7 Tips to Make Your Hair Shine

Shiny Hair is healthy hair. It’s hard to keep hair shiny and healthy when you use a hair dryer, curling iron, flat iron, hair color and other styling tools and techniques that rough up your hair cuticles.

It’s a roughed up cuticle that makes hair l9ok dull. A smooth hair cuticle looks like a roof under a microscope, with all the singles neatly lying flat. Smooth cuticles are shiny because l igth reflects off smooth surfaces. But dry it-and curl and color it-and before you know it, your hair is dull.

Here are ways to bring back the shine:

1. Eat right. Feed your hair lots of protein! Lean meats, fish, eggs, beans, and low-fat dairy products will help make your hair healthy, says Philip Kingsley, author of “ The Hair Bible”. He especially recommends eating foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, like salmon, avocados , flax seed and almonds. “ It takes six month for you new diet to make your hair shine”.

2. Clean up! Banish the buildup of all those hair products you use-from hair spray to mousse. Kingsley recommends using a clarifying shampoo once a week, or try this homemade recipe: Add one tablespoon of baking soda to two tablespoons of your shampoo. The baking soda will remove sticky residue from your hair.

3. Use conditioner. Use a conditioning product every time you shampoo.

4. Blot it. When you get out of the shower and dry your hair, squeeze and blot it. Don’t rub it as the friction roughs up the cuticles.

5. Cool off. Before blow-drying your hair, use a heat resistant product to seal in shine and prevent damage from the dryer’s high temperature. Every occasionally use the cool setting on your dryer.

6. Sleep on satin. Satiny hair needs satiny pillowcases. Look at it this way. When you’re asleep your head is about nine pounds of deadweight. Friction from tossing and turning can create frizz. Satin pillowcases reduce the friction.

7. Brush with boar. Plastics can break your hair. Use only boar bristle brushes, which are superior for smoothing hair and disturbing natural oils.

Women’s Journal March 19, 2005