Tip of the Week: Neutralising Brassiness

 

Your gorgeous blonde locks require a little bit of maintenance to keep those harsh, brassy tones away, but it's as easy as using the correct shampoo. Matrix So Silver Shampoo is designed to neutralise unwanted brassiness and enhance both colour treated and natural blonde highlights. Because it eliminates dulling yellow tones, it's also great for gray and white hair, rejuvinating your colour and adding healthy looking shimmer.

If you have blonde, gray or white hair and would like to see what Matrix So Silver Shampoo can do for you,  you can save £5 on a wash and blowdry this week and see the results for yourself, then save an additional £1 when you purchase Matrix So Silver Shampoo to take home. To take advantage of this offer, you must mention that you read it on our blog. Discount on blowdry is not valid with Style Director. Special offers are valid for 1 week from the date published on our blog.

Tip of the Week

As we now also have features on Monday and Friday, we have decided to move our Tip of the Week to Wednesday, to keep things a bit more evenly spaced out. Special offers announced with our Tip of the Week will now run from Wednesday through the following Tuesday. Check back tomorrow for this week's quick tip and great offer!

Hair Medic Monday - Colour Disasters

Welcome to Hair Medic Monday, our brand new blog feature where you can get answers to your hairdressing problems. If you have a hairdressing question or problem email hairmedic@michaelquinnhairdressing.co.uk and our salon experts will do our best to answer them here on our blog. If we choose your question, we'll send you a salon voucher for £10! Photos help tremendously when answering questions, so if you book in for a treatment and don't mind us sharing your photos on our blog, we'll also give you a voucher for a FREE power conditioning treatment (£15 value) as a thank you.

Here is a question we hear some variation of all of the time, "I coloured my hair at home and something has gone wrong. It was supposed to be strawberry blonde, but it's gone ginger! What can I do?" To demonstrate our answer, we tested a light strawberry blonde home dye on Christopher and it turned a deep auburn red. Only a hairdresser would look this happy to be experimented on...to most people, this would be a hair disaster.

Don't worry, we can easily resolve this in the salon, though depending on the severity of the problem, it may take more than 1 visit. We strongly suggest that you don't try to colour your own hair again to correct the problem, as not only will you likely still end up with a problem colour, but you will potentially damage your hair beyond repair. Remember, our expert colour technicians train for years to learn how to understand colour and how to mix it to produce the results you want. You simply cannot get the same quality results out of a box.

We don't recommend colouring at home for several reasons. As seen on Christopher, home dyes usually go darker than the colour on the box, so it is nearly impossible to know what your result will be. They are also very hard to remove (even if the box says semi-permanent), causing build-up problems. There are no conditioning agents in home dyes, so they are very damaging to your hair. All of this spells potential trouble! You wear your hair every day of your life...is it really worth the risk?

Before your colour can be repaired, we will need to remove as much as possible of the problem colour as possible. The photo on the left is Christopher part way through the process. Once we have removed the problem colour, we can proceed as with any normal colour treatment. A colour technician will help you select a colour that most compliments your skin tone, then carefully mix the perfect blend for you, using Matrix colours, which are amongst the best available in the world. Your hair will most likely be dry from the home dye, so we will also recommend a salon power conditioning and possibly weekly home treatments until your hair is back in tip top shape.

Finally, here's Christopher with his gorgeous new colour! Technical manager, Órla Begley, has selected a colour that complements his skin tone, as well as will give his hair a rest from lightening treatments for a while. We think he looks great and what a sport he is for letting us test out home dyes on him! Thanks, Chris!

Fabulous Friday

Anybody who knows stylist, John Meighan, knows that he loves Beyonce! Until recently, we might have considered him the Beyonce champ, as he can do the 'Single Ladies' dance like nobody's business! However, we have stumbled across a video of someone who might just be a little bit more fabulous. Sorry John, but unless you're still in nappies, it's hard to be this cute! Enjoy.

Tip of the Week

Have you been avoiding a fringe because you have a cowlick? This is that little tuft of hair that seems to have a mind of its own and goes every which way, but where you want it to go. A cowlick can grow anywhere on the head, but the fringe is where you often notice it.

There is no doubt that a cowlick can be annoying, but a good cut that is designed to work with your cowlick, along with the proper tools and blowdrying technique can solve your problem. Occasionally, a stylist may recommend against a fringe, but most often you can control your cowlick by using a vent brush and pointing your hairdryer downward as you dry.

