Beauty Reporter.(curly hair maintenance)(skin protection from sunburn)(Dior Girly makeup palette)

Curl Friends

Like a good bra, successful curl-enhancing products lift and separate to buoy one's natural assets. Now, some hair-care companies contest that women with curls need to start that process in the shower. Naturally curly hair, which has a more open cuticle than that of straight hair, can be irritated by the cleansers in most shampoos and requires extra moisturizers, resins, and silicones to appear smooth, says Eric Bernstein, clinical associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania. Two new lines for curly hair include shampoos and conditioners infused with the usual moisturizers and detanglers, as well as a new twist: styling agents usually found only in sprays and gels. Matrix's new Curl.life Defining System contains "a mild styling polymer that wraps around the hair strand and keeps it in a curly formation," says the company's Michael St. Onge. And Bumble and Bumble's Curl Conscious Shampoo and Conditioner include transglutaminase, an enzyme that helps curls resist humidity. Bottom Line: Our curls were noticeably smoother after towel-drying but still required styling products to maintain that bounce all day.

JENNY BAILLY

Skin Update

What's Your damage

Ignorance may be bliss when it comes to an ex-boyfriend's latest conquest, but on the subject of sun damage, what you don't know can hurt you. With that in mind, skin-care companies and spas are photographing customers with a special camera that reveals sun damage not visible to the naked eye. The UV photos, taken at skin-care counters like the Somme Institute and the new Japanese import SK-II, are scare tactics of the best kind, says Heike I. M. Mahler, a research scientist at the University of California San Diego. "For young people, repeated sun exposure without the use of a sunscreen is often based on immediate gratification -- with little concern for the future," Mahler says. "Seeing photographs of damaged skin may turn the distant probability of damage into a visible reality." ...