Everyone wants a full, healthy head of hair right out of a shampoo commercial. Having healthy hair can make you look and feel your best. Studies have shown that having a good hair day improves your confidence and self-esteem. Others show that there are correlations between healthy hair texture and overall attractiveness.
Many different components go into building healthy tresses. Whether your goal is to reduce breakage, minimize frizz, or add body, here’s what you need to know to make your hair as full and healthy as it can be.
Healthy Hair Tips
Get a Trim
To keep your ends healthy, try to trim your hair regularly. For short hair, you’ll want a trim every four to eight weeks. For medium to long hair, aim for a cut every six to twelve weeks. Getting a trim is even more important for color-treated hair. In general, you’ll want to get a haircut every time you get highlights or a dye job.
You may have heard that getting your hair cut regularly makes it grow faster. While that’s not technically true, keeping your hair trimmed eliminates split ends before they can travel up the hair shaft and cause more damage. It helps your hair look and feel healthier.
Leave It Natural
Your hair needs time off to rest and repair from heat styling. Using a blow dryer, curling iron, or flat iron all cause structural damage to your hair, making it harder to retain moisture. While heat protecting sprays can help, stylists recommend taking a break from using any heat tools at least twice a week.
Healthy Scalp, Healthy Hair
If you’re looking to get fuller hair, the answer is all in the scalp. Your scalp naturally produces an oily substance called sebum, which protects your skin from infection. But a buildup of too much sebum, dandruff, sweat, styling products, or anything else on your scalp can lead to clogged pores and blocked hair follicles. Obstructed hair follicles contribute to hair loss and hair thinning. Regular scalp massages, good hair washing techniques, and the occasional exfoliation make all the difference when it comes to keeping your scalp and hair full and healthy.
Use Cooler Water in the Shower
While a hot shower can feel amazing, using water on your hair that is too hot may be causing damage. Showering with hot water opens up the hair’s cuticles and leaves behind discoloration and corrosion inside the hair shaft. Hard, mineral-rich water can leave behind even more residue, causing brassiness or a straw-like texture. Color-treated hair is especially vulnerable, as hot water leeches out the dye and can seep more easily into already-damaged strands. For best results, try showering with warm water and ending with a cold water rinse to close up the hair cuticle.
Go Easy on Brushing
Brushing your hair too often or too harshly can cause breakage, frizziness, and even hair loss. You definitely don’t want to follow the old school rule of brushing 100 strokes per day. Instead, aim to brush dry hair gently and rarely, to distribute oil from roots to ends. When you detangle wet hair, work slowly with a wide-toothed comb, and don’t tug on tangles.
Try a Supplement
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body, and getting enough of it is the key to keeping locks healthy. Hair is mostly made from the protein keratin, which the body manufactures using amino acids found in collagen. However, hair naturally thins as we age, as the body is less able to produce the collagen we need to keep our skin, nails, and hair strong and lustrous. That’s where taking a collagen supplement comes in. Revive’s Organic Collagen Powder is a potent, halal-certified, once-a-day formula aimed at maintaining joint integrity as well as improving overall nail, skin, and hair health.
Change Up Your Diet
Keep hair strong by eating a healthy diet. Getting enough protein, iron, potassium, and omega-3 fatty acids are essential to preventing hair loss. Eating nutrient-rich foods like olive oil, salmon, avocados, spinach, and sunflower seeds can naturally help you get shinier, fuller hair.
Cover It Up
Try wearing a hat if you’re out in the sun or a swim cap if you’re in the pool. Sunlight oxidizes your hair and can burn your scalp—similarly, chlorine and saltwater wicks moisture from the hair cuticle. Covering up with a hat or a swim cap is the best way to protect your hair from harsh elements.
Improve Your Hair Washing Technique
Did you know there is a right way and a wrong way to wash and condition your hair? When you wash, focus your shampooing efforts on the scalp, massaging in the product for three minutes before rinsing. Avoid the ends, which get dried out from shampoo.
The opposite is true for the conditioner. When you condition, skip the scalp and focus on the ends. Let it soak for around four minutes. While you don’t want to leave any product on your strands, rinse it off gently, working in the direction of the hair shaft.
Don’t Towel Dry
Toweling off your hair after a shower creates friction along the cuticle at a time when it’s most vulnerable to breakage. Cotton towels are among the worst offenders when it comes to frizz. Instead, consider air-drying your hair and using a hair wrap, along with a satin pillowcase at night, to reduce rubbing along the hair shaft.
Takeaway
So, how to keep hair healthy? There’s more to it than just lather, rinse, repeat. Luckily, these hair tips are here to help. There are so many ways you can adjust your shower routine, styling technique, diet, and more to make your hair healthier, stronger, and shinier. Whether it’s by working in a daily scalp massage, brushing less, or trying out Revive’s Organic Collagen Supplement, there are many options to get the full, healthy hair you have always wanted.
The information being presented in this blog is intended to be used as educational or resource information only. It is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice from your healthcare provider. This content should not be used for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. If you have any questions or concerns about your health, please contact your healthcare provider. You should call 911 for all medical emergencies. Revive MD is not liable for any advice or information provided on this blog, which advice or information is provided on an “as-is” basis, and assumes no liability for diagnosis, treatment, decisions, or actions made in reliance upon any advice or information contained on this blog. No warranties, express or implied, are made on the information that is provided.