What is the difference between a cool blonde and a warm blonde? I am thinking of going blonde and want to make sure that the color I select matches my skin tone.

The best way to determine whether you have cool or warm tones is to look at your skin and then your eyes.

If you are fortunate to know a beauty consultant you can ask them to "do your colors". If you have your colors analyzed you will be categorized into one of four seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. The seasons are organized around cool and warm tones as well.

A simple and good rule of thumb is to remember that yellow and gold tones mean you have the majority of warm tones and pink and blue means that you are cool.

Generally people blondes with gray or blue eyes are cool while redheads with brown eyes would tend to be warm.

If your skin appears to take on yellow or golden tones the chances are that you have warm, regardless of you hair color. If you have complexion with a blue or pink tint, you are probably cool.

When selecting either hair color or makeup try to stay within your range. So if you are a cool blonde with blue eyes you would want to wear makeup that is in the cool blue-reds category.

April 24, 2000

Highlighted Hair & Pool Chemicals?

I highlighted my hair two months ago and I will soon be taking a life guarding course at my school.

Hi Beth,

Since your hair is not newly highlighted, there is probably less chance of serious hair problems.

However, is always a good rule of thumb to take as much precaution with your hair as possible.

While it is true that chemically treated hair can potentially suffer more damage from pool chemicals, all hair is not exempt since the chemicals used in pools can be pretty intense.

If chemicals do impact your highlights, the most likely results can be anything from green hair to very dried out strands. The pool chemicals can actually seep into the hair cuticle and rob it of the hair's naturals oils and moisture.

To be safe from potential fried hair or bright green highlights...I recommend the following precautionary steps for your hair:

Yes, I know, sometimes you see those mermaids hop into the pool, swish their locks into the water, hop out and then bake in the sun for hours. These summer pool maids are just asking for fried, dried and burn out hair by the end of summer.

It is great that you are asking for hair advice on dealing with pool chemicals for your highlights before the damage is done.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have more questions. Good luck with your swimming courses.

PS. Don't forget to deep condition after pool water does touch your hair. Again, the chemicals are brutal. So guard against and them repair any potential dryness.

April 23, 2000

Dealing With Cowlicks?

Question

Dear Karen

I am having a fit with my hair. I have not one but two cowlicks. HELP. What should I do?

Carol

Answer

Dear Carol,

Unfortunately sometimes hair seems like it has its own demons that are controlling it. I understand. I fight my own hair demons on a regular basis.

There are several things that will help a cowlick. You can work with the cowlicks and have your hair cut to maximize the growth pattern of the cowlick. Luckily the spiked hair look is still very hot and cowlicks work well with spikes.

If you want to weigh your cowlicks down, you can actually let your hair grow longer so that the added weight of the hair will hold the cowlick down and make it more manageable. It really is true that long locks and tame a myriad of hair problems like excessive curls, cowlicks and even waves that go crazy.

You can also use barrettes or tiny clips to hold them down.

Another option is to pull your hair into a sleek ponytail that utilizes the same direction as the cowlick. This will help hold it down.

Gel or pomades often will help hold down an errant bunch of hairs or cowlicks. Try Edwin Paul's Uncle Bubby hair grease to mold and shape the cowlick or clamp it down with tiny butterfly clips.

Hope that helps.

Karen

April 17, 2000

L'anza Long Hair Opinion?

I recently saw a photo of your gorgeous super long hair. I love the fact that you have over 150 different product evaluations included in the site. Many sites have just one tiny paragraph but you have the most complete reviews I have ever seen.

I was very disappointed to discover that you did not have a review of the L'anza Long Hair products.

I figured with you having long hair that you would have tried the product. Will you be testing this product in the near future?

Thank you for the nice compliments on our product reviews. We spend a lot of time and money testing products. Jane Bullock and some of our regular contributors also help. I agree that just one paragraph of a review is not enough.

I did test all four of the L'anza Long Hair formulas back in 1999. My original L'anza Long Hair review was published on January 3, 2000 and was added to the product review archives under the L section.

I recently revised the article to reflect the new Edwin Paul line that Hair Boutique has recently unveiled.

While I loved the L'anza Long Hair packaging and models on their ads, the products just did not work for my hair.

I do encourage everyone to try the products for themselves, but it was not a product that was compatible with my long hair.

April 10, 2000

Disgusted By Emails?

My wife Jan, all of her friends and family have been visiting the Hair Boutique faithfully for 2 years. We were all appalled at the emails to you and Hair Boutqiue from Amanda, Yeeababy@aol.com and sldmo@email.msn.com complaining about the Hair Boutique's Galleries of photos.

My wife has been to just about hair site on the Web. Her complaint is that most are just there to sell products. The thing that she loves about Hair Boutique is all the great articles and the photos. She looks at the Gallery all the time and recently raved about the new Tom Carson Gallery.

Where do these rude and obnoxious people get off insulting a free site. If they don't like your Galleries then tell them to go to some of the other sites that don't have any Galleries at all.

I know that you must have spent some money to get permission to post the Galleries. Did any of the whiners offer to send money or photos? I doubt it.

