If you’ve over-colored or over-processed your hair the chances are it’s taken its toll. Sometimes it can take years of using chemical color and straightening before the effects become visible but once hair starts to dry out, split and break it’s difficult to get it back on track and if you don’t take steps to repair it, your hair will get worse.
Most young women start off with plenty of good quality hair but as time goes on, the hair’s quality deteriorates and life stages such as pregnancy and later on menopause has a big impact on the amount of hair you might have and its quality. Women start to color and chemically treat hair from late teens and at this point in time, hair is generally robust and strong however, continued coloring and chemicals break hair down little by little especially if hair isn’t cared for properly.
Later on, with pregnancy, the influx of hormones gives hair plenty of lustre, bounce and fullness especially because hair stops falling out around week 16 of pregnancy. Of course, around 3 months post pregnancy the excess hair begins to shed and sometimes more hair than usual will fall. Menopause is another time of life when hair can lose its glory.
So, if you’ve been thinking that your crowning glory doesn’t look so hot at the moment, it’s time to take steps to restore your damaged locks back to glossy, silky and healthy hair and you can do it!
Vitamins
Buy a good quality hair growth vitamin, there are plenty available and some of these target hair specifically whereas others target hair, skin and nails. These vitamins have all the nutrients inside them to encourage healthy hair growth including iron, zinc and a combination of essential minerals.
Food
Eat a good, varied diet including plenty of protein and green leafy vegetables. Vitamin C is important for hair, skin and nails so include lots of colorful fruit in your weekly shopping. It’s a long process, but with time it will help restore damaged hair from within.
Trimming
Get your hair trimmed every 6 to 8 weeks. If you have particularly bad damage, you would be best advised to cut your hair shorter if you can bear it and be extra careful going forward with your hair-care regime to get it back on track to good health.
Hair Products
Use professional hair styling products; so a quality shampoo, conditioner and treatment. Only use the right product according to your hair type and if your hair is chemically treated or colored find a brand which won’t cause further damage, rather one that is gentle. It’s a good idea to seek out sulphate free hair-care, because sulphate build-up in the scalp area can lead to irritation and blocked hair follicles.
Spray
Always use a heat protecting spray before styling to lessen the stress hair undergoes during blow drying or other heated tool use.
Over-heating
Try not to over-heat your hair, if you do use straighteners, curling wands or tongs, minimize how often you use them. Even if you reduce your use by one day a week this will help reduce damage.
Hair-styling Tools
Check your styling tools. If they are old, buy new because today’s technology is very advanced and there are lots of excellent products on the market, for example, ceramic, tourmaline and titanium coated straighteners. These finishes prevent hot spots which burn hair and lock in moisture so won’t dry out your hair, leaving it better hydrated.
Styling
Try out different hairstyles without using heated styling tools, for example, braids, pin-curls or even just slicking hair into a ponytail. Every now and then it’s far better for hair to be naturally styled!
Weekend Treatment
Use a weekly treatment and leave it on your hair for as long as you can – if you want to, sleep in a conditioning treatment and rinse out in the morning. This will help to restore damaged hair by replenishing any lost moisture and your hair will be super smooth.
Coloring
If you color your hair, switch to an organic brand without so many harsh chemicals – this will help your hair to recover. If you can bear it – why not revert to your natural color or just use a vegetable color which washes out over a month to six weeks.
Katie Masters inspires busy women to achieve great salon hair styling at home every day, by sharing her own findings about latest hair-styling tools. She writes about all things hair at hotstylers.co.uk.