THE HAIRAPIST ™

Good morning, Ladies.

In the last 7 years, as FLAT IRONS have become the quick and easy way to straighten, smooth, flatten and temporarily reduce bulk in hair, I have seen more excessive damage (in a shorter period of time) then ever before.

It is not that they don’t work, of course they give you immediate gratification. But at what cost to your hair?

Before you reach for your iron, I would ask yourself 3 questions.

1. HOW OLD IS MY HAIR? If you can take hair from the very crown of your head and stretch it to the bottom of your ear lobe, that hair is about 8-12 months old. If your hair is from the very crown of your head to your shoulders, that hair is about 1.5 to 2 years old. Mid of your back 3 – 4 years old. You’re a smart women, so I know you’re following me.

2. HOW MANY TIMES IN A 365 DAY PERIOD HAVE I USED A FLAT IRON ON MY HAIR? Remember, once your hair leaves your scalp, at some point on the length of hair… it’ll be the same piece of hair, even if you are trimming the ends. Let’s break it down into a 30 day month . In 30 days, have you flat ironed ANY part of your hair more than twice a week? Let’s say twice a week. Let’s say in a year, you have used a flat iron on the same piece of hair 400 – 420 times.

3. IN A 365 DAY PERIOD HAVE YOU DONE MORE CONDITIONING OR MORE  BREAKING DOWN OF YOUR HAIR? Have you conditioned  or nourished your hair in some way more often than you’ve shampooed, blown dry, and used heat in any form, on your hair?

Let’s think of our hair as a beautiful royal blue silk blouse. When we first bring it home, the colour is rich and has a fantastic sheen. The fabric has such a lovely texture and feel, smooth.

Now, let’s scrub that blouse with detergent (mild) twice a week. Let’s throw it in a dryer on high, because who really has the patience to dry their hair…uhhh, I mean the “silk blouse” on a low setting. And NOW let’s get an iron good and hot – (most flat irons are between 150 – 250 degrees) – and let’s press that blouse… twice a week for a whole year.

I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT MY BLOUSE JUST TURNED TO DUST!

A nice alternative to making your hair smooth is wet setting it on traditional rollers, air drying or going under a bonnet dryer until ALL the water has evaporated from your hair. Once your hair is COMPLETELY DRY, to calm that very wiggy…bad prom date look, ON A COOL SETTING blow dry through your hair. This will flatten the wave and erase the lines of demarcation left by the rollers.

I think we all agree, smooth hair is only lovely if it does not have a mass of split, damaged ends.

Love your hair and treat it gently, with patience and kindness.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away there lived a fair maven…yes, MAVEN! (Hey, who’s telling the story…) named, Uhh, Happy. Happy had a twin sister, Mope.

Even though the girls were identical twins no one believed them. Not even their Mother!

Mope had lifeless frizzy dry hair, split ends with a colour that was so indistinct that it could not be found on any colourists sample charts in the America’s, Europe or any location north or south of the equator. Poor Mopes’ hair did not shine and would not take a definite shape when styled. The ends looked like frayed twine and her scalp was oilier than the Alaskan Pipeline. Sometimes people mistook her for Christopher Walken, with eyebrows. Mope spent her days scrubbing her hair with this shampoo and conditioning with the ”LATEST GREATEST” she found  on the Internet. Mope went jumping from stylist to stylist, each with their own theory on what chemicles would make her hair better. It was a vicous circle and Mope was franatic about trying to DO SOMETHING TO FIX her hair. Okay..you get the picture. Think Christopher Walken, with eyebrows in a dress. Oh, and his hair’s a little past his shoulders and the colour looks a bit green on the ends and Tabby cat orange at the scalp.

Now Happy, was plain old happy.  And I can save typing about what Happy looked like. Just think all things good, shiney and healthy. Bounce and body could have been her middle name.

Happy had 20 kids, so funds were tight and Happy’s free time was  well….let’s just say, the last time Happy had free time the talk about town was that,  ”some guy with three ships was sailing towards the coast.” Things like, HOT WATER, DAILY SHAMPOOING which goes hand in hand with STYLING WITH CONSTANT HEAT, OVER LAPPING PERM AND HIGH LIFT HIGHLIGHT COMBO…well Happy just plain ‘ole didn’t have the time or the doe, ray, me.

One day Mope, against her better judgement, but at the request of Happy came for a 6-8 month visit. Child number 8, ran to answer the knock at the door. Upon opening the door (listen for the creaking sound), he screamed and shouted, “MA, Christer Walken is here to see you!”

For 6-8 months Mope …

DID NOT WASH HER HAIR DAILY, DID NOT PUT CONSTANT HEAT AGAINST HER HAIR, DID NOT USE ANY CHEMICLE SERVICE…she basically just had time for the ends to be trimed a half and inch a month.

Mope walked around with her oily hair. Except that once in a while she did shower and in between used good old Johnson’s Baby Powder (Happy had it on hand in a 55 gallon drum) TO ABSORB THE OIL then BRUSH THE POWDER OUT.

Mope did decide one day to GO FOR IT and got a shorter, sexy & sassy A-Line bob, a little like Catherine Zetta Jones from the movie Chicago. it was a total transformation of hair, mind and body.

 Mope was no dope and in 6-8 months had kicked her addition to hair like a rope. Well that’s the end of my soap…Oh, I mean constant shampoo, heat and chemicle addicton tale.

And Mope changed her name to Mimi.

The HEALTHY Ends!