Salon Hair Care Products vs. Cheap High Street Hair Products

By Jennifer Summers

Looking after your hair is a top priority if you pride yourself on having clean and healthy looking hair, and using quality hair care products (i.e. shampoo and conditioner) is a must. However, when it comes to getting the best value for money should you buy professional salon hair care products, or would cheap high street hair care products be just as good?

High street products seem much more affordable and therefore giving you better value for money because of the low cost of high street hair products. Branded premium salon products can appear pricey with the average 300ml shampoo bottle priced at 5 times the cost ($20/GBP10) of a regular high street shampoo ($4/GBP2).

Comparing these prices it seems as if the high street products are better value at about a fifth of the price of salon professional hair care products, giving the impression that they are much better value for money, because you would be getting 5 times the amount of product as you would compared with professional salon hair products.

When you look more closely at the comparison between the effectiveness and the quality of high street hair products and salon hair products, does the comparison end up in the favour of cheap hair care products, or do the cheaper high street products turn out to be a false economy?

To see if cheaper high street hair products provide more value for money in both the short and long term when compared with professional salon hair care products, we made the decision to test them both to see how each of the hair products compare against one another in a quality test.

For our test we compared a 300ml bottle of professional salon shampoo and compared that with a 300ml bottle of your average cheap high street shampoo. To achieve the our required standard of cleaning, the professional salon shampoo needed just 10ml per application to achieve this standard, whereas the cheap high street shampoo needed 50ml per application to achieve the same standard of cleaning.

The high street hair shampoo, using a 50ml application, provides 6 applications per 300ml bottle (approximately). The professional shampoo, using a 10ml application, provides around 30 applications per 300ml. Hence the high street shampoo worked out at $0.64c/GBP0.32p whilst the professional shampoo came in at $0.66c/GBP0.33p.

Summary: at first glance, cheaper high street hair products appear to be a better buy and provide value for money, but on closer scrutiny there is but a hair's breadth of difference in the price of salon hair products, and cheap hair products. When you add the better quality and effectiveness of salon products into the equation, the salon products turn out to be much better value for money. Q? Why would you use anything other than the highest quality hair care products on your hair? - 18095

About the Author:

About the author: Jennifer Summers can help you achieve great looking hair. She is a well of information on hair care uk, regularly providing valuable and informative hair care advice.

How Does Aging Affect Your Hair?

By Jennifer Summers

As we age, our hair produces less melanin, the same melanin that gives our skin its colour. The most evident sign of aging is the changing colour of our hair. This is the reason our hair becomes grey. At any age grey hair can appear. It's not always a sign of aging. It is caused by a decline in pigment (grey hair) or a complete loss of pigment (white hair). The cause for it is not fully understood.

Age also has an effect on our hair in other ways. A number of women will notice that their hair thins and lacks life, for others it will appear to be dry and coarse. As we get older our hair starts to get drier, and needs more moisture. Older hair often loses some of its elasticity and the consistency alters. This is because as we get older the size of our hair follicles get smaller and hair growth slows down. Therefore there is not as much new growth to replace what is lost.

Sebum (oil produced naturally by our skin) lessens as we age, and as a consequence our hair, therefore, lacks its natural shine and softness. And our production of keratin also slows during the menopause. This particular protein fibre is a must in maintaining healthy, strong hair. Going bald, having thinning hair and coarse hair is a subject that affects many men, plus facial hair. To conceal your grey hair opt for the right shade of hair colour. If you use a dark colour it can draw attention to a dull complexion. So do not use a colour more than a couple of tones darker or lighter than your own hair colour.

If you want to keep your grey, endeavour to use a hair shampoo and conditioner that is targeted especially for grey hair. Grey hair can look yellow or greenish on some people. To neutralize the yellow colour and leave your hair shiny and beautiful, try using a greying shampoo that contains a violet based colour, instead of your usual shampoo. Highlights or lowlights can disguise any grey you want to disguise by blending them into the rest of your hair. The same goes for colouring your hair. Avoid going more than two shades lighter than your natural hair colour to avoid looking older than you really are.

Moisturizing (conditioning) is a must for older hair. Use a weekly deep conditioning treatment - recommended for aging hair. This will help to maintain the moisture levels in your hair. With aging your hair loses its elasticity and this makes it harder to style, so try using a protein treatment at least once a month to help your hair along. For men and women, thinning hair can be given a more voluminous appearance by using volumizing products such as conditioners and mousses. - 18095

About the Author:

Jennifer Summers is a great source of information on grey hair shampoo, regularly providing informative advice on aging hair care.

