How to Detox Your Hair

A trip to the hairdresser always results in clean, glossy hair - it's all down to clever washing, conditioning and styling. Our simple detox reveals how to get the same results at home.

Clean, healthy hair looks great. Its smooth surfaces reflect light and lock in moisture, giving it natural shine and bounce. But harsh treatments and pollution can wreck it. Colour processing and heat styling weaken and dry it out. Too much product coats and weighs it down. The result is dull, lank, dirty, or difficult hair - or, more simply, toxic locks.

Sounds familiar?

Then it's time to detox. find out how to bring your hair back to life with deep cleansing to banish build-up, perfect conditioning to restore health and shine, and styling product essentials to keep you away from the toxic hair cycle.

Washing your hair is the first stage of your hair detox session. Your aim is super-clean locks, and to achieve this you need to wash your hair the way the experts do it. Use just a little shampoo, then rinse, rinse, rinse - experts warn that the prime cause of dull hair is too much product and not enough rinsing. Your normal shampoo will usually be fine, but if you tend to use a lot of products, try a detox, deep cleansing or chelating shampoo - these are specially formulated to deep cleanse your hair and rid it of product build-up.

HOME-MADE HAIR MASK

•           1 ripe banana

•           10ml/2tsp grapeseed oil (available from health food shops and supermarkets)

•           Clingfilm

Mash the banana, then mix in the oil to make a thick paste. Massage into the hair and scalp, cover the hair in clingfilm and leave for 30 minutes.

Wash out using a mild shampoo.

Most of us will go to a lot of trouble to keep to a strict beauty regimen so that our skin, hair, and nails look gorgeous all the time. People across the world spend millions to reach their beauty goals and to try and prevent themselves from going under the knife eventually.

The beauty industry is a multi billion-dollar business, and most of the products are not your typical home ingredients, but commercial products, packed with chemical ingredients; some of which can often cause allergies and damage to your hair and skin.

Look at some hectic sounding chemical names found in beauty ingredients:

• Methyl, Butyl, Propyl, Ethyl Paraben
• Propylene Glycol
• Synthetic colors
• DMDM Hydantoin
• Synthetic Colors
• Synthetic fragrances
• Triethanolamine
• Diethanolamine
• Imidazolidinyl Urea
• Diazolidinyl Urea
• Behentrimonium Chloride, and more.

Scary! These toxins and chemicals in commercial beauty products can do plenty of harm. But were you aware that there are natural ingredients you probably have at home that should not be scorned at or under-estimated? 

Some of these products listed below have the capacity to make your skin and hair glow and shine with health from inside and out:

• Olive oil
• Almonds
• Avocado
• Green Tea
• Honey
• Oatmeal
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Tomatoes
• Olive Oil for your hair and skin is not only a wonderful oil to consume and cook with, but it is an ancient ingredient, being used because of its beautifying abilities. Not only does your hair benefit, but your skin and nails too. Olive oil has monounsaturated fatty acids to protect your skin from sun damage. If you want to enhance your hair and skin and your overall health, add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil – extra virgin olive oil – to your diet, period.
• Avocados: It makes no difference whether it’s the fruit, the seed or the oil, avocados need to form part of your beauty routine – especially if you have dry skin. When you eat half an avocado every day when in season, you are protecting your skin. The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology did a study in 2012. The report found that when people take regular doses of avocado, they bolster their cells to protect them against harmful free radicals.
• Green Tea: There are many health and beauty benefits when it comes to green tea. First of all, it has plenty of antioxidants in it to prevent free-radical damage from harming your skin caused by sun damage. Green tea, in addition, helps to fight against you getting skin cancer. Use this fantastic face mask a couple of times a week to hold back time and keep your skin healthy. Mix plain yogurt, 3 tablespoons, with 1 tablespoon grounded green tea tealeaves and a touch of turmeric powder. Smooth this over your face and neck, allowing to stay on for about 20 minutes before using lukewarm water to rinse off.
• Lemons: We all know just how many beauty secrets lemons have. Full of vitamin C, brimming with antioxidants to prevent free-radical damage, lemons have the ability to boost collagen production in your skin, restoring elasticity. As far as your hair goes, lemons are known to combat itchy scalp and dandruff, balancing the PH levels of your scalp and supporting beautiful hair growth. Just take 2 lemons, adding the juice to a cup of water. After shampooing, rinse your hair with this, and then 5 minutes later, with clear water. Do this about twice a week for soft shimmering hair.
• Coconut Oil: There are heaps of nutrients found in this oil that support hair health, skin and nail health; general overall health. Coconut oil has plenty of moisture in it, protecting your skin from sun damage, reducing inflammation and revitalizing your skin. The oil penetrates deep into your hair, helping with its growth, gloss, and health. And for hair that has been chemically treated, coconut oil is sheer healing because of its hydrophobicity properties. For your skin, you can smooth soothing coconut oil all over the body, waiting about 30 minutes before going under the shower, and then apply a light moisturizer afterward. If you do this daily, your skin won’t be dry and if your skin is really dry even after a shower, apply a light layer of coconut oil on your skin.
• Honey

Honey is the natural beautifier, healer, and tonic for the body. Composed mainly of glucose and fructose, there are amazing proteins, vitamins, amino acids, enzymes and plenty to offer to keep your skin and hair in peak condition.

