be able to create whatever styles reflect your personality.

The first thing you need to do is to be sure that your hair is in optimal condition. And if you’ve been neglecting your hair for awhile, you may need a little bit of work in this area. The first step would be to visit a hair stylist for a trim and a little shaping. Tell them what you are trying to achieve and a good stylist will be able to create that for you. And if you don’t know what you want to achieve with your hair, simply let them know a little bit about your personality and your lifestyle and let them take it from there.

Once your hair has been trimmed and you’re ready to go, you will need to invest in a good hair straightener. The hair straightener is the way to go if you are new to hair styling because you don’t need a full drawer of styling implements to get started. This one hair iron should do the trick.

If your hair is curly or has a natural wave, you can use the hair iron to straighten it for a complete new look. But don’t stop there. You can also use the hair straightener to create flips and tucks with the ends of your hair, giving it a bit of style and pizzazz.

If you already have straight hair, use the hair straightener to add curls and waves to your hair giving it volume. Yes, you can curl your hair with a hair straightener!

It is important however when you are choosing a hair straightener to choose one that is going to treat your hair well. Because what’s the point trying to achieve beautiful styles when you’re just causing damage to your hair? And if you don’t pick the right hair straightener, that’s exactly what you will be doing. Look for a hair iron with tourmaline. Tourmaline works by infusing your hair with negative ions that actually seal the hair cuticle locking in natural oils and moisture so your hair looks and feels healthier and shiner than ever before.

You should also look for a ceramic plate hair straighter, or a titanium plate hair straighter because these plate types are the best for your hair providing you with the proper heat distribution, without snagging or pulling your hair.

So this year, make a New Years resolution that you will actually keep and invest some time and effort into your own personal style.

Next Page »