Tag Archives: Sam Macdonald Hair

The Sneaky Truth Behind Hair Extensions

Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser Trigg Scarborough North Beach Sorrento City Beach Carine Sorrento

Hair extensions are such a big thing these days and today I want to share with you the sneaky truth behind hair extensions…

Have you heard the word Alopecia before?

Well basically it simply means hair loss and there are many kinds. The most common one we hear about is called Alopecia areata, where patches of hair on the head disappear commonly from stress, but there is a less talked about version called traction Alopecia.

Traction Alopecia develops from continuous pulling of the hair and can be caused by a few things. Wearing your hair in a very tight ponytail all the time, as well as some braiding can cause traction alopecia. The tension causes continuous pulling on the root area of the hair which can cause the hair to fall out. Sometimes it’s possible to undo the damage simply by styling the hair differently and waiting for it to grow back, though can be permanent.

Traction Alopecia can also happen from poorly fitted hair extensions.

If the extension is not put in by a stylist who has had the proper training, pieces of hair that are being pulled, can stop growing permanently because of the extended tension to the hair follicle. If one or more bits of hair stop growing it’s not so bad but over time this can become a form of permanent baldness or thinning of the hair.

My best advice if your thinking of getting extensions is to get an expert to put them in and maintain them. Going to the cheapest you can find is often not going to be the best idea with a service like this.

If you’d like to book an appointment to give your hair or scalp some love, I’d be happy to talk through it’s current condition as part of your initial consultation. All the details to make a booking can be found here.

Ever Wondered How Fast Your Hair Grows

Ever Wondered How Fast Your Hair Grows?

Ever wondered how fast your hair grows | Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser Trigg Scarborough North Beach Carine Duncraig North Beach Sorrento

Ever wondered how fast your hair grows?

On average its 10-15ml per month, so 12 -16cm per year.

Have you been trying to grow your hair like forever and feel like its just not getting there?

If you’re not having regular trims, (6-10 weeks depending on the health of your hair), your ends could be fraying faster than the roots can grow, giving you that feeling that it just not growing.

So darn frustrating!

If you have roots from your last colour, that’s the proof your hair is in fact growing, yay, except that also means you have regrowth, not so yay…

The best way to get your hair as long as it can grow, is to have regular trims, but only cut off half what has grown. So if your hair has grown 20ml in 6 weeks, simply take of 10ml, easy!

Eventually your hair will get as long as it will grow.

One thing to keep in mind is not everyone can be a Rapunzel, as your hair will stop growing usually somewhere between 4 and 7 years. There is what I call a growth memory that is individual to us. A bit like some people get amazing long eyelashes and some people short ones.

If you get to that point where you find it simply won’t grow anymore, you have a couple of options.

Firstly, hair extensions. They have come such a long way over time and they are great for giving you more hair for thickness or longer hair for length. They are time and money consuming but if you really want that length and cant make it happen for yourself, this is a quick fix option.

Secondly clip in extensions. These can be a great option that costs less and has much less commitment in terms of looking after it.

Lastly and my personal favorite, rock the hair you have.

Quest To Create Optimum Health

Quest to create optimum health | Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser Trigg Scarborough North Beach Karinyup Sorrento Carine Duncraig

I shared with you all last time that I am on a quest to create optimum health in my body following a mini health scare.

On top of that we all know by now, that to have amazing hair and scalp, we need to be looking after our insides, which is why I feel it’s OK, to share food knowledge, on a hair page…

So this week I wanted to share with you, some of what the amazing Nat from Invigorate Naturopathy taught me when I had a consult with her.

https://www.facebook.com/invigoratenaturopathy/

I have always had an interest in natural health particularly around food, as it’s what we fuel ourselves with. When I was younger (pre-internet), I had so many books telling me what foods could help with what in the body and I loved reading them, fascinating for me, I loved it!

I remember having a boyfriend many moons ago who suffered from the worst hay fever I have ever seen. Call me selfish if you like, but his suffering turned into mine as I had to listen to him complain , sneeze and sniff!

So I looked in my books and they told me vitamin C worked well for hay fever so I got him some and it actually disappeared. Hooray, no more noises! I actually think he was disappointed he had nothing left to complain about… sorry Duncan…

Please note at this point, I am not a qualified naturopath so don’t take my word for it, I’d be connecting with Nat or another qualified professional first.

Anyway Sam, get to the point already!

So it turns out that because of my interest in all things food, my diet is pretty good, but I did learn one thing that blew my mind and that is about fresh herbs.

Hold that thought, have you heard about free radicals and anti-oxidants?

Well just in case you haven’t and to make it simple, free radicals are all the bad stuff floating around your body from lifestyle, medications and disease. Antioxidants are the little guys that balance the free radicals creating a inflammation free environment in your body which allows your body to heal itself and for you to feel amazing.

