WHEN DINING OUT | Watch what you order

But now's a good time to wear your hair straight.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Call it a national "bad hair day." With harsh storms hitting everywhere from the Midwest to the Northeast to the South recently, Americans are suffering through a winter of beauty discontent with flyaway hair that, all of a sudden, is as dry and stale as leftover Christmas cookies.
"It's cold and dry, so it's important to use a lot of moisturizing, a lot of finishing cream," says Frederic Fekkai, who owns salons in New York and Beverly Hills, Calif., and sells a namesake line of hair products. "And a hot oil treatment is always obviously appreciated."
You can bring your hair back to life, tame flyaways and avoid the "hat hair" look, but it will require some alteration to your regular beauty routine. Despite the bad news, there is a silver lining for some.
"There's no humidity in the air. So if you are thinking about wearing your hair straight, this is the time," says Rodney Cutler, who owns the Cutler Salon in New York City.
"If you're going curly, because curly is all the rage again, that's a tricky one," Cutler says, adding that the best regimen is to rinse curly hair every day but only shampoo it twice a week to keep as much natural oil in the hair as possible.
Dried out and dull
The first thing to remember when dealing with dry, winter-ravaged hair is that coming in from the cold isn't as much of a relief for your hair as it is for the rest of your body.
"The cold air of winter is more drying, but a lot of times just being indoors, the heating dries it too," says Nick Chavez, owner of the Nick Chavez Salon in Beverly Hills, Calif., whose line of hair products is sold on QVC.
With less sunlight during winter's short days, hair loses shine and looks duller, Chavez says.
To counteract all of these forces, Cutler says you must diagnose the specific problems with your hair: Is it breaking apart, or is it fairly strong but just dry?
"If it just looks really fragile and weak and split it's probably a protein thing. If it's strong and it's dry it's really just about getting moisture in there," Cutler says.
Suggested treatments
Using a protein or cream-based deep-conditioning treatment once a week for 10 to 15 minutes will help restore hair's luster and shine, Cutler says. Make sure to rinse with warm, not hot, water because hot water dries the hair, Fekkai says.
A good scalp massage can also improve hair's appearance by exfoliating the scalp and stimulating blood flow, Chavez says.
"It's like a facial," he says, adding that carefully brushing hair at night also stimulates the scalp. "Make sure the comb or the brush you're using is very flexible, and start at the bottom and work your way up."
Like Fekkai, Cutler says he finds oil -- specifically jojoba oil or Aveda purifying oil -- is useful as a treatment.
"I sometimes will use a little bit of oil at the scalp if it's quite dry," Cutler says.
Be wary of home remedies
But Chavez cautions that at-home oil treatments can sometimes backfire.
"One of the biggest problems with using olive oil or oils is you end up drying the hair more by shampooing it out. You think you're fixing the problem but you're actually making it worse," Chavez says, adding that mayonnaise, another reputed home remedy for dry hair, presents the same problem.
For flyaway hair, all three recommend taking advantage of the finishing creams on the market. Most hair product lines' offerings vary enough in thickness and control to provide help for everything from extremely fine hair to thick, curly hair. A last-minute flyaway fix can be found in the laundry room, too -- a couple of swipes of a dryer sheet will do the trick, Chavez says.
As for hat hair, Fekkai recommends brushing hair upside down immediately after doffing your cap to add volume to the roots. Smooth hair with a dab of finishing cream to tame flyaways.
"Another thing that is really great is to put a scarf underneath your hat, because it's not going to break the hair," Chavez says. If the brim of your hat is tight, however, there may be no avoiding the lopsided 'do that results.
As rough as the winter months are on hair, Fekkai says you can make things easier on yourself by being gentle on your hair the rest of the year. Overprocessed hair that's been abused by highlights or relaxers is the problem he sees most often.
"Before, highlights were subtle. Now they have big highlights, and a lot of them. People also use a lot of relaxing. That makes the hair porous, fuzzy, very dry," he says.