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#skinthusiast: the podcast
How I Transformed My Damaged Hair To Healthy, Shiny and Silky | + My Wash Day Schedule
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Amy
I get so many compliments on my hair, even from my hairdresser. I had a hairdresser one time tell me that she never felt hair like mine. And I say this because I've also been on the other end of the spectrum where my hair was literally breaking off at the ends. So if I can get back to a good place with my hair, then I promise you can too. You just have to have the right tools in your toolbox. Welcome to SkenthusiasThePodcast, a place for listeners to hear from the experts and so can tangible tips to get that glow from the inside out. I'm Amy, a skincare educator, practicing dermatology, PA and beauty creator who bridges the gap between the consumer and the industry. Listening to the industry's top experts on everything from the best way to spot treat a pimple to the holy grail hair products you didn't know you needed to the drugstore finds that are better than luxury price tags. We cover it all here. Dermatologists, beauty and wellness experts, brand founders and thought leaders share their tips and tricks for all things beauty, skincare and wellness. Think of hashtag skenthusiasts like the coffee chat with the beauty gurus whose brains you've always wanted to pick. You won't get this kind of insight anywhere else. Hello and welcome to another episode of skenthusiasthepodcast. Today's episode is a solo episode all about my hair tips and my hair journey. Over the last few years, I have definitely ventured into the world of hair care as far as social media education. So much more. It was always something that I educated my own patients on and experimented with myself. But I started to realize that there was really a need for it on social media. So I have noticed a stark increase in the amount of interest when it comes to hair care. So that's why I wanted to create this kind of comprehensive regimen episode that kind of lives on my podcast feed so that anyone who has questions about hair care can reference it. We also have a new guide on the shop skinthusiast.com shop that's completely dedicated to hair care and understanding your hair type, understanding which hair products you need, and how to formulate a routine and a wash day schedule. So if that's something you're interested, you can go there. I'm going to actually talk about it a little bit more later in the episode to give you some more details, but let's start a little bit with my own hair journey. So I have cut off my hair and then grown it long Many different times in my life, I have been bleach blonde and I have been dark brown, which is my natural color at many different times. I have used a lot of heat, a lot of color surfaces. I have permed my hair in the past. So I have had my fair share of hair damage. Like that is an understatement. So you can see that when it comes to my own hair, I really focus on dry, damaged hair specifically. But that is of course, not the case for everybody. At the end of this, I'm going to give you kind of like my own personal hair care schedule so you can see how I piece all of this together. But I do want to focus primarily on dry, damaged hair for this episode because I think that is the majority of the issue that we see. There'll be some other troubleshooting in here as well. So if you don't have dry damage hair, there's still going to be some pearls in this for you. But the majority of the questions I get are people who are looking to improve hair damage. So let's first start with the products in my arsenal. I don't use all of these products every wash. You'll hear more about this at the end when I talk about my personal wash day schedule. But these are products in my cabinet that get used weekly, bi weekly, or even monthly. So let's walk through kind of the different types of product in my arsenal. And I also want to caveat that you do not need to go and buy a 15 step hair routine right out of the gate. Right. These are products that I've added in one by one over the years, experimented with myself. There are plenty of products I added in that didn't make the cut. These are the ones that have been like tried and true and have truly helped change my hair. I get so many compliments on my hair, even from my hairdresser. I had a hairdresser one time tell me that she never felt hair like mine. And I say this because I've also been on the other end of the spectrum where my hair was literally breaking off at the ends. So if I can get back to a good place with my hair, then I promise you can too. You just have to have the right tools in your toolbox. And that's what we're going to chat about now. So let's start from start to finish. The first thing I do is a pre shampoo oil. So I will actually oil the ends, not the root, only the mid shaft to ends of my hair and let it sit for about 15 minutes before I get in the shower. And for these, I like to use something with like coconut oil or argan oil, because those are really both fantastic oils for the hair. And the goal of this is to coat the cuticle so that when I do go in and shampoo my hair, any of these sulfates that run out from my roots over, obviously, the ends of my hair before they're rinsed down the drain, any of those cleansing agents don't strip the hair of its natural oils. Instead, there's kind of like a buffer there of oil. And again, I'll link all my favorite products below in the hair guide below. But I'm just kind of explaining how I use all of these different products. The next thing I do immediately when I get in the shower