Riding Out the Recession:
10 Key Tips

by Lilly Rockwell on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Economic pundits often say the hair care industry is recession-proof, grouping it with other solid job-creating industries such as health care or education.

While people may cut back on buying expensive fur coats, the theory is that beauty treatments are preserved because they offer a less expensive self-esteem boost.

But in this Great Recession, many hairstylists say their business has suffered, with clients waiting longer between appointments, and eliminating extra services.

Sales are up 5.2 percent for the personal care industry (which includes hair and nail salons) in the last 12 months, according to market research firm Sageworks. But these gains are modest compared to larger gains — of 8 percent — in recent years.

“(Clients) go a little longer in between hair cuts,” said Washington, D.C., hairstylist and owner of Fiddleheads salon Beth Abroms. “When you find a good curly hair stylist it’s not about going somewhere else or somewhere cheaper.”

Clients are stretching their appointments from every six to eight weeks to even three to five months, Abroms said. About half of her clients are asking for ways to save on color treatments, including suggestions for ways to do it at home.

“It becomes more important to get new clients because people are spacing out their appointments,” said Miki Wright, a salon business coach. “You can keep your income exactly the same by adding a few more clients.”

Although some of Abroms’ clients are going through tough times financially, they have stuck with her because of her reputation as a good curly-hair stylist.

“People are coming in saying ‘I’m not going anywhere else’ because they’ve had such disasters with people who cut curly hair,” Abroms said. “They aren’t trained.”

In some hard-hit areas such as California, hairstylists say while clients are going through trying economic times, they aren’t willing to cut back on hair cuts.

For many, the reason is practical; keeping up personal appearances is considered key to landing your next job. This is especially true for curly-haired customers, who believe that they might be discriminated against if their curls are too unruly.

“I feel like my business is doing great,” said Menlo Park, Calif. hairstylist Teresa Callen, who owns the Image Arts Salon and specializes in cutting curly hair.

But she isn’t totally immune to the economic turmoil — her clients have started stretching the time between appointments to eight weeks and are opting for more inexpensive color treatments. And while the recession hasn’t caused the amount of money flowing in to change, it has caused her waiting list to shrink from 40 to three.

“It’s painful to watch clients who you just love and adore go through a terribly hard time,” Callen said. “That is what bothers me the most.”

This recession has been devastating for some hairstylists, who have watched their business take a nosedive right along with the stock market last fall.

Hairstylist Laura Vendetti is no stranger to tough times — since going into the business in 1990, she has survived two recessions and two major hurricanes that wreaked havoc on her community of Fairhope, a suburb of Mobile, Ala.

She survived those calamities with hardly a blip, she said. In some cases, her business even increased after these tragedies. Then last October, after the sudden drops in the U.S. stock markets and the collapse of several banks, her phone wouldn’t stop ringing with clients begging to cancel appointments.

“It was devastating,” said Vendetti, who specializes in cutting curly hair. She recalls one October day going into work at 8 a.m., checking her voice mail and hearing nothing but cancellations, and “putting my head on my desk and crying.”

Eight months later, Vendetti is still struggling to pick up the pieces. She had to take on a second job doing manicures and pedicures at a nearby salon and spa.

It was humbling to go from running a successful boutique salon to trimming a stranger’s toenails, she said, but she has learned to love her new job and has been able to cut her hours from 20 to 8 a week. “It built a lot of character in me.”

In New York City, the fortunes of the hair salons there are tied with the health of the weakened financial industry. Christo, the legendary curly-haired expert who needs no last name, said his Curlisto Fifth Avenue salon has seen its sales drop.

“I cannot say that we are not affected,” Christo said. “The whole world is affected.”

Christo said that they have fewer new clients coming in and that current clients are postponing appointments for “when they have money.” Still, some of his clients from JP Morgan had lost their jobs and continued to come in for haircuts.

Because of his focus on curly hair, Christo believes he has weathered the economic storm better than the traditional salons in New York.

