I love, love, love having long hair for a number of reasons. The main reason is that it makes me feel like me. I’ve almost always had long hair. And yes, the few times I did cut it off, I quickly regretted it. My long hair is part of my signature style and it’s my safety blanket. Whenever I suffer from allergies or eczema, I can use my hair to hide it. Besides that, I also think long hair looks beautiful if you take care it. I get a lot of questions on how I take care of long hair, so I will break it down in this article. Hopefully it helps you with your beautiful hair.
Wash, rinse and repeat
Due to eczema and an extremely dry scalp, I have a different hair routine than most people. I use a special shampoo that takes care of dandruff. Which I use because my scalp is dry and I’m allergic to the foaming ingredients in most shampoos. Foaming ingredients can mostly be found under the name SLES or SLS. Sounds familiar right? According to my dermatologist these ingredients don’t hurt most people, as you rinse them of your skin. Unfortunately, my skin is not strong enough to handle even the shortest amount of content with these ingredients. Having eczema doesn’t help either.
Therefor I’ve been washing my hair with a normal shampoo, only to wash it again with the medical shampoo Ketoconazol I have to use. I’ve been using the Nature Box shampoos for the last two years. Those shampoos are free of sulfates, parabens and colorants. Which is perfect for me as I’m allergic to all of those ingredients. I use this shampoo to clean my hair, after which I use the Ketoconazol shampoo to take care of my scalp. It takes me about eight minutes to do all of this, mainly because the Ketoconazol needs five minutes to work. I used to wash my hair every day, but for the last two years I’ve been doing it every other day.
Hair care products
I love hair care products and I enjoy testing out different ones all the time. One of my tricks is to use a hair mask instead of conditioner every time I wash my hair. Hair masks have become a staple in my hair care routine. They’re a bit stronger than a conditioner, which is what I need to take care of long hair. The longer my hair gets, the more moisture it needs. It also needs detangling ingredients and hair masks contain a lot of those. I prefer hair masks with coconut oil. This oil is just the best for dry hair, in my opinion.
The coconut hair mask by Garnier for instance, is a really good budget option. Other products I love to use are hair serums. Mainly because I straighten my hair every time I washed it. I have a mix of hair types, so straightening it is the easiest option for me. My hair is a mix of European, Asian and cherry curls. As you can see in the pictures in this article, there are some weird waves popping up here and there. If I don’t straighten my hair, I have a weird mix of wavy underlayers and straight upper layers. Hair masks and serums help me moisturize and protect my hair really well.
How I cut my long hair
As you can tell my hair is quite long, which means I don’t cut it often. As I’ve been in the process of growing my long hair out, I’ve only gone once or twice a year in the last few years. As I don’t use much product in my hair, I don’t need a trim that often. However, my hair was really damaged from dye and bleach jobs in the past. So the ends are very sad. They’re dry, brittle and uneven. As you may be able to tell through the pictures, it’s also a different color at the ends. That’s a mixture of old hair, bleach and sunny weather.
Those ugly ends obviously need to go, as it looks old and ratty. And I do not like that at all! The ends are going to get trimmed a bit, because I don’t want my hair to get longer than it is now. I don’t want my hair to go past my jean’s pockets. Which means I will be going to the hairdresser more often this year. I’ll probably have to go every other month. At the moment I’m am thinking about give my hair some layers for more movement. The only thing I don’t like is a straight cut, I always like a round shape as you can tell by my pictures. And yes, I will share my new hair cut very soon!
My favorite hair tools
I was gifted a Rock and Ruddle hair brush many years ago and I use it every day. It’s a really good brush if you need a good detangle and love shine. A good blow dryer is also very important to me. I have really thick hair which means drying it can take ages if the blow dryer isn’t strong enough. I’ve been using the Philips ThermoProtect 2200W for a few years now and it’s still going strong. I would love to try a stronger and faster drying one. But you know me, as a minimalist I use my tools until they’re beyond saving, haha!
Another hair tool I swear by is a Chi straightener. I’m on my second one at the moment and I love how they last for years. Chi straighteners are pretty quick when it comes to styling my hair without damaging it. I also love how it adds shine to my hair while it can keep my hair straight for days. I have a number of curling irons by a brand called ISO. I haven’t curled my hair in a really long time, because it takes a long time with all of this hair. But when I do curl it, I use their curling irons with good results.
How I take care of long hair
Less is more in my opinion. Although it took me a long time to realize that. I’ve grown to love my own hair color, and I haven’t felt the need to bleach or dye it in a long time. Honestly, bleaching did the most damage to my hair. It also took me a long time to grow out the damaged hairs, but as you can see it looks pretty good! Putting enough moisture in my hair is extremely important, so I can’t live without my hair masks. I also like to pick shampoos with the least amount of damaging and drying ingredients. It helped increase the quality of my hair.
I recently experienced a lot of hair loss and I now see a lot of new hairs popping up. Including some grey ones, nooo! I hate grey hair so much, you don’t even know. I pull them out as soon as I see them. Hasta la vista you annoying little grey ones! I’ll probably have to start dying within a few years. Because I’m not ready for grey highlights, if you know what I mean. As this article turned out longer than I thought it would be, I can conclude it like this. I take care of long hair by using high quality products and not overworking it too much. This keeps my hair firm, strong and shiny.
How to you take care of long hair? Please do share your secrets, because I love testing them!
Kaya-Quintana
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Nina
Nice tips dear!! Thanks for sharing!
Have a wonderful day! xx
La ilusión de Nina
Kaya-Quintana
NinaHave a great day too❣️