is a scalp scrub. So this is really optional for bad buildup days or even days where I'm having that, like, itchy scalp. For me, itchy scalp is always a sign of product or oil buildup. Like, that's really the only time I get an itchy scalp is when I maybe have. I haven't shampooed as frequently as normal or I have a buildup of product on the scalp. So I reserve my scalp scrub for these days or any days. I just feel like my root is extra oily and it's a super, super fine scalp scrub. We are not looking for something that's abrasive and really going to damage the skin on the scalp. The scalp is an extension of our face. We want to treat it with care. And you guys know I'm normally not a fan of scrub. So for the, for the skin. So this is where a really fine, gentle scrub, like, it's so fine. It's. It's really just kind of clarifying and soothing. It's not, it's not like even a scrub that you would use on your body. It's so fine. The one I use is from Briogeo and it really has like a nice cooling sensation. It has soothing ingredients. So it helps on those days where I have bad buildup or itchy days. And then I always follow this with a detox shampoo. So detox shampoo, clarifying shampoo, however you want to word it, is just a shampoo that has more clarifying agents. So who could use a detox shampoo? Number one, Anybody who uses leave in products can use a detox shampoo can benefit from a detox shampoo. Anybody with an oilier root can absolutely benefit from a detox shampoo. Oftentimes this is the kind of Everyday shampoo I would recommend for a patient who has oilier roots or even something like seborrheic dermatitis. The one I personally use is Kaiten. It's color safe. It's my favorite. I've repurchased it over and over as I'm recording this. The Sephora sale is currently going on. I'm about to march my butt next door to Sephora and get myself a refill of this. This has been my go to Detox shampoo. But the reason I love the K18 specifically for dry scalp is I did mention it's color safe. It's optimized with a ph of 3.8 to 4.2 and that's going to help maintain your hair color. So if you're somebody who colors your hair, you'll know that some Detox shampoos are not recommended. This is one that is color safe and I also like it because it targets common metals that are present in tap and hard water that can cause dullness in the hair. So if you're not someone who uses a shower filter, just looking for some of these properties in your shampoo itself can be helpful. Next up, I will go in with my second shampoo. So just like I do a double cleanse on my face, I do do a double cleanse in my hair. And this is for a couple of reasons and not necessarily for everybody. Again for me, I use kind of a significant amount of leave in product throughout the week between washes. So not only do I use like a heat protectant and a styling product, but I also use scalp serums and things like that throughout the week. So it's something I want to make sure I'm properly cleansing. And then two, I don't frequently wash my hair. I'm not a frequent washer. This is just the routine that works for me. It's trial and error. You have to find the frequency that works for you. But I wash about every five days. So because I'm not washing so frequently, I want to make sure that my washes are incredibly effective and that is why I go in with a second shampoo. So something like the array gray is a really nice gentle option. It's also good for anybody who is trying to prevent gray hair. I like the Kerastase when I am dealing with hard water buildup. They also have a pre shampoo system if hard water is an issue for you that I really like. Like I like the living proof good hair day. If you're looking for something specifically that's more gentle and sulfate free. It's not for everyone. It's really going to be best for those who have really dry scalps and dry hair because it doesn't have those sulfates. It's not going to be really super cleansing. But those are just a few of the options for the second shampoo. So much like the second cleanse in your facial routine is trial and error. You have to kind of work to find which shampoo works best for your hair as well. Next up in my routine may be, depending on the day, a conditioning hair mask. And I think that conditioning masks are often overlooked as if like they only have cosmetic benefits, so they're only going to temporarily give you shine. And that's partially true because they do help to temporarily flatten the cuticle. But this is helpful when it comes to damage hair because it's going to prevent snagging of the hair and provide that immediate cosmetic benefit like smoothness and shine. But also you're getting those temporary protective benefits. So I think sometimes people feel like if it's not a bond builder or a peptide treatment, there aren't any long term benefits to a conditioning hair mask. But there are because you are protecting your hair from snapping and snagging, especially if it's already damaged. I really like the Gizu hair mask. It's so nice and thick. Like this is the thickest hair mask I've ever used. I also really like the Brio hair mask. That's like a go to tried and true. Such a great option always in my shower. Kerastas also makes fantastic hair masks. So again, trial and error finding which ones that you like for your hair. But those are a few of my favorite options for a hair conditioning mask. And when I apply it, I make sure to section my hair. I pretty much section my hair no matter what step I'm in. My routine. Like when I, when I shampoo my hair, I part it down the middle and then again on the sides to make sure I'm getting every single part of my