“When you have a specialty it makes a huge difference in your business,” Christo said. The clients who come to Curlisto are typically very loyal, he said.

But Christo isn’t sitting on his laurels. He is offering free monthly seminars on styling curly hair for potential customers, offering wine and cheese and free samples. These popular talks are packed with dozens of women, he said.

It’s important to market yourself and not be shy of opportunities for free publicity, Christo said. Other hairstylists said they have become more aggressive in passing out business cards, even stopping strangers to ask them to come in for a haircut.

Ten Ways to Boost Your Business in a Bad Economy

Curly hair stylists from across the country shared their advice on how to keep your chair warm and your scissors moving in a bad economy.

1. Clients are looking for a good deal in a down economy. While some hairstylists refuse to discount, many agree that it doesn’t hurt to offer small discounts such as $5 off, or deals that get new customers in the door such as “two for the price of one.”

2. Start a referral program. An example: a free hair cut when you refer five clients. This will give you an instant boost in your new clientele and make your current clients happy at the same time.

3. If a client calls and cancels an appointment due to a sudden job loss, offer a steep discount, or in some cases, a free hair cut until they get on their feet. These clients will be extremely loyal to you when their personal circumstances do improve.

4. Go back to the basics by focusing on the clients you do have. Offer good customer service; cold-call clients to find out how they like the haircut. Don’t keep them waiting longer than 15 minutes and offer additional styling and maintenance tips.

5. Don’t try to push new products on clients. A down economy isn’t the best time to try to sell products because you risk irritating the clients you do have. Do offer free samples and give advice on what products to use if a client asks.

6. Seek out new clients, but don’t rely just on word-of-mouth. In a down economy you might be able to find potential customers unhappy with their current salon.

7. Invest in advertising in your local newspaper or a niche Web site. Or use free services such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to advertise your services.

8. Focus on building up a robust savings account that can get you through lean times. Ideally, include at least three to six months’ worth of expenses in the account.

9. If you find yourself with time on your hands, educate yourself on current hairstyling trends. Do find ways to educate yourself for less. Instead of spending $700 on a training seminar in New York City, spend $70 to get the DVD.

10. Offer free consultations or free seminars on how to style and take care of curly hair. Make it a party, with free snacks and hair samples to give out.

To Poo or Not to Poo - That is the Question

by Teri Evans on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

The downside of “squeaky clean” hair

Your client has tossed her flat-iron, finally found the right curly cut, and learned how to style her spirals. So why are her locks still frizzy, dull and dehydrated? And why has her freshly colored tresses turned brassy in a matter of days?

Curl-centric stylists say the answer may be found on the back of the shampoo bottle.

“You have to turn the bottle around and look for sodium laurel — or laureth — sulfate; it’s in the ingredient list,” says curl guru Lorraine Massey, who started her own line of sulfate-free cleansers in 1999. “If you see that in there, then put it down. That’s one is the harshest [detergents] of them all and just strips the hair of any vitality.”

Although many traditional shampoos contain sulfates (which are a classification of foaming agents also known as surfactants), curl experts say these harsh detergents steal the moisture that your tresses so desperately need.

“We’ve been addicted to lather, but you don’t need synthetic substances to cleanse your hair or wash your body, for that matter,” Massey says. “Sulfates harden the hair. They irritate the hair cuticle and dry it out. It’s like washing your hair with salt.”

Originally, soap and shampoo were similar products in that they both contained surfactants. The first commercial shampoo, Breck, was introduced in 1930 with thick, billowy lather. Over the decades, more sudsy shampoos emerged, as did the advice to make your hair “squeaky clean.”

Sodium laurel sulfate is quite irritating and can be rather drying to the skin, but companies have come up with milder versions like Sodium Laureth Sulfate, says Jim Hammer, a cosmetics chemist and product development manager at Pharmasol Corp. in Easton, Mass. But with any detergent cleanser, the flip side of removing oils you don’t want is that you also remove oils you do want, Hammer says.