At any rate, we wanted to tell you that we all love the Hair Boutique and have watched it grow up over the past two years into the BEST hair site on the Web.

April 10, 2000

Disgusted By Emails?

My wife Jan, all of her friends and family have been visiting the Hair Boutique faithfully for 2 years. We were all appalled at the emails to you and Hair Boutique from Amanda, Yeeababy@aol.com and sldmo@email.msn.com complaining about the Hair Boutique's Galleries of photos.

Where do these rude and obnoxious people get off insulting a free site. If they don't like your Galleries then tell them to go to some of the other sites that don't have any Galleries at all.

I know that you must have spent some money to get permission to post the Galleries. Did any of the whiners offer to send money or photos? I doubt it.

At any rate, we wanted to tell you that we all love the Hair Boutique and have watched it grow up over the past two years into the BEST hair site on the Web.

Thank you so much for your support. I have received several emails like yours expressing outrage at the Gallery complaints and appreciation for the Hair Boutique with compliments on our many Galleries.

While many of our Galleries were donated by friends of the Hair Boutique, Jeff and I have had to license hundreds of other photos. At last count we had invested many thousands of our own personal dollars in our copyrighted photo Galleries.

We understand that photos become dated and are constantly working to license new materials.

Recently we added 80 photos from world famous Tom Carson. Tom's photographs are featured in many of the top selling consumer hair magazines. His current gallery includes photos that are all taken very recently.

Every time someone complains about something on the Hair Boutique I ask them to please assist us by donating articles, photos or other items so that we can upgrade our offerings.

I guess you would not be surprised to hear that of all the people who write complaining emails none ever respond to my request for donations of photos or articles.

Which tells me that they are not really concerned about helping Hair Boutique be a better site but are only interested in complaining.

I guess it is true what they say...you can't please all the people all of the time.

April 9, 2000

All Natural Hair Color?

My wife recently had a violent allergic reaction after having her hair dyed. Allergy tests revealed that she is severely allergic to p-Phenylenediamine (PPD).

Her head swelled like a basketball and her eyes were swollen shut. Her head oozed blood and puss for weeks ... The itching and burning was intolerable.

The beauty shop is lucky I don't sue them for everything.

My wife has premature gray hair which runs in her family and I just want to find something she can use safely to color her hair.

My question is ... Do you know of any over the counter hair dye that doesn't contain PPD or how I can find out what products don't contain PPD?

Jack

I checked on the package ingredients for Herbatint which is considered a great "more natural" hair color and unfortunately it contains the following ingredients:

Water, nonoxynol-6, nonosynol-4, ethanolzmine, propylene glycol, EDTA, sodium Metabisulfite, walnut extract, rhubarb extract, cinchona extract, Phenylenediamine, Resorcinol, O-aminophenol and M-aminophenol.

Herbatint is the product that was formerly called Antica Herbavita which is made in Italy. Herbatint is distributed exsclusively in the United States by Nature's Answer, Inc., 320 Oser Avenue, Hauppage, NY 11788 and is sold in health food stores such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats.

I also checked NaturColor which competes with Herbatint. It also includes Phenylenediamine along with Spagyric Herbal Infusion, Burdock, Centella Asiatica, Nettle, Sage, Hops, Lavender, Rosemary, Lecithin, Lavender Oil, Coconut Oil, Soy, Oleic Acid, Ethanolamine, Shea Butter, Mango Glycerides, Camomile Extract, Vegetable Resin Extract, Bilberry Extract, Red Sorrel Extract, Walnut Extract, Sodium Metabisulfite, Jasmine Absolute Acorbic Acid, Hydrolized Wheat Protein, P-Phenylenediamine, P Aminophenol and M-Aminophenol. Naturafix also includes water, glycol, hydrogen peroxide and etidronic acid.

Both Herbatint and NaturColor have no ammonia. Natrucolor claims to have no resorcinal.

Neither product will work for your wife because they both contain the Phenylenediamine.

I also looked at several of the Clairol "vegetable" color offerings and they all contain the Phenylenediamine as well.

I suspect that your wife may not be able to find a coloring product that does not contain Phenylenediamine. I would suggest that you find a color expert and ask them if it is possible to mix a color for your wife that does not contain the Phenylenediamine ingredient. They may or may not be able to help.

So sorry to hear about your wife and her allergy. If all else fails she can try henna treatments. However, be sure to read all the ingredients on the box to make sure that it does not contain the Phenylenadiamine.

April 8, 2000

Opinions About Photo Galleries On Hair Boutique

I really enjoyed the first couple of pages on your website but after a while it seems that pictures were just taken out of an old magazine or you just pulled people off the street and took a picture.

I feel that you should try to get some more up to date photos as they could better benefit those of us who are of the younger generation.

I do not intend for this to be a put down just some helpful advise. Thank you.

I am so glad you did not intend to "put us down". The Hair Boutique has many many galleries of photos. All of the photos were taken by professionals in all of our Galleries and with permission from the models who all posed for the photos.

