Posted on

Easy Christmas 2015 hairstyles

With party season almost here you’re probably organising your outfits, accessories and make-up not to mention wondering what to do with your hair! It’s especially hard to get ready straight from the office if that’s your last stop before the festivities so it’s important to be extra organised and have a few hair tricks up your sleeve. At Dominican Haircare we’re going to make it easy for you with four fail-safe easy hairdos to take you from PC to party in no time!  Obviously time is important so these are quick leaving you more time to concentrate on getting to the venue on time and letting your hair down (unless it’s been put up of course!)

Prepare

Firstly though, always prepare your hair so the morning of the party or night before, wash and treat your hair using our products to get the best out of them. This is especially important if you’re going to use heat as you don’t want to dry out hair or damage it.  Also make sure you’ve packed a bag full of hair essentials depending on the hairdo you want to achieve, pack your styling tools, hairspray, heat protecting spray and some moisturising oil drops to make sure your hair looks party-perfect.  Here are a few of our favourite products for pre-party hair:

  • Start with Argan Oil shampoo which nourishes hair and gives it unbeatable shine
  • Alter Ego Coconut Mask, following washing hair give hair an extra special treat with this replenishing, repairing and softening mask which guarantees your hair will look tip-top for the big night
  • Silicon Mix Leave-In conditioner this will make sure your hair is soft, supple and silky beautiful.  It conditions and shines and protects hair against chemicals, perfect if you’re going to apply heat
  • Finish with Silicon Mix Gotas Brillo hair serum to smooth down any unwanted frizz and give body and shine

So now for the fun part!

Easy Hairstyle Number One

For medium or short hair. Buy a faux pony tail to match your hair colour. Slick your hair back and use some hair serum to keep it in place. Tie your hair back and CLUP the pony tail in, secure with a fake hair band to match and you are ready to go in moments. It couldn’t be easier or less damaging to your hair!

Easy Hairstyle Number Two

For all lengths. Bring on the curling wand! A good quality ceramic or tourmaline wand will curl hair in seconds but make sure you use a heat protecting spray on dry hair first to avoid damage. Wands are better than curling irons as they don’t clamp the hair so less damage is caused. Section out your hair carefully and wind your hair round the barrel, hold for a few seconds and release. Repeat all over. Longer hair is best suited to a longer wand barrel and shorter hair to a shorter one! Add some sparkle with pretty crystal clips and you’re ready to go!

Easy Hairstyle Number Three

If you have long, straight hair and you’re wondering what you can do to make it look different – change your parting to a low side parting.  Take a generous amount of hair from the top of your head, lower the parting on the left or right hand side as you prefer so it sweeps over the side of your face, gather the hair at the base of your neck but pull it over to one of your shoulders (like a low side pony tail) and fix it in place so it cascades down one side.  You could add some curl here too using a curling wand or plait it into a chunky braid.  Spray it in place for a sexy, easy party style.

Easy Hairstyle Number Four

For medium and long hair. What about a messy top-knot?  If you have a lot of hair it’s easy to achieve.  Gather up all your hair into a very high pony tail and secure with a band.  Then take a donut band and place it over the pony tail.  Spread your hair over the donut leaving a shallow hole in the middle.  Gather up the rest of the hair that is around the edge of the donut and secure with another band, tucking in excess hair and fixing with clips.  Then loosen the top knot gently to mess it up a little.  Finish with some sparkly hair accessories and a spritz of hair spray.

Easy Hairstyle Number Five

For short hair. Fed up of your short hair? Change your hair in a minute by slicking it back.  It’s no fuss hair, just let your make-up tell the story.

Easy Hairstyle Number Six

For medium or long length hair, channel your inner hippie and divide your hair into a centre parting.  Next take a section at one side of the parting and plait the length.  Secure with a band.  Do the same on the other side then take the two plaits and loosely pull to the back of your head.  Simply secure the two plaits together at the bottom with a hairband and add a pretty accessory.  This is a laid back, soft approach and takes a few minutes.  You could use a curling wand if your hair is straight and you want more of a transformation.  Adding in curl gives a glamorous finish.

Posted on

The Effects of Chemical Processing and Your Hair

By now, you will be familiar with the term Chemical Processing.  It is an umbrella definition which encompasses treatments applied to the hair using chemicals.  So, it could be anything from a chemical perm, chemical relaxing (or straightening) or chemical hair dying.  However, while all of these treatments in the right environment can initially leave hair looking wonderful, over-chemical processing can result in catastrophic looking locks.  Your hair is your crowning glory so be wary of what chemical processing you choose, it’s important to make sure your hair is in the best possible condition before undertaking any of these treatments and to maintain hair health, you will need to use premium quality hair products.

Perms, straightening and hair dying is so common that almost all women in the UK use at least one of these chemical processes.  The more processes you have on your hair, the more likely it is to become dry, damaged and even broken.  In fact, if you don’t look after your hair in between chemical processes and you don’t understand the chemicals you are putting into your hair you risk hair loss too.  Over long periods of time, hair weakens and using the same chemicals on already weakened areas means you are putting pressure on the hair follicles and scalp, irritating them both and they can even shut down for a while until they are healthy enough to begin re-growth.

