Healthy hair can go a long way in helping you achieve the hairstyles you want. Healthy hair retains color longer, which is always a positive if you color your hair. Also, healthy hair helps you avoid those styling difficulties like frizz. It can also help your hair look smooth and sleek, effectively erasing those texture problems such as hair that feels like straw. So below we’ll go over five quick and easy ways that you can give your hair a health boost.
- Up the Hair Conditioners
The simple fact is that dry hair is unhealthy hair. It can be more prone to split ends the longer you leave it dry and it can be hard to style. Hair conditioning treatments are a good way to give some nourishment back to your hair in a simple, easy and at-home manner.
Some ideas for adding moisture back to your hair include:
Oil treatments: Use nourishing oils on your hair, such as argan oil. A common way people use argan oil is as an overnight treatment. You simply massage about 10 drops of the oil in your hair for as long as it takes for it to evenly cover your scalp and hair. You then wrap it in a towel and leave it overnight, or you can experiment with shorter treatments to see how long you need to let the oil sit for noticeable results. Some people also rub the oil into the scalp and hair for 10 minutes, let it sit for 10 minutes and wash it out with shampoo.
Home hair masks: These are often mixtures you create at home or you can buy commercial mixtures. Home mixtures can include honey, milk, avocado, olive oil, egg yolk and natural yogurt. You usually leave these on your hair for 10 minutes to an hour.
Deep conditioners: You can also buy deep conditioning treatments. These are usually applied apart from your normal hair care routine and left on the hair for a specified time. Make sure to follow the instructions on the bottle.
Moisturizing shampoos and conditioners: You might also look into daily hair care products that infuse your hair with more moisture. Many brands have lines of shampoos and conditioners that are specifically formulated to moisturize the hair.
- Look into Hair-Strengthening Treatments
Healthier hair is also strong hair. When the keratin in the hair is boosted, it’s less prone to breakage and easier to style. One popular way to strengthen the hair is with a keratin treatment. Just be aware that this type of treatment can also straighten hair, so it’s not for people who like wavy or curly locks. These treatments are usually done at a salon, but you can find at-home keratin treatment products if you prefer.
You might also try a henna treatment, which can strengthen hair by binding to the hair’s protein. Many people even swear that it can help repair split ends. It’s also a less damaging way to color lighter hair and it can make hair softer too. This is something you can typically do at home for very little cost.
- Find Ways to Reduce Heat Damage
One of the best ways to stop hair damage at the source is to reduce or eliminate heat damage. Using hot styling products like blow dryers, flat irons or curling irons puts a ton of stress on the hair and leads to dryness and breakage.
You could try to rely less on these tools, if you can’t give them up entirely. For instance, you might wash your hair at night so that you don’t have to blow dry it in the morning. If you use heat tools for specific styles, you might consider other ways to achieve those styles, like using a keratin treatment to get straight hair or using rollers for curly styles.
If you find you can’t give up those heat tools, absolutely make sure you use a heat protectant product. 15.67% of polled All Things Hair readers stated that styling without heat protectant is the main bad hair habit they’re trying to kick. These products typically come as convenient sprays or leave-in conditioners.
- Trim Your Ends
You should also have a regular trim schedule in place. Conventional advice is to get a hair trim every six to eight weeks. That makes sure your hair doesn’t have time to start splitting and risking those split ends traveling up the hair shaft, creating damage that gets harder and harder to trim off entirely.
If you can’t make it to a salon or stylist that often, you might consider trimming your own hair at home. This can be hard to manage with a shorter style that needs a certain touch to maintain the style. However, if you have long hair, trimming your hair gets easier. One method is as follows:
- Get proper hairdressing scissors that are meant for just trimming hair, as these will be sharp enough, and also get two hair ties.
- Bring the hair from around the back of your head by parting it in the exact middle at the back and leading each section over its respective shoulder.
- Secure your hair with a tie right under your chin.
- Put another tie near the end of your under-the-chin ponytail.
- Use hair trimming scissors to evenly trim the bottom of the ponytail.
This will lead to a trim that has a subtly rounded look at the bottom.
- Watch Your Shampoo Routine
It’s easy to get addicted to that “just washed my hair” pristine, bouncy feeling in your hair. But too much shampooing can dry out and damage hair. If your hair isn’t particularly an oily type, you might go a day or two in between washing it, or even longer if you have dry hair.
Dry shampoo can also be a minefield here. It’s full of starch and alcohol that absorb the oils in your hair, which makes it look cleaner. However, it doesn’t clean your hair and regular usage can mean breakage. So be carefully not to overuse it.
With these easy tips, you can give your hair a health kick. Some may require a salon visit and others are at-home treatments or simple adjustments, but your hair will look healthier as a result of you taking the time to focus on it in the right way.
