Need advice from long haired girls!!!

I have just decided to grow my hair as long as it will grow, hopefully at least waist length. Right now it it 2 inches below my shoulder and I am 5`5. I need a proven regimen in which to take care of my hair, I will describe my hair a little so you can help me.
It is dry, and after 2 days of not shampooing my roots get real oily. I need someone to tell me which shampoo and conditioner to use and what I should do with it at night. How often I should wash it? Etc... I need to know everything important please!!!! I have started massaging my scalp for about 10 minutes each night and that is about all I know how to do!!!! Oh, and I stopped using my hair dryer, and I used to wash my hair everyday....If any one can please help me I would appreciate it...You would be helping a fellow woman out......Aslo what about those boar bristle brushes, should I use those? Thanks

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foxfan318 originally wrote:
1. what kind of shampoo do you use now? I love the back to basics line, wash with tepid water, and if you are in the shower use low pressure. Avoid shampoos and conditioners with silicones. Sure, your hair looks great and shiny at first, but they build up wax on the hair and cause damage in the long run.
2. method of washing? The commercials with the women washing their hair on top of their head with all the lather make me cringe. All that manages to do is cause tangles. Tangles+stress=breakage. Wash the hair, condition the scalp. I have found that if I take a 4oz bottle and make it half shampoo and half water I am able to get the shampoo all the way thru my hair to my scalp without using a ton of shampoo. Massage the scalp with the shampoo. This will break down excessive oils. Smooth the shampoo over the rest of the hair. I let mine sit for a while, then rinse. Condition from about 3 inches from the scalp to the ends. Since your hair gets oily your scalp doesn't need conditioner like your hair does. Finger comb the conditioner thru the hair and work out tangles. GENTLY. When you get out of the shower avoid the "hindu headwrap" with the towel, no wringing or twisting. Hair is most vulnerable when it is wet. Matter of fact, I don't even comb mine when it is wet. The finger thing in the shower is it, until it's almost dry then I will comb with a wide tooth bone comb. No plastic. Depending on how dry your hair is, apply a light oil or leave in conditioner to the dry half of your hair.
3. Brushing -- do you brush? use a natural boar bristle brush. Plastic/Nylon is damaging to the cuticle.
3. Sleeping? I pull mine up with a satin or silk scrunchie to sleep in. I am going to get a satin pillowcase and try that also. I have talked to ppl that have cut down on the amount of breakage on their hair once getting away from cotton scrunchies and cotton pillowcases at night.
4. Styling -- use hair friendly accessories. No elastics with metal, and you also want to avoid excessive stretchung and pulling of the hair. It's like a rope, if you put too much pressure on it, it's going to fray and eventually break.

That should be enough to get you started. if you have anymore questions you can email me directly. I am a little obsessed about my hair, but I have fine, thick hair and it breaks easily. If I wasn't so picky it wouldnt' look as nice as it does.

trix

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Hi,

I have little to add to Trix. She gave all great advice and all steps I follow with my hair...except for the satin pillowcases. I like them but I am such a restless sleeper that my head is everywhere (yes I do sleep sometimes). What I do is put my hair in a soft braid tied with a scrunchy OR I just put it in a satin type of scrunchy. I love satin pillowcases but they just don`t work for me.

Another good point that Trix made is finding the right shampoo for your hair type. This makes such a huge difference, at least for me. I used to go to a long hair expert that insisted that I use George Michaels products. I tried and just never got that good hair feeling for me. I think that they are good products, don`t get me wrong, just not for me. So behind his back I started experimenting. This was back in 1988. I tried Bain de Terre (some good stuff) and then I tried Giovanni (liked that a lot) and then I found Aveda. That was the first big "click" for my hair. I had found others clicks over the years too. The Shampure and the alternating Curessence products made my hair feel so great that I just felt I had found my formula. However, it is so important that everyone realize that finding the perfect "hair click" is personal and what works for me will or will not work for others. Jeff as an example has super long wavy hair (to his waist) like mine, except his tends to get oily at the roots. Mine is dry. He needs to use clarifying and less moisturizing products. So he currently uses the Edwin Paul Classic Shampoo and Deep conditioner every day. His hair looks fantastic and he loves it but I can`t use the Classic very often. I alternate a lot. I use Edwin Paul Luxury and Aveda Shampure and then I have about 4 others that do various things depending on what my hair is feeling like at the time. Also, when I am the human guinea pig and try new hair products sometimes they mess with my hair and the only thing that will get it back is ARTec Smoothing shampoo and Curessence conditioner or Shampure and Moisture Pak.

Growing long beautiful hair is a lot like losing weight. It is a long term committment. All the good stuff you do for your hair builds a foundation or base and everything sort of speeds up. Once you find a good product line that works for your hair (Aubrey is great too) then you can focus on getting the right nutritional supplements (I need EFAs every day to keep my hair soft). You can also learn how to style it and minimize damage and grow it healtier. It is a learning process that takes time and yes, a committment. Like everything else in life there is no quick fix.

The other thing that helped me so much is people like Trix and messageboards with people that shared tips and advice. Dave Decker who visits here is also a great resource. He has gorgeous long hair. So I encourage you and all others to share their tips and questions.

Best wishes,
Karen

I actually just wanted to add that I don`t even comb my hair-I can get away with just finger picking only when dry. I think you just should leave your hair alone until it has dried completely.

Happyblonde

Dave,

You are a long hair growing master and too modest about your gorgeous super long hair. :-)

Karen

Karen, thank you for your additional kind words. :-)

Can a person be too modest? Well, surely there are times that I`m not!

And happyblonde, I do remember the discussion over at JerkyFlea`s message board, and yes, the way you described your hair as it is now, it sounds lovely. :-) I have known at least three women who had waist-length hair (1 straight, 1 wavy, 1 fairly curly) who had some amount of layering, though the one who had the most layering seemed an exercise in "too much" layering (IMO). Maybe you`ll want to try to fake the layering by employing various tricks to give your hair more volume in certain places.

Wow. I never thought about that before but it makes huge sense. I wear tons of rings and never take them off but I will from now on. Thanks so much for the eye opener.

Thanks Dave and John.
Still have time to decide before my birthday!:) Hope if I make the layer decision, I can still call myself "HAPPYblonde".

Don`t worry, I`ll try to be as sure as I can before taking any drastic steps.

Happyblonde