4 Simple Tests to Check Health of Your Hair

Hairdressers are trained to use four simple tests to identify the health of your hair. Here they are, so you can do them for yourself and keep tabs on your hair's progress...

1. Pull Test
2. Elasticity Test
3. Porosity Test
4. Split Ends Check

  While the idea of leaving your hair unwashed for weeks on end is a classic tenet of bad curly hair advice, there is something to be said for going a little bit longer between shampoos, if not washes. Is there a difference?        Sure...

                 Why would I shampoo less?

Most shampoos are sulfate-based. Sulfates are usually the most effective cleansers, which is why they are used so widely in the cosmetics industry, as well as a range of other sectors. The downside of sulfates is that most of them are composed of very small molecules that can abrade the hair shaft if used too frequently. That risk is multiplied when the product is used on naturally dry, fragile hair; a description which fits most textured, tightly curled tresses. Contrary to popular belief, non-sulfate shampoos can sometimes be harsher on the hair than their sulfate-containing counterparts, due to many manufacturers using high levels of other surfactants to make up for the absence of sulfates and their special cleansing powers.

                                                doing waaaaaayyy too much?

Applying twenty products, curling, twisting, braiding combing, blowing, tonging your hair-then girl your doing waaay too much!

So much, in fact, that your probably damaging your hair, clogging your scalp, and tearing your strands.

Your hair needs care and attention- yes- not over indulgence. Hair needs to rest, air to breathe gentleness. Even combing out daily is too much, in fact, after freeing your tresses from fallen hair that sticks around create tangles, the least you comb maybe to the better health of your hair. 

So, here are 3 protective styles that help you love, care your hair; into fullness, health and long desired lengths.

          Ways and Reasons to Successful Blowouts

In the Dominican Republic, conditioning treatments are applied like clockwork, every week at the salon, where women often spend hours being pampered and beautified while socialising with friends, family and neighbours who also share their steadfast commitment to keeping themselves beautiful. Hairdressers are regular and efficient with trims and their customers oblige; they can see that their hair is growing lengthy and lush as easily as they glimpse the flashes of silver as the stylist puts the shears to work. It's as essential an element to their results-based beauty regimen as the multiple applications of conditioner. Speaking of which, even when Dominican hair is done at home, the routine doesn't alter. Usually, there are not just two but four or five conditioning steps; sometimes including a pretreatment which takes the number up to five.

                                                                    BUT WHAT DOES IT DO???

Part II: The case for growing but never trimming


FACT: Trimming doesn't grow your hair. Growth happens at the root, below your scalp. It's illogical to assume that something that affects only the outer, dead part of your hair would impact the active, vital biochemistry going on within your follicle. You may be one of the many who have grown impatient at trusting the trimming cycle after months, or even years, of no discernible increase in growth. Many women complain of scissor-happy stylists keen to cut off the progress they have made at every visit, while promising them that this is for the good of their hair. The fact of the matter is that if you cut off more hair than is growing, you're not going to get longer hair.

Those of the no-trimming perspective argue that the most effective way to keep your ends in good condition is to do exactly that; focus on caring for the length of your hair so that it doesn't get damaged, rather than relying on cutting it off after the fact-once the damage has already been done. They advocate regular deep conditioning, sealing, protective styling and ultra-gentle handling as the path to greater length.

But are they right? Is that enough?

                                 USE THE CHECKLIST TO DECIDE IF YOU NEED A TRIM OR NOT. . .                          

Part I: The case for breaking out  the scissors



When it comes to damaged ends, there seem to be two camps, polar opposites, each defiantly extreme in their approach towards the delicate tips of our hair. One, the hold-on-to-your-length-at-all-costs brigade is composed of women desperate to maintain or achieve long hair, even if most of that length is confined to tapering, see-through wisps in sharp contrast to thicker hair further up the shaft. The other, the snip-off-those-splits-on-first-sight squad is on a never-ending mission to seek out split ends, chopping them off with a vengeance wherever they find them. So who's got it right? As is typical in tightly curled, textured haircare, the answer here is tricky; let's lay out the case for each side:

                                                                The case for breaking out the scissors: