Women Hair Style

Every woman has had this experience: You walk out of a top salon, having spent a good deal of money on a new cut and style, and you couldn't be more disappointed. Your hair is not at all what you expected it looks more suited to someone twice, or half, your age with absolutely different taste from your own!

I'm going to tell you here how to avoid that type of disappointment, how to communicate to a stylist what you want and equally, if not more, important how to select the stylist that's right for you.

Finding a stylist with a great reputation isn't hard. You can ask friends, relatives, associates at work; you can read magazines and newspapers and look for stylists who are called upon often by reporters for their professional opinions. You can even write to the beauty editor of a top national magazine to ask for names of one or two stylists considered the best in your area. But aside from reputation and technical ability, what most of us want is a stylist who has similar opinions about our hair as we do; even if we want a change in the look of our hair, we want the kind of change that is right for us.

How do you find out what a stylist is thinking before you get a haircut? Through a consultation. Just about every salon will be willing to grant you a consultation with a stylist, whether free or, more often, if the stylist has a national reputation, for a price. Even if the fee sounds high, pay it. A stylist may see you in short hair, and you may not want to part with your below shoulder locks. If so, it's better to find this out before the stylist takes the scissors in his or her hands. At a consultation, ask questions what type of style the stylist thinks would be most flattering to you, and why; what you can do to make it easier to style your hair at home; how often you'll need to trim your hair as well as to get a haircut; whether the stylist feels your hair color needs any help, or whether you might benefit from a body wave or perm; and how the stylist can help to improve your hair's condition. Be honest with yourself about your hair, your face, your appearance. If you bring photographs of styles you like, don't choose those that are completely opposite to what you have now. If you are five feet tall and have curly brown hair and deep set eyes, bringing a picture of a 6 foot tall blonde with stick straight hair and huge baby blue eyes is simply asking dressed, well groomed woman went to the beauty parlor once a week; today, we not only don't call them beauty parlors anymore, we don't go nearly as often. If your schedule doesn't allow for more than a cut and blow dry appointment every other month, then you won't want the kind of cut that needs continual fine tuning by a professional. If, on the other hand, your priority is always to have your hair looking its best and you will make time to get to the salon more often, then by all means let your stylist know. The same goes for hair color (which you'll be reading more about later in this chapter).

The "appropriateness" of a hairstyle. Even if we don't like it, we all have to admit that a woman who works for a Seventh Avenue clothing designer can probably get away with a cut that's a bit more trendy or avant garde than a corporate lawyer or investment banker. Still, that doesn't mean that a woman who works in "blue suit land" always has to have a conservative hairstyle. If you'd like the flexibility to have your hair look a little wilder on the weekends, then tell your stylist; today, a little mousse or gel and a blow dryer is all you need to change the look of your hair completely, if you know how. The best stylists will teach you how to change your hair when you want to, and will be sensitive to the demands of a career or lifestyle.

Your face shape, height, and features. The best looking women have hairstyles that fit with the proportion of their bodies and their features. While it isn't necessarily true that only a tall woman can wear long hair, how long your hair stays should be influenced by your height, as well as by your posture and the way you carry yourself. A good stylist will take all of this into account in discussing style options with a client.

Today, the look of a woman's hair is as much a matter of its condition as of its cut. And the first step in hair care is the choice of a proper shampoo. The ideal shampoo cleanses hair gently, removing dirt, bacteria, and surface oils without stripping hair of essential moisture. This last factor is especially important today, when most women no longer wash their hair once or twice a week but once or twice every day.

The basic categories of shampoos are determined by hair type dry, "normal," or oily. Recently, many hair care experts have stated that the last category, oily, is no longer applicable, as a woman who has oily hair and shampoos her hair every day would end up with dried out frizzies if she used a very strong oil stripping shampoo. Still, a woman who does a great deal of exercise and perspires heavily might want the extra cleansing power of a shampoo formulated for oily hair. Shampoo formulas that contain protein are especially common, and with good reason: Protein is a help to the appearance of damaged hair, which means hair that is frequently blowdried, colored, permed, or abused by the elements. Protein deposits on the surface of the hair shaft make hair stronger and more resilient, as well as more manageable. (This tendency of protein to deposit on the hair shaft can be a negative factor, however, leading to shampoo buildup; if this occurs, ask your stylist to recommend a stripping shampoo, which should be used no more often than once a month.