Shiny Hair

February 08, 2024

Shiny, glossy, lustrous hair. The glorious reflection of health and vitality that we emit and search for when choosing a mate to produce our offspring. But hair stays important to us long past our child producing years. We all want to look and feel like we’ve still 'got it', that we’re still relevant. Here’s how to get more vibrancy and shine.

Hair has always reflected our inner workings. What goes into the body comes out in the hair; food, drink, drugs, even your whereabouts many months ago through the science of isotope hydrology. Spooky!

You can blame your parentage to a degree, but more important to the condition beyond what we eat is what our hair lives through on the outside. Unlike skin, the hair you see is no longer connected to the metabolism, so cannot repair itself. Once it leaves the scalp it’s at its pure wholesome best; full, complete, with a protective sheath of outer scales (the cuticle) that lay flat.

It’s then exposed to a range of often unwholesome lifestyles; harsh products, chemical treatments, UV rays from sunlight, chlorinated pool water, salty seawater, aggressive heat styling, incompetent hairstylists, which all take the life out of hair. The hair loses moisture and the protein structure of the hair breaks down. The protective cuticle lifts, leaving the hair feeling rough or frizzy, and more exposed to further injury. Hair becomes thinner weaker and drier. The ends of long hair could have suffered 5 years of this, and with that declining hair health goes the shine. Hair becomes thin, dull and unresponsive, leading to splitting and breakage. This sort of dry hair also needs much more work to style and so the damage often accelerates.

If you shampoo hair and don’t use conditioner the cuticle will stay a little lifted and the hair will feel rougher and hard to comb. This hair will absorb more of the light that hits it reflecting less back. A smooth cuticle either from healthy hair or from product will bounce light back hence be shinier. Also, darker hair will reflect more light than fair hair so will more easily look shiny. There are aisles and aisles of hair products that will varnish the cuticle smooth temporarily and make the hair glossy.

Most of them will use silicone as it is a cheap additive to help hair look shinier. There are also some lovely natural oils that have nothing to offer the health of hair but slathered onto the surface, it may look better. But for most products it’s a fake better and many accelerate the damage because, being hydrophobic, which most oils and silicones are, they displace the essential natural moisture in your own hair.

Is there a better way?

Yes, stop the damage in the first place. Feel your hair at the roots. I guarantee it’s more full, supple and shiny. Now feel the same hair down at the ends. Is it like the left hand picture above? It doesn’t have to be that way. If you have a little more patience than RIGHT NOW, you can start to use a system that will give you better and better quality hair by retaining the healthy structure of the root area much further down the hairshaft.

LifeSaver Pre-wash Treatment is our hero product that suits all ages and hair types. Used at least every other shampoo day it will gradually restore the fullness, flexibility and shine, that is your natural best hair.

As a styling product, LifeSaver UV is a leave in treatment that brilliantly smooths rough or frizzy hair to be unbelievably smooth, silky and shiny. A truly transformative product.

Read our blog on shampooing hair, particularly the thorough rinsing of shampoo after washing. It will make a big difference to the natural shine.

All Van Clarke products are silicone-free and designed to give you effortlessly natural healthy hair. Our finishing products such as Magic Oil or 10 second Transformation will give instant results but are also built on the principles of Healthcare for Hair which underpins everything we do at the Michael Van Clarke Salon. Both products are great at eliminating frizz or flyways in different ways.

Magic Oil – Just 3-4 drops before and after blow-drying will smooth thick or frizzy hair helping it to be looser and shinier. 

Next week I’ll cover our unique LifeSaver Blowdry. Bad blow-drying at home or in salons regularly does more damage to hair than anything else I see. Our blow-drying techniques are quicker and safer for hair, giving a beautiful long lasting natural finish, however you like to wear your hair.

 Michael Van Clarke

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