My Hair Care Info (more detail)

Hello everyone!

In case any one was wondering what things I have changed as it pertains to my hair care the past week. I mentioned a little bit in yesterday's blog about changing hair products, but I am also doing a few other things and I figured I would share my hair care journey. That way it is all written down-the good and the bad- instead of me having to write it down on paper and then later having to remember what happened when. This will be easier for me and easier for you and I think just easier all around.

My Hair Background:

My hair issue seems to have started about 2 years ago after I died my hair, didn't like the way it turned out, and died it again one week later. Ever since then my hair has pretty much gone from super oily to super dry. I noticed that there was more hair fallout than usual. My hair was dry all the time. My hair has always been on the thin side, but recently I have noticed it has become even thinner. For the past about year and a half I have had issues with my hair breaking and falling out easily. Now it actually is noticeable to the point where people can see I am missing hair because it just looks so thin. I attribute some of what's going on to aging because I am getting a bit older. I also attribute this issue because I constantly wore tight hair ties all day and most nights all night while I was sleeping. I wear hair ties when I have to which is not as frequent anymore and I definitely don't wear anything tied in my hair to bed. The weird thing is I have always heard people warn again doing too much with your hair because it will cause this to happen, but I rarely style my hair so I don't use heat products on it, I have only died my hair maybe 10 times in my life and most of those times were done professionally at a salon. For the last five years the only thing I have really done with my hair is wash it, let it air dry, and sprayed leave in conditioner in it. There isn't really any reason for my hair to be "chemically" damaged. I only wash my hair about twice a week so it's not like I am overwashing it or anything.

Previous Hair Care:

In the past almost two years I have tried a couple of things, but at the time I wasn't too worried about my hair because I still had hair. The strands were thicker than they are now. I thought it was fairly normal to lose some hair. I tried Fructis Triple Nutrition for Dry, Damaged Hair. I saw the commercials for it and decided to try it. It didn't work for me, but it was cheap so I kept buying it. When the hair issues started picking up about a year and a half ago I decided to branch out to other products so I tried Organix Brazillian Keratin Therapy shampoo and conditioner and sadly that didn't work for me either. So I went on youtube and stumbled upon a video of someone talking about the Aussie 3 Minute Miracle. I tried it and liked it. So I bought the Aussie Moist shampoo and conditioner, Aussie Hair Insurance, and Aussie 3 Minute Miracle. I have been using those products for about a year. I love the things that the Aussie 3 Minute Miracle do, but I could tell that it wasn't actually repairing my hair. I have not noticed any difference in my hair in about a year using all of the Aussie products. I would still recommend the Aussie 3 Minute Miracle for a quick fix, but I would definitely suggest finding a product that will actually repair the hair in the long term because the Aussie line does not do any of that, at least not for my hair. A while back I did try doing the whole EVOO in my hair thing, but I don't feel like it really did anything. I did notice it made my hair softer, but it was such a huge semi-expensive process that I only did it for maybe two weeks. I stopped mostly because it was really messy, but I might pick it up again.

 Hair Routines I am Currently Looking Into:

What sparked me to write about my hair was because I went out and bought a L'Oreal product that I am going to try using in my hair. I can definitely say that I am now a lot more willing to spend a lot of money on hair care products than I would have if you had asked me even a year ago. After I finish off the Aussie products that I have I am going to definitely reach out more and look for other hair care products even if it might mean buying salon hair products. Last week I went to my local Walmart and stocked up on vitamins. I am making sure that I am getting enough vitamins in my system. I have been taking vitamins every day for a week now. I did some more research on youtube about hair growth products and I stumbled upon people claiming that monistat 7 helps to grow hair faster. I bought the package and I am probably going to put it into my hair some time today. The monistat 7 was more for hair growth than hair repair, but I have different lengths of hair due to breakage so I am hoping that it will promote healthy hair growth. I found youtube videos talking about massaging the scalp to promote hair growth so I take at least a couple of minutes a day to massage my scalp. I have noticed the importance of keeping up with trimming the hair because I noticed I have a lot of split ends that were getting tangled which is why I have different hair lengths.

