Introduction
Why another book about hair?
People all over the world see hair as important. In the west, for instance, almost all brides are prepared for their approach to the altar by the hands of an expert stylist. On that supreme day, their hair style may be the most elaborate they will ever have in their lives. At the opposite extreme, when a young girl of one of the aboriginal tribes of the Amazon jungle reaches puberty the women of the village ceremonially remove all the hairs from her head, one by one. The ritual significance and mystique of hair on these occasions are undeniable.
We use our hair to express our personalities - to conform, to make a statement, to help us feel good, to attract other people. Sometimes our hair even seems to reflect our mood, especially when we are sad or depressed.
Our hair is perhaps our most distinctive feature. Any sudden change in its color or style startles our friends and produces comments from our family.
Hair is an amazing material. In the hands of an expert and with the use of modern hair products, it is soft and shining and seems full of life. Strangely, however, hair is dead.
Hair, like beautiful wood, can be shaped, moulded, colored and, if properly looked after, made to shine with 'health'. Yet all too often this 'crowning glory' of ours is neglected. And then it can look shoddy, dull and lifeless. It becomes a constant disappointment, all the worse because we know that, however expensive and beautiful our clothes, if our hair looks a mess we won't be seen as well-groomed, poised and fashionable.
Hair so often fails to do for us exactly what we expected. Its behavior raises endless questions, sometimes almost despairing:
- Why did my hair suddenly collapse just before that vital interview? What could I have done to avoid that happening?
- Why did it look fine when I walked out of the salon yesterday, and terrible this morning?
- Why, when it had so much volume and 'body' when I was on that Mediterranean holiday, has all that gone now I'm at home in November?
- Why were the results of that home color so disappointing?
- Why does a woman's hair so often 'fall out' after she has had a baby?
- Why do so many men (and some women) go bald?
- Why does so-and-so's lovely red hair never perm very well?
- Why does my hair go out of condition so easily? What can I do to restore it?
This book sets out to answer questions like these - the questions hair stylists are asked every working day. Understanding hair from the scientific standpoint helps them to predict what will happen to different types of hair under different conditions. It also allows them to understand what can be done with a particular person's hair and what cannot: every experienced stylist and technician knows how important it is not to try to do the impossible with hair that is too thin, too short, the wrong color or just 'difficult'.
In this book we explore the nature of hair, its care and maintenance, and the cosmetic and medical problems which can and (often do) affect it. Above all, we point to the ways in which the individual, the hair care industry and the hair stylist can work together to create 'healthy hair'.
The book has been written with the collaboration of scientists working in hair research, doctors, stylists and hair technicians. It is not meant to replace the many existing excellent textbooks on cutting, styling, client care and business management, fields which are rightly those of hairdressing boards, colleges and schools, and salon owners.
It aims to be the most comprehensive illustrated publication available on the basic science of hair and the application of that science in the home and the salon. The writer hopes that it will inform and help all those who work with hair.
