I decided a few months ago that I wanted to grow out my hair to its natural hair color. A few reasons made me make the decision: the expense, the health of my hair has been suffering with continuous color treatments, the time commitment, and just overall bored with the color itself. I have been getting my hair colored since middle school and honestly I am just over it. I also think that au natural is coming back in and being your natural born color (skin and hair!) is the trend of the moment. No more bleach blonde fakeness that I rocked for years. And while I still absolutely adore the women at Charbon in downtown Seattle (and I will still see for cuts and likely color in the future) I need a little break to get my hair healthy again. Here’s everything I’m doing to ensure it grows out gracefully:
Visit your stylist, make a plan, and be strategic with your last coloring
I saw my girls at Charbon a little more than 2 months ago and told them I planned to grow out my hair. This allowed my stylist to help me make a plan and color accordingly. Obviously, we didn’t do super blonde highlights up to the root. She placed well-balanced, light balayage color with a smudged root to help the grow out process so it wasn’t a harsh line between brown and blonde. Now the balayage is just blending in with my natural color and it’s pretty seamless! I try and get cuts once every 6-8 weeks because I think that helps your grow faster.
Use high quality products // ditch drug store brands
Ditch the drug store shampoo and conditioner and upgrade to high quality, salon products. I spend money on my skincare and my hair the same way. Drug store stuff is stripping your hair of its natural oils and doing you no favors. Here’s what I use:
Get your scalp healthy for hair growth
Next, and something often completely overlooked, is your scalp! It wasn’t until about a month ago that I realized I needed to be treating my scalp if I wanted my hair to grow. I use a scalp massager in the shower when applying my shampoo to really clean and get to the root. In addition, I use a scalp serum on DRY hair about 3x a week at least. I separate my hair and apply the scalp serum liberally and massage it with my hands. I typically do this at night so that it works while I sleep. Here are the products I’m loving for my scalp:
Avoid heat and use hair masks and oils on your ends
I wash my hair about 1-2x a week only and let it air dry most days (unless I am going out). I always use a microfiber towel to dry my hair as regular towels can be damaging. If I have to dry my hair with a blowdryer, I always spray a heat protectant on it first. I also use hair masks at least 2x a week at night, oils on my ends and a split end serum. I don’t always remember everything but if I do at least 1 or 2 of these steps regularly, I notice a huge difference in the health of my hair and how silky it is. Here are my tried and trues right now:
Take a hair growth supplement
There are a number of hair growth supplements on the market and you can also take collagen or biotin (or both) but I am supplementing with Nutrafol to aid in the hair growth process. At first, I was skeptic and even cancelled my subscription. Then I saw my girl at Sapien who is one of the smartest women I know and she told me to stay the course. Her eyelashes, hair, and nails were out of this world and while she obviously takes great care of herself as an esthetician, she accredited much of the growth and health to Nutrafol. So back on the subscription I went and I will continue with it for the foreseeable future as I do believe it helps.. it just takes at LEAST 3 months to see a difference.
Now, I am no hair expert and I do my own research so I am SURE I am doing some of these things wrong, not enough, or too often but overall this is what’s worked for me and my hair journey. Just out here trying to get healthy locks in shade mousy brown 😉 If you have any tips to share or if any of my hair gurus out there are reading this, holler at me with your suggestions!
xx, Heather
