Quick Hair Tips ♥

Some little things to keep in mind when you're washing and styling your hair:

• When brushing, always start with the bottom and work your way up. This decreases breakage and makes brushing easier.
• Invest in a boar bristle brush. It spreads the natural oils from your scalp closer to your ends, keeping them healthier.
• Use hair dryers and other heated styling products minimally. You don't always have to use heat! Try a natural wavy look with some saltwater spray after a shower.
• Don't do super tight ponytails or hair clips. If you pull on your hair, it will break--as simple as that.
• If you dye your hair, make sure you baby it directly afterward with lots of conditioning treatments.
• Get a deep conditioning hair mask and use it once a week. The longer you leave it on your hair, the more your hair will absorb.
• When washing your hair in the shower, massage your scalp as much as possible. This generates blood flow which helps your hair to grow faster.
• Notice I said massage, not scratch. Try not to scratch your scalp because when you do, your fingernails are damaging the hair shaft which makes hair less healthy. This can keep your hair from being as shiny as it could.
• If you bleach or lift your hair, use the lowest volume developer possible and never use 50 volume. Only use 40 volume if you have black hair, 30 for deep brown, and 20 for light brown or dark blonde. But 10 volume would be the healthiest to use.
• Try coating your hair with olive oil and wrapping it in a towel overnight. Hair looooves oil, it should make it softer, stronger, and shinier.
• Buy reparative/strengthening shampoos and conditioners. Even if you have healthy hair, why not buy something that maintains that health? If you use heat on your hair, you should use reparative products.
• Have a heat protective spray! This is so so important because I feel like not many people do this and it helps protect your hair from the damages of heated styling products. Get Tressemme's spray from Walmart or Target, it smells good c:
• Rinse conditioner out with cold water when you're in the shower. Hot water opens up hair follicles, cold shuts them which would lock in the effects of conditioner.
• Don't use Pantene. I know it smells great and makes your hair feel nice, but it actually coats your hair with a wax-like substance to give that effect which can prevent other conditioning treatments from working because they can't get past the waxy layer on the hair shaft.
• Don't sleep with any hair accessories in or on your hair. When you toss and turn at night, they can tug on your hair which could cause breakage.
• Take Biotin (unless you have oily hair/skin). It boosts oils in your system but beware, that could make you break out like I did.
• If you dye your hair, try Manic Panic overnight. It's a fun change plus it's vegan and totally healthy for your hair. The next morning, it's super soft with awesome color.
• Use a wide-tooth comb instead of a brush whenever necessary. This also decreases breakage but remember to be patient with tangles and never tug or rip your hair.
• When towel-drying your hair, don't be too rough. Press the towel into your scalp and hair instead of wrapping or wringing it because believe it or not, that can cause breakage.
• After conditioning your hair in the shower, don't wash it all the way out. Leave just enough in so that your hair still feels soft but not enough to where your hair would look greasy.
• Get split ends trimmed. As wrong as it feels, it's better to snip off dead/fragile ends than have them splitting up the hair follicle and ruining the perfectly good hair above it!
• When going to the salon to have that done, ask for a "dust trim." That basically tells the hairdresser to cut off as little as possible.
• Google "hair mask recipes." This is an excellent and cheap way to get really soft and healthy hair without chemicals, plus it's really fun!
• Be gentle in general. Hair strands don't have nerves, so sometimes we don't notice how damaging it is when we burn them with a curling iron or squeeze them tightly into a ponytail holder. Love your hair! Pay attention to what it needs and it will repay you with strength, health, and beauty.