I love having fun with my hair. I love styling my hair, colouring my hair, and teasing it for volume and all sorts of creative things that actually cause my hair to suffer a lot. And after all the sun, salt water, and chlorine of summer, I’ve had to put my hair on a serious damage control regime. My hair was starting to looking like a haystack with dry, brittle ends, and a straw-like texture that I didn’t think it could ever come back from.
Beauty SOS: 5 tips to Turn Damaged Hair to Healthy Hair
Use Treatment Masks to Rescue Damaged Hair
A hair mask like Shea Moisture’s Deep Treatment Hair Masque is the first thing I reach for when I need some serious hair TLC. Hair masks are all about moisture and restoring it severely dry locks or over-processed coloured strands. Shea Moisture’s Deep Treatment Hair Masque is formulated with organic Raw Shea Butter and natural botanicals to restore natural lipids to damaged hair. I find a once a week hair mask will do wonders for your hair. Just 5-7 minutes should be enough, but if you need and extra boost of deep moisture treatment, apply it to your hair and cover hair with a plastic cap for 30 minutes while you take a bath and get a double dose of TLC for both your hair and your body.
Reducing Washing Frequency
Shampoo is supposed to cleanse your scalp and remove excess oil and dirt from it. But when you wash your hair too much, the shampoo starts to strip away the natural oils from your scalp, plus causes unnecessary wear and tear on your hair. Not only that, but hair is most fragile when it’s wet, so using gentle and hydrating shampoo like the Raw Shea Butter Moisture Retention Shampoo is helpful as well. And make sure you’re always following your shampoo with a good conditioner. The Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner is a really good one because it helps to replenish, and strengthen hair to prevent breakage and damage, plus you have the option of washing it out or even leaving it in if you need a boost of moisture.
Put the Hot Tools Away
Heat in general is bad for your hair as it opens up your cuticles and dries up any moisture. Using your blow dryer can cause excess damage for your hair. I’d highly recommending getting a microfiber towel to dry your hair. It will absorb more water, more thoroughly, and more gently than conventional cotton terry towel, and allow your to let your hair air dry when you can. If you really can’t wait for your hair to air dry, at least to make sure to always blow dry your hair on low heat. This will help reduce excess heat damage.
And while you’re trying to restore your hair, skip the curling/straightening iron as well. When concentrated heat is applied to your hair, it becomes dry, damaged, and brittle. Reducing frequency of hot tool use can help a lot in your hair recovery.
Reduce Brushing Frequency
Be mindful of your hair brushing habits as well. Brushing your hair too much will cause more friction than it can take. Brushes can snag at knots and cause breakage, as well as split ends. I find using a detangling hair product really helps. The Raw Shea Butter Moisturizing Detangler is one of my favorites and allows for the perfect slip to help release knots and tangles, while minimizing breakage from combing.
Also be mindful of the brush you’re using as well, cheap brushes cause a lot of damage as they get caught in your hair more easily. I find using a boar bristle brush with natural bristles to be much gentler than plastic brushes, especially ones with the plastic balls on the teeth which which may catch while you’re brushing.
Body Health Leads to Hair Health
Maintaining good overall health can help damaged hair get healthy along with the rest of your being. As with your entire body, your hair is affected by what you eat and drink. So make sure you get your daily intake of water, vitamins and essential nutrients. A diet rich in lean meats and other proteins, vegetables, fruits and low-fat dairy help keeps hair happy.
Omega-3 fatty acids are good for hair and skin and can be found in salmon, walnuts and flaxseed. Fruits and vegetables such as spinach, kale, carrots and avocados also target hair health. Supplements can help fill in the gaps for a less-than-perfect diet and get your damaged hair onto the road to recovery. You can even try taking prenatal supplements to promote healthy hair growth.
About Shea Moisture
Shea Moisture is a natural hair care and body care company with a high standard of ethics and beliefs that I really admire. Not only do they create organic and sustainably-produced products, they have a promise of safe and uncompromising beauty that doesn’t tests on animals, and are free of harmful ingredients like parabens, phthalates, mineral oils, DEA, formaldehyde, propylene, and petroleum.
I also admire their commitment to give back to the community of commerce for women. Shea Moisture is proudly founded and led by women, and gives back 10% of SheaMoisture Community Commerce sales to women-led businesses, to support communities that supply ingredients for our products, or to support The Sofi Tucker Foundation.
And of course, they have amazing hair care and body care products. After the first use of my Shea Moisture products I could already feel the difference in my hair. They smell fabulous and leave my hair feeling the same way. They’ve made a remarkable improvement to the quality and texture of my hair, and I’d highly recommend them to anyone who needs some hair TLC. Best of all they’re all very affordably priced, under the $15 price range and you can find them conveniently at Walmart in-store!
What do you think?