Q by Jessica: So, here is my question: I am 30 and recently gave in to coloring my naturally curly hair because of my ever increasing grays! I can’t have gray hair at 30! I love my natural color (dark brown) but the first time I colored it (to match my natural shade)I hated that it had no depth to it. Also, the curls seemed to loosen a bit and my hair just didn’t respond to my normal styling regimen. The next go around (2 months later) I decided to get highlights (first time ever) to get a little depth and feel a little summery. Now my once perfectly curled hair (not tight curls – just the right amount of ringlet) is kinky and drab and makes me ill. No pretty waves, just super irregular and weird. WHAT DO I DO?!? Is this something a deep conditioning treatment will fix? Do I have to decide whether I want curly hair or gray hair? Now I have major roots (and grays) but can’t decide what to do! HELP!
Thank you so much!

A by Reagan:  The first thing that I immediately thought was that it sounds like your hair was over-processed. Highlights are sucking out all the pigment, and especially since you had artificial pigment deposited on your already dark brown hair, it has to suck out a lot of color to lighten. Lifting that much can be damaging. I’m not trying to insult your colorist, but again, I think you were left in foils for too long, or the developer was too high. Color treatments don’t have to be overly damaging if you have a good colorist, and if you know what to ask for. Try to avoid drastic highlights that will blast your poor hair into a smithereen, and go for soft highlights toned to just a few shades lighter than your base. It will be less maintenance, and highlights are a great way to blend grays!

As for now, moisturize and condition your damaged areas and go easy on the blow dryer/hot irons until your curls are back to their bouncy, glorious ways!

PS don’t you guys miss the old Victoria? (pictured)

I have a client who texts me with all kinds of code words. I’ll get one randomly and laugh so hard. Here is an example of what one might say….

“Hey curlypants! Do you think you have time for scissorhands and a full monty this afternoon?”

Translation:

Curlypants=Reagan’s nickname
Scissorhands=Haircut
Full Monty=Blow out, Curling iron and set in pins (she takes them out later)

It makes me laugh and it also makes me feel like a secret agent doing super spy hairstyling.

I can’t believe you guys like my hair! I’ve gotten more than a few emails asking for my hair’s step by step.  I guess I can’t feel too cool, because apparently I have a very common hair texture, and it can take a little bit of time to figure it out. I flat ironed my hair every single day for probably 5 years before one day I accidentally air dried it and someone gave me a huge compliment. My head then immediately communicated to my hair the following conversation…

Brain- “Hey hair, what do you say we take it easy on the damage and 45 minute daily styling?”

Hair-”I thought you’d never ask.”

…And I (we) never looked back.

Here is my hair’s step by step:

Step 1~Shower. Maybe. I’m only going to say this once (except I think I’ve said this more than once) I usually shampoo once every 4-5 days. Please like me anyway.
Step 2~Towel dry.
Step 3~Apply product. I use all or some of the following: Redken Outshine (A cream), Redken Full frame (a mousse), Garnier Wonder Waves (a miracle spray of beachiness), It’s a ten (detangler and leave in treatment),  L’Oreal Proffessionel Architexture (a wax) and Redken Anti snap. I genuinely use all (and others on occasion) of these products. I’ll start out with a cream after I towel dry, then wonder waves spray or a mousse, then I continue to scrunch until the cows come home or until my hair is dry, then I rub some wax in my hands and scrunch again!
Step 4~Scrunch more. Just do it and stop complaining.
Step 5~Maybe blow dry my fringe (bangs) if I feel like it or need to. I’m going to do a bang/fringe tutorial soon
Step 6~Dance.
Step 7~Wear for 4 or 5 days with no regrets. And maybe use a little hairspray.

*guys, this was really hard (I swear I accidentally wrote “haird” when I meant hard) for me. I guess it’s because I do my hair different every day! Sometimes I leave the house with nothing in my hair, sometimes I use everything on this list. I guess I don’t like to be chained to anything, but these products I’ve suggested really are what have been consistantly great for me. I hope it helps and that you have all the hair success you always dreamed of. And if you don’t then I think you should repeat step 6.

