Hair Repair (2 of 2) Things you wish you knew earlier...

Shampoo/Conditioners

Damaged Hair:  Aveda, Damage Remedy Shampoo and Conditioner, helps repair damage with quinoa protein and is supposed to strengthen/repair hair from the inside out.

For Volume:  Pureology, Pure Volume Shampoo and Conditioner.

Clarifying Shampoo:  Kevin Murphy, Maxi Wash, A detoxifying shampoo.  My close friends highly recommends this and I am going to buy it soon... as soon as my budget recovers from all the Aveda stuff I just bought. 

Note:  I know I have recommended a lot of expensive products.  Products make a big difference in the health of your hair, most likely you will not need to use as much of the expensive stuff either.  If you still don't want to make the investment I am going to give you this tip for looking for a good shampoo...

Tip:  Look at the ingredients on your Shampoo/Conditioner/Products if one of the first ingredients is alcohol when you might not want to buy it.  Ingredients are listed by what the highest content.

Things you wish you knew earlier

1.  Wash your hair twice-  Yes, I have heard this from several hair dressers.  You don't need to use a lot of shampoo either.  The first time your shampoo shouldn't lather much (don't add more shampoo), just wash and rinse.  The second time your shampoo should lather easily.

2.  Don’t wash your hair every day-  Once you read this, you're gonna think I'm crazy or you're going to try and justify your over washing.  I know you are thinking "if I don't wash my hair everyday it gets totally greasy."  Well the reason your hair is totally greasy is because you are washing it so often your body thinks it needs to produce more oil.  Start washing every other day or every three days.  Trust me once your body regulates it will be fine.  Note:  just because you're not washing your hair everyday, doesn't mean you shouldn't bath everyday.  You can still get your hair wet or you can use a shower cap.

3.  Massage Scalp-  My hair dresser was telling me that people should massage their scalps when they wash their hair.  Think about it, your hair dresser massages your scalp at the salon, if you thought it was just a perk, like me, then we were both wrong.

4.  Don’t Brush Wet Hair- When your hair is wet, it is at its most fragile state and running  a brush over it will cause it to brake easier.  Instead use a comb and be gentle!

5.  Brush/Comb from the Bottom Up-  Start at the bottom and work your way up.  I know you knew this one already... just start doing it okay. :)

6.  When Drying Hair-  You don't need to use the brush the first part of when you dry your hair.  You can either let it air dry or you can use a blow dryer either way use your fingers and start with a paddle brush/round brush or comb when it is 50-60% dry.

7.  Blast Cold Air on Hair, When You are Done with the Blow Dryer-  When you use the cold setting it closes the hair shaft so your hair will most likely keep its style after that point.  If you do this make sure your hair is all the way dry, I don't want you getting bothered with me for your half doing your hair.

Vitamins for your Hair

Biotin-  This is the new "IT" hair growing pill.  I all of my friends in the beauty industry have talked about it, so I am currently trying them out.

Pre Natal-  This is the old "IT" hair growing, nail growing pill.  I've been faithfully taking pre Natal since high school... That's when I found out (after fainting in a cross country race) I was horribly anemic, prenatal vitamins have a high amount of Iron in them.
 

Energen Healthy Hair-  One of my friends and an amazingly fun hair dresser, Caroline Bybee, recommended these to me.   I did 't notice much of a differnce but they could have helped.