We do not, to my knowledge have any photos from "old magazines" as you suggest. Not only would that be a copyright violation which Hair Boutique works hard to avoid, but old photos from magazines are very difficult to reproduce on a Web site.

Although I do believe that from time to time we will show a photo (with prior permission) as a reference point to older styles from years gone by, we try very hard to provide current photography with professional models and styles.

All the photos in all of our Galleries are provided as a free service to help our visitors get some general ideals of styles that they might like.

We do not charge anyone for anything that is on Hair Boutique except the products in our store.

The photos were purchased and licensed for use on the Hair Boutique from several professional photographers.

The Gregory Paul Gallery has 13 photos, all which were taken within the last 6 months by professional photographer Gregory Paul. All the models were posed and all consented. I don't know how more recent we could get than the last few months.

The Gretchen Maurer Gallery consists of 21 photos from Gretchen also taken in the last several months. There are photos of a young girl, a young woman and other women of different ages.

The Woman's Gallery currently consists of over 800 photos of all women models (who all posed with permission) of all ages from younger to older.

Contrary to what your email states, we do not ever just pull people off the street and photograph their hair.

The International Long Hair Gallery is photographed by Dave Tichnor and displayed with his express permission. Dave not only gets permission, he specializes in long hair models.

The Men's Gallery contains 67 photos of men that were professional photographed and which we licensed for use.

We also have many many photographs throughout the entire site. Dawn Sanders has professional photographs from Eric Von Lockhart.

We also have several photographs that were specifically provided to the Hair Boutique by Patrick Cameron from his own collection of professional shots.

Although we try very hard at Hair Boutique to provide lots of photos, we are limited by the photos that are made available to us and also our budgetary constraints. Many photographers have donated photographs but also, Hair Boutique has licensed many more which is quite costly.

We also strive to add more photos when possible of current styles. All of the 400+ articles, when possible, include the latest professional photos that are posed and taken by professionals, not taken from a magazine.

It looks like they were just randomly selected from magazines or from a bridal album of the 70's.

The Hair Boutique is always open to suggestions on how to make our site better. We are always looking for ways to provide the best possible styles with instructions and we do our very best.

I just wish we did have access to bridal albums of the 70s. The styles would be interested to write an article about.

Surely you're kidding with your hair boutique pictures and they're really "before" shots...

Unsigned

The Hair Boutique provides the very best photos that we can within the budget that we have for purchasing photos for publication on the Net.

We welcome any donations of high quality photos that anyone would like to provide for our Galleries. If you would like to send us some photos that we can share with our visitors we would appreciate it very much.

April 7, 2000

Photos Of Short Styles?

I like to take pictures to my hairstylist because they never have any pictures of what I'm picturing.

I am looking for short hair cuts, which you seem to have no pictures of anywhere on Hair Boutique.

So............do you know of any web sites where I can get pictures of short hair cuts??

The Woman's Gallery currently consists of over 800 photos of all women models of all ages and there are several photos of models with short hair to give you some ideas.

If you don't find the short styles that you are looking for in those Galleries or in any of the hundreds of Hair Boutique Tips and Articles, you may want to buy a newsstand copy of Short Hairstyles.

It is one of my favorites because of all the great color photos of short haired models that are showcased on the pages.

The magazine is published 8 times a year. The current version (May 2000) is now on sale in the United States for $3.99 plus tax.

For more information about Short Hairstyles you can call 212-541-7100 ext 236. You can also write to Short Hairstyles, Goodman Media Group, 419 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016.

April 6, 2000

Where Is H37 Manufactured?

I am extremely interested in purchasing H37 however I have never purchased any form of tablets over the Net.

Is H37made in someone's basement somewhere? Can you tell me where they are made? I don't want to buy something from your basement.

What kind of quality control procedures are in place to assure that the tablets contain natural ingredients?

I have been experiencing some hair thinning and loss. I have seen a physician and he attributes this to lack of protein, iron, vital nutrients and stress.

H37 is produced in a top notch lab in Florida and exceeds all local and national heath and safety standards and regulations.

Although H37 is not required to be FDA approved, H37 is manufactured in an FDA approved laboratory,

H37 is manufactured to the precise specifications of the hair chemist that invented H37.

At the Hair Boutique we only sell products of the highest quality that we personally use and have tested ourselves.

By submitting your question, you grant HairBoutique.com permission to publish it. Due to the volume of mail we receive, Karen regrets that she cannot respond to every question. To Ask Karen your questions send e-mail to: askkaren@hairboutique.com

April 25, 2000

Cool Tones vs Warm Tones?

April 24, 2000

Highlighted Hair & Pool Chemicals?

April 23, 2000

Dealing With Cowlicks?

April 17, 2000

L'anza Long Hair Opinion?

April 10, 2000

Disgusted By Emails?

April 10, 2000

Disgusted By Emails?

April 9, 2000

All Natural Hair Color?

April 8, 2000

Opinions About Photo Galleries On Hair Boutique

April 7, 2000

Photos Of Short Styles?

April 6, 2000

Where Is H37 Manufactured?