It is important to cleanse the hair periodically, because hair attracts dust and pollution, and their presence can dull and clump the hair. So, shampooing is an important step, both hygienically and aesthetically.

When hair is wet, it is at its weakest and most vulnerable. Unfortunately, many of today’s shampoos use a harsh surfactant system to over-cleanse or “strip” each hair fiber — not exactly what you want interacting with your already weakened hair.

Furthermore, the act of shampooing forces the fibers to abrade each other, which gets even worse during rinsing. So, not only have you lost the minor amount of lubrication provided by the shampoo’s suds, but you are scrubbing your hair to remove the foam.

The most important tips for shampooing are:

•Use the tips of your fingers to manipulate your hair
•Choose a mild shampoo like No Frizz Shampoo or Full Shampoo
•Only lather once
•Rinse thoroughly

That is why Living Proof developed only sulfate-free shampoos like the No Frizz Shampoo and Full Shampoo. Both shampoos gently cleanse hair, and as a result, your hair won’t feel dry or brittle, but healthy and strong.

Most of us don’t have time in the morning to start from scratch and completely restyle our hair, but walking around the office all day with a baseball cap probably isn’t the most fashion-forward choice. What’s a girl to do?

Simple: use the No Frizz Restyling Spray. Just spritz No Frizz Restyling Spray on your dry hair until lightly damp. Comb through and allow to air dry.

For hair that is really bent out of shape, use a blow dryer and a brush (or a flat iron) to smooth and reset hair to its original style. Focus application and heat at the roots for added volume. This should take you only 2-5 minutes.

If your hair is curly, simply spritz on and scrunch with your hands to revive and defrizz natural curls. Use a curling iron to redefine top layer curls if desired.

Suddenly a problem that looked like it would take an hour to solve, becomes a non-issue within a couple of minutes! Do you have any other quick-fix hair tricks for those rushed mornings?

Bristle types

When looking for a hairbrush, you’ll most likely notice that the brushes are categorized into two basic bristle types: boar bristles and nylon bristles.

Boar bristles are typically densely packed and incredibly resilient, making them ideal for straightening or brushing through thick or coarse hair.

Nylon bristles are recommended for those with very fine or fragile hair. They are more flexible so they can glide through fine hair and won’t pull too much at tangles.

Basic Brush Types

Round barrel brushes
We recommend using a round barrel brush if you want body and volume from your blow dry. Choose the best bristle based on the information given above, and the barrel size based on your hair length: the longer your hair, the larger the barrel.

Generally, smaller barrels will allow you to add some curl to your blow out while larger barrels will give you a smoother look.

Paddle brushes
Paddle brushes are best for everyday brushing, but can also be used to straighten long hair. These brushes have more surface area, so they create a smoother, straighter look (tip: use a paddle brush before flat ironing for an easier straightening experience). Paddle brushes are not recommended for those who want to add volume, or style layers.

Look for paddle brushes with cushion (where the bristles are secured into a rubber or synthetic pad) if you have fine or fragile hair. The cushioned base creates more ‘give’ for hair to slide through without pulling or tearing.

Vented brushes
Vented brushes have openings that allow air to flow throughout the hair, adding body and speeding up the drying time. These are recommended for those in search of a quick, basic blow out. Don’t use them if you want to straighten or curl your hair, as they tend not to hold hair as well as other brushes.

• The most volume will be achieved if you have some layers in your hair, whatever the length is. Make sure to ask your stylist to give you some layers if volume is your top concern.

Don’t Overly Condition the Hair

• You certainly want to have your hair well hydrated, but be careful not to excessively moisturize with heavy masks as this can tend to weigh the hair down, especially if your conditioners have lots of oils and silicones. This weight may counteract the benefits of a volumizer or thickener, like Full.

Style with Heat

• Applying Full to clean hair and blowing it dry will maximize your volume. Air drying will give you texture and definition, but usually not as much volume as heat styling.

