Well, many people believe that the easiest way to make their hair look stunning is buying a good shampoo and an equally good conditioner. And some people see ‘good’ as ‘expensive, luxurious, popular.’

The truth is, the looks of hair is determined by its condition, and there more factors to influence it than hair care products only. Do you know how do celebrities keep their hair healthy? Are you able to gift your strands with shine, smoothness and volume than many might envy? If not, than you must go on reading this post.

The mission statement of this entry is:

YOUR HAIR IS THE REFLECTION OF YOUR HEALTH

I used to think that I could have beautiful, healthy and strong hair no matter how I felt or what state my health currently was. Well, I was wrong. There are many factors that influence the condition of hair: not only the cosmetics applied play a huge role here, but also food that we consume daily, stress, hormones and various diseases. Everything matters because hair is an integral part of our body that is affected by all ‘problems’ that our organism has to face. In short, when we are sick, so is our hair.

About Hair – A Brief Summary

In order to take a good care of our hair and expose it to matching beauty treatments, we must be aware of the elementary knowledge concerning its structure. So…

Hair is made up of a bulb and a shaft, the former residing in skin, the latter growing from scalp. The part that we can see is a dead part of hair. We can get our hair cut and we don’t feel pain because there are no nerves running along the shaft. What has nerves though is the part located in skin – the hair bulb. That’s why pulling out of hair is rather painful.

It’s worth realizing that hair shaft is made up of keratinized cells and it doesn’t have any self-regenerating abilities. Therefore, each damage done to hair is permanent. Going further, split ends must be cut because there is nothing that might scale the hair parts together.

Having this in mind it becomes obvious that effective hair care is possible only when we focus on the scalp and the rooted hair bulbs – they are responsible for the way hair looks as well as for its growth. If hair bulbs are weak, then hair will fall out excessively and get thinner. Keep this in mind the next time you finish your hair care treatment by applying a conditioner from mid-lengths down.

Recipe for Beautiful Hair: Customized Care

The key to making hair truly stunning and strong is the right care. What does it mean? Technically, it means that we have to do our best to supply hair with everything that it may lack, and this is: proteins, emollients and humectants (in short PEH).

Here are three easy steps that will help you expose your hair to the right care:

1. Define how porous your hair is, which in other words equals the state in which your hair is – it can be dry and damaged (highly porous), unruly, weak and frizzy (medium porosity) or hard-to-style and heavy (low porosity).
2. Find out what your hair lacks and recognize the problem – once you learn what your hair needs, it will become significantly easier for you to expose the strands to the right beauty treatments that will bring back its lost beauty.
3. Match the beauty treatments to your hair needs – play with hair care, mix, combine and select the products so as to create the ultimate set dedicated and customized to your hair exclusively.

Shampoo and Conditioner Aren’t Enough!

When thinking about hair care, most people automatically reach for a shampoo and conditioner. This is a good practice, yet these aren’t the only hair care products that should be used to boost hair appearance.

Below you will find a list of the cosmetics that should be introduced to your daily hair care routine if you want to enjoy stunning hair!

HAIR SHAMPOO

Yes, this is the basic stuff when it comes to hair care products. Shampoo’s task is to remove impurities and excess of sebum from hair and scalp. Basically, it can also condition hair, ease styling and take care of it. The most important thing though is to choose the right shampoo and – if I were to give you my advice on that – use shampoos that are free from SLS, SLES and sulfates. Reach for shampoos containing plant extracts and vitamins.

HAIR CONDITIONER

Even the best hair shampoo won’t replace a hair conditioner. It’s its mission to condition hair, replenish the strands with water, leave the wisps smooth and soft. A decent hair conditioner should be applied after every hair shampooing to prevent tangling and facilitate running comb through hair – basically, this is why a hair conditioner was made for.

HAIR MASK

If you care for regenerating hair from the inside, you should apply a hair mask at least once a week. Even the best hair conditioner isn’t powerful enough to reanimate the strands if they are severely damaged because it’s action is superficial. A hair mask instead is able to penetrate deeply and repair inner hair structure which translates into improved hair appearance. Obviously, there are numerous hair masks to choose and pick from: hair masks with humectant for dehydrated hair (with glycerin, urea, honey, aloe, hyaluronic acid) or hair masks with protein for damaged hair (with silk, wheat, soy, milk or keratin). NOTE: Don’t apply a hair mask to the scalp!

HAIR and SCALP OILS

Natural oil can be rubbed into scalp and applied to the entire hair length, or to the hair ends only – you have full discretion on this. Everyone can find something for themselves among over 100 natural beauty oils, especially when you realize that each type of oil displays other set of properties. Basically, the oils can be combined to create your own customized blends. My advice: choose beauty oils that are certified, 100% organic, cold-pressed and unrefined since they are simply the best. My favorite natural oils to perform hair oil treatment with are: jojoba oil, almond oil and castor oil combined together. I apply such blend to my hair and massage it into the scalp. Then I let it sit for either 1-2 hours or overnight, providing that I plan to wash my hair in the morning.

SCALP CONDITIONER

It’s worth taking care of scalp because this is where strong hair bulbs come from. Apart from natural oils, you can also turn to scalp lotions – they can be bought in any drug store but, of course, you can make some at home too. I personally like the second option more because the ready made cosmetics frequently contain alcohol that might irritate sensitive scalp. Therefore, my fav scalp conditioners are made from nettle and horsetail. I also like the way linseed gel affects strands.

SCALP SCRUB

And finally, the most important, yet often skipped treatment, which is… precise scalp cleansing. It’s typical for the follicle outlets to be clogged with various impurities, cosmetic residues, sebum and dead epidermal cells that happen to be really hard to remove with a shampoo only. Therefore, I’d wholeheartedly encourage you to apply scalp scrub weekly – basically, this can be a regular shampoo combined with either sugar or salt grains. However, I always go for specialistic scalp scrubs which are products containing enzymes and gentle acids. There are no problems with rinsing the grains from the hair once the massage and cleansing is done.

And this is, my dear Readers, the recipe for beautiful hair!