Ask Alexey: April Edition
@ The Walk Magazine
Ever had a burning question about beauty and hair? Your best friend doesn’t always know best. Sometimes, you just need to ask a professional. The WALK has partnered with Alexey Kats, owner of ARCHITEQT Salon and Gallery, to create a monthly column just for that purpose. You asked the questions, and he answered. Below are Alexey’s solutions to the top three questions you asked last month.
Question: I like my hair, which is long, layered, but it tends to look the same from day to day because I like to wear it down. I am also not very good at complicated hairstyles. What are some ways to style it differently without cutting or coloring it, given my somewhat limited skills?
Alexey Kats: Braids are the easiest way to go, there are many different looks you can get by braiding hair.
A couple of other tricks are using a big barrel curling iron on the ends to give it a quick loose wave or using Velcro rollers to give volume and body.
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Question: My hair generally gets oily a day after I shower—I usually end up having to wear it up if I don’t shower every day. Are there any tricks for preventing my hair from getting oily overnight?
Alexey Kats: Since an oily scalp is generally caused by hormones or genes there is no way to stop it completely, but there are some tricks to control it.
- Use a scalp cleansing shampoo such as Viviscal or Nioxin.
- When you shampoo, focus on lathering just the scalp. This avoids stripping the ends of the oils that keep them from getting dry. When you condition, focus only on the mid shaft and ends. This will keep the scalp from getting oily prematurely.
- Give yourself a scalp treatment in the shower. Take a fine tooth comb and exfoliate your scalp with the teeth, followed by a scalp massage. This treatment will open the pores on the scalp, releasing excess oil while scraping off the dead skin cells (and it feels good).
- Lastly, if you wake up with that oily scalp, dry shampoo will help you get throughout the day by absorbing those oils until you can get back to your shampoo bottle.
Question: I have thin hair, and I like that it generally looks sleek and straight. However, is there any way I can make my hair appear to have more volume without it seeming curly, teased, or overdone?
Alexey Kats: So glad you asked this question! In February, L’Oreal launched an amazing product called True Grip. It’s a powder that you sprinkle on your roots. It instantaneously give you more volume. We lovingly refer to it as Hair Crack because you get addicted to this product, fast.
Stay tuned for more advice from Alexey on the 15th of every month. In the meantime, check out Alexey’s salon, ARCHITEQT on 10th Street between Spruce and Locust.
– The WALK Magazine