Love,
Reagan

Also, please forgive the picture. I had a hard time finding a decent picture that wasn’t the side of my head.

I hope you enjoy our first tutorial and the little photo shoot we did in beautiful Charleston right after. Please, could Kat be any more beautiful?

Thanks to Jake for filming and editing, and for shooting the stills. Thanks to Kat for being the most perfectly gorgeous model ever and THANK YOU, HDOF readers for being patient! We have a few more in the works, I’m really looking forward to getting better at these, Haha! Meaning, please excuse my awkwardness during the intro, I somehow managed to make it look like I’m reading cue cards. I’m not. And I swear my voice sounds different in my head than it does on video, does anyone else feel like that? Next time I’ll practice saying “Unique New York” 100 times before hand.

**note**if you run the flat iron down more quickly, you’ll get less curl and more of a bend effect. Same goes for not turning the flat iron and just cocking your wrist all the way down, you’ll get a slight wave if you prefer that to what we do in the video. Keep in mind that the flat iron waves are meant to be shaken out and played with!

Q by Auro: I got (ummm … had) mid back wavy dark hair. Love it but mostly tie it in a bun on a daily basis. On special occasions I open it out, run a curling iron through it and feel fabulous
So I have been toying with the idea of chopping of my hair.  Have done so two times in the last 10 years. Love it for a month or two and then can’t wait for it to grow back.
Anyway – fast forward to yesterday. I went in for a hair cut armed with pictures of long, medium, short styles and one that I did not quite like. Discussed it with my hairdresser and we decided to keep it long but shape it up so that it looked changed.
By the time she was done it was by my neck. She styled it and it flipped and looked exactly like a photo I told her I did not like Anyway – in the heat of the moment I decided what the hell, just chop the back so it does not look flippy like that !!
Now I have short hair And I sit her shocked and stunned 24 hours later. My husband is quite amused by my reaction and tells me its just hair ! I know there is no magic pill and I know it will eventually grow.
But is there any advice you have in the meantime. What would you tell a client ?
I know I am being super vague here – but as you see I am emotionally scared
Much love,
Auro

A by Reagan: I bet a hundred people will read your question and cry and nod their heads because they are or have been there with you Auro. I am still in the honey moon phase of short hair, I am LOVING it, but let’s be honest, it wont be for long. Soon I’ll be pulling on my hair and brushing it 100x on each side in attmepts to stimulate my hair follacles so they’ll grow faster.

Here is a short list of ways to get your hair back.

~Keep it healthy. As healthy as possible. Dry, damaged ends will break off, making your hair shorter! K?
~Get regular trims. I like to yell at my clients *I don’t really yell at them ever* when they refuse to cut their hair because they are growing it out. If you keep, nice, healthy, moist, blunt, lush ends, they will continue to grow DOWN instead of damage and dry-ness growing UP your hair shaft, breaking off inches of your hair. That is where the confusion of “cutting you hair makes it grow faster” comes from. It doesn’t actually make it grow faster, it just ensures it will continue to grow in the right direction. Your hair will end up the length you want to achieve more quickly if it is (say it with me) kept healthy! Woohoo! Team Healthy Hair!
~Deep Condition. Buy a good deep conditioner at a salon or beauty supply and use once a week or every other week. Leave on for 15-30 minutes before rinsing.  Again, keeping hair healthy and preventing damage.
~Find a stylist you trust. There aren’t many things more frustrating (when it comes to hair) than having several months of growth cut off because the stylist doesn’t understand the difference between a 1/2 inch and 5 inches. It has happened to me. It has probably happened to you. PS I dont do that to people. It is my goal in life to be a trustworthy stylist.
~Comb, Massage and Brush hair. You thought I was kidding about stimulating your hair follacles. It’s a real thing! If you stimulate them, they produce more quickly. Before showering, brush your scalp medium to hard with a bristle brush to loosen up any buildup on the scalp and to stimulate those little guys. Top it off with a clarifying shampoo every few weeks. (never over do the clarifying shampoo!!)
~Finally, talk to your hair, tell it that it’s doing a good job. Tell it you’re proud of it. Caress it. I don’t know if that helps. But it’s just one of those things that is like a “why not?” sort of situation.

