Healthy Hair for Free!
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Stop buying healthy hair hype and change your routine.
When I started in hairdressing, 18 years ago, there were basic and simple ways to try to achieve healthy hair. None of them really worked and were often used as ways to stretch an appointment out because you didn’t quite finish up with your other guest yet. “Let’s put this deep conditioner on your hair. Sit under the dryer for ten minutes,” we would say.
This action helped us catch up and certainly came at no cost to you. Now though, it seems there is a charge for everything. Nickels and dimes. How did having healthy hair suddenly require so much more money?
It’s a recession!
Around 2008, clientele started extending the time between visits and I noticed a strong push in my industry for add-on sales. They flooded all of our education and professional trade publications. “Get another $5 out of your clientele with this product/service.” “You can easily charge another $25 for this service.” It was a recession! I can’t for the life of me figure out why we all bought into making people spend money instead of save it. Well, it felt wrong to me and I needed to change it. I know, I know, get to free healthy hair already. OKAY!
It’s all about technique!
Healthy hair starts with how you handle it. Like anything, there are things done well and things done great. Practice and experimentation with your cleansing and styling routine will make all the difference over time. If you’ve read this far expecting a product or home remedy with mayonnaise and incense, you can click away now. That’s not happening and it will never work. You will need six to eight weeks to feel the full effect of these methods. That’s not to say you won’t notice an improvement immediately. You will! It will be even better in six to eight weeks though.
Got to get it wet!
Water moisture is an incredibly important ingredient for healthy hair. It’s surprising how little effort goes into getting that moisture into your hair. Maybe we need to change how you think about washing your hair. I want you to imagine that your hair is porous like a sponge.
• Compress and squeeze your hair in running water. This will soak the hair through to the medulla. Just like a dry kitchen sponge, it takes some working to soak it thoroughly.
• When you feel it become incredibly soft, you have completely saturated your hair.
Now wash it!
This is the time to wash your hair. Yes, there is a technique to this as well. Most people over wash their hair, causing a loss of essential fatty acids (the other moisture) and vitamins and minerals. Increased color fading can happen here too.
• Rub the shampoo over your hands first. Spread it over your palms and between your fingers. This prevents having to much in one place.
• Massage into the scalp. Don’t worry about shampooing through the ends of your hair, especially if it is long. This hair is the oldest and most fragile. Its also the cleanest hair. You don’t wash a jacket every time you wear it outside because it doesn’t get soiled by you. Your scalp has all the oil and dirt, so unless you had your hair fall into your pancake syrup, don’t wash the ends. DO NOT rub the ends of your hair together or on top of your hair. This damages and dulls the cuticle layer.
• Shampoo works like a detergent. As you rinse, all the cleansing the rest of your hair needs will happennow. This action helps to retain those important natural elements of your hair.
• Rinse thoroughly. Get all of it out of your hair always working from the roots to the ends.
Condition it!
Conditioners, when they are good, replenish the elements your hair loses. Its important to pack in as much of those elements as possible.
• Firstly, squeeze out any excess moisture from your hair. A damp sponge is the most absorbent. Bone dry takes a while to absorb and soaking wet is already full. You want your hair damp here not dripping wet.
• Apply the conditioner over your hands and then into the lengths of your hair, squeezing occasionally as you go. Work it in from the ends towards the scalp while always using a detangling motion.
• Rinse. QUICKLY! Rinsing for to long will simply remove all of the elements you’ve been working to restore into your hair. If it is squeaky clean, apply again. Your hair should feel slightly slick still. Squeeze out the excess moisture and finish your shower.
Dry it!
With a towel first. I’m sure I will be covering how to blow dry your hair to good health… Hey that’s a great title! Anyway, keep a lookout for that one later. As I was saying…
• You’ll want to blot the moisture from your hair. Squeeze your hair lengths and compress the
towel against your head. Rubbing the nap of a terrycloth towel against your hair’s cuticle
layer will cause damage and dulness.
• Always treat your hair like an expensive fabric. Being gentle here sets your hair up for some
of the more harsh treatments of styling and battling the elements.
• Proceed to styling your hair.
Make the change for healthy hair today!
If you regularly maintain your hair in a salon, even a little, you will spend hundreds to thousands of dollars every year. And you should! Your hair and it’s style is the only accessory you wear that you can’t take off in a day. It is there good or bad. It can ruin your morning or make an evening fabulous. However, you shouldn’t need to purchase or perform costly actions to “repair” or “rebuild” your hair. You can save all of that money and just start doing the steps outlined above. Over time these steps will become easy to perform habits and your cleansing/conditioning routine will take as long as it always has. Or, you can spend money on snake oil and hope for the best.
Over my career I have offered this information to clientele, people in bars and stuck next to me on public transportation. (I talk a lot!) Every single one of them has had nothing but exceptional hair health and simplified maintenance since then. Now I offer this free fix, freely, to you as well. Good Luck!
If you would like a hands-on experience of these exact techniques, contact us or book a casual styling appointment.
This article was featured in CapeStyle Magazine, be sure check it out and stay connected with our community.