Monday, November 7, 2011

So on the way to Oklahoma my mom sat next to this very nice man named Harvey.  Turns out he's been a high fashion hairstylist most of his career and has styled everyone's hair from Tom Cruise to front cover magazine models.  He was so intriguing to talk to that I just had to have him touch up my roots.  Where was the camera when I needed one?!  He was the SWEETEST man ever.

He worked on developing hair extensions in the 80's on white women.  See, African Americans have been weaving in extensions for a long time.  But nothing could hold the extension in a white woman's fine hair.  So he worked on developing the glue with a man from Chicago and started putting them in white women's hair.  No one seemed to care for the idea.  He worked on a lot of thinning anorexic hair and cancer patients.  After a few years it totally took off.  He's been all over to help manufacturing plants process the hair correctly and he was at one point, one of the only hair stylists who knew anything about hair extensions.  His stories were fascinating.

Anyway.  He shared with me one secret that I thought you should all know.

My entire life I have heard -from EVERY SINGLE hairstylist- that if you are growing your hair out, you need to get it trimmed every SIX weeks.  Well my cute friend Harvey told me this is a huge fallacy.  Getting it cut every six weeks is pertinent to those who have short hair, to help keep the shape.  He said the SOONEST he would get it cut is every 12 weeks.  Even then, he'd wait longer.  

This is his reason: the hair end is going to split 1/4 of an inch over a six week period.  At 12 weeks it's still going to be a 1/4 of an inch.  At 15 weeks, still a 1/4 of an inch.  He said to save your money on frequent hair cuts and spend it on product.  So for those of you wanting to grow your hair out- try going 3 or 4 months.  See what your stylist says.  I can't offer any personal advise on this because I got mine trimmed every six weeks when I was growing my hair out.  Took forever, but it did produce results.  If it were me, I'd trust my good ole' friend Harvey!  

Have a stylist diagnose what products your hair needs.  Some stylists aren't able to do this- it doesn't mean they aren't great stylists.  But find one that will.  One that knows and understands different ingredients in different products and how they work.  Because everyone needs something different and what works for my hair may not be what will work for yours.

I have one more awesome tip for those who color their hair... you'll have to check back to find out what it is!

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