scalp. Similarly, when I apply my treatments or my conditioning hair mask, I part my hair. So I'm working in sections so I can really coat all of the hair. And at this point in my routine, I also use a wide tooth comb in the shower. So I never like to detangle wet hair because our hair is most fragile when it's wet. So snagging things like that can happen when we try to detangle wet hair. So I actually do it when I already have conditioner in the hair. So yes, my hair is wet, but it's coated in conditioner. And I use a wide tooth comb so that it works really easily. Makes its way through the hair without snagging. It just kind of glides and it's just a very honestly relaxing and amazing way to detangle your hair. Then when you get out of the shower, all of the work is already done for you. So when my mask is in, I will detangle and then I'll actually wrap my hair loosely and kind of pin it up and let that hair conditioning mask work for a few minutes while I do the rest of my routine in the shower. So like shaving my body wash, any sort of body care routine I need to do in the shower, I will do that after, while my hair is pinned up in a, in a clip, in a, in a loose clip. So on. Some other treatments that I might be using on a wash day are things like peptides treatments. So this is a treatment that I use twice monthly. I use the K18. I'm currently on maintenance. I don't. When I first started using it, I was using it every wash to kind of get over the hump, to really treat my dry, damaged hair. K18 is just one of those treatments unfortunately that there just isn't a great dupe for. I say unfortunately just because it's a little bit on the pricier side, but it is absolutely one of the most fantastic and efficacious hair treatments to come on the market in the last 10 years. Like truly, it's a game changer. They're not paying me to say this. I buy it with my own money. I stock up during the Sephora sale. Like it's truly just a game changer product. If you're dealing with damaged hair. It is clinically proven to repair damage at multiple different levels, multiple different checkpoints in the hair. So it can actually repair not only the disulfide bonds that traditional peptide traditional bond builders work on, but also the polypeptide chain. So that's why you're able to get that advanced kind of hair damage improvement. Now if your hair is past the level of no return, it might help a little bit. It's not going to help a ton. Similarly, if you don't have much damage, you're not going to see a huge improvement. Because while we all have some level of hair damage, right? Like even brushing, just living our lives damages our hair because we're exposed to pollution, environmental aggressors every day. But if your hair damage is really minimal, the amount of change you're going to see from one wash to the next with the K18 is not going to be as dramatic as somebody who has more hair damage. So this is just something to think about when it comes to your budget. I think everyone can benefit from the K18 if it's in your budget, but if you're someone who's pinching pennies and you don't have a lot of hair damage, it's not necessary. So I just like to kind of caveat that and if you want a more detailed review on how exactly to use this MAS, I have a whole YouTube video because there are a lot of very specific ways you need to use it to get the benefits of it. And there's some troubleshooting too. So some people will have issues like in making their hair more brittle and I kind of COVID that all in that YouTube video. But it's a really like unique biotech developed peptide and it mimics the hair structure to actually reverse damage. This episode is brought to you by skenthusiast.com and our brand new comprehensive hair guide. If you're struggling with dry, damaged hair or you're just looking for how to uplevel your hair game to get your best hair yet, this guide is what you've been missing saying within the guide itself, you'll find a quiz to determine your own hair and scalp type and then be walked through how to create the exact regimen you need. You'll have options for a more minimalist routine, all the way up to a routine maximized for optimal hair health and growth. We show you how to schedule your hair routine so you know what to do on which days, what a wash day looks like, and even give you troubleshooting advice for what might not be working for you. Whether you want a simple routine that nourishes your locs or you're ready to completely change your hair, this guide is for you. Go to skenthusiast.comshop to get yours now and you can use code podcast for a discount for a limited time. So that is something that I'll I'll add into my routine about twice monthly again cuz I'm on maintenance but on those days I'll usually skip the conditioner. If you want to still use the conditioner, you can put the hair mask in, let it sit for four minutes and then do your conditioner and rinse it out. So as long as the peptide treatment's in your hair for four minutes, it won't rinse out. But you don't want to put Anything in your hair before you apply the peptide treatment, if that makes sense. So for me and the level of damage I currently have in my hair, it's just something that on the days I'm using K18, I don't need to also use a conditioner. I just apply it and leave it in. Then after four minutes I style my hair like usual. So let's go for a little bit of a hair schedule. So let's say I'm on wash day one. So this is the first day of the week I'm washing my hair. I may go in with a pre shampoo oil, then my scalp scrub treatment, my detox shampoo and my gentle shampoo. And maybe this time I'll use my peptide treatment. So