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Hairdressing / Drying and Styling

Drying and Styling Hair

Blowdrying Products

Hairspray
A Lacquer that gives hold and support. Used after hair has been dried into shape. Spray where desired.

Wax
A wax coating that gives stability with movement. Used when hair is dried into shape. Rub into hands and fingers and apply where desired.

Gel
A gel that gives hold and support. Can come in various forms e.g. wet look gel, spray gel. Rub into hands and fingers and apply where needed.

Mousse
A gel in foam spray form. Used on wet hair before blowdrying to aid the hairdresser and give even hold. Use a golf ball size, apply to hair and comb through before blowdrying.

Colour Mousse
As normal mousse, but with added temporary colour. This may be used to enhance previous colour treatments or to temporarily hide grey. The colour will wash away after the first wash. When applying to the hair remember to wear rubber gloves.

Blowdrying Tools

Hand Dryer
An electrical appliance, in the shape of a hand gun, that blows heat through a barrel like chamber. Used to blow dry wet hair into desired shape. Use on its own for finger drying or in conjunction with a desired brush. Can also use an attachment like a defuser for long, wavy, permed hair.

Denmon
A very popular blowdrying brush that comes in different sizes. Used to blow dry sections of wet hair to give precision lift, natural looking straight or wavy looks.

Round Brush
A small round brush is a bristle brush used to give tight curl on short to medium hair. A medium or large round brush is used to give loose waves or straightness to medium or long hair.

Vent Brush
Looking like the skeleton of a brush, a vent brush allows warm air to pass right through its head. Can speed up drying and give a very natural wavy, textured look.

Tongs
An electrical appliance used to give root lift or curl to previously blow dried hair. When used on previously blow dried or set hair and combed through using the fingers, gives a very broken up look throughout.

Hair Straighteners
This tool is used to straighten hair. The tool consists of two electricly heated ceramic plates that clamp together. Hair is placed between the plates and gently heated to straighten the hair. Hair straighteners are a temporary solution for removing curls.

Laser Comb
A laser comb is used to promote hair growth by stimulating the hair folicles. A laser comb for hair loss can be used on a daily basis by those who suffer from hair loss.

Hair and Lifestyle

If you live a very athletic lifestyle or regularly work in a dusty atmosphere and find yourself washing your hair on a daily basis, use a very mild shampoo such as a baby shampoo.

Atmospheric conditions vary and can have an effect on the condition of your hair.

For example: On a cold damp frosty morning, hair can become frizzy, heavy and lose its shape; on a hot sunny day hair can become very dry and naturally bleached. Wearing a hat or hood will protect the condition and health of your hair from these extreme conditions.

Hair and Diet

You are what you eat!

Just as a plant needs fertile soil and water to grow, your hair needs vital vitamins and minerals to stay healthy. By eating a healthy, well balanced diet you can improve the health of your hair.

Hair Brushing

Brushing your hair not only keeps it in shape and tangle free, but promotes new growth by stimulating nerve endings and blood supply.

Using a laser comb, instead of a regular hair brush, can help speed up the regrowth of hair on the scalp even further.

Drying with Brushes

Usually, drying with brushes leaves a smooth or sleek finnish to hair with plenty of lift. Using the vent brush or denman, the hair is taken into small sections and held in the teeth of the brush while dried. Holding the brush at differing angles lift and direction can be achieved. The round brush takes the same sections and is kept rotating to give extra lift.

Hand Drying and Diffuser Drying

Usually a technique used for clients with curly hair or to achieve a more natural or broken feel. The hair is held lightly between the fingers and the end of the hair is dried with a hand drier. On shorter hair the drier is used in a directional method using the tips of the fingers to help break up and angle the hair. A diffuser may be used and the ends of the hair are laid in the base of the diffuser or held close to the head.

Blowdrying Science

Wet hair stretches because the temporary bonds that join the polypeptide chains in the cortex are broken. However, they quickly rejoin into a new shape when blowdrying the hair (also, setting applies or the use of hair straighteners).

Blowdrying can make...

Curly and wavy hair - Straight
Straight hair - Wavy

...by breaking the temporary bonds, stretching the hair with a brush and then drying it.

Hair in its natural state, whether curly, wavy or straight, is described as being in an alpha keratin state. When the hair is wetted, stretched into a new shape and then dried, it is in a beta keratin state.

Once the hair is dampened again by shampooing or just by being caught out in the rain then it will go back to its natural state (curly, wavy or straight) and be in the alpha keratin state again.

How and why hair can dry into a different shape

Next Page: Perming & Straightening