WhiteHot Holidays The new way to look at night plus great

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Sharon Stone on sex, stardom, & staying at the top

By Charles Gandee

Wish Fulfillment . glorious gifts, secret palaces,

and Food with a French twist

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there are as-rna tress treatnre"nts there are hairs on the h Amy Taran Asttey gets to the root of them

A s a lifelong low-maintenance maven, I am curious, if a bit skeptical, about the slew of customized deep-condi-

tioning hair treatments currently cropping up at Manhattan's cutting-edge salons . Clairriing to aid not just the appearance but the health of the hair and scalp, the latest treatments take that trendy beauty buzzword natural very seriously; far from being ultra-scientific, these back-to-basics treatments rely on earthy ingredients and rival such cozy, low-tech hair-<:are lore as mayonnaise masks and rum rinses for old-fashioned homemade appeal. For do-it-yourselfers, drugstore shelves are also overflowing with a confus-ing melange of similar promise-anything products, all clairriing to repair whatever ails th\! hair. From fighting the frizzies and split ends to restoring shine to lackluster locks and boosting the volume in fme, flat hair, the heady promises are encouraging enough to excite any would-be Rapunzel. .

Do the various magic elixirs on the market contain more hype than hope? Can a weekly dollop of mashed-up mango tame a mane that's been damaged by such processes as col-oring and perming? Will a regular seaweed wrap really render split ends null and void?

I start my inquiry armed with the facts. New York dermatologist Dr. Alan Kling ex-plains that while moisture can be temporar-ily restored to dry hair via a conditioning treat-ment, damage (caused by perming, coloring, straightening; heated styling tools; over-brushing; and cold or dry environments) can-not be repaired. Since haiT cells are dead and cannot rejuvenate themselves, scissors, Dr. Alan Kling says, are the only permanent solution to split ends, while treating chemical damage .. 218

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beauty simply requires patience until the healthy new hair grows in. (I think of blond bombshell Jean Harlow, who owed her famous platinum locks to C1orox, Lux flakes, and ammonia. No wonder that by the age of 23 she was usually filmed wearing a wig.)

Miracle claims notwithstanding, dermatologists are reluctant to en-dorse external hair treatments. "They have a temporary effect only," cautions Dr. Alan Kling who decribes the outer layer of the hair as resembling roof shingles; ideally, the cells should lie flat and smooth, giving hair shine by evenly reflecting light. If the cuticle layer is damaged, however, the "shingles" separate, causing hair to look dull and rough. A conditioner or special treatment that coats the shaft smooths those rough cells, tem-porarily "filling in" damaged areas and making hair at least look good. Since a conditioning treatment makes hair less prone to tangles, comb-ing and styling may be easier, and that, says Dr. Alan Kling helps prevent further damage. (Dr. Alan Kling does concede the "psychotherapeutic" benefits of a few hours of salon pampering.)

I decide to investigate for myself by embarking on a treatment tour of duty that takes me to several up-to-the-minute Manhattan salons and hair clinics and leaves my bathroom stocked with more masks than a costume shop.

As I head off to visit the first of my four scheduled salons, I am ap-prehensive. I've never really liked having my sensitive skin slathered in goo; my mind's-eye image of egg yolks and honey coating my scalp is less than appealing. I also wonder if my short, unprocessed hair (nev-

er colored and stick straight) is perhaps actual-ly too healthy to register any benefit

from intensive treatment. I am quickly disabused of this notion.

"Anyone with a hair on her head needs treatment!" de-clares Christopher Mackin, hair-guru-in-residence at Manhattan's Peter Coppo-la Salon and a true believer. (Mackin comes by his pro-fession naturally: Growing up Brady Bunch style, he regularly helped wash the

, heads of his seventeen younger siblings.) "Just like a facial, once a month

you should also rid the hair and scalp of impurities like

product and environmen-tal residue." Both a lack of the scalp's natural oils, he

, tells me, and external factors J (like harsh shampoos and

chemical processes) can strip the hair shaft of moisture, re-sulting in dry, brittle hair that lacks elasticity and shine. Al-

though I am not one of those monthly facial

seekers he mentioned, I'm willing to give it a go; even to a beauty minimalist his enthu-siasm is infectious. I am furthermore convinced that my daily regime of blow-drying, plus

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residue from styling products and the grime of New York, constitutes an aII-{)ut attack on my hair.