then you know, over the next few days I am using maybe hairspray. If I style my hair, I'm of course using heat protectant before I go in with my Dyson Dyson, which is how I style my hair. So after every single shower I use a heat protectant. I usually use the color wow. And then I style my hair with a Dyson. This is like pretty much non negotiable. I don't let my hair air dry for me. And there is some data to also support this that blow drying your hair is actually better for it. And that's been absolutely my experience especially since switching to continuous air tools like the Dyson. So I Dyson my hair after every wash. And then throughout the next five days I'm of course using things like dry shampoo. I might use oil if my hair feel at the ends feel dry and I want them to be extra shiny. I might use a scalp serum like something like the Maya Chia I have in my routine. So there's various products that are being added to my scalp and my hair throughout the next five days. Of course making another wash day necessary along with just the regular buildup that I get from oil. So there's one wash day that's a little bit more extensive and then my next wash day might be a little bit more simple. So maybe I'll do something like my pre shampoo oil, which is something I do pretty much every every time I wash. Then maybe I'll just go in with my gentle shampoo, a conditioning hair mask. So that might be an easier day. Less products for me. And that's kind of how I rotate. I of course listen to my hair much like I listen to my skin when I am doing my own skincare routine. I see how it's feeling. Primarily my scalp if my scalp needs an extra a little bit of extra love, I'm doing my full detox scalp routine which I talked about earlier. If my scalp feels pretty good, then I'll just go in with my regular shampoo and conditioning hair mask mask. So a couple of extras that I personally do for my hair kind of in order of free, I guess you could say to more expensive things. I already mentioned the pre shampoo oil which if you have an oil at home is free. I mentioned detangling your hair with conditioning hair mask, again free. If you already have the conditioning hair mask. Just changing up the order in which you do things detangling in the shower when your hair is coated in conditioner. Next thing that is free to implement is I do no tight hairstyles. So I don't do tight, tight buns. I don't do tight ponies. If I want to get that look, what I'll do is do a looser pony. So I'm making sure that there's no pulling like you can feel when your hair is being pulled from your scalp. I make sure that I don't have that sensation at all. I'll use a silk hair tie to tie it back and then I'll use something like the day Wand to give the appearance of the slick back. Or I'll use a like the finishing gel from Crown Affair to give the appearance of a slick back without the pulling. Because we know not only does that constant tension at the root of the hair actually increase your risk of hair thinning at the scalp, but also the tight nature of the style itself can break off fragile ends. So I'm a no tight hairstyles girl. And if you're somebody who has damaged hair or hair thinning, I recommend that that's something you also adopt. The other thing I do, which start now we're getting into the things that do cost a little bit of money, is a silk pillowcase or a silk hair cap. When I'm sleeping, I switched to silk a few years ago. I initially was like, this is so uncomfortable, unnecessary, like we don't need to switch our pillowcases. But there is actually some validity to this, right? So if you are somebody who already has dry or damaged hair and you're already dealing with a little bit of fragility in your hair, all that friction when you're moving around at night can break off or snap off ends. If anyone's ever dealt with severe damage like I have in the past, and you wake up and you actually see little broken pieces of hair, on your pillowcase. This is what I'm talking about. Now it happens at different levels of severity but I avoid that by using a silk pillowcase. You can use satin as well. It just helps a little bit more slip on the hair so that when you are rolling around there's not as much friction and breakage happening. The next thing I do, which if you follow me, you already know is neutrophil. I've been taking Nutrafol for five years consistently. The only time I stopped was when I was pregnant. Then when the baby was here, I switched to the postpartum formulation which is breastfeeding friendly. And then after breastfeeding went back to the women's formulation. They also now have a vegan formulation and that one also doesn't contain biotin if you're supposed somebody who doesn't want to be taking biotin. But when it comes to hair vitamins, there are so many on the market that do nothing and can even be harmful. There are only a couple that actually have clinically validated results in Neutrophil is one of them. It's the one I recommend for my hair thinning patients. Even the patients that are doing more aggressive therapy and treatment like PRP injections in the office, I still have them all. Taking neutrophil at home because it's that efficacious. So this is going to increase hair density, it's going to increase increase hair volume, it helps with the shine of the hair, helps with hair growth, hair thinning at the scalp, etc. The other thing that you can add in or consider is something like the array gray. So this is specifically for people who are dealing with graying or they want to prevent graying. So the brand recommends in their recent study confirms this. They just did a double bind placebo controlled