So don't be afraid! Our stylists will recommend the best cut and demonstrate the proper styling techniques to control that unruly hair. If you book an appointment for a restyle with a fringe this week, we'll give you a luxury conditioning treatment for FREE to relax your worries. To take advantage of the offer, you must mention it at the time of booking. This special offer is valid through Tuesday, 30 September.

Fabulous Friday

Starting today, we'll be doing a weekly blog feature called Fabulous Friday, where we will share our fabulous and inspirational finds in fashion, beauty and of course hairdressing! Our first fabulous find is a clip that Michael came across, while doing research on Youtube. This hologram of Kate Moss for Alexander McQueen absolutely bowled him over! Michael said of the clip, "It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!", so of course, we had to share it with you. Enjoy!

Website and Email Downtime

We are making some major changes to our website, as well as changing our webhosting service provider. We were hoping to avoid any downtime, but our wesite and email will most likely be offline for at least a few days. If you need to email us in the meantime, please use michaelquinnhairdressing@googlemail.com.

We are very excited about our new website, which is not only easy to navigate, but has lots of fantastic new features. We'll let you know when the new website is live, so be sure to check the blog for updates.

Tip of the Week: Choosing the Right Conditioner

As with shampoo, choosing the correct conditioner for your hair is important if you wish to achieve that 'just walked out of the salon' look. What's the point in investing in a quality shampoo and getting your hair beautifully clean when you are just going to weigh it down with a cheap, heavy conditioner? When choosing conditioner, it's about achieving the right balance, so choose the correct one for your hair type:

• If your hair is very fine, use a volumising conditioner. This is a light conditioner that will help keep your hair smooth, without weighing it down.
  
• If you have curly hair or your hair gets frizzy easily, you need a smoothing conditioner that will inject plenty of moisture and help tame those flyaway strays.
  
• If you have coloured hair, choose a colour care conditioner. These contain ingredients that will keep your colour looking fresh for longer. (Many cheap brands contain silicone, which strips the hair of colour).
• If you have damaged hair, you need a fortifying conditioner that uses ceramides to treat weak hair, as these are your hair's natural intercellular bonds.

We love Matrix Biolage conditioners and use them exclusively in our salon. You can save £5 on a wash and blowdry this week and see the results for yourself, then save an additional £1 when you purchase Matrix Biolage conditioner to take home. To take advantage of this offer, you must mention that you read it on our blog. Discount on blowdry is not valid with Style Director. Special offers are valid for 1 week from the date published on our blog.

Tip of the Week: Choosing the Right Shampoo

Do you often leave the salon looking and feeling great, only to be disappointed once you wash and style your hair on your own? This usually boils down to choosing the right products for your hair and learning to use them properly and it starts with the shampoo you are using. When comparing cost alone, drugstore shampoos may seem a better buy, but they are actually a false economy for several reasons.

• Salon shampoos are more concentrated, so a little goes a long way. Though you might pay less for the drugstore brand, you will have to buy it far more often.
  
• Most drug store brands use cheaper cleaning agents, such as ammonium laurel sulfate, which can actually strip the hair, causing colour to fade faster and also cause dryness. You might pay a few quid less for your shampoo, but will have to get your hair coloured far more often, and pay for conditioning treatments that you may not have needed if using a better quality shampoo.
  
• Salon shampoos have better quality protein based conditioners, which lock in moisture by penetrating your hair more deeply.
  

We love Matrix Biolage shampoos and use them exclusively in our salon. You can save £5 on a wash and blowdry this week and see the results for yourself, then save an additional £1 when you purchase Matrix Biolage shampoo to take home. To take advantage of this offer, you must mention that you read it on our blog. Discount on blowdry is not valid with Style Director. Special offers are valid for 1 week from the date published on our blog.

Tip of the Week: Protecting Your Hair from Heat

To avoid damaging your hair, towel dry it thoroughly and apply a heat protection product before using your hair dryer. You wouldn't put your hands in a hot oven without protecting them...it's just as important to protect your hair too! Matrix Vavoom Blow-in Volume or Blow-in Control are great heat protection products available in our salon. This week you can purhcase them for 25% OFF while supplies last! If you book in for a cleanse, cut and finish, we will show you how to use these products, as well as add in a FREE luxury conditioning treatment (must mention at time of booking). To take advantage of these offers, you must mention that you read about them on our blog.