Thinning Hair - Stylist and Salon Newspapers

How to Care for Curly Hair
By Michelle Laxson and Rebekah Vigil
The popularity of straightening treatments
is on the rise, which is likely due to
the unfair reputation curly hair has for being
unmanageable.
We encourage stylists and naturally curly
clients to embrace curl, because when you are
armed with the proper care, cutting and styling
techniques, those spirals will inspire envy
in their straight-haired counterparts.
CARE – Curly hair is often drier than
straight hair because of the increased amount
of protein in the hair. Even products that help
increase moisture in the hair often dissipate
and disappear quickly. Always apply leave-in
conditioning products to curly hair when it is
very wet, almost dripping, immediately after
shampooing and conditioning.
Hair will soak in the product more effectively,
because the drier hair is, the quicker the
product will evaporate. A leave-in moisturizing
conditioner will also help define the curls
and decrease frizz and fluff. After applying a
leave-in conditioner, remember not to dry the
hair by wrapping it in a towel. Using a terry
cloth towel to dry the hair will create frizz,
because the hair follicles are open when the
hair is wet and they will grab onto the cloth
particles. Instead, flip upside down and comb
through the hair using your fingers.
When drying the hair with your fingers,
try not to alter the shape of the curls. Use
loose hands and loose pulling motions so you
do not pull the hair straight. Your goal is to
keep the hair in a natural formation so the hair
retains the shape of the curl. In addition, we
recommend having your clients sleep on silk
pillows rather than cotton. Cotton pillows will
create frizz in the hair, while silk material does
not attach to the curl and will help prevent it.
CUTTING – Cutting curly hair is
always more of a challenge because you have
to consider the texture of the hair and how
it rounds out, rather than just the shape you
want to achieve. When trying to create a shape
in curly hair, you need to have a cut inside a
cut. The cut needs to have two structures, the
exterior and the interior. The cuts can mirror
each other or be opposites, depending on what
you are trying to enhance and achieve. The cut
needs to have a disconnection to break up the
roundness, preventing the hair from turning
into a ball. Start with the exterior shape first,
and then move to the interior.
STYLING – Knowing how to style curly
hair properly is often the biggest challenge.
After combing the hair, make sure to re-wet
it because if you have combed the hair a lot,
the curls will get stringy during the drying
process. By re-wetting the hair, you will help
eradicate any parting or comb lines in the
memory of the hair.
Apply curl defining products in layers, and
work in sections so you get the full benefit of
the product. As you diffuse, make sure you
are squeezing hair in tight fists, which forces
product into the hair. Always keep the diffuser
on low heat and low air because higher heat
makes the hair look frizzy. This may take
longer, but the end result will be worth it. Try
to keep your hands and fingers off the hair and
let the diffuser do its job. As you get towards
the end of diffusing, turn the diffuser to cold
air to work in volume near the scalp.
Once you are finished diffusing, if the
curls are not as defined as you would like,
use a curl revitalizing product to revitalize
curls and decrease frizz. This product can be
reapplied throughout the day. If you are not
into tight, diffused curls, you can set the hair
while it is still wet by taking pieces of the hair
and curling it using your hands. This results in
calmer curls that are loose and manageable.
Perms were once all the rage, and much
like fashion, hairstyles are often cyclical.
Armed with these guidelines, you can throw
those straightening tools out the window and
help your clients go au naturale as curls begin
to make a comeback.
Michelle Laxson and Rebekah Vigil are Global Team Educators for Eufora Intl. For
more information visit www.eufora.net.
NEW! As of July 1, 2010 Washington State has begun licensing
Permanent Cosmetics. Get started in this fun, new and exciting
career path. Add Permanent Cosmetics as a great PROFESSIONAL
service to your business or start a new one today!
Mary Tanneberg is a TRAINER/member, Subject Matter Expert,
CPCP certified, and served 2 years on the national Board of Directors
for the SOCIETY OF PERMANENT COSMETIC PROFESSIONALS.
Treatments and Diverse Clients
Esthetic Endeavors
Judith Culp
The population base in the United States is
shifting as more cultures are merging.
Did you know that in 1990, the US
Census Bureau identified six races and 23
sub-types but just ten years later, in 2000 they
identified six races and 67 sub-types?
The world and our client base are changing.
So, why would this be of concern to us as
estheticians?