Mens Hair Care Products

By Jennifer Summers

There are a lot of mens hair products available to buy on the market today, and it is often not so easy to know which range you should choose, and which product from that range is the best one for your hair and the one you should be using. It is highly recommended that you use a high quality premium brand hair product for men as this usually guarantees good results. Here are the four best ranges of mens hair products you can find:

Pashana - * Pashana American Bay Rum Hair Lotion: Originally from the West Indies, traditionally uses aromatic oil distilled from Bay leaves soaked in pure Bay Oil and Rum. * Pashana Eau de Quinine Hair Tonic: Quinine, known for its curative properties, is derived from the Chinchona Bark found in South America where it is used as a local anaesthetic and in hair tonics and sunscreen preparations. * Pashana Eau de Portugal Hair Tonic: An excellent finishing product for normal to dry hair that also helps to invigorate the scalp, formulated from an original Portuguese recipe.

Dax - * Dax Vegetable Oil Shampoo: Another heavy duty product. This is the best available to get excess Dax out of your hair (with the exception of super-neat which is water soluble). * Dax Green and Gold: Dax Green and Gold is a specially formulated wax that is made from Beeswax and natural oils. Green and Gold offers a superior hold without the unwanted build up or drying of the hair. * Dax Wave and Groom: Wave and groom is effective on hair which is no longer that 2 - 3 inches long. It is formulated specially to bring out the natural wave pattern of short hair.

Black and White - * Black and White Shampoo: Black and White Pluko Shampoo. Black and White shampoo is renowned for its quick removal of product build-up and cleansing of the scalp. * Black and White Pomade: Black and White Genuine Pluko is a versatile hair dressing that allows you to mould, sculpt and create texture. * Black and White Lite Pomade: Black and White Pluko Lite is a versatile hair dressing that helps to keep hair manageable and textured all day. Provides light control and superior shine with natural conditioning oils.

Fudge - * Fudge Matte Hed: Firm hold texturising paste. Get some flexible style to your head with firm hold Matte Hed. Work through your hair for definition and movement with extreme matte texture. * Fudge Hair Shaper: Get onto the hard stuff with this strong hold multi-purpose styling tool that really goes the distance. Texturise, mould, piece or simply just shag it out any way you want for that totally 'lived-in' look. * Fudge Hair Putty: Travel first class all the way with Putty, the perfect sculpting tool for maximum moulding. Blow-dry it in for extra body and kick, or finish it off for absolute moulding power with a medium hold.

Using the right product on your hair will definitely help to give you the results that you are looking for. And when you choose a high quality premium brand range, you can be certain that the hair product will contain the best ingredients for helping you choose the style and look that you are after. You cannot go wrong with the four ranges listed above. - 18095

About the Author:

Jennifer Summers helps people achieve great looking hair on a daily basis. She is an excellent source of information on Mens Hair Care, regularly providing valuable and informative advice on using Mens Hair Products.

Dry Hair: How to care for and treat Dry Hair

By Jennifer Summers

The look of your hair is the one attribute of the body over which you can have direct control. You can alter the length, shape, colour and style of your hair according to the age you wish to appear, and the monetary and social standing you want to assert. The style, length and condition of hair all play a part in how we perceive the people we meet. If you are to get the greatest possible results from your hair care practice, you need to opt for the right hair shampoo and conditioner for your hair type. We can identify hair that is in first-class condition. It is easy to manage and it shines, - it just looks great.

Dry hair is hair that doesn't have enough moisture. This is normally because the cuticle has become heavily weathered and porous, so that the cortex cannot hold on to water. It appears more in long hair than in short, purely because the hair has been growing for longer and as a result has worn more. It is more widespread in women than in men, since women are more likely to sport their hair long. The drying out may come to have an effect on more of the hair if it is given constant chemical treatments, for the most part perming, and especially perming connected with bleaching/colouring. Your hair is dry if: * it looks lacklustre * it feels dry or coarse * it snarls easily * it is tricky to comb or brush * it has been treated chemically (permed, bleached or colored) * it is liable to split ends * it is dry and frizzed. If your hair meets any of these conditions, you should opt for a hair shampoo and conditioner that are specifically for dry hair.

Wage war on the damage from the use of heat-styling, environmental pollution, chemical treatments and colouring. Deep-condition your hair often. Keep your hair shiny and strong by replenishing lost moisture. Use quality products and wash your hair often. Moisturizing Shampoos and Conditioners are the correct products - Ideal for very dry hair. Restoring lost moisture from blow-drying.

And essentially - do not forget to condition it well. Leave-in Conditioners and Re-constructive detanglers are the correct products to use. A light leave-in conditioner is great for creating shine and body to straight hair and for taming. Have the ends cut regularly by a skilled stylist, so as to prevent weathering effects such as split ends.

In a standard, perfect hair shaft, insufficient water can get either into or out of the cortex. This is for the reason that the cuticle covering the cortex is undamaged. But if hair is processed too often the cuticle scales may never go back to their original tightness and the defence they once offered is gone. Over-porous hair is parched, and is prone to developing split ends. The broken cuticle is delicate, and the damage gets worse as time passes. Dry hair feels parched. It doesn't shine and is hard to style. It does responds to intensive conditioning. Cautious brushing, drying and combing after cleansing is vital.

