Besides photography, haircare is another important aspect of my daily life...
Here are just a few tips that I've learned and experience over many years of learning and studying! These are some helpful bits of advice to repair/maintain your hair but one thing is for sure: making regular appointments to get your hair trimmed and cut away those split ends is the best way to prevent further damage! The longer you go without trimming split ends, the longer the split will get-traveling further up your hair shaft!
Here are just a few tips that I've learned and experience over many years of learning and studying! These are some helpful bits of advice to repair/maintain your hair but one thing is for sure: making regular appointments to get your hair trimmed and cut away those split ends is the best way to prevent further damage! The longer you go without trimming split ends, the longer the split will get-traveling further up your hair shaft!
Begin with using a quality shampoo & conditioner... Ones that you know contain natural ingredients and proteins that contribute to the structure of your hair. The drugstore brands I like are ones such as Suave, Pantene, L'Oreal & Dove.
Also, use other once-a-week shampoos and conditioners to treat your hair.
I use Neutrogena Anti-residue shampoo once weekly and Dove Nourishing Oil Care Conditioner.
Neutrogena Anti-residue is a gentle shampoo that strips away product buildup and deeply cleans your hair & scalp.
Dove Nourishing Oil Care Conditioner is an amazing & affordable intense deep conditioner, and is going to make your hair sigh with relief once you've used it... also, you might only need to use it once to twice a week besides your regular conditioner.
When you shampoo, lather and massage your scalp but not so much that you're causing irritation, rinse and repeat if desired with very warm water.
Apply your conditioner and leave in for 2-5 minutes. Rinse with cold water, as cold as you can handle and at the same time combing it through with a wide-tooth comb.
Rinsing shampoo with warm-hot water open the hair cuticle, causing it to fully absorb any product you may use after that (conditioner). Rinsing your conditioner with cold water closes the hair cuticle, causing it to lock in the moisture. And combing it at the same time smooths the cuticle as it is closing (preventing an unwanted damage, even in the shower!)
See this picture:
http://www.segalshaircare.com/images/docs/healthyvsdamaged.gif
When your hair is healthy and undamaged it looks like the image on the left. Undamaged hair is SHINY hair!.. and rinsing with cold water produces very shiny hair! If you hair is very dry, leave some conditioner at your ends to protect from styling tools.
Gently wrap your wet hair in a towel, but don't "scrub" your hair to try and whisk away all the moisture- this also causes damage because your hair is MOST vulnerable to damage when it is wet.
Instead, dab and squeeze!
Next, apply product(s) to protect your hair from the heat of styling tools. I use Inecto's Pure Coconut Oil Glossing Spray daily before blow drying & straightening/curling and apply to from my mid-hair-shaft to ends thoroughly. You can use other oils such as olive oil or moroccan oil. If you're not into that, try Dove's Leave in Smoothing Cream. or other products like it.
Do not blow dry your hair when it is soaking wet... this shocks your hair and also takes forever to dry! Keep the towel on from 10-20 minutes while doing your makeup or eating breakfast allowing to absorb as much water as possible.
When you take your towel off, begin smoothing your tangles with your fingers or with a wide-tooth comb. Remember- your hair is most vulnerable when wet- so we have to be so gentle! Don't use a brush to smooth out tangles. Instead use a wide comb and start combing little sections from your ends to the top of your head. Combing from top to bottom will most likely create even more tangles.
Begin by blowing dry your roots-everywhere. For volume, use a round boar-bristle brush. Never randomly dry your hair- if that makes sense. Always position the nozzle of your blowdryer down towards the end of your hair so that the air & heat are directed downwards away from the roots and along with the cuticle.
Picture it like fish-scales. They're always going one direction... just like your hair. If placed your hand on the scales and moved against the way that they were going, some would lift up, become bent perhaps and even break. SAME exact thing with your hair. You never want the air/heat of the blow dryer to go against the cuticle of your hair, because then it will dry that way- causing damage and brittleness.
When hair is dry, re-apply the product you used before using additional heat like a flat/curling iron.
Hope this helps!
Good luck with your damage -prevention!
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For creating volume in short hair, I would recommend using the least amount of heavy products as possible because it's just going to weigh the hair down. Volumizing mousse, shampoo & conditioner is your best bet!
When blow drying, start at the roots and hold sections of hair between your fingers with a tight grip and pulling up and out as your dry. Direct the air of the dryer towards to ends-(it may seem awkward) and if you can't manage that-hold the dryer parallel to your head and facing in the opposite direction that you want your hair to lay or doing the same with a round boar bristle brush if desired. You can even do this with your head upside down, letting gravity do some of the work for you and finish with cool shots of air to set!
When straightening with a flat iron... move the iron from roots to end upwards and directly out away from your head just as you did when you dried it. Hold it up until the section has almost or completely cooled. Heat manipulates, Cool sets the look.
Otherwise, I would go about damage control/prevention with short hair just the same as I would with long hair, except, I would imagine that short hair may not need as frequent deep conditioning since it is closer to the natural oils that the scalp produces.
But I'm no expert!
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One more thing, Give your hair a break! Drying & using heat tools everyday can dry your hair out! Try to limit your heat tool usage to 3-4 times a week and do something funky the other days! Try using one tool and not the other, or vice versa OR Try a braid or letting your hair dry naturally or doing overnight pin curls!Check out Kaley's youtube channel.. she's a upbeat girl with tons of ideas, and like me, values healthy hair.. check out the video of her's about different updo's you could do while your hair is wet!
5 Styles for Wet Hair in Under 10 Minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb1jh-Wv2wg
Channel: LetsMakeItUp1
http://www.youtube.com/user/LetsMakeitUp1
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