Your cut and style shouldn’t be impossible to maintain!

Last week, I was chatting with a friend who was asking for tips on how to style her hair at home. She said she found herself desperately searching all the latest fashion magazines and Pinterest boards for easy how-to styles that she could “just make work” with her hair. She said she felt clueless when it came to styling her own hair and thought she looked like “a hot mess” most of the time.

My friend was shocked when I said this but one of the best kept secrets of the salon industry is low-maintenance looks! Truth is, if you have the right cut that suits you and are comfortable with your style, it shouldn’t be impossible to recreate the same salon-look once you get home. Our best styling tips and tricks are easy to recreate in front of your own bathroom mirror.

What’s the secret to beach waves? A perm.

No, really! Perms aren’t like they were in the old days. Remember when they were just a stinky mess and no one wanted to even be in the same salon with someone getting one? Ugh. I can still smell it just thinking about it…. Things really have changed though. Perms are the best way to get a boost of body, loose curls and a super easy wash-and-go look. Heather was recently in my chair and wanted just that. Her natural texture is rather straight, but she was looking for more of a fun style that she didn’t have to spend hours styling with tons of products. So an odorless perm gave her just that!

Can fine hair look chic without looking flat? Absolutely!

Just because Ella’s hair is fine doesn’t mean she has to be confined to a specific look. She wanted a “reverse bob” but was nervous about the contrast being too dramatic with her fine hair. Obviously, no one comes to me and says, "I was thinking a reverse mullet would look nice," but a slight forward bob adds a lot of style. Adding some blended layers is great for fine hair as it gives more "umph". Mix in a touch of natural highlights and her style is easy to maintain for weeks-on-end.

On the other end of the spectrum, having a head full of thick hair can also be tough to manage. Liz, for example, came to me with a style she had been wearing for years but since she has so much hair it was just too much. She wanted a fresh look but also needed to know how to style it once she left! By giving her a cut that pushes away from her face, it actually lifts her face and brings out her smile. All I had to do was show her how to style it at home. And that was the easy part! Liz already had all the tools she needed at home….and had been using it for years!

Everyone owns a hair dryer. Right?

Most people don’t even realize that they’re using theirs all wrong. Lots of my clients have told me that they only use their dryer to actually DRY their hair then use some other form of heat to style it…a flat iron, curling iron, curling wand. You know, MORE HEAT! We all know that adding more heat only dries out your hair. It really doesn’t have to be that way! Definitely use the heat setting to dry your hair but then use a quick shot of cold air with a round brush to “set” the hair in place. It’s a quick way to get the same results that we used to spend HOURS on end with hot rollers. Less heat. Less time. Fewer tools!

In the end, I really feel like you should be just as happy with your look when you leave my chair as the minute you left! Life’s complicated enough, your hair shouldn’t be a frustrating piece of the puzzle to maintain.