6 Tips to healing Damaged Hair

So this topic is one I have personally battled for many years. Just like most cosmos in beauty school I experimented a lot, and I mean A LOT with hair color, bleach especially. After one of my first days of learning hair color , I knew everything there was to know about hair and coloring it (absolutely not but I was overly confident). I applied bleach using the highest developer on my whole head and let it sit for an hour then I went and sat in front of the fire place (because I heard heat was good for bleach , and omg I was an idiot that’s not what they meant) after another 45 mins I decided the burning probably wasn’t normal 2 hours after the application. So I washed it and omg... clumps and clumps of hair breaking off and I had a horrible chemical burn on my scalp. My hair was breaking off as I brushed it and I had a disgusting amount of hair stuck in the brush. When my hair was wet it stretched and broke off when I pulled then ends. It was absolutely a nightmare. When my hair was dry the ends looked shriveled up and felt so nasty and they broke anytime I touched my hair. So immediately I did my research and did everything to get me back to a good hair place where it could actually grow. And years later , ironically now I am an educator teaching how to heal hair using the best products in the hair industry. Here are my tips -

1) THE BIG CHOP

I know , I know this might be the worst part of the healing process but it’s the only way to realistically come out of this. You don’t need to shave your head or get a pixie cut necessarily but you need to take some length off and no not a half inch girl, a few inches is what I’m talking about. This is a good start but you will need to schedule hair cuts (trims) every couple of months to continue to get the old damaged yukies off as your hair grows.

2) CONDITIONING TREATMENTS

You should be going to a salon for a deep conditioning treatment at least once a month or every 6 weeks for a intensive treatment. Some treatments use heat and some do not it depends on the brand your salon uses. You should also be doing at home deep conditioning masks once a week. And I don’t mean put food in your hair because that is such a waste of food ,and it only works if you EAT it! You need a healthy balance of moisture and protein (keratin) too much of one or the other can be counter productive.

3) PICK A COLOR

When your hair is healing it’s extremely important to just leave it alone. You cannot be switching the color up all the time especially putting more bleach on it. You need to let it go and let it grow. It might not be the prettiest but what’s more important here? Let me tell you , healthy hair is beautiful when it’s colored correctly, but damaged hair colored is just that, damaged hair colored, and sorry sis that’s not beautiful.

4) NO HEAT STYLING

Yup you read that correctly. No hot tools baby put them away in a safe place , out of sight out of mind. Heat can be damaging even on virgin untouched hair, so it’s important to not make things worse. Hop on your Pinterest and start finding all the non heat styles. But also note you need soft tension styles. Styles that are very tight and have a lot of tension can actually make things worse and ABSOLUTELY NO MESSY BUNS !! Braids with light tension are a great style for hair healing. Neat styles are ideal.

5) GOOD PRODUCTS

Put the hair sprays and gels away, a lot of those products have a form of alcohol in them and it can dry your hair out. If you need a lil somethin’ somethin’ for a fly away or two you’ll be okay. Focus on cream based products for good moisture, leave in conditioners and healing oils will work just fine.

6) PATIENCE

And last but not least, patience my dear. It might be one of the worst ones on the list but it’s necessary. You got to give it time. Grow it out and give it a few years for a full recovery. Hair grows on average 1/2 inch per month , so if you have 3 inches of damaged hair it will take about 6 months to get it back after the big chop. I know it sucks. If you follow my tips I promise you , you can come out of this. I have done this so many times to my hair ( definitely not my proudest moments) and have made it out alive with beautiful growing locks. It does suck, A LOT but it is what it is homegirl , I’m not going to sugar coat the truth and tell you these “split end menders” work because they don’t. I have the recipe for healthy hair in my salon, if you need help healing your hair DM me on IG @dollface.andybee and I will help you get out of this too. Good luck on your hair healing journey.