Complicated hair dos can be a result of our own neglect, lack of know how, or Mother Nature stopping by just to test our patience (I mean water our flowers and trees). Either way, there are quick fixes you can use to turn your hairdo's around from complicated to compliant.

• Do towel or air dry your hair as much as possible before blowing dry no matter what your hair type.

• Do comb, brush and dry from the roots down; this will prevent breakage.

• Do deep condition your hair one week before coloring or perming no matter what your hair type.

• Don’t hold the blow dryer too close to your hair while drying.

• Don’t finish your style with too much hairspray unless that particular style calls for it (mainly formal styles and updo's.

Oily Hair

You have bright, shiny, please touch me hair for only the briefest moments in your life…immediately after each shampoo!

Then the Texas geysers nature put in your hair disguised as sebaceous glands start gushing. In two or three days you're a twenty first century Medusa. Your beautiful hair hangs in snakelike strings down to your shoulders.

Your roots turn dark almost overnight. You feel uncomfortably greasy from the hairline up. And hat bands and neck lines drawn incautiously over oily hair are constantly threatening to shout your problem to the world. You're dandruff prone. And ever since you were a teen you can remember fighting the battle of the bumps and blemishes.

Oily hair is a little bit more difficult to treat than dry hair. Loose muscled oil glands are directly responsible for your free flowing condition. But the underlying cause, the root of your problem, could be one of several: improper diet (too many fatty foods have gone to your head), tension, or poor general health.

If your bothersome condition persists despite a fresh fruit, fresh air and fresh vegetable routine which would qualify you as American Health Queen, see your physician.

Dry Hair

If it's any consolation, more American women have dry hair than oily hair, curly hair, or even cowlicks. You are not alone. Some women come by this lusterless state naturally.

Others work long and hard at acquiring tinder wood hair. They painstakingly broil it in the summer, bake it in steam heated houses in winter, change hair color with every season, refuse to read home permanent directions, go on and off fad diets and never lift a hair brush.

Is your hair dull and listless? Does it stick out in porcupine quills? Resist curl? Look like hay and feel like straw? Does your scalp feel tight and itchy? Are unattrac­tive flakes and bits of broken hair a shoulder problem? You have dry hair.

Straight Hair

Only a matter of heredity and a straight rather than a coiled hair follicle deep in your scalp lie between you and your lifelong ideal, natural curl. Whether you're aware of it or not, many curly haired women would swap follicles with you any day.

Fine, straight hair should be blunt cut to produce the illusion of body. And have it cut often. Straight hair tends to grow in a most uneven fashion.

Actually, if your fine hair is thick as well as straight and medium long, it may be worn in many ways; draped, twisted, swirled. But if you prefer to wear it down, just don't let it hang there. Hair must be shaped to fit your features.

Limp hair which has gone too long without a shaping may not even keep a style.

Straight hair also needs a light body permanent, especially if it is thin and far from luxurious. Follow up every shampoo with a conditioner on the ends only. And finish with a protein enriched hair spray to suppress flyaway tendencies.

If your hair is limp as well as vertical, never let yourself be given more than the gentlest body permanent and concentrate on the beautiful possibilities of well shaped, almost straight hair polished to the nth degree.

Dandruff

The body is constantly renewing itself, and one of the many ways it does this is by shedding the top layer of skin. The scalp is no exception.

On a healthy scalp, this endless renewal process goes almost unnoticed. The small, fine, horny scales are readily removed by faithful brushing and combing.

But when flaking becomes conspicuous, this means the normal shedding or keratinization process has become unbalanced. You have dandruff.

Poor circulation, improper diet, strong soaps, injury, in­fection, nervous tension, sex hormones and fungi have all been named as causative factors. But no matter what the reason, this much is definite:

When it occurs, the normal acid balance of the skin is disturbed and the scalp is left open to infection.

The normal flow of oil from the sebaceous glands has also been interrupted.

Sparse Hair

Your hairs are so few and far between your scalp blushes in its immodesty? If your crowning glory has been ever thus and you're in good health, there may be nothing to worry about.

But if this is a new development, see your doctor and discover what is going on inside that is retarding your hair growth outside.

Discouraging as this may be, don't despair. With proper diet and treatment, some of the most luxurious heads of hair have developed from the most pathetic strands.

After you've seen your doctor, see an expert hair stylist who can make the most of what you now have. By blunt or semi blunt cutting each strand and trimming to a short to medium length he can create an illusion of fullness.

Stubborn Cowlicks

Man has conquered space and someday may even put an end to war. But it's almost certain he never will subdue the pesky cowlick...

Static

Your problem is you're too electrifying. You generate so much electricity that when you're brushing your hair to tweak the style here and there your hair jumps up to meet your brush.

Don't shop for a chic lightning rod; you're in no imminent danger. You're simply an everyday example of one of the first principles of physics opposite charged bodies, negative and positive, your hair and your comb or brush, attract.

More dramatic examples of atmospheric or static electricity, as it is variously called, are lightning jumping from one charged cloud to another, the shock you get if you touch a metal object when wearing rubber soled shoes (hospital nurses pushing stretchers note this often), or the sparks emitted when you open a garment bag, or stroke a cat under the right conditions.

Not you but the atmosphere around you is at fault. You'll notice your hair is more of a problem on dry, cold days, than on warm, humid ones. Dry climates step up the charge on your hair.