The counterattack begins. Mackin first removes buildup with a clar-ifying shampoo, then he mixes a custom-made concoction of mint-col-ored eucalyptus (said to "revitalize" by stimulating blood flow in the scalp) topped with a frothy conditioning foam that includes seaweed. ("Marine nutrients nourish all hair types; I put them in every treat-ment. ") My head, tingling from the cooling sensation of eucalyptus and an invigorating scalp massage, is placed for about 20 minutes under a steam machine that resembles an old-fashioned hair dryer; this is said to "open the cuticles to allow penetration." The vibrant redhead sitting at the station next to me confides that she never misses her monthly ap-pointment with Mackin; he keeps her colored hair "pseudovirgin."

Ninety minutes and $55 later, I leave with ultraclean, lightly scent-ed hair, shiny and silky as a baby's. Later that day, the moist, hot air in my aerobics class seems to replicate the effect of the steamer, and my hair is comically reactivated. While I perform leg lifts in a strong-smelling cloud of eucalyptus, my hair becomes gangster slick and slimy to the touch; after showering, to my relief, it reverts to pregym condition.

After the Peter Coppola Salon I move a few blocks up Madison A v-enue (stomping ground of the buffed and polished crowd) to French clinic J . F . Lazartigue, an acknowledged mecca for hair. Parisian tech-nician Bernard Virginie plucks several strands from my head for analy-sis. Placing them under a microviewer that magnifies the hair 160 times, Virginie tells me that the main concerns he encounters are lack of moi&-ture, lack of volume, and hair loss. While I don't appear to suffer from any of these common hair crises, my strands are alarmingly unlike the flawless specimen he has displayed on the microviewer for my eluci-dation. He confums my suspicion of imperfection.

"Your scalp is very oily; the sebaceous glands are overactive. Excess sebum is caused by stress, and without early prevention the hair can ac-tually fall out over time." Although this news is delivered in charming French-accented English, it doesn't lessen the blow; I have a vision of my-self in ten years, nerve-racked and bald. (Dr. Alan Kling assures me that baldness is a genetic, hormonally based condition; only catastrophic stress' could trigger hair loss.) Virginie tells me that the anxiety-activated oily scalp is a common afTIiction of nervous New Yorkers, but at least Americans shampoo frequently. "In France some people only shampoo once or twice a week," he laments. (Given this piece of information I am amazed that such a shampoo-indifferent population has made posh Lazartigue a household name in France.) Virginie emphasizes how important it is to clean the scalp, since it is the source of oil, and instructs me to gently but firmly massage the head with fmger pads (not nails) when shampooing.

Once we get past the serious stuff, the $150 Lazartigue treatment is sheer sybaritic bliss, featuring a sleep-inducing head massage and lots ofluxurious products. First Virginie dabs a cleansing green Ma-rine Mask on those offending greasy roots with a little paintbrush. Next my scalp is dotted with some refreshing propolis jelly ("a natural an-tiseptic derived from bees that treats the sebaceous gland") while the tips of my hair are treated to moisturizing carrot oil.

I am told my hair "absorbs" well and once again am left under the steamer. After receiving a thorough washing with Marine Shampoo, fol-lowed by the impressive-sounding Vita Cream Conditioner with milk proteins and a dose of the mysterious Liposome Hair Energizer ("to treat oil glands and the bulb of the hair shaft"), I emerge with hair to rival the Lazartigue poster girl's. Too bad it's not long enough to toss a bit.

From fruits and vegetables to seaweed and coconut oil, the earthy ingredients I've encountered along the way read more like a menu than a scientific experiment in beauty boosting, and the wholesome "hair food" treatments ($65) whipped up by Richard Cordoba at Manhat-tan's Le Salon Bruno are truly straight out of the kitchen. Growing up in Bogota, Colombia, Cordoba learned from his mother how to use local organic produce for cosmetic purposes, and he literally ~220

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beauty shares the fruits of his knowledge with his grateful customers. Not unlike the manufactur-ers of many sumptuous modem hair treatments, Cordoba believes nature supplies " every-thing you need to detoxify and beautify your hair."

With my scalp swathed in an edible headdress of avocado, honey. and yogurt, I sit un-der yet another steamer. (This one is the best- it emits the fragrant, soothing scent of rost>-mary.) While I am lulled by the warm steam, Cordoba shares his New Age philosophy with me. It includes such homey advice as replacing my current styling pomade with flat beer ("it has the same effect"), rinsing blond tresses in rosemary tea ("a natural shine enhancer"), and combating dandruff with a strawberry paste. I'm somewhat dubious, but it's true that after the moisture-rich mask is removed and my hair is rinsed in cool rosemary tea, it glim-mers and is free offlyaways. And it smells like a fruit bar.

