At a recent fashion event this year there were 4 key hair style trends: unstructured hair, matt texture (vs shiny glam), quirky ponies, coloured “tie-dyed” and some hair care tips on how to protect your luscious looking hair at winter.

Hair Style

Unstructured Hair
Hair has a simple and almost childlike feel; it is playful and elegantly unstructured. Middle partings on long flowing and tousled hair seem to dominate the runway. There is an abundance of width and horizontal volume that is evident throughout all styles. This width is helping to create much more angular and geometric shapes than we have seen of late. Think fairy floss from the school fair!

Matt Texture
Texture is the big change this season in hair style, with a huge lean toward matt results. Gone is the constant clean sheen we are used to seeing from the “Shiny Glam” look. Light, airy and playful are the buzzwords associated with these new looks.

Ponytails
Ponytails are all about attention to detail. Carefully placed and with slight quirks that are designed to catch the eye and intrigue. Once again contradictions are key, using multiple textures within the ponytail is enough to provide subtle detail. Piecing out selected strands of hair, or using asymmetric partings are just small easy ways to achieve little differences. Hair is also being “brushed back” into itself, or teased for a more dramatic result.

Tie Dyed Colour
Colour is all about layering. Not only are we seeing this come through in most of the clothes, but hair is also adopting this trend. There is a definite “tie dyed” influence in the graduation process of the colour work. Colours are more multi-toned and block in appearance. Very different to your traditional foil highlights! Playful bright tones are designed to make the hair “pop” and become an instant, yet wearable statement.

Hair Care
The chilly weather is the enemy of luscious looking hair! Follow these easy hair care tips to tame your mane at winter.
1. Limp locks are a definite no-no. Fine and limp hair still requires conditioning, although just keep it to the mid-lengths and ends of the hair. Use a bodybuilding product or thickening product like volumising mousse to help pump up and promote stability within your style.
2. Anti Flat shampoo combined with Moisture Therapy conditioner works wonders on fine and limp hair. To create more texture rather than height use texturising spray for a more lived in and gritty feel.
3. Course, dry, or damaged hair is going to need a little more TLC and conditioning. The trick is combining Moisture Therapy shampoo and Silky and Straight conditioner, leave the conditioner in for 3-5 minutes and then rinse. Use a bodybuilding aid with extra moisturisers like the volume booster Mousse to whip that hair back into full flow.

When hitting the hairdressers chair this year for your new hair style or just for some hair care treatment, the colours this season are all about “block” techniques creating visual movement by combining two different colours and/or tones.

Below are reviews of very popular hair style image programs, Hair Styles Cuts And Dos, Stellure and The Hair Style Editor. To see demonstrations of these programs visit the links located at the bottom of this article.

Hair imaging is a great way to try on a hair style before you get it cut. For example, if you are trying to find a wedding hair style or a prom hair style, you can try a style on to see if you like the way you look.

Hair Styles Cuts And Dos Review: Description: Hair Style Editor, Photo Uploading, Hair Style Gallery with 3,950 photos of short, medium, long, and updo photos for women.

Subscription Price: $9.99

Subscription Term: Annual

Payments Accepted: Visa, Mastercard, Secure connection

Current Number of Members: 25,291

User-Friendly: Yes

Guarantees: Satisfaction guaranteed! If you don’t like it, you get a refund! If for any reason within 30 days, you are not satisfied with your membership we will refund your money, no questions asked ! There’s no risk involved, don’t like it then just ask for your money back. It’s that simple!

Strengths Extensive Hair Styles Galleries, Ebook on hair advice, 1 year membership, Satisfaction Guaranteed, Very quick- find a new hair style in 5 minutes

Introduction

Advertising and promotional material for this website focuses on uploading a photo and trying on various hair styles. When I first logged in to the members area, the first thing that got my attention was the incredible amounts of hair style photos for very short, short, medium, long and updo hair styles. An immediate sense of relaxation came over me. If I couldn’t find a good hair style among the thousands, well then there there just wasn’t any hope.

