Forget all those in-vogue hair colour trends from 2018. 2019 is actually about ditching the dye altogether and going grey naturally.
At long last it seems that women don’t have to dread their first grey hairs and defy the signs of ageing. Instead, women can finally allow their greys to peek through and embrace their hair colour changing gradually to grey as they get older.
Let’s face it, there’s nothing wrong with grey hair anyway. At least, where men are concerned anyway. Whether men have peppered hair or a full head of grey, going grey is an acceptable reality and men often get labelled “silver fox”, denoting maturity and attractiveness. In other words, they’re considered to get better with age.
The same hasn’t always been thought true of women. Until grey hair dye stole onto the fashion scene a couple of years ago, that is. It’s a trend going nowhere fast because there are thousands of people looking for “grey hair” tips via search engines every month. As a result, grey hair is still making regular appearances on the red carpet and catwalk. Celebrities the world over are going platinum, making shades of white, pewter, steel and silver all the rage. Think Kim Kardashian, Pink, Rita Ora, Lady Gaga and myriad other A-listers.
With bottle grey so popular, another contributing factor to the trending positivity towards God-given greys is Clairol’s recent beauty campaign titled “Face your first”. A brave stance for a hair product supplier, Clairol urged women not to let society shame them for strands of grey in their hair but instead face their first greys with confidence. The ultimate message being whatever you choose to do – go grey, cover your roots or dye your hair bright pink – own it!
When you bear in mind the average British woman will discover her first greys before the age of 25, it’s a relief for women to show off their greys rather than resolving to cover up for all eternity. Why deny something as natural as your hair? Love your follicles for what they are, whatever their colour.
If you’re not quite ready to take the grey hair plunge and choose to colour your hair, ensure only the best products are used, select a reputable salon colourist and insist on pre-dye testing. If anything goes wrong and you suffer harm to your hair or scalp, we can help. Our legal team specialises in claims against hairdressers and do their utmost to secure the compensation deserved for your injuries.
If you subject your hair to strong chemicals, excessive heat, over styling and a myriad of other harmful forces, it’s practically impossible to avoid damage in some form or another. The easiest way to revive your hair is to cut off the damaged areas. Depending upon the level of damage sustained, though, this can amount to a substantial length which is heart-breaking if you love your hair just the way it is.
Before you resort to drastic measures and get out your hair shears or book a hairdressing appointment, we’re here to help you out with some handy tips about alternative, less radical methods of repairing dry, brittle, porous, lifeless hair.
As part-and-parcel of this advice, we also explain the causes and signs of damaged hair so you can try to steer clear of harm in the first place and identify symptoms on your own hair respectively.
To begin, then, what are the triggers to hair damage? In the main, damaged hair is the result of:-
Bleaching and dyeing: Chemicals are present in most hair colouring treatments, some stronger than others. Bleaching is, by far, the most harmful because it raises the cuticle and removes the colour pigment from the shaft. Your hair becomes weakened as a result.
Although less severe, hair dyeing isn’t totally harmless either. The aim of hair dye is to make your hair shaft porous in order to take on board the new colour. Your hair’s natural protective layer is stripped away, leaving your hair exposed.
Perming and straightening: With these procedures, you’re altering your hair structure to make it either curly or straight by applying chemicals that break then re-join the bonds in your hair. To change the properties of your hair, these chemicals go right into your cuticles which can be harsh.
Over styling: Brushing your hair too often, tying your hair up all the time and using too many hair accessories is bad news for your hair as well. Similarly, shampooing your hair more than needed gets rid of your hair’s natural oils. Heat is equally detrimental to your hair by opening up your cuticles, drying up moisture and damaging your hair shaft. It’s hairdryers, curling irons and flat irons that are to blame.
External forces: The sun, wind and cold have an adverse effect on your tresses. Other environmental factors play a part too. Think sand when you’re beachside, air pollution in the city, chlorine in the swimming pool and multiple other scenarios. If your hair isn’t adequately protected when it comes into contact with these forces, it’s in big trouble.
