Your Hair: Let it Shine

Aug. 16, 2009 - PRLog -- Shiny hair is healthy hair.

It's hard to keep hair shiny and healthy when you use a hair dryer, curling iron, flat iron, hair color, bleach, heat, and other styling tools and techniques that rough up your hair cuticles. It’s your cuticles that lock your hair onto your follicles. And heaven help those who mess with their follicles.

A roughed-up cuticle makes hair look dull. Smooth hair cuticles, like the shingles on the roof over your head, work best when they all neatly lie flat. Smooth cuticles are shiny because light reflects off smooth surfaces, and that’s what you want. But dry it, and curl it, and color it, and before you know it, your hair looks dull.

Here are seven steps to shiny hair:
1. Eat Right
Your hair is mainly protein, so feed it lots of protein! Eat lean meats, fish, eggs, beans, low-fat dairy products make hair healthy, and especially foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids: salmon, avocados, flaxseed, and almonds. Depending on how bad your hair is now, it can take six months for your new diet to start making your hair shine.

2. Clean Up
All those hair products you use—from hair spray to mousse—add residue to your hair. They'll have to go. Instead, use a clarifying shampoo once a week or add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to 2 tablespoons of your shampoo to remove sticky residue from your hair.

3. Use Conditioner
Get a good conditioner and use it every time you shampoo.

4. Blot
When you get out of the shower and dry your hair, squeeze and blot it. Never rub! Rubbing creates friction that roughs up the cuticles.

5. Cool Off
Before you dry your hair, use a heat-resistant product to seal in shine and prevent damage from the dryer's high temperature. Whenever you can, use the cool setting on your dryer.

6. Sleep on Satin
Satiny hair needs satiny pillowcases. Look at it this way: When you're asleep your head is about nine pounds of deadweight. (Sometimes it is when you’re awake, too.) Friction from tossing and turning in your sleep creates fuzz. Think those follicles and sleep on satin pillowcases to reduce the friction.

7. Brush With The Boar
Use only natural boar-bristle brushes, which are the best way to smooth hair and distribute natural oils. Plastics are brittle and are more prone to break your hair since they don't have as much give. Don't mess with your follicles.

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