Keep Your Hair Healthy

High-quality products can maximize your hair's potential every time you shower. Manufacturers formulate shampoo and conditioner for a variety of hair types.

• Dry hair: Coloring, chemical treatment, over-styling, and frequent blow-drying can dry your hair. Rejuvenate your hair with products designed to add moisture.
• Normal Hair: Use products designed for "normal hair" and use the quantities recommended on the bottle—too much conditioner can make your hair look greasy.
• Oily Hair: Products designed for oily hair include fewer conditioning ingredients. To best prevent your hair from getting greasy, apply conditioner sparingly to the ends of your hair instead of your entire scalp. Also consider using a clarifying shampoo to wash out styling product buildup.

Consider conditioning your hair before you straighten or perm it, and you may want to buy hair color that includes a conditioner.

Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle

What you eat can affect your hair’s health and appearance. Make sure you get enough protein in your diet, as well as minerals such as zinc, iron, and copper. Vitamin A and vitamin B complex also help promote healthy hair and a healthy scalp.

Aging, hormonal changes, pregnancy, and weather will affect your hair no matter what, but reducing stress can go a long way toward improving its appearance.

Get a Haircut

One way to maintain healthy hair is to have it regularly cut or trimmed. For example, every three to four weeks for short hair and every six to eight weeks for long hair.

Tame Your Hair

Everybody wants their hair to look stylish and sensational. Styling products from Aveda, Redken, Phyto, Nioxin, Tigi, Kérastase, and Bumble and Bumble can contribute to your hair’s overall health and enhance how it looks, making it appear shinier, healthier, and more full-bodied.

• Gel: Use gel to shape and style your hair into spikes or apply gel to wet hair to achieve a "wet" look
• Mousse: Add body while gaining style control with hair mousse.
• Hairspray: Hold your hair neatly in place with hairspray.
• Hair Wax: Achieve extreme punk rock looks or all-day up-dos with hair wax that only washes out with hot water.    
• Pomade: Sparingly apply pomade to your hair to give it a chunky look, eliminate frizz, or slick it back.    
• Styling lotion:Use a lightweight hair styling lotion normal and normal-to-fine hair.    
• Texturizer: Quickly relax your hair and soften curls with texturizer.
• Curl Enhancers: Curl enhancers shape your hair’s natural curls.    
• Straightening Balm: Brush waves, curls, and frizz out of your hair with a straightening balm.

If you have allergies to any hair care products or ingredients, make sure you check the ingredients on the label of these products before using them.

Hair Curlers and Curling Irons

Curl your hair for that special occasion or for work with hair curlers or a curling iron.

• Hair curlers: Clairol, Conair, Vidal Sassoon, and several other companies manufacture curlers and rollers designed for overnight wear. Plug in your set of curlers, let them heat up, roll each curler into your hair, and after a few minutes carefully unroll your new curls.
• Curling irons: Companies such as Chi, Revlon, and Braun produce curling irons. These products feature a plastic grip and metal rod that heats up. You place a section of hair in the curling iron, roll it, hold it, and wait a period of time for the curl to take before unrolling.

Hair-Salon Equipment

Take your hair care experience to the next level by bringing the salon experience home. Professional salon equipment available on eBay runs the gamut from salon furniture (shampoo chairs, styling chairs, nail tables, cabinets) to facial machines and lights to high-end scissors and spray bottles. You can treat yourself, your family, or even get the supplies you need to open your own beauty shop.

Set Your Hair Straight

Different hair care products can help you complete your quest for straight hair. Start by looking for straightening shampoos, conditioners, balms, gels, sprays, and other frizz-free styling products. These hair care products can be used on their own or in conjunction with hair dryers, blow dryers, and flat irons.

Blow-Dry Your Hair Straight

When selecting a device to dry your hair, you can choose a basic hair dryer or a blow dryer.

• Hair Ddryer: Basic hair dryers have basic settings and come in a few different sizes: compact (or travel), midsize, and full-size. 
• Blow Dryer: Varying in wattage and available from companies such as Chi, Conair, and Babyliss, blow dryers generally have multiple speed settings and a cold-air button. Some blow dryers have design features such as a lightweight body and ergonomically designed handles.
• Ionic Blow Dryer : Ionic blow dryers put out less heat than traditional blow dryers and dry hair faster, generally resulting in less damage to your hair.

