Healthy Hair 101

Even though it looks healthy, your hair could be brittle and weak, just ready to break off. Everyday factors such as heat styling, cold/hot weather, hot showers and rough management can leave your hair unhealthy. Unhealthy hair looks weak, is harder to style and can easily snap or break off so it's important to make sure that your hair is healthy and nourished.

How to check if your hair is unhealthy:

If your hair looks brittle and dry, that's because it probably is. But sometime's it's not as easy as that so here's a test that can determine if your hair is healthy or not.

Fill a bowl with water and drop a strand of har into the bowl. Tap the hair strand lightly with your finger. If your hair strand floats, then it's healthy. If it sinks it's unhealthy. This is because unhealthy hair is so porous that it fills with water and sinks.

Taking Care of Your Hair:

- Every time you shower, leave your hair conditioner in for a few minutes. There's no such thing as over conditioning your hair, so leave it in for as long as you want.

- Get regular hair trims (about every 2 months) to keep split ends at bay.

- Use a shampoo/conditioner formulated for damaged hair.

- Every time you use a straightening iron or hair curler remember to use a heat protectant. You're putting an extrememly hot surface on your hair, and your hair will burn unless you use a heat spray.

- Avoid very hot showers, which will make your scalp flake.

- Heaters and air conditioners can also dry out your scalp. If you use a radiator, you can place little bowls of water around the room to keep that area humid.

- Hair Masques are effective on very damaged hair.

At Home Hair Masques:

You've probably seen ads on TV for hair products or 'masques' that you leave in your hair. These work, so if you have damaged hair I suggest you try one. These are usually 5 minute treatments or overnight leave in conditioners. You can buy these at your supermarket or make your own:

Conditioning Hair Masque Recipe:

You need: A banana, 4 tablespoons of honey, Half an avocado, 1 tablespoon of olive oil. You can adjust the ingredients depending on how long your hair is.

All you need to do is blend the ingredients together into a pulp. Apply it to your hair and leave it in for half an hour and then thoroughly rinse out. Your hair will be silky and soft!

Good luck, I hope this helps!