Cornrows and braids are one of those timeless styles that have crossed all gender and ethnic gaps. In fact, nothing is more beautiful than heedful of intricate braids and rows and no two styles are exactly alike. That is why more and more people are choosing to express themselves and their individual style through braiding and rowing.

But as with all styles, cornrows come with their own special challenges and problems. One of the most obvious problems associated with any tight braiding technique is breakage. While black hair has fewer tendencies to break than Caucasian hair, it can still take a great deal of abuse if the braids are not done and cared for properly. In addition to breakage, you can also experience dull, frizzy and dry hair as a result of wearing cornrows or braids.

To avoid all of these drawbacks and to keep your braids looking shiny and neat, follow the following care tips

Choose your artist wisely As with any artistic field, braiders come in many levels of expertise. Be sure to choose one that has been in the business for a good while. Also, ask to see sample photos of the stylists work. This will give you a good idea about their level of expertise.

Grow hair to proper length – In order to get a good braid, your stylist has to have enough hair to work with. A good rule of thumb to follow on length is 10cm for straight hair and a minimum of 5 cm for curly hair.

Cleanse without disrupting Granted, shampooing your hair with all of those rows and braids is not an easy task. To clean down to the scalp without disrupting your style you can use a shower massager or dental water pick.

Wrap to prevent frizz and breakage When youre sleeping, your hair comes into constant contact with your pillow and your movements cause friction and tension to be applied to your braids. This can result in fly away hair, frizz and breakage. To avoid this simply wrap your head with a do rag or cloth before sleeping.

Keep salon appointments If your braid artist tells you to get a trim every 6 weeks, do so. And if he or she tells you to get your braids redone within a certain time frame, be sure that you do. This will help keep your braids looking neat and fresh.

At first sight the answer seems very obvious they are cheaper. And of course that is true. But in fact Eastern European hair is not that much more expensive the amount necessary to make a good wig is about 30-50 USD in Poland or Czech Republic. That is not a fortune if you are going to spend a few hundred dollars on a wig. So what is the catch?

The problem is on the supply side. There are over 2 billion people in Asia and only 200 million in Eastern Europe. Most of people in Eastern Europe have no need to sell their hair for economic reasons. Moreover, I dont have to emphasize how rare it is in rich Western European countries to sell ones hair. That is what makes European hair rare and explains why local wig-makers purchase only the amount necessary for their own production. Outside of Eastern Europe, due to its rarity, the price of the best European hair so called raw virgin hair is skyrocketing.

Hence 99 of human hair wigs are made of Asian hair. This hair is marked by such trade names as human hair or remy hair. If the producer or a sales person does not state directly that the hair is exclusively European, you can be 100 sure that you are dealing with Asian hair.

Asian hair is by nature very dark black, very straight and thicker than European hair. Subject to a complicated process of a pigmentation removal, the hair looses its natural shine and resilience. Before it finally gets to you it will be dyed several times using synthetic chemical products, which no one would use to dye their own hair. Such a hair has a tendency to show a ting of a dark or red color. This is why it has to be dyed several times and go through a bleaching process. That way any color can be obtained, but hair structure gets damaged during the process. It is not pleasant to the touch anymore and even after as little as twenty weeks it will loose its shine and become dull.

Another issue concerns the manner in which the hair is obtained. It is not planned from the start with the thought of creating wigs. Hair is cut in random hair salons. Part of the hair also comes from ritual ceremonies of cutting of the hair as a sign of entering into adulthood. Such hair in the fervor of the ceremony falls to the floor and is gathered from there and placed in a great pile. In the process the hair is turned against and opposite to each of its strands and not layered in the same direction. Although it may not seem so at first, this does change the fundamental significance in the quality of your wig.

Every strand of hair has a coarse cuticle, which clings to the cuticle of the neighboring hair if they are layered in the opposite direction. In effect hair is twisting and intertwining into a hair clump so difficult to comb out. The only method for solving this problem is to completely remove the natural cuticle, which is then replaced with a silicon one that gives the hair its shine. It is a brutal and destructive process such a wig will maintain its sheen no longer than for a period of 4 to 12 weeks. After that time hair becomes dull and unattractive.

The best Asian hair comes from India and Pakistan. In reality, it is not much better than hair described above. The advantage is that this hair is less stiff and may have a natural tendency to from slight waves. For that reason, many producers claim that it has the same qualities as European hair, which is not true.

If only there were more Eastern Europeans, life of wig-makers and their clients would be simpler, heh?

If you watch the tabloids, you know that even the stars have bad hair days. It just seems that when the professional stylists are out of the picture, it is inherently human to have a less than glamorous mane. But you can do your part to stay ahead of the battle by following these great tips for hair care.