So the information Nat gave me is that herbs have buckets loads of antioxidants so I have been adding them to everything!

Welcome to my everyday breakfast, (the pictures), full of antioxidants and probiotics.

Broccoli sprouts, full of sulforaphane thought to boost your body’s defended against cancer, heart disease and more.

Lindseeds, contains protein, and fibre.

Home made coconut Kefir, a great probiotic with around 30 strains of bacteria and yeasts.

Chia seeds, contains omega 3 fatty acids, fiber, antioxidants and calcium.

Silver beet, vitamins A, C, B6 and K.

Spinach, Vitamin C, Niacin, Riboflavin and Potassium.

Ginger, great for inflammation

Mint, antioxidant

For good measure, a bit of frozen mango and pineapple, though last week it was strawberries.

I know there are so many breakfast shakes we can buy with heaps of good stuff in them but I love making mine this way and I think that list of benefits could rival any shake!

Also so you know, everything above is organic as I have a phobia about drinking a glass of pesticide.

At this point I would like to add, I am not a health care professional so maybe I missed some benefits out though hopefully didn’t add any that shouldn’t be there. The point is that I could be slightly off the mark with a piece of information here and there, but I DID do my research so make sure you do yours before you jump on my bandwagon…

Quest to creat optimum health | Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser Trigg North Beach Carine Duncraig Trigg Scarborough

Looking After The Inside Of Your Body

Looking After The Inside Of Your Body |Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser | Trigg Scarborough Sorrento Karinyup North Beach

Looking after the inside of your body is super important when it comes to hair and scalp health.

No matter what skin and hair care products you use on your body, if you’re not looking after the inside of your body, the products you use on the outside, can only do so much…

I recently had a mini heath scare, nothing major but it made me take a look at my lifestyle and realise I need to stop inflammation in my body. I organised a visit with the lovely Kat from Invigorate Naturopathy and she helped me to realise, most of my inflammation is caused by self inflicted stress.

https://www.facebook.com/invigoratenaturopathy/

Its not a big surprise to me, or any of you that know me but what to do about it…

The picture is of me in an infrared Sauna at Skin Deep in Mullaloo where I sit for 40 minutes and meditate or simply relax.

There are supposedly a big list of positive things that happen to your body when you do this, including detoxing, healing, weight loss (fingers crossed) and reducing inflammation. For me I get enough out of it by simply stopping and relaxing for this long with nothing to do, (although they tell me you can take your phone in). You sweat for 40 minutes, then have a quick shower to wash it all away, in and out in 1 hour.

I wanted to share this with you as I think a lot of people I know would benefit from this. They do bunches of appointments at a discounted rate. so if you love it as much as me, why not buy 10?

https://www.facebook.com/Skindeep.Medi.Spas/

I always say I’ll try anything once, how about you?

Cortisol The Stress Hormone

Cortisol – The Stress Hormone

Cortisol the stress hormone | Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser Trigg Sorrento Karinyup Scarborough Northbeach

Last time you learned about Cortisol the stress hormone and the effects too much can have on your body. This week I want to share exactly what can happen to your hair from too much Cortisol AKA stress.

Your hair has 3 main cycles of growth and sometimes stress can lead to your hair falling out in the wrong phase. This doesn’t happen to everyone as we all have many ways of manifesting stress and if it does happen, it can happen in different ways.

One common cause we call Telogen Effluvium and it happens deep within the scalp where the growing begins.

The stress basically shocks the hair into resting instead of growing and as it takes approximately 2 months for the hair that is growing right now to come through at scalp level, it takes 2 months after the shock for the hair to fall out.

Often by then, we are no longer stressed, so it can feel a little confusing. If you ever think you are losing hair, stop and think about what your life was like two months ago and if life was going through a rough patch.

Pregnant women often have an effect on the hair similar to this known as postpartum alopecia. The hair is amazing during the pregnancy because all the hair that should be naturally coming out stays in the resting phase, then usually 2-3 months after the birth a lot falls out and there is heaps of new growth and short hairs to deal with.

Another common stress related hair loss is Alopecia Areata which is what you see here on the attached photo. Most of the time the hair will grow back but occasionally it can be permanent or last a few years before the hair returns.

Now you have a really clear idea of what stress can do not only to your hair but your whole body but what can we do about it?

Stress And Its Impact On Your Hair And Scalp

Stress And Its Impact On Your Hair & Scalp

Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser Trigg Scarborough North Beach Karinyup Sorrento | Stress | Impact | Hair and Scalp

You have heard mention of stress potentially effecting your scalp and hair but what does this actually mean?

First lets touch on the stress Hormone known as Cortisol.

Cortisol

Cortisol is a steroid hormone which does heaps of things including to help control blood sugar levels, regulate metabolism & reduce inflammation.

What we originally needed it for is to help us through immediate stress such as being attacked by an animal.