Look for a bottle that says: Moisturizing or Replenishing. It is prepared to be kind to dry, damaged hair. These hair shampoos are heavier on the moisturizing constituents, sometimes leaving a very thin film of conditioners on the hair to help keep it silky and smooth. They work best on dry, frizzy, damaged hair. - 18095

About the Author:

Jennifer Summers is a great source of information on dry damaged hair, regularly providing informative advice on the best dry hair care.

Baldness and Hair Loss Advice

By Jennifer Summers

Talking about hair loss with your GP is an important first step. For millions of people world-wide, each day is a "bad hair" day due to the predicament of thinning hair or hair loss. There are a variety of treatments offered these days that make hair loss or thinning hair easier to live with. Distressing situations and heredity can be the reason for hair thinning and loss and can also be caused by hormonal fluctuations, excessive physical force or poor nutrition. Alopecia is a worry not only experienced by men but by an increasing number of women, it is the disproportionate and abnormal loss of strong hair. While these factors can concern both men and women, hair thinning and loss usually happens for:

Men A thinning crown or receding hair line is the most common pattern of hair loss. Hair loss occurs due to the presence of a derivative or by-product of testosterone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). This hormone can shrink the hair follicles and has a greater effect in the mid-anterior scalp and temples. Some types of male hair loss are:Acute diffuse alopecia - occurs from physical or psychological factors such as hormones, nutritional deficiencies or medications.Chronic Diffuse Alopecia - can occur due to nutritional, metabolic or endocrine issues. Androgenetic Alopecia - occurs due to genetic sensitivity to male hormones. This rarely affects women.

Women Most cases of hair thinning and loss are as a result of hormonal fluctuations, ie during pregnancy, childbirth or use of some methods of birth control. Women can also experience: Anagen effluvium - occurs due to chemotherapy. The matrix of the hair becomes damaged and, as a result, the hair shaft will narrow, eventually fracturing. Traction alopecia - caused by severe hairstyles, such as ponytails that are too tight, braiding, cornrows or the frequent use of extensions. These procedures pull at hair over a period of time but loss can be prevented if recognized and treated early.

Males and females can reduce or even halt hair loss or thinning, if found early enough, by using various over-the-counter treatments like: a). A shampoo that describes itself as "revitalizing/fortifying/energizing". These will nurture and guard existing hair while removing oils that can obstruct the follicles and stop re-growth. b). A daily vitamin supplement. Look for supplements labelled especially for hair and/or nails and are fortified with Vitamin B3 (niacin). These defend the hair shaft, and antioxidants, to ward off harm from free radicals. c). Weekly use, leave-in scalp treatment prepared with essential oils - oils such as lavender and orange will relax and unblock hair follicles to encourage growth, regulate oil production and sustain cell repair. Results will vary, as with any treatment, and may possibly need to be continued on a regular basis. Also, allow around 6-8 weeks before expecting to see results.

Techniques to hide hair loss: Perhaps it is time to think of some techniques to hide your hair loss if you are unhappy with your thinning hair. Whether you are a man or a woman losing hair due to heredity, stress, medication or a medical condition you can use these tips to help you cope. Use a Hair Thickening Shampoo or Conditioner Use a hair thickening shampoo and/or conditioner meant to disguise loss by making the hair appear to be thicker. Brush your hair gently after shampooing and conditioning to stop losing more hair, and allow hair to dry completely before combing or brushing it.

Styling Techniques If your hair is not as thick as it once was, there are a number of hair styling methods and hair styling products that can be employed to keep your hair looking its best at any age. Try to avoid hair gels as they only matte your hair and highlight your hair loss. Instead use hair texturizing creams and lotions that give you volume and fullness. Another good option is to use a leave-in hair conditioner that can make your hair emerge more textured and fuller. For a fuller look try blow drying your hair - For hair that is getting thin on top, try blow drying after you have washed and conditioned, then comb your hair in front directly back. Use mousse or a light hair spray to maintain the style. The blow drying will stop your hair from matting together and looking thinner.

Extending your Hair Hair extensions are a quick and simple method for men and women with long thick hair to disguise the fact that they are losing some hair. Employ a salon for adding natural human hair to your head. This option can last for several weeks to several months.

Blow-dry your Hair Consider blow drying if your hair is thinning on top to give it added texture and body and to give your head more coverage. Brush it into a quiff on top of your head by brushing it from the forehead up. Maintain the style with a little hairspray. If your hair is thinning throughout, this is a good way to make your hair look fuller. Chaps -Getting a Buzz from your Hair The buzz cut is a way to disguise the fact that you are losing hair. Businessmen, sports stars and actors all use this as a classy, style that is easy to maintain. Groom your scalp daily and remove the hairs you have left for a clean, fresh look by using a wet-dry electric razor. If you're disturbed about your hair loss or if your hair is starting to thin, make an appointment with your hairdresser or barber and request some advice on a fresh, new look. There are plenty of hair styles to choose from that have you looking great. - 18095

About the Author:

Jennifer Summers is a great source of information on hair loss products, regularly providing informative advice on thinning hair.