1. Use a professional conditioner that is formulated for your specific hair type. While you can skimp a little on the shampoo, a good, professional conditioner is a must have. Look for products in salons that are customized for your hair type. For instance If you have color or a perm, choose a conditioner that is for chemically processed hair. And stay away from those all-in-one shampoo and conditioner combos.

2. Choose a cut tailored to your face and body shape. The number one mistake that people make when choosing a new hairstyle is to pick a style based on popularity rather than how it will enhance their features. Always choose a new cut based on how it will enhance or detract from your facial features and build. If you have broad shoulders, choose a full-bodied cut over a close cropped head hugging doo.

3. Dont forget your UV protectants. Just as your skin gets damaged by wind and sun, so does your hair. To combat this, look for finishing products such as mousses, gels and sprays that block UV rays.

4. Keep your appointments. Did you know that your hair will split faster than it will grow? You need to get a trim every 6 to 8 weeks, even if its just a micro trim. A good hairdresser makes them good because they know what to leave on the head, not take off.

5. Leave chemicals to the professionals. There is a reason why beauticians need to go to school to learn how to handle chemicals and hair processes. You can do irreparable damage with these products even if the package says that its way easy. And even if you dont make your hair fall out, you could end up looking like a clown and paying a stylist big bucks to fix your mess. Note Most stylists charge double the rate for corrective color than they do for normal color processes

6. Get color for interest and body. Every cut needs a little bit of color to make it truly breathtaking. No matter whether your taste is subtle or dramatic, you can add interest and volume to your tresses with a color process. Highlights, lowlights, all over color, gray coverage, you name it, its all good for your look.

7. Do weekly conditioning treatments. Even if your hair is extremely healthy, it is constantly on the attack from wind, sun, cold and heat. During the summer months, your hair is battered even more when it absorbs chlorine and other chemicals from your pool.

8. Get an ionic ceramic flat iron. Instead of frying your hair with a conventional metal plated flat iron. Straighten your tresses, add shine and infuse moisture with one of the a negative ionic flat irons. We personally use T3 irons for all our work.

9. Choose your styling products wisely. Avoid products that leave build-up on your hair. If you see white gunk, that means that your product is not water-soluble and may be coating your hair shaft. Build-up causes limpness, breakage and inability to curl not to mention the white flakes.

10. Did you know that if you use a towel after your shower to dry your hair you are causing split ends and adding static electricity to your hair. Dont rub the towel back and forth over your hair, scrunch the towel around your hair like your would scrunch crackers in your soup.

While all of these tips wont make you look like youve hired a personal hairdresser, they will help you look the very best that you can each and every day. When it comes to hair care, remember that you wear your hair everyday. Now isnt it worth the time, effort and money that it takes to keep it looking spectacular?

In all of its transformations and variations, the short hair cut has always been numbered at the top of the list when it comes to versatility, style and manageability. No other style catches the eye quite like short hair and no other style makes the wearer look as professional, chic and sexy as closely cropped locks.

Short styles worn by women are a fairly new style trend when compared with womens hair styles in general. In fact, cropped styles only came to the forefront of fashion a little more than 50 years ago. Since that time, the short hair cut has given women the freedom to express themselves in numerous ways. From the funky and spiked to the soft and feminine, the short cut can be worn by any woman of any personality, style and age.

Short hair no matter what the age

It has long been a held belief that an older woman should wear a shorter style to make her appear younger. While there is some truth in this belief, long hair tends to make wrinkles and flaws more noticeable, short cuts and long hair styles can be worn by women of all ages if they choose the right style to compliment their particular face shape and bone structure.

A good rule of thumb to follow when it comes to choosing a short cut to suit your age is to pay more attention to your overall appearance rather than focus too much on how old you are. For example Trendy, spiked styles can emphasize flaws and sagging skin, but I have seen women in their 70s with exceptional bone structure wear these short hair styles and look amazing. On the other hand, I have also seen younger women try to wear these same styles and not be able to quite carry it off. So, if you want to wear a short cut, pay close attention to your face shape, build and style of dress before deciding how to cut your hair.

Once I was surfing through the web and found a very interesting article about all popular superstitions that deal with hair. One of them especially sparked my interest. The author said that, despite of common belief, in no way possible can moon influence hair growth, because it simply cannot be, and that all this is grannys tales.

Well, of course, many of the scientists may lead you into long and dull calculations about how this influences that, and whether this influence is generally possible. But lets look closer at this concept.

When I was at the high school, my teacher of physics showed us simple formula how one physical body influences other physical body. Of course, she was speaking about the planets and really huge bodies. But I can give you three reasons why this law is true for all existing physical bodies, no matter how small, tiny, or minuscule they are.

Reason 1 Everything in the World Is Interconnected

General science speaks that every part of the Universe is guided by some laws of existence, and that world is divided into parts that we see and that we cant see. Moreover, every one of us knows that something small creates big.

