The Ultimate Hair care Guide - Part 2

Taking care of your hair using products and ingredients that do not harm or damage your body, is a very direct way for you to let your body know how much you love and care for it. Here’s part 2 of our blog on some of the most important things to watch out for when buying and using hair care products!

• Be very, very careful with the choice of hair gels or sprays – these, combined with hair care appliances and other styling activity can cause hair loss due to breakage along the hair shaft or excessive force that pulls the hair out of the scalp. Most of these products have alcohol in them, which has a drying effect, leaving the hair more prone to damage during heating and styling. Using hair sprays and hair gels that are made up of natural ingredients like beeswax, plant extracts, seed extracts, candelilla wax, etc are much safer and healthier for the long term life of your hair.
• Giving your hair an oil massage – is the best way of adding years of health to your hair. It also energizes and pampering your scalp. No wonder this was such a must-do in all traditional homes! All of those older women we knew had such long, healthy, lustrous hair! Just 5 minutes of head massage can make a significant difference in the health of your hair. Use pure plant oils - something as simple as coconut oil, sesame oil, castor oil, mustard oil or make your own oil by infusing any of these basic oils with additional herbs such as amla, brahmi, hibiscus, garlic and rosemary. Leave the oil for at least 1 hour after massaging before washing it off.
• Exercise for great hair – Get up and start moving your body for great looking hair. It is proven in many studies that moderate exercise - for 30 minutes a day is necessary to rejuvenate our body cells and make them grow. This includes our scalp and hair cells! Maybe one additional reason why people of our older generations had great volumes hair, was because they did not have a desk job!
• Pay attention to the foods that nourish hair. You may not be able to control the pollution that damages your hair, but diet is one thing that you have control over when it comes to taking care of our hair. Make sure you eat food rich in Antioxidants, Vitamins A, B, C and E, Proteins, Biotins, Zinc and Omega 3 fatty acids to help keep your hair healthy, shiny, bouncy and strong. Some of the foods that contain these nutrients are Berries, Eggs, Fish, Oysters, Avocados, Spinach, Nuts and seeds of Chia, Flax and Sunflower.
• Avoid using synthetic products to color your hair. There are three types of hair dyes - temporary ones (Goes away in 1 wash), semi-permanent ones (Goes away in 2-4 washes) and the permanent ones (last 4 to 12 washes). The Permanent dyes cause chemical changes that increase the penetration of the product into the hair, bleach the natural melanin, and create color molecules that get trapped inside the shaft. These chemical changes can damage the hair, skin, scalp and the eyes. We really are unaware of how harsh and damaging they can be - did you know that using them on eyebrows or eyelashes can potentially cause blindness? Choose the mild natural ones that are plant based. True, they don’t last as long as the synthetic ones - but you can be sure that they do not cause major damage to your cells either!