“Squeaky clean is a myth,” says Chaz Dean, celebrity stylist and founder of Wen Hair & Body Care products and Chaz Dean Studio in Hollywood, Calif. “People thought squeaky clean meant clean hair, but squeaky clean really equals stripped and dried-out hair.”

How does this happen? Sulfates create a dense lather that strips away sebum, the oily substance secreted by the sebaceous glands that prevent your hair from drying out. You’ll find sulfates in countless cleaning products — ranging from car cleaners to laundry and dishwashing detergents to shower gels and toothpaste. And, of course, shampoo.

“By cleansing your scalp [with sulfates] you’re robbing it of all the natural, essential oils and beneficial bacteria; you killed them and washed them down the drain,” says Dean, who launched zero-lather cleansing conditioners in the mid-1990s. “The bad and harmful bacteria replenish at a much more rapid pace than the beneficial ones. So, you open yourself up to a dry, flaky and sensitive scalp and psoriasis because you stripped the beneficial bacteria and left a minefield open for the bad bacteria to have a field day.”

Dean began to realize the harshness of sulfates nearly two decades ago when he was in the early stages of his career, starting out as a colorist.

“At the time, I started putting vegetable color in my clients’ shampoos and sending them home with it,” Dean recalls. “That would help a little, but their hair still looked brassy. I then started to put it in the conditioner. But then the shampoo would strip the color back out. It was a vicious cycle. That’s when I knew I had to eliminate the lathering factor. The No. 1 reason the color was fading was because anything that lathers is going to strip.”

While shampoos contain about 8 to 10 percent detergents — a fraction of that being sulfates — Hammer says cleansing conditioners use cationic surfactants, which contain softening and anti-static properties. They are technically surfactants and will cleanse the hair, but they’re not a detergent in the classical sense — you won’t see the foam as you would with shampoos. Cationic surfactants are more related to a conditioning agent, so they don’t have the stripping effect of a normal shampoo.

A handful of hair-care companies and curl-centric stylists, like Massey and Dean, have been touting the benefits of sulfate-free cleansers for more than a decade. But many people have only just started to embrace them after the recent, intensified focus on the environment.

“People are becoming more responsible now, with global warming,” Dean says. “They are becoming more aware of what we’re doing to the environment and ourselves, and how we can change.”

But change can be uncomfortable. While curl experts see a shift toward sulfate-free products, they also still see plenty of resistance.

“Every person I encounter, even if they have interest, still has to be convinced about why and how this works,” Dean says. “They have to hear it over and over, until they’re finally ready to take the plunge and try it. People are afraid of change and shampoo has been around for so long that it’s just what people know.”

Although sulfates are still widely used, Hammer says a lot of companies are interested in moving away from them.

The marketing mantra of “wash, rinse, repeat” was firmly embedded in the mind of Kelly Foreman, until she realized how sulfates were stripping her color-treated, curly locks. Two years ago, she launched her own sulfate-free product line called Mop Top.

“Curly hair, by its nature, is dry anyway, and you have to be very careful with the chemicals you put on it,” says Foreman. “The lack of moisture is the direct result of using a surfactant too frequently.”

Forman’s Gentle Shampoo does contain coconut-derived surfactants, which she says are much more gentle than sulfates. Her basic recommendation is to start with a sulfate-free shampoo every seven to 10 days — and then adjust based on how your tresses respond.

“I personally shampoo once every three to four weeks,” Foreman says, “The rest of the time I just use conditioner.”

Based on customer feedback, Foreman is now reducing the amount of surfactants in the shampoo even further — cutting them in half. She also plans to launch a zero-lather cleanser this fall because of customer demand.

“It’s an exciting time to be in this industry,” notes Inga Tritt, who launched The Original Little Sprout in 2003 as a sulfate-free hair and skin-care line for children.

The idea for her own product line emerged after a frustrating search for sulfate-free products that actually worked on her young daughter, Maya’s, curly locks.

