Suicide blonde - or how to survive severe hair damage.

I'm off to the salon tomorrow for my regular monthly root touch up (if I don't go every 4 weeks my hairdresser gets vicious!) and that put me in mind of putting together a blog on hair care for stressed out hair.

For a barnet that gets so much battering mine is holding together very well - my hairdresser is always surprised at how soft it is given the endless vintage styling - so here are my tips for taking care of damaged hair (whether blonde or not).

A good shampoo and conditioner:

This really is an essential - my recommendations are:

Goldwell Kerasilk:  This stuff really has been a revelation, especially the Ultra Rich Care shampoo and treatment conditioner.  I was introduced to this by the Nina of Nina’s Hair Parlour   and have been a convert ever since.  It smells wonderful and is the only shampoo that really makes my stressed locks smooth and silky.  I can’t see me changing products for a long time and, though pricey, as I only wash my hair once a week it lasts AGES!  I get mine at Sally’s.

Kerastase:  Also pricey but VERY, VERY good.  They also do a great range to protect your hair from the sun. This saved me on holiday. It comes highly recommended.

Tresemme:  Yes, Tresemme.   I have always been a big fan of Tresemme products (I suspect I’ll be raving about their Freeze Hold hairspray in a later blog post) and their range for coloured hair is excellent.  Also these products are SUPER affordable and VERY easily available – as they are stocked in most chemists including good old Boots and Superdrug.

Setting without tears

Hair setting and styling can be a damaging old business; heated tools, teasing the hair, tons of product...my tips are:

Avoid heat styling where possible – it really is much healthier and not that much harder to achieve a vintage look with traditional methods.  Personally I adore pin curls and perm rods (I get mine from the US via eBay - on the advice of fellow blonde Miss Lolita Haze at Vintage Starlet)  It did take me a while to get to grips (pardon the pun) with setting my hair cold but now t really is my preferred method.

Setting lotions – I’ve tried a few setting lotions in the past and my favourite is Lottabody – the classic purple kind, diluted 4:1 or so. It actually seems to do my hair good!  You can usually find this in ethnic hair shops or or eBay.

Maintaining your colour:

This bit really is for the blondes but a lot of ranges have similar products for other hair colours - I'm fairly sure Redken make a great shampoo for the redheads amongst us.

Blue shampoo – Personally I have the fear regarding brassy yellow hair (even though it suits me quite well – its my working class roots doncha-know!) and so finding something to tone it out is essential.  My favourite product for avoiding the brassies is Proclere Blue Frosting , again available from Sally's, but I have also heard great things about Lee Stafford's range at Boots.   I’ve already tried the hotshots which warm the scalp and these are fantastic for boosting the blue.

Rinses:  You can also buy products called "rinses" which last only one wash, for example La Roux – Fancifull.  Another recommendation from the wonderful Miss Lolita Haze.  This can be hard to get hold of in the UK and so I tend to rely on eBay.

Other advice and products:
And some final tips that work for me:

Silk pillowcase – this is the one thing I do not think I will ever change!  It has been positively miraculous!  As recommended to me by Billie, my colourist, a silk pillowcase really is a godsend for any kind of damaged hair.  Buying a pair of these has considerably slowed hair breakage at my temples and, as an added benefit, I wake up without pillow creases on my face.  Apparently in the long run sleeping on silk helps prevent wrinkles as their isn't so much "drag" against the skin.  We shall see!  I get mine from eBay but their are companies which specialise such as SilkSkin.  These babies seem pricey but they are 100% worth it and they last for ever!

Oh, and sleeping on silk makes me feel like a princess.  ;-)

Protein treatment – no matter how moisturising your conditioner is you should still regularly give your hair a protein treatment.  This helps prevent breakage, strengthening the protein in your hair ready for all that setting, teasing and brushing out that vintage sets require.

Don’t wash too often - dry and damaged hair needs gentle care and daily washing does it no good.

Trim regularly, even if you do it yourself!

