Long Hair

One of the first things people say when they sit in my chair is that they want to keep the length of their hair. Lets face it who doesn’t want long hair.

This is great and I am all for long hair, but an important thing you need to realise is that if the hair is damaged, split and wispy it’s not beautiful and that damage will slowly creep up the hair shaft eventually destroying your whole hair.

It’s easy to say that hairdressers are scissor happy and just want to cut long hair off, but nothing could be further from the truth. I love long hair and specialise in cutting long hair. But I also like beautiful hair and there is nothing beautiful about damaged hair.

Regular maintenance cuts are essential if you want to keep your hair in good condition. As you can see in the photo, one good cut to remove the fine damaged hair will make it look healthier, thicker and longer. It will also appear to grow faster because that damaged hair is constantly breaking off and that’s why it never seems to grow.

The next important thing is to be doing regular treatments for your long hair. I always treat the hair after it is coloured in the salon, but you should be doing weekly treatments at home as well if your hair is coloured.

Long hair can also tend to be dry so moisturising shampoo and conditioners are a must to maintain those beautiful locks. If you are straightening your hair you also need to be using a thermal protector every time! I would also suggest an iron that has temperature controls, some of the more well known brands have one heat setting and that can be damaging long term. As a guide if your hair is natural and medium to coarse then set your iron to 210 deg. If you colour your hair or touching up a previous straighten then set your iron to 190-200 deg. Any hotter than this it will fade your colour. If your hair is fine or highly bleached then I would suggest setting your iron to 180-190 deg.