Dry vs. Damaged

Summertime
And the livin’ is easy ....

... may not be true for our hair here in Arizona though! The sun, heat, chemical treatments and free-radicals are brutal on our hair drying it out, making it brittle, fading colour, leaving it lack lustre, coarse and not silky or smooth with split ends. But... is it dry or is it chemically damaged?

Dry;

Considering we do live in the desert and are exposed to the intense heat of the sun, you will find that curly hair is naturally coarse, frizzy and dry as well. Blow-drying, flat-ironing and other heat styling tools will add to the moisture depletion of our hair.

Damaged;

Damaged hair will feel lifeless, brittle, dry and 'weak', presenting itself with split ends and broken hair strands caused from heavily processing your hair (colour, perms, relaxers etc.) and from extensive sun exposure.

As you can see there are some very strong similarities between the two. The difference is that damaged hair is lacking a sufficient amount of protein, is structurally weak and porous resulting in a lack of elasticity. Where as dry hair does not have sufficient moisture and the naturally occurring oils it needs to feel silky, smooth and have shine and lustre. The easiest and quickest way for us to determine whether, or not, your hair is dry vs. damaged is to perform an elasticity test.

How to perform an elasticity test for yourself:

1. With your hair wet, hold a strand of hair at the scalp and at the end and gently stretch out the hair and release it.
2. If your hair returns to its original length, this means the elasticity is good, is DRY and needs moisture.
3. Should the strand not return to its original length this indicates your hair is DAMAGED and is lacking sufficient elasticity and needs repair.

We thought this information would be helpful for you because most of us do feel the effects of the sun and heat and most of us do chemically alter our hair in some way and since the words are very similar they really do mean two very different things.

No worries! At NEXT SALON, as you are well aware, we use salon and professional-only products! We are ALWAYS concerned for the integrity of your hair and will not jeopardize that in any way. It is our belief that healthy hair is the most beautiful hair and will help you decide if you are in need of any kind of special treatment! Most often choosing the correct shampoo and conditioner will help significantly along with a deep conditioning treatment.

We hope that you find this blog post informative?!?!! If you have any ideas, questions or suggestions please feel free to post a comment :)

The Staff of NEXT SALON

Beginning of Next Salon

It all began many, many, MANY moons ago when I was about 3 yrs old and took the scissors from my nursing kit (you know, way back when they had real scissors in them) and cut off the beautiful golden wavy locks of my sister Teresa who is 21 months my junior. Oops meant to say just one side! It was during that beautiful summer's day that the 'hair dresser' was born - I can not tell you what year for fear of age discrimination LOL!



I was always encouraged to 'spread my wings' and leave the very small town (probably considered a village in the great USA), go to college,being a hair dresser would've meant I would be stuck there. My Dad really gave me the courage to go out in to the wild yonder and see more than Leiston, Suffolk. I did.



Fast forward a couple of decades; meeting my husband, moving to California and the USA, then Arizona, working in the medical field, oh yeah - cutting my sister's hair again, one side again, at some point in there ;) , and finding myself at a crossroads of what to do. With the enthusiasm, encouragement and persuasion of my darling husband, Paul, sisters, family and friends I FINALLY went to cosmetology college. Surprisingly, I was not the oldest student there!



I worked at a large, corporate salon immediately upon getting my cosmetology license. I worked there knowing they had advanced training and education - one of my passions! I love learning and knew that I wanted to expand my basic knowledge. During my employment I had to take a leave to go home to England to help care for one of my sister's and her 4 children. This gave me the opportunity to reflect on how much I really liked the culture that this salon had created - I didn't like it. I left there with much knowledge and never looked back.



I was lured into helping a friend manage a concierge physician practice - loved the patients, hated the office environment - STIFLING!!! I had to return a T-shirt to the Gap and in asking my mechanic husband to drop me off at the mall so I could nip into the Gap he, of course, dropped me off at the entrance to the tool department of Sears! As I was leaving the mall just 10-15 mins later I bumped into Julie (the ONLY other normal person that I worked with at the first salon and missed terribly!) - we had lost contact. Some one was watching out for me that day!!! Long story short - I ended up working at Cloud 9 with Julie and met sooooo many wonderful clients/friends.



I worked at Cloud 9 for over 2 1/2 years taking on the role of Network Educator, becoming a leader amongst the stylists. Things were changing at Cloud 9 and I was becoming increasingly frustrated so during a dinner conversation with my husband he just said ".. why don't you do your own thing?!". I had him expand upon that to find out that he had to point out my passion - to have my very own salon! It had been my dream from the time I cut Teresa's hair with the nursing scissors :)



With those words to the day of opening only about 8 or 9 weeks went by. I found this location at Raintree Ranch, signed the lease contract and at approximately week 3 the construction began! My passion and dream was happening with my husband holding my hand all the way!! It was not long before some of my dear friends took a leap of faith with me to come to " ______ " ??? What were we going to name the salon???



Within a couple of days I was talking to my friend, telling her about our new endeavour. Guess what she asked me........... "What are you going to call the salon?" We talked about how my vision was for it to be different; modern, urban loft, art gallery and with English subtleties. As we stood there it came to me "NEXT! And the "x" can be a pair of shears!!" - I got chills down my spine, that was it! Wasn't it??? Oh no! Family and friends, near and far, all partook in an intense analysis of possible names but it always came back to NeXt. Next is the name of one of my favourite clothing stores in England. It was full speed ahead to November 2nd, 2009!! Eight months after collecting our very first dollar bill, we are growing with the addition of fabulous new team members and are looking forward to planing our 1st Anniversary party.



We hope that you find our first blog enlightening, providing you with an understanding of how a strong passion brought us here together as an outstanding team of professionals?!!



Our blog has been created so that we may share with you each of our passions for everything hair! We, also, want it to be informative and educational as far as choosing the right products, styling tips etc. Should you have any suggestions for our blog we are 'all ears'!!

Thank you for following us and coming along on this journey!