Bad hairdressing: If your hairdresser’s negligent and fails to perform pre-tests prior to chemical treatments, over heats sections of your hair during styling and / or uses blunt scissors, your hair and scalp are in peril. We’ve written about this previously. Access our earlier blog post here.
Next, how do you even know if your hair is damaged? Look out for these clues:-
Rough texture: The easiest way to know if your hair’s damaged is to hold it upside down and run the ends through your fingers. Does it feel rough to touch?
Dulled shine: Your hair shaft stops shining when your cuticles are damaged. Does your hair lack lustre and shine even after deep conditioning?
Split ends: Take a bit of your hair and gently twist it. Look carefully at the ends of hair that stick out. Are the ends split in two?
Lack of moisture: Damaged hair does not seem to be conditioned, no matter what you try which is a sure sign of damaged cuticles that are unable to seal in moisture.
Easy breakage: The tensile strength of your hair shaft reduces when the outer layer is damaged. Does your hair snap when you comb it or, worse still, if you run your fingers through it?
High porosity: As the cuticle is lifted, it’s much easier for moisture to pass. External moisture collects in the hair shaft and it starts to swell which gives your hair a frizzy appearance.
Too many tangles: Unlike healthy hair where the shafts are smooth, the rough cuticles of damaged hair get tangled up and result in knots. The dryness makes it hard to get these tangles out.
Finally, to get to the crux of the matter, here’s what you can do to fix damage to your hair, none of which involve having your hair chopped off:-
Avoid chemicals: These are your hair’s worst enemy. Do not use when your hair’s damaged. Approach with caution when your hair’s recovered. Choose solutions with only natural ingredients where possible.
Avoid hot styling tools: Put away your high heat-emitting styling products, let your hair dry naturally and try out styles that don’t require heat. It’s au naturel all the way.
Protect your hair: If it’s simply not possible to relinquish your hot styling equipment, make sure you use heat protection spray. In the same vein, you can’t live your life indoors, so use hats, scarves, swimming caps, leave-in conditioners or whatever the occasion demands in an attempt to be kinder to your hair.
Spot the warning signs early: The sooner you identify hair damage, the earlier you can start taking restorative action. Hair can be nourished back to health with oils and deep conditioners. Again, natural ingredients are best. If you’re late to notice damage, it’ll soon spread and, at this stage, you’ve got no option but get an acute haircut.
Get a trim: Even if your hair damage isn’t extensive, it’s a good idea to kick off the hair revival process with a trim to tidy things up. This will at least remove the sections of hair that take the strain the most: your ends.
Choose lightweight shampoos and conditioners: Opt for sulphate-and-other-chemical-free products with moisturising formulas that suit your hair type. It’s important to make the right choices as you’ll no doubt wash your hair at least twice weekly.
Maintain a healthy lifestyle: Consume protein-rich foods to nourish your hair back to health. The saying ‘you are what you eat’ is true. Eat a balanced diet generally and take regular exercise. When you’re feeling healthier and fitter, your hair will look stronger too.
Instruct a reputable hairdresser: Hair treatments should almost always be done professionally for a greater chance of success. Your hairdresser must be properly qualified, have insurance in place and use top notch products to keep your hair out of the danger zone. Don’t be afraid to ask. Your hair’s at stake.
At Hairdressing Claims, we regularly encounter clients who’ve suffered hair damage, hair breakage, scalp burns and scalp blisters due to lack of care on the part of their hairdresser. If you find yourself in this distressing situation, please contact our legal team in complete confidence and take the first step towards claiming compensation for harm caused.
Yikes, Christmas is only 8 days away! We’re here with some much-needed inspiration for perfect hair this festive season. As a different take on last year’s Christmas tips whereby we offered advice on up-dos, dye colours, accessories, loose-dos and male grooming for party-ready hair, this year we’re encouraging you to go crazy and make your hair the embodiment of Christmas!
