Tag Archives: haircut

How To Stop Washing Your Hair Every Day

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Are you washing your hair every day? @WestrowHair tweeted a slightly gloomy and tongue-in-cheek article that carries the title, The 14 eternal struggles of having to wash your hair every day and with the subtitle, “I know it strips the hair of its essential oils, but it’s either that or I look like I suffer from the bubonic plague.” by Catriona Harvey-Jenner @CatHarveyJenner.

I fully understand that washing your hair every day isn’t necessarily enjoyable, but I was saddened by Catriona’s comment, “It’s not a choice you know.” I don’t know Catriona or her hair. I hope this reply to Cat’s article will get her thinking.

Greasy hair is a surprisingly big topic; it’s also a topic that I think about every time I cut hair (I’ll explain that later)!

Just in case you don’t know: the grease, sebum, is secreted through pores in your skin by the sebaceous glands – they’re all over your body apart from the palms and the soles of your feet. Sebum protects the skin from water (getting in and out), and is antibacterial and antifungal – basically, it’s bloody good stuff. Hair moves sebum from its roots to its ends V.quickly.

Washing your hair every day? My comments on Catriona’s article

I’ll follow/use Cat’s list headings – read her article first and then you’ll see where I’m coming from.

You have to wash your hair every day:
​It is perfectly OKAY to wash your hair every day. If you are washing your hair every day, are you washing it correctly? See: The secret of perfect hair: shampoo it CORRECTLY! Most of the people I know who have issues with greasy hair, and wash their hair every day, only give their hair one wash – you need to wash it twice!

Unfortunately washing hair takes time, plus it needs drying, the whole process could easily take an hour; yeah that’s a struggle every morning.

You get through a lot of shampoo:
When washing hair, always use the smallest amount of shampoo possible and wash it twice – More shampoo is never better. Make sure you’re using the correct shampoo for your hair type. Expensive, celebrity shampoos aren’t better – £3.99 or £39.99 there’s not a lot of difference; you don’t get what you pay for! However, you may stumble across an expensive shampoo that you really like and suits your hair, that’s a bummer. Don’t get taken in by all the hair and fashion industry bollocks.

You don’t understand how people can get away with washing it once or twice a week:
Washing ones hair two, three or four times a week is about normal!!! However, my grandmother (1906 – 1981) washed her hair fortnightly, and I used to wash my hair twice a day: in the morning before work and again in the evening after sports.

A lot of people wash their hair every other day, that means: washing your hair four times in week 1, and three times in week 2 (a 14 day cycle).

BTW, body oil, sebum, is naturally healthy! Greasy hair is healthy hair.

Yeah, we know it strips the hair of its essential oils:
Yeah, well, the essential oils, if that’s what you want to call them, are continually being secreted from the sebaceous glands. Washing your hair every day is not going to do any harm. Equating hair with essential oils is almost total bollocks – some people have little to no sebum, and their hair is perfectly okay. You could always use a minuscule drop of hair conditioner or Argan oil on the extreme ends?

And we’re aware it’s a habit we’ve got to break:
In my humble opinion: it’s not the habit of washing your hair that’s the problem, it’s the addiction to the feeling of bouncy, fluffy hair that is the issue – especially if your hair type and style wants to be flat and floppy.

If you want to wash your hair every day, that’s perfectly okay.

Festivals are a no-go:
Absolute Bollocks. Get stuck in. I was going to try and make a music festival joke quoting Cat’s, “greasy monstrosity,” but I won’t!

You’ve heard hair is self-cleaning:
That’s not strictly true – but in a perfect world it is. The problem is pollution; particulate matter, often very corrosive, that stick to the grease on the hair shaft and needs to be removed with a detergent/shampoo.

Work related particulate matter may also be a problem.

Dry shampoo just doesn’t cut the mustard:
Dry shampoo has its place, but it’s certainly Not for everyone – I’d say it works better on blondes! It can give some body to thin hair. Calling all brunettes: if you’ve got a problem with greasy hair, steer clear of dry shampoo.

Neither does ‘wearing it up’:
Chignons work much better on dirty hair, which is always an issue for brides. If you’ve got greasy Mel C bits hanging down over your face, you’re not doing it correctly – talk to your hairdresser for tips.

​You thought it was just a teenage phase:
At this point I’ve got to ask, ​’Have you got over active sebaceous glands?’ If you suffer from acne, you may have. Take a look at your diet and lifestyle. Stress, junk food, alcohol and cigarettes will fuck your skin and hair.

Hormonal fluctuations caused by menstrual cycle, pregnancy, menopause, illness and medication can/often cause an increase in sebum secretion.

