If you have hair on your head, chances are your could use a little help with it. Although there's a lot of diversity in hair textures, the way we treat or mistreat our hair can be very similar. Working side by side with stylists at Textures by G'Marie and students at Harmon's Beauty School, I developed a coiffure cornucopia of treatment techniques over the years. Here are just a few:

Scenario 1: A client walks into Textures and requests a relaxer and touch-up to straighten her hair along the scalp.

We start by checking our client records to find out when was the last time that she had a chemical service at HBS. No record, no chemical service. It's that serious. If the client has damaged, dry, brittle, breaking, splitting, or shedding hair then a chemical service will not be rendered. We take a healthy hair approach to how we practice. If your hair is not feeling well the last thing it needs is a chemical. We will render the chemical service once the hair is healthy enough to receive the chemical. All clients are required to have a treatment on the following visit after the chemical service has been performed. If the client does not return for the subsequent treatment, no further chemicals will be rendered until the conditioning treatment has been performed on the hair. This ensures that the client is maintaining the healthiest chemically treated hair possible.

Scenario 2: A client with shoulder-length hair requests a wet set on small rollers, because her hair will not hold any curls.

First, I want to find out how the client takes care of her hair at home. She says that she relaxes her hair at home with an over-the-counter product. I give her the elasticity test to determine the hair's ability to stretch and return without breaking. This test can be performed on wet or dry hair. Normal, healthy wet hair can stretch to 50% of its length; dry hair can be stretched 1/5th of its length and return. The client's hair elasticity was low and I also noticed some breakage. She was in desperate need of serious hair TLC. The fact that her hair wouldn't hold curls was a dead giveaway that it had been over-processed.

Just like muscles need protein to pump up, hair follicles also need the power-packed enzymes to grow longer and stronger. In this case, I recommend at least three treatments with a soft protein; because of the moisturizing properties of this conditioner, the hair will be softened at the same time that it is strengthened. If you fall into this long hair, no-curl category and start on the soft protein treatment, you will feel the results after one or two treatments. Within 3-5 treatments your hair's elasticity should return back to a normal level.

Special Thanks to Crystal Wright of Atlanta, GA for contributing to Scenario 2.

Email your hair and beauty questions to gmariehbs@verizon.net, write ASK G'MARIE in the subject line and check out the answers in the next installment of Ask G'Marie. G'Marie Harmon is the owner and operator of Textures by G'Marie and Harmon's Beauty School. Visit G'Marie online at www.harmonsbeautyschool.com or www.texturesbygmarie.com.