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Pain Free Braids

5 Tips to Keep Your Hair Healthy and Prevent Damage

Finding a balance between healthy habits and damaging habits can be difficult, specifically when it comes to keeping your hair healthy. While there are plenty of ways you can damage your hair, there are also some easy preventative measures you can take to keep your locks looking their best for as long as possible. Unfortunately, our daily routines typically result in excess stress on our hair. Stress from; weather, humid air after a shower, or vigorous activities like running or soccer. The very best method to keep your head healthy and avoid damage to the hair is by incorporating a couple of preventative measures into your everyday routine. Whether you’re trying to prevent damage in the first place or keeping damage under control once it has already begun, these tips will have you feeling fantastic in no time!

Eat Healthy and Stay Hydrated For Healthy Hair

Keeping your body healthy is among the very best methods to keep your hair healthy.

Healthy hair

 

Maintaining a healthy weight and eating a well-balanced diet is important for promoting hair growth and avoiding damage. In addition to your diet, staying hydrated is vital for the health of your hair. Healthy hair is hair that is completely hydrated from the inside out.  Surprisingly excess alcohol consumption can lead to extreme drying of the hair and eventually damage. Alcohol hinders the scalp’s ability to maintain moisture levels in the hair, causing excessive dryness and possible damage. Lessening alcohol consumption is important to prevent damage to your hair and the rest of your body will be happy.

Exercise Regularly

Another interesting fact is that hair is comprised of keratin, a protein that makes up 85% of your hair’s structure. Therefore, working out frequently will not only help you feel much better, but it will also benefit your efforts to have healthy hair.

Healthy hair

 

Routine exercise, such as yoga, walking, and even weightlifting, helps to improve circulation in the scalp while also increasing blood flow to the scalp.

This, in turn, promotes better hair growth and a much healthier head of hair. Additionally, exercise has actually been shown to minimize stress and enhance psychological health, both of which can be beneficial for your head and hair as well.

Keep your hair protected and dry

Although your hair may look like it can handle being dragged across a cement floor, this is just not the case. Avoid extreme tugging on your hair and avoid pulling your hair back while wet, as both scenarios, can cause damage. Damage can also be triggered by excessive brushing, which can result in breakage and damage to the hair shaft, which can lead to thinning and even bald spots.  If you have braids, they can get wet in the shower, pool, and when it’s drizzling.

Healthy hair

 

However, we do recommend taking specific preventative measures to protect your braids from fungal growth, hair damage, frizz, and unraveling.

Be sure to dry your braids completely. You can begin with a large microfiber towel. Wrap it around your head and press it into the braids. You can also wrap the towel around a few braids at a time and carefully squeeze them. Then let them air dry the rest of the way.  Avoid tying up your braids in a ponytail or bun while they are still damp; let them dry in the open air over the course of a day. If you don’t have time to air-dry your hair, you can use a blow-dryer on its “cool” setting to speed up the process a bit. A bonnet hair dryer (or hooded dryer) will also do the trick– it ought to only take a couple of hours at most.

Healthy hair

 

Protect your hair from the sun and humidity

Sun exposure and humidity can be two of the most harmful factors for your hair.

Being aware of the amount of sunshine you expose your hair to and avoiding extreme humidity in the air can help to keep your hair healthy and prevent damage. Excessive sunshine with direct exposure, especially if you are in a warm climate, can be a lot more harmful if you have just dried your hair.  Not to mention how excessive humidity can make hair frizzy and curly due to the high levels of water in the air. We’re betting that you or someone you know has canceled a date, an event, or called off work all due to a bad hair day. Ohhh the missed opportunities!  Beat the heat and humidity with a fantastic protective style that matches your hair texture.

Healthy hair

 

Then cover it with a scarf. Make sure to hydrate your scalp and hair with the proper oils. We prefer 4Tress Daily roll-on oil for healthy hair and scalp.  Developed using 10 of the most highly recommended essential oils including Jamaican Black Caster and Morula oils, our scalp moisturizing solution will become your go-to oil treatment product.

Rich in omega fatty acids and antioxidants, 4Tress Daily nourishes at a cellular level to reduce itching and flaking, plus revitalizes your scalp to promote healthy hair growth.

For Healthy Hair Take Breaks Between Protective Styles

Protective styles pull on your hair and cause tension and pressure. This will damage your hair over time as your follicles are stressed when the hair is pulled into place. The longer you leave your braids in, the more likely they are to become matted. If you leave them enough time, they might even begin to lock up! Matted hair can take hours to detangle and may even end up being so bad that you consider cutting your hair off.

Healthy hair

 

This definitely defeats the purpose of getting your protective style in the first place.  Appropriate care with the best products while not wearing your style is just as essential as when you are. You should concentrate on hydration.

Use the right hair care products for your hair texture and scalp. Avoid products with silicone in them. Although they make sleek protective barriers from heat styling, they prevent moisture from getting in the hair follicle and shaft. Excessive silicone and the end result is broken, damaged hair. Try a product with hyaluronic acids instead. It’s fantastic for moisture and healthy hair.

Speak to your stylist to identify how long your specific braids ought to remain in to maintain the health of your hair and scalp, however as a general guideline try to keep your braids in for no longer than 8 weeks at a time for optimum scalp and hair health.

Healthy hair

Conclusion

As you can see, the most important thing when it concerns keeping your hair healthy is to be consistent. You can’t just eat healthily, exercise frequently, then expose yourself to damaging aspects, and anticipate your hair to be fine.

Being consistent with your daily routines and taking care of your scalp and hair is the very best method to ensure your hair stays healthy and damage-free. If you make the effort to include a few of these tips in your routine, you will be well on your way to healthy hair for years to come.