How to get healthy hair in 3 easy steps
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When you think of beautiful healthy hair you probably imagine long, shiny, bouncy hair. You are probably picturing the wind blowing these beautiful set of locks ever so gently. Did you actually feel a breeze? I totally did!
Beautiful hair takes time to achieve, no one product is going to take your dry hair into bouncy shiny hair in one use. Although applying hair masks, leave-in conditioners, and heat protectants are super important to have healthy hair, there is more AND less you can do. Let me explain the 3 easiest ways to have healthy hair.
Comb vs brush
Actually, before you start reading, I do want to make some announcements. I will be using “knot” and “tangle” interchangeably. I will also use comb and brush interchangeably. But first, I will quickly describe the difference between the brush and comb for educational purposes.
A comb (preferably a wide-tooth comb) is used to detangle your hair, it’s purpose is not to style your hair. A brush, or more specifically a paddle brush, can be used for styling your hair as well as detangling it. One last thing I want to note is that every hair type is different, and what works for me may not work for you and your hair type, you may need to modify.
How to brush your hair to have healthy hair
My guess is that you probably start combing your hair from the root and drag each tangle all the way down until it reaches your ends to finally brush the knots out?
You probably learned how to comb your hair from a family member like your mom, or sister and even saw other people doing just that on tv as I did, so you never questioned it. Guess what! Come on guess. Guess! Okay, okay I’ll calm down.
Well, that’s not how you do it as you might have guessed at this point, especially if you have long hair. The correct way to brush your hair properly is to start from the tips of your hair and work yourself up according to stylist. No, I do not mean brush your hair in an upward motion, which will cause a whole lot more tangles.
What I mean is to start at the bottom of your hair, just above the tips and comb out the tangles. Then move up a few inches to about the middle of your hair and comb that out. Lastly, finish off combing your hair from your roots all the way down.
It may seem totally backward and counterproductive, but trust me, it’s less damaging to your hair. It may also solve the question “why is my hair breaking” especially if you try to stay away from heating tools.
what is so wrong with the way I’ve been combing my hair?
Let’s say you have knots and tangles all throughout your hair. If you start combing your hair from root to end, then you are bringing each knot down, uniting the knots below it.
When you finally reach the ends of your hair, your hair is a complete bird nest since all the knots have cinched together. That to me screams frustration, and it will probably result in hair being pulled out, and some hair cutting.
My advice is to not be outside when this happens as birds might confuse it as a nest, ha! As a result, you will spend more time combing it out and therefore more chance of damage since you will be tearing a few hairs out and causing a few split ends, even if you are super careful.
If you start at the tips of your hair you are just focused on the knots that are in that section. This allows you to remain calm while detangling. Once it’s nice and detangled go up higher and comb down once again.
Repeat that step until you can run your fingers through your hair. It is less painful, and better for your hair since you are gentler with each knot.
Best hair ties to prevent damage
Even if you love having your hair down, loose, and free, you probably put it up once in a while.
Another guess I would like to take is that you probably use those basic black elastic hair ties to put your hair up. That was me all the time.
I didn’t think a hair tie could cause so much damage. Okay, well using a hair tie isn’t going to magically destroy your hair. That’s NOT what I am saying.
Why are elastic hair ties bad for your hair?
Let me go back to when I realized the black elastic hair ties were bad for my hair. Queue flashback music. I had bought these scrunchies from Burlington a while back because I thought they were super cute and super comfortable but only used them every once in a while. Unlike now which I use them all the time.
So one day I wanted to put my hair up in a bun and grabbed the nearest hair tie I could find. It just happened to be the basic elastic black hair tie. When it came time to take it out, I pulled the hair tie just like I always did, but this time it HURT!
I was so used to wearing a scrunchie that I had forgotten the pull and sometimes discomfort of taking off a hair tie. I also noticed how much tighter my scalp felt with the elastic hair ties. Especially as I was wrapping and twisting the hair tie around to make my pony.
It felt much harsher and rougher on my hair. I didn’t notice how painful the elastic hair ties could be until I switched up my hair tying game.
If you take a look at your elastic hair ties, you will probably find at least a couple with hair wrapped around it. That is a huge no-no.
