Hair Traders Blog

A Great Poem for Mothers Day

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 00:45:50 +0000

: Happy Mothers Day to all the Mums for tomorrow and every day

Your mother is always with you…

She’s the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street.

She’s the smell of bleach in your freshly laundered socks.

She’s the cool hand on your brow when you’re not well.

Your mother lives inside your laughter.

She’s crystallized in every tear drop…

She’s the place you came from, your first home..

She’s the map you follow with every step that you take.

She’s your first love and your first heart break….and nothing on earth can separate you.

Not time, Not space… Not even death….
will ever separate you from your mother….

You carry her inside of you….

What’s Trending for Winter Hairstyles

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:10:52 +0000

So the days are getting shorter, there’s a fresh chill in the morning air and the leaves are turning those great Autumn colours (I was up in the Blue Mountains last week-end and the Autumn colours on the tress are great)

It’s a great time to bring out those great winter clothes that allow you to dress up with the over coats, scarves, hats and the long boots. Just seem to go perfectly with warm fires and hotm chocolates..!

Winter isn a great time to change colour and style and style wise the trends this year seem to be the simple pony tail in all it’s different manifestations, easy casual upstyles and fringes. It’s a great way to keep longer hair yet have a different look for the cooler season

: As seen in Cosmopolitan UK: The soft waves through the back give an elegant swing to it when you move and give it an altogether more glamorous edge.

Many of the catwalks have seen models wearing the pony tail in sleek sophisicated versions to wild and creative versions. A simple trick to hide the elastic that holds your ponytail is to take a piece of hair and the wrap it around & over the band & secure it with a bobby-pin underneath the ponytail. A chunky warm scarf is the perfect partner to the pony & the best bit about ponytails is… they’re easy to do and suit almost everyone.

Fringes require more maintenance to keep them looking good (& out of your eyes) however they seem to have made a strong return. A fringe is also a great way to change your look without having to cut your long hair to a shorter style.

Cool chocolate browns, warm blondes and rich coppers are colours that give great shine & go well with winter clothes. Those colours have been showing up on The Voice on Channel 9 (who hasn’t been watching this..?) and they really make a fringe look dramatic.

Happy with your existing colour..? The give a high gloss with an in-salon glossing service. Goldwell make a clear colour (can you have such a thing as a clear colour?) that is designed to give hair a fabulous high gloss. Takes an extra 30 minutes on your service and lasts around 18-20 shampoos.

Alternatively you can use a gloss spray each time you style your hair to get a similar result… Just don’t use too much as most a based on a fine oil.

How to Play Two Up On ANZAC Day

admin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 01:27:53 +0000

: Aussie pennies are an essential part of ‘two up’ when it’s played on ANZAC Day

So you’re in a crowded, rowdy bar and the drinks are flowing. You notice everyone gravitating towards a rabble of cheers and two copper coins spinning above the sea of heads. “Come in Spinner,” is heartily shouted just before the coins appear. Confused?

Well it’s two-up. As you can only play legally on Anzac Day many punters may be a little hazy on the rules for iconic gambling game. Luckily it’s not too difficult. Two up has been a traditional gambling game in Australia for much of our history; it spread around the country with the Gold rushes, beginning in the 1850s.

The game was played extensively in World War 1 by Australian soldiers. Diggers continued to play the game when they returned from service, most often as part of their Anzac Day celebrations.

One person is the Spinner whose job it is to throw the coins in the air using a small piece of wood known as a kip. The throw has to go over shoulder height, not hit the roof (assuming you’re playing inside) and land somewhere in the playing area. The results are straightforward: two heads the Spinner wins, two tails they’ve lost.

The Spinner will place a bet before they throw which needs to be covered by another player. Two heads the Spinner takes the bet and cover while two tails means the covering player takes all. There are a few variations the most popular being the Spinner must throw heads three times in a row to win.

So, in brief…

* The game is played by forming a ring on a flat surface and can be played with either two or three coins. Pennies are favoured over decimal currency as they’re considered the perfect weight and size. As you can probably guess the game is all about heads and tails.

* A Spinner is selected from the crowd to toss the coins – the Spinner aims to toss two heads, betting against the crowd. Once the Spinner tosses three double heads in a row they can take their money and leave, or choose to keep spinning.

