Mandi's Hair Tips and Secrets

There has been several discussions about what makes healthy hair. Some insist it's all health related (eating) to make hair good and well, that is only true to a point. That only gets the part that you don't see, from root to the point just before it becomes visible. Hair just like the outer layer of skin is essentially dead so once it exits the scalp it's all what you do to it beyond that is what makes it look healthy shiny wavy full of life.

The pre-hair (non visible) things to look out for is the nutrients. Protein is essential, along with making sure to get enough vitamin b2, b6, e and calcium, plus essential good fats. One food I recommend is peanut butter not only because of it's the metabolism enhancing effects (which is true), but also because of the essential proteins and oils contained in it for good hair health. And you know, this is good stuff to consider for maintaining not only healthy appearance, great hair, but also ... weight. Pistachios is another great nut to have for this. If your not getting enough of the vitamins through nutritious means, then take supplements until such time if / when you can get it naturally. But you know your own nutrition level way better than me. :)

Use good quality products too. The best drug store brand I ever found is Herbal Essence and I been using it for a few years now. A lot of it is natural ingredients and it smells great too. My daily routine is to wash usually every other day or three (never wash every day). Washing (by that I mean shampoo) strips the hair daily and is not necessary unless you're doing major sweaty work or getting icky dirty. (not the fun dirty, you know, haha). Wash day is shampoo, rinse out, put conditioner in and leave it for 10 minutes to get a good penetrating soak throughout the hair, then rinse out, then towel dry, put in a leave in conditioner, run fingers through to distribute the leave in conditioner throughout the hair (which allows to untangle any possible knots carefully without ripping hair out), then style as needed. In between wash days, I do everything but no shampoo.

Every month or so I do a deep conditioning. That is wash with shampoo, put conditioner in and leave it for 24 hours just air drying the hair. This is best on weekends when you don't leave the house. After 24 hours, wash again as usual. This gives the hair a lot of extra shininess, body and overall fresh healthy appearance, and strips out any excess build up (which all hair products build up and essentially choke the hair out, so it's important to strip that away.)

Every two months, I change products for 2 weeks as well. That just makes a different change, which makes the normal daily product that much more effective by not having the hair "used to" one brand. The one I use for this is a salon brand called Joico.

I also go through the strands looking for split ends. If I find one or a few, I wet my fingers and wet the hair that is split, then take a sharp scissors and cut just above the split end, then put a drop of conditioner on my fingers and work that into the fresh cut strand. This process really helps get rid of the reoccurring split end problem and reasons to get a hair cut way too often.

For exercising, it's important to wash the sweat out of your hair right away. The saltiness of sweat really damages hair so make sure to wash after an exercise session. Same goes if outside in a dusty day (the bad dirty). Best to air dry after so the products sink into the hair fully to restore lost moisture and repair the damages these activities cause.

If your around the house, no need to blow dry either. Keep that to a minimum, it really plays havoc with the hair quality.

Always untangle knots with fingers very carefully, then use a big tooth comb (or pick) for the rest, then brush only when all knots are gone.

Pinning hair back (pony tails, ect.) also chokes out the hair. Do so only once in a while or when you have to ... and only with a material hair band, never elastics.