Banishing Bad Hair Days since 1997!™

A Guy's View Of Hair Care Products For His Thin, Fine Hair

Introduction

MIchaelKA200.jpg (3060 bytes)Michael Keilhofer has been playing guitar in rock bands since he was in his mid teens. (Photo of Michael Keilhofer in Group Therapy Group - Dallas, Texas - October 1999)

While it is important to have a cool stage presence and give a great performance, it also helps to have a good hair day while performing.

When Michael performs the heat will often cause problems with sweating on his forehead near his hair. It is even more important that he have a good hair care product line that can withstand the rigors or being on stage under hot lights.

Business Hair Days Count Too

Besides having good hair days for his band performances at night, Michael is a co-founder and chief technology officer of a telephony software company by day. He is often required to meet with high profile customers and has to look his business best.

Since Michael has very fine, thin hair and he wears it in a short, collar length, tapered business style which suits him well. Although he would like longer hair, he likes his hair at its current length.

Michael will be the first to tell you that he has gone through a major hair care revolution in the past 3 years when it comes to dealing with his hair care products.

Pert Plus For Fifteen Years

Michael used the same hair care product for approximately 15 years. Pert Plus all in one shampoo/conditioner formula was the only product that Michael ever used. He also used "whatever the cheapest hair spray he could find." Since Michael has very fine, straight hair than tends to be soft, Michael used the hairspray to give his style a firmer hold.

MIchaelKC250.jpg (3491 bytes)Michael explained that he used Pert Plus because he is a big believer in Consumer Reports and they recommended the product highly.

(Photo of Michael Keilhofer in Group Therapy Group - Dallas, Texas - October 1999)

Once Michael started using the Pert Plus he continued buying it for 15 years until about 3 years ago because "he thought it worked just fine for his hair needs at the time."

Back in 1997 I was chatting with Michael about the overall condition of his hair when he asked me to make some suggestions for products that would work best for his hair type and condition (fine, soft, thin, straight brunette hair).

I explained to Michael, that in my opinion, the combination of the Pert Plus shampoo/conditioner and "cheapest on the market" hairspray was giving his hair a dull, waxy texture. His hair looked stiff and had not shine.

Although Michael was in his late 40s at the time, he did not have any gray hair. Unfortunately his hair was starting to thin a little. Because it was so fine and soft, he wanted a product that would handle all these issues.

I warned Michael that hairspray can often clog the roots of the hair and accelerate the thinning process. I told him that he really needed to dump the cheap hairsprays and go with a different option for creating hold and shape for his hair.

Aveda To The Rescue

CherryAlmond.jpg (3338 bytes)During our conversation about the condition of his hair I recommended that he try Aveda's Blue Malva shampoo. I told him that I thought that the Blue Malva would give his fine, light brunette hair some body and shine. To get his hair into condition I suggested that he use Aveda's Cherry Almond Bark rinse out conditioner about 2x a month or when his hair felt dry or crunchy.

I also suggested that he dump the scalp clogging hairspray and switch to Aveda's Confixer for the hold that he wanted to achieve.

artec-smoothing.jpg (4981 bytes)Although Michael tired ARTec's Smoothing shampoo and Smoothing conditioner he felt that they made his fine hair too flat. He agreed that while the ARTec works great for my thick, wavy, dry hair, it was not a good match for his thin, fine, soft hair.

Michael used the Aveda Blue Malva and Cherry Almond Bark for close to three years with fantastic results.

His hair lost the waxy dull look within about 2 weeks and picked up a great fullness and shine.

Once he dumped the "cheapest hairspray of the month" and started using the Aveda Confixer Michael got compliments on how great his hair looked.

I have to admit that his hair looked really great. It was soft without being flyaway and the Confixer gave it great hold without stiffness or stickiness.

Michael also loved the fact that "all he needed was a dime sized dollop of the Confixer, about 5 minutes with a good brush and a blow dryer and every hair stayed softly but firmly in place for the day". Michael reported that he really loved the great all natural aroma of the Blue Malva, Cherry Almond Bark (when he used it) and the Confixer.

MIchaelKB250.jpg (3597 bytes)Even though the price of the Aveda Blue Malva was significantly higher than the Pert Plus Michael believed that the Aveda was definitely a major reason for lots of great hair days. Sometimes you have to pay the price to get the highest quality solution.

He was definitely an Aveda convert from day one of switching from the Pert Plus. He never looked back.

His hair continued to improve and look really great until January 2000 when he asked about other hair care products that would make his still thinning hair look somewhat fuller.

While Michael was very happy with the Blue Malva/Confixer combination, he felt that it had reached the maximum potential with his thin hair. So he decided he wanted to switch to a hair care product that would "fatten" up his hair a little more than the Aveda Blue Malva which in all fairness is not a product designed to create volume.

The switch to the Blue Malva was originally made because it provided an excellent combination of ingredients. Since Michael has fine hair he is not a good candidate for moisturizing shampoos which would flatten and over moisture his hair.

Yes the Blue Malva worked great for three years, but Michael wanted to experiment with some "volume creating" products.

After some discussion Michael decided to test Matrix's Amplify shampoo and styling gel. Michael agreed to also try ARTec's Volume shampoo and volume gel to compare it with the Matrix. We also discussed America Crew Thickening Lotion and Styling Gel as other volumizing options.

Michael felt he wanted to try a product like Amplify that is specifically formulated to add lots of volume rather than just using a thickening lotion and styling gel. We agreed that the Amplify seemed to have a lot of the volumizing properties that would work well for Michael's hair texture.

After a trip to the local beauty supply superstore Michael started using the Matrix Amplify Shampoo and styling gel. He is taking notes on the results and will report back to Hairboutique.com after he has had time to really test the new volume enhancing products.

Stay tuned and we will give you the results of Michael's findings on the volume products in a few weeks. The Hairboutique.com thanks Michael for sharing his hair journey with us.

If you want to talk more about this or other hair care articles on HairBoutique.com or anywhere else, please post a message on HairBoutique.com's Hair Talk Forums.

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