Thoughts...

I'm thinking of changing the direction, or even the "flavor"of this blog.  It's occurred to me that I use it mostly to complain about my work situation, instead of what I originally intended it to be for, which was to talk about hair and hair color.  So, I thought I'd change things up and see how it goes.

What I'd like to be know as is an "expert" in both hair color and fine hair.  "Why??" you might ask??  Well, hair color is my absolute PASSION.  I love to watch the chemical reactions I create, I love to learn from the mistakes I make (regularly, I might add), and I love to make people happy with the colors I create for them.  Fine hair....I have a head FULL of it.  I understand, better than a lot of hairdressers do (in my opinion, mind you) what fine hair is both capable of and not capable of.

So.  Let's talk about fine hair, shall we??

What makes hair "fine"??  The diameter of the strand is what makes it fine, visually.  What also makes it fine, scientifically, is this:  Most hair has a cuticle, a cortex, and a medulla.  The cuticle is the outer layer, if magnified, it looks scaly.  On virgin hair, it's compact, and difficult for chemicals to break through to do their job.  On chemically treated hair, the cuticle is slightly raised to extremely raised, depending on the condition of the hair.  Slightly raised is okay....extremely raised is NOT.  More on that in a bit...  The cortex is where the natural pigment of the hair resides.  It's also where the developer and artificial pigment in hair color need to get to to do their respective jobs.  The developer breaks up the natural pigment, making space for the artificial pigment to deposit.  The medulla is a straw-like structure, located at the very inside layer of the strand, giving it it's strength.  All hair has this, except fine hair.

When it comes to chemically working with hair, medium texture is what all the color and perm companies presume hair is, and therefore, their products are formulated to work best with.  However, most people don't have medium density hair.  Most people actually have fine hair, with a few that have coarse hair.

When  you have fine hair, you can have thin hair, medium, or "thick" hair.  What does this actually mean??  I'm referring to density...hairs per square inch.  Thin hair, or sparse hair means you can see the scalp, clearly, when the hair is dry.  I encounter quite a few people that refer to their hair as being "thin" when they really mean "fine"...so I make sure to explain the difference between the two.  Most people don't realize that they genuinely have a full head of hair.  With the right hair color, and the right hair cut, you can make someone with thin, fine hair look like they have a TON of hair.

How do I know this??  While my hair isn't thin, it is fine.  Baby fine, as a matter of fact.  Always has been.  When you hold a single strand of hair out from my head, you almost can't see it (even when it's flaming red).  My hair is quite soft when it's clean and without product in it to give it some "oomph".  The only time I never have any product in my hair is when I'm on a full-blown vacation and I'm not going anywhere.  Then I'll just wash and condition my hair, but do nothing else with it, just to give my poor hair a break.  Otherwise, at all times, there is some sort of product in my hair. 

The bonuses to fine hair:  Coloring it is fairly predictable.  When I want pale blonde highlights for my client, I know that I don't have to use anything stronger than 20 volume, even on color treated hair.  When I perm fine hair, it almost always "takes" tighter than the rod dictates the curl will be, which, in turn, means the perm will technically last a lot longer than in "average" hair.

Fine hair can be curly, wavy, or straight.  Even when fine hair greys, it may get curlier, but it's still fine....  When fine hair is dense, great care must be administered when you are chemically treating it.  Small partings must be used when applying color so all the hair is colored, and fine partings must also be used when wrapping for a perm, so all the hair takes a nice, firm curl.

When the cuticle is slightly raised, fine hair appears to be more voluminous.  Not necessarily a bad thing.  However, it's also too easy to push the hair into extremely raised cuticle very quickly, especially if the hair is over-processed.  This becomes a huge problem for fine-haired clients.



Truly, the only cure for over-processed hair is a hair cut.  You cannot "heal" hair, no matter how hard all the shampoo companies try to tell you different.  I will say, that the ones who claim to deposit protein and /or keratin back into the hair work quite well at smoothing the hair by filling in the gaps.  However, all the shampoos, conditioners, and styling products in the world will not cure your over-processed hair.  They are all just "band-aids" to cover up what was done.  I'm a big fan of recommending the smoothing products:  shampoo, conditioner, and styling products meant to smooth, or straighten hair.  They don't actually physically straighten the hair.  What they are is an acidic product meant to help counteract the issues alkaline products do to the hair.  All permanent hair color and permanent waves are alkaline...they open the cuticle.  To counteract this, using acidic products works the best.   What they actually do is help smooth the cuticle down, making the hair appear shiny, smoother and easier to handle.  I'll even recommend them to my curly haired clients...they offer so much control over the hair.

So, how's that for my first, official fine hair article??  Make any sense??  Or, should I just go back to complaining about my co-workers??