​Aside from just about everyone going blonde this summer, bob haircuts have been the trend du jour in Hollywood. And with new haircuts comes the responsibility of thinking of new ways to style them, which has prompted top celeb hairstylists to create a trending look that's been dubbed "glass hair." No, it has nothing to do with actual glass, but rather a sharp cut that is styled to look perfectly polished, smooth, and shiny — resembling the reflective qualities of the material.
 
"We first saw polish and shine in a glass-like manner popularized by Vidal Sassoonin the '60s," says celebrity hairstylist Cash Lawless. "He was achieving immense levels of shine on short geometric cuts. Now, videos have began to go viral and hairstylists started picking up on the trend." From where we're sitting, the trend isn't slowing doing anytime soon. So, if you're feeling the look just as much as we are, call your stylist and click ahead for all the celeb-inspiration and tips you need.

Having curly hair means subscribing to a bevy of rules that ladies with straight hair can pretty much ignore. Just because there are more hair rules to follow doesn't mean your main can't always look fabulous, it only means that you have to be more cautious with how you treat your hair. Here, the major dos and don'ts for curly hair types.

Curly Hair Do:
See Your Hairstylist on the Regular
When you've got curly hair, keeping your hair from looking frizzy and tired means making regular trips to the hair salon for a trim. Booking a trim for every 2-3 months is recommended for keeping ends free from looking split and sad. Plus who wouldn't want a beauty refresh every couple months?

Curly Hair Don't:
Avoid Shampooing Hair Every Time You Shower
Just because your hair gets wet, doesn't mean you need to lather it up with shampoo. Washing your hair every day will dry your curls out and potentially cause frizziness--the curly girl's worst enemy. It's ok to get your hair wet when you shower, but refrain from washing it every time it gets wet. Instead you can use a conditioner on it. Try a nourishing, do-it-all leave in conditioner.

Curly Hair Don't:
Avoid the Crunchy Curl at All Costs
The dreaded crunchy curl look is a result of using too much hair product. Start with a dime-sized amount of hair styling product on curls and you can go up from there. You can always add more, but you can't take less. Also make sure your product is light or medium hold.

Curly Hair Do:
Use Gentle Heat Styling Tools on Hair
Sometimes curly haired gals just want to go straight, and that's ok! If you're going to use a flatiron on your hair, make sure it's a high-quality tool made with ionic titanium plates to evenly disperse the heat onto hair, which in turn limits the amount of time needed to run the iron through the hair.

This article appeared on HSI Professional

Keeping your three strands separate can be challenging when learning to braid. I’ve found a way to make it easier for beginner braiders and even trained twisters.
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Pull your hair all the way through a hair tie as if you’re tying a menstail, but don’t wrap the tie more than once. The tie should be loose on your hair. At this point, separate your hair into three strands. The hair tie should make it easy to keep all of your hair pulled tight and keep your three strands close and easy to handle. Braid as usual. Then just slide the hair tie down the braid and tie it off.

Sleeping with my hair down left me waking up with hair in my eyes and ears and mouth and nose. I also found it would tangled as shit from moving around in my sleep.
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Solution? Tie it up!

After experimenting with several different sleep styles, I’ve found that twisting it up into a loose braid or grabbing a couple extra ties and tying it into “The Snake”* are the best ways to keep the hair out of my face and free of tangles. Keeping it a bit loose helps to not pull on the scalp so you don’t wake up with a headache. *(https://blog.thelonghairs.us/10-sick-ways-to-wear-your-long-hair-and-several-others/)

I guarantee that as a longhair, you will find hair. It will be freakin’ EVERYWHERE. Especially in the bathroom… where you wash, comb, brush, and mess with your hair most.

You’ll find it clogging the shower drain, on the floor, in the sink, on the counter, and anywhere else you forget to look. Annoying, right?!

The best way to handle this is to contain the shed. Just put it all in the same place. Keep it out of the shower drain by putting all the hair that sheds during a wash or condition on the shower wall. When you’re finished, swirl it all up into a ball and toss it in the trash.

When combing, brushing, blow drying, or doing whatever you do to style your hair, put everything that falls out into the sink. Again, when you’re finished, ball it up and toss it.
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HINT: Don’t freak out, it’s totally natural to shed some hair when combing, washing, or brushing.

I don’t usually blow dry my hair, and my hair takes forever to air dry. So, on days I’m not washing or conditioning, it’s gotta stay dry.
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To keep my hair out of the shower stream, I pull it up into a Super High Ball or a Foldover all the way on top of my head. This gets my hair totally out of the way so I can still wash my shoulders, back, and neck while my hair stays desert dry.

Have you ever worn a hoodie or a coat with a collar and found your hair won’t lay over the hood or collar without going all over the place and getting crazy tangled? Yeah, me too.
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Try out a side menstail or a side braid. Pull your hair all to one side, just behind your ear. Then, tie a menstail or twist it up like usual. Your locks will lay over your shoulder and down your chest, totally out of the way of your collar or hood.

Sometimes one hair tie just isn’t enough to hold your mane. Even for the Superior Hair Ties for Men. Running, tumbling, and other high impact activities may require more hold than just one tie can provide. And hair falling in your face can be annoying and precarious in these active situations.

So, Double up.
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Start with two hair ties on your wrist. Then, tie up your favorite hairstyle for working out. BUT, instead of just pulling one hair tie of your wrist, pull them both together and tie your hair using both for a super strong hold.


This article appeared on The Longhairs

If you’ve always found gels a touch too sticky, creams a bit heavy and those ever-popular beach sprays a tad gritty, we have just the fix: spray wax. The flexible formula hits a sweet spot and has honestly changed the way we style our hair. Here are five of our favorites—and tips on how to use them.

Oribe Flash Form Finishing Spray Wax
Infused with a blend of glycerin and panthenol, this superfine mist adds a soft sheen to strands while providing a light hold. Apply it as a finishing touch from your mid-shafts to ends in a downward, sweeping motion for even distribution (and take a moment to luxuriate in that divine Oribe scent while you’re at it). 
Oribe ($42)

OGX Beeswax Texture Hair Spray Wax
Thick-haired ladies: This one’s for you. Beeswax gives this spray a bit more grip, which will help tamp down any puffiness and keep frizz in check. Use it on slightly damp strands for better definition as it dries.
OGX ($9)

DryBar The Kicker Finishing Spray Wax
Have fine hair that tends to go limp? Spray this coconut-scented wax into the palms of your hands before working it through your locks. With honey extract and microcrystalline wax, it adds just the right amount of tousled texture without weighing things down.
DryBar ($26)

FatBoy Spray Putty
Created by longtime stylist Tyson Kennedy, this spray is a lighter version of the brand’s cult Perfect Putty. Ladies with lobs, bobs and pixies: Lightly mist this all over your hair before scrunching random sections with your fingers for a piece-y, mussed-up texture. 
Fatboy ($28)

Sexy Hair Play Dirty Dry Spray Wax
One of the OG’s in the category, there really is no wrong way to use this versatile spray. It gives unruly curls shape and breathes life into limp strands. Use it any which way you please: on damp or dry hair, as a primer or as a finishing touch. The lightweight formula is flexible and won’t leave your hair crunchy.
Sexy Hair ($19)

 
This article appeared on Pure Wow

In an open access paper recently published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, Subroto Chatterjee and colleagues from Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, MD, show that a diet high in fats and cholesterol can lead to skin inflammation, as well as hair loss and hair whitening.

Based on their initial findings, the researchers also developed an experimental drug, D-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol (D-PDMP), hoping it would help them reverse the effects of an unhealthful diet on skin and hair.

D-PDMP regulates the production of a type of fats (lipids) known as "glycosphingolipids" (GSLs), which are part of the membranes of skin cells and other cell types.

In particular, GSLs are a major component of skin cells that make up the external skin layer and of keratinocytes, a type of cell that participates in the pigmentation, or coloring, of skin, hair, and eyes.

"Further research is needed, but our findings show promise for someday using the drug we developed for skin diseases such as psoriasis and wounds resulting from diabetes or plastic surgery," says Chatterjee.

Western diet tied to hair, skin damage

The research team tested the effects that a fatty diet would have on the skin and hair of mice, as well as the effectiveness of the specially designed compound in offsetting the damage.

Chatterjee and team worked with a group of mice that they had first genetically modified to express symptoms of atherosclerosis, a condition in which fat deposits form inside arteries, obstructing the free flow of blood.

The researchers split the mice into two distinct groups: one of these was assigned a regular mouse diet, while the other was allocated a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet — similar to a Western-style regimen.

All the mice were 12 weeks old when they started on their respective diets, and the researchers conducted their first assessments when the mice were 20 weeks old.

The team found that the mice on a Western-style diet had begun to lose hair and displayed hair whitening and skin lesions.

At 36 weeks of age, 75 percent of the mice that had stayed on the high-fat and high-cholesterol diet had multiple skin lesions, as well as more severe hair loss.

When the mice were between the ages of 20-36 weeks, the researchers gave them all D-PDMP in varying amounts, either in liquid form or in capsule form, as they each stayed on their assigned diet.

After receiving either 1 milligram and 10 milligrams per kilogram of body weight of D-PDMP in capsule form, the mice on a fatty diet started to regain their lost hair, as well as their initial hair color. Skin damage also started to heal.

Chatterjee and team also noted that treating the rodents with 1 milligram of D-PDMP in capsule form per kilogram of body weight was as effective in reversing skin and hair damage as 10 milligrams in liquid form per kilogram of body weight.

This, the researchers explain, suggests that capsules are more effective in delivering the compound.

Experimental drug may restore health

So, what did D-PDMP do specifically? The research team observed that the skin of mice following a Western-style diet showed numerous signs of neutrophil infiltration. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that plays a role in inflammation.

Encapsulated D-PDMP reduced the number of neutrophils observed, suggesting that the substance was effective in reducing skin damage and inflammation.

The researchers also noted that rodents on a fatty diet had modified levels of three important kinds of lipids — ceramides, glucosylceramides, and lactosylceramides — which normally help to maintain skin health.

'Faster, more effective recovery'"

Our findings show that a Western diet causes hair loss, hair whitening, and skin inflammation in mice, and we believe a similar process occurs in men who lose hair and experience hair whitening when they eat a diet high in fat and cholesterol," emphasizes Chatterjee.

While the study researchers are hopeful about the promising results they obtained with D-PDMP in mice, they nevertheless point out that more animal research has to be carried out, in order to establish exactly how much of the compound is necessary to fully treat the damage caused by Western-style diets in hair and skin.

​Moreover, the team also warns that the results seen in mice may not apply to people, as that is an aspect that is yet to be confirmed. D-PDMP's safety for human ingestion has also not yet been established.

Still, the scientists think of their current findings as the first step toward better ways of maintaining or restoring hair and skin health.

This article first appeared on Medical News Today