From the India Express :
http://www.indianexpress.com/Storyold/54980/Mayura Nimbalkar, a young fashion designer in the city, felt she wanted a change in life. Flicking over a couple of glossies, she decided that a colour change would do her hair, face and image a world of good. "It's in vogue,'' she observed. She's happy with the result - her brown hair is now streaked with shades of gold.
Maneesha Shah, proprietor of a fashion boutique, got her hair tinged golden brown from the beauty parlour. Initially, she had picked up a well-known brand from the shelf of a store and applied it at home, which led to hair loss in patches. Why is why she feels that getting it done from a professional is imperative, otherwise baldness, white hair or other side-effects are sure to follow. "It's such a nice feeling and there was no hair loss or anything,'' she gushes.
And now, more and more collegians and working women are experimenting with colouring their tresses. It's trendy, it's fun and great as an image-boost.
Naturally, the trend has come from the West. Freny Patel of Freny's Parlour in Choice Arcade, Dhole-Patil Road, affirms, "Colouring is really trendy right now. There's no particular age group as such that tries it, anybody can go in for full hair colour, but highlighting and streaking are preferred by the younger crowd, between 20 to 30 years of age.''
Freny recommends colouring to her clients, which, she feels, if professionally done, causes no problems. "Some persons try to do it themselves, without knowing the right way to go about it,'' she says. Since the look of the 1960s (straight hair, long or cropped) is back, perming has taken a back-seat now.
"Colouring, highlighting and streaking have caught on with Puneites. Everyone wants a change, especially youngsters. They see advertisements, models, pictures and want to emulate or experiment for a lark,'' says Charu Abhyankar, proprietor, Stella Beauty Parlour, which has two branches, one on Gokhale Road and another on DP Road, Aundh.
Abhyankar feels the trend of experimenting with hair has advantages as well as disadvantages. "Hair colour gives a natural sheen to the hair, especially with such good brands available in the market today. Foreign brands like L'Oreal, Wella and others have introduced colours like burgundy, coffee brown and mahogany to blend with Indian hair colour,'' she explains.
She adds a word of caution, though. Tinted, bleached, coloured hair need a lot of care, proper massaging and conditioning, which is a must. All these new-fangled techniques may lead to breakage of hair. "Once hair is broken, a neutraliser helps bind it back, but there is body loss. It's not bad to experiment but it's better to work on healthy hair, '' says Charu, who feels a client should know of the shortfalls of any hi-fi hairstyling method prior to its use.
There are three types of hair colour - temporary, permanent and semi-permanent. "Permanent tints are mixed with hydrogen peroxide, so a skin test, 24 hours in advance, is a must,'' she insists. As far as temporary and semi-permanent tints are concerned, the colour penetrates the cuticle temporarily, which washes off after shampooing.
Leenean Chiu, owner of Hugh's Beauty Parlour, MG Road, says she recommends colouring only if the client wants it. "The customer gets the colour of her choice and we apply it for her. But we don't do any highlighting or streaking, it's too time-consuming. Continuous use of colour does make the hair dry and rough,'' she admits. But that hasn't deterred anybody from trying.
"A lot of creativity goes into hair colouring,'' says Anahita Damania, owner, Gazelle, who recently completed a course in hair-colouring at L'Oreal, London. And there are different techniques of adding colour to hair - highlighting, lowlighting, bleaching, streaking, full hair colouring, all part of fashion colour. To top it all, applying colour can be done in `n' number of ways, using the pen mesh, comb application, highlighting with foils or spatulas, and many more.
"There's been good response from Puneites, starting from 15-year-old teenagers to grandmoms. Apart from using colour for dyeing, a lot of people use it for purely fashion's sake. Abroad, it's so common. You go for a colour-and-cut, never merely for a haircut,'' she states. Anahita emphasises the importance of consultation because "a client who walks in knows she wants colour, but it depends on your whole personality, hairstyle, face, and choice.''
Well, everybody wants a change. And this is one way of getting it.