Remember That Different Products Do Different Things

• Full is a thickening product; it is not a root lifter. Cocktail Full with Full Root Lifting Spray if that is the look you want. And experiment — have fun with your hair until you find your favorite style.

Coloring helps

• For those of you who color or highlight your hair, this will give it added texture and will help give the appearance of more volume.

So, what are sulfates? Sulfates are strong cleansing agents that have been used in all sorts of cleaning products and detergents, including shampoo. Those against sulfates believe it’s too harsh on hair, especially if you color it. Saint Louis notes:

In May, on the ‘Today’ show, Anthony Dickey, a hairstylist, suggested that traditional sulfate-rich shampoos can ‘give color a bad name’ and create frizz. ‘All shampoos should be sulfate free,’ he said.

‘Everything should be,’ Hoda Kotb, the co-host, replied.

At Web sites like naturallycurly.com, consumers fret that the harsh sulfates in shampoos, commonly listed on labels as sodium laureth sulfate and ammonium laureth sulfate, have left their finicky curls a dried-out, poufy mess.

Later on, Saint Louis writes how not everyone is jumping on the sulfate-free bandwagon. She quotes Perry Romanowski, a cosmetic chemist, as saying, “Any time you expose hair color to water, hair swells up and some color can leak out… the shampoo that you use is not really going to pull color out appreciably more than anything else.”

The blog, “The Beauty Brains,” goes into why sulfates are used in shampoos and they believe that while sulfates do no real harm, using sulfate free shampoos is a more gentle option for your hair:

A potential downside of using sulfates is that they can dry out your hair and skin. Sulfate free formulas can be milder because they don’t strip the natural oils out of your skin as much.

Where does Living Proof stand? Both our No Frizz Shampoo and Full Shampoo are sulfate-free because at Living Proof we believe that beautiful hair starts with properly cared for hair. Both formulas were developed to cleanse thoroughly yet gently to avoid the stripping that occurs with some sulfate-based shampoos.

This innovative combination of our sulfate-free surfactant system with our gentle, nourishing formulas deliver healthy, beautiful hair without sacrificing that rich lather! To learn more, read about No Frizz Shampoo or Full Shampoo in our blog.

Blow dryer – If you have curly hair, make sure to get one with a diffuser nozzle so you can dry your waves or curls without ruining their structure. Your blow dryer should have at least 1800 watts and should have adjustable heat and speed. This blogging mom listed her favorite hair dryers.

Hair brush – There are many different kinds of brushes out there (something we can get into at a later date) but if you want to blow out your hair, it’s best to use a boar bristle round brush, preferably with natural fibers. Otherwise, a paddle brush is a good general brush to use, especially on long hair.

Wide-toothed comb – When we posted about the worst causes of hair damage, people were surprised at how the way you combed your hair was so high up. A wide-toothed comb is necessary to keep damage at minimum. The girls at We Heart This also recommend using a comb more often than a brush.

Bobby pins – Great to keep annoying pieces of hair hidden or just to keep a complicated look in place. Carry some around with you—you never know when they can be handy!

Hair claws – You can use them to section off hair when blow drying or for styling your hair either in a bun or halfway up. You can’t get more versatile than that.

Hair elastics – Raise your hand if you’ve been in a situation where you’ve looked to your wrist for a hair elastic and then started to panic when you don’t see one. Whether it’s because it’s getting hot or you just want to keep your hair out of your face, hair elastics are a must have.

These are just our suggestions; what would you add?

Like shingles on a roof, the cuticles overlap each other. Unlike a roof, though, there are actually seven layers of cuticle cells surrounding the hair fiber.

Try this: run two opposed fingers down the length of your hair starting at the scalp. Notice how smoothly your fingers travel along the shaft.

Now try to run your fingers from the tip of your hair toward the root. Feel the roughness? That’s because you’re moving literally against the grain, and feeling the microscopic edges of those seven layers of cuticles.

Teasing the hair, a styling procedure that “back combs” the hair, also goes against this grain, and when it was a popular styling fad, caused enormous damage by ripping off layers of protective cuticle.