So unleash your imagination, grab your styling products and take a look at our round-up of the most Christmassy hairstyles. Whether you want creative ideas for you or your children, from the simple to the intricate, we’ve got you covered…
This style looks complicated but it’s fairly straightforward as long as you have patience, steady hands and lots of clear elastic hairbands. There’s a 5-minute-long tutorial on YouTube which takes you through this creation in stages.
Go green and mould your hair into the shape of a Christmas tree complete with tinsel, baubles and star. Find out what you need and how to do it. It’s basically all about temporary colour hairspray and gathering your hair around a cone structure on your head with lots of pins and hairspray to keep it in situ.
All this style needs is a bun doughnut, hair clips, and decorative pieces for Rudolph’s eyes, nose and antlers. Read this step-by-step guide to learn how to achieve the look.
Following the same lines as Rudolph (above), use a mould to shape your hair into a square, pin into place, apply copious amounts of hairspray and add ribbons in the manner of a nicely-wrapped present. If you have longer hair, adapt and you can create a snowman too…
Deck your hair with red and green accessories to emulate a Christmas wreath. Discover what supplies you’ll need – ribbons, pins, clips and the like – and how to get the basic structure in place using an angel halo twist.
Simpler hairstyles
If you’re challenged on the hairstyling front, choose something simpler as an alternative. As red and green are the staple colours of the Christmas festivities, use some temporary dyes for vibrant rainbow hair instead of attempting any complicated hair-raising designs.
Even easier, why not pop to the shops and buy a special Christmas-themed adornment for your hair? There are all manner of hair accessories in various popular high street stores. You could even embrace your inner creative streak and make your own hair decorations.
Finally, not forgetting the male contingent who can dare to experiment with special seasonal hairstyles and unique beard attributes to really get into the festive spirit. The Hairdrome website has everything from Christmas trees and glittery colours to reindeer scenes and snowflakes.
The last thing you need in the countdown to Christmas is a hair disaster. Whatever your plans for the holidays, be it partying long into the night with friends or chilling at home with family, looking good is top of your wish list. When visiting a hairdresser, choose wisely and direct carefully. If doing your own treatments, follow instructions closely and don’t over-process your hair.
Should you fall foul and your hair’s ruined, contact us for professional, confidential legal advice. Our initial consultation is completely free. Email enquiries@hairdressingclaims.co.uk, call 0800 970 9102 from a landline for free, phone 0333 202 6560 from a mobile or complete our online enquiry form.
Alopecia is the term used to describe partial or full hair loss. It occurs on men and women alike. For both sexes, alopecia can cause psychological distress due to its impact on appearance and self image. This is an even bigger issue in today’s society which holds unrealistic and unattainable beauty standards, and bombards us with the ‘ideal’ of beauty on a daily basis.
That’s why we love this campaign called #Alopeciaisfashion, originally aired on BBC Radio 5 Live, which aims to make the condition more accepted in the world, challenge widely held perceptions about beauty and set new standards by giving a platform for models who’ve suffered hair loss.
Ultimately, it’s about getting other people with alopecia to feel confident by showing how everyone is beautiful in their own way regardless of whether they have hair or not.
When you consider that alopecia is estimated to affect 8 million people in the UK alone, according to NHS figures, the #Alopeciaisfashion campaign is a positive step forward in questioning the belief that the epitome of attractiveness is size zero, tall with long hair.
To digress slightly, alopecia has many causes including hereditary reasons, the result of stress and symptom of an underlying medical condition. The extent of hair loss and regrowth varies greatly from person to person.
What’s lesser known is that balding hair can also be the unfortunate outcome of a hairdressing appointment gone wrong. We’ve written previously about the impact of misuse of hot styling equipment, improper application of chemicals and general lack of care on the part of hairdressers.
