Friday, March 7, 2014

My Ultimate Hair Care Guide

Healthy Happy Hair the LizaBella Way ❤ 
We Heart It
In response to my long unannounced hiatus, I've decided to get back into the swing of things by posting this long hair care guide.
These are all the tips and tricks I've gathered as well as the products I love to use on my hair.
The advice given in this post will be based on hair thickness and texture not curl pattern.
So if you have very curly hair that is fine, you should try the advice for fine haired girls.
If you have very thick straight hair, you should try the tips for thick haired girls.

Let's all grow our hair long and strong

Step1: Figure Out Your Hair Natural Texture
My Hair Texture After a Huge Haircut
For this step you should wash your hair and let it air dry. 
Do not style it or manipulate it in any way.
When your hair is dry you'll see how much wave or curl you have in your hair.
Then go online to see if you have fine, medium, thick or coarse hair. 
Know your hair type or texture is the first step to having healthy hair.

Step 2: Get A Professional Haircut
Google
When you have damaged hair, the best thing to do is to cut it off and start fresh.
Go to a good hair salon and have a reputable stylist cut your hair.
Ask for either or a trim of have it cut in a new style that would be easy to maintain without heat.
You want something easy and low maintenance so that you can focus on growing healthier hair.


Step 3: Maintain Your New Healthy Ends 
LizaBella
This is the MOST IMPORTANT STEP!
Whats the point of cutting off your hair if you're not going to maintain those new and healthy ends?
In order to keep your hair healthy after your cut, you need to care for your ends every night.
Here's what you do.

Fine Hair Girls: Your hair tends to get weighed down so you want to go easy on the nightly products.
You should mix a light leave in conditioner with or filtered water and put it in a spray bottle.
Try Neutrogena's Triple-Moisture Leave-in. It's super light and smells great. 
Spray your hair every night and braid it or put it in a bun (you'll have great waves come morning)
No more sleeping with our hair all over the place!

Medium Texture Girls: Your hair can take some products without getting heavy. 
Try the same spray bottle method but add some coconut oil to your ends as well. 
Braid or bun it too and be sure to use a very small amount of the products each night.

Thick to Coarse Texture Girls: Your hair can take a heavier application of products.
Your hair also needs the moisture anyway so load up. Use the spray bottle method too like the other girls. Now add a heavier leave-in (try the Macadamia brand) on top of that.
Finally end with your choice or coconut oil or heavier oil like Moroccan argan oil and put your hair up.

Overall
Do this every night for 2 weeks and see if you like it.
If you think its too much, try it every other night.
Just know that keeping your ends moisturized will prevent damage.

Now all of you should have your hair up off your shoulders every night in a bun or in braids.
Keep your ends tucked in at night and sleep on a silk or satin pillow.
If you really want to protect your hair at night, buy a satin hair bonnet to sleep in.

I also take biotin gummy vitamins every night ^_^

Google


Step 4: Cleansing the Hair and Scalp
LizaBella
ALWAYS USE Sulfate free shampoos when you're doing regularly washing your hair.
The sudsy shampoo's strip your hair and make your scalp produce excess oil.
Using a sulfate free shampoo will keep your hair's moisture and oil balance in check.
I use the AG haircare sulfate free shampoo but you can use any brand.

You can use a clarifying shampoo twice a month if you want.
If you're someone who works out a lot, swims or lives in a place with hard water, you might want to clarify your hair more often.
Remember that these shampoos are strong and should be focused mainly on the scalp.

Now, how often should you wash your hair?
Fine Haired Girls: Wash every other day and use conditioner each time from the mid-length of your hair to the ends. Avoid heavy conditioners at the roots.
Medium Textured Girls: Twice a week with a good conditioner.
Thick to Coarse Textured Girls: Once a week or twice if you sweat a lot with a good conditioner that will help you get through any tangles.

Remember to deep condition your hair at least once a week for 15-30.
If you do comb your hair when wet, use a wide tooth comb 
and gently comb from the tips of your hair to the roots.


♥A Bella Beauty Tip♥
MichellePhan.com
Using a soft cotton t-shirt to gently squeeze the excess water from your hair will reduce frizz.
Roughly drying your hair with a towel can promote split ends.


And now for the hardest step...

Step 5: Avoid Heat, Chemicals and Heavy Damaging Products!
Google

FOR AT-LEAST 3 MONTHS
No Direct Heat
 No Hair Coloring 
No Chemical or Thermal Hair Straightening
No Excessive use of heavy products like gel or wax pomade.

Be aware of the ingredients in your hair products.
You can always look up any products you might want to try to see if they have good ingredients.
Look up some hair gurus on Youtube or follow some blogs.

♥ Try No Heat Hairstyles ♥
Deviant Art
Braids or twists are super fashionable and cute.

Goddesslife.com
Buns are totally in and help to protect your ends from the elements.

From Google
You can even do messy buns too but the trick is to not use heat and to keep your ends tucked in



Want that long hair right now and can' wait??
♥ Fake it until you make it! ♥
SeekHair.co.uk 
If your looking for some quick length then you should consider these awesome hair extensions.
SeekHair.co.uk is an amazing site, they have any kind of hair you might want. 
There are many textures, curl patterns, colors and lengths and you can choose from any applications from clip-ins to tape-ins

♥ Here is an awesome style I'm thinking of getting ♥   
SeekHair.co.uk

Let's take care of our hair together Bellas!


This post was sponsored by SeekHair.co.uk. All images not belonging to this Bella Blogger have been cited.