In other words, all of us are made of particles that we cant see, and the big world is made of small things the same way.

Now lets think about this if everything is guided by laws, and big world and small one are interconnected, then this leads to a conclusion that we are connected to the world, too and influenced by the general laws of its existence.

Reason one is proved.

Reason 2 Big Influences Small

Returning to my sweet teacher of physics, lets look closer at the laws of the mutual influence.

Who said that we are not influenced by the planet, OR planets? For example, there are weather sensitive people, whose state of health depends on sunny or rainy weather and atmospheric pressure. People are small and the planet is huge, planet influences people, big influences small.

So, why does something that is generally and physically possible seem so impossible to the self-oriented humans?

Lets assume reason two is proved, too.

Reason 3 Stars Are Not Simply Dots in the Sky

This reason is my final argument for those who know that world goes round, but are not likely to believe it.

There is an astronomy and astrology. Each of these sciences deals with stars. One predicts the future, second studies movements of the planets. First science isnt regarded by some of us as a science at all, second uses so many gadgets and technical devices, that almost all of us believe it. Of course, tabloid horoscopes do not add faith in the truthfulness of the predictions.

But do you know that ancient Arabs made long and complicated calculations that were written in separate huge books to get the right future forecast for the single person? These calculations usually took several weeks to finish; they required not only the exact date of your birth, but also exact day, hour, minute, even second of birth of your parents, some of the relatives, even strangers.

Moreover, they took into account positions of the planets, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth itself. And these positions were calculated in the same way as they are calculated now by modern scientists, who use fast computers and latest gadgets.

So, as you see, once astrology was rather exact, complicated and demanding science that was later abused and misled.

Now we read horoscopes just for fun, and dont know their true history and nature. To say more, astronomy takes its origin from the astrology, because first star charts and observations were brought from Arabian countries.

But I wont say that stars influence our future. What I really want to say is that stars influence our health and state of mood by the magnetic and physical interconnection with the Earth, which, in its turn, influences us directly.

So, even if you do not believe that stars influence you, they do influence every part of the world you live in, and these parts, in their turn, have a certain impact on you.

Reason three is proved.

When it comes to the growth or fading of the Moon and its influence on hair growth, the existence of such is explained by firm and solid law of nature.

The Moon and the Earth are bound by the mutual attraction. High and low tides of the Ocean exist because the Moon approaches and moves away from the Earth in a six-hour cycle. The growth-fading lunar cycle has eight stages, and this cycle influences the Earth in the same way as the six-hour cycle does.

Moreover, the Moon rotates around its axis, as well as around the Earth, along oval orbit, so there are points when the Moon is closer to the Earth and when the Moon is further from the Earth. It all moves us into complicated eight-staged ellipse lunar cycle.
Lunar cycle leads to the minor changes in the atmospheric pressure and the power of the Earth gravity. In its turn this affects animal and human health and behavior. For example, doctors report an increase in epileptic seizures and bleeding ulcers at the time of the full moon.
Gravity is one of the Earths strongest forces, so you cant ignore the Moon.
If we now think more about certain similarities between natural world and human organism, we will see that plants and herbs grow better or worse according to the lunar cycle. Moreover, it is a common practice when coffee trader view chart of the winter full moon to plan their coffee sales. The connection between the full moon and plant growth is so well established that it affects investment patterns.

Hair growth is affected by the Moon in the same way, as anything else on the planet. When the gravity changes, state of your health changes, too. With the lower gravity, even if the change is so small that you dont feel it, your hair grows slower. It happens in the beginning of the moon cycle and in the middle, on the full moon.

During the new moon and the old moon, the gravity is bigger, and the hair grows faster. Thus, the perfect time for visiting your stylist is on the 3-11th days of the moon cycle, as well as on17-24th days. Your hair will grow faster during these days.

Even if you do not believe all of the said, you cant deny the influence of gravity on human organism. Thus, there really are certain connections and influences of the Moon on the hair growth.

There are only few reminding to those who expect miracles
Changes in Earths gravity are very small, so you shouldnt expect fantastic results.
If your stylist has a heavy hand and your hair doesnt grow back in two weeks after hair cut, you shouldnt expect a miraculous hair growth, too.
If your hair is in unhealthy condition, it will use any opportunity to revive itself first, and only then it will grow longer.
My last reminding is that if you used to have short haircut, and now youve decided to grow your hair long, it will take time, doesnt matter when you cut your hair, and who cuts it. Our hair grows only up to 5-7 mm per month, and this is a proven scientific fact.

So, whether or not you believe that the Moon and hair growth are connected, you would agree that as long as you live on the planet, you will feel, consciously or subconsciously, all changes and influences made by our planet and its counterparts.