Hair Health
Consumers spend billions of dollars on hair care products and salon visits to have beautiful, healthy hair.
Many salon treatments damage your hair, including chemical processing, hair coloring, drying, and heat styling. Chemicals can weaken your hair and cause it to look dull and lifeless. Home remedies help to alleviate these symptoms and keep your hair looking beautiful.
Genetics, nutrition, and other factors influence your hair's health. Hair is made from keratin protein, and growth varies from person to person, usually about 6 inches a year. The hair that grows on the scalp is called terminal hair, and its health and shine must be maintained through good hygiene, regular cleaning and conditioning, a balanced diet, and gentle hair care routines to minimize damage and promote overall hair growth.
In most cases, once your hair is damaged, you must grow it out and start a proper hair care routine on undamaged strands. Bleaching, coloring, perming, straightening, curling, blow drying, up-dos and the many different styling products we add to our hair can impact how the hair looks over time. Often, it's not until we see damage that we realize how hard it can be to keep our hair healthy and looking good.
Regardless of how damaged your hair is today, gentle care will help maintain it until new hair grows in. Be patient and consistent with your hair care routine, and consult with a healthcare provider or dermatologist if you have specific concerns about your hair or scalp health.
Fortunately, there are some simple steps for keeping hair healthy and in good condition.
Home Remedies and Natural Cures for Hair Health
Here are some home remedies and tips to promote hair health:
Cleaning and Maintenance
Washing your hair too much can do more damage than good. Washing your hair daily is unnecessary unless you sweat excessively or your scalp is oily. Usually, washing the hair 2-3 times a week should be enough to keep your hair and scalp clean. Wet combing and drying can stress fragile hair strands, so if your hair is extra damaged, skip the daily lather and give your hair a rest.
Use a mild, sulfate-free shampoo and rinse the lather thoroughly when washing. Use the correct products for your hair type. Follow product manufacturer instructions. Most instructions say to wash twice, but that's unnecessary if you've soaped up completely and covered all your head and hair with lather. Avoid washing and rinsing in hot water. Hot water strips away natural oils and makes your hair dry and brittle. Use lukewarm water instead.
After washing, rinse your hair completely with cool water and add a conditioner to help moisturize and detangle your hair. Focus on covering the ends, where hair is often drier and more damaged. Many people make the mistake of rinsing the conditioner out completely, which negates the purpose of using conditioner. Cover your hair with a small amount of conditioner, and rinse your hair with cool water without removing all of the silky feel under the water. The remaining conditioner will help detangle, strengthen, and make your hair shine. Using cool water to rinse helps seal the hair cuticles, making your hair smoother and shinier.
Trim your hair regularly (every 6-8 weeks) to remove and prevent split ends and keep your hair looking healthy. Stop chemically processing your hair to curl, color, or straighten, and minimize using heat-styling tools like hairdryers, straighteners, and curling irons that can damage hair. Use them sparingly and at lower temperatures when necessary.
Avoid tight hairstyles like tight ponytails or braids that can pull on your hair and scalp. These can cause hair breakage and scalp discomfort.
Healthy Diet and Lifestyle
Not only is a good diet and healthy lifestyle good for our bodies, but it's also good for your hair. Hair is made from protein, so ensure you get a healthy amount in your diet to grow the strongest, healthiest hair possible. Eat a diet rich in vitamins, minerals, and protein for hair health. Foods like fish, nuts, leafy greens, and fruits provide essential nutrients for strong and shiny hair.
You can find vitamin and mineral supplements at the store that support health that you might want to consider. You can find vitamins specifically formulated to help grow thick, healthy hair. Sugarbear hair vitamins are a popular brand to help hair with Zinc, Biotin, collagen, and other essential nutrients.
These vitamins and minerals help grow healthy hair:
- Vitamin A, C, D, E
- B Complex
- Biotin
- Iron
- Zinc
It's essential to avoid excessive intake of alcohol because it dehydrates you, depletes vitamins and minerals, and can make your hair dry and brittle.
Strengthening Egg Mask
Eggs are rich in protein and can strengthen hair. Egg yolk contains biotin, vitamins A and D, and proteins that can help give you shiny, lush, and healthy-looking hair. Egg yolk can also help moisturize brittle hair and scalp.
- Beat raw egg in a bowl.
- Wearing gloves apply to the hair and scalp. Cover hair ends completely.
- Leave on about 20 minutes
- Rinse with cool water
Strengthening Herbal Hair Mask
Comfrey, nettle, and slippery elm are herbs available at health-food stores. These herbs are made into tea and added to the avocado, egg, and banana to condition the hair and add strength and shine.
- 1 avocado
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 banana, mashed
- Infusion (tea) of comfrey, nettle, and slippery elm
Preparation and Use:
Mix all ingredients (a hand-held immersion blender or food processor works well for this) and add the infusion liquid until you reach the desired consistency. Work the mixture into hair, cover with a plastic shower cap or plastic bag, and allow to sit for 20 minutes. Rinse thoroughly with cool water. You can adjust the recipe to make more or less, depending on how much you need for your hair, and you can use this dry hair remedy once or twice a week.
Removing Product Buildup
Conditioners, hair spray, and styling product residue build up over time, weighing hair down and making it look limp and lifeless. It's good to use a product to strip residue from the hair every 6 months to ensure it remains bouncy and full of body. Deep cleaning shampoos like Neutrogena are much lower than neutral on the pH scale, which means they are acidic and good for stripping excess product and oil from the hair. (For this reason, shampooing with these products regularly is not recommended, as they are too harsh for daily use.) You can use a product like Neutrogena when your hair starts looking flat or try a clarifying rinse made with apple cider vinegar.
- Mix 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar with 2 cups water
- Massage on clean hair and scalp.
- Rinse with cool water for hair free of oil and product buildup.
- Condition as usual and rinse
Apple cider vinegar can be used at lower concentrations (1-2 tablespoons of vinegar per cup of water) as a final rinse after shampooing and conditioning to remove buildup, balance pH, and add shine.
Moisturizing Olive or Castor Oil Mask
Olive oil and castor oil is an excellent home remedy for many things, and it works great to boost shine and make hair look lush and healthy. This mask can help restore a natural balance to your hair and leave it shiny, healthy, and beautiful.
- Rub a teaspoon of olive or castor oil onto your hands and distribute it throughout the hair and dry areas of the scalp.
- Cover hair with a shower cap and let sit for 10-15 minutes
- Rinse with warm water and shampoo as usual
Hot Oil Treatments
Everyone who has ever had a hot oil treatment knows how shiny and healthy your hair looks afterward. Rather than going to a salon for them, apply natural oils like almond, avocado, coconut, olive, or argan oils to your hair and scalp with egg yolk to add moisture and promote hair health. Leave the oil on for at least 30 minutes (or overnight) before washing it.
Here's a recipe for a hot oil treatment that's a great natural cure for tired, damaged hair.
- 1 tsp Almond oil
- 1 tsp Avocado oil
- 1 tsp Olive oil
- 1 egg yolk
Mix ingredients. Work into hair, cover with a shower cap or plastic bag, and allow to sit for 30 minutes. Rinse thoroughly in cool water.