There is also an extra E-book included in the membership that is barely mentioned on the web site. This E-book is great! It is a list of hair care tips and advice from a top hair designer in England. It covers all sorts of topics, such as how to select a hair designer, how to select a new hair style, various styling tips and tricks and what to do when your home hair color didn’t turn out so great. This E-book has valuable information that everyone can use. I read every page of it–almost 100 pages total.

Hair Style Galleries

I quickly browsed through all the galleries, looking at all the different hair styles with different hair colors, textures, volume and even highlights. There are no photos of men’s hair styles, ethnic or african-american women hair styles. The photos are all optimized to load quickly, so there is no time wasted waiting for photos to load. If you find a photo that you like you can click on it to enlarge it and even print a copy to take to your hair stylist. Printing the updo photos are especially helpful if you are looking for prom, bridal or formal hair styles. There is also the option to save the hair style photos that you really like in your favorites so you can play a slide show of them later.

Hair Style Editor

After browsing all the hair style photos, I move on to the hair style editor part of the website where I am told I can upload a photo of myself and try on some hair styles. The instructions to upload are very straightforward and I upload a photo of myself within minutes (it might have even been seconds). The photo that you upload should be taken against a plain white background and you should probably pull back most of your hair so it doesn’t hang in your face.

Once you have uploaded your photo, you enter the hair style editor where there are four tools at your disposal.

Color Palette – allows you to change the color of your chosen style

Mask Pad – allows you to mask the undesired details on your photo prior to trying on different hair styles. For example, you may want to remove long hair that appears in a photo or the background of the photo

Size Tool – allows you to modify the size and proportions of the hair style you select

Trash Tool – allows you to remove the modifications that you just made without having to start over

First, I masked my photo so that only my face shape was showing. By the way, this is a great way to figure out your face shape! The masking takes a little bit of expertise with the mouse. If you are switching categories, for example, going from medium hair styles to long hair styles, you must re-mask your face again. You can change the width of the mask tool to make it a little easier closer to the face. After masking, I went to the category selector which allows you to browse thru and try on hair styles in the five categories, very short, short, medium, long and updo hair styles.

Once you find a hair style you want to try on, you just click on it and drag it to your photo. It automatically loads. Then you can move it around a bit to make it fit right on your head. After you are done adjusting the size and color of the hair style, you can print it or save it as one of your favorites to view later. The photo that you get with the selected hair style is obviously computer-generated, but it does give you a glimpse of what the hair style would look like on you. For example, I have been wanting to add some bangs to my current hair style. When I tried on the hair style with bangs, it didn’t look very good at all. I think I have decided to skip the full bangs for now and maybe go with just a few long whispy looking bangs.

Conclusion

Hair Styles Cuts and Dos is an immediate relief for anyone desperately looking for examples of any type of hair style. You can literally find a new hair style in 5 minutes!! The hair style editor is also a great tool to try on various hair styles and get an idea of how they will look on you. The extra E-book is full of tips and advice for hair, tons more than you would find in any magazine.

Typically a lot of women go and buy a bunch of magazines when they want to find a new hair style. If you consider the price of a magazine alone- between 3-5$– and the fact that you don’t always find the style you want in just one magazine, the price for admission at Hair Styles Cuts and Dos – currently $9.99 for a whole year —is well worth it

The Hair Styler Review Description: Online virtual hairstyling with over 2000 hairstyles and 53 color choices to try, online hair consultation, face shape info

Subscription Price: $14.99

Subscription Term 6 months

Payments Accepted: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Bankcard, Diners, Secure transactions

User-Friendly Yes

Guarantees:TheHairStyler.com guarantees* that upon the fee being paid to us, a member will be able to use TheHairStyler.com website for a total period of 6 months to view all available hairstyles using their own uploaded image or a Model image supplied by TheHairStyler.com. Strengths: Celebrity hair styles, men hair styles, description and maintenance routine of hair styles, hairstyle articles, face shape information

Introduction

There is a demo version of the software on the site for you to try out. The demo shows a selection of hair styles and how you can try them on. Also available to visitors for free is the hairstyles consultation. You answer some basic questions about your face, age, height, skin color, hair density, generer, eye color, etc. and then the hairstyle consultation comes back with some recommendations for you to try out. It also has several styles to avoid. Several hairstyle articles are also free for visitors to the site. Some of them cover celebrity hair styles, recent trends and other hair related articles. The freebies on the site are very useful.

