hair apparent

Wassup Hair Lovers!!

As it heats up slowly here in NYC, sistas are unleashing their inner diva via great personal style and even greater--- fun hairdos!

Wassup, hair lovers!

As we shake things up over here at Hair Apparent, we intend to bring you the most innovative, relevant and fun hair blog on the web with industry interviews, stylish hair girls on the streets, celebrity trends, salon reviews and more!

This week I catch up with celebrity hairstylist Dana Gibbs of Danasloft.com.

Her fingers have not only created some of the most rocking celebrity hairstyles, but she double dips as a product innovator and salon owner.

Since we are in an..ahem.. "economic slowdown"...let's talk about ways to have healthy hair on a budget. There are tons of little things you can do to make home hair care more economical.

Make your own products

No need to spend hundreds on expensive products. A lot of great products can be made in your own kitchen. Here are some recipes from The World's Best Beauty Secrets by Diane Irons.

Shampoo- Add a tiny bit of baking soda to your conditioner and use as a shampoo. Add a beaten egg to your shampoo to strengthen hair. Make sure to rinse with lukewarm water.

Conditioner – Add one egg, 1 teaspoon of honey and 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Apply to wet hair, cover with cap and shampoo out.

Or, take an overripe avocado, mash up and apply to dry hair. Leave 30 minutes and shampoo out.

Or, take a cup of yogurt and apply to hair after shampooing. Leave on 20 minutes and then rinse.

Lastly, a good ole hot oil treatment never hurt anyone! Apply oil to dry hair and scalp and let sit overnight. Shampoo out in the morning and condition.

Until 10 days ago, I had never worn a full head weave -- much less, silky straight hair -- four colors, full bangs, shoulder length weave. Now, before I go into the screeching BMW's, the Asian dudes with Jungle Fever and the brothers with a silky hair Jones, let me share with you my HAIRSTORY.

I've been natural before it was the "it" thing to be. Through the mid-90's til today, I've done all that can be done with natural hair -- twists, locs, afros, braids, cornrows, you name it -- I've had it. Prior to the return to my state of "happy when nappy," I had what some call a body perm also known as a Jheri Curl with a brief eighteenth month stint as a perm head.

Personally, the best thing about being a black woman (okay second to the booty) are the range of options we have with our hair. In less than a decade I've gone from a platinum baldie, to a Mohawk, to a 24-inch long Rasta fro to a full head silky weave. I absolutely love funky, avant-garde hair!

Being natural was liberating, spiritual, bold, frustrating, fun and many times funky. Two weeks before I was due to get the "mainstream 'do" a few of my clients, colleagues and home girls -- were lovin' my fro....I clearly remember days when responses weren't so positive.

Going back to my weave.

By Marcia Cole, Special to BlackVoices.com

Bobs are making a serious comeback in various shapes and forms. Our A-list stylists showcase two ways to rock this classic cut.

Hair by Dana Gibbs/The Montgomery Group

Photographed by Paul Brissman/courtesy AMBERmag.com
Styling by Daisy Lewellyn
Model: Georgette/Ikon Models

AMBERmag.com Wants to Know IS YOUR SALON A STAR?

You have styling skills. You know this. Your salon is fly.

This you know - and your clients know as well. And you are truly about your business.

Here's how to get more shine! Enter our Is Your Salon a Star? contest and show us what you've got.

Keyshia Cole has a thing for hair. Not just long hair, but fabulous, ever changing, multi-colored tresses. And how very lovely, that a gurl from the ghetto reps the hood to the fullest and makes magnificent art on top her 'haid in an eye-popping palate of crayola colors.

Keyshia Cole has done it all when it comes to her hair. Long, short, weaved, asymmetric, two-toned, highlights, and every shade under the sun. Some of us can relate to this perfectly. Some gals have tons of shoes, some, styles upon styles.

For Keyshia, reds and blondes are surely her best bet given her undertones (though I don't know if anyone else could have done that fabulous orange!). In short, Keyshia's hair STAYS changing. And we love it.

Courtesy Ambermag.com

Are you looking for ways to fatten up fine, thin hair?

Build body by using a volumizing mousse or root lifter as you style. Both can be applied on wet or dry hair to add thickness to limp locks.

For wet sets, apply mousse throughout damp hair and watch tresses thicken up as they go from damp to dry. For straight styles, use a root lifter before blow-drying to add volume from the scalp.

Take your look to the next level with these instant hair pick-ups from your favorite salons and drugstores. .-Mia Stokes

Click here to see which volumizers work best to boost your limp strands

Normally, guys who are 20 that look like 60-year-old men named Uncle Rufus, don't strike me as funny.

However, Greg Oden is quickly proving me (and the non-Golden Girls/BenGay market) wrong.