If you find yourself in this situation and experience hair loss as a consequence of a visit to the hairdresser’s, help is available in the form of our expert legal team. We’re specialists in claims against hairdressers. With our support, you can secure compensation reflecting both physical and psychological damage incurred.
Contact us in confidence today. Our initial consultation is completely free. Email enquiries@hairdressingclaims.co.uk, call 0800 970 9102 from a landline for free, phone 0333 202 6560 from a mobile or complete our online enquiry form.
During Fashion Month – which saw Fashion Week take place at London, New York, Milan and Paris – we were checking out which hairstyles peppered the runways as spring 2019’s hot looks. It seems that next season’s all about bold, dramatic hair ranging from slicked-back up-dos and pastel colours to tousled waves and accessories galore.
Not only does fashion love nostalgia, with past trends making regular appearances decades down the line, so too does beauty. Hair specifically. The hair style that’s tipped to be spring’s biggest inspiration is the 90s blowout which is blowing your hair to a smooth finish with lots of natural volume.
Other hair trends made an appearance too. Check out this line up of the coolest trends we’ve seen and start practicing now so you’re ready to copy them in time for spring…
Contact us for further information and to start your claim. Email enquiries@hairdressingclaims.co.uk, call 0800 970 9102 from a landline for free, phone 0333 202 6560 from a mobile or complete our online enquiry form.
Victim suffers stroke after hair washing at the salon basin
As most of us adhere to a regular hairdressing schedule to keep our hair in good condition and maintain our preferred style, the process of going to the hairdresser’s every 4 to 8 weeks, year after year means it’s almost inevitable that, at some point, we’re going to experience disappointment with the treatment given.
Only on extremely rare occasions to an unlucky few, however, does an appointment with a hairdresser result in our lives being irreparably altered. But that’s exactly what happened to a 47-year-old nurse from West Lothian, Adele Burns, as reported recently.
The alleged cause of harm to Adele was the impact of the sink on the back of her neck when she had her hair washed six times during what was supposed to be a routine cut-and-colour treatment that went wrong.
You see, if not given adequate neck protection when having your hair washed in the basin at a salon, you’re at risk of experiencing what’s been called ‘beauty parlour syndrome’. By being uncomfortable and extending your neck backwards for a long period, the arteries in the neck can be stretched, blocked or even cut. This means the blood supply to your brain is stopped, causing blood clots and strokes.
Depending on where the stroke affects the brain, the damage caused can be both physical – with slurred speech and paralysis amongst the symptoms – and emotional – such as depression, anxiety and aggressive behaviour. The range is vast. Some stroke victims have minor issues; others suffer long-term debilitating outcomes.
Where Adele’s concerned, her life was “turned upside down” by being unable to drive, and struggling to speak, read and write. Because of this, she could no longer work and became completely dependent upon her husband so the couple were forced to sell their family home.
The salon, Rainbow Room International, was negligent in two ways. First, Adele wasn’t given a strand test which could have helped the hairdresser better understand how her hair would react to dyeing thus avoiding the need to repeatedly wash her hair in order to achieve the correct colour. Second, they failed to offer a front-facing sink or provide suitable neck protection on the backward-facing sink which could have prevented overextension of the neck’s arteries.
With legal representation, Adele is pursuing a £1 million claim for life-changing damages. This serves as a warning to salons who ignore their duty of care and to hairdressing customers who should know about possible risks to their health from maltreatment. It’s also a reminder to anyone who’s injured by their hairdresser to speak out, like Adele, and seek compensation too.
We’ve reported similar cases previously on our blog. Read our earlier post about £90,000 damages awarded for a salon shampoo injury case.
If you’ve been hurt during a hairdressing appointment and would like some free initial legal advice about your next steps, contact our team in confidence today. Email enquiries@hairdressingclaims.co.uk, call 0800 970 9102 from a landline for free, phone 0333 202 6560 from a mobile or complete our online enquiry form.
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