Lifestyle Choices

How much hair you have, the color of it, the thickness, curl, and length it will grow before a new hair is begun all depend on your genetic inheritance. There is nothing you can do to change that. The diameter of each hair (its fineness) is determined somewhat by its color. Blondes tend to have more than anyone else (about 150,000 hairs), but the hairs tend to be finer. Brown hair is usually second with about 115,000, followed by black with 110,000 and red at about 90,000. How full your head of hair looks depends on both the number of hairs there and the thickness of the shaft itself. You need a lot of fine hairs, for instance, to give the impression of fullness but considerably fewer thick ones to give the same impression. If your hair is fine, you can make it look thicker by increasing the diameter of each strand with protein shampoos and body-building conditioners or by coloring your hair and giving it a permanent to swell out the shaft. (more…)

Straight hair is often strong and beautiful hair. It can be lank, in which case you should treat it with a thickening product, which will enlarge the shaft of each hair and make it look fuller. It can also be lackluster, which calls for a conditioner to make the scales of the cuticle lie flat and enable hair shafts to reflect light better. Straight hair is often good blunt- cut and worn not too long, or tied up in a twist, or chignon.

Curly hair needs to be carefully cut, for this can make all the difference between its looking fantastic and frizzy. A layered cut is usually best, one in which the direction of each scissor snip goes counter to the direction in which the hair grows, so it makes the most of all your hair’s natural curves and idiosyncrasies. It is best not to impose a particular style on your hair, but, rather, to go with the natural swing of things. If your hair tends to be wiry, you can correct this by using a softening conditioner. (more…)