Sometimes you can get away with just wetting your hair in the shower and not washing it:
For me this is a revealing statement. No shampoo in the house: use an incredibly small amount of washing-up liquid (it’s stronger than shampoo).

If you can get away with just wetting the hair, I really wouldn’t bother – rinsed and blow-dried hair is horrid, worse.

Baths are simply not possible:
Yeah, don’t wash your hair in bath water.

If we don’t wash our hair, we face leaving the house looking something like this:
No comment!

This kind of comment is just ignorant. IT’S NOT A CHOICE YOU KNOW:
No comment! But it is always your choice.

How To Stop Washing Your Hair Every Day

  • Get a new hairstyle – mingin looking hair is almost always caused by the wrong choice of hairstyle.
  • Identify if you really have got over active sebaceous glands (causes acne, see doctor). If you wash your hair in the morning and then it loses its bounce somewhere between lunch and dinner, that could be normal. Look at your hair type and style – talk to your hairdresser.
  • I said, “it’s a topic that I think about every time I cut hair,” that is because hair type is crucial to style – long, thin, naturally straight, fine, mousy-brown, greasy and damaged hair isn’t going to retain a bouncy and fluffy state past lunchtime. Talk to your hairdresser and get the correct haircut for your hair type.
  • Look at your lifestyle (stress) and diet; eat: peppers, sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, mango, papaya, apricots, blueberries, sardines, salmon, pumpkin & ground flax seeds, walnuts and wheat germ – I’m talking, lots of multi-coloured fruit and vegetables, oily fish, nuts, seeds and grains. Cut down on the alcohol, onions and garlic.
  • Product build-up may also be an issue (even some shampoos can leave a residue). The most common cause for dull, drab hair is product overload. Start by shampooing your hair with a clarifying, anti-residue shampoo, which should remove up to 70% of the residue left from hair products.
  • After shampooing, try giving your hair a final rinse with V.cold water; it will delay the flow of sebum. However, a hot blow-dry will reverse the effect, so keep that cool too – Heat makes oil flow faster (inc. central heating)!
  • Don’t use a conditioner unless the ends are overly tangled, and then only a very little on the tips.
  • Loads of fine, bleached highlights are brilliant for adding body to long(ish) hair, therefore enabling the hair to hold more sebum before it flattens.
  • Short hair tends to be much easier to cope with generally, obviously it washes and dries faster.
  • A great habit to get in to: pick a day of the week to get yourself outside in the fresh air, and don’t wash your hair – No hats please – Your hair will smell of ozone, lovely.

If you’ve got a question on this subject, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Why do only 17% of clients return to salons regularly

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Bruno's book of haircutting

PhorestSalonSoftware – @thephorestword tweeted during #hairhour:

Well it really is a staggering statistic – I replied listening to my gut feeling, “Quality of work?” And when I say quality of work, I’m thinking; why would a client who’s happy with her haircut want to change her hairstylist?

Jump back in time to the mid to late 1970s, I was working at Ricci Burns in the King’s Road, Chelsea, London and I thought that hairdressers in the provinces (everywhere outside London) were rubbish! Sounds very snobby, judgemental and biased – I know, but it was born out of some personal experience. My clients demanded excellence, their careers often revolved around their appearance, an inferior, sloppy hairdo would not have been accepted. On the other hand, the demand for a high quality hairdo in the provinces didn’t appear to be there; dare I say that clients in the provinces (the general public) wouldn’t’ve even recognised a good haircut in 1976 – yeah, I know that’s a massive generalisation, but what I’m talking about is a demand that drives hairdressing standards.

For me, this whole journey starts in the period between 1970 and the late 1980s, maybe it was when Vidal Sassoon created his line of hair-care products in the early 1970s? Most London salons had their own line of ‘self’ branded hair-care products for sale, but I think Vidal Sassoon was the first to go into major production (with Helen of Troy Corporation), selling in the USA and Europe in 1980. This was the beginning of celebrity hairdresser branded hair-care and beauty products. John Frieda, another big name in the UK, followed suit in the late 1980s. Today there are a plethora manufactured by global beauty companies like: Procter & Gamble (Vidal Sassoon), L’Oréal (Jean-Louis David), Estée Lauder (Bobbi Brown – Makeup Artist) and Unilever (Tigi for hair salons, Toni & Guy)…

Then there was Toni & Guy who franchised their business in the late 1980s – obviously they had their own branded hair-care products! In my view, it was Toni & Guy who not only improved hairdressing standards in the provinces, but also pushed up the price of hairdressing, and they increased competition on the high street. I won’t talk about Unisex (1960s), but that too plays a part.