* The other punters bet amongst themselves, either on which way the coins will land or on the chance two heads will come up twice in a row.

* The person betting on Tails is bestowed the responsibility of holding the money.

* Traditionally the Head side of the coin is highly polished, and the Tail side left dark. This makes it clear to the crowd which way up the coins have landed.

* For a legitimate toss the Spinner must toss the coins at least 10ft in the air and they must both land within the designated circle.

There are few other colourful characters involved in the game.

1. The Boxer manages the game plus the bets and also leads the crowd in with, “Come in Spinner,” calls when it’s time to play.

2. The Ringkeeper looks after the coins after each spin to avoid any tampering.

On ANZAC Day (especially at RSL Clubs) the Boxer will often call ‘change on the mat for Legacy’ which is a call to the crowd to throw their spare change onto the mat for collection for the Legacy Charity.

Getting Another day Out of Your Blow Dry

admin — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:04:59 +0000

Miranda Kerr knows the value of velcros when it comes to keeping her her hair looking great

Velcro Rollers are such a easy and effective way to add volume to your hair. You can use them a day or two after washing and blow drying your hair Great for when your hairs’ gone a bit flat after sleeping on it.

If your hair is a little on the dirty side then give it a hit with a dry shampoo before hand. Label M Dry Shampoo or Delorenzo Dry shampoo are both good quality products to use for this.

Put them just at the top of your head like the picture below. Quick tip: run your flat iron or curling iron over the strand of hair you’re about to put in the roller quickly then roll it and pin it. Do two at the crown, one or two on each side of your head and sometimes one maybe one in your fringe; either that or refresh your fringe with your round brush and blow dryer. Once they’re in, forget about them and continue to get ready.

Once you’re done getting ready blow them quickly with your blow dryer on the hot setting and then spray with hairspray just to be sure.

After that you just take them out and blend them in with the rest of the hair, and tease a little if necessary.

Does Permanent Straightening (aka chemical/Japanese) Damage Your Hair?

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 05:09:55 +0000

In a nutshell, no if done properly..! The biggest issue we see is where someone has had the process done twice on the same hair; a situation that can occur through poor operator technique when the regrowth is being done.

We have just had someone into the salon who had her regrowth done last August and two things occurred:-

1. The product was left for too long on her hair and

2. When the product was applied to her regrowth it was allowed to overlap onto hair that had already been straightened previously.

The end result was severe breakage throughout her hair and particularly on the crown area which unfortunately is also the most noticeable. This breakage could have been avoided entirely with accurate application of the straightening creme onto the new growth only and more diligent checking of how the hair was processing by the salon who did her hair.

We pretty much rescued her remaining hair by using the Shiseido Thermal Radiance treatment on her hair; a 3 step treatment that rebuilds & restructures highly damaged hair. There was certainly a dramatic improvement in the resilience & elasticity of her hair after the treatment.

I still believe that permanent straightening is a very viable service for people who want straight hair that requires the minimum amount of styling to look great. My suggestion though is to do your homework before getting it done. Ask questions of the salon about what product they use, what level of experience does the operator have, do they do many of these services and do they have some one who’s hair they have done that would vouch for them. Ask how they go about treating the regrowth when it grows through and at what length can the regrowth be treated. Our benchmark form regrowth application is that it is 4-5 finger widths wide (5-7 centimetres).

Most definitely this is not a service you should consider based on price alone. It is a time consuming and precise process and anyone who charges cheap prices for this service is either using inexperienced staff or cheap products. It is not a process that can be rushed or done ‘quickly’. We allocate a minimum of 3-5 hours with two experienced operators to do this service and we use Goldwell quality straightening products.

And… our clients keep coming back to us.

What Can I Do To Make My Hair Grow Faster?

admin — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:56:26 +0000

: Regular trimming maintains healthy ends but will not make your hair grow faster

In the quest for longer hair faster I have heard many interesting anecdotes from people on what makes for fast growing hair.

