Viva Woman

I’m really particular about hair care, but I find it difficult to share these hair care tips since different women have different hair textures.  Mine is fine and thin.  So for this reason, I’ve always kept my hair short, and I don’t perm my hair.   A few things that I’ve learnt over the years to create a fuller head of hair with more volume are:

- no conditioner as that will make my hair heavy and limp.

- highlighting using the right shades can add the illusion of volume.

- volume shampoo definitely helps.

- dry shampoo helps to give my hair more volume as well.

- a good hairdryer with 1800 watts makes a lot of difference.

When it comes to blow drying your hair, do not pull at your hair with your brush as that would work adversely against creating volume.  Instead, just lift off sections lightly and blow dry.  I usually give an all over blow, targetting the roots with my head bend down to give that extra boost.  I also find that my hair has more volume after sleeping in it.

Of course, the most important would be getting a good hairstylist who can give you a flattering haircut to suit your head and face shape.  While it’s true that hair looks fuller when short and at a single length, that doesn’t mean you have to stick to the classic bob all the time.  You can still afford to experiment with layers at the end for more style and chic.

If you’re interested to find out more about shampoos for fine thin hair, read my entry on volume shampoos to find out what has worked for me.

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So I learnt that 2008 hairstyle trend for women will likely be marked by longer hair with a volume and fullness achieved by looser, natural flowing curls. Hair coloring will be more subtle and soft instead of the stark color contrasts that are popular today. 

Well, I don’t know.  I’ve always been into subtle hair coloring but I’m not a big fan of long, wavy hair.  It just doesn’t flatter me at my age anymore.  I like my hair short and chic but I’m also tired of the bob and have lopped it off after keeping it for about half a year only.

As to hairstyles, I usually rely on my hairstylist for recommendation although I sometimes would refer to magazines for ideas.  However, instead of looking at Western celebrities, I always look at Japan for inspiration since Asian hair texture is uniquely different. 

And if you’re an Asian looking for a new hairdo and don’t quite know what to go for, check out the resource at beauty-jp.com. It has a collection of fashionable hairstyles on women of different age groups, from short straight hair to wavy long hair.  You can click on the picture above to take you directly to the website.  Just navigate the buttons for the slide show.  Pretty cool stuff.

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I’ve been wanting to write something about hair cut and hair color, especially when I realised recently that doing both did a lot of difference to lifting my whole face. But there’s no need for me to do that now that I’ve discovered A Diva’s Guide to the Perfect Hair Cut & Hair Style which also touch on picking the right hair color.

It’s a very comprehensive guide on the different types of hairstyles and who it will work for, based on face shapes and hair textures.   While it can be argued that the hairstylist can jolly well recommend a hairstyle for us, I think it’s also good to have some ideas ourselves.  In addition, knowing what hairstyles work for us helps us to be more realistic when it comes to demanding for a certain hair cut.

And one thing I learnt from my hairstylist is that Asian hair texture is vastly different from those of the Caucasians.  So you should know that you will never get the Jennifer Aniston or Meg Ryan hairstyles no matter how good your hairstylist is.

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I was trying to write up something about hairstyles which flatter different face shapes and found some very interesting information at WigShop.com.  There is a section within their website which covers the type of women’s wigs for different face shapes and I believe this also applies well for normal hairstyles.

Six types of face shapes were identified; namely oval, round, square, rectangular, heart and pear.  Out of which, women with oval face shapes are said to have the most choices as most hair shape works well on them.  On the other hand, women with round faces are better with wigs that add height but not width, while square faces should avoid styles that add width at the jawline.  If you’ve got a rectangular face shape, then avoid styles that add height on top while those with heart shape face should find a style that add volume to the chin and those with pear shape face should add volume above the jawline.

In fact, I was also very impressed with the styles of the different wigs and hair pieces offered by WigShop.com.  They look almost like real hair to me (in fact some of them are) and the styles and colours available are very attractive, although not all the colours are suitable for Asians. 

So for those aspiring to achieve the versatility of a Jessica Simpson HairDo, which took the pop star from the curly red bob to her trademark waist–length blond tresses – and everywhere in between, getting a wig that suits your face shape might be the way to go.

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