 I hope I've given you some ideas for taking care of your ravaged barnet.  Let me know if you have any other hints and tips - I'm always glad for more ways to treat my hair.

xxx

Good Hair Days - recent vintage hair fun

Hello lovelies!

I just wanted to let you know what I got up to on my three days off this week. 

As some of you know I’m devoted to my bottle blonde hair – it’s my main beauty extravagance and though I keep thinking I really should try a cheaper alternative (a different salon, an easier to maintain colour...whaddeva), I just can’t break my blonde habit.  The evil dealer in this tale of addiction and woe is Billie Crago – colourist at my favourite salon, The Chapel, in Islington.  She is just too good and has recently taken my hair from Kelly Osborne grey to Mrs Slocombe pink and back to a lovely creamy blonde – which, to my chagrin, suits me much better.

Billie and her business partner Georgia set up the salon in 2007 (though I was a customer of Billie’s at her previous place of employment ) and the place has gone from strength to strength since, winning multiple awards.  The salon is based in Islington, on the Sadlers Wells side of Angel station, and is an absolute haven of tranquillity.  It has been designed to feel calm and airy – it really is a huge space - being on the site of a former pub – and even when busy the place feels spacious.  

Well, last time I was in getting my roots touched up and working my way through a few glasses of the house red, ahem, Billie asked if I’d be willing to be a hair model for their next training session on vintage hair.  Of course, I accepted, but I had to point out that I’d been cutting my own hair for the past year and that it might not be ideal for her to play with.  Well, bless the angel, she only went and offered me a free cut into the bargain (a benefit of being a long standing client) and lo and behold that where I ended up on Tuesday morning. 

Ironically, that morning I got up and styled my uncurled hair into probably my most successful quick victory rolls to date.  I really didn’t want anyone touching these magnificent beasts but hey – I’d promised...

The cut:

I took along my diagram of the middy cut (a little history to come) and asked the lovely stylist, Lucinda, to cut mine into the longest version of it she could manage with what hair I had.  Being a bit of a vintage fan Lucinda understood what I wanted straight away and she did a fine job, I must say.  Though I love cutting it myself it is nice to have a pro do it occasionally, I felt lighter afterwards!  Here is the cut in its unstyled state (scuse the tired face, its been a long, slow day at work here and I don't wear foundation in the week).

The middy is really the classic 1940's cut, you will see it referenced all over vintage sites and there is a whole thread devoted to at it on the Fedora Lounge.  In essence its heavily layered, which allows the curls to fully billow.  I managed to get hold of a scan of a certain famous vintage hair book by Daniela Turudich and so took in the pages from that.  I think mine would count as a middy plus (4 1/2 inches all over with an elongated U shape at the back).

I have yet to style it myself but that’s tonight's project and a future post!

The styling:

So, back I trotted on Thursday all ready to be thoroughly fiddled with (ooerr!) Unfortunately however, I’d made a bit of an error, and hadn’t managed to wash all the oil from Wednesdays effective, but very painful, massage from the back of my hair so poor Billie had to work around that.

In any case, she decided she didn’t want to do hair up, as everyone else was going along those lines with their models, but instead wanted to try and recreate a fingerwaved look with a curling iron.

With the help of a super hot curling iron and about 10 litres of Redken spray starch (yes, spray starch) we manage to coax my recalcitrant barnet into this wonder of wonders.  I’d have been quite happy to leave the salon like this but I think Billie wanted her clips back...

So, after it was left to cool for around 10 minutes it was taken down and gently brushed into shape.  We went for a sort of pageboy look with soft waves at the front and a little kisscurl.  Sadly the photos don’t really do it justice but I can assure you it looked lovely and I got lots of nice comments on the way home.

It was a really enjoyable day and the updos the Chapel team were putting together were incredible – sorry I didn’t get pics of those, I was being fluffed at the time.  There were lots of great victory rolls, rolls at the neck and a couple of quite spectacular Mad Men style dos.  Such a talented team.

I’m back again for my root touch up next week, I think they should give me my own chair.

I can’t recommend this salon enough – they really are wonderful.

Oh, AND you get a Tunnocks teacake.  <3 <3 <3