It is always wise to take a break from chemical processing every few months and get back to nature with high quality hair products to replenish, hydrate and re-build brittle, dull hair.  The question you need to ask yourself is do you understand the facts about all the chemical processes you use?  Dominican Haircare investigates and brings you all the information you need to know about chemically processing your hair:

Chemical Relaxers

Relaxers are designed to take the frizz and curl out of hair so it looks smoother and straighter.  This used to be the number one process for straightening hair until Keratin treatments appeared during the last decade.  They work by using chemicals which breakdown the natural protein structure of your hair and remove the wave or curl.  The problem is they get right into every strand and can be harmful because they breakdown your hair’s strength and suppleness.  They can also act as an irritant on your scalp.  If you want to use chemical relaxing then go to a very reputable salon, discuss your lifestyle and what you want to achieve and make sure your hair is in excellent condition before having the treatment.  You should never have this treatment on damaged, dry or broken hair because it will cause further damage.  Build up your hair’s strength using strengthening hair masks in the meantime and if you go ahead with this treatment, carry on using quality haircare products.  Recommendations for products to use if you undertake this type of treatment include the Silicon Mix and Nano Queratina range of hair masks or try our own relaxers which include Lye and No-Lye relaxers which are designed to eliminate any damage.

Chemical Perms

Similar to relaxing but the other way round!  A perm is for someone who wants curly or wavy hair but the chemicals involved can be damaging especially if your hair is already in poor condition or is prone to dryness.  Perms apply plenty of high heat to hair to bend it into a curl shape.  This heat dries out the hair’s shaft which leads to brittle texture.  The first or second time you perm your hair you might not notice any hair damage but if you keep applying chemical perms to your hair eventually you run the risk of hair breakage and extreme damage.  To keep your hair in tip-top condition when you perm your hair or to get it into good enough condition so it can take the heat try our Doctor Cabello Argan Oil range especially designed to fortify dry hair with all the nourishment and moisture it needs.

Hair Dying

Probably the most popular form of chemical processing, 69% of British women dye their hair but actually, chemical dying can cause terrible damage and irritate the scalp as well as causing an allergic reaction.  Never do it at home, only go to a reputable salon.  If you experience itchiness on your scalp, redness or scabbing then the dye you or your hairdresser is using is too harsh for your scalp.  It can cause blockage to the follicles which in turn causes breakage and slows down hair growth. It’s best to use organic where you can and check the ingredients for parabens and sulphate because both of these are harmful.  If you colour your hair it is vital that you keep it in good condition so give it weekly treatments, always wash and condition with a high quality shampoo and conditioner and finish off with serum to smooth down the hair shaft.  At Dominican Haircare we recommend Silicon Mix which coats the hair with silicon, protecting it from chemical processing and Biotina enriched with Vitamins E, B5 and coats each strand with Biotin for added protection.

For more information on haircare and hair news sign up for our blog updates.

Posted on

Introducing the Dominican Haircare Blog

We are very excited to be starting the new Dominican Haircare blog!  You can look forward to plenty of interesting hair industry news where we will explore what’s new and what’s up and coming.  We will also give you vital hair product information and hints and tips on the different chemical processes and how to avoid hair damage.  Of course, we’ll also give you professional hair style ideas, styling advice including the do’s and don’ts and take look at what’s trending so you’re kept up to the minute.  Every now and then we will give you all a very special offer code to redeem against your next purchase too so why not subscribe now?

The beauty of the luxury haircare products from the Dominican Haircare range is their suitability for all hair types.  It doesn’t matter if your hair is thick, coarse Afro Caribbean or Caucasian, fine or curly, short or long there is something for everyone and we take haircare very seriously.  We’ve tried and tested every single product, not just once either – we’ve used them over a period of time to truly understand the benefits and see the long term results for ourselves. Our brand is all about hair health, making your hair look and feel just incredible and giving you the confidence to shine!  Every product is high performance and it will come as no surprise that our products are often the haircare products of choice by the industry professionals especially in the USA and the Caribbean where they are market leaders.

So whether you have dry, dull and damaged hair or fine, flyaway locks, perhaps you are desperate to beat frizz and static or you’re worried about hair thinning -there’s nothing we can’t help you to achieve, it’s all about the Dominican Haircare products!  Each product is carefully infused and fortified with essential vitamins, packed with vital antioxidants and has specially selected proven natural ingredients known for their excellence in hair nourishment.  The results? Delivering phenomenal, head-turning hair with plenty of volume, softness and unbeatable shine often in just one wash!  Like we said – we are very excited about our blog because we are thrilled with our products.

So as well as using our products, you can look forward to a host of interesting hair-related subjects on our blog and fulfil your dreams of amazing, film-star hair.  We will be publishing something fabulously interesting weekly. Subscribing to our blog will ensure each topic arrives into your inbox as soon it is published so don’t forget to fill in your details to read about the following:

Blog Schedule

Next week we will be talking about the effects of chemical processing on your hair including hair dying and perms, and how to reverse any damage caused by these often harsh treatments.

On the 15th November we will be publishing ideas for how to style your hair for all of those Christmas parties you’ve been invited to and we’ve got some great hints on how to get your hair party-ready straight from the office!

We will also be reporting on what’s new in the hair industry so you know what trends are on the way and we discuss the differences between hair re-bonding and hair relaxing.

To complete the November series of blogs we will report on the current social media buzz around anything hair related.

Dominican Haircare sells direct to trade and we also sell direct to the public through our online shop.  If you want to know where you can buy the products locally to where you live, our dedicated customer services team will be able to help you.

Looking forward to you joining our blogging community – Watch this space!