Hey, do you guys want to sit back and covet some pretty hair with me? Nothing like starting out your day in seething jealousy!

Dont cry guys. Your hair will be long soon.

Sorry I never credit my photos. I need to work on a better photo storing system…

Q by Mikaela: I have long (as in mid/lower back length), fine, VERY straight strawberry blonde hair. I love that it always looks smooth, sleek, and shiny, but I feel like I can’t do much with it. It doesn’t really stay curled or braided, and I feel like I’ve exhausted the option of headbands and such. Can you give me any advice about hair styles I can try, or maybe some products I could use that would help? I suppose I’m just getting tired of wearing my hair pretty much the same way all the time.

A by Reagan: My first thought after reading this question is that I’m wondering why you can’t braid your hair. The only thing I can think of is that maybe it is too slick and slicks it’s way right on out of that braid. The best advice I can give you, is to use product like crazy. Got it? Like crazy, Mikaela! I’m talkin’ root lifters, mousses, waxes and texturizing sprays. Your hair is too soft and silky (who would have thought that is a bad thing? It’s not, but we need change sometimes!) to hold styles, so you need it to be dirty and grippy.

I would start out with a root lifter and/or a mousse. This should be done on towel dried hair. Then spray a texturizing (like the Garnier wonder waves I talked about a few posts back) all over. If you are doing this on dirty hair, nix the mousse and just use a texturizing spray and root lifter then mush around with your fingers (make sure you are getting it in evenly and not over dosing on product. Once your hair is dry, rub a small amount of wax together in your hands and run through your hair. By now, your hair should have a good amount of grip. Braid away, my love!

And if a regular braid still isn’t holding, try what I call a “mermaid braid”. See below. I often do this braid in many variations. I’ll do identical to the picture, or I’ll do a center part and braid both sides. There is absolutely no reason your hair shouldn’t hold this. Especially if it’s secured at the bottom with some heavy duty criss-crossed bobby pins.

Next thing, when using a curling iron, use a much smaller barrel than what you’re going for. Maybe that is a 3/4 inch just to get loose waves! Try wrapping the hair around the iron instead of clamping it. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, and it creates a really beautiful curl/wave. Do this after you’ve used all the above products (minus the wax). Go get ‘em Mikaela!

Q by Melissa: So I’m totally with you on not washing–sorry–shampooing my hair every day, but I don’t have awesome big wavy hair. I have very small straight hair, and frankly two days is really pushing it. On day two I pretty much have to ponytail or braid it because it’s too stringy to be decent. Is there any way to extend the time between shampoos if your hair is super straight and thin?

A by Reagan: As you know, with fine, small hair (btw I love you for calling it small) you can’t get away with as much. The best thing for you is to get regular trims to avoid stringy ends. You want to avoid a hair cut with too many (if any) layers or face framing. Try out bangs to give you some style (see? Bang pusher!), and use products to trick the rest of the world of your fine hair. Volumizing mousses, root lift and really REALLY rinse out your conditioner.

Back to your real question…use a dry shampoo if your hair gets oily on the top. Once I worked on a runway show where I learned that dry shampoo is actually a great volumizing technique. We sprayed it in already clean hair to give it extra grip. If you haven’t noticed, I love dry shampoo with every bone that I’ve ever heard of.

