How to select a suitable hairstyle for you.
Hairstyles: You have to remember that just because you like a certain hairstyle that does not mean it will work for you. Hairstyles depend on the shape of your face and the texture of your hair. If its curly or straight. It all depends on how much maintenance your willing to do.
If you have Straight Hair: Of course we want to have wavy curly hair. You know that jump out of the shower hair. It takes mousse and or gel and a blow dryer. A nice soft perm or a texture perm will help. (How to do a Perm.)
If you have Curly Hair: Weather for example, hot and humid for curly hair spells disaster. Most people I know who have curly hair want it straight. Using the right hair care product in your hair before you blow-dry, is critical.
The right hairstyle begins by the shape of your face
Oval-shaped face
You're lucky - this is the kind of face shape that suits just about any hairstyle. Both long and short hair cuts look great on you, as your face shape is well balanced. The chin and forehead of an oval face shape are in even proportion.
Avoid covering up your perfect face shape with heavy bangs or wearing your hair on your face. You'll lose your face shape and it may add weight to your face.
Round face
Hairstyles with fullness and height at the crown will give the impression of a narrower face. Try a cut with layers while keeping the sides close to your face to make your face appear longer. Round faces suit either short hairstyles swept back from your forehead, or hairstyles that are longer than chin length. Wispy fringes and side parts are also good.
Avoid chin length hair, center parts, fullness at the sides of ears, straight "chopped bangs - these wll all emphasise the shape of your face.
Heart-shaped face
The heart shaped face is widest at the temples and narrowest at the chin, which can appear pointy. Short hair and chin length hair often looks great on this face shape, as the fullness can even out the jaw and chin lines. Chin length bobs, short shags, swept forward layers and wispy bangs all work well.
Avoid full styles that emphasise the upper face without balancing out your narrow chin. Too much height at the crown and tapered necklines will make you look top heavy.
Rectangular, Long face
If your face is long and slender, with your forehead and below cheeks about the same width, hairstyles that balance out the length of your face work best for you. These include short (Short hairstyles) to medium lengths (Medium hairstyles) with fullness at the sides and soft wispy bangs. This will shorten the length and add width to your face. Layered styles work well and add softness to the straight lines of your face.
Avoid too much length, it will only make your face look longer. Too much height will also lengthen your face.
Square face
If your face is square, with a strong, square jaw line and often an equally square hairline, the right hairstyles for you are ones that soften the square look of your face. Short to medium length hair cuts, with soft wispy bangs and a wave or curl will compliment and balance out your straight face shape. If you hair is straight, maybe consider a body wave . Side parts and fullness/height at the crown can add length to your square face shape.
Avoid straight styles - long straight hair, blunt bangs, straight bobs and center parts, as they will emphasise your square jawline.
Triangle face
If you face is triangle, with a wider chin that narrows at the forehead, you want to stick to styles that narrow your chin and widen the forehead. This will balance out your features. Shorter hair can often balance our your prominent jaw line, as well as styles that are full at the temples that taper at the jaw. Off center parts, wedges and shags are also good styles for you. Lots of layers will give you the fullness through the upper part of your face.
Avoid Styles that are full at the jawline and center parts.
Full forehead, long chin
If your forehead is large and your chin long, it can help to add volume below the chin line to balance it out. A thick layered cut or mid-length bob will add fullness where it's needed. Bangs can also reduce the look of a full forehead.
Large features
Full hair can help downplay a large nose or other feature and can help balance out large features. Straight hair, parted down the middle or a long, heavy fringe will make a larger nose seem even more prominent. Subtle highlights in your hair can help by drawing the eye towards the hair and away from the face.
Long or short neck
A long, graceful neck is a beautiful and desireable feature and should be shown off and considered when choosing a hairstyle. Short hair can really show off your neck, however long hair can also add to your already graceful neck when worn in an elegant style, like a twist or updo.
If you want a short hairstyle and your neck is short, create the appearance of length by tapering your hair at the base of the neck and fuller on top.
To get the perfect hairstyle choose the right hair
The easiest and best way to find a new hairstylist is to ask some one you see with a hairstyle that you like while your in the the mall or other stores. Make sure it is someone who has hair similar to yours. I know from experience it is very flattering and no one will mind telling you where he or she goes. Remember be careful of cheap haircutting shops. Remember you get what you pay for!
Another place to look is at actresses and actors are pretty much up to date. The daytime soaps or catalogs. I know for long hair {Victoria Secrets} is very good. Your store catalogs are also a good source. You can buy a hair magazine at your local grocery store with all the latest hairstyles.
What Hair Care Products should you use?