Membership

Once you become a member, you have access to the entire selection of hair styles and you can load your own photo into the hair styler software. Be sure to upload a good photo with your hair pulled back off your face and a white background. If you are unable to upload photos on your computer, you can send your photo to The Hair Styler and they will do it for you. Uploading a photo takes about 10 seconds and you are allowed to upload as many photos as you want in the six-month membership. Once your photo is there you can go and try on hair styles in the 7 different categories Celebrity, Everyday, Formal/Bridal, Classic, Mens, Alternative and Dreadlocks.

After you upload your photo you go to a section where you determine your face shape. The face shapes are Oval, Round, Oblong, Heart, Square, Diamond and Triangular. The example face shapes are very easy to place on your photo. Determining your face shape is a breeze!! After your face shape is determined you have to line up the eyes in the diagram to your own eyes and adjust the color of the photo as needed. Next you move on to try on different hair styles

The Celebrity category is broken down further into various female, black female, classic female, various male, black male, classic male and celebrity search. There is a large list of celebrity hair styles to choose from and if this is what you are after, The Hair Styler is your place!! Descriptions for the different hair styles are very useful. They include info on how long it will take to style that particular hair style, what hair care products you will need and what face shape and hair texture the style is suited for.

Everyday hairstyles are broken down into texture- with straight, wavy and curly as choices, and length- short, medium and long are choices. Formal/Bridal categories include UpCurls, UpSmooth, DownCurls, and DownSmooth. If you are looking for prom or bridal hair styles, this section will give you quite a few ideas for your special event. The descriptions for the hair styles are very helpful, giving you suggestions on styling, hair care products to use and how long the style will last.

The Classic and Dreadlock categories are not broken down any further and the Mens hairstyles choices are short, long and conservative. The face model for the mens hairstyles is still the women model, but if you upload a mans photo you will get a good idea of how the hair style will look.

In every category there is the option to save or print the hairstyle photo that you like. When you print the hairstyle it prints not only the hair style you like, but also the directions, hair care products to use, what face shape the style is recommended for and the time required to style that particular hair style. This is all very useful info that you can bring to your hair stylist.

Conclusion

The Hair Styler has many features that are helpful for selecting a new hair style. The hairstyles are realistic looking when they are loaded on your photo and the site is constantly updated with new hair fashions. The system is easy to use and no complicated sofware is needed, only an internet connection. Since The Hair Styler goes into face shapes and has many different categories, it may take you a little time to find what you are looking for. But the time is well invested with lots of useful hair style information that will help you with your hair style now and in the future.

Stellure Review Description: 3D Hair Style Studio, Photo Uploading, Face Shape Info, 3D Model of Your Face

Subscription Price: 3 Levels

Sampler: Free Trial

Figure: $19.95 6 months

Reflect: $34.95 12 months

Lifetime:$49.95 Never pay again!

Payments Accepted: Visa, Mastercard, Delta with Secure connection

User-Friendly: Yes

Guarantees: Satisfaction guaranteed! If you don’t like it, you get a refund! If for any reason within 30 days, you are not satisfied with your membership we will refund your money, no questions asked ! There’s no risk involved, don’t like it then just ask for your money back. It’s that simple!

Strengths Realistic 3D Models, Can get customized 3D face model, Satisfaction Guaranteed, Monthly Newsletter, Value pricing, Articles on hair styles, Oscar fashion, prom hair fashions

Introduction

Stellure is a relatively new site that offers hair imaging in three dimensions. It differentiates itself from other imaging programs because of the very realistic 3D aspect. Currently they have the first batch of 151 hair styles loaded in the system. They are adding a lifelike color tinting system soon and they have just negotiated a deal that will give them access to large volumes of top quality fashion and classic hairstyles. As more and more hairstyles are added, the membership prices will be going up. The best value at this time is the lifetime membership as it gives you the benefits of the increased catalogue at a much lower price. And, let’s face it, examining your hair style and trying to find new ones is a lifelong activity.

