In the quest for maintaining and improving your hair health, even small changes can make a valuable impact. The right adjustments to your hair care products, tools, and routine can lead to noticeable results in both the short-term and long-term look and health of your hair.
Read on to discover our guide to small-but-mighty healthy hair tips to embrace strong, shiny locks well into the future.
#1 Know What Healthy Hair Looks Like For You
When it comes to embracing your hair health, you can't know where you're headed unless you first know where you are. Start by knowing what healthy hair looks like in general, as well as how your unique hair behaves.
All natural hair is unique, so every head of hair will look and feel different. However, there are a few universal green flags when it comes to hair health:
- Moisturized strands
- No excessive oiliness near the hair follicle root
- Hydrated, non-flaky, healthy scalp
- Hair growth, no matter how slow
Having specific hair health goals can help you know exactly which steps to take to better improve your hair health. For example, if you're looking to heal split ends, you can prioritize hair masks that promote hair strength and integrity, as well as keep up with regular trims.
After all, though hair health is so much more than just the right shampoo or conditioner, not every method is one-size-fits-all. Achieving your best-ever hair requires a customized routine that caters to your unique hair type, whether you have thick or fine hair, or straight or curly hair.
#2 Shampoo Your Roots, Condition Your Ends
Let's start with the basics: shampoo and conditioner. Although together they're an intrinsic part of keeping your hair clean and moisturized, these two wash-day steps take on wildly different roles when it comes to your hair.
Shampoo is the essential cleansing agent of any hair care routine. This is largely due to its chemical makeup that includes surfactants: uniquely constructed molecules that allow water to bind to and wash out oils, dirt, and any other build-up on the strands and scalp.
However, as the shampoo surfactants clean, some can also cause dry hair. To minimize any dryness and maximize hair health, make sure to concentrate your shampoo application only where it's needed (usually on the roots and scalp).
Inversely, conditioner takes on the role of supplementing moisture. Many conditioners can also add shine, luster, or other nourishment.
Because these benefits are oil-based, excess conditioner can leave oily residue behind on the scalp. We recommend applying conditioner only to the lengths and ends of your hair and avoiding the scalp or anywhere within two or three inches from your roots. This will prevent your hair from being weighed down with oil—leaving your scalp with a gratifying volume boost.
#3 Use High-Quality Hair Tools for High-Quality Hair
Heat styling tools like blow dryers, flat irons, and curling wands have made hair styling as easy as can be. But if you're not using the right tools (read: tools whose materials and mechanics minimize heat exposure), you may very well be compromising your hair's health with every pass of the iron.
Investing in the future of your hair means ditching low-quality hair care and opting for high-quality hair tools. If you're in the business of benefiting your hair health, keep an eye out for these features in professional heat styling tools:
- Robust temperature control – Styling hair at temperatures that are too high for your hair type can be potentially damaging to your individual hair strands. Overexposure to heat compromises hair's outermost layer—the cuticle—leaving the strand’s foundation—the cortex—prone to permanent damage. To mitigate overexposure and prevent potential damage, look for tools with customizable temperature settings that give you maximum heat control.
- Even heat distribution: Irregular heat distribution can have a major effect on hair, whether it’s hot spots overheating certain sections, or cool spots forcing you to take several passes with your curling iron or flat iron. Look for styling tools that focus on uniform heat distribution to help guard against overexposure, like the T3 Lucea. Its T3 CeraSync heaters ensure synchronized heat across both plates, for one-pass styling without exposing hair to excess heat.
- Temperature regulation: When you set a styling tool to your preferred heat setting, it’s expected that your temperature will stay put. But without tools that do their due diligence, that’s not always the case. Look for styling tools that regulate temperature as you style, so you can trust that your tool stays firm at the temperature you’ve selected. T3 tools, like our ionic blow dryers or the T3 AireBrush Duo, come equipped with a smart microchip that actively monitors heat to keep temperature fluctuations in check.
#4 Use Hair Masks and Deep Conditioner for Added Hydration
It might go without saying that healthier hair requires daily upkeep. But what about beyond the day-to-day?
Incorporating hair masks and deep conditioners into your hair care routine is a great way to give your hair a boost of moisture or nourishment. Here are some of our go-to brands for hair that could use a little hydrating TLC:
- Virtue
- IGK
- R&Co.
- Bumble & Bumble
- Living Proof
- Kenra
- Olaplex
- K18
A step above a regular hair conditioner, deep conditioners and hair masks are deeply penetrative hair treatments, usually done weekly (though every other week could be suitable for fine hair). After your deep conditioner or mask is washed out, you and your hair reap the beautiful benefits of nourishment and restoration.
Build Your Healthy Hair Routine
As we've learned, there are several pathways to achieving healthy hair growth. Whether you're improving your hair care as you style (with healthy heat control) or on wash-day (penciling in your bi-monthly hair mask) it's easy to make incremental improvements that have a major impact.