During a Sonics-Blazers game, Oden showed off his new haircut -- the ever so funky Mohawk -- and it certainly was the most entertaining part of the game.

He hasn't played an NBA minute yet, but it's hard not to like this guy, no?

Check out more celebrity mohawks/frohawks after the jump:

Shortly after I had my daughter my hair started to fall out. But only the front right side had become as thin as Nicole Richie, circa 2006. The rest was healthy.

A friend of mine suggested a weave until my hair grew out. I agreed a weave could be a good solution, but up until that very moment, my idea of weaves were for women who had had issues with their hair and I guess I had now become one of them.

So with my naive, narcissistic attitude safely stored in my Louis Vuitton Speedy bag, I proceeded to a high profile salon in Brooklyn and there began the tale of my brief addiction to hair weaves.

It all started with glued hair pieces to hide the front of the thinned out spot on my head. Then it quickly turned into a full glued head. When it was time for my next appointment, I pulled the glued pieces out while I sat in the cab, late but quickly heading towards the salon for the 10am appointment. Three weeks later, clumps of hair dramatically fell out.

"You didn't know you should never do that," my friend screamed when I told her how I permed my hair within 30 minutes of pulling the glued weave out.

I immediately went back to the salon and the unanimous decision was a full head of sewn in weave, shoulder length of course. Seven hours later (please feel free to ask any hairstylist why it takes 7 hours to do a weave, unfortunately I cannot answer that question) my hair was a little passed my shoulders, straight, thick and effortless. I loved it! I wrapped it faithfully ever night. I styled it with my trusty flat iron, curled it with steaming hot rollers and roller set it once a week with the Dominicans.

By Gennifer Miller, HealthTextures.com

Get great step-by-step advice on how to wrap your hair. Try these tips, and post your feedback below.

Video tutorial courtesy of HealthyTextures.com

By Gennifer Miller, HealthTextures.com

What is a Pre-Poo?

Pre-pooing is simply a pre-shampoo treatment, which is applied to the hair and/or scalp, left on for a period of time and then shampooed out. Some people like to apply oils (Olive, jojoba, etc.), conditioners or some combination of the two. For example, my hair tends to not like protein based conditioners so I use them as a pre-poo instead. This gives me the strength I need with out the dry feeling I usually get from protein conditioners.

Benefits of Pre-pooing

Pre-poos have many different benefits. Pre-poos often help protect our hair from the harsh shampooing process. The majority of the buildup we are trying to remove lies on our scalp, not our hair (especially if you are not using a lot of product). Our hair really only needs the conditioning aspect of the wash cycle. Using an oil or a conditioner can help provide a barrier between the hair and the harsh detergents in the shampoo.

In addition, pre-poos help condition the hair. It seems counter intuitive. Why would we put a product on our hair that we were eventually just going to wash out? Actually, conditioners and oil often work better when applied to dry hair. Think of a sponge. If you place a dry sponge on a spill, it will absorb more than if your placed a wet sponge on that same spill. Our hair reacts the same way, absorbing conditioner into the hair shaft.

By Gennifer Miller, HealthyTextures.com



What is Stretching?

"Stretching" is a black hair care technique that means simply increasing the time between relaxer treatments. Most stylists recommend waiting at least 6 to 8 weeks before getting a touch-up. However, some women prefer to "stretch" for 10,12, 14 weeks or longer.

Stretching is a great way to avoid overlapping, which is when the relaxer comes into contact with previously treated hair. Relaxers are only meant for virgin hair so when it starts processing already treated hair, it further weakens the strands and can lead to breakage.

In addition, touchups can be expensive! Stretching is a great way to save your hard earned money!

Lastly, stretching can help you reacquaint yourself with your natural African-American hair texture. Learning how to work with your new growth, instead of against it, may introduce you to new hair styling methods and techniques.

By Angela Bronner, Black Voices.com

Surprisingly, and in the lovely land of La La -- where long hair is almost as important as your driver's license -- short hair was the star at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. Whether it was razor cuts or something softer, many of our favorite celebs came out with sassy, modern and SHORT hairstyles. Could the full out weave be dead like hip hop, rock and neo-soul?

By Gennifer Miller, HealthyTextures.com

Ok so now that we talked a little bit about brushes and combs, let's move on to how to properly comb and brush hair. Learning how to comb and brush our hair correctly is very important because brushing too vigorously or too frequently will damage our strands. Here are some Dos and Don'ts!

DOs

-Always Always Always start combing from the bottom of the hair. Then, gradually work your way up to the roots. This ensures minimal breakage.

-When wet combing, do add some form of light product to make the hair more manageable like a serum or leave-in conditioner. This will help the comb glide over the hair more easily.