A Natural Home Remedy for Severely Damaged Hair

You've permed, flat ironed, colored or bleached your hair one too many times and your silky tresses are now akin to a haystack. As you comb your fingers through your once glorious locks, you notice that it not only feels dry and rough, it also no longer feels like, well - hair.

Before you panic and book a brush cut, or worse yet, consider cutting it off yourself, there may be hope for your hair yet. Before succumbing to the scissors and chopping off what has taken you months to grow, try this intense regime for complete hair condition restoration.

If you have recently bleached or permed your hair and it requires immediate help, take these emergency steps:

1. Ensure all chemicals are rinsed thoroughly from the hair, and condition with the thickest conditioning product you have, leave in 3 minutes and carefully rinse out.

2. Gently towel dry the hair. To save your hair from breakage during this fragile state pat the excess water from the hair, instead of rubbing with the towel.

3. Combine two tablespoons of olive oil and 6 tablespoons of your best conditioner or conditioning treatment that you have on hand. Mix well, and slather onto the hair, ensuring complete coverage from root to tip. Distribute the mixture with your fingers or a wide tooth comb - again, it is important to be as gentle as possible.

4. Pile the hair on top of the head and tie a plastic grocery bag covering all of your hair to seal in the moisture and the heat. Leave for as long as possible (4-6 hours if you can stand it).

5. Rinse the hair and let it air dry. Repeat the next day if possible (this time add a beaten egg to the mixture and leave in for 30 minutes). Rinse and gently wash and condition the hair as usual. For the next week, wash and condition hair every other day, avoiding hot hair appliances, hair elastics and metal clips.

After a week, the hair should be strong enough to sustain the removal of build-up from the above treatment and from other elements that are weighing the hair down. (continued on page 2...)

Hair that feels like straw not only ends up in this condition from being over processed by chemical treatments; a build up of conditioners, styling lotions and minerals from your tap water also cause an unnatural, dry feel to the hair. The problem with heavy product build up is it ends up coating the hair shaft so that moisture can no longer be absorbed by the hair cuticle, causing it to dry out further. Since it was necessary to slather your hair with heavy oil and conditioner to give it strength, it's important that you now begin a regime of product build-up removal.

The most effective way to remove heavy product build up is to use a clarifying shampoo. Neutrogena's Anti Residue formula is a cost effective and gentle clarifying shampoo that is sold in most pharmacies/ grocery stores. Use this product or another gentle formula once or twice a week, (always follow with a light, non-waxy conditioner) and your hair will get back to normal within a couple of weeks.

If you do not experience an improvement, there are some signs that the hair is beyond repair. If it is extremely stretchy, mushy or large amounts are breaking off when brushed, it's time to see the hairdresser for a major cut. In either case, it is wise to get the ends trimmed off after the hair has been damaged by heat, chemicals, or general wear and tear. Keep in mind that scheduling regular trims will insure that split ends won't travel up the hair shaft causing more damage, saving your lengths in the long run.