The thing that is supposed to keep the hair out of your face is taking your hair out of your scalp! Umm, no thanks! Or even better is when your hair has wrapped around the hair tie and the only solution is to pull your hairs out, OUCH!
Ok, let’s forget about the pain for a second, and let’s talk about the crease! If you straighten your hair and put it up just while you brush your teeth and quickly take out the elastic hair tie off, BAM, baby crease is born. I always stare off into space for a moment or two at the disappointment. Time to take out my flat iron out again!
Hair ties to buy
1. Scrunchie
Luckily we do have more than one option for no crease hair ties. The first being a scrunchie. The reason being is that the cloth over the hair tie provides sort of a cushion to your hair. This also leaves your scalp feeling super comfy.
They are also much gentler to your hair because fabric ties are not as stretchy. This prevents you form wrapping your hair as tightly as you would with an elastic hair tie, eliminating a potential headache.
If a scrunchy just sounds too 80’s for you, there are also these silk scrunchies. They are super cute but a little pricier than your typical scrunchies. I have also seen some scrunchies that aren’t as puffed out as your typical 80’s scrunchy, some even come with cute bows!
2. Spiral Hair ties
I also have good things to say about the spiral hair ties. It basically looks like an old school phone cord. It looks like it would tangle your hair worse than those phone cords tangled themselves but it actually doesn’t!
I have used mine almost every day for the past month or so and I am in love. This allows my hair to stay in place without feeling too tight or creating a kink.
It doesn’t hurt when I take out the spiral hair ties, no hairs are pulled out AND it’s super cute! When I first take it out of my hair it is stretched out, but so far it always goes back to its shape. I have also been using the same to see how long I can wear it before it loses its shape.
3. Emi-Jay hair ties
Another fun option to your traditional hair tie would be the Emi-Jay hair ties. They come in all sorts of fun colors which can be more or less noticeable than your scrunchy, depending on the look you are going for.
The Emi-Jay hair ties are meant to be soft and stretchy, which prevents them from leaving a crease in your hair. Since these are made out of cloth like the scrunchy it has pretty much the same benefits.
The healthiest way to dry your hair
We all know that heat causes harm to our hair, which is why you may avoid using certain tools at times. So you probably think that by towel drying your hair and not using a blow dryer you are showing love and care to your hair. Although kinda true, there is more you can do.
Be careful how you towel dry your hair. Do Not rub your hair between the towel vigorously or wrap your hair with it. By doing this you will be drying your hair, but the tough fibers will also be causing damage simultaneously.
Avoid Terry cloth towels for healthy hair
Terry cloth towels absorb too much moisture from your hair. What you are doing when you rub your hair together is causing frizz, tangles, and breakage! In my opinion, this is worse than using heat.
If you want to dry your hair without damaging it, there are a couple of steps you need to do. The first is to wrap your towel around your hair. The second step is to squeeze your hair so the towel soaks the water up. No rubbing, just squeezing.
Do that repeatedly until you are no longer dripping water. Then let it air dry. The longer your hair remains wet, the more your hair will stretch making it prone to breakage, or dry as frizz.
The best way to dry your hair
If you want to go a step further, ditch your towel and grab a hardly worn soft cotton t-shirt and dry your hair with that. Or even better, use a microfiber hair towel which absorbs the water faster and is just much gentler on your hair. Changing your hair towel is a really easy way to start having healthy hair.
Although using a cotton towel to wrap your hair turban style is bad, doing it with a microfiber towel is perfectly ok! This is probably the best way to dry your hair after the shower since it not only dries your hair, but does it without creating frizz!
We all want beautiful shiny, healthy-looking hair, but sometimes adding extra steps to our routine makes us settle for dry and dull hair.
If you simply change what you already do with healthier options you will be rocking beautiful hair without adding extra steps to your haircare.
Let me know if you have any other helpful tips, if you already do what I mentioned above, or if you just started following the tips! I look forward to hearing from you!
Takeaways
1. Brush your hair with a comb or brush starting at the tips. Work your way up little by little to avoid creating one big knot.
2. Hair ties that are more gentle than the elastic hair tie to your hair are Scrunchies, Emi-jay, and spiral hair ties.
3. Don’t use your terry cloth towel to dry your hair by wrapping your hair with it turban style or by rubbing your hair with it. Instead, opt-in for a cotton t-shirt or a microfiber towel.