Hair Therapy 

Courtesy of Nicole Simon

Is your hair getting out of control? Check out these tips from a local stylist.

There are a lot of big things going on right now. 

But many times, the little things can make a difference.

Little things — like going to the hair salon — aren’t happening right now due to shelter-in-place orders. It’s important to stay home, but we may also feel out of sorts by disrupting our routine.

“To offset some of the negative impact of our current situation, it is important to identify the many small areas you do have control over, by creating a new routine and adapting self-care methods to this current time,” says Orange County Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Erica Curtis. “A routine self-care act such as getting your hair done, for example, can be adapted to home with a simple trim and a color touch-up kit that you use yourself — or with the assistance of a household member. Whether maintaining a sense of normalcy or throwing caution to the wind by making a bold color change, exercising control over your appearance is one small way we can alleviate some of the stress associated with larger matters we have no control over.”

Indeed, local hair stylist Nicole Simon, of Magnolia Organic Salon in Costa Mesa, is offering some DIY hair tips for those in need of hair help.

“My first piece of advice is before you do anything yourself, reach out to your stylist to see if they are offering any guidance for their clients at this time,” she says. “If your stylist is unreachable, reach out to me. I am getting pretty creative on ways I can help my clients from home. A FaceTime call can solve a lot of problems, and for a nominal fee, you did not get to go to the salon, but you got some helpful tips that will help you feel better about yourself and your hair, and you got to hang out virtually with your stylist.”

She says under normal circumstances, she would not advise cutting or coloring your hair at home. But if you are going to take cutting or coloring into your own hands given the circumstances, less is always more and it helps greatly to have a stylist advising remotely. She says if you do decide to cut, use sharp shears and never kitchen scissors.

Avoid attempting to color your hair with things you have “around the house.” 

“A bad color job plus paying for a color correction after all this is going to be way more painful for you than your gray roots,” she says. 

In a recent blog post, she offers some advice on covering up roots, including:

• Use a temporary root concealer spray or wand like Mineral Fusion’s Gray Root Concealer for Hair available on Amazon. 
• For highlights that are growing out, try slicking your hair back into a bun with a little hair gel and a hair pin. 
• Wear a headband or scarf to cover roots and also help hide frizz and flyaways.
• Change your hair part to a zig-zag, a deep side part or part on the opposite side. 
• Use makeup like mascara or eye shadow in a color that is the same or slightly darker than your hair color.
• Utilize volume by curling, teasing, fluffing and spraying the roots away.

“I think we should take this time to mess with new styles we haven’t tried but have wanted to try,” says Simon. “Find yourself a YouTube video of that style you have always wanted to try, and see if you can recreate it or turn it into your own. Take time to practice and don’t expect perfection the first time.”

She says this is also a good time to give your hair a break.

“Let’s stop all the heat styling on our hair, let’s give it a break too, as most of the world has been called to do right now,” she says. “Slow down. Give it weekly or monthly mask treatments. Don’t wash it daily, use good products. Be thankful for the beautiful hair you have no matter if it may not look exactly the way you want, for what in the grand scheme of things, will be a short amount of time. Work with your natural texture if you never have before. Try different things, different products, different styles, have fun!”

— By Jessica Peralta