Hair can transform your whole appearance. While we all love our freshly blown-out salon hair, it isn’t feasible to get them every weekend.
So how can you maintain that look at home? How do these pinterest girls have the most beautiful voluminous hair? What secrets aren’t they spilling? Let’s discuss.
Just like your skin, understanding your hair type is crucial for knowing what products to use. For reference Aveda offers a quiz, and you can discover many more online. If you don’t understand your hair and just buy products on a whim, you risk over-proteinization and over-moisturization hair issues. This means your hair can snap, break, be dry or weak.
Always use a heat protectant.
Picture a piece of bread being toasted. Now do it again. And again. Now it’s charred, right? Burnt to a crisp. THAT IS YOUR HAIR WITHOUT HEAT PROTECTANT. With that being said, heat protectants can be specialized in a variety of ways! Some hair oils protect against heat. There are blowout creams that make styling so much easier while protecting your hair from heat. There are lighter spray forms, if you have hair that greases up too quickly.
Section your hair off before styling! You have to go in pieces, like your hair-dresser does.
Let’s unpack hair styling tools. There are a major variety, such as blowout brushes, blow dryers, curling wands, flat irons, crimpers, rollers, etc. I’ll focus on my favorites.
Flat irons come in skinty sizes, and fat ones. Wider ones are meant to reduce styling time for those with thicker hair. So for my ladies and gents with textured, curly, or coarse hair this is the tool for you!
Curling irons for majestic curls. Get a thicker barrel for those 90’s style loose curls, or a smaller one if you want it a little tighter. I also recommend a smaller one if you have shorter hair. If you have thicker or longer hair, definitely a bigger barrel. I love DryBar’s curling iron in particular, because it has a rotating barrel. It avoids the frustration of your hair not wrapping the right way. It makes life so much easier.
For blow dryers, just check the heat. Make sure it won’t fry your hair off. If you have fine hair that tends to get greasy quickly, your washes will last longer with blow drying. It also allows it to lay nicer, and adds volume.
For blowout hot brush stylers such as revlon brushes, do not use it on wet hair unless you have super strength hair. Like please don’t, you are basically putting a flat iron on your hair. You are applying super high heat at a very close range. Verus if you use a blowdryer, it’s a few inches away from your scalp. I am not stating your hair should be bone-dry before you use it, just have it like 75% dry or damp.
I adore blowout brush stylers! Even the Revlon, who many claim it makes their hair break (you put it on wet hair didnt you?). I’ve noticed less damage by using this tool twice a week verus using my straightening iron. I leave my hair a little damp before using it, but blowdry my roots before. I utilize blowout cream and section it off, then use my blowout brush as normal. It is my favorite tool for a blowout at home. Now I do love a good Dyson Airwrap, but you can get the same look from the revlon brush or rollers.
If your hair doesn’t hold curls or bouncing layers from the blowout tool well, here’s my solution. Living Proof blowout spray is a nice hold, and you spray your hair with it before styling. After which, use rollers! It’s so easy to learn, let your hair sit with them and use a brush-able hair spray. This is the secret to 90s hairstyles and that perfect 90’s blowout at home.
If you have textured curly hair, or struggle with frizz, use a blowout cream. This helps keep everything in place even after you go out in humidity. IGK makes the best cream I have ever used. You can also get a humidity proofer, such as Amika’s “the shield” spray. Or the WOW “dreamcoat” spray, or you can spray a brushable hairspray such as “it’s a 10” and comb through it. These keep it nice and soft but well held, no weird crunch or stickiness.
For the girls who go heatless, hair rollers, hair socks, and the variations of the sort are amazing. I would do it while your hair is still a little damp, with a cool setting on a hair dryer. There are also a million hair accessories to keep around, such as claw clips, scrunchies, clear little elastics for bubble-braids, and bobby-pins!
However you style, using a finishing cream afterwards creates even more of a high-shine finish!
Now for my favorite hair brands for washing, or styling.
Quay, DryBar, EvaNYC, Amika, LivingProof, Aveda, Pureology, IGK, and Pravana. I also love Olaplex hair oil, but I stay away from their other products as they caused my hair to have over moisturization. Ulta sephora etc all allow for you to filter products based on what you need, or if you have textured hair. Aveda will help recommend products if you take the quiz.
Now for my lovelies with protective hairstyles. Brigeo’s Gentle line, Pattern’s “Heavy” line, Shea Moisture, and Sunday Soothe Me Scalp serum all are amazing to name a few. Aveda has a BeCurly line, which is also fantastic.
Get your hair trims. 
Just ask for a dusting every 6-weeks. I know so many people who swear their hair grows longer if they don’t trim it, but you risk your split ends traveling up the hair shaft. This causes you to have uneven thickness and lengths of the hair, such as thick roots but very sparse thin scraggly ends.
If your hair is not growing as fast as you want, you need to look at your diet. Just like fingernails, hair relies on those crucial little nutrients. I am not saying to cut out your weekly taco bell run, but simply to invest in a vitamin. It does not have to be only for hair, I noticed getting a daily multivitamin made my hair so quickly! When you get a vitamin meant for only hair, or for biotin, check the dosages. You are risking a biotin overdose, AKA, a very VERY upset tummy with some other unfun symptoms (I learned this the hard way).
Last but not least, protect your hair. I use satin pillow cases, and also wear a bonnet to sleep. There are many bonnets, hair turbans, and other sleep wraps you can use in longer styles, and short. They save me from so much bedhead, and also protect my blowouts!
If you want to know more, check out our livestream Wednesday at 5 p.m!
