6 Hair Care Tips for At Home and On the Road

If you’ve been part of the Hopscotch the Globe family for at least a year, then you may have noticed I’ve had blonde, brown, red and black hair all in the last 12 months. I love expressing myself through my physical appearance and one way I do that is by dying my hair. It is one of the easiest, cheapest and most dramatic ways to change my look.

So, with all this hair dying, how do I keep my locks looking so healthy? By popular demand, I’m sharing my 6 tips with you for maintaining healthy looking hair at home and on the road:

Quality Box Dyes Are Awesome!

While I’ve dyed my hair a few times at the salon, the majority of the time, I do it myself at home. I’ve been using box dye to colour my hair for the last 13 years. Throughout those years, I’ve probably used every brand. While some hair dye lasts only a few washes, others dry up your hair. After a lot of trial and error, one brand that does an excellent job at making my hair shiny, healthy, soft and vibrant is the Vidal Sassoon Salonist line.

I’ve been using this line for a while now. Vidal Sassoon Salonist uses a 2-step technique to treat roots and lengths differently than other dyes. If you are dying your hair for the first time, Vidal Sassoon Salonist treats virgin roots absorbing colour for the first time differently to previously coloured hair, helping to achieve natural, rich colour all over. Which is a huge plus!

The line has a range of 24 shades from classic golden blondes to rich, natural looking browns and sexy reds. The dye has a fairly mild smell and is very easy to clean off your skin, which I find rare. When you apply it, it foams a bit which makes it easy to see the spots you’ve missed. This is a plus when you’re doing it yourself. Whenever I use Vidal Sassoon, I get people asking me where I get my hair dyed because it looks so vibrant, silky and healthy. The best part is I only need to dye my hair every few months since the colour lasts a while.

Don’t Wash Your Hair Every Day!

The best way to keep your hair vibrant longer is to wash less often then you do now! This is especially true for red hair.

You may have heard this one before, but I can’t encourage it enough! I realized that some of you may produce more oil from their scalp than others, but there is a way to train your hair to last several days, and still look good without a wash. Daily shampooing is actually doing more harm than good to your locks. When you wash your hair every day, you actually strip your hair of all the nutrients and natural oils it needs to be healthy. This can lead to breakage, brittle strands, very little shine, and overall, it will dry out your scalp.

I wash my hair every 3 days. Sometimes, I’ll even go 4. I have friends who wash their hair only once a week! When I travel to places where I’m near the ocean, I wash my hair even less since the salt water does the job for me. I’ve noticed that the less I wash my hair, the healthier it gets. It may take a bit of time to train your hair to be less oily, but give it time. It will be worth it!

Coconut Oil it up!

I use Coconut in my hair every week and on my body after every shower.

If you’ve been to the south of India, you would have noticed that the women have the most beautiful, silkiest black hair you’ll ever see. How do they achieve those long silky locks? Coconut oil!

Coconut oil has the magical laurites that helps give hair the conditioning it need. Using coconut oil regularly enhances the beauty of your hair by keeping it ultra soft and smooth and constantly repairs damage. It binds the hair proteins and holds them giving you stronger, shinier and healthier hair. It also helps reduce frizz and repairs split ends faster and works wonders for your hair. I cover my hair in coconut hair once a week. I typically brush it through my hair, adding extra to the ends, wrap it in a silk scarf and sleep with it in overnight. In the morning I was it out using shampoo and skipping the conditioner.

Get a trim every season

How I feel after I get my hair trimmed. Light and fresh!

Split ends. Everyone gets them and nobody ever wants them. If you want to grow your hair long, you need to get it trimmed often, but not too often. I know this may sound like it defeats the purpose, but in reality, getting a regular trim lets your hair grow long faster and healthier. While some hairdressers say trimming your hair every 4-6 weeks is good, that can get a bit pricey. I get my hair trimmed every season. That’s four times a year in Canada. Of course if you have shorter hair, you’ll most likely get a trim every 4-6 weeks to keep the style.

Seal with cold water

I know cold water sucks, but just make it a quicky. Your hair will love you for it.

Before I get out of the shower, I rinse my hair with colder water to help seal the hair’s cuticles and ends and add some glossy shine to my locks. I also avoid rinsing out all of the conditioner from the ends of my hair. This helps to keep them hydrated.

Don’t blow dry it

My hair in this photo air dried over night and then I curled it with a barrel curler in the morning.

I hardly ever blow-dry my hair. I let it air dry and then will either straighten or curl it. Since I like to straighten and curl my hair a couple of times a week, I try and do less heat damage by avoiding the hair dryer.