study of 30. Graying or less is when you're going to see the most benefit. For me it's one of those things like I've seen one or two gray hairs ever. So I actually use use the the topical serum. My husband has more gray so he's using this supplement. When I start to have more gray I'll switch over to that supplement versus the neutrophil. Because in the study with array there also was an increase in hair density too. So not only did it decrease graying and repigment gray hairs like hairs that were already gray became repigmented. It did also show an increase in density. So I wouldn't double up on the neutral in the array. But you can swap based on what your Biggest hair concern is I have codes actually for both of those too that I'll link below. Anything I have a code link for, I'll. To save you guys money, I'll put in the show notes below. So definitely check that. And then moving on to. Probably the most expensive thing I do for my hair is the LED cap. So it's a helmet that has LED masks. I have two different ones. My husband and I pretty much use them interchangeably because it's like whichever one is available, I'll use, you know, and we'll swap out. They're not something like you can share them with, you know, everyone in your house. So the two that I have, the one is from Current Body, it's a little bit less expensive. It is LED red light therapy. So red light therapy has been shown to increase hair growth. So this cap is a great addition if you're somebody who wants to increase your hair density or you're noticing thinning at the scalp or at your sides if you're a female or postpartum hair loss, things like that. And then the other one we have is the Irestore Elite, I think is the name of the one that it is. It's the one that not only has red light, but also laser technology. So this is the most expensive hair cap I've personally ever used used. It's more expensive than the current body. But you're getting the addition of the laser. So not only are you getting the benefit of the red light therapy, which both caps have, you're also getting laser therapy as well, which is going to make it more efficacious. So those are kind of like the extras I do. Again, 100 not necessary. My hair journey has been a really long one. So these are things I've slowly added in over time when my budget allowed. It's not something I went out and bought all at one time. So what do I do in the salon? I used to gloss. Gloss. So obviously I used to really be in the salon all the time because I was blonde, so I was constantly bleaching my hair. But in the past five years or so, I used to gloss my hair about one to two times per year. And that was really because since my hair was really long, I still had a lot of that leftover lightness and bleach in the hair. So I, I needed that gloss to kind of COVID it because it would start to come through. It was a semi permanent gloss. So it wasn't a permanent hair color, which I think helped with, with any damage associated. Honestly, it helped my hair look even healthier after I would do them. Since then, since my hair is pretty much back to its normal color, I haven't really been doing any glosses. So I don't really color my hair much anymore. But I. There are. So there are so many ways you can color your hair, still get the benefit of that while still promoting healthy hair, especially by adding a lot of these things into your routine. The other thing I do is cut my hair really previously about 1 to 2 times times a year when I keep it long. So there's kind of a myth about cutting your hair, but there are some benefits. So if you've ever heard like, oh, you have to cut your hair every six weeks or it won't grow, that's cutting your hair is not going to change the amount of hair growth that comes out of your scalp. But what it does do is keep your ends healthier, keep them from breaking. So if you're somebody who has a lot of breakage on the ends, it might be helpful to do more frequent haircuts so that you're getting that dead hair off without it having to break off higher on the hair. But if you're someone who as hair that's not so damaged and you're not dealing with breakage at the ends, then no, you don't need to be going to get your hair cut every six weeks in order to help it grow. That's just a myth. So I think we've covered a lot on the hair spectrum today. It's. I know it may seem like a lot, but you can kind of see from my wash day schedules and even my hair guide itself that it's absolutely manageable. And it literally takes me no more than 30 minutes from start to finish. And I'm talking like washing my hair to blowing it dry, even when my hair is at my, my waist. So addressing my dry, damaged hair has been one of honestly the single best things I've done during my skin and hair journey. I just thought everyone had dry looking ends and that it was kind of normal and to be dealt with. And it wasn't until I really transformed my hair routine that I realized that like shiny, glossy hair isn't just genetic, it can actually be created. Like I was not born with that. I had certainly damaged my hair and I was able to really get it back to an amazing state better than it was before I had virgin hair, honestly. So if you've enjoyed this episode, please share to your stories and tag me. As always, I'll be sending some skin and hair care goodies. Over to a few of you who either leave a review down below or who share to your stories and tag me and head over to skinthusiast.com forward/shop if you want to shop the new comprehensive hair guide if you're looking for like some more hand holding when it comes to creating your routine and I'll talk to you next week. Skinthusiasts.