The Basics of Healthy Hair
By Katie Weaver and Debbie Frantzen

Is your hair dry and brittle? Is it greasy and flat? Puffy,
stringy, frizzy, the list goes on and on. There are so many
things that can go wrong with our hair. So here are the basic
things to keep your hair healthy and in beautiful condition.

Scrub-a-dub-dub! Everyone knows that you have to shampoo your
hair, otherwise you have tons of gross buildup and it just won't
cooperate. Conditioner is just as important otherwise you won't
even be able to comb your hair, much less style it. It's very
important to pick a quality shampoo and conditioner fit for your
hair type. Say you have color-treated hair; you get
color-protective shampoo and conditioner. Makes sense right?
Right. Now, its pretty much just lather, rinse, (only repeat for
VERY dirty oily hair) condition, and rinse again. But there are
some helpful tricks to it. When you shampoo, don’t be too rough
with your hair or you'll damage the cuticle. Always be sure the
shampoo is completely rinsed. When conditioning, focus on the
ends of your hair as they are most prone to breakage and
therefore tangles. The water should be cold when you do the last
rinse out with your conditioner. It helps seal the cuticle
(basically, hair strand), making it so your hair appears shinier.

Once your hair is clean and fresh, you'll probably want to use a
shine serum or detangling solution on it. Gently pat your hair
dry as much as possible with your towel and squeeze a small
amount of product into your hand. I like Biosilk Silk Therapy
Treatment. Massage the product into your hair gently, again
focusing mostly on the ends. Avoid the roots, as they can look
greasy with shine serum on them. Now it's time for blow-drying.
If you have curly hair, you'll want to use a diffuser so you
don’t frizz your curls. Otherwise, you shouldn't need any
attachments. Pointing the nozzle down, blow-dry your hair from
five inches away. Make sure not to hold it in one spot, or it'll
get fried. Once hair is semi-dry, lift hair in sections with your
fingers and blow-dry a section at a time. This will keep your
hair from being flat when it's done being blow-dried.

Flipped-out or curled under? Spiraled, waved? Now you have to
decide what you want to day with you hair unless you like it just
blow-dried. Check out iVillage's Virtual Hairstylist below for
some great ideas. They even tell you how to do it! Is that not
the coolest thing ever?!?

Written By: Katie Weaver & Debbie Frantzen
http://www.glitznspritz.com