Recent studies from the journals of Cosmetic Dermatology compliment honey saying how it has emollients and humectants in it to soothe and condition the hair, let alone keeping the skin young and wrinkle-free.

Raw organic honey even improves seborrhea dermatitis of the hair, preventing hair loss when applied on a weekly basis.

For hair loss, take 2 tablespoons each of onion juice and honey and massage into your scalp, allowing it to stay on the scalp for about 30 minutes.

Then shampoo as usual. For your skin, mix the same amounts of fresh lemon and honey and apply to your face and neck, allowing it to dry naturally before rinsing.

• Oats

Look at this soothing mask:

Oatmeal and Almond oil hair mask

• ½-cup oats
• 1-2 tablespoons almond oil
• ¼ -½ cup milk

Mix all ingredients well, ensuring hair is detangled. Apply from your roots to your tips, leaving on for about 20 minutes.

Then shampoo as normal. Oats help to exfoliate the skin, getting rid of dead skin cells, and even dandruff, itching and combatting hair loss.  

As for your skin, it helps to reduce acne, soaking away the oil. It is also superb as a scrub for the skin.

• Apple Cider Vinegar: Apple cider vinegar helps to treat dandruff on the scalp because the acidity makes it difficult for dandruff producing fungus to develop on the scalp. All you have to do is mix the same parts of water and apple cider vinegar adding to a spray bottle. After your hair is shampooed, spray over your scalp, leaving for about 15 minutes before rinsing. Do this twice a week to see amazing results. If your hair is thinning and you experience hair loss, spray ACV over the scalp, because it balances the PH balance of your scalp.

And here are 2 more beauty secrets from nature:

• Instant facelift: Splashing icy water on your face or rubbing it with ice cubes gives you an instant facelift and brightens the face as well. Follow these steps to see for yourself:
• Wash your face, making sure no make-up is left behind
• Splash with the icy cold water or rub ice cubes all over your face
• Then whisk up an egg white until its frothy, spreading this over your clean skin. Leave to dry for a couple of minutes
• Wash the face with cold water and leave to dry
• Add some non-comedogenic moisturizer
• Tired eyes: Long hours at work at the computer and other things can make your eyes really tired. But here is a superb eyewash to refresh the eyes instantaneously. Take some iced spring water, adding to this a couple drops of rose water, add 2-3 drops of honey and then immerse your eye in this liquid. Try to open your eye a bit. Then do the same process for the other eye, using fresh ingredients. Your eyes will feel fresh and soothed.

Conclusion

Seeing as our skin is our body’s largest organ and since our hair is our crowning glory, it makes sense that we should try and give them the best in attention and care.

A lot of us who are health conscious are becoming more and more conscious of what we put into and on our bodies and this same attitude needs to be taken when we plan on products to look after our hair and skin.

The face creams, the body lotions and potions for our skin and hair are what gets absorbed by our skin and our scalps – surely you don’t want to punish your body with toxic stuff? 

Consider going natural with natural products – you will feel and look on top of the world. Remember that your hair and skin is really 90% of your selfie! And both hair and skin are what you wear for the rest of your life!

Styling products add the final touch to your newly detoxed hair - if you use the right amount of the right product. Hair experts agree that most women use far too much styling product, which overloads the hair and starts up the toxic

Blow dry the hair working down from root to tip, and finish off with a cold blast to keep the cuticles flattened and boost shine cycle all over again. So if your styling product doesn't seem to work, or if it leaves your hair limp, heavy or greasy, use less. Apply the minimum and wait to see the effect - you can add more later, but you can't take it away,

Mousse - use a golf ball sized blob.

Gel - use a large sized blob.

Serum - use a small sized blob.

Wax - use a pea sized amount.

Tailor the recommended amounts to your hair length - use half as much for chin-length hair, and twice as much for shoulder-length.

Products take a couple of minutes to work so wait to check the effect before applying more.

Read the label carefully – make sure you are using the right product for your hair type and style.