Hair Straighteners

Hair Straighteners
By TARA WEISS
THE JOURNAL NEWS

The battle for sleek, straight hair is one that’s waged daily in bathrooms across the country.

Don’t snicker. A good hair day is important. Even Sen. Hillary Clinton thinks so: “The most important thing I have to say today is ‘hair matters’. … Pay attention to your hair,” she advised the graduating class at Yale University. “Because everyone else will.”

Beauty companies are more than happy to come to the rescue, promoting their wares as miracle hair care products that tame frizz and fly-aways.

Price-wise, they’re all over the place — from serums that are just a few dollars to hair dryers and flat irons that hit the $200 mark. That’s not even counting the Japanese hair straightening treatments available at hair salons that go for hundreds of dollars.

The most effective way to get the straight hair you want is with a little help from your hairdresser combined with finding the tools that work right with your hair. But do you need to spend a fortune for Hair Straighteners?

“You have to be careful,” says Stephan Fornino, owner of Salon Premiere in White Plains, who has served as a consultant to several hair care product companies. “Never mix the price with quality or effectiveness. There’s too much dishonesty in the hair care product world. Does buying a Steinway (piano) for $250,000 enable you to learn to play the piano better than if you bought a used one for $1,000?”

A few years ago, the Rolls-Royce of in-salon straightening procedures was the Japanese hair straightening method. The procedure takes about five hours but the result is nothing short of a miracle: silky, smooth, pin-straight hair that lasts until new growth comes in. It comes with a hefty price tag of about $500 because the hairdresser is tied up for so long.

Japanese hair straightening went out of style because practitioners found that after a few applications, the hair was devastatedHair Straighteners.

Now many hair salons use various gel straighteners such as Rusk’s Anti-Curl. Basil Konstantinidis, owner New York Jungle Salon in Tappan, says it works like a conditioning treatment with a chemical that straightens the hair without damaging it.

“You should have it done if you’re looking to eliminate frizz,” Konstantinidis says.

It costs between $150 and $175, and lasts until new growth comes in.

Karen Ricciardelli, a 46-year-old with wavy, thick hair, had Konstantinidis apply the Rusk treatment several years ago but wasn’t thrilled with the results.

“I felt like it took a little too much body out of my hair,” says Ricciardelli, of Norwood, N.J. “I don’t like it when it’s stick straight.”