Since your hair gets stringy, My best suggestion would be to play with the ponies and braids that you do. Do something interesting so that you aren’t feeling like you didn’t do your hair that day. Isn’t the picture above gorgeous? Do something like that Melissa! What are you waiting for? Sorry if I’m yelling. I just feel like I need to stick up for pony tails (or us girls with short hair who have Panda tails). I think pony tails, braids and buns can be a beautiful, sleek style and not just what happened because we’re rushing out the door. Also, I don’t know if you have bangs but if you don’t, you should get them. Bangs make a pony tail especially cute.

If you insist on wearing your hair down (which I’m not judging you for if you do), just doing a quick once over with your blow dryer and round brush to freshen it up.

My number one recommendation to fineys is to get a regular trim.

Q by Andea: Is there a limit on the number of questions I can ask you
I cut bangs and I don’t like them.  They are cut in a triangle shape (that’s the best way I can describe it, since you do hair you probably know what I mean) and they are getting too long to really wear as bangs anymore.  When I don’t have bangs I like to part my hair really far over on the side, but now when I do that I get long hairs mixed in with my non bangs and it looks weird.  Is there some way I can tell my stylist to cut it where it won’t look weird while it grows out?

A by Reagan: This is actually a question that a lot of people can relate to. I call myself a “Bang Pusher” because when my clients are getting tired of their hair, I often recommend bangs. Bangs really change your look, but they grow out pretty quickly and can be styled a lot of different ways at each length/stage. I am always prepared for the chance that they might not like them since it is such a big change, so here are some ways to help grow them out!

Ask your stylist to part the bangs in a half circle instead of a triangle. I often cut bangs in a triangle-ish half circle combo myself, because I know how fickle I am with my own parting throughout my day to day styling. The half circle will help it with the blending into the rest of your hair.

Start the framing or angling higher up. Tell your stylist to start the framing (if there is any)  closer to where your bangs end so there wont be so much of a disconnect…making your long bangs look intentional instead of screaming “I’m growing out my bangs!!”.

Lots of texture in those bangs. Make the ends nice and soft. Blunt looks weird when growing out.

Have your stylist cut your bangs dry. It is a much more accurate length since wet will shrink up so much after dried. I am a dry bang cutter. And proud to say so.

Last but not least, try parting your hair in a diagonal, instead of a perfect line so that it starts with a heavy part, but ends up being a center part the further back it goes.

*there is no limit to how many questions you can ask. wink.

ps I hope this answer is easy to understand. I was visualizing a lot of stuff in my head and just writing it down as fast as possible. Like I couldn’t write fast enough for all the ideas. You know that feeling?

Also, bang blow drying is going in my “tutorialize” basket. you guys are in for it…

Q by Tarryn: I’m wondering what I should be putting on my hair (especially for protection) before I straighten it with a flat iron. What do you recommend? Right now I’m using Argan oil and a leave-in conditioner although I often put the oil in after my hair is straight. Thoughts? Thanks!
PS- I just noticed the super cute shirt you’re wearing in your pic looks exactly like the one I want from Urban Outfitters. Is it the same?
A by Reagan: As far as post-shampoo products, I think you’re doing great Tarryn! Pat yourself on the hiney for me for doing a good job! Or back…

Leave in conditioner and any kind of oil are a great way to add moisture to hair you are doing mechanical damage on. Especially a flat iron. The only other product I would recommend is a deep conditioning treatment once every few weeks or more, depending on the shape your hair is in. You can buy a deep conditioner at any salon, or even just go in early to your next apt for the treatment. They are usually meant to be left on for about 15-20 minutes.

I’m glad you used the word “protect” instead of “repair”, because the only way to repair damage, is to cut it off! It’s a shame, because so many products claim to repair broken or split ends. That is why a good conditioner, leave in, and moisturizing products make such a difference. They often have proteins in them that can strengthen the hair to prevent damage.

Another great question!

Yes, my shirt is from Urban Outfitters

BTW this picture of Giselle doesn’t have much to do with anything, except for that she has amazing hair.