Today, we’re sharing with you the ultimate guide to maintain healthy locks and the wackiest remedies for a great hair care routine. Understanding better the hair structure, its behaviour and the best hair care practices, you can give you locks a little extra love and avoid damages.
But how does the hair get damaged?
Your grooming habits, excessive chemical treatments (bleaches, dyes, straighteners) and sun exposure can determine changes in your hair texture like the removal of cuticle layers, resulting in fiber fracture and hair breakage. Genetics plays a key role as well, but pollution, weather and diet are also critical to maintaining your hair’s glory. You can prevent or restore the cuticle damage by reducing friction, using better hair cosmetics or improving its health from within, adopting better nutritional habits.
The strength of your hair refers to its capacity of growing healthy in length and diameter, having an intact cuticle and cortex and it depends on several factors: your hair’s density, its diameter and length, the resistance it has to breakage (without split ends), how easy it is to comb (no tangles), how healthy the hair follicle is, the integrity of the cuticle layers and the cortex.
A healthy hair is long, shiny, full, soft with no split ends, easy to comb. A weak hair, on the other hand, is frizzed, dull, tangled and difficult to comb, rough, having irregular length and low density on the scalp.
To get from a weak hair to a healthy hair and scalp we have to do the following:
- Live whole and eat well
Nourishing our body from inside, on a cellular level, offering it all the nutrients it needs to help our hair grow stronger and healthier is the foundation of having beautiful hair locks.
Considering hair is mostly made up of protein, if our body won’t get enough vitamins, minerals, protein and healthy fats, it will use all these nutrients for the vital organs keeping them healthy, not the hair.
This is why it is very important to introduce enough nutrient dense food in our diet to feed every cell. Start with at least 45 grams of protein daily. The best protein sources are: lean meat, fish, eggs, beans and low-fat dairies.
Zinc deficiency can damage the hair as well, so add walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, cashews and almonds in your meals to increase the zinc absorption.
Enhance your diet with more leafy greens, veggies and fruits to restore your hair’s elasticity and glow and stimulate your hair follicles to grow with Omega-3 fatty acids from salmon, herring, flax seeds, yoghurt or cottage cheese.
A poor diet can cause dandruff, bald spots or brittle hair. A healthy look starts from inside, so eating well and supporting our well-being is the best tip for a healthy hair.
- Take supplemental vitamins
Sometimes, the fast pace of our modern lifestyle makes our meals also to be fast. Not having time to slow down and eat healthy can impact our lives, determining disease and afflictions. This is why, some supplemental vitamins can help our body with premium support, restoring its health and complementing your beauty routine.
Collagen formulas, in particular play a fundamental role in cellular regeneration, promoting a stronger healthier hair and enhancing its shine from within.
Acting as a strong antioxidant, collagen is fighting the damage free radicals that are breaking the hair follicles, giving it strength, elasticity and flexibility.
So, if you find a natural collagen supplement, made from sustainable sources of organic superfoods, with maximum bioavailability and packed with all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and all the nutrients your body needs to enhance the health of your hair, add it to your self-care routine.
We are recommending our vegan formula, Youth Fountain, since its 100% Natural, Plant-Based, Gluten Free, and restores your youth working from inside, combating the signs of ageing, holding together the bones and muscles, providing structure for joints, tendons, protecting your organs and improving the youthful glowing look of your skin, hair and nails.
- Wash your hair only when needed
Washing your hair too often (more than 3-4 times a week) will not allow the natural oils to nourish your scalp, making hair brittle and prone to breaking. Also, it is very important to choose the right shampoo that matches your hair type and the problems it can have from being either too dry or too oily. Even if they are safe products, shampoos can determine the apparition of dermatitis, so be careful when you choose yours.
Preventing the hair from damage, shampoos are scalp cleaners this is why it is very important to apply them on each region on your head, under the hair. If you have gentle hair, be careful to reduce fiber friction and to avoid hair tangling. Remember that you need to rub your scalp with shampoo from the front to the back and gently towel dry it, after a full rinse of the shampoo.
You can also use a conditioner to lubricate and seal cuticles and reduce combing force.
- Get condition-specific
If you want to decrease friction, minimize frizz, de-tangle your hair and keep it manageable, soft and shiny, improving in the same time its combability, you need to use conditioning as well.
Choose a conditioner that contains silicone or other anti-static lubricating substances to neutralize the negative electrical charge of the hair fiber.
Use a comb to make sure you’ll distribute it on the entire hair length and leave it on your hair for about three minutes before rinsing.
Conditioner is great especially if you are using an anti-dandruff shampoo, since its high cleansing properties will remove the surface oils and increase the hair’s chargeability.
- Finish your shower with a cold rinse
It is known that cold water has the ability to close the hair cuticle and that helps sealing your hair and prevent it from damage.
- Mineral and vegetable oils
Applying oils on your hair on a regular basis is very important if you want to protect its follicles because it prevents the hair breakage.
Reducing the water that the hair absorbs, oils enhance lubrication and prevent the aggressive chemical substances to penetrate into the follicle. Argan oil is very popular for hair treatments, so add it to your hair care routine if you want to keep your hair moisturised.
- Avoid Heat
Thermal hair treatments, blow dryers or heat styling tools cause hair damage caused by the heat excess. So, even if the hair seems easy to comb after a thermal treatment, after you will wash it, removing the lipids these treatments produce, your hair will dry out.
Try to use less often these kinds of styling treatment and allow your hair to dry naturally whenever is possible or if you decide to use a hair dryer, maintain 15 cm distance from your hair and use continuous motion to cause less damage.
- Avoid permanent hair dyes
Depending on their capacity to stay permanent on your hair, there are different types of dyes. The washable ones (the demi-permanent dyes) have a pH that opens the cuticle surface of your hair.
The permanent ones, that are far superior for lightening or bleaching the hair, covering even the gray or white hairs contain ammonia and determine an oxidation reaction to allow the pigments get inside your hair.
Both of them are removing the natural cuticle lipid that determine cuticle damage, but the permanent ones are more invasive. Bleaching for example makes hair easier to be penetrated by conditioners or dyes but it can also lead to scale lifting and serious hair damage.
- Reduce the hair straightening procedures
As we established before, any chemically treated hair is prone to breakage so the use of hair straighteners is a delicate procedure that can make the hair susceptible to friction, lowering its resistance and strength.
Called chemical relaxers, these treatments are highly alkaline and they allow the alkaline agent enter the hair follicle, opening the cuticle scales and leading to hair breakage.
This is why light shades made with permanent dyes are completely incompatible with these treatments. The Brazilian Keratin Treatment, on the other hand is very compatible with dyed hair and it can offer you a natural, shiny look that chemical straighteners can’t.
- Protect your hair from UV damage
Even if Vitamin D can induce hair growth, being essential in creating the new hair follicles, you need to protect your hair and your scalp from the UV damage.
- Less Stress
Stress leads to hair loss and can even slow down the growth process, so practising yoga or finding other ways to lower your stress level can maximize your hair health.
- Cut it out
All these factors we talked about, from the diet you have, to the harsh shampoos or styling products you use, can contribute to a poor health hair so sometimes, the best solution is to cut it out.
Get rid of the split ends and help your hair grow to better lengths, trimming it every 8 to 12 weeks.
You will not only achieve a fresh look but will also boost its growth, obtaining a thicker full look and preventing the appearance of dreaded dead hairballs.
Use all these tips and we promise you will achieve a glossy, strong hair, in tip top shape, the healthy hair you've always dreamed of.