Consider the following steps for the best hair-straightening results:

1. Towel-dry your hair and then wait a bit before blow-drying. That way, you may experience less hair damage.
2. Prep your hair with a heat-activated product designed to protect your hair from styling damage before blow-drying.    
3. Use a round brush to brush out your hair in flat strands. For more volume, round your hair with the brush.     
4. When blow-drying, always point the dryer down to prevent frizz.    
5. After you finish blow-drying with heat, switch to cool air to smooth your hair.

Iron Your Hair Flat

When a hair dryer doesn’t render your hair flat enough, consider using a flat iron (also called a straightening iron) from a company like Farouk Chi, Hai, or Conair.

If you choose to use a flat iron, make sure you read all information about safe use on the product or product packaging before use.

Flat irons feature two long plates made of ceramic or metal. When the plates heat up, apply them to your hair, and wait for the heat to work its magic. Look for:

• Ceramic Plates: More gentle than metal plates, ceramic plates work best for most people.     
• Important Settings: Consider a flat iron that can be used on either damp or dry hair. Some models, such as the Farouk Chi Wet/Dry Straightening Iron, work on both wet and dry hair.    
• High Quality: You'll see a range of prices for flat irons. Spend a little extra money on a quality flat iron if you have thick and curly hair or fragile and thin hair.

When using a flat iron:

• Apply a silicone and a straightening balm prior to ironing to protect your hair, set it, and lock moisture out.      
• Only use flat irons on clean hair. Otherwise, dirt and grease will cook on the iron and damage your hair.
• Don’t use flat irons every day; the direct contact of the high heat to your hair can be damaging.

Regularly clean flat iron plates with rubbing alcohol and a clean cloth to remove accumulated hair product residue.

Fight Hair Loss

Slow, prevent, or mask hair loss.

• Slow or Prevent Hair Loss: Treatments such as Rogaine claim to help balding men and women suffering from alopecia (hereditary hair loss) grow new hair. Look for a product targeted for your gender.
• Treat Thinning Hair: Companies like Nioxin offer scalp therapy and cleanser products for thin and thinning hair.    
• Add Hair: Hair extensions and weaves cover baldness or fill out your hair for fun and fashion. They can thicken and add length and highlights.

How to Find Hair Care Items on eBay

Once you know what type of hair care items you want, go to the Health & Beauty portal, click Hair Care, and start searching for item listings on eBay.

• Categories: The Categories list on the left side of each page will help you narrow down your listings by item type. You'll find links for Shampoo, Conditioner, Hair Dryers, Straightening Irons, Hair Loss, and more. As you dig deeper into the site, you'll also be able to narrow down your choice by brand.
• Keyword Search: Search eBay title listings for specific words. For example, if you want to find a flat iron, type "flat iron” (without quotation marks) into the Search box. Click "Search title and description" to expand your results. Visit eBay's Search Tips page for more tips on searching with keywords.

If you can't find exactly what you want, try shopping eBay Stores, tell the eBay Community what you want by creating a post on Want It Now, or save a search on My eBay and eBay will email you when a match becomes available.

Buy Hair Care Items With Confidence

Before making your purchase, make sure you know exactly what you're buying, research your seller, and understand how eBay and PayPal protect you.

Know Your Purchase

Carefully read the details in item listings.

• Figure delivery costs into your final price. If you spend a lot of money, make sure the seller will insure the item when it ships.
• If you want more information, ask by clicking the "Ask seller a question" link under the seller's profile.
• Always make sure to complete your transaction on eBay (with a bid, Buy It Now, or Best Offer). Transactions conducted outside of eBay are not covered by eBay protection programs.
• Never pay for your eBay item using instant cash wire transfer services through Western Union or MoneyGram. These payment methods are unsafe when paying someone you do not know.

Know Your Seller

Research your seller so you feel positive and secure about every transaction.

• What is the seller's Feedback rating? How many transactions have they completed? What percentage of positive responses do they have?
• What do buyers say in their Feedback? Did the seller receive praise?
• Most top eBay sellers operate like retail stores and have return policies. Do they offer a money-back guarantee? What are the terms and conditions?

Buyer Protection

In the unlikely event that a problem arises during your transaction, eBay and PayPal are there for you.

• Pay Safely with PayPal: PayPal enables you to pay without the seller ever seeing your bank account or credit card numbers. In fact, PayPal protects buyers 100% against unauthorized payments from their accounts. Plus, with PayPal Buyer Protection, your purchase can be covered up to $1,000.
• eBay Security & Resolution Center: Visit the Security & Resolution Center to learn how to protect your account and use eBay's quick and efficient resolution tools.