Continuing Self-Care

A lot has been written and discussed about the importance of self-care in the time of Covid-19 and we’ve seen our communities come together in support.

However, as restrictions ease in some areas, borders opening and even travel planning taking place, it’s important to remember that Covid-19 is still a daily headline across Australia. The impact of what we have been through both on a community and personal level is still with us.

Our way of life has changed dramatically in a matter of months and while we are embracing the positive aspects of our new norm, we will still be recovering from having being without personal connections of family and friends.

So keep your self care regime going and as we experience relief of restrictions, consider changing up your routine. Ask if your hair stylist or salon can give your a deep scalp massage at your next appointment. Along with the benefits of touch to our emotional health, scalp massage can offers the following benefits:

• increase hair thickness and stimulate new growth

• reduce stress and lift your mood

• lower blood pressure and heart rate

• ease headaches

• increase circulation

Sounds Great! So make that call.

Until next month, stay safe, stay healthy, stay beautiful.

Home Hair Care

It’s great news that Covid-19 restrictions are continually being lifted. Even with some salons remaining open, social distancing meant stretching out the time between our hair appointments and probably fair to say this had us developing some new skills or re-aquainting ourselves with “at-home” techniques for a variety of things. 

As we continue to return to our pre-Covid-19 lives, keeping up those home hair care routines will still serve you well - we can never do enough to protect our hair’s strength, vitality and condition, and to also protect our colour from fading - which you may have noticed particularly if your gym workout went from indoors to outdoors.

If you’ve been following our blogs for a while, you’ll remember some pointers we’ve previously posted but Covid-19 is a new world so we thought we’d recap some of the important stuff.

Protect your hair’s strength and avoid split ends:

We went in deep on this topic back in 2018 and hope those of you that read this kept it handy.  There are various reasons your hair can lose its strength and break, making strands vary in length and giving a fuzzy, fly-away appearance.  But here are three important tips with links to our earlier blogs:

• Don’t sleep with wet hair, always take a few minutes to dry it properly before going to bed.

• Brush your hair gently to avoid splitting the ends, and make sure the brush you use is designed to reduce wear and friction.

• Don’t use heating tools on your hair if you’ve just used any hair oil. These can work against each other if the tools aren’t temperature controlled and the hair oil isn’t designed for heat. A good heat protection serum will protect your strands from hot temperatures.

And if you do find that you have damaged strands you can reduce further damage with good hydration products and deep conditioning treatments.  These will also help protect your hair from damaging UV rays. Ask your hair professional for advice on products that are best for your hair.

Until next month!

STANDARDS OF HYGIENE IN AUSTRALIAN HAIR INDUSTRY

The Australian Hair and Beauty industry has been impacted by reactive and changing restrictions, implemented to support community health and safety during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has resulted in confusion about the safety standards in Australian salons.

Prior to Covid-19 restrictions, this industry operated under some of the strictest hygiene standards set under the Public Health Act.  As the services offered within the industry require direct contact with a client’s skin, our industry standards were set to ensure risk of infection was minimised.  

Industry services such as waxing, cuticle cutting, razor scrapping and other treatments that involve skin penetration, required hygiene standards, under the Act that included sterilising and cleaning of tools and work areas to prevent the spreading of disease via micro organisms.  

This meant our industry was best positioned to transition into a Covid-19 safe environment.  Salons, with the exclusion of social distancing, were already regulated under “containment” procedures to prevent disease outbreaks.

Standard hygiene procedures pre-Covid-19 included cleaning work stations between each client, fresh, clean linen for each procedure on a client, and hand washing by stylists between clients, and depending on the treatment; single use instruments and gloves.

The biggest challenge salons faced to operate under new guidelines was implementing social distancing.  

So whether you choose to take this time to go natural, or continue to visit your hair stylist, you can be confident, that when you next return to your favourite salon or beauty business, you are in safe hands.

Being Glamourous Through Summer

With a couple more months of warm weather, we still have many pool-side and beach days to enjoy.   And while beauty never takes a holiday - make-up for every moment of our active lives is a thing.

The science of make-up has come long way in the last century, driven mostly by the demands of Hollywood make-up artists and hair stylists to keep leading ladies camera ready between often gruelling takes.  

Max Factor was the first to consider make-up as a science and was behind the evolvement of techniques and ingredients used by Hollywood hair stylists and make-up artists during the golden era of the 1930’s and 1940’s. 

Esther Williams, Hollywood’s perpetual mermaid bringing synchronised swimming to the movies, was also the mother of invention for hair and make-up products that held her look together in water.  Waterproof mascara in particular was invented for her.

Waterproof mascara is still the most popular piece of waterproof make-up, but cosmetic companies also deliver eye shadows, lipsticks, concealers and blush and foundations designed to withstand a quick pool dip, rain, sleet, humidity and perspiration.

Keeping your make-up from running is just the half of it, breathable make-up is vital if you are wearing make-up throughout your day. Breathable products will protect your skin, reducing build-up in your pores - preventing dermatitis varieties.

Beyond movie and television sets, developments in waterproof and breathable make-up mean we can put the Glamour into most of our daily activities. Make-up science now considers our busy lives and we can hit the beach, the gym and the office, assured that our finished look also takes care of our skin.

So consider your lifestyle or the environment where you live or are travelling to when next making your make-up selections and keep yourself Hollywood ready and your skin happy.

“You are not born glamourous, Glamour is created!” - Max Factor

Now we know why they award Oscars to those unsung heroes in Hair and Make-up.

Until next month - Stay Glamourous!