When a client walks into your salon, lots of factors contribute to their overall experience. One of their first impressions is their experience in the shampoo area. In beauty school, you learned how to properly wash your client's hair, but are they doing it correctly at home? As a beauty professional, it's your job to make sure they are caring for their hair from washing to styling.

Why? The health of their scalp determines a lot about the overall health of the hair. 

Heavy build-up on the scalp due to overactive sebum, excessive product usage and dryness can lead to blocked follicles and  when left untreated, the scalp can become irritated, itchy and inhibit hair growth. To make sure your clients are ensuring a clean, flake-free and healthy head, cleanse and condition properly by following HairMax’s do’s and don’ts, from their Healthy Hair Growth Guide. Here are their recommendations:

• Start by rinsing hair with warm water for about three minutes. The extra rinsing time will loosen up product residue, allowing you to use less shampoo.

• Don’t comb hair while shampooing. The stretching and pulling creates unnecessary stress on strands. Instead, save detangling for when the conditioner is in.

• Don’t pile hair on top of the head while shampooing, but instead apply the shampoo by smoothing it in a downward motion.

• Don’t rough up the hair while drying.  Rather, gently squeeze out the water with a towel.

HairMax also recommends choosing the right cleanser and conditioner, like those found in the HairMax for den•si•ty Collection. Containing ingredients like peppermint oil and tea tree oil, which help stimulate circulation, maintain scalp health and prevent excessive oil build-up, the shampoo is also formulated phytic acid, which provides exfoliation of skin. In addition, the entire collection is sulfate-free.