If you’re like me, then you enjoy trying out new hairstyles. I love to color my hair, to curl my hair, and to straighten it. As fun as these may be, I never realized how damaging these habits were.
When I was younger, I had long and shiny hair with beautiful natural waves – it was healthy. At the age of 12, I bought my first curling wand and began curling my hair nearly everyday. By the time I was 14 I had started coloring my hair. Unfortunately, I ultimately ended up doing damage to my once healthy hair.
Last year I really started to fine tune my skin care routine, now I am on a mission to restore my hair! Through research I have learned alot about what I can do to help improve my hair. Slowly but surely I have introduced new products and new steps into my hair care routine.
Here is what I have learned about hair care, and some easy steps you can follow to ensure the health of your hair!
Split Ends:
Most of us have encountered pesky split ends. Split ends occur when your hair becomes dry or brittle – the result is splitting or fraying. While splitting most commonly occurs on the ends of hair strands, you can get them further up strands as well. Many things can cause split ends: chemical treatments, blow drying, using heat tools, over washing, and even towels! Heat tools and hair coloring have definitely resulted in split ends for me. While tons of products on the market claim to instantly repair split ends, the truth of the matter is that there is no quick fix for split ends or damaged hair. Repairing your hair takes time and dedication:
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Refrain from using heat products: Using heat on your hair is a major cause of dry and brittle hair. Try and avoid or cut down the amount of time you use heat tools on your hair. Personally this is something I struggle with because I have grown accustomed to heat styling my hair on a daily basis. Lately I have been wearing my hair up more often or clipping it back to style it in a way that does not require heat! If you do want to use heat on your hair, just set your styling tool to a lower temperature.
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Refrain from blow drying your hair: Similarly to using heat tools, blow drying your hair on a hot setting can do damage. Try and let your hair air dry and if you do choose to blow dry, use the cool setting. I like to use a heat protection spray when I do choose to blow dry my hair, for extra protection.
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Do not wash your hair everyday: Using shampoo on your hair everyday can actually cause damage! Over washing can strip your hair, dry it out and ultimately lead to split ends. I always thought washing your hair everyday was the right thing to do but I have recently started using dry shampoo in between washes to avoid drying my hair out.
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Switch to a microfiber towel: After a shower, I would always wrap my hair in a towel to soak up some of the water – I never realized this could be damaging. The material towels are made of are actually too rough on hair and cause breakage- especially if you have curly or wavy hair. Microfiber towels are much softer and actually soak up more water. A cheaper alternative is cotton t-shirts – I personally have switched to using an old baggy cotton shirt to scrunch dry and wrap my hair after I shower.
Ingredients:
The ingredients of the products we put in our hair are vital. With so many different products on the market it can be difficult to determine what is safe. Many products are marketed as safe when in reality they contain harmful ingredients like sulfates, silicone and drying alcohols. As I mentioned earlier, I color my hair so I try my best to purchase both safe products for color and products with natural ingredients. When buying hair products, look for products that are free from sulfates, silicone and drying alcohols! For girls who color their hair, my favorite shampoo and conditioner is the Organix fade defying + orchid oil set.
Learn your hair type:
Each different hair type – from straight, to wavy, to curly hair, needs to be treated differently! My hair has never been pin straight, but it was never really wavy either. I have a weird combination of the two that has frustrated me for years. Every strand of my hair wants to do something different! I’ve always treated my hair as straight, but it turns out I was doing more damage than good. I was using the wrong type of brush, I wasn’t using the right products, I wasn’t deep conditioning, I was using the wrong type of towel and I wasn’t giving my hair the chance to air dry. Since making these corrections – I have noticed a huge difference in my hair.
Quarantine has actually benefited my hair because I have had no need to use heat tools on it. Treating my hair as wavy, as opposed to straight, has actually improved the wavy texture of my hair. My waves have become more prominent and look less frizzy. I’ve actually started to like the way my hair looks naturally! Make sure you treat your hair properly based on your own hair type! It makes a big difference.