Over the last five years or so we’ve seen the massive rise of social media which has had a profound impact on television, celebrity culture, mainstream journalism and of course the general public. The image of the self, including the selfie and user-generated photos, take on a new meaning and importance – everyone and anyone can suddenly become a celebrity by going ‘viral’! The public demand for high quality hairdressing hasn’t only arrived, but it may have exceeded the supply! Hence, “Only 17% of clients returned to the salons more than twice.” …The general public aren’t getting the celebrity service they now demand, so they are looking elsewhere for better. They are salon hopping! Actually, they should be complaining.

There is another explanation though:

Firstly, I’m always very suspicious about surveys and survey results & analysis. Phorest, who conducted the survey and who asked the question, are a salon software business – so they do have a vested interest and they will have an angle! I’ve a strong feeling they will say that if you use the Phorest Salon Software, you will be able to identify what’s going wrong and grow your business?

With greater competition on the High Street, salon owners are under more pressure to maximise their income from floor space, so they are renting out chairs to freelance hairstylists, therefore these salons may only be able to accommodate a ‘walk in off the street’ clientèle? …Walk-in clients are not usually regular and loyal. It all depends on the freelance to experienced staff member ratio.

And don’t forget the old adage, “a hairdressing salon is only as good as its worst stylist!”

Cover Image: Bruno’s book of haircutting (Couper les cheveux soi-même) by Bruno Pittini. Copyright & published 1976, this edition by Sphere Books 1979 – My copy is the last one left (I think). The book is a step-by-step guide to cutting your own hair, so, if you’re tired of expensive visits to the hairdresser…

Bruno Pittini (deceased) and I did a couple of fashion shows together in Paris in 1980/81.

Hairstyles – A Personal Fashion Statement

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Robin sitting in my fav. rustic Eton salon!

The two truths are: my sole aim and purpose is to make you look attractive and sexy. a good haircut is the basic ingredient of good looking hair.

However, the main question hairdressers get asked is, “can you do it like this photo?” Well, 49% of clients failed to get what they want because the hair stylist lied about their ability and what was possible to achieve, according to a survey – I will always tell it like it is, so you won’t become another disastrous statistic!

While styles may come and go with the changes of fashion, the essentials of good hair design remain the same. Simplicity and purity of form. Broadly speaking, good design starts from the premise that living is more than just a matter of existing, and that everyday things which are both effective and attractive can raise the quality of life. Well, hair Is everyday! Good hair design is more than a particular style, it is an attitude to the hair’s intrinsic qualities. Meaning, A hairstyle designed with common sense is better than one designed to fit a trend.

The process of creating your new look – as with all hairdressing operations – starts with a consultation. Not telepathy. Before I start cutting I always want to understand and discuss: you, your life style, your hair type, texture and colour, how it falls and grows, and of course your face shape. I’ll explain your options so you can make a considered choice. I won’t be doing all the talking and I will be listening.

There are many diverse influences that go into creating your new hairstyle, the three main ones are: you and how you are influenced by fashion. your hair. me and how I am influenced by fashion. I am influenced by Vogue – mainly. For the last 100 years it has been ahead of the crowd. As you can see in my resume I’ve had my work in Vogue. Vogue is how I keep up with high fashion, it gives me the inside scoop on the looks and styles that make the fashion world tick. If you want to lead and not follow, then you’d better read it. I also keep my finger on the pulse of the fashion world by following the industry Online – Follow me on Twitter.

sandy beach, the sea is rolling in

Now I want you to relax, here’s some visual methodology

Relax, relax.

Cup your hands over your ears, close your eyes and imagine that you are sitting on a beach. The sea is rolling in, the wind is warm and filled with a salty perfume. To your right there is a smooth sea worn rock sticking out of the sand. Look at its shape. Hold the shape in your mind. Now open your eyes and relax. Feels good, doesn’t it?

Explanation: when your hair is sticking out at right angles to your head, it forms an outside shape. It could be the outside shape of your rock. I’m visualising ‘it’ when I cut your hair. Each style has a different shape. Simple. It’s why I find my work so enjoyable and relaxing.
©1975 Ian Robson. My discovery.

There is no perpetual best hair style. All that exists in the world of fashion is a perception in the mind. The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion.

The Haircut

Hair grows at the rate of half an inch or thirteen millimetres per month. It may grow a little faster in the summer than in the winter! My cuts have have a life span of about five weeks. Always have your hair cut regularly. I hate razors and thinning scissors – I will never use them on your hair. If a stylist comes at you with a razor, run away screaming and shouting, they’ve gone mad. A style needs to develop. It will always take two or three haircuts to get the perfect shape – no matter who’s doing it. I am available from 07.00 to 19.00 – Monday to Saturday.