“I used to use products I found in the health-food store because I didn’t want to use anything I had to worry about on Maya,” Tritt says. “But they didn’t perform. They left her hair fuzzy and dry.”

Tritt’s sulfate-free shampoos do contain some foaming agents, but they’re derived from beets, coconuts, almonds and sunflowers.

“For curly hair, a sulfate-free shampoo is a win-win because not only is your hair going to look much better, but your frizz is going to be considerably reduced, also” says Tritt, who is introducing a sulfate-free shampoo for adults this fall.

“A lot of times, with traditional shampoos, they will add extra mineral oil, petroleum oil derivatives or by-products to help counteract the drying effect of sulfates,” Tritt says. “But you don’t want to feel that residue. People are starting to get it. They’re becoming more savvy consumers and educating themselves.”

Take Jessicurl’s Jessica — yet another example of an educated curly whose relentless research resulted in her own line of sulfate-free products.

“I was spending all kinds of money and doing my hair over and over again. and trying to get it to look right and not understanding why it didn’t,” says McGuinty, who launched Jessicurl four years ago. “Well, there’s no way it could look right when I was stripping it with sulfates, then loading it with silicones to calm the frizz that sulfates cause.”

The Jessicurl line includes two sulfate-free cleansers that contain more gentle surfactants derived mostly from sugar and coconut . The Hair Cleansing Cream has a minimal amount of lather for dry, coarse, or color-treated hair, and the Gentle Lathering Shampoo provides a bit more lather for fine hair that tends to easily become weighed down.

As the demand for sulfate-free products has encouraged the growth of small, independent companies like Jessicurl, the giants in the beauty industry also have begun paying attention.

“Businesses that are responding and going green are making the money,” Tritt says. “The ones that are still old school are going to fall behind really fast.”

“It’s not political at this point, it’s moral,” adds Massey. “It’s about getting real and if something doesn’t feel good, it isn’t. Since when was it acceptable to have mediocre blow-fried, dehydrated hair? At what point did you look in the mirror and say, ‘This is okay?’ It’s not acceptable. There are solutions now, and it’s really going to make a difference when you really want to make a difference. It’s up to you.”

In Defense of Shampoo

Curl expert Christo of New York’s Christo Fifth Avenue has built his entire career — and his Curlisto product — around helping curlies maintain healthy hair. That is why he is very frustrated by what he calls the unfair “attack” on shampoos.

“I would never do anything to harm curly hair,” says Christo. “Sulfates are just one small ingredient along with many other good ingredients, like proteins and amino acids, etc. You need them to cleanse your hair properly, remove the buildup and maintain the hygiene of the hair.

“There’s not one ingredient that harms the hair or is good for your hair. It’s the combination in a formula.”

Sulfates are a common detergent in shampoos, dating back to when the first bottle appeared on store shelves in the 1930s. Although a number of hair-care companies are opting not to include these detergents in their products today, some curl experts say the shift away from sulfates is nothing more than a gimmick.

Only a small fraction of the ingredients in shampoo are detergents, including sulfates, according to Jim Hammer, a cosmetics chemist and product development manager at Pharmasol Corp. in Easton, Mass. He says many shampoos also contain a combination of nurturing ingredients that will provide enhanced mildness, even in the presence of a sulfate.

“The word ’sulfate’ has become part of a marketing scare, and there’s a lot of propaganda,” adds Jonathan Torch of Toronto’s Curly Hair Institute.

“You can’t just look at that one ingredient. I would never use anything that would irritate the scalp. When people say they have an itchy scalp, they’re not rinsing out the shampoo properly. You have to spend a lot of time getting the water all the way down to the root. I haven’t found anything better or that remotely comes close to [sulfates].”

Torch’s product line includes a Treatment Shampoo and a Silk Shampoo, both of which contain ammonium laurel sulfate.

“There may be a product with one drop of sulfate and 20 drops of silk amino acids to counteract anything that could happen from that one drop.” Torch says. “Concentration is important. Quality is important. All these things play into it. So, it’s an art and it’s a science.”

