9 Secrets to Shiny, Healthy Hair
If your hair has lost its shine, it can put a damper on your look. Glowy hair not only draws others’ eyes to you, but it can instantly make you feel more confident while it’s swishing around your head. This is why we’re letting you in on our favorite secrets to shiny, healthy hair. While heading to the salon for a glossy hair treatment is one way to boost your hair’s shine, there are things you can do right at home, too. In fact, the secrets to naturally glowy hair that’s glossy and shiny are all pretty easy to incorporate into your routine—and if you do, your aging strands will thank you.
The first step to getting coveted shiny hair? Pick out products to make hair glossy. While this is a not-so-secret secret to shiny hair, it’s one that many people don’t even realize they should do. Select shampoos and conditioners that are formulated with natural ingredients that can help you out if your hair has lost its shine. And if you already have shiny hair and just want to maintain it? Using products to make hair glossy can help you do that, too. The secret to great hair is taking care of it, which is what we’re here to help with. Your secret to shiny hair can be found right here.
1. Use Chia Seeds for Moisture
Chia seeds are not only a good addition to your diet, but they’re a fascinating hair-care ingredient as well, due to their capabilities of retaining moisture and how they form a hydrating gel in the presence of water. In fact, they’re a key secret to shiny hair! Chia seeds, which can be found in our fragrance-free Full Transparency Pure Revitalizing Shampoo and Full Transparency Shine Revitalizing Conditioner are rich in protein, minerals and omega-3 to help strengthen hair and hold in moisture for natural shine and a fresh, healthy and lively look.
2. Use Mongongo Oil for Shine
Mongongo oil, derived from the mongongo tree primarily found in Africa, is rich in vitamin E and is a natural emollient that’s good for both your skin and your hair. When it comes to your hair, the mongongo oil brings a beautiful glossy and shiny sheen to your strands, all while helping protect from environmental damage. Using our Full Transparency Shine Revitalizing Conditioner, made with these fatty acids to help support more porous hair and add shine and softness, can help bring back your hair’s luster and liveliness.
3. Blast Hair with Cold Water in the Shower
One of our favorite secrets to great hair doesn’t even involve any extra products! When you wash your hair in warm water, your cuticles naturally open up. While this is great for allowing all the nourishing ingredients in your conditioner to penetrate the hair shaft, if the cuticles remain open, then all that moisture can just as easily escape, making strands appear dull and dry. But by blasting your hair with cold water at the end of your shower, you’re encouraging your cuticles to close up, helping to seal in moisture, cutting back on frizz and locking in the shine.
Pro tip: Our Hair Redemption Restorative Butter Masque works in a similar way! Its plant-based butter blend penetrates deeply to instantly add and lock in moisturize, repairing strands for a silky-smooth look.
4. Brush Your Hair Properly
Your hair wants to be brushed every day (as long as it’s not wet) to keep from getting tangled. But it’s also a good idea to brush your hair daily to keep it shiny. When you brush your hair—and natural boar bristles are best—not only are you keeping the strands from tangling up, but you’re pulling those natural oils from your scalp down onto the hair shaft, which brings shine right along with it.
5. Use a Heat Protectant
Another secret to shiny hair that’s not a secret at all is that your hair needs to be protected from hot tools. If a blow-dryer, flat iron or curling iron are part of your daily routine, make sure you’re protecting your locks, which includes your hair cuticles, with a heat protectant spray. This smooths out your hair (and cuticles) and keeps it from getting damaged from the heat. In doing so, it can also keep your hair shiny and luscious, even after running through a curling iron.
6. Go for a Scalp Massage
If your hair looks dull, try this secret to shiny hair: Massage your scalp. Using a scalp massager and fortifying serum can nourish your scalp. This not only takes care of your scalp skin but the massage can rejuvenate your follicles by boosting blood flow. Healthy hair follicles produce healthy hair! These little massages, which also just feel really great, can also work like your hair brush does and encourage your natural oils to work their way down your strands. Either way, this is one great way to encourage shine if your hair looks dull.
7. Try a Hair Oil for Curly Hair
Curly hair comes with its own playbook. And this means certain techniques for boosting shine, like brushing strands, are simply out of the question! But as girls with curls know, it can be challenging for natural oils to travel down curly hair strands—making curly hair even more likely to become dry and lose its shine. Hair oils are not only great for conditioning dry strands but also sealing cuticles, which locks in moisture and helps reflect light, allowing hair to shine. Smoothing the cuticles is especially important for curly hair as it tends to naturally have a higher porosity. But be sure to proceed with caution: Just as it’s best to tread lightly with oils if you have fine or thinning hair, curly hair can be fine, too. If this is the case for you, concentrate the oil lower down the hair shaft toward the ends to avoid weighing down strands at the roots.
8. Sleep with a Silk Pillowcase
Silk is a soft, friction-free fabric that’s good for both your hair and skin. When you sleep on a silk pillowcase, your hair can slide right over it without getting caught—helping to protect your hair from damage while you’re sleeping. And because your aging hair is protected from damage and isn’t rubbing against a tough fabric, it can more easily retain shine.
9. Eat Shine-Boosting Foods
What you eat is one of our best kept secrets to shiny, healthy hair. Certain foods are hydrating and can help your hair retain moisture, which is one way to maintain shine. But beyond just moisture, you can increase your fish intake for shine. The fatty oils found in fish can help protect your hair from damage, which can strengthen the strands and bring shine back to dull hair.
Tell Us: Do you have any secrets to shiny hair that we didn’t discuss? Share in the comments below!
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Better Not Younger has exactly what you need to help your hair’s shine come through! We designed our new fragrance-free, dermatologist tested and hypoallergenic Full Transparency Pure Revitalizing Shampoo and Full Transparency Shine Revitalizing Conditioner to address the dullness and dryness that our aging hair faces. Together they gently wash away impurities and condition hair to revitalize and strengthen lackluster strands with nutrient-rich ingredients like chia seeds and mongongo oil for liveliness and shine.