Three surprising tips for better hair

You know those girls you see on Instagram who have, what seems like, naturally gorgeous hair? For years, I looked at their hair and serious hair envy. I knew that I had pretty hair, but my hair was still struggling. I even dyed my hair because I truly believed that my natural hair color just didn’t shine.

It turns out, my hair was naturally beautiful, and shiny, it was just being weighed down by the plastic in my hair products. Yup, plastics.

Now, I’m no hippie, but I am astounded by the crap that we put on and in our bodies! Drug store products are chuck-full of chemicals and ingredients that are just plain bad for us! It’s astounding.

My hair journey has taken me to an all-natural, vegan hair care line that has restored the natural beauty of my hair and I love it!

But, beautiful hair is a process. It doesn't change overnight or in one wash. If you want to see the results you're looking for you need to do a couple of things.

Get the right products

This is not a shameless plug. This is a fact! If you want your hair to be at the top of its game, then you have to give it the nourishment it needs. You can’t just keep coating it with plastic to give it the appearance of health. (Seriously, stop using crappy shampoo and conditioner, it’s just so insanely bad for your hair and your health!!!)

Now, no one’s hair is the same, so different things work for different people. However, I promise that if you find quality products that nourish and strengthen your hair, then you, and your hair, will be so much happier!

I swear by this shampoo and this conditioner. If you want to find some amazing hair products that will restore your hair’s health, go take my hair quiz!

Be patient

If you are switching from products that have sulfates, silicones, parabeans or other hair-suffocating ingredients, then it may take a while for your hair to adjust.

It usually takes three to six months for your hair to completely transform. During this time your hair is trying to grow new, healthier strands. It’s removing build-up from years of bad products. Basically, it’s going through a huge transformation! You can’t expect perfect, beautiful hair right away. Give your hair time to transform!

During my hair transformation, my hair was super greasy. I usually wash once a week and I was up to three washes a week for a while. However, this was how my hair adjusted to not being suffocated! I used to have more wax on my hair, so, it took more time for my hair to absorb the oil through the wax. Once the wax was gone, my hair was absorbing the oil faster. Once my hair adjusted the grease evened out and I was able to go back to one wash a week.

Eventually your hair, like mine, will adjust to being healthy and it will be amazing. It’s totally worth a few weeks or months of extra washes to get to this point!

Take some before and after photos

It’s so easy to miss the changes your hair makes if you just depend on looking in the mirror every day. You don’t notice the small changes to your hair unless you can look and see how what you hair looked like before your hair journey.

If you need some proof, just check out my before and after!

Before

I had died my hair red so that it would shine. Obviously, it didn’t work.

I had some serious flyaways.

My hair looked good curled, but it was too much to manage and was in a top knot 99% of the time.

Let’s talk about the frizz. I couldn’t brush my hair without having a lions mane. I thought that was just how my hair way. (Spoiler alert, I was wrong!)

Finally, had had zero volume.

After

Although my roots are growing back, my hair is SHINY!!! My natural hair color does have sine to it!

Minimal to no frizz or flyaways!

I can now brush my hair and not look like a lion. It holds a second (and third) day curl.

My hair doesn’t hang limply off my head, it has real volume! Woohoo!

Even my natural wave is wearable! I can wear it fresh out of the shower without worrying that it will end up looking like I stuck my finger in a light socket.

I even cut my hair short, which I haven’t done in ten years because I was worried that it would takes years to grow back out!

I wouldn’t have noticed all of these differences if I hadn’t looked at a before picture! In fact, I never noticed how frizzy my hair was until I looked at these photos side-by-side!!

Long story short, friends, your hair needs to be cared for. Just like you eat right to nourish your body. Your hair needs nourishment and it gets that through the products you put on it.

If you give it what it needs and you’re patient you’ll see your own beautiful hair restored to it’s original glory! I promise.