Monday, April 26, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Effective Tips for Healthy Hair
Let's face it. Beauty is everywhere. Everyone likes to stay beautiful and maintain their beauty for the long term. The maintenance of beauty is required for hair because hair is an integral and the most impressive part of a person's overall beauty, regardless of age.
Below are some useful tips for healthy and shinny hair you will be proud of for the long term.
Even if you take the best possible care of your hair, your hair still goes through the natural aging process which can still affect the growing cycle of your hair. It's just like your body. You can't do at 35 what you could do at 25 and so on and so forth.
6. Trim Your Hair. Some people differ on the opinion of trimming your hair. Some suggest every six weeks. I trim my hair every 3 months as needed. I use a common sense approach. If I've been wearing a protective style (wigs, braids, buns) or anything that kept my ends protected, I have noticed that it requires less trimming. In other words, the more the ends are exposed, the more damaged they become so the more trimming may be required. Also, be careful of letting "scissor happy" stylist cut your hair. Make sure you discuss your hair trimming with a new stylist.
Below are some useful tips for healthy and shinny hair you will be proud of for the long term.
Unfortunately, far too many people are not aware of the fact that although hair is extraordinarily resilient, once hair emerges from your scalp it has no mechanism for renewing itself. Technically hair is dead protein. The average person has around 100,000 strands of hair on their head and the average rate of growth is 1/2 of an inch per month. That means that by the time your hair grows to shoulder length, it is approximately 2 years old. (There is evidence that hair grows faster with vitamins) but still the same rule applies.
Two years old! Think about it. That is a long time for your hair to be subjected to the elements of life, not including internal (lack of vitamins and proper nutrition). I'm talking about washing, drying, hot combing and curling, pressing, and any chemical altercations. Then, if you want to go deeper you have stress which can also cause hair problems. Just imagine what any piece of fine fabric would look like after 2 years of daily wear and tear, ironing, washing, starches, oil spills, experiments, dying, color, bleach! Ouch! You get the picture?
Even if you take the best possible care of your hair, your hair still goes through the natural aging process which can still affect the growing cycle of your hair. It's just like your body. You can't do at 35 what you could do at 25 and so on and so forth.
Vitamins. The right vitamins has a tremendouss impact on the effective growth of your hair, so the proper vitamins and a good diet is essential to healthy, long or illustrious hair growth.
Since hair is protein, a diet too low in protein can cause some thinning in hair or a retardation in growth. Conversely, if you eat a diet rich in protein you will experience improved hair growth.
Some good food sources for protein include fish (salmon is ideal), eggs, yogurt, beans and lentils. Some experts site soy protein as also being good for hair growth. Make sure you like soy products and if so, add them to your program.
Here are the 7 Effective Tips for Healthy Hair
1. Cleanliness - You must wash your hair at least 1 time a week (for African American Hair unless you are co-washing) or at least every 2 days for other hair. This will not harm your hair as long as you make sure you are using a high quality shampoo. Do not skimp on the shampoo. Use shampoos that do not contain sulphur. Sulphur strips your hair of moisture.
You should use shampoo and conditioner separately because they have two different functions.
However, there are times when co-washing is good for African American hair. (See below for definition of co-washing).
Always change your shampoo and conditioners every 60 to 90 days as to avoid resistance to your products and greatly improve the efficacy of the hair. This also reduces the chances of a buildup occurring - that is the deposition of the chemicals from your shampoo on your hair shaft after regular and continuous use of a shampoo. As a result, you will notice your hair has the beautiful shine and bounce you've always heard of.
2. Do a deep glycerin hair massage - This is really good. Saturate your hair with glycerin, then wrap with a steaming towel (you can place a moist towel in the microwave (watch the heat) for about 2 minutes (test your microwave and make sure it is not too hot for your head). This will ensure that the glycerin goes deep down into the roots of the hair and help condition both the follicles and the shaft.
3. Avoid blow drying your hair as much as possible. The heat leads to the weakening of the roots. Sorry to say this but blow dryers are your hairs nightmare. If your hair could talk, it would scream "Yikes run for the border" every time it saw a blow dryer. If you have a hair cut/style that does require blow drying, try to at least let it air dry 1/2 way and then blow dry the rest. This will reduce the duration that you need to have the forceful heat on your tresses.
4. Never Brush Your Hair When It Is Wet! I emphasize NEVER! This leads you down a one way street called "Breakage Ave". Use a wide tooth comb to detangle your hair.
5. Purchase a Wide Tooth Comb. This has come to be my friend. If you only have so many strands of hair on your head, why don't you go through more care to keep them there? When you use a comb that is too "tight toothed" you take hair off your head unnecessarily with those little combs. Leave them for the men with the comb overs. (Smile). Why do you think dreds grow so long? Because people are not combing their hair out every single day with those too little combs.
6. Trim Your Hair. Some people differ on the opinion of trimming your hair. Some suggest every six weeks. I trim my hair every 3 months as needed. I use a common sense approach. If I've been wearing a protective style (wigs, braids, buns) or anything that kept my ends protected, I have noticed that it requires less trimming. In other words, the more the ends are exposed, the more damaged they become so the more trimming may be required. Also, be careful of letting "scissor happy" stylist cut your hair. Make sure you discuss your hair trimming with a new stylist.
7. Maintain a balanced diet. Let's face it, no matter how many post you read on eating right, people love food and they are going to eat whatever they want to eat. I have found a way to balance my diet and still eat pretty much what I want to. I take an all natural liquid vitamin with 178 ingredients in it so it covers the full spectrum of what I need for my hair, skin and diet. You can get a bottle of that Pro Vitamin Complete here. http://www.proimagenutrition.com/36207//products/pvc.htm
Although this vitamin has everything that I need in a 1 oz serving. I still take the opportunity to eat extra fruit and veggies when I can. The operative word here is conscious decisions. If you have to have a hamburger, load it up with veggies. My hamburger looks more like a veggie burger with a piece of beef instead of vice versa. Try it. It is the small changes that over time make the big difference.
Definitions:
Co-Washing - Co-washing your hair means to use conditioner instead of shampoo to wash your hair. All conditioners have some detergent in them anyway so your hair still gets clean so don't worry that skipping the shampoo step will leave your hair dirty _ Read other posts on blog re: co-washing.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Who We Are
The Healthy Hair Society is a group of Professionals and Individuals who have decided to take the health of our hair into our own hands. We consist primarily of hair care professionals, aestheticians, massage therapist and non professionals who have a general interest in promoting the well being of healthy hair from the inside - out through education and supplementation (vitamin).
Become an Associate member of the Healthy Hair Society and ask your Stylist about becoming a Professional member of the Healthy Hair Society. You can feel safe that you are getting quality hair and skin care wherever you see our label (above) displayed.
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