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Wash and Wear for Every Hair
We spoke with Leading hairdressers, Master Stylist Sarah Ekberg at Youtime and Leading Sydney Stylist Paloma Rose Garcia of Paloma salon and asked them to share their expert knowledge on how to achieve that effortless, low maintenance, 'French Girl' style - even if your hair is thick, curly or frizzy.
SOME HUMANS ARE JUST BLESSED
Then there's the rest of us.
Those with curls, thick and course hair, or humidity-sensitive strands aren't quite that low maintenance. It can take an army of heat styling and taming products to look effortless.
Both Paloma and Sarah are passionate about working with the natural texture of their clients' hair to create lived in styles, and educate them in how to achieve hair that they can 'wash and wear'.
The secret? Approach your hair care like you do your skincare regime. It takes care and consistency, Paloma says.
Here, Sarah and Paloma share their wisdom on downing the tools and embracing your natural hair.
"I’ve been hairdressing for nearly 20 years now and I’ve found myself more and more attracted to seeing my customers with their hair in its natural form.
Many of my clients, particularly females, get stuck in this really awful vicious cycle of over styling their hair because they feel it doesn’t sit well naturally.
Personally, my eye gravitates towards women with natural looking hair. I think it’s so beautiful, ageless and timeless. A true test of an incredible haircut is the ability to wash and wear your hair.
There is a journey I take my clients on to achieve this.
They need to work at it. It’s like working on your skin with regular maintenance in order to get to a stage of wearing no make up. Hair is no different. For some with certain hair types, it comes more naturally to them, they’ve always been able to wash and wear.
Others have to work harder at it and invest in it. But it is achievable. says Paloma
THE CUT
At Youtime we always put a lot of emphasis on our consultation. Its probably the most important part of the whole visit and should be something included in every visit to your stylist. At Youtime we always ensure that plenty of time if included in each appointment to give us time for a porpor talk about your hair and you wishes and needs. says Sarah
The three main factors to determine the suitability of a haircut are lifestyle, face structure and hair type.
Sarah recommends that If the hair is really fine, you don't want to have it overly long because it can just look stringy. Instead, work with full shapes, longer seamless layering and a fuller outer shape and length
If your hair strands are thick and course, you can wear it longer. It needs to be longer and heavier to have weight in it so it doesn’t sit out, like a bush. So you are working with gravity and weight.
Also key is weight distribution. If some areas of the hair are really thick and you can remove some of the weight in order for it to sit well - we try to work in rectangular shapes. says Paloma
At the same time, I always work to accentuate my clients favourite facial features through the shape.
IN SALON TREATMENTS
Your hair and how you live with your hair is such an individual thing. There is no "one size fits all" solution for all hair types so us spending time together to really understand your hairtype and desires and needs is truly time well spent.
Once we have agreed on whats best we always wash, treat and massage your scalp but can also create individually suited treatments to best address your hair type and condition.
Intense in salon treatments are always a fantastic way to give your hair a professional boost but maintenance at home and treating your hair with love on a daily basis will always provide the best long lasting results.
AT HOME ROUTINE
A couple of simple tips can make all the difference at home.
When possible, get professional product recommendations from an expert, most often your hairdresser. They know you and your hair better than most.
Once you have the right products, think of these simple points.
Try not to over wash your hair. Around 3 times a week is usually a good amount
Every 3rd or 4th wash, us a deep cleansing shampoo to help remove pollutants, and build up.
the Davines, Solu range is perfect for this.
When washing your hair, wash 2 times. Don´t expect a lot of lather during the first shampoo, the first shampoo is to cut the grease and build up and the second to wash it away. You will always get more lather during your second shampoo.
Before you condition, remove as much moisture as possible either by hand or with a towel. Too much water when adding conditioner prevents best absorption.
If you have time, leave the conditioner in for a minute or two.
Conditioner can also be used as a styling aid so if you feel like you would like a little more texture to your hair when it dry´s, only rinse about 75% of it our and leave and toch through your mid-lengths and ends. This can help with texture and reduces fly aways.
A very important rule to know when aiming at acheiving wash and wear hair is, when to brush your hair: You should never, ever brush your hair after the shower. It disturbs the hair and puffs it up. If your hair is particularly knotty, detangle it before you wash it.
Otherwise, brush through your conditioner when you’re in the shower. Once the water stops running, you never brush or put your fingers through it again. That’s a game changer.
For cleansing, you need to determine whether your hair requires protein or moisture, and your shampoos and conditioners you use should be based on that. Ask your hairdresser for the best advice.
After cleansing and conditioning, there are two opportunities to add styling products into the hair, and the rule is: wet products on wet hair, and dry on dry.
When you get out of the shower with freshly washed hair, you can add in extra hydration with leave-in conditioners, porosity equalisers, or curl enhancing products - your wet products.
STYLE
Paloma recommends the following when styling for wash and wear hair.
So, once you’re out of the shower and put through your conditioning or styling products, wrap it up in a towel for 10 minutes.
Then let it out and blow dry the front pieces, to get those smooth around your face so you feel polished. You leave the rest to completely dry on its own until it’s bone dry.
If you have curlier hair, take 1cm sections and twist them tightly all the way through to the ends, in the direction it’s already going, and let that dry completely. Once it is bone dry, you can break it up a bit with your fingers.
Curls and waves work in mysterious ways, but generally speaking the back of the head has the tightest curls and around the face is a bit haphazard and inconsistent. So you can also blow dry their fringe around the face and leave the rest to dry naturally.
We aim to reduce the use of heat styling at home as much as possible.
TREAT
At least once a week, give your hair (and yourself) a well deserved at home spa treatment. says Sarah
Try using a salt scrub detox shampoo for both healthier hair and scalp. This will help to remove build up, pollution and any other undesirables form your hair and scalp leaving them both feeling cleaner and in a natural balanced environment.
Find a treatment that works for your specific hair type. The best way to do this is ask your hairdresser, they will understand your hairs requirements.
For wash and wear hair, try not to over handle your hair, work with your natural hair movement and texture, apply to right products at the right stages of your hair routine and embrace the freedom and truly wash and wear natural looking and feeling hair
Youtime
Youtime Master Stylist
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