Changing Your Hair Habits in a Recession

Featured in the AllVoices.com 


Dayna Cakebread, master Stylist and former salon owner caters to business and professional women, and has noticed trends in how women change — or should change — their beauty habits during this and other times of recession.

“I am finding that my clients are willing to pay top dollar, even in this recession. Now more than ever women tell me they want to feel confident in their profession and personal lives. My clients are willing to pay top dollar for a haircut because it lasts six to eight weeks, because I teach them how to style their own hair at home, and because I arm them with products that will keep their hair healthy and manageable.”

She is also seeing that during these tough economic times women are not to settling for a less skilled hair stylist or low-end products, instead they are spending smarter. For instance:

* The cut: Find a stylist who can give you a cut with movement, and who will remove the heaviness so the cut can grow down rather than out, lasting for eight weeks or more.

* Color: Keep your highlights away from the part line so they last longer and don’t look so grown out. Spend less by doing partial touchups twice between full all-over color jobs. If you have some gray hair and are feeling drab, boost your color with a demi-permanent product that colors the gray more as highlighting does, and fades gently, leaving no grow-out line.

* Between salon visits: Find a hairdresser who is willing to coach you on how to style you own hair at home. Bring your own brushes and styling tools to this session. Using the wrong tools can cause flyaway hair and frizziness.

* Hair wellness. Just as a healthy patient needs less time in the doctor’s office, healthy hair needs less repair time at the salon. Cheap shampoo can leave the hair over-washed and thirsty for moisture. Cheap conditioner often has wax fillers that will leave you with dull, dehydrated, flat-looking hair.

* Buy high-quality hair care products from a stylist who understands what the ingredients listed on the label actually are and do. Consult about hair that is thinning on the ends, dry and crunchy, dehydrated, split, dull and flat, or breaking.

Quick tips:

* Save both money and your hair by washing every other day rather than daily. Rinse only on the days between washing. Hair closest to the scalp gets natural nutrients from scalp oils. When using conditioner, concentrate you efforts from mid-shaft to the ends.

* Avoid blow dryer damage by using the warm rather than the hot setting. Let air flow move from the scalp to the ends of the hair; this will help the cuticle close and will protect inside moisture. The hair will feel smoother.

* If you have long hair past your shoulders, protect the ends by by sleeping with your hair in a twist. Place the ends up under the bun close to your scalp oils. Your pillow case can absorb the oil from loose hair and leave it unprotected the next day.