The Natural Remedies For Longer & Healthier Hair

The Natural Remedies For Longer & Healthier Hair

As you may know, I am not a hair expert or a professional or a guru but I wanted to share with you my knowledge on how to achieve longer and healthier hair, the NATURAL way. I also wanted to share with you my hair failures and negative experiences as I think quite a few females can relate to this.

I am like most girls where we have that sudden urge to want to change our hair from time to time. This usually happens to me when I am bored of my hair or during seasonal transitions. This year was no different, I decided to get 70's bangs around October time and after 3 weeks I was completely OVER it and now I am wishing I had my old hair back, which is the typical, standard reaction I have when changing my hair.

I actually feel sorry for my hair for the amount of abuse its received from over the years. I have dyed my natural dark brown locks, red, black, ombré and blue. 

The worst experiences I have had with my hair was the time I got it bleached to the point of damaging it so immensely and losing 1/4 of my hair just to achieve the Ombré look and yes I did have it done professionally. At this time my hair was espresso brown, naturally long and in immaculate, silky condition. I was absolutely gutted at the state of my hair after bleaching it and I couldn't even enjoy my new ombré, shorter hair due to the fact that I lost so much hair and damaged it so badly to achieve that look. I eventually dyed it back to brown 6 months later.

Another bad experience I had with my hair was when I used to wear clip-in hair extensions and I did so from the age of 18-24. I have always had thin but long hair and wanted a more voluminous look. This was during the time that backcombing your hair was a popular trend and I think it was also around the time hair extensions became mainstream. I used to wear the 22" deluxe double wefted full head set in the darkest brown, that is 8 weft pieces with a total of 18 clips, 155 grams of EU Remy hair. I'm not going to lie, these hair extensions were the best of the best and they were amazing quality but what you don't get told is that wearing hair clips near your hair roots, gripping 155 grams worth of fake hair can result in pulling out your natural hair. This is caused by the weight of the hair on the clips which can also result in bald patches. This is when I decided to stop wearing hair extensions!

They say you learn your most valuable lessons in life through bad experiences and I feel like that relates to my hair. If it wasn't for these bad hair moments, I wouldn't know what I know now on how to achieve healthier locks.

Here is my list of natural remedies that I swear by to achieve healthier and longer hair:

1. Stop using heated hair tools: This includes heated hair straighteners, blow-drys, curling/waving tongs, heated rollers and any mechanical heated hair tool in which burns/ frazzles your hair. If you want to see REAL results do this for a month or longer. The longer the recovery time for your hair the better the results. If you use all these items above on a regular basis then your hair will need more time to recover from the heat damage to its natural health and I will tell you now the results are worth it! 
What I usually do is, I only use heated hair tools for special occasions but on a daily basis, I wash my hair, dry it with a hairdryer but apply heat protector spray beforehand or naturally let it dry and leave it in its natural state. If you don't like your natural hair texture or style, you can always create natural hair waves or curls without using heated appliances or try different hair styles such as plaits, buns or ponytails?

2. Stop wearing hair extensions: As said before I was also a big fan of hair extensions for years and I didn't realise the damage it was doing to my natural hair. I can honestly say when you decide to stop wearing false hair extensions of any sort i.e. clip in's or weaves you will see a dramatic change in your hair. The weight of my clip in hair extensions was pulling at my natural hair roots which not only gave me the odd bald patch but stopped my hair growing naturally. When I decided to stop wearing hair extensions,  I felt bald as you get so used to having that much fake hair but after time my hair began to grow naturally to the point where people asked if my hair was real or not just because it was SO LONG and in amazing condition. This is such an important remedy to achieve longer hair you have to stop wearing fake hair and look after your real natural locks!

3. Give your hair a break from hair dye: Now this is an important point, STOP dying your hair especially bleaching it. Do you know why you can't keep bleach in your hair for long? Because it will burn your entire hair off and your scalp. Do you really think burning your hair is good for it? NO! It results in hair loss. Would you rather remain a certain hair colour but have your hair in the worst condition ever, or keep it natural and have your hair looking healthy?
Don't get me wrong I dye my hair sometimes too but as a brunette I find the darker hair dyes are less damaging than the lighter hair dyes. Every time I have tried to dye my hair lighter it has completely damaged my hair and taken at least 6 months to recover from it!
At the end of the day hair dyes are chemicals so the best way to view this remedy is give your hair a break from all these chemicals and give your hair some serious deep conditioning and TLC.

4. Hair Masks: If you're a fan of face masks then you have to try a hair mask at the same time, it's double the pamper and it feels great! I started using hair masks when my hair was completely damaged by bleach. The texture of my hair was in the worst state it has ever been in, it felt like hay and was completely dead. Since then I have gotten into a routine of wearing a hair mask at least once a week. Your hair like your skin needs some serious TLC too sometimes and using a hair mask is the perfect way to condition and reconstruct your hair into the best possible condition.
I love testing out different hair masks but the ones that I am obsessed with at the moment are:

• Olaplex No3
• Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Reconstructor
• Organic Coconut Oil
• OGX Argan oil of Morocco
• OGX Anti-breakage Keratin oil
• Pantene Prov-V Intense Mask

If the product has Keratin Oil, Argan Oil or Coconut Oil in it, it's a winner in my eyes!

The way I apply the hair mask is, I dampen my hair with water, I then apply a generous amount of product into my hands and condition/massage the product in my hair. I then brush it through with a comb. I personally leave the hair mask in my hair overnight but it sometimes states on the packaging to leave the product in for just 10 minutes, I never do and I always see amazing results wearing the hair mask overnight.

5. Trim it: I used to HATE getting my hair trimmed and only went when my split ends started looking like what I call,"Rat tails". The reason to why I hated getting my hair trimmed was because they always cut off too much and I mean every time! There is a myth that getting your hair trimmed makes your hair grow faster and I have just researched this and I can now confirm that it is not true! They say haircuts help because it encourages hair growth by getting rid of damaged, broken or split ends but cutting your split ends doesn't affect the follicle in your scalp which determines how fast and how much your hair grows! So spread the word people! However the reason why I have included this as a remedy for healthier looking hair is because you have to cut off your damaged hair to achieve this look and lets face it split ends are not cute!

So try out these natural remedies, it has worked for me and a lot of my friends who have the longest hair have all said the same thing to me. Once you leave your hair alone and stop using chemicals and heated products you hair will grow naturally and be in the best condition it has ever been in. 

Let me know if this works for you too!