Long hair don't care

2 years ago my hair was dead and completely lifeless. I knew it was time to chop it to bring the life back into it. I had never had short hair before and thought it would be a fun change. At that point I realized I needed to start taking care of my hair.

Left: long damaged hair | Right: Short healthy hair

I get asked a lot how I keep my hair so healthy. In the last two years I chopped my hair to my shoulders and now its longer than its ever been in my life. Here are some of the things I have learned about my hair throughout this growing process.

For the first 6 months after I got my hair chopped I used heat on it maybe 2 or 3 times. My short hair dried incredibly fast and is stick straight so it wasn't a bid deal to air dry. About a week after I chopped it I also went to Europe for a month and didn't have room for any heat tools which helped me get into the habit of not using heat. I did lots of ponytails, braids and twists to keep it interesting.

My hair is incredibly dry on the ends, I have bad dandruff, and my hair is INCREDIBLY oily. Ive learned the best thing for my hair is to go 2-3 days without washing it. This was so hard to do at first because my hair literally looked wet after a day of not washing it. EW. but I trained it and now its easy to go that long.

I don't really have a go to shampoo, except that I use head and shoulders dandruff shampoo a couple of times a week. My biggest secret is the moisturizer I put on the ends after every shower. I really feel like this has helped my hair fight split ends in the dry climate of Utah. I use Ion moisturizer solutions intense hydration and get it at Sally's for like $10 every 6 months to a year. I only put it on my ends otherwise my head would be a greasball.

I still try to use heat on my hair once a week or less. This means I don't blow dry it ever and I curl it maybe once a week. I also get it cut every 4-6 months taking off about an inch to get rid of the dead ends.

These techniques made my hair grow fast and super strong. If your hair is dead I suggest cutting it all off and starting from scratch.

The best part about healthy hair is that I don't get sick of it and I don't have to do much to it. My typical hair styles are: straight, fun braids, bun or curls. I plan on keeping it long until i get sick of it, so who knows I could chop it tomorrow.