Consider this scenario: A client who
appears to be a Fitzpatrick III with a nice
summer tan comes into the clinic for an AHA
or BHA treatment. We do the treatment,
following all of the manufacturer’s suggested
guidelines and it seems to go well. The client
gets a little pink, but nothing out of the norm.
We do some extractions, a nice mask and check
the client out when the service is complete.
A few days later, the client comes back
into the clinic complaining about skin
discoloration. We note some brown areas
– post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Why
would the client, who is only a Fitzpatrick III,
hyperpigment? The answer lies in what we
did not know – the client, although fair, is of
mixed heritage, part Puerto Rican, and her
skin reacted like that of a higher Fitzpatrick.
The challenge to us as estheticians is in
the field of skin analysis. The subtle blends of
a client’s heritage may make their skin react
in a manner we do not expect when we are
performing services.
The Fitzpatrick scale was developed back
in 1975 and does not take clients with heritage
blends into consideration. It only describes
how skin will respond to UV exposure – inflammation,
or the lack of it or a tan. It does
not take into consideration two new areas that
medical and clinical professionals now need
information on: insult and injury.
While estheticians should not be causing
injury, we certainly want to be aware of how a
client heals. We also want to be aware of how
a client’s skin responds to what it perceives as
insult. What is the risk of post-inflammatory
hyperpigmentation?
The medical community is ahead on
this as aesthetic procedures make it critical
for dermatologists and plastic surgeons to be
able to identify client risk factors. Since Asian
skin can be very reactive, it is not surprising a
system called the Kawanda Skin Classification
system was one of the first to advance on the
Fitzpatrick Scale back in 1986. This system was
specifically developed to deal with Japanese
patients.
The next attempt at dealing with heritage
related risk factors was the Lancer Ethnicity
Scale developed in 1998. Lancer used the
Fitzpatrick scale and added ethnicity to it. The
Lancer scale has proven to be helpful to estheticians
as it brought out the issues of heritage
and better helped us identify how these clients
might respond.
Dr. Lancer’s research and development
triggered a flurry of research and new scales to
better attempt to deal with multiple cultures.
Each had a different approach. The Goldman
World Classification system deals with
burning, tanning and post-inflammatory
pigmentation.
The Willis and Earles scale is for those of
African only descent. It evaluates skin tone,
UV response and pigmentation. Another scale,
the Taylor Hyperpigmentation Scale, focuses
on dyschromia.
In 2006, the Roberts Skin Classification
System was released, using a complex sevenpoint
evaluation system to determine how the
client’s skin will probably respond to inflammation,
insult or injury. It makes use of the
Fitzpatrick Scale, the Glogau Scale of Photoaging,
a scale to evaluate tendency to pigmentary
issues, and a scale to evaluate risk of scarring.
While estheticians cannot use these in the
same manner in which a physician would, we
can still make use of the techniques. We can
take a complete client history, including standard
medical and lifestyle questions. We can
establish their Fitzpatrick and add questions
regarding ancestry to our questionnaire.
We want to do a thorough evaluation of the
skin through the magnifying light, observing
skin tone, texture and signs of photoaging. In
addition, we can ask the magic revealing question:
When you have a skin injury, does it go
from pink to red and then fade away OR does
it go from pink to red to brown. If they say it
goes brown, we know we have a client who is
at risk for post-inflammatory pigmentation.
We can evaluate this information to
determine if we think the client is appropriate
for the treatment, and if so, whether we need
to use a more conservative approach. A good
guideline for estheticians might be if the client
has heritage that is in a higher Fitzpatrick range
than her skin appears, treat her as the next
higher level of Fitzpatrick. If she appears to be
a Fitzpatrick IV but has African ancestry, treat
her as a Fitzpatrick V.
Using this approach, which is in essence
what the medical community does, allows us
to protect the client and minimize the risk of
post-inflammatory pigmentation that can take
months or longer to clear.
Judith Culp, a CIDESCO Diplomat has been in the esthetics industry since 1980.
A CPCP permanent makeup technician for over 20 years she served a 4-year
term as a Director for the Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals, two
years as their president. She is president of Culp Enterprises Inc. and CEO of NW
Institute of Esthetics. Judy Culp is available for consulting. For more information
visit www.estheticsnw.com.
| OCTOBER 2010 | NORTHWEST STYLIST & SALON