So without wanting to dash anyone’s hopes for long locks the reality is it has as much to do with what is going on in the inside of you as opposed to the outside. So here’s some of the things that can impact the length of your hair:-

* To much mechanical stress can cause the ends to wear away or split. Mechanical stress can be from too much straightening and blow drying. Straighteners work most effectively when used at a slower pace as it is the heat from the irons in combination with the ceramic plates that straightens your hair; not going over the same section again & again. All that does is overheat the hair and cause it to dry out. The technique required is no different to ironing your clothes in that you need to work at a pace that lets the iron do its job. Rapidly moving the iron arond only wastes time, energy & makes for a poor result.

*Too many chemical processes on the same hair will degrade the hair dramatically. Once hair has been chemically treated it stays that way. The impact of the chemical process does not recede or ‘revover’ with the passing of time. I have seen examples where someone has had a chemical straightening over the top of hair previously chemically straightened. The double processed hair was literally just hanging on as the protein fibres within the hair shaft has been highly damaged. There was no way that hair was going to last very much longer; regardless of what was used on the hair to try to repair it.

*Your diet can have a huge impact on how your hair grows. Hair is a protein structure and as such you need to have good protein in your diet; be it either plant or animal protein. Too much high fat food (such as some fast food) and highly processed foods impact how effectively your blood supply can deliver nutrients to the hair bulb (the point from where your hair actually grows).

*Smoking overloads your blood with carbon monoxide and so stops your blood from carrying oxygen to to the hair bulb.

*Hair is not grass in that it won’t grow faster if you trim it more often. Trimming on a regular basis is certainly a good maintenance practice as it eliminates dry, split ends. It also removes the oldest hair.

*Your genetics will be a big determining factor. If your parents have great hair then you will probably have the same. Conversly if there is thin or fine hair in the family then it will be more difficult, although not impossible, for you to achieve long hair.

*Using a good quality shampoo & conditioner will help in maintaining your hair in the best possible condition. My experience is that ‘cheap’ & ‘good quality’ rarely go together in the same sentence. You will usually find that the better quality products require you to use less so they are actually cheaper to use than some of the cheaper priced products.

*If you need any advice on what to use on your hair then you can email me at enquiries@hairtraders.com.au Tell me a little bit about your hair, including any concerns, and what you’d like to achieve and I’ll answer you as best I can

A Great Poem from Annabelle

admin — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:50:21 +0000

Annabelle N. submitted a great poem about who’s hair she envies the most.

She likes Eva Mendes’ hair and put it like this…

“Eva Mendes” has hair that epitomises pure bliss,
To have sumptuous hair like hers would be an experience I wouldn’t miss!
I’m “GREEN” with envy for her luscious hair!
I often “Google” pictures of “Eva”…it’s a secret I will honestly share!
I’ve walked into a hairdressing salon before with a picture or two!
And have asked kindly for the “Eva” hair do!!!!
Her colour, cut and blow dry’s I commend!
To have “Eva’s” hair I’m willing to SPEND!
I also have the “Eva” hair colour and complexion so I’m certain my dream isn’t impossible….
With “Hair Trader’s” help my wondrous dream can be fulfilled and possible!!!!!!

Who’s Hair Do You Envy?

admin — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:36:43 +0000

Tell Us Who's Hair You Envy & You Could Win Our Little Bit of Irish Green... A $100 hair services voucher

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner (tomorrow). Have you told us who’s hair you envy for your chance to win our $100 hair services voucher?

To enter post on our Facebook page who’s ahir you are most envious of. The best post will win a $100 hair services gift voucher to use in our salon.

Win a wee bit of ‘Irish green’ on our Facebook Page

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:40:07 +0000

: Win yourself a little bit of Irish green by clicking here and telling us who’s hair you envy

Simply tell us who’s hair makes you green with envy and you could win our Irish green… the $100 Hair Traders Gift Certificate.

You could even post a photo of your favourite hairstyle and tell us what you like about it.

So what’s the significance of St Patrick’s Day apart from the fact that pubs serve up green beer? Well, St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and the Irish. He was born about 389 A.D. in Northern Wales. According to some Irish writings, St. Patrick died on March 17, 461 A.D.

The anniversary of his death is celebrated as St. Patrick’s Day. The shamrock clover (a well recognised symbol of Ireland) flowers around that time of year. So there you go. A bit of trivia to store away for the next time you’re at a trivia night.

You Can Save on These Hair Care Packs

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:38:41 +0000

New KMS & Goldwell hair care packs have arrived this week & give great value for money