The picture above shows a typical strand of hair. A lot more than meets the eye! (If you want to see the difference between a healthy hair strand and a damaged hair strand, check out these Scanning Electron Microscope images here!)

While autumn doesn’t officially begin until later in the month, we all know that the first week of September marks the unofficial start of a new season. Let Living Proof help you bring some of that summer ease with you into the Fall with the Living Proof No Frizz Restyling Spray!

If you’re a working mom, then you know how difficult it is to juggle getting yourself ready and your kids at the same time. If you want to spend less time on your hair, just spritz the Restyling Spray on your hair until it’s damp and then comb through and allow it to air dry. No more bed head; just fresh, shiny hair!

Tip: if you have a couple of more minutes to spare, blow dry your dampened hair with a round brush for a sleeker, less textured look! Feel free to refresh your child’s hair, just like My Sentiment Exact Lee blogger, Lee, does with her sons.

College students who sleep through their alarms and just have minutes to rush to their class (we’ve all been there!) can benefit from the Restyling Spray, as well. Not only is it perfect for those rushed mornings, but it can also drastically cut down the time it takes to go from your casual-class look to your going-out look.

Just spritz until lightly damp and use a curling iron to create some soft, romantic waves that frame the face. It can also provide texture to your hair in case you want to have an updo that night instead.

Has the No Frizz Restyling Spray helped your morning routine? If so, let us know how!

Shiny hair is an indication of healthy hair. So if your hair is looking a little dull, it might be a sign of some hair damage. Ironically, what many people do to make their hair look its best are the very things that erase a healthy-looking shine.

Frequent shampooing not only causes abrasion that chips and breaks cuticles, but it removes sebum, the naturally occurring oils that are partially responsible for hair’s shine. It’s best to wash your hair every couple of days with a gentle, sulfate-free formula. Tip: Living Proof’s No Frizz Shampoo is sulfate-free and actually helps repel dirt and particles to keep your hair cleaner, longer!

Combing, brushing, styling, and blow-drying too frequently also erode the cuticle surface leaving it rough and dull looking. We ran down a list of the worst things you can do to your hair. Find out if any of these procedures are keeping your hair from its radiant shine!

Some say your hair is only as good as the weather will allow it to be. If you’re in a humid area like Florida, you know exactly what this means. So we decided to look into the best cities for your hair. We looked at a list compiled by the ladies at Total Beauty and another one by the Farmer’s Almanac—each taking into account the amount of sunshine, heat, humidity, softness of water, etc.

10. El Paso, Texas – El Paso is incredibly sunny, rarely rainy and has very low relative humidity and the winters are rather mild.

9. Phoenix, Arizona – It has the lowest relative humidity percentage at 37% and is tied with Las Vegas for second most in annual sunshine percentage (85%).

8. Yuma, Arizona – It seems to never rain here. The average precipitation is 2.65 inches, only gets 17 rainy days per year, and it’s ranked first for sunshine with 90%. It’s also third least humid city in the US. However it gets incredibly hot!

7. Anchorage, Alaska – Weird, right? Yes it is incredibly cold but there’s soft water and very little wind and pollution which is very good for your hair.

6. Los Angeles, California – There’s a reason why all the celebs live here. There’s very little weather variation, little wind and practically no rain.

5. Las Vegas, Nevada – What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. What else stays put in Vegas? Your hairstyle thinks to very little rain (4.19 inches of rain per year) and sunshine 85% of the time.

4. San Francisco, California – While it does rain in San Francisco, it ranks first in least weather variety. It also has soft water and little wind.

3. Santa Barbara, California – Santa Barbara has very little pollution, very stable weather, and very little rain or wind—the perfect mix for a great hair day!

2. Honolulu, Hawaii – This hair is perfect for effortless, beachy hair thanks to clean air, soft water, and consistently warm weather.

1. San Diego, California – It’s hard to find anything wrong with this California city considering the weather is always sunny and comfortable. It’s also one of the 10 least rainy cities in the US. You stay classy, San Diego.