Growing up, I never really had any issues with my hair. My hair was a light brown or dirty blonde and was naturally straight for the most part. Once I reached high school, my mom finally let me get highlights in my hair, which is something I had always wanted. Even though the stylist had to bleach some of my hair to get the highlights, my hair was still very luscious, long and soft.
Here’s a picture of me from freshman year of high school after getting highlights done:
Freshman year of high school
I continued to get my hair retouched every six months, once for my birthday in February and once before school started in August. Still, even with highlights my hair was long and strong. Nothing was going to change that, or so I thought. Here’s a picture of me from my sophomore year homecoming. My hair was the longest it had ever been naturally.
Sophomore year homecoming
During my junior year of high school, I started wanting my hair blonder and blonder, causing my roots to look very dark against my bleach blonde head of hair. I began getting highlights every two to three months. Then, I did the unthinkable: I chopped it all off. To this day, getting my haircut that short is one of my biggest life regrets. Now, you may be thinking: “this girl is over reacting, hair grows back.” But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for me.
Junior year haircut
I got my haircut a really awkward length. It was a very blunt cut a few inches past my shoulder. It looked okay at first, but then prom rolled around and I wanted my long hair back, so I ordered some clip in hair extensions.
Prom with hair extensions
The first time I really used the 20-inch hair extensions was for prom, and they looked amazing! But for spending a whopping $300 or so on some extensions to use them just once wasn’t really my style. So, I began wearing the extensions regularly. The extensions just clipped into my hair and made my short locks look longer and healthier, so I wore them a few times a week.
These extensions ruined my hair. They were very heavy and pulled on my scalp, causing my hair to fall out and even not grow. The next time I went to get my hair colored, I asked for an ombre so that I could grow out my natural hair color and have healthy hair again.
Ombre
The ombre looked good, but I didn’t stop wearing my clip-in extensions. Eventually, my hair developed split ends on almost every piece of hair, causing my hair to look like this:
My hair was shorter than before the first time I ever cut it. I began to get depressed over my hair. I was trying everything I could to grow it, or so I thought, but it still wouldn’t grow. I continued to wear (22-inch) extensions, and eventually moved onto tape in extensions, a more permanent kind.
22-inch clip in hair extensions
Tape-in hair extensions
Before going into college, I knew I didn’t have the time or money to keep up my expensive hair insecurity, so, I finally wore my hair at its natural length. The transition was hard, and I didn’t always feel as pretty as I knew I would feel if I was wearing extensions, but I knew wearing my hair natural was the only way I was going to get my hair to grow.
Since wearing my hair natural, I have become much more aware of my hair and its needs. I have bought some brilliant products that have helped me grow my hair tremendously. If you’re trying to grow your hair or get your hair back to its healthy state, here are some tips:
1. Use a sulfate-free shampoo. Sulfate is a harsh chemical that can eat away at your hair and cause split ends and dry hair. My favorite sulfate-free shampoo is the Caviar Oil Crème shampoo and conditioner, which can be purchased at Sephora or Ulta.
2. Use good hair products for your hair. You always don’t want your hair products to have sulfate in them. Some of my favorite hair products are the picture collage above. Next week, I will do a more in-depth review and how-to-use article on all my favorite hair products.
3. Be gentle on your hair. Never use a brush on your wet hair and gently comb out knots in your hair. Never aggressively pull your hair, as that can cause irritation to your scalp and pull out your hair, also causing breakage in your strands.
4. Watch how much heat you apply to your hair. I try to only use heat on my hair a few times a week. Try not to use heat products on your hair everyday. This can cause serious damage to your hair. If you do use heat products, make sure you have a heat protectant. It may seem like it doesn’t do anything to your hair, but it prevents breakage and split ends.
I hope some of these tips helped you and don’t forget to read my article next week to see how and why I use my favorite hair products!
Photo credits: Photo Collage- Blonde hair, Caviar moisture intense oil creme shampoo, Caviar moisture intense oil creme conditioner, Caviar repair multi-vitamin heat protection spray, Phytoelixer, Keratase Hair Mask.
All other photos by author