Rather than skipping shampoo altogether, Christo emphasizes the importance of continuously feeding curly hair the moisture it needs.

“You’re going to gain a lot more by focusing on treating your hair with deep conditioners,” Christo says. “If you think you shouldn’t shampoo your hair at all, then you’re going to end up with no shine to your hair, and it will eventually cause damage to your hair.”

Shampoo is critical to cleansing the pores of the scalp and allowing the roots of your hair to breathe, according to Ouidad, author of CurlTalk and owner of New York’s Ouidad Salon, the Curl Education Center.

“If you don’t use shampoo to get rid of your own natural oils, not only does the hair become dull but the hair root starts dehydrating, and it starts shrinking,” Ouidad says. “The hair becomes weak.”

The key is moderation, say the curl experts. Shampoo once or twice a week rather then every day.

“It’s not going to damage your hair,” Christo adds. “It will bring the luster back to your hair that a no-sulfate shampoo cannot do, unfortunately.”

Day in the Life:

Christo of Christo Fifth Avenue

by Teri Evans on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

A Day in the Life

This is the first in an ongoing series of features about some of the top curl stylists. We take you behind the chair to experience a day in their life. This month, we get up close and personal with Christo, global artistic director at New York’s posh Christo Fifth Avenue, a salon catering to the world’s curlies, including a long list of celeb clients.

“Half businessman, half artist.” That’s how Christo describes himself. To his clients, though, he’s all charm.

Christo is “half businessman and half artist.”

“Christo rocks!” one long-time client blurted out with a smile on a recent wintry day at Christo Fifth Avenue Salon in New York. She is one of a dozen curly clients Christo will style, cut or color on any given day. Working nonstop for hours on his feet is far from easy, but Christo makes it seem as welcoming as a tropical breeze.

So, how does he do it?

To find out, I spent a day shadowing the curl expert. Despite his veteran status, he not only continues to take clients, but also runs his salon with a crew of 10 stylists, manages his own product lines (with new ones in the works) and designs one-of-a-kind, lavishly upscale (read: $300 to $4,800) cuff links.

Christo is somewhat of a walking showcase for his jeweled baubles (and for the latest fashions) and he wouldn’t have it any other way. During my visit, he wore a custom-made Italian designer suit, Ferragamo belt, and perfectly polished Bruno Magli shoes.

“My wardrobe is fierce,” he acknowledges. “I like to wear designers’ [clothing] and I’m a designer.”

In fact, outside the salon, Christo often collaborates with fashion designers to create hairstyles for the Fashion Week runways. He also takes private bookings for celebrities and the political elite. (Whew! Just rattling off his list of to-dos seems exhausting.) Before noon on this biting-cold Friday in early December, Christo has already gently ushered a few clients in and out of his chair.

He effortlessly flits from brief chats with his marketing executive (”Do you need me?” she asks) back to his chair (”If you have time we should do a Deep Therapy Masque,” he suggests to a client with dehydrated curls) to even supervising the assistants in charge of shampooing. Christo doesn’t assume assistants will choose the right shampoo and conditioner for each client. “I tell them specifically what to use,” Christo says. He monitors it all, but without too much hovering.

12:00 p.m.

With his customary kiss on each cheek (mwah-mwah!) and a hug, he welcomes in his next client with shoulder-length raven curls. Within minutes, this long-time client is in his chair, chatting on her cellphone. He’s already getting started, scissors in hand. She doesn’t flinch.

“Are you going to talk to her about what she wants?” I ask.

“I already know what she wants, and sometimes I don’t let them choose,” he says with a chuckle and a smile.

In the midst of the trim, Christo’s personal assistant quietly steps in to ask him to confirm a time for his upcoming trip to Washington. (He signed on as the stylist for a few dozen celebrities arriving in the nation’s capitol for inauguration parties in honor of President-elect Barack Obama.)