There are lots and lots of hair care products out there, My suggestion is stay away from store bought shampoo and conditioning products. If you want something that works, use professional salon shampoo and conditioner. Also remember you wear your hair everyday. Its worth spending a little extra money on a quality salon shampoo and conditioner. You might spend that money on a shirt you wear maybe once a month, WHY NOT SPEND A LITTLE TO GET A LOT. If your hair looks good you will feel better about yourself
Hairstyling Tools: Tips and Tricks
When you look today at the sheer number of tools and appliances available todayto assist you in styling your hair, it's easy to get confused. What do I need? Will thatwork on my hair? What does THIS thing do? There are dozens of tools designed to helpyou curl, crimp, smooth and straighten your hair. Here are some basics on the toolsavailable, what they're best used for and some tips on how to use them:
Combs and Brushes: Many people still don't understand the basic principles behindthe different comb and brush types available. Here's a quick primer: Wide-toothedCombs are designed to detangle and smooth out towel-dried hair. For best results, use adetangling spray or leave-in conditioner before combing out towel-dried hair. Smaller-toothed Combs are used for smoothing and finishing short or straight hairstyles.
For brushes, the idea is similar but there are more varieties: A Vented Brush has multiplerows of tines (widely-set) along a base with air holes or openings to allow air to circulateeasily. Vented brushes are designed for use with blow-dryers to control the hair duringthe drying process. Round or Curved Brushes have rows of tines on a round or curvedbase and are designed for use in blow-dry styling to add soft curves to the styles.Paddle Brushes have rows of tines on a flat base and are used in blow-dry straightenedstyles to keep the hair smooth and flat. Bristled Brushes can have natural or syntheticbristles and are used for finishing and smoothing a style, or for distributing natural hairoils and massaging the scalp to maintain hair and scalp health.
Blow Dryer: Hand-held hair dryers have become a staple in hair care. These toolsare designed to use directed streams of heated air to dry the hair quickly. A good blow-dryer will come with both a concentrator and a diffuser attachment. The concentratorattachment is designed to further narrow the stream of air, and direct it better. It is usedmost often to bow-dry hair into straighter/smoother styles. The diffuser attachment isdesigned to soften the air stream and distribute the heated air for a gentler flow. Thediffuser is used most often to dry curly hair without straightening the curl.
Tips:
# 1: When blow-drying the hair, ALWAYS use a good protective conditionerbeforehand.
# 2: Direct the air stream along the hair shaft at an angle toward the ends ofthe hair. This minimizes the risk of the hot air roughing up the cuticle of the hair andleaves the finished style looking smoother.
# 3: Keep the air stream moving and always hold the dryer at least 6-8 inchesaway from the hair. Most incidents of damaged hair from blow-dry styling come as aresult of holding the hair in the heated air stream too long
Hot Rollers: These tools use a combination of heat and/or moisture to change thecurl pattern of the hair. Designed to be used on dry hair, hot rollers work by wrappingsegments of hair around the heated tools, and leaving the tools in place until they cool.One factor that works as a plus for hot rollers is convenience. You can wrap your hair inhot rollers and then continue to get ready while they cool and "set".
Finish dressing, apply your make-up, have breakfast, or do anything you need to while you let the rollers cool. Once cooled, remove the rollers and style your hair as desired.
Tips:
# 1: Always make sure the hair is wrapped smoothly and held securely in therollers. Good tension in the roller ensures that you get the best curl result.
# 2: A light misting of hairspray on the wrapped rollers will give a little extrahold and "lift" to the curled hairstyle.
# 3: Make certain that your hair is completely dry before using the hot rollersand ALWAYS let the rollers cool COMPLETELY before removing them. Most of theincidents of poor results from using hot rollers come as a result of having still-damp hairbefore using the rollers, or from taking down the rollers before they have completelycooled. Remember heat and moisture will break the side bonds needed to change thecurl pattern of the hair, but they don't get reset into the new curl pattern until the hair isagain cooled and dry.
Curling Irons/Flat Irons: Similar to hot rollers, curling irons and flat irons use heat(and in the case of curling irons, occasionally a little moisture) to change the curl patternof the hair. The main difference is that the curling iron lets you add curl in specific places(the flat iron let's you straighten target sections of the hair).You can style your hair in a myriad of ways and then use the curling iron to add curlsonly where you want them, or use the flat iron to give a smooth sleek finish.Curling irons come in a variety of sizes from tiny, pencil-thin barrels for tight spirals, tolarge barrels for big soft curls. Similarly, flat irons come in varying widths to give finercontrol. Generally, the longer your hair is, the larger the curling iron you want to use.With flat irons, the larger the heating surfaces on the flat iron, the larger the segmentthat can be straightened will be.
