Dry, damaged and frizzy hair?

These are the hair products and treatments that transformed my hair.

Photo by Kasia Serbin on Unsplash

Where do I even start? I’m 100% guilty of doing all sorts of things to my hair; bleaching, heated appliances, you name it, I’ve probably done it. I used to have long, very thick hair, and loved it. Just in case you’re wondering, I didn’t cut it short because of the damage. I just wanted a change, and I’ve loved it ever since. I can’t imagine myself with long hair now. Whenever I think I’ll give it a try, it reaches just past my shoulders, and I’m already fed up with it, so I chop it all off again. I just feel that at this stage in my life, I’m happy with short hair, and it suits my personality and style today.

I’ve been highlighting my hair since the age of 18, and I’ve probably only had around 3 breaks in between where I’ve let my hair rest for around 2–3 months at a time. It’s embarrassing to admit that those breaks were due to the fact that my hair became ridiculously damaged, so I was kind of backed up against a wall and had no choice.

Over the years, I’ve been using Olaplex, and it didn’t seem to do much to my hair. In fact, I felt it made my hair worse. I invested in nearly every Olaplex product you can think of, and when I look back, it makes me sick to think how much money I wasted on the brand. I’m sure it may work for others, but after a year of using it, I should have seen some improvement.

When you have damaged and dry hair, your hair loses that beautiful fluid movement and bounce. It’s frizzy, frazzled, and just a complete disgrace. You can forget letting your hair ‘air dry’. If I didn’t blow-dry my hair with a round brush and sectioning, then it would look like a complete disaster.

Over the past year, I have finally gotten my hair to a good place. It finally has some movement and bounce to it and actually looks kind of healthy. If I air-dry my hair now, it’s still curly in all the wrong places, but it’s smoother and looks semi-normal.

So what did I do to transform my hair? I went back to my roots and remembered what my grandmother used to do for me when she was alive. Every other week she used to rub oil into my scalp and tell me to leave it on all day and wash my hair in the evening, or if I wanted to really let it get to work, then leave it on overnight, which required a towel over my pillow and was much easier to do when I was single, for obvious reasons.

So below is what my hair routine has been for the past year: I alternate between different brands when I want to try something new, but the brands mentioned are the ones that have really helped to transform my hair.

Once a week: Fable & Mane Mahamane hair oil - In the morning I rub this into my scalp and from roots to ends and leave it on all day. In the evening I wash my hair. This has really helped to nourish my scalp and my hair is silky smooth after washing.

I also use a hair mask once a week. I love the Virtue Restorative treatment hair mask and use this in place of my conditioner. I leave it on for around 5 to 10 minutes whilst I’m in the shower. When I use this, it has to be a very strategic shower! It means I leave things like body exfoliating etc to do whilst my hair mask is on.

Twice a week: I wash my hair with the Milkshake shampoo and conditioner. This has been amazing for my hair as it doesn’t strip my hair and is a clean beauty brand with no added nasties.

Daily: I use the Virtue Healing hair oil daily on my ends. This is honestly a miracle must have product. After meeting with Melisse Shaban, founder of Virtue labs, she explained to me how the oil works. It has a powerful Alpha Keratin protein which is activated once you shake the bottle. Alpha Keratin 60ku® is a whole keratin protein derived from human hair, the first of its kind ever used in hair care. It is identical to the keratin in our hair, skin, and nails, so it has the power to bind directly to damaged areas and repair damaged hair. It doesn’t leave your hair greasy so it’s perfect for daily use.

General rule of thumb: If you follow me on social media then you’ll probably notice I don’t wear my hair down much. This is because I no longer straighten my hair. I stay away from heat styling as much as I can. If I do use heat appliances then it’s always the Dyson range as it’s less likely to damage my hair than something like a GHD.

So that’s my hair routine and I hope it’s helped if like me, you’ve had the experience of dry and damaged hair! There is hope!