He confirms and goes back to his scissors for a few more finishing snips. Then, he’s off again. “Excuse me for a second,” Christo says, as he makes his way to welcome the next curly client, a twenty-something redhead whose thick, fiery curls seem to float down her back.

With another mwah-mwah welcome, he starts to send her to the back for a wash, but she stops him to quietly ask if he can blow it straight today. “Well, that’s an extra charge,” Christo says, encouraging her to keep her curls intact. “Your curls are beautiful.” She skips the blowout.

Back to the raven-haired client. “Would you like some coffee, tea?” he asks, then sends her under the dryer.

12:50 p.m.

The fiery redhead is cleansed and seated in Christo’s chair for a trim. They chat and laugh, with the familiarity of dear friends. “You need an updated picture of your daughter,” she teases. “It’s at least six months old!”

After cleaning up the ends of her mane, she’s off to be styled and set under the dryer.

Christo continues to shuttle back and forth between clients, skips lunch (which he says is common) but doesn’t complain.

1:35 p.m.

The curly redhead is back in his chair for a final style check. “It looks great,” he says, reassuringly. She then turns to me: “He tells me you have to make your hair happy.” She smiles and out the door she goes.

Christo focuses his attention now to mixing color for his next client, Karen Goldstein, who lives in California but only colors her curls when she is able to make a trip to New York to see Christo. Today it’s low-lights.

“Make sure you cover the gray,” she says.

“Well, we can do a glaze between the foils, but I don’t think you need it yet,” he says.

“Okay, I trust you,” she responds, then turns to me: “He’s been doing my hair for 10 years. My relationship with Christo lasted longer than my marriage!”

As the day goes on, Christo is finally able to relish a few free moments after learning that one of his appointments cancelled. An assistant immediately steps out to retrieve one of his favorite treats: an extra-strong, extra-hot chai latte from Starbucks. While sipping his only nourishment for the day, he briefly meets with his publicist to make corrections to his regular column he’ll submit to Cyprus Mail, an English-language newspaper in Greece.

3:00 p.m.

Another three clients have been moving through the salon, from the sinks to Christo’s chair and then the dryer. Not all are exactly chatty, so Christo morphs into a chameleon and adjusts to their more subdued temperaments.

“Everyone has their special needs and I try to accommodate them as best I can,” he says.

One restless client tells him she’s in a rush, but it appears she may simply want a bit of extra attention.

“Sometimes, clients don’t want to share you,” Christo says.

3:45 p.m.

Fielding a few more questions from his publicist, Christo answers a quick call and then confirms his attendance at a party to be thrown by an ambassador to Qatar. It seems Christo is in demand almost as much as the high-profile clients he styles. Still, he says he always manages to find balance in his charmed life. Sundays are always reserved for his family and, to stay even more centered, he practices Tae Kwon Do (he has a black belt) a few times a week in the evenings. Aside from martial arts, his passions are watches (he owns more than two dozen, including a Rolex), fashionable clothing, fast cars and, of course, styling curly hair.

“I don’t see this as work,” he says. “I see this as coming to a place, doing what I love and getting paid for it.”

Seize the Shine Factor

by admin on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

It seems like everyone is searching for shine for their locks.

Almost every curly has struggled to unearth the elusive shine that our slick-straight counterparts seem to have with no effort at all. Yes, a closed cuticle is more reflective of light, but stylists say you don’t have to steamroll your spirals to get a gorgeous glow. Try these simple shine strategies for luminous locks.

Follow a hair-healthy regimen

If your textured tresses are exceptionally dull, the most likely culprits are heat-styling tools that not only damage the hair, but also strip its natural luster. Solution? Feed your starving curls, already.

“The healthier the hair, the more it’s going to shine,” says stylist Mia Fanali of D. Sabrina Salon in Westport. Conn. “Use a deep conditioning treatment once a week and a daily UV-protecting, leave-in conditioner.” (Fanali recommends Curlisto’s Deep Therapy Masque and Inestra’s Aestelance Balm leave-in conditioner.)

