Yuko Hair Straightening was created in Japan in 1996 by Yuko Yamashita, a hair stylist and salon owner who wanted to make people’s lives easier when it came to hair care.  As a young Japanese stylist, Yuko met countless women who were unhappy with their hair. The most common complaint was unruly hair that had to be constantly styled every morning and the mere suggestion of rain would make it frizzy and uncontrollable. Yuko wanted her customers to have beautiful, healthy hair without spending hours getting it that way, so she approached a Japanese sports, health and beauty company called Phiten. She worked hand in hand with Phiten to create Yuko Hair Straightening, which has been taking the world by storm for over 10 years.

This special straightening process utilizes collagen, keratin and silk proteins which penetrate the hair follicle. A hot iron promotes heat oxidization to leave hair smooth, radiant and manageable with minimal effort. Yuko is the original and leading hair straightening system. It has even been granted a patent in the United States.

In Japan Yuko Hair Straightening is used in over 35,000 salons. It has also spread across the world and there are now more than 600 salons in the US using it simply because it provides the best possible base for your hair. It creates truly healthy looking hair and provides an ideal foundation for any style.

I love them and will tell all my friends.

Well dear readers, it has been 1 week since the installation of my hair extensions. I have a few tidbits to share regarding my experience thus far.

First of all, although this is my first experience with bonded extensions, I did have a weave many years ago. The ease of washing and caring for the bonded extensions is a huge win. With the weave, washing between the cornrows on my head was a time-consuming process. These additions wash like your normal hair! A great pleasure. And the three hours it took to dry and style the weave was no picnic either. The bonded extensions dry rather quickly and look great with out too much additional fuss. I am now at the point where I can wash, dry and style in 45 minutes!

If you recall in part one of this series, I mentioned the first night trying to sleep in them was not restful. I am happy to say that sleep number 2 was much easier and I barely notice them whilst lounging on my pillow now. I do however continue to turn-in for the night with the extensions in a loose braid.

Another bit of info is to remind the person applying the extensions to leave a sufficient amount of your own hair at the nape of your neck to cover the adhesive. Mine did not, which means I can only wear a low ponytail. A higher one would result in a bad Brittany Spears look I’m just not interested in imitating…

I can not complete this post without mentioning length. If you’ve looked at my after shot, I’m sure you noticed an extreme amount of hair. It was fun for the first 2 days, but after that, the longest lengths started to bother me. They are too heavy to hold a curl regardless of the amount of product I apply to them and just look stringy and hang there.  Stacey will be making that go away shortly as we have decided to cut 4” or 5” off for better movement and style.

And so I continue on my long hair journey. So far, so good. I have been told they make me look taller, thinner and younger (all good things!). Every day I learn better ways to care for them and how to make them look better. The experiment goes on and I will of course keep you posted! If you have any suggestions or comments I haven’t mentioned, please feel free to share them. And of course, we always welcome questions. Have a Happy Hair Day all!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and a new trend is popping up: Pink hair!  Women all over the country are getting pink hair extensions with proceeds going to breast cancer research.  So.Cap.USA has a program called Pink Hair for Hope and Lots of Locks is following suit by also offering pink extension highlights for $10 with 100% of the proceeds being donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  My mother is a breast cancer survivor so this cause is especially important to me.  Let’s bring more awareness to a disease that affects millions of people!

www.lotsoflocks.com

So tonight saw the premiere of the Cheryl Cole for L’Oreal advert for Elvive Full Restore 5 – and I was stumped! She looks amazing and makes your heart melt with that true ‘Geordie girl next door’ freshness.

My favourite part of the ad HAS TO BE when wor Cheryl says, “Come on girls lets say it… because we’re worth it!“

AMAZING!

See the ad in full below… and the bus stop poster at the bottom of my road that I took whilst walking to work this morning! The campaign is well and truly in motion!

So what are your thoughts?!

Ms. Judy Pink.

It’s Fashion Week in Paris and Allure Magazine highlights four ways to pull off the runway look yourself:

Rumpled Waves at Chloe – At Chloe the perfectly mussed-up hair was meant to have a “Kate-Moss-at-Glastonbury” effect, hairstylist Guido mentioned backstage. (Translation? The hair was meant to look like it had a lot of texture, not actual waves._ To pull it off, he raked Redken Thickening Lotion through damp hair, then blew it dry without a brush. After making a messy center part, he used a large barrel curling iron to create loose waves, raking through them with his fingers to soften them.

Big Curls at Dior – Take a look at the retro “Lauren Bacall 40s-style waves” Orlando Pita created for the show.  After blowing the hair smooth with a round brush, Pita combed the hair into a deep side part. Then he used a large curling iron from the ears down to create the waves, and brushed them out “to soften them and give them a contemporary feel.”

Headbanded Hair at Yves Saint Laurent - The stacked headbands here were meant to look like “the triangular straw hats countrywomen wore in the 50s,” hairstylist Julian d’Ys says.  D’Ys used 10 to 15 zig-zag comb headbands on each girl to support the hair at the crown, but to get the look at home, secure the hair into a ponytail or bun with an elastic, then wedge in two or three headbands to get the basic effect.

Braids at Giambattista Valli – For those days when our hair just doesn’t want to work, the floppy braid at this show is a great new easy style. “It’s ethereal, light, and soft—like a young girl in love,” Pita said backstage. He started the braid high at the crow and pulled it tight. Then after he was done, he yanked on pieces of the braid to give it the loose appearance. “You can’t make it loose to start with or else the hair won’t hold and the braid will fall out,” Pita explained. “When you do it tight and then just loosen it a little, you get the softness but the braid stays in place.”

www.lotsoflocks.com

We have been researching extensions here in the Jack office for a piece in our Dec issue. One of the extensions we are focusing on is hair. Today we got sent Rapture self sticking hair extensions and have decided that buying a single collection of this hair and using it on short style creates an interesting new 80’s, Star Wars type style. In a week you’ll see this all over Brick Lane.

Chris Rock’s new documentary, “Good Hair” opens nationwide on Friday, 10/9/09. The film explores a long ‘family’ secret among black women: the definition and attainment of ‘good hair.’ Rock has been promoting the film all Summer with one of the funniest moments coming last week when he visited Oprah and literally ran his hands through her hair to see if she’d actually grown it, bought it or had some sort of sophisticated combination. Oprah proudly proclaimed that hers was naturally grown.

But what Oprah did NOT address, is the other aspect of that ‘bouncing and behaving’ naturally grown hair that she and I both share: just how do we get it THAT way?  The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many others have written pieces on Rock’s “Good Hair“, as this is a most fascinating part of life mostly for Black women (and secretly, some Black men too).

Just what is ‘good hair’ anyway?  In the Black community, ‘good hair’ is often described as being silky-smooth, kink-free. At the very least, it doesn’t require a straightening comb (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, ask somebody!) Thing is, once again, ‘good hair’ is not just a ‘black thang.’  I have Jewish and other non-Black girlfriends who have had to use ’straighteners’ in order to manage their tresses too. And of course, everyone from Brittany Spears to Madonna wears extensions. But I must admit that Black women do take the award for being most creating with the ‘weave.’

Of course, many will argue vehemently with the definition of ‘good hair’ and hence this funny and at times painful–literally and figuratively– tale of what women will go through to seek beauty and perfection will undoubtedly hit as many sensitive nerves as it does funny bones.