To choose the right products for your hair the first thing you need to establish is your hair type. Determining your hair type is surprisingly easy. Just follow these steps...

• Start at the 'root' of things - if your roots are greasy within 24 hours of shampooing, you'll need a shampoo for oily hair. If you can go a couple of days before a slight oiliness appears, use a shampoo for normal (to oily) hair. If you can go three days or more and the roots still seem dry, you'll need a shampoo for dry (to normal) hair.

• Hair will be drier from the mid-lengths to the ends and will benefit from conditioning.

• If hair is short, fine, lightweight and/or straight, and you chose a normal or oily shampoo, then a daily conditioner or light conditioner (sometimes described as detangling conditioners) will usually be best suited.

• Longer hair, of medium texture, wavy or thick straight hair, normally need moisturizing conditioners. If your hair is coarse textured, very curly or frizzy, then use a moisturizing conditioner in conjunction with special treatments that are available.

Be aware though that hair quality is never a constant. It is prone to climatic changes, health and emotional disruption and can become finer, coarser, oilier, drier, smoother, frizzier very quickly indeed. From time to time, you may need to re-assess your choices to maintain your hair in tip top condition.

	First off lets kill a common myth; regular shampooing DOES NOT increase hair loss. In fact the reverse is true! If you don't shampoo regularly your hair follicles clog up with sebum and other nasty stuff - and clogged follicles equal inactive follicles.

So as long as you choose the right products, shampooing on a daily basis won't cause you any problems. Here's our suggestions...

• Preparation... If you have very long hair or very curly hair, use a wide-toothed comb to detangle your hair as much as possible prior to wetting.

• Wetting... Before applying shampoo, wet the hair thoroughly using warm water. If the waters too hot it'll increase the release of sebum, if it's too cold the shampoo won't penetrate properly.

• Shampoo... it's not possible to say just how much shampoo you'll need to use, it depends how much hair you've got to wash (kind of obvious that one!); but professional shampoo's are more concentrated than supermarket 'off the shelf' ones. So if your moving up to salon shampoo's from the supermarket variety, you're going to need less. Don't expect the professional salon shampoo's to create a mass of 'bubbles' either - this is just a detergent that's no good for your hair and is only put in the 'off the shelf' shampoo's as that what all the marketing men think you want!

• Massaging... make sure the shampoo is applied evenly all over your head, paying attention to the front hairline, nape and around the ears where hair tends to get the dirtiest. Use your fingertips in a firm circular motion all around the scalp and continue for between 1 - 3 minutes.

• Rinsing... firstly, for those of you that wash your hair in the bath, don't expect to get a brilliant shine when you're rinsing in your own dirt! The most common cause of dull hair is inadequate rinsing, so rinse, rinse, rinse - and in clean warm water. Washing your hair in the shower's going to give you the best results.

	A good conditioner, suited to your hair type, is vital in maintaining healthy hair that shines with life and body. Modern daily conditioners will revitalize and detangle your hair fast so don't try skip this conditioning step!

• Apply the conditioner through the clean hair from roots to ends. All our conditioners work on the scalp skin too (and without clogging the follicles as long as you remember to rinse well), so a gentle massage will help work the conditioner through.

• When you have the time, leave the conditioner on for 3 - 5 minutes for a really deep condition. Longer hair will benefit from combing the conditioner through before rinsing.

• Try rinse the conditioner off using water that's as cool as possible; this closes and seals the hair shaft and follicle, locking in the shine and condition. Just like with shampooing, you need to rinse really well.

	Treatments work slightly differently to conditioners. Essentially a conditioner coats the outside of the hair to create body and shine. A treatment however, would normally penetrate the hair shaft or follicles to reconstruct or repair damaged hair.

By creating a bond in the broken structure of the hair, a treatment can even out the hairs porosity and strengthen the shaft. This allows the shampoo and conditioning products to work more effectively.

Some treatments are applied between the shampoo and conditioning steps, whilst others are leave-in products for use after the conditioning step. You should carefully follow the instructions for the individual product to get the very best results.

	After shampooing and conditioning, squeeze all the excess moisture out with a towel. Do not rub your hair too vigorously as this causes friction, knotting and possibly breakage. Comb through and apply the appropriate products.

If you're creating a blow dry style wait until your hair is about 70 or 80% dry before applying styling products. This will make blow drying quicker and easier. You will be less likely to over work the hair so it will stay shiny and supple and the end result will look fluid and more natural.

Using a brush on soaking wet hair, can lead to over working and over drying, making the hair tired and lifeless. (An exception to the 80% dry rule is very frizzy, coarse hair that you're trying to blow dry straight, this needs more moisture left in to begin with.)

	Most people will benefit from the use of professional tools to go with professional products. All equipment is an investment that if chosen correctly will save you time, effort and energy.

Cheap hair combs are normally made from hot plastic poured into a double mould. This creates a rough, abrasive edge around the joins which will rip into the hairs cuticles and through to the cortex - not good.

Brushes too can contain bristles that are far too abrasive to be beneficial, again ripping through the hairs outer cuticles. Professional hair brush and combs may not be as cheap as you'll find in some supermarkets, but they're much gentler on your hair and also designed to last.

If you blow dry your hair a professional hairdryer might be worth investing in. These will have at least a 1200watt AC motor. The motor will be heavy duty to allow for the constant use it receives in a salon environment. For domestic use this is good news as it should last some years. You'll also have at least two heat and speed settings, and usually a 'cool-shot' option to help set styles in place. It's also unlikely to get 'too hot', which would soon damaged and dry out the condition from your hair. Extra long cables are also a bonus and the casing will be stronger (they need to be - our stylists are forever 'bouncing' their dryers on the salon floor!).

Then there's sectioning clips, velcro-rollers, pins, curling tongs, straightening irons - the list goes on and on. Depending on how you like your hair to be styled these may or may not be useful, but your stylist will be able to advise you what would be good to help you get that 'salon fresh' look at home.