“A UV-protecting product screens out the sun’s rays, so you’ll have less damage on the outer layer of the hair shaft that takes the most abuse and is the first area to lose the shine,” Fanali says. “Always apply the UV protector first, then you can use your gel to style your hair. ”

Excessive shampooing also strips the life — and shine — right out of your hair, experts say.

“It is very important not to shampoo too often because the natural oils from your scalp will be one of the best shine products you can have,” says stylist Ethan Shaw of Anne Kelso Salon in Austin, Texas.

Even if you’re active in the gym or outdoors, working up a sweat is actually a good thing for your thirsty curls.

“It’s not dirt! Distribute those oils through your hair,” says Stanley of New York’s Christopher Stanley Salon, who suggests gently brushing the hair (depending on your curly texture) to spread the natural oils around. “Don’t get rid of that natural shine material that you are making yourself.”

Go for the gloss

Stylists recommend adding a clear gloss every four to six weeks for a shine boost, whether or not you color or highlight your hair.

“I use a gloss on a lot of my curly clients who don’t have any gray and don’t really want to change their color, but they want shine.” Fanali says. “Redken Shades EQ makes a clear gloss, which is conditioning and adds a lot of shine. I also add in a gloss as part of the permanent color service.”

The demi-permanent glosses are offered in various shades, in addition to the clear product.

“The clear gloss will close the cuticle of the hair to prevent frizz and add a lot of shine,” adds Stanley, who also recommends Redken Shades EQ. “I’ve found it’s the longest-lasting gloss that produces the most shine and will not hurt the hair at all. But you don’t have to use a salon product. You can find semi-permanent gloss products in that famous CVS (drugstore) aisle. If you color your hair, it’s good to add a gloss in between your color services.”

Meanwhile, Shaw advises curlies to choose their color wisely because using the right shade can factor into the shine equation.

“Instead of using colors that tend to make your hair look flat, use warmer colors,” Shaw says. “Semi-permanent color will also make your hair look shinier than permanent colors, which can be more drying and damaging.”

If you must, spray it on

When your to-do list feels like a mile long (and a trip to the salon is not on it!), stylists say shine sprays and serums will work in a pinch for thick, textured tresses.

“If you don’t have any time, adding shine to your hair is a tough thing, especially for coarse curly hair,” Stanley says. “I like ECRU’s Silk Nectar Serum, but it’s a silicone so you have to use it in small amounts or your hair will end up looking like a greasy mess.”

Stanley suggests adding only a few tiny drops to individual curls — starting at least three inches from the scalp — after applying your usual style products.

“Keep in mind, you don’t want to use a heavy-duty shine product on fine curly hair because it will weigh the hair down,” Stanley warns.

If you choose to use a shine spray, Fanali suggests Curlisto Glow & Shine spray and Shaw recommends Bumble & Bumble Shine Spray.

“Keep in mind, most of the shine products are going to be silicone-based, and it is what it is,” Shaw says. “If you have really damaged curly hair, you can also use Bumble and Bumble Straight as your styling product, which has different silicones, and you can scrunch it in. It will make the hair look shiny, but it’s really just putting a Band-aid on the hair.”

Shaw says a healthier approach to creating shine is to create your own concoction.

“Go to your local health food store, buy a small bottle of olive oil and a small bottle of vegetable glycerin,” he explains. “In a food processor, emulsify them (using a 50-50 mix) and pour it into a small spray bottle. Shake it vigorously and lightly mist it on (staying away from the scalp), when your hair is dry. It will add shine and it helps damaged hair.”

If you prefer a soothing scent, simply add a few drops of your favorite essential oil and you’re done!

Again, this remedy works best for curlies with thick hair. If your hair is thin and fine, stylists say you’re much better off heading to your salon for a clear demi-permanent gloss.

“If you want something that’s not going to be adding a bunch of silicone, it’s a really effective way to create shine — and be good to your hair,” says Shaw.