Washing and Conditioning Hair

Seems simple, but I’ve been seeing a common theme lately that I want to address. Basically, your scalp matters. Do not just put some shampoo on your hands and swirl it around on your head, then rinse. Rather really get in there and scrub your scalp, I mean your whole scalp. Make it move. Ok, so I’m not really talking to guys or ladies with thin or really short hair. Why? Because it’s easy to get to your scalp and I don’t see problems with you as the sun and air most likely are even getting to your whole scalp, keeping it healthy. The issue I see is with people with quite thick hair. Their scalp often looks good all over, except for one spot that I can tell they don’t scrub and get real stimulated and clean. It looks a little red, a little irritated, more oily and dirty feeling then the rest of the head, even sometimes smells and it’s a bit scaly… getting real and graphic for y’all to prove a point. It’s usually the area about 2 to 3 inches up from your hairline on the back of your head above your neck. It’s right in the center there that you probably don’t think about it much. You probably just put the shampoo on the top of your head, mush it around a bit and rinse. So what I’m asking you to do essentially is get shampoo onto all your fingertips and really move your hair and put it onto your entire scalp and scrub deeply to truly cleanse the scalp. If no suds come, then rinse and repeat. And also, of course, work the shampoo out to your ends as well.

Next, it is also important to rinse well. Leaving shampoo in your hair or on your scalp can also cause skin problems and irritation. You may as well not have shampood at all if you don’t get the shampoo out. So rinse well.

As for another tidbit on rinsing…  Water temperature for washing should not be too hot or too cold.  Hot water is harsh and can be hard on your hair over time.  Warm water is good as it opens up the hair to get in there to cleanse well.  Also, rinse with warm water.  But finally, after all the product is rinsed out, I do suggest a cool final rinse as I have noticed hair is shinier after a cool rinse.

Another thing is most of you don’t need conditioner on your roots. It causes the hair to get too oily too soon. The ends of the hair may need it, if they are dry or dull, to moisturize them and give them some shine and ease in detangling. Only hair that is really dry by nature or from chemical services needs a good conditioning all over. And then some hair doesn’t need conditioner at all. Like me, I haven’t had any chemicals on my hair for about 5 years and my hair tends toward being a bit oily. On top of that, my hair is fine so it can get weighed down by product very easily. So, all that to say, I haven’t used any conditioner for a long time now, probably over 5 years.

So, just some more ideas for you to keep your skin and hair healthy and also to personalize what you are doing so that you have just the right prescription that doesn’t just follow the crowd, but rather fits your hair’s needs.

One last thing: We have a new product at the shop that I absolutely love. It is a sulfate free (as all our products are) cleansing conditioner from Biolage. It is a conditioner that truly deep cleanses your hair and leaves it beautifully hydrated and shiny. Helps keep your color from fading as well. Just thought I’d let you know as we are all enjoying it at the shop.

God bless!