The best tips for how to grow long, healthy hair fast

I LOVE long hair. I have had hair down to my waist a few times in my life and I have only had it shorter than my shoulder blades three times. My hair is naturally pretty healthy and usually grows fast. The last year or so I have started to have more breakage. That combined with a botched hair cut has left me with shoulder blade length hair that I intend to grow out ASAP. 

I have done quite a bit of research lately and I wanted to share it and my own experience with other long hair addicts and dreamers out there.

Welcome to hair school!

First you want to encourage growth and secondly you want to prevent breakage. (Duh, right?) But seriously all tips fit into one of these two.

Encourage growth:

1.  Healthy diet:

  Lots of fruits and veggies

  Whole grains

  Healthy fats and proteins (fish, legumes, yogurt, eggs, avocados, etc.)

2.  Biotin/hair and skin vitamins

3.  Exercise

4.  Enough sleep

5.  Scalp stimulation:

  Brush/comb from scalp

  Scalp massage

  Part hair in different spots to style and also to brush/comb (putting your head       upside down and brushing your hair out feels sooo good on your scalp)

Preventing breakage:

6.  Use good MOISTURIZING shampoo and conditioner (choose moisturizing over volumizing, etc.)

7.  Deep condition every week or every other week (can do this with coconut oil, tutorial here)

8.  Wash hair every other day at the most

9.  Lather shampoo in hands before shampooing roots (if your shampoo lathers)

10.  Shampoo roots only

11.  Condition all of your hair, start at the roots and scalp and work to ends (use the conditioner to massage your scalp for about two minutes after you've coated all of your hair)

12.  Don't brush through wet hair

13.  Satin or silk pillow case

14.  Braid hair before going to bed

15.  Don't pull hair up into a bun or pony tail every day (I have been guilty of this and think it's the cause of a lot of my breakage)

16.  Use bobby pins, clips and barrettes more than pony tail bands to prevent breaking hair

17.  Trim broken and split ends when you notice them (great tutorial here)

18.  Only trim breakage don't get trims just "to keep hair healthy" or "to help it grow."   Your hair is dead and has no way of even knowing it has been trimmed. It will not make it grow faster, but breakage needs to be removed as splits and breaks will continue up the hair shaft and will also contribute to tangles and more breakage

19.  Avoid heat styling: do bun curls, sock bun curls, braids, etc. to get body and different styles.

20.  Air dry hair, if you have to use a blow dryer, let your hair dry almost all of the way and then use blow dryer, don't towel dry hair.



So I had a really, really bad hair trim in January.  I finally had the courage to go in and get it fixed last weekend.  I knew I was going to lose a lot of length, but it was so uneven that I couldn't even wear my hair down.  Here's the before and after of my "fix it" cut.

Do you have any good tips I left out?  Share them below, pretty please!  :)

Testing, testing 1 2 3: Mascara contact solution fix

So there have been a lot of pins on Pinterest about adding contact solution or saline eye drops to old mascara. This is supposed to fix the dry, clumpy, old mascara you already have so you don't have to buy a replacement as soon. Sounds great to me!

Here's my test of this mascara fix. I added about five drops of contact lens solution to my old mascara.

So far it's great! I will update this in about a week with whether it is still working.

If you want to test this out now...

Take your kinda clumpy old mascara and add four drops solution (contact lens or saline eye drops). Put your wand back in and twist tightly shut. Shake it up. Start untwisting your wand then twist back shut, do this a few times to continue mixing. Don't pump the wand in and out to mix. This introduces more air and dries mascara out.

**It's been a week now and my mascara is still working just fine.  It is starting to slowly thicken up again, but it is about perfect and not clumpy.  It was getting to the point that it was clumping and flaking before I "fixed" it and I haven't had any problems since :)

It works!

Brown Sugar Facial Scrub

I'm starting to get excited for spring! But it's very much still winter, so... Here's a quick pick-me-up for your skin. Winter can be--or actually is--really hard on your face. This will exfoliate and moisturize your skin and leave it baby's bum soft :)

The recipe:

One part grape seed oil (or olive oil or coconut oil or any oil you want to use on you face)

Two parts brown sugar

I just put the sugar in the little dish and poured a bit of oil in. Then I went to my bathroom sink and scooped some up in my fingers and started gently massaging it in circular motions into my whole face. Then I rinsed with warm water. Your face will still be slightly oily but it will absorb in and make your skin really soft and moisturized. 

If you have oily, acne prone skin don't go all crazy and start doing this every day. It might make you break out. Once a week or so should be plenty to get the moisturization and exfoliation benefits without overdoing it.

Benefits of brown sugar and grape seed oil:

The sugar is high in glycolic acid which helps in skin turnover and in helping acne and skin discoloration. Brown sugar is better for sensitive skin vs white sugar. Grape seed oil is great for moisturization and for actually helping acne! It also helps dry skin/sensitive skin issues like eczema. It has mild astringent properties, helps tighten pores, and makes skin smooth.