Now we all love our LAhair Extensions! And there's nothing more stunning than having that celebrity-looking thick, long, gorgeously volumous hair when out and about! But when the clip-in hair extensions are out and not being worn, how can we ensure our own hair is being looked after and in its best condition? We get asked all the time tips and tricks to maximising the health of your locks, and these are the 10 easy rules we live by:
1) DON'T BRUSH YOUR HAIR TOO MUCH
There's nothing like getting in with a brush to your roots and stimulating oil production to help nourish your hair and promote hair growth and health, but there is such a thing as over-brushing. Brushing your hair too much can cause excess breakage and shedding of your hair, resulting in a thinner and less voluminous mane than you may want.
2) DO NOT WASH YOUR HAIR MORE THAN 3 TIMES PER WEEK
Some of the best heads of hair we have seen are on women who only wash their hair once or twice per week - their head has gotten accustomed to the irregular washes and as such doesn't OVER-PRODUCE oil, which is what happens when you wash your hair daily or every second day. What some women forget it that when you wash your hair daily, you are stripping all the natural oils which is WHY your scalp goes into overdrive, trying to produce more oil to keep the hair healthy and maintained. This results in what some ladies refer to as an 'oil-slick' - you are creating your own problem unfortunately! Try this - go out and get a can of Dry-Hair Shampoo and start using that in between washes. Keep the oil at bay, but re-accustom your scalp to 2/3 washes per week. At the end of the day, you will end up with healthier, less-washed hair (less lightly to snap and break off), a better regulated oil-producing scalp, and more free time at nights not spent washing and then blow-drying! :)
3) GENTLY TOWEL-DRY YOUR HAIR WHEN WET
When we do wash our hair, you want to gently towel-dry your hair afterwards. Women are too vigorous with drying and you are roughening up the hair cuticles and causing damage and breakage in the process. Take a page out of your hairdresser's books and be as delicate as they are when they are patting you down post-wash. One thing we like to do after hopping out of the shower is applying a leave-in conditioner and then wrap up the hair in a towel to soak up the excess water for 30-minutes to an hour - it makes a huge difference to the drying quality of your hair.
4) DO NOT BRUSH YOUR HAIR WHEN WET - GENTLY WIDE-TOOTH COMB IT
Again, the post-washing/wet hair care is very important to maintaining and thick and healthy mane of hair. Try and avoid a brush when your hair is wet - instead all you want to do is gently wide-tooth comb it free of any tangles or messiness, to a point where it can be blow-dried/air-dried/styled with relative ease. Brushing when wet is the first step to guaranteed breakage and hair damage - the hair is so delicate and easily broken when wet so if you tear through it with a brush, you will 100% end up snapping off strands in the process.
5) AIR-DRY YOUR HAIR AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
This is a pretty straight forward tip - although you may end up with a messy/curly/crazy look afterwards, if you are cool to throw the locks up in a high bun or style with some hairspray and live up the bed-hair look, try and let your hair air-dry as much as possible. Reducing the amount of heat styling and blow-drying will result in better quality hair and less damage to the cuticle.
6) SLEEP ON A SATIN PILLOW CASE
Now this one is a bit interesting, but guess what - when sleeping on a regular pillow case, tossing and turning during the night causes friction between the hair and the pillow which can result in damage to the cuticle and breakage. A satin pillow case allows it all to slide around carelessly and is better for your hair!
7) EAT A HEALTHY AND BALANCED DIET FULL OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
This is a no-brainer - eat a healthy diet full of vitamin and mineral-rich fruit and vegetables so that your hair grows well, and has a beautiful healthy shine to it.
8) TRIM YOUR HAIR BUT DON'T CUT IT TOO OFTEN
Regular trims are important to ensure the hair looks lovely and is without ugly split ends, especially for those of us with coloured or bleached hair, where breakage is inevitable and can cause a frayed and choppy look if it hasn't been trimmed for a while. THAT BEING SAID, let's not cut too often - if you want your hair to thicken up and grow, you can't be cutting and trimming as much as it is growing, otherwise you will never get anywhere in the pursuit for long, lustrous hair. Also keep in mind, that if you do have hair prone to breakage, rethink asking your hair stylist to cut in layers and reducing volume - you will find that with breakage the hair will naturally create layers and less volume itself.
9) ALWAYS USE A HEAT PROTECTANT WHEN HEAT STYLING
So you're going out and you need to curl, straighten, and blow-dry your way to a gorgeous look. Go for it - but invest in a good quality heat protectant to help protect your cuticle and hair strand from excess and damaging heat during the process. It takes 5-seconds to apply but it will make a huge difference to maintaining the quality of your hair.
10) USE GOOD QUALITY SHAMPOOS AND CONDITIONERS
When on a budget, it is very appealing to go with the supermarket shampoos and conditioners which are always cheap and easy to access. But remember - you get what you pay for - better quality ingredients and products will cost more money to use and manufacture. So if you are really looking to have beautiful, healthy, amazing condition 'celebrity-style' hair, you will have to upgrade the products you are using. Hair Products are a huge profitable industry, so of course every brand is always going to say theirs are the best - they want your sale! Just remember:
You get what you pay for