The Oprah Winfrey Show
Oprah's Best Life Series
Harpo Films
For One More Day
The Great Debaters
O, The Oprah Magazine
Subscribe Today
Oprah Radio
Oprah's Angel Network
Oprah's Book Club
If you're like most women, it's not so much the condition of your hair as it is those frustrating styling annoyances that turn a good hair day bad.
Among the most frustrating: static flyaway hair. The best solution: rubbing your hair with a dryer sheet (like Bounce). Much the way it keeps your undies from sticking to your socks in the dryer, Chavez says it will also keep hairs from sticking together—making styling easier.
For even more protection, try a tourmaline comb, made from a mineral that neutralizes the static charge. What can also help: Toss those nylon bristle brushes and opt for all-natural bristle brushes.
Another source of haircare woes—environmental assaults. This includes sun, wind and temperature changes, as well as indoor heat in winter and air conditioning in summer. Experts say all those can dry hair, bring out the frizzies and generally make it harder to control and style. If hair is color-treated, you'll feel the impact even more.
"From a technical standpoint, there's a protective coating on hair called the hydrolipidic film. If you have dry hair, that film is broken down somewhat anyway. When you color it, it breaks down a little more—but when you add sun, salt water, you can destroy the film altogether," says Melissa Baker, national training adviser for Rene Furterer haircare products in Paris.
While a conditioning treatment will sometimes do the trick, when it doesn't, the next step is to incorporate a hair mask into your regimen—a treatment that does for your tresses what a facial does for your skin.
"A mask is loaded with emollients that will coat the hair and help close the cuticle," says legendary celebrity stylist Peter Lamas, director of LamasBeauty.com and author of Beauty Basics. He says this lets you add moisture, then trap it inside so styling is easier.
