#beauty,
The reason I want to grow my hair out is two fold. For starters, at the moment it doesn't feel entirely healthy - my ends are splitting, I know I've done too much in terms of colour and bleach to it this year already, and it's just a bit of a hot mess to deal with.
Also, I'll admit, I haven't totally gotten over my love, my obsession... the chocolate brown hair.
On the left is my hair circa 2013, when it was still mostly blonde and the longest I can remember it being. On the right is my lob from August 2014. I did love my lob, and at the time it was exactly the style I needed, but it's taken a long time to grow out.
I've been looking up home remedies and other solutions for growing long, beautiful hair, and I've discovered three main themes.
1) OILS & PRODUCTS
2) FOOD
3) WATER
OILS & PRODUCTS
Obviously everything you put on your hair will affect it, its growth, and its strength and condition. I've spoken in the past about using John Frieda products to protect my colour, but I haven't been taking good enough care of my scalp. That's right folks, dandruff. Ick, I know, but it has to be said, and it's one of the main downsides to colouring your hair - a dry, flaky scalp will often ensue. Whilst various shampoos, including caffeine and coconut milk shampoos, are suggested for stimulating growth, I feel I need to get my dandruff situation under control first. Which leads us to oils! Aside from the inversion method, all of my favourite YouTubers rave about coconut oil and its benefits for your hair. Recently Kayley Melissa spoke about using coconut oil as a scalp treatment for conditioner, and said that it was far more effective than any other shampoo she'd used. Other top rated oils include Argon Moroccan oil, jojoba oil, rosemary oil, olive oil, and other essential oils too.
FOOD
You are what you eat, and to get healthy, beautiful hair, as well as healthy, beautiful skin and internal organs (woo! internal organs!), a diet full of rich, nutritious foods and proteins is highly recommended. Eggs, avocado, fish, fresh fruits, and vegetables, are all vital to growing strong hair. I'll admit, my diet is in desperate need of an overhaul (one too many coffees and cakes I'm afraid), so I've already been moving to these changes anyway for my own health. Now as an added bonus, I'll have beautiful hair to boot! A lot of beauty bloggers and YouTubers also recommend taking a multivitamin or hair supplement to boost growth, but I want to try adjusting my diet first before I start adding in any sort of extra pills or potions.
WATER
Water. Water, water, water. Seriously. The human body can't do jack without it. It's important for fostering hair growth as well as cell renewal and all those other lovely things our bodies do for us to you know, keep us alive. The human body is 70% water! It's so important to hydrate, and being exposed to fake air and heavy indoor heating has really taken its toll on not just my hair, but my skin and general health as well. A good tip I find is to keep a bottle of water with/near me at all times. Even just watching TV, working, or blogging, if I have water near me, I'll drink it without even thinking about it. Before you know it you'll have downed your 8 glasses (or 2 litres) without even realising!
Tea is also a good way to get water into your system, and a great idea for winter time when drinking cold water is super unappealing.
So here we are - I've been using the Inversion Method for three days now (it's Monday), so I'll be back on the blog this Saturday to give you my results. An inch to four inches in a week? My hopes aren't high, little birds, but I am a bit of an optimist. Make sure you're following beautybyasparrow on Instagram for updates and inspo!
Until next time,
Tweet twee xx
Grow baby, grow!
Hello my little birds!
So I've started a process that I want to blog about and share with you, simply because in my own research and YouTubing I haven't found a clear, billboard like, HUGE sign saying "YES THIS WORKS" or "NO IT DOESN'T". I've only really found "SORT-OFs" and "FOR ME, YES".
It's called the Inversion Method and I'll admit, when I first read about it I was a little sceptical, and scared. Oil? In my hair? But oil make grease? Greasy hair bad? How...? Then I watched this little clip on YouTube by Evin Yalcin and heard that you actually don't have to use oil, but you can rely on your hair's natural oils instead. I find my hair can get quite greasy on its own, so the idea of putting more oil in there isn't very appealing.
Essentially you flip your hair upside down, looking down, and give yourself a scalp massage for four minutes. At first I was a bit half-hearted, I mean, standing with your head almost between your legs rubbing your head isn't a daily activity, you know? But then I remembered something about myself -
I LIKE MASSAGES.
So even if this method doesn't end up working for me, I'm getting a lovely mini-massage each night, and I'm ok with that!
Also, I'll admit, I haven't totally gotten over my love, my obsession... the chocolate brown hair.
I mean the gloss, the depth, the shine, how healthy it looks.... ah!
I already know, however, that I can't do another thing to my hair colour-wise until it's healthy again, and I was considering lobbing it all off, but that won't really repair any of the damage I've done. Also, I don't want short hair! As much as I adore a bob/lob, I know they don't really work for me. I'd feel silly chopping it all off since I've been growing it since August last year.
On the left is my hair circa 2013, when it was still mostly blonde and the longest I can remember it being. On the right is my lob from August 2014. I did love my lob, and at the time it was exactly the style I needed, but it's taken a long time to grow out.
I've been looking up home remedies and other solutions for growing long, beautiful hair, and I've discovered three main themes.
1) OILS & PRODUCTS
2) FOOD
3) WATER
OILS & PRODUCTS
Obviously everything you put on your hair will affect it, its growth, and its strength and condition. I've spoken in the past about using John Frieda products to protect my colour, but I haven't been taking good enough care of my scalp. That's right folks, dandruff. Ick, I know, but it has to be said, and it's one of the main downsides to colouring your hair - a dry, flaky scalp will often ensue. Whilst various shampoos, including caffeine and coconut milk shampoos, are suggested for stimulating growth, I feel I need to get my dandruff situation under control first. Which leads us to oils! Aside from the inversion method, all of my favourite YouTubers rave about coconut oil and its benefits for your hair. Recently Kayley Melissa spoke about using coconut oil as a scalp treatment for conditioner, and said that it was far more effective than any other shampoo she'd used. Other top rated oils include Argon Moroccan oil, jojoba oil, rosemary oil, olive oil, and other essential oils too.
FOOD
You are what you eat, and to get healthy, beautiful hair, as well as healthy, beautiful skin and internal organs (woo! internal organs!), a diet full of rich, nutritious foods and proteins is highly recommended. Eggs, avocado, fish, fresh fruits, and vegetables, are all vital to growing strong hair. I'll admit, my diet is in desperate need of an overhaul (one too many coffees and cakes I'm afraid), so I've already been moving to