How To Make Hair Healthy Again: My Hair Journey

I have always cared a great deal about my hair however, have not necessarily took care of it hence, my hair journey. If I could sum up my take on how to make your hair healthy again I would simply suggest to cut off as much as you can withstand and leave it alone!

I have been blonde for the majority of my adult life. It began when my mom let me get highlights at 14. From that point on my hair progressively got blonder and blonder.

I am naturally a medium brown and always had hair reach down to my chest.  At the beginning of 2008 I decided to go brunette. This lasted about 3 months before I reverted back to my highlights and eventually went all blonde again. That being said, my hair has been through hell and at that point, it was really starting to show. I have naturally very thick hair so I have been able to pull off having long, bleached hair for years however in 2011 I noticed my hair was not looking as thick anymore and therefore trimming inches off the ends regularly in an attempt to make it look better.

Here is a picture of how my hair looked in 2010.

 

 

 

 

It looked like the above since 2008. At the end of 2011 a new hairdresser did this:

 

 

I was in a panic! I never mentioned wanting anything but blonde in my hair and she somehow translated this as red streaks through out my whole head. Streaks or red hair is simply not my thing. Never had I wanted or had red in my hair. I was devastated and drove 4 hours the next morning to my much trusted hair dresser who cancelled her morning appointments and fixed my hair.  This is how it turned out:

 

 

So I was platinum blonde and my hair was more damaged then ever. It was also the shortest I had ever had it...but the red was gone! I kept up this blonde and it looked like this when I tried growing it out:

 

My new years resolution for the year 2012 was to go back to brunette and make my hair healthy again. We went on our annual vacation to Antigua in April and when I returned I took one last picture:

 

...and went to a salon to make my hair dark. Here it was... the beginning of my journey:

 

 

It was so hard to do but I worked myself up to it. I set the date, told people of my plans and was then held accountable. I even committed to cutting off  a few inchs which was also hard for me at the time.

So, since July 2012 I have not died my hair. I've been letting it grow out hoping that by now (October 2013) I would have longer, healthier hair however...hair grows pretty slow my friends. Here is my hair 4 weeks ago:

 

 Shortly after taking this picture,  I cut off another 2 inches. I am striving to get rid of all the hair that was damaged (blonde) but that means even though it is now shorter then I would like, I still need to cut off more and then I'll finally be able to have less breakage therefore longer, thicker hair.  Why be so picky you ask? Dead hair is not pretty. To make dead hair pretty, you must use heat styling to create the illusion that it is in fact healthy and by using this tactic to create an illusion the reality is you are making your hair even worse. I want my hair healthy again. I want it to have it's fullness and thickness back.

 If having short hair is just to hard for you to commit to try purchasing hair extensions and this way you can still have the illusion of long hair while make your hair healthy again.

 

Of course cutting it is just one commitment I have made in the past year to achieving healthy hair. I have also reduced the number of times I straighten/curl/blow dry my hair (eg. I have not straightened my hair since June). I have found other ways to make my hair look good without using heat when I need to have my hair looking good. I also deep condition it twice a week and am working towards only using organic hair care products.

 XoX