a girl's guide to hair care and repair

About a week ago my sister asked how I keep the ends of my hair from breaking off. While I'm far from an expert, hair health is extremely important to me so I thought I'd share my not so secret hair tips and tricks with you. A few years ago I found myself in the boat my sister is currently in, with ends so broken and brittle the last several inches of my hair looked sheer. I was in the process of trying to grow it long, but that wasn't happening. It would get to a certain length and promptly stop due to all of the breakage. Something needed to change. I stopped experimenting with my color and started searching for ways to reverse some of the damage already done and prevent it in the future. These tips and tricks if you will are all super simple things I wish I had known and done earlier.

One: Get a wide tooth comb.
Making sure my hair didn't break off became my number one haircare priority, so I went back to the old way of doing things. Growing up I remember being instructed on how to handle my wet hair. Never drag a brush through it, use a wide toothed comb, with patience, starting with the ends and working your way up. I had been dragging a regular old brush through my hair. For years. Out of laziness. It did me no favors. Instead, it was causing a lot of breakage and I feel stupid admitting this now. Getting a good wide tooth comb changed everything. I ordered this one from Birchbox,  almost immediately noticed a change, and felt like an even bigger idiot.

Two: Take your vitamins.

Biotin and Vitamin B became my best vitamin friends. Both should help speed up the growth process as well improve the overall health of your hair. You won't see the results overnight, but in my personal experience they work well enough that I need to stop taking them once the summer rolls around as I am way too lazy to shave my legs every day.

Three: Drink a lot of water.

Everyone is said to require different amounts of water depending on your height, weight, activity level, the weather outside, etcetera, etcetera. I have been religious about drinking at least eight glasses of water a day for the last five years and have noticed that I get a bit cranky and run down feeling on days I don't have enough. It's amazing when you realize those mid afternoon headaches are directly related to your level of hydration. I definitely notice it a lot more these days. Aside from having to pee ten minutes after leaving my apartment, my hair has gotten annoyingly shiny. Which brings me to...

Four: Oil.

Over the years, I feel like I've tried just about every kind of hair oil out there and the bottom line is they really do help. My current favorite is Shu Uemera's Essence Absolue. It is a camellia oil, smells heavenly, and does not contain any silicone so it actually absorbs into your hair instead of just sitting on top of it. As I told my sister, it's really expensive but magical. Regardless of which one you choose, they do a fantastic job at preventing split ends and keeping the lengths and ends hydrated. I also really like Organix Renewing Moroccan Argan Oil.

Five: Deep conditioning treatments.

So basically, it really boils down to hydration, doesn't it? I like to use deep conditioners and hair masks a couple times a week. Living Proof's Restore mask is great for rebuilding, it focuses on restoring dry and damaged hair and played a major role in my life back when I was trying my best to un-fry my hair. I'm also a big fan of Organix Renewing Moroccan Oil Intensive Moisturizing Treatment and most recently have been addicted to Acure's Moisturizing Root Repair Argan Stem Cell + Mint Conditioning Mask, which Kate turned me on to. (Added bonus, it's all organic! How rare is a good for you hair product that actually works?) And finally, when it comes to leave in conditioners you can't beat It's a 10 Leave-In Conditioner Plus Keratin. I'm sure by now you've heard too many good things about it. They're probably all true. Never have I ever encountered a product that instantly eliminates frizz, and on top of that, it's really light so you can spray it on without worrying if it's going to make your clean hair greasy, a major concern of people who now have bangs.

That's pretty much it. It takes a lot of time and effort, but the end results of healthy hair are certainly worth it. And now I'll leave you with two more tips I didn't know where to put...

Other tips:

Never sleep with your hair up in a hair tie if you can avoid it.

Don't blow dry on high heat.

Happy Wednesday!