If you'd eliminate this positively electrifying problem, don't be negative in your approach...

Dull Hair

It can be a dull life with dull locks. No poet at least no well known one has ever inscribed a verse to "Jeannie with the mouse brown hair."

Yet even before the most flattering hair colors, most prefer the healthy glow, the appealing naturalness, the fresh sparkle of shining, well nourished, well polished hair.

Lustrous hair, after all, is one of the most important parts of the glow of youth you hear so much about. So why be a mouse?

Drab, lifeless, no highlights hair not only casts its dark shadow over the brightest personality, it adds years to the face of its owner.

What causes dull hair? It could be you're not eating the right beauty foods: vitamin rich fresh fruits, green and yellow vegetables, crisp salads and nourishing cereals.

Drab Color

Whether natural or out of a box, freshen your color with color enhancing shampoo’s or conditioners!

Reds and oranges are best to add warmth to medium to dark tresses.

Yellows and blues work great on blonde hair. The yellow will add very subtle gold hue and the blue will remove any brassiness making it look like a crisper, whiter blonde.

Sun Damaged Hair

The prevention of sun damaged hair begins with the use of products containing SUV protection. If you are beyond preventing sun damaged hair and need a remedy follow these steps…

Apply a daily or leave in conditioner every time you shampoo.

Until you get back to healthy hair, apply a deep conditioner or hair mask to your hair 1 to 2 times a week.

Now would be a good time for a trim or a haircut.

While you’re working on getting your hair back to a healthy state do the following while spending time outdoors…

• Wear a hat.

• Use shampoos and conditioners with SUV protection.

• Don’t over blow dry your hair. Summer’s the best time to let hair dry naturally.

• If you’ll be swimming, rinse the chlorinated water out of your hair as soon as you get out of the pool. And the salt water as soon as you get out of the ocean.

Tips:

• Use extra caution if your hair is colored. Begin prevention before there is damage.

• Wet hair (with fresh water) before getting into a pool or salt water. (Wet hair absorbs less chlorine and salt water than dry).

• Rinse your hair with fresh water immediately after getting out of chlorinated or salt water.

• Start summer with preventive maintenance

• Pull your hair back into a bun or ponytail before going out into the sun.

Swimmers Straw Hair

To battle swimmers hair, load your hair up with silicone serums every time before going into the water (chlorinated or salt). The silicone acts as a barrier between your hair and the water.

Swimmers Green Hair

If you have blonde hair and you swim a lot in chlorinated water…watch out, you’re blonde locks could turn green. Why?

First, it’s not the chlorine that turns your hair green, the copper in the water does. If you are using a algaecide that contains copper, quit!

Find an algaecide that contains polyquat. Check the ingredients; if they start with the word “poly” and are the sixty percent formula, you have the right stuff.

What should you do if your hair is already green?

Put two aspirin in a cup of warm water. Once dissolved, pour it over your hair. Wait 10 minutes then rinse. This should eliminate all of the green.

Apply a conditioner before swimming. Use a de-chlorinator or clarifying shampoo after swimming.

Head Lice

I’ve got to tell you, any kind of bug gives me the willies but a bug (or louse) that is living in your hair makes my hair stand straight up on end. Unfortunately you may need to know how to deal with it. So here we go…

There are generally no symptoms of head lice (maybe an itchy scalp). However if you hear of or the school sends home a note that there is an outbreak, check every family members hair.

1. The bug which is very difficult to see. They move quickly, but if you do happen to get a glance they will look very similar to a gnat.

2. The “nit” or eggs while lighter in color than dandruff, it may still be mistaken for dandruff. To tell the difference, use your fingernails and try scraping the egg/dandruff off of the hair shaft. If it is hard to move or doesn’t move at all, it is the nit of a louse.

How to treat it…

First of all, no product currently available kills all of the eggs. However, you DO still need to purchase a product for removal. As far as using the product, follow the instructions included in the box.

Note:

To find out more about lice and to find a product which will suit your needs go to http://www.headliceinfo.com/

Beyond using a louse/nit removal product there are other steps that MUST be taken to ensure every louse and nit is killed to prevent re-infestation.

• Change the bedclothes of EVERY bed in your house. Wash in HOT water.

• Disinfect all combs, brushes or any other hair accessory in your home by soaking in a disinfectant.

• Put all ball caps, or any head garments for that matter including head bands, scarves, etc. that have been worn in this time frame into a plastic bag. Close securely for one week. This will kill any remaining lice or nit.

• Put stuffed animals and pillows into a plastic bag. Close securely for one week.

All of this may seem a little overkill, but when this unwelcome guest comes into your home, he is extremely hard to get of.

You’ve styled your hair, the humidity outside is at 100%. You know you’re not going to make it past the front door without some type of hair catastrophe. You know you can’t prevent it but how do you keep it from ruining your life (ok, that’s a little dramatic, but hey this is your hair we’re talking about).

Subscribing to HSM you’ll find small remedies that will make a big difference and allow you to live your life without complete doom.

The HSM subscription contains even more information including:

Oily Hair Solutions

Dry Hair Solutions

Types of Dandruff and Their Solutions

Recommendations for Thin Hair

Stubborn Cowlicks

Turning Dull Hair into "Fab" Hair

You Started with a Flip, Now It’s a Flop

Frizz Control

Curls One Minute, Straight The Next

Where’s The Volume?

Oily / Dirty Hair

Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head