Twenty First Century Conditioning
We all have clients that cause us to worry about the integrity of their hair. Although you can say that we, as hairstylists, are entirely responsible for the integrity of our clients’ hair, we, the hairstylists, know differently. We really can’t control what people do to their hair once they leave the salon. They can walk out the door and jump into a chlorine filled pool, and use flat irons and curling irons on high temperature settings, or burn their hair with blow dryers, and on and on.
The problem is that, no matter what clients do their hair, we are likely to be held responsible for the breakage and damage that occurs. And on some level, although we are often not directly responsible, we do have a responsibility to keep our clients’ hair in the best condition possible.
We are fortunate that the new modern lines of conditioning and reconditioning treatments are actually effective. For the first time ever, we are able to stop breakage and reverse damage to the hair. You would think that we’ve always been able achieve that level of conditioning. The manufacturers have always led us to believe that was the case, but not so. Unless I was always unaware of the hair repair products capable of putting damaged hair back together, I was never able to stop the breakage of hair, once it began. It would run a course, not matter what conditioners I used. And of course, we always use the top of the line shampoos and conditioners in our salon. That’s part of our promise to our clients.
Over the past few months, we’ve been introduced to three conditioning treatments that actually work to repair broken damaged hair and reverse that process. This is a new generation of conditioners that offers the salon industry more control over our work. They also offer us more freedom to process hair without worry that the hair will break, or the integrity of the hair will be severely compromised. Now we can condition the hair as we color it.
The three products that we’ve used are the Eufora Mask, the Olaplex system and the Brazilian Bond Builder. These products are nothing short of miracles. The Olaplex and Brazilian Bond Builder are actually bond multipliers – creating bonds in the hair as they broken down during lightening processes. I’m writing about them because I believe they represent the most significant breakthrough in our industry in many years. We’ve always been reluctant to charge our clients for conditioning services. We wanted people to really see and feel a difference in their hair, so they would know there was some value to their treatments. Now, I feel comfortable charging for these treatments because I know clients are getting the best possible conditioning treatments, and they are worth every penny.
M.