FAQ's

How fast does the hair grow?

Well, I get this question all the time. Hair grows at a rate of ½ inch to 1 inch per month. This means that in a year’s time, you can expect 6-12 inches. Now, that being said, in my experience as a hairdresser, there are very few people that grow 1 inch per month, instead most of us fall into the ½ inch per month category.

How do I get my hair to grow quicker?

There are two suggestions I feel are helpful. First, you could try adding vitamins in general or vitamins and supplements that are specifically geared for healthy hair and nails. The reason this could help is because our hair is a byproduct of our body. We ingest food and vitamins, and our body uses the nutrients in those foods first for our cells, organs, and energy, then some of the excess is what helps to make up the hair. The healthier your body is will reflect in your hair and nails.

My second suggestion is to brush your hair on a daily basis using a large paddle brush(my personal favorite is Aveda’s wooden paddle brush). But first, before going to town with your brush, make sure there are no tangles, then proceed by brushing from scalp to ends. This will accomplish three things, especially when done at the end of the day.

1. It will help to distribute your natural oils, that typically just stay at the root, to your ends. This is a natural shine enhancer!

2. The brushing motion can remove any dead skin cells of calcium buildup that rests at the scalp and that sometimes regular shampooing doesn’t clear up. This will free up the follicle to grow at an optimal speed.

3. The brushing motion itself will invigorate the follicle. While I am not for sure whether stimulating the hair follicle is actually going to increase hair growth, it sure does feel really great!

How can I retain my hair color longer?

This question has many different answers depending on what color your hair is, what color line you use, the level of peroxide used to achieve your color, or do you have home care hair color. But for now, I am going to try and keep it really simple. Most importantly, use a color safe shampoo and conditioner. These days, every product line seems to have a product for color-treated hair, use them! Also, watch out for products that are sulfate-free. These are great because they are extremely gentle, which in turn will preserve your color. The harsher products with sulfates is like allowing tiny grains of sand to eat away at your color.

Another thing to keep in mind is Summer, as wonderful as it is, it is detrimental to our hair color for three reasons:

1. Chlorine is our worst enemy and will definitely fade color. After swimming try a detoxifying shampoo to remove excess chlorine.

2. At the beach, salt water will also fade color. After a day at the beach, I’d recommend a deep moisturizing conditioner.

3. The sun, as much fun as it can be, will also fade your color. During the sunniest times of the year, I’d recommend to always use a spray on leave-in conditioner with an antifade complex to help retain your color.

Now for those of you using home hair color, when you are retouching your roots, I don’t recommend applying the color from root to ends every time. I know it’s probably easier to just put it all over, but there is a certain amount of peroxide in permanent and even some semi-permanent hair colors. The peroxide blows open the cuticle to allow the color molecules to work there magic, but if you keep applying that peroxide to hair that has already been colored you are just continuing to dry out those ends. So, when you are retouching your color, just apply to the roots. The healthier and stronger your hair is, the longer it will retain color.

How can I conceal my root between colors?

One great trick that I have seen is using make-up. Glo Minerals has a brow coloring product that looks like mascara. This is going to be better than actual mascara because there are much more color combinations and the product doesn’t apply as heavy as mascara. Just apply this to your part and maybe along your hairline and voila, your covered!

Another great idea I’ve seen is a product by Bumble and Bumble. I’m not sure what it’s called, but they come in many different shades and you spray it on, which I would also apply to the root of your part and hairline.

These two options are great because they are totally temporary and shampoo out the very next day. Beware of the products that say they are semi-permanent because a lot of times they have some peroxide in them and will shift your color a bit.

Other than products, a couple of tricks you could try, as far as styling, would be to have a severe diagonal part, this will help to conceal the root. Also, you could wear a scarf or a cute hat( I love these options, I use them all the time).

How long should I wait between colors?

Well, it depends on the type of color you are getting. If you are doing a permanent all over color, then typically you will wait 4-6 weeks. The clients that are doing 4 weeks, are probably very grey at their root or are very dark naturally and their target color is much lighter. The clients that are more on the 6 weeks cycle are probably not shifting there permanent color much farther from there natural.

Now, if you get just highlights, you can usually go longer, 6-12 weeks. The rule of thumb is the more highlights and the lighter the color, the more often you’ll have to do it. So if you hate to spend the time or money at the salon, you need to keep that in mind when you are deciding on a shade.

There is another type of color that by far is going to cost you the most amount of money and time and it’s called a blonde on blonde. This is basically when your natural is lifted a couple of shades or more and then you also get highlights. This color is absolutely beautiful, but this color is going to be a heavy weight on your wallet and time. If you go in knowing this, then more power to you, but if you would love to be one of the Jessica Simpsons of the world, then you just need to be aware of what you might be stepping into.