When good things happen to bad hair

Vegetarian Times, Dec, 2000 by Valerie Latona

Want a great mane? We'll help you break the five worst habits

Why is it that no matter how much we condition, detangle, rehydrate, gel, mousse, blow-dry or iron our hair, it never looks like a model's? Consider the uber model of the moment, Gisele Bundchen. Her hair is full of healthy waves, with nary a split end in sight. The same is true of actresses like Jennifer Aniston, whose perfectly flat, shiny locks look like she has them pressed every day. So what is it that makes their hair shine and ours look like something you'd store in a silo? It's not luck. It's how they--and their personal stylists--care for their manes. (It doesn't hurt having a team of experts slave over your hair on a daily basis.) Still, gorgeous hair is within your reach, even for those of us who have to do it ourselves.

Knots, split ends, frizz and just plain dry, flyaway strands (the all-too-familiar characteristics of damaged hair) are primarily the result of poor hair-care habits, including using the wrong products. To make matters worse, winter can dry out your locks even more. Between the low indoor humidity and the dry heat, it's hard--though not impossible--to keep your hair moist, silky and smooth. By simply mending your wanton ways, you can improve your hair's health. "Hair, like skin, needs to be pampered in order to stay in shape," affirms New York City stylist to the stars Frederic Fekkai, author of A Year of Style (Clarkson Potter, 2000). To care for it right, you need to use the best products for your hair type, and undo the harmful habits mentioned below that make life one bad-hair day after another.

Hot and Bothered

Frequent blow-drying and the use of hot rollers, curling wands and straightening irons can wreak havoc on your tresses. "People think they need to dry their hair on the hottest setting every day," says stylist Pancho Soekoro, of the Pierre Michel Salon in New York City. "The real tricks to sleek, healthy hair are blow-drying only when necessary, using the nozzle that comes with the dryer [to prevent hair from coming too close to the coils], working with a cool setting and keeping the dryer moving on different areas of the hair [so one area doesn't get the concentration of heat]."

Should you ever see anything that looks like smoke coming from your tresses, turn the heat setting down a notch. "When that happens," says Soekoro, "you've started burning up the natural oils in your hair, something you should avoid at all costs." To minimize blow-drying, use a superabsorbent towel (available from most beauty supply stores) to dry your hair first, then blow it out for several minutes on a medium to cool setting. And whenever possible, just air-dry your hair.

The Right Stuff

How often you wash your tresses--as well as which shampoos and conditioners you use--greatly affect your hair's health. "Just like with blow-drying, washing the hair too frequently can strip it of its natural oils," explains Soekoro, who says the ideal is washing no more than three or four times a week. Soekoro advises staying away from two-in-one shampoo/conditioners, which aren't gentle and can leave the hair rough, brittle and difficult to detangle. "Instead," he suggests, "use separate gentle and moisturizing shampoos and conditioners." Hair-boosting ingredients to look for are vitamin [B.sub.5] (a.k.a. panthenol, which strengthens strands and prevents breakage); nourishing essential oils, like lavender and calendula; shea butter; jojoba oil; and mineral-rich seaweed (which may be listed as either "seaweed" or "marine extracts" on the label). Because the hair shaft, or strand, is mainly composed of proteins, anything that helps build up those proteins (like seaweed) will add body and shine to your hair.

Color My World

It's a fact of life that many women color, perm or highlight their hair. Yet since processing by definition means altering the chemical bond of the hair, "any type of chemical processing is going to dry the hair out," says Robin Michelle, owner of the Alternative Salon in Chappaqua, N.Y. The result is weak, dry hair that's prone to breakage and split ends. But there are ways to mitigate the drying effects of these chemical processes.

For starters, consider getting bleach-free highlighting--ask your salon if it offers it or find one that does. Bleach can dry the hair out, leaving it the texture of straw. For coloring, use products from natural plant colorants like henna (enhances red tones), chamomile (enhances blonde tones) and black malva flowers (enhances black or very dark tones)--they're less toxic. "Natural hair colors get their pigment from plant, vegetable and mineral sources, not synthetic ones," says Michelle. "They still can dry out the hair, but they don't do it to the degree that synthetic processing does."

If you get a perm, give yourself a deep-conditioning treatment at least once a week. Fekkai recommends this home treatment: rinse hair with warm water, apply supernourishing shea butter (available from your local natural food store) to the wet hair and leave it in for at least 20 minutes. You can either rinse it out and then shampoo and condition as usual, or, before shampooing and conditioning, put your shea-buttered hair in a plastic shower cap and run a blow-dryer over the cap for 10 minutes. Better yet, sit under an old-fashioned bonnet dryer, as heat opens the hair cuticle, allowing the moisturizer to be better absorbed. The cuticle is the outer-most layer of the hair strand, and it runs from the follicle up through the ends of your hair. It's constructed of tightly packed, overlapping cells that resemble the scales on a fish. It's the cuticle that protects against water loss and can be easily damaged by heat, sun and chemicals.