Hair perfumes have grown in popularity, in over three years. This increase in popularity has been because they detangle, hydrate and nourish your hair. So in today's post, I will tell you all about hair perfumes and how to use them to smell great all day.
My Story Before Hair Perfumes.
The story of my journey with hair perfumes will take us back 15 years. At this point in my life, my hair wasn't doing very well; with patches all over, and so I no choice than to cut it all off. As I as in search of a remedy, I kept asking questions, and a relative suggested that I tried a particular local ingredient for my hair treatment. The product known as manshanu might not be strange to the Nigerians amongst us. So, manshanu is like fat, a sort of ghee, and is excellent for making your hair grow. An essential part of knowing about manshanu is that it has a pungent smell. With the odorous product on my hair, my elder sister decided to visit a friend and dragged me along(even though I had no plans of leaving the house because I knew what I smelt like). Before leaving the house, I wrapped my hair up, told myself I would explain to our friends the cause of the smell, and everything will be alright.On getting there, two other friends were visiting as well, and I had to come clean. I said, "Guys, don't come close to me. I have manshanu on my hair." And they're like, "Oh my God, it smells horrible." We all laughed it out because being my peers and ladies as well, they completely understood and could relate to the struggle. Our Pastor was also invited, and unfortunately for me, he came to where we were and decided to give me a big, bold hug. I felt terrible for the guy. You could see his nose wrinkling, but he definitely didn't know how to tell me, "Sis, what is going on in your life?" It was so embarrassing. I can never forget that day. I learned a lesson never to go out with stinky smelly products on my hair.
I brought up this story because it's one thing to give people a very nice impression of ourselves by the way we dress, but then upon approaching only to smell something isn't quite right! Coco Chanel put it in the perfect way. She said, "Perfumes are that unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure." That is such a cool way to put it. Now, to all you need to know about hair perfumes...
All About Hair Perfumes.
Perfumes can give you that aura of elegance and beauty, and evoke emotions in you. Scents are powerful, never underestimate them. That is why people who have a strong sense of smell can be transported back to a period in their life because of the associated smell.Now, you may be wondering what hair perfumes are? As the name implies, hair perfumes are amazing things to put on your hair to smell great when you wash your hair or even on the days where you don't. The word perfume is a Latin word, "per fumus", and that means "through smoke". Did you know that? Then the French came up with the word "parfum", which is like a pleasing aroma that comes when you're burning incense.
I started researching on how perfume began to learn about hair perfumes and how to achieve a great smell all day. I discovered they originated from Egypt. The Egyptians bought spices, raisins and other goods from India and other parts of the world to create their scents. They would make them into emollients, creams and bath products. These they used as their perfumes in different areas of their life. They even believed that when burying people, it should be with scents so that they can smell good in the afterlife.
At a point, the Egyptian ladies would make emollients into shapes(ice cream cone), and they would put them in their hair so they could smell amazing all day. Isn't that fabulous? I found that to be a fascinating piece of history, and I thought to share it with you.
Did you know that your hair is one part of your body that holds scents for a long time? And since I started researching on creating my line of hair perfumes, I have been fascinated by the way(s) women make their hair look so good, and make the styles last longer. The truth is, we're all busy, we all have varying levels of engagement throughout our days. We have families, and we have our careers, so how can we spend effective time looking after our hair?
How To Use Hair Perfumes.
Hair perfumes are a fantastic way to smell good and are a lighter alternative to everyday perfume. Now, I'm going to give you some tips and tricks on how you could use your hair perfume, and how you can make it hold its scent all day. Whether you are in the boardroom or the bedroom, you want to have that long-lasting scent. I've heard so many celebrities talking about Oprah Winfrey and the one comment they always say is, "Oh, she smells so good." This it's the highest form of flattery when people talk about how lovely you smell, especially behind your back. Lol.
Safe Beauty.
With hair perfumes, you are using a more versatile product, compared to normal commercial perfumes which have a lot of alcohol in them. Hair perfumes have far less alcohol or none at all. The absence of alcohol means you can use them on your skin without worrying about dryness. Dryness is an effect of short-chain alcohols like alcohol denat(Denatured alcohol).
Anytime I use regular perfumes, I try to spray them on my clothes so that they are not near my skin. I am all about safe beauty. We can all look good and look great, but it shouldn't be at the expense of our health or cause us dry skin.
When using hair perfumes, we have to know how to use it safely. If you spray hair perfumes too close to your face, you might experience almost like a slight burning sensation. They are full of essential oils, so you don't want it to be that close to your face. It's always safe to spray it at least 10 centimetres away from your hair.
Know Where to Spray.
Also, spray them at the warm parts of your body. Those pulse points on your body like the crook of your arm, your wrists, your neck, your armpits; if you want, your cleavage and the back of your knees. These are places that you can apply or spray your perfume for the scent to last a long time. What you certainly don't want is to have to respray your perfume every 10 seconds. When the fragrance goes on those warm parts, your body heat helps the aroma develop, and that pleasant smell begins to grow. The initial scents are the top notes, and then after 15 minutes to an hour, it matures. Then, you get the middle notes of the perfume, and after three, four hours, you start to perceive the base notes of the perfumes.
Layer Your Products.
Do layer your hair perfume with other personal care products or with other perfumes. When it comes to layering your perfumes, your personal care products can come in handy. It's is nice to apply directly on your skin, so when in contact with your creams and your lotions, the scent permeates and brings out the smell of those personal care products that you use.
Another way is you can layer them with your regular perfume. If you are used to using your favourite perfumes, it doesn't mean you can't use a hair perfume. It only means that you're using a healthier alternative for your hair and your skin.
Enhance Your Home.
What a lot of people try to do with perfume is, they spray a couple of spritz onto a cotton swab, cotton pad or cloth. This sprayed item(s) is then placed around the house, just so that the house can smell great. Hair perfumes aren't exempt from this is,I also know some people who take these spayed cotton pads, and they throw them into the laundry basket or the bin. This is just so that the house is always smelling good.
How to Store Properly.
Another thing we have to bear in mind is that the way we take care of our perfumes is important. The longer the perfume ages, the better the smell is, the stronger the scent becomes. If you take off the lid of the perfume, a lot of the top notes can escape from the perfume, so you might find out that you have more of the middle and the base notes left. So make sure you keep your bottles tightly shut. Make sure you keep it away from direct sunlight so that you can use your scents for as long as you desire.