Have Nice and Clean Hair

Everyday we put our hair through a lot of abuse without realizing it. Heat treatments for style, products for hold, hats to combat the heat, and other nonchalant ways of having style can make hair unhealthy overtime. However, adding some extra practices and other treatment to your routines can help you achieve nice and healthy hair.

Steps

Cleaning Your Hair

  1. Select the best shampoo for your hair type. With so many brands and choices, it is easy to be overwhelmed with selecting a shampoo. When it comes to selecting the best shampoo, decide what your hair needs most. If you dye or add color to your hair, select shampoos that will protect your treatment. Also, most shampoos have extra benefits such as volume and shine. Purchasing multiple shampoos for different benefits is a good idea because most shampoos have a long shelve life. [1]
  2. Lather your hair from the root to the tip. Hair is both young and old, with the younger being closest to the scalp and the natural oils. By lathering from the root to the tip, you help move the oils to the oldest, driest parts of the hair. Doing this will help longer hair stay healthy without worries of dried, split ends.
  3. Use a good water temperature for washing your hair. Washing hair boils down to two parts, the lather and the rinse. For the lather, a warm temperature helps ensure the shampoo gets a good lather while rinsing away soap particles. For the final rinse, cool water helps ingredients lock in to your hair.
    • Avoid using really hot temperatures. Too much hot water can damage hair and dry up your scalp.
    • Rinse out all soap. The amount of shampoo you use is up to you, but do not leave soap in your scalp.
  4. Apply conditioner to your hair. Shampoo does only so much for hair. Conditioner helps two fold. It makes hair more manageable, and it helps prevent split ends. Utilize a good conditioner after rinsing out your hair. When showering, leave the conditioner in your hair for a while before rinsing it out, and even then, spend less time rinsing out conditioner than you would shampoo.[2]
    • Figuring out the best conditioner for you can be trial and error. The key to a good conditioner is one that helps you style your hair.
  5. Dry your hair well. After a shower, our hair is at its most vulnerable. Fresh from cleaning, hair can be damaged easily if dried too aggressively. Be sure to damp the scalp and be gentle with the tips. For better drying, try a microfiber towel; it's smoothness and lightweight help ensure gliding through the hair. For another simple trick that is more cost efficient, use a t-shirt. A t-shirt will not have the rough grooves of a towel. The t-shirt can smooth out the hair and prevent the stripping away of essential oils of the scalp, and as an added benefit, it will help prevent frizz.[3]

Keeping your Hair Nice with Style

  1. Brush or comb hair correctly. When hair is long, tangles can take away from whichever style you want. Regular combing and brushing of your hair can help ensure a neat look; however, more often than not, combing and brushing can easily be done incorrectly. To achieve better results, brush your hair when it is dry; doing the opposite can damage your hair and cause unwanted frizz. If you want to get rid of tangles with wet hair, us a wide-tooth comb, for it will separate hair without causing snags or damage.[4]
  2. Maintain a smooth style throughout the day. When it comes to looking good, a nice hairstyle is the go to approach, but keeping that look going from morning to night takes some time, care, and the right products. Pick a style that goes well with your hair type and the occasion, such as more volume, straight, wavy, bouncy curls, or pinned up. Use the correct products according to heat, such as blow drying or flat iron, or non heat, such as rollers and brushes.[5]
    • Hairspray will become one of your best friends. The best kind of hairspray will do more than create stiff hair; it can keep the volume in your hair or make curls keep both their hold and their bounce.
  3. Tame frizzy hair and flyaways. Loose hairs and frizz can be the equivalent of a stain on a nice dress or suit. Even after drying your hair correctly and applying conditioner, heat and daily activity can cause frizz that would take away from your styling. In order to combat loose hairs and static, keep touch-up products in your purse. These on-the-go sprays such as frizz serum are very handy for minor adjusts.[6]
  4. Invest in a satin or silk pillow case. If you style your hair the night before or receive a treatment that you wish to maintain overnight, sleep on a silk or satin pillow case. The friction that occurs between your hair and pillow during sleep will undo your style throughout the night. Moreover, the smoothness of the silk or satin prevents split ends while the material adjusts in the cold and warm weather to keep your hair cool. [7]

Preventing Unhealthy Hair

  1. Combat dandruff. When we see dandruff falling on our shoulder, that is a clear sign that our hair needs help. The dryness of our scalp means our hair follicles are suffocating. This can lead to unnecessary hair loss, split ends, and dry hair. Use a shampoo specifically for dandruff. Most dandruff shampoos can be used around twice a week. Be sure to make using a dandruff shampoo a part of your routine. Waiting for the signs of dandruff and prolonging treatment will only cause damage to your hair.
  2. Trim your hair frequently. We hear about the benefits of trims, but more often then not, we hear a trim helps hair grow. While hair grows at a specific rate given the season, trims prevent us from living with split ends. Split ends mean dry and damaged hair, so visit a stylist once a month to every other month in other to rid yourself of split ends.[8]
  3. Apply oils to your hair. Hair dries up easily from heat and heat treatments, and when the oils from our scalp can replenish our hair, using some oils that mimic our scalps oils is a solid practice that will give hair both shine and health. Try using different types of oil such as jojoba, argan, coconut, olive, or grapeseed. Try applying oils at least once a week. [9]
  4. Eat well. We become what we eat. The fast and unhealthy food we eat seeps through us, and the damage will show in our hair. For healthy hair, we need a healthy diet. Eating foods that have good fats, oils, and vitamins, will create benefits for the skin and hair. Sticking to healthy eating makes having nice and clean hair easier by giving us better hair to manage.[10]

Tips

  • Try to lessen the amount of heat you put on your hair to a minimum, e.g. twice every 2 weeks. It really dries and damages your hair.
  • Work with your hair type. Embrace your curls, and enjoy your straight and wavy hair. Doing so will help help you be you while taking care of your hair. Remember that every hair type is beautiful.

Warnings

  • Don't get obsessed about your hair.
  • Don't burn yourself with the hot hair tools.

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Sources and Citations