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Getting Healthy Hair Again After a Long Winter

If winter has left your strands dry and damaged, it’s time to get healthy hair back in top condition and ready for the hot styles ahead.
“Get Healthy Hair after Winter Woes”
Whether you let your hair grow out over winter deepened the hair color or just gave up on hair styling around blustery winds and wool hats, getting your healthy hair into spring training starts with getting its condition under control. That’s because control is more a function of healthy hair and the hair care products you use than the actual cut, according to William George, owner of James Joseph Salon in Boston.

“The most important thing you can do to get your healthy hair in shape is to start a treatment regimen mid-winter; don’t wait for spring,” advises George. “Don’t use the same care products year-round, change them seasonally. For instance, in winter your hair needs higher levels of conditioning. As you change regimens your healthy hair responds differently.”

Changing product manufacturers is particularly important if you buy in drugstores. For one thing, you don’t have a professional recommendation to guide you; for another, many of the less expensive hair care products build up. When you change, you may be switching one build-up for another, but at least you’ve given your hair time to recover.

The winter-to-spring transition is the perfect time to treat yourself to a high-end hair care product. George recommends Phyto haircare because their products have a high concentration of organics. If your budget is mid range, try Wella System Professional, a new treatment line with lots of options. “This line lets you  choose products by hair texture and by condition,” says George.”If you want an affordable drug store option, look for the word “treatment’ on the packaging and experiment to see what works best for you.”

Color changes are always a part of a fresh healthy hair start, and John Simpson, a hair stylist at Lewis Salon in Pittsburgh, PA, says winter’s muted shades will get warm and reflective through dimensional diffusion and overlapping hair color shades.”Whenever you change hair color, your hair need extra protection, and finishing is important to show off overlapping shades,” says Simpson. “A leave-in conditioner like Goldwell’s Kerasilk Fluid acts as a treatment but won’t weigh hair down.”

Get Into Control

To get your hair to do what you want it to do all the time, shampoo less frequently because, second-or third-day hair is always easier to manage.”If you feel the need to cleanse on in-between days, rinse and condition your hair only, and manipulate the conditioner as though it were shampoo,” says George. “Almost all hair conditioners have a very small amount of cleaning agents in them.”

Second most important for taking control over your hair is a great haircut. Very long hair is rarely healthy hair because the older ends have compounded damage from sun exposure, chemical treatments and more.

“Layers will give your hair more shape and movement, but not necessarily control,” notes George. “However, when you’re looking for a new hairstyle, layers create the most impact.”

With healthy hair and a fabulous new haircut, now you can master your styling tools — from gels to curling irons. For instance, many women are in love with the sleek look they get from a flat iron, but these can also be incredibly damaging. According to Susan Kelber, who styles hair on the hit TV show 24, if you flat-iron, you must protect healthy hair to maintain control. “To protect healthy hair from the heat and also add shine, use a working spray like Graham Webb Heat Response Soft Finish Spray before finishing with a straight iron,” advises Kelber.

Since volume is one of spring’s must-haves, Simpson says you can control where and how much body you build with a root spray like Goldwell’s Double Boost. “Use it to enhance root lift, then use the iron to create the bushy, sexy curls that are in style,” he says. “Finish by finger-cushioning the ends. Hold them with the thumb and forefinger and slightly separate them after curling.”

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