How to avoid making mistakes in the choice of hair care products?
Currently, almost all the most popular hair care product brands are available in Latvia and sometimes it is hard not to get confused when you’re looking for the one that suits you best. In this article written especially for the KOLONNA blog, the KOLONNA beauty care salon chain’s senior hairdresser Andris Melentjevs and AS Sirowa Rīga Salon Professional Hair Cosmetics Department Manager Artūrs Dedzis explain how to choose the most appropriate hair care products to give you beautiful and healthy hair.
The most popular hair care product brands in Latvia
Right now, all over the world including in Latvia, personalised hair care products that perform a specific function are becoming increasingly trendy. These are professional care products with innovative ingredients that shape hair volume and moisturise, protect and rejuvenate the texture and composition of hair. Compared with the multifunctional hair shampoos, lotions and conditioners that can be bought from various store chains, professional hair care products are often more expensive, but provided that they been selected wisely, they are almost always much more effective, and the result is more durable.
“In contrast to the impressions that often exist within society, as far as cosmetics and body care are concerned, Latvia is on a par with beauty care metropolises like Italy, France or the United States. On the contrary, our market is overflowing with various hair care products and brands from all over the world are available in various price categories. Looking at the most popular brands in Latvia, for several years now among women and men who care about the health of their hair, German luxury brand “System Professional” products have become the first choice, offering thousands of different combinations of which even the most demanding customer will find the solution they require,” says AS Sirowa Rīga Salon Professional Hair Cosmetics Department Manager Artūrs Dedzis commenting on the most popular hair care brand.
“Most specialists recommend their customers to use the world famous and reliable professional hair care brand “Wella Professionals”. This brand has many specialised lines with products containing natural oils, without sulphates, products for dyed hair, for shaping hair volume, for hair rejuvenation, as well as for variously textured hair, in other words, thin, thick or curly. If a person has thin hair, which can be a natural trait, as well as in the case of women after giving birth, the best results will be provided by the professional hair care brand “Nioxin”, which for over 10 years now, has been ranked first in US stylists’ awards in the product category intended for solving the problem of thin hair. In Latvia, lots of celebrities use this brand’s products and absolutely refuse to swap them for anything else. However, a carefully chosen brand does not offer you a guarantee that if you use its products your hair will immediately become shining and healthy. You have to be just as careful as you are in choosing a brand, when it comes to selecting and using the right care products,” continues Artūrs Dedzis.
Products that should be included in daily hair care treatments
“In recent years, there have been positive trends in hair care culture, because people have increasing access to quality information in magazines and on the Internet, while specialists are becoming better educated and brand products are simpler to understand. One increasingly hears that women use three or more hair care products to care for their hair, which seems like a lot, but in reality five is the minimum. In an ideal situation, a woman should have five hair care products on her shelf: a shampoo suitable for the structure and condition of her hair, a conditioner for daily care after washing, a hair mask to be used once a week or after every fifth or sixth wash, a stimulating or calming serum for the scalp - to be used as necessary, and finally a hair elixir with natural oils. Oftentimes, people tend to forget about the latter products, that is, hair care serums and hair elixirs, but they are very important, because healthy hair can only grow from a healthy and well-tended scalp,” says Kolonna’s leading hair care specialist Andris Melentjevs in reference to the most important products that must be included in daily hair care treatments.
Frequently made mistakes, and how to avoid them
“People make the biggest mistakes in choosing products by basing their choices on the appearance of packaging, the fragrance or just the reviews in Internet blog comments. Therefore, an important stage in the chain of obtaining healthy hair is the ability to find a trustworthy and professional specialist, who will be able to offer you advice and recommend hair care products based on individual needs. It is not recommended to automatically use hair care products that your “girlfriend likes”, because it is likely that the condition of your hair is completely different and requires a completely different approach to care. At the same time, it is not recommended to use heavy intensively rejuvenating products unless your hair has been chemically damaged by bleaching, hair colour removal or the sun. If you have healthy hair, you should use lighter, for example, moisturising products if your hair is thick, or boosting products if your hair is typically fine,” explains Artūrs Dedzis.
“When using conditioners, lotion and hairs masks, in order to generate the biggest possible effect, it is not desirable to apply them to wet hair. These products will give you the very best result if you use them on hair that has been washed and dried, applying the product along the entire length and ends of the hair, starting a few centimetres from the scalp. If you haven’t done this before, try it, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results,” says Andris Melentjevs explaining how to use these products correctly.
For years, the question of how often you should wash your hair has been the subject of debate among industry specialists. How often should you watch your hair? The answer is not unequivocal. However, it is clear that washing too often makes hair more fragile and can damage especially thin and coloured hair. At this moment in time, moisturising and rejuvenating products become vitally important components of hair care.