Massage, a mainstay of most salon treatments, is said to stimulate the scalp and dislodge dead cells. For a spa-quality rubdown, try the Stress-Relieving Treatment at the Aveda Es-thetique, reasonably priced at $40. (Call800j328-0849 for Aveda concept salons around the country.) After an application of A veda Purescriptions for oily hair and scalp and a few drops of Aveda Energizing Nutrients for exfoliation, my scalp is massaged; this is followed by a marvelous 20-minute neck, shoulder, and arm massage while my slicked hair cooks under a warm towel. Aesthetician Rafael Virguez has to wake me up for my shampoo, which is given while I relax supine on a padded table. When I admire the fragrances of the Aveda Camomile Shampoo ("great for enhancing highlights in both natural and color-treat-ed blonds") and the Aveda Curessence conditioner he uses, Virguez explains that there are no synthetic ingredients in A veda products, only distilled plant and flower essences-hence the alluring aromas. I leave with lovely shiny hair and a looser neck too.

By now my hair has been coated in just about anything you can put in a blender, and I decide to check in with New York dermatologist Karen Landau. "The notion of 'nourish-ing' the hair is misleading," she says, when told of my exploits. "Dead protein can't be nour-ished." But what about my wonderfully sleek hair? Like Dr. Alan Kling, she is adamant that whether the hair is doused in fruit juices or stearalkonium chloride (the main ingredient in most com-mercial conditioners) it's a temporary, not a permanent, improvement.

By my second week of salon hopping, my hair is silky, but I am disappointed that the re-sults last only a day or two. I want my hair to look constantly coddled, but who has the time or money for more than the infrequent pampering session with a pro? This is where what each of my treatment technicians solemnly calls "home maintenance" comes in.

I equip my bathroom with the latest news in hair care, the leave-in conditioner. Worked through the hair after shampooing, they save time by skipping the rinsing step that regular conditioners require and offer all-day treatment benefits. Leave-ins can also be more effi-cient and less messy to use than hot oil treatments and hair masks. (It's very modem to save time; nevertheless I am attracted to the all-girl glamour oflounging around my apartment for the evening in a white terry robe, hair coated in a purple C1ayPac ClayOn moisturizing mask by A1tobella, $12.90.)

Some of the best weapons in my at-home arsenal: Aveda's lightweight, bodybuilding leave-in Elixir ($8); Mastey Liquid Pac Leave-In Hair Reconstuctor ($7.50); Matrix's Es-sential Therapy Leave-In Conditioner ($7.97), which didn't weigh down my fine hair; and Sebastian's new Potion 9 ($ I 2.50), which, with its nine botanical extracts, left my hair soft even after blow-drying. The French company Phytotherathrie has an excellent static-fight-ing leave-in cream called Phyto 7 ($15) for dry or dehydrated hair. Senscience Inner Re-pair Leave-In Conditioner ($8) is said to repair damage by replicating the fluids found in the inner core of healthy hair. It sounds a bit scientific, but one application and I am con-vinced- my hair has volume and shine and lies smooth.

The Tresemme professional line by Alberto Culver is now available at retail and offers four new conditioners. I am enthusiastic about European Overnight Ends Replenisher ($4.49) and European SeIfcWarming Shine Conditioner ($4.49), which heats up in the palm of the hand and leaves hair lively. ..

C1airol's new ColorHold ColorCare System is a boon to those with color-treated hair. The ColorSealing Conditioner ($4.99) has a sealer that helps lock in color and provides rinse-out moisturization; a bottle-blond friend whom I've pressed into service tells me her hair feels "rich" after using it. For daily use, the same chemically dependent friend finds Neutrogena Conditioner for Permed or Color Treated Hair ($6.15) a good antidote for dryness.

After putting my own head to the test I can safely claim status as a conditioning con-vert. While I may occasionally make pilgrimages to the hair gurus for tender loving care, my new-found posse of gently priced at-home products promises to serve me well. And even if all that shiny good health is just an illusion, as the dermatologists insist, I still yearn for long locks to show it off.. VOGUE BEAUTY ~222

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