The adrenal gland releases several hormones giving us an adrenaline rush and following that we get a huge release of cortisol that helps us to escape danger.

Short bursts of cortisol are needed to help us recover from the stress, they boost blood sugars levels to give instant energy, reduce pain levels to keep us focused and pull calcium from our bones to our muscles for quick response.

These days our stress is different and tends to be more frequent and continuous. We suffer job loss, financial insecurity, marriage problems and so much more, these problems not being quickly over and this is where Cortisol can cause a problem.

Extended exposure to Cortisol can raise blood sugar levels, remove much needed Calcium from our bones, raise blood pressure, cause depression, retain excess fat and also have devastating results on our hair which can lead to hair loss.

Cortisol And Hair Loss

Now you ask, why exactly is this causing hair loss?

Briefly its to do with the life cycle of your hair and in my next blog I will share more in depth what this is all about.

In the meantime why don’t you ask your self if you feel there is excess stress in your life and what do you think you could do to lower it.

Its incredible once you stop and truly ask yourself this question, what you will uncover. Simply being aware of your breathing and when it is not relaxed its a very good start!

Choose Activance Professional To Treat Most Scalp Conditions

Trichology – I Choose Activance Professional To Treat Most Scalp Conditions

Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser Trigg North Beach Scarborough Karrinyup Sorrento |Trichology| Scalp Care

Last week I gave you a small introduction into the wonderful world of Trichology, today I will introduce a product that I use in conjunction with the Trichoscope to help these issues, called Activance Professional.

To remind you, Trichology is basically the study of hair and scalp and if we have a healthy scalp then we have healthy and strong hair.

There are many things that can impact on scalp health and I will be talking in the future about the impact of stress and medications and what this can do to the hair, as well as what we have previously discussed about diet and nutrition

So what if poor scalp heath out of our control because we have to be on medications or its hormonal?

This is where we can look at topical products to nurture the scalp and follicles from the outside in and there are many ranges out there that can help with this, though my choice is Activance Professional.

Activance Professional is simple and easy to use and we can record your scalps progress whilst using it, by simply examining your scalp each time you’re in the salon with the Trichoscope, and taking photos to check your progress. You can have the best advice possible for great scalp care and your photos can be emailed to you and where necessary taken to your doctor or dermatologist for further medical advice.

So why Activance?

Anti-pollution: Through the use of antioxidants we can help undo what our environment does to our skin by detoxifying the scalp to allow the active ingredients to get in.

Anti-aging: Every hair needs nutrients to grow to its best potential strand and over time our bodies can fail to give as much as when we’re younger, with Activance we can give your scalp those nutrients from the outside in.

Anti-stress: Whilst nothing can completely stop the ill effects of the stress hormone Cortisol on the body except learning to cope better with stress itself, Activance can help nurture to assist in prevention of hair loss from stress.

Pro-environment: All Activance products are vegan, never tested on animals and you can rest assured the product is 100% biodegradable unlike a lot of products on the market.

I’m really excited to be able to share this with you as I want you to have every technology available to you for the best hair you can have!

How Does A Perm Work?

how does a perm work | Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser Trigg Scarborough Northe Beach Karrinyup Carine

Ever asked yourself how does a perm work?

Well wether you wondered or not, today’s post will answer this question.

I have previously described how we can temporarily reshape the hair through styling by changing the physical (otherwise known as the temporary) bonds of the hair with heat or moisture into the desired shape. What if we wanted a permanent curl or to remove the curl to create straigtness, from the hair for good?

Yes that’s right, a “perm” can be used to straighten curly hair too!

When we curl or straighten the hair permanently we also work with bonds in the hair. Instead of the physical ones, we work on the chemical ones. We wind the hair and place in the shape we wish it to take, for example different sized rollers for alternative shapes or flat boards for straighness. Then we apply a solution that literally breaks apart the hairs chemical bonds.

Once enough bonds have broken, the hair is rinsed for approximately 10 minutes to remove the solution from the hair. In addition to this, the oxygen from the water starts the rebonding process which creates the curl shape, then a new solution called neutraliser, is applied to make the new shape permanent.

It’s sounds aggressive because it is!

We literally break the hair apart to reshape so there is always at least a little loss of moisture and/or strength, as well as breaking of bonds that do not reconnect.

I bet not many of you have perms these days but it’s important to know that these bonds in the hair can be sensitised by too much colouring, bad home care and also your styling regime.

The good news is that we now have special bond treatments in salon to help protect them at the time of colouring/perming as well as being able to upkeep at home to help prevent all that damage that happens at home.

I will share more about bond treatments next time but for today I hope you enjoyed the answer to ‘How Does A Perm Work?’

If you’d like to book an appointment to give your hair some love I’d be happy to talk through it’s current condition as part of your initial consultation. All the details to make a booking can be found here.

I guess the really important thing to tell you though is that I don’t offer perms of any type!