Kerastase treats your top 4 hair concerns
Did you know that wa shing your hair every day, combing and brushing it — all the things we think we’re supposed to do — can actually damage your hair?
This is news to me, but according to dermatologist Dr. Flordeliz AbadCasintahan, these rituals we perform every day can actually destroy the texture of our hair.
“Your hair is protected by an outer cuticle, which looks like overlapping shingles,” Casintahan says. “The cuticle should be intact to have shiny, bouncy hair. If there’s damage, cuticles are lifted. If you use the wrong shampoo with the wrong technique, cuticles become dry, flaky and you could even lose them. Hair is dull with no luster, frizzy, with split ends and tangled. Severe damage is you lose all your cuticles.”
The dermato-pathologist then went on to list the main causes of hair damage: “Physical causes are grooming, like aggressively combing your hair every day, brushing, blow drying, and hot irons,” she said. “Chemical causes are bleaching, dyeing, perming, straightening, and several exposures to weaving. Environmental causes are photo damage from the sun and pollutants also, with particles so small they can seep into the scalp.”
Casintahan says we should prioritize hair care — protecting our hair from the sun and treating it with the right products: “There are so many shampoos and treatments on the market now, but which ones should we choose?”
The doctor cited haircare companies like Kerastase Paris, which has just released Specifique, a range of shampoos and treatments that target specific conditions: Bain Prevention normalizes the scalp to prevent hair loss, Bain Vital calms and hydrates sensitive scalps, Bain Divalent purifies and refreshes oily scalps, and Bain Anti-Pelliculaire flakes off dandruff and prevents its return.
To determine which conditions we needed to address, we proceeded to Emphasis Salon in Rockwell for diagnosis and treatment. Emphasis has a dedicated Kerastase Paris room upstairs with all the latest machines and analyzers, and they’ve revamped the salon services for Specifique, making it more personal and pampering, and following it with stronger at-home treatments.
Using Kerastase’s special Scalp Profiler, Emphasis’ Ericka Samson diagnosed my scalp to be sensitive, showing me alarming red patches at the roots that looked inflamed. Guess I’ve been too aggressive with my grooming.
Once I was diagnosed, my therapist, Manuel, massaged in the Specifique shampoo for sensitive scalps, Bain Vital Dermo-Calm, with a Clarisonic professional brush, which is specially designed to exfoliate, increase microcirculation and prepare the scalp for treatment.
After rinsing off the shampoo, he applied Kerastase’s professional-quality Masque Hydra-Apaisant with a brush to soothe any scalp discomfort. While the mask was working its magic he gave me an excellent head, shoulder and back massage before rinsing it off. Then he towel-dried my hair before applying the final, leave-in Specifique Cure Intensive treatment with a Micronizer, an airbrush that diffuses the product evenly into the scalp. With ingredients like Rhamnose, the treatment is “very good for stimulating sleeping cells in the dermis,” according to Casintahan.
To continue the benefits you get to take home your designated Specifique shampoo and treatment in a box of vials you’re supposed to apply over the following four to eight weeks, depending on your condition.
Here are other haircare tips from Dr. Casintahan:
• Shampoo less. “Usually once or twice a week for normal hair.”
• Intently massage shampoo into the scalp, not just hair strands, to increase circulation. • Conditioner should be applied only at the tips, where the most damage is. • When hair is wet, don’t touch it. “It’s more prone to tangle and break, so just let it down and let it dry.”
• Never brush wet hair. Use a wide-toothed comb.
• If you blow-dry, the dryer should be at least six inches away from your hair. “And don’t just focus it on one spot.”
• Brushing hair 100 strokes is a myth. Don’t use too many styling products, minimize heat or irons — everything in moderation is key.
• Use sun protection, with umbrellas, or apply hair products with SPF.
“Now that we have hair treatments with protective effects, you should invest money in haircare,” Casintahan says.
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Visit www.facebook.com/KerastasePhilippines for more details.
Emphasis Salon is located on Joya Drive, Rockwell Center, Makati City.
Call 403-0117 to book an appointment.