Hair Voodoo / Bringing Your Hair Back From the Grave

I’m no expert in hair care, in that I’ve never been trained as a hair expert. I have, however, won the battle against bleached, damaged and splitting hair. It’s been a long, slow, painful journey in which a lot of time has been spent googling, purchasing treatments and oils, and using said treatments and oils.  So I’ve compiled all my knowledge and expertise into a guide for growing your poor excuse for hair into Rapunzel-esque locks. I’ve even been as nice enough to show you how my hair looked at each stage, which is super embarrassing! I had some seriously short eyebrows at one point!

 Your hair is so dull and coarse it is in a constant state of knotty, frizzy affairs, and it’s so broken all it takes is a gust of wind to release new split ends down your jumper. It refuses to grow: if anything, it’s getting shorter because the ends are constantly falling off. This is normally the result of numerous hair dying, bleaching, blow drying and straightening.

How to fix it:
Get a chop. At least a good inch off. It’s heart rendering, I know, but that is only going to fall out in the next few weeks anyway.
Rub coconut or olive oil into the ends of your hair each night. Your hair is so dry it will lap all the oil up, meaning your hair won’t be oily in the morning but it will have had some overnight TLC.
Plait it every night before bed. This will stop the hairs rubbing on each other, causing more breakage.
If you have a day off, or wash your hair in the morning, cover your hair in oil, and then conditioner (this keeps the oil locked in) before wrapping it in cling film, and then a towel.
Egg is great for strengthening your hair, but can make your hair seem really starchy, so mix it with olive oil to add protein and moisture. Rinse out with cold water, or the egg will cook!
Only ever wash your hair with lukewarm or cold water. This helps close the hair follicles, locking in moisturiser.
Use afro Caribbean shampoo, conditioner and treatments. They are like super conditioning, as they are made to tackle millions of years of evolution that causes black hair to be dry.
When your washing your hair, only shampoo the roots. Condition from your ears down, and leave for the entire duration of your shower. Rinse thoroughly, with cold water.
Wear your hair up every day. You might hate it, but it protects your hair against drying weather and heating.
Do NOT use heat on your hair. Your hair is so dry, it will take five minutes to dry naturally anyway. Stop it!
Don’t rub your hair dry with a towel: this pulls of weak, broke hair. Pat dry, using the towel to absorb excess water.

After about 2-3 months of this constant love and care, your hair should be a little bit thicker, less brittle and a bit easier to manage. It may have even grown a tiny bit. Get it cut! Sorry girls but I made the mistake of not getting mine cut regularly when I was in this condition and it delayed hair growing potential by about two years.

At this stage, black conditioner will be too heavy for your hair on a daily basis, so keep these for deep conditioning treatments. Do these 1-2 times a week.
Invest in a really good moisturiser for damaged hair. I like Aussie’s 3 minute miracle conditioning treatment. Do this for 6-8 minutes every shower, and rinse properly. You should only be washing your hair 2-3 times a week, max.
Continue doing coconut oil in your ends overnight, and coconut oil your hair for at least 30 minutes before showering.
After showering, either coconut oil the ends or invest in a good serum. Still don’t use heat!!
It’s better if you wear your hair up, but so long as you don’t use heat to style it, it’s not too bad. You can invest in some extensions to hide your length, and make messy styles look a bit nicer. Don’t use them every day, as it weakens the roots.
Get it trimmed every 8-10 weeks. This allows it to grow faster than it’s being cut, but slowly getting rid of dead ends.

After a couple of months, your hair should be in pretty decent condition. You can slow down your hair conditioning treatments to once or twice a week, and stop using coconut oil overnight. You may reintroduce heat to your life so long as your using a couple of different heat protectors (mousse, balms, spray), although you should limit this. Within a month or two, your hair should be nourished and lovely! You’ll still need to get shampoo and conditioner for dry hair, but you shouldn’t need to do masks or oil treatments on a regular basis, just when you want to! Vamp up the routine again in winter though, is this strips the moisture and can revert it to being dry.

I know it’s a pain when you just want long, healthy hair NOW but it really is worth being patient and holding out for the long haul, unless you want to forever have short hair or need extensions.

I hope you find this guide useful! Prevention is always the best cure, so try not to go crazy bleaching, dying and straightening! And start treating your hair as soon as you get the first sight of dry hair and split ends!

What are your hair horror stories? Any secret tips you have for growing hair I’ve missed?

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