2017: A YEAR OF BEAUTY

Say Yes To The Tress

Reach this year’s beauty heights with fresh monthly makeovers starting right at the top: your hair.

› By Angelique Anacleto

Make friends again with your hair. Maybe in the past you’ve been a little careless, a bit rough or frequently overheated. Now is the time to treat your BFF to some TLC and achieve the luxe hair of your dreams. Whatever your ambitions (killer cut or complex fantasy color), it’s healthy strands that build the foundation for every great style.

Objective: Keep as many hair strands unbroken, unbothered and attached to your scalp as possible.

Solution: Zero in on moisture and a softer touch for a thicker, stronger, shinier mane.

Gently, Gently

Because frequent shampooing can strip moisture, experts favor gently brushing hair morning and evening to balance natural oils throughout the head. Look for a soft, child-type brush without metal or scratchy tips.

For African-American natural hair, blogging mavens like UrbanBushBabes.com swear by finger detangling every week or two as the gentlest route against breakage.

Use a wide-tooth comb before shampooing to lessen trauma and prevent those few tangles from foaming into a larger tangled monster.

Gently cleanse hair like delicate clothing. Briskly rubbing or scratching with fingernails may feel invigorating but can damage new growth, as well as create split ends.

Attach a showerhead water filter (starting at $20) to decrease hard water’s damaging chlorine, minerals and calcium. These minerals produce a weighty, scaly film that blocks moisture absorption, leading to dry, dingy, tangled tresses and pesky dandruff.

Skip towel drying. While this sounds extreme, frizz-producing towel fibers roughen up the hair’s cuticle. If time permits, squeeze out as much water as possible, air dry while getting dressed and comb through when drier.

Take a rest from ponytail elastics, headbands, pins, rollers, extensions and braiding. Applied tension tugs, creates dents and causes breaks, leading to traction alopecia or balding over time. Keep regular trim appointments to halt split ends from encroaching even higher.

Make The Moist Of It

Pick from a growing list of sulfatefree shampoos. Sulfates are cleansing agents commonly found in shampoos that create lather but also deplete moisture, thereby weakening strands.

Use salt texturizing sprays sparingly. They’re great for creating laidback, beachy waves but end up dehydrating hair, removing nutrients and washing away color.

Work any of nature’s wonder oils or butters through parched locks. Choose from almond, argan, coconut, macadamia, olive, monoi and cocoa or shea butter.

Several leave-in sunscreen sprays also work double-duty by simultaneously protecting from harmful UV rays while hydrating. In a pinch? Coconut oil already carries a built-in SPF 8.

Heat Watch

Try rinsing with cooler water instead of hot, which strips hair’s natural oils and lipids.

When styling, first choose ceramic-coated tools, which heat more evenly for minimal damage. Next, lower your usual heat settings. Third, use a protective silicone spray to coat shafts and inhibit frizz. Then, split heat styling into four sections. Dividing hair into halves and then separating those halves into top and bottom pieces ensures uniform heating and less burning. Take a heat styling holiday as well.

Nighttime Security

Given that hair is most fragile while wet, overnight pressing and tossing against pillows poses more breakage risk. If you must go to bed with wet hair, at least dry the roots.

Consider the beauty secret of sleeping caps, which African-American stylistas have used since forever to lessen twisting, tangling and breaking. Or, try a nontugging satin pillowcase.