The Hair Style Studio

Joining Stellure is quick, easy and secure. Depending on what type of membership you have selected, you can view hair styles on a stand in model or upload photos of yourself for Stellure to create your own 3D model to view hair styles. For the purposes of this review, we went with the customized 3D model. There are detailed instructions on the site for taking the photographs. You will need a front view and a side view. If you have scanner it is very easy to take a regular photo and scan it in for uploading. If you don’t own a scanner, you could probably go to your local photo processing center and have it done for you.

Before you get started with the hairstyles, you are directed to the face shape wizard to help you determine which one your face fits into. The wizard loads very quickly and asks you several questions about the dimensions of your face. After you have answered everything, the wizard tells you your face shape. This is important information since all of the hairstyles come with descriptions that detail which face shape they are suited for. There is also a link to style advice in the members area to specific style advice for your face shape.

We opted for the Reflect membership where we would get our own customized 3D face model. We had two photographs taken of one of our staff members, one front view and one side view. Once we uploaded the two photos in the Stellure member area, we received an Email in less than 24 hours that the 3D model was ready. (They do state on the website that the 3D models will be finished in 48 hours or less). Once your 3D model is finished, you will get a list of recommended hair styles for your face shape and then you can go to the hair style studio to try them on.

To try on a hair style you simply click on the style and it will show up on your face model. You can set the face model to spin clockwise, counterclockwise or you can click on any of 12 different angles to view the hair style. The hair styles and face models are very realistic looking and the 3D view gives you a very good idea of what the selected hair style will look like from the back. The back view of a hair style is probably the most often ignored view of any hair style and the 3D spinning face model allows you to see the back from a very different perspective.

As you try on different hair styles, you can get styling information by selecting the small i on the menu, you can print the hair style and you can save it in your favourites to view later. When you print a hair style, you will get a front view, back view and a view from each side. The detailed description is included in the printout. Information such as suitable lengths, length descriptions, suitable densities, face shapes, trim period, texture description, styling instructions, maintenance level and styling time. These are all very important factors to consider when considering a new hair style. If a hair style you like requires 30 minutes to style every morning and you do not have that kind of time, then you will probably not be very happy with your results.

There is a search function that will allow you to search by category, face shape, hair density and hair length. Categories include: Latest, Classic, Glamour/Evening, Formal/Bridal, Easy Care and Updo. Face Shapes include Oval, Rectangle, Square, Round, Heart, Pear and Diamond. Hair Density includes Thin, Medium, Thick and Hair Length selections are Short, Medium and Long.

In addition to the hair style studio, you will receive a monthly newsletter that discusses the most current hair style fashion and how to get it. This is great info if you want your hair to be in fashion. And, if you can’t find the hair style you are looking for, you can actually request it.

Conclusion

The fact that the technology used to develop the 3D Hair Style Studio at Stellure is patent pending says a lot about the high quality of the program. Most hair imaging programs offer just the front view of the hair style and Stellure offers a 3D look at selected hair styles with either a stand in model or your very own face model. It factors in your face shape information and offers suggestions for selecting a new hair style The results are very realistic and as more and more hair styles are added to the Hair Style Studio, this subscription based program will be the place to go if you want to find a new hair style and see how it will look on you.

For links to these wonderful programs and demos, visit our complete Hair Style Imaging Reviews at Hair Resources. Also, follow step by step demonstration of our model using hair imaging software at http://hairstyles.hairresources.net

Perriann Rodriguez is the author of the recently published 2005′s Most Popular Hair Extensions, available at http://www.hairresources.net She is also the founder of http://www.hairresources.com, the center for World Class Hair Styles + Beauty Salons. Perriann is listed in the 2004 Who’s Who of Executives and Professionals and the U.S. Register of American Writers.