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The essence of a good hair style

JeffWhen it comes to hair advice then who better to ask than a professional?

Owner of Essence Hair and Body Jeff Noonan is the only man I trust to wield a pair of scissors close to my face so as I sat in his “chair of beauty” I got his opinion on a few hairstyle questions.

Hi Jeff, thanks for agreeing to chat to me while you make my hair look lovely. How about we start with an easy one - having healthy hair is probably a good place to start, isn’t it? What’s the best thing that you can do for the health of your hair?
What I recommend is using decent products, so if a professional recommends a shampoo to you then definitely get it because they know what they’re talking about. And you know it’s got to be better than you what you would buy in the supermarket. Probably getting your hair trimmed regularly would be the other thing, certainly more regularly than you do (I go and see Jeff maybe three times a year – whoops).
As a professional hairstylist are there any hairstyles that you really don’t like and why?
I think it’s the weird chunk of colour that you see some middle-aged ladies walking around with say, brown coloured hair and then a random chunk of a different colour in there. I think they’re trying to look young and hip and I just see it all the time and I’m over it. It might have been a bit cool a couple of years ago but not now. It’s had its day.
I’ve seen some really great examples of afros in the last wee while. Any tips on how to achieve the biggest puff possible?
Afros are so cool. I love them. I think they’re great. If you’ve got the right hair for it wear it, I say. Do it. All you need to do is back-comb. There’s a guy I’ve seen around and he’s just got the best ginger afro. It’s awesome. Your hair doesn’t need to be thick to have an af’, but if it’s curly or fluffy then you might be able to pull it off. You could get a perm to make it curly if that’s what you’re really after, and then it’s just a matter of combing it out and making it big.
The super-straight look would be the complete opposite style choice. Some girls use straighteners on their hair every day. All that heat must be a bit damaging. Any advice on how to protect straightened tresses?
Hair straighteners are a great tool, especially with hair like yours (Jeff is currently straightening my hair – which for the record is thick and bit prone to frizziness). But they can also be really damaging to your hair so you’ve just got to use the correct products. I use ghds and they make their own specialist spray to prevent heat damage. It’s okay to use your straighteners regularly but you really do need some heat protection in there working for you.

See, there really is no substitute for a bit of professional knowledge. Usually hairstylists are happy to talk to people (after all it’s what they do for a job) so next time you’re in the hairdresser’s chair feel free to ask them for any tips or advice. They’ll be happy to give it.

February 2009