A short list version for ease:
-switching hair care products
-taking vitamins daily
-Monistat 7, probably mixed with EVOO and/or the L'Oreal Balm
- scalp massaging
-trimming the hair regularly, especially split ends

Vitamins:

I am currently taking a multi-vitamin, fish oil, and biotin: skin, hair, nails. My vitamin schedule isn't technically set, at least not yet, but I do make sure I take at least 1 of everything mentioned once a day. This week I have thought about increasing my biotin vitamin from 1 to 2.

My multi-vitamin is Centrum Adults Under 50, but any multi-vitamin will do. I usually take one with breakfast.

My fish oil is Spring Valley Enteric Coated Fish Oil of 1,000 mcg. I usually try to take this twice daily, once with breakfast and once before bed. Although, one night I took it before bed and I woke up with burps that tasted like fish even though the bottle says it doesn't cause fish burps. It really grossed me out so now I make sure I take this a couple of hours before bed, like after dinner and it seems to be working.

My Biotin:skin, hair, nails is Spring Valley Biotin Skin, Hair, Nails of 5,000 mcg. I usually take this before bed because I personally feel this works better when you are sleeping because that is when the body repairs so it makes sense. I don't know with 100% certainty how true that is. But this week I am thinking about taking one in the morning and another before bed. I'm pretty sure I took one with breakfast today. But be careful because this does break people out and it broke me out a little bit from using it a week.

Calcium with vitamin D is Spring Valley Calcium with Vitamin D of 600 mcg. I was taking these the first week because I know that vitamin D is really good for general health, but the only one I had was the Calcium with vitamin D because vitamin D helps the body to absorb the calcium. But I am thinking about just buying the vitamin D by itself.

 In a schedule format
Mon/Tues/Wed/Thur/Fri with breakfast: multi-vitamin, fish oil, and biotin. (On occasion I will take one calcium with vitamin D.) 
Mon/Tues/Wed/Thur/Fri with dinner/before bed: fish oil and biotin
On Saturday and Sunday I give my body a bit of a break from vitamins because I'm just starting out on taking vitamins daily and I don't want my body to freak out or overload. So for right now while I am getting used to taking vitamins I usually only take biotin once each day at night with dinner/before bed.

Monistat 7:

I have no words for this. I never ever thought that I would be desperate enough to try anything, but here I am today and I am going to put it in after I shower. A lot of people on youtube said to mix it otherwise there are headache problems so I am going to mix mine with the new product I just bought this past weekend which is the L'Oreal Advanced Haircare Total Repair 5 Damage-Erasing Balm. I may also add EVOO to it too. I will have to see as I go. I haven't actually done it, but I am planning to try it, and I will add more detail as I go.

Scalp Massaging:

What I do is when I find a few minutes of free time I will gently massage my scalp starting at the top and work my way down and then around. I make sure that I try to get every area of my head. I don't think about anything stressful, I try to think about positive things or imagine being on a beach getting a head massage. Whatever helps you to relax just think about that and make sure you do the back of the head. Make sure to do it gently. I love when my husband rubs my head, but he does it to the point where my hair starts knotting up and doing things so I just do it myself because then I can actually relax and enjoy it without my hair getting weird. But if you have someone who can and will rub your head, then definitely go for it! It is super enjoyable.

Trimming Regularly:

This is pretty much self explanatory. It is really good for your hair to get trimmed, experts say, every 6 weeks either by a professional or if you have someone who can do it for you or you can even do it yourself like I do. I usually trim my hair about once a month. I usually cut about half an inch of hair. I have noticed slight, but quick changes after I trim my hair. It feels lighter, it looks more even, it doesn't tangle as easily because I cut off the split ends, and I feel that it gets a lot easier to work with.

Switching Hair Care Routines/Products:

I have heard it said before that hair gets used to routines so they don't work as well as they did at the beginning. I'm not sure how true that is. I am personally switching hair care products because I am done with the cheap versions. My hair deserves better than $3 or $5 quick fixes. I am really serious about repairing my hair. As I buy new products I will keep you updated on which ones. Currently the only one I have is the L'Oreal Paris Advanced Haircare Total Repair 5 Damage-Erasing Balm.

Overall my two goals that I have are: I am trying to repair the hair that I still have left because I have been growing it out for a few years and I am trying to promote healthier hair growth so that the new hair coming in is healthier. I may not see results from what I'm doing for months or even a year and it may even take longer. This will be a slow lengthy process. I know this was super long, but I hope it was informative and I hope it helps someone else out there who is struggling with thinning, breaking hair.

Sincerely,
Marina