Marketing is deeply ingrained in everything successfully placed in the market. Marketers make their products stand out by using very distinctive names, terms, and descriptions, although they are often referring to similar qualities.
Variations in terminology found on product labels are usually confusing to customers. Sometimes you really need to ask an expert’s opinion before you shop for your hair type. It’s increasingly necessary for people to clarify synonyms, antonyms, advantages and characteristics included in this great pool of products and ingredients. So we decided to create a brief and concise guide to the ‘slang’ of modern hair care and styling!
HAIR CARE
One of the main issues is damaged hair, a broad category that is also specified as dry, thick, coarse, brittle, fine, sensitised hair, colour-treated hair, dry ends and lengths, or, to make it feel more dramatic, ‘very damaged hair!’ The solutions you are provided with come down to hair recovery, translated also as repair, nutrition, deep treatment, and remedy.
The suggested products can be called replenishing, nourishing, softening and beautifying. At the next level of effectiveness, you’ll find products capable of ‘rebuilding’, ‘reinforcing’ or ‘thickening’ the hair fibre, permanently correcting its appearance and curing it when weak. They are said to be restoring your hair’s structural protein, the well-known Keratin. Protein-infused products make your hair stronger. Yet, an ‘instant hair mask’ will not work on your hair until after 3-5 minutes, so it’s not in fact that instant!
HAIR CURE
Hair can be so damaged that is also thinning, and in that case, you surely need a ‘densifying’ or ‘bodyfying’ product – conditioner, shampoo or other. Masks in that category are invariable explained as reconstructing, resurfacing and perfecting. Additionally, you need serums, oils or lotions for split-end sealing, leave-in conditioners, ‘rich’ shampoos and balms, as well as heat protectants that also come under the names ‘blowdry cream’ and ‘heat protection lotion’ or ‘strengthening oil.’
When using a dryer or flat iron, think proactively but also remember that oily hair needs lightweight conditioners with an ‘airy or ethereal touch.’ And if dandruff is your problem, look also for ‘clarifying shampoos’, or those for ‘healthy scalp’. They cleanse it from excess sebum and impurities. As for your sun hair care, you can use it all year long, because it’s just another deeply nourishing treatment (plus the SPF). Don’t let it expire when summer is over!
HAIR STYLING
What’s the difference between ‘extra strong’ and ‘supreme’ hold in a hairspray? None! In fact, those are two ways to stress the intensity of the fixation. You only need to know that there are four levels of holding power in styling products – low, medium, strong and very strong – that make your hair range from a lightly fixed to a frozen effect.
Pixie haircuts need products that offer ‘texture’ or ‘definition’, and depending on your mood, a matte finish or shine. Formulas described as anti-frizz or humidity-proof are ideal for curly hair and in the same family of terms you’ll find products that promise to shape or define your curls. Finally, for thin and oily hair, dry shampoo, which is also dubbed as aerosol hair powder, is the best refreshing tool because, as you might read in the labels, it instantly adds ‘body’ or ‘volume’ to your mane.
THE RESULT
All hair types need some care and in our urban setting, most hair is dull. Products that offer infinite shine, radiance, luminosity, or whatever they call it, are of universal appeal. Nourished hair is also free-flowing, easy-to-style-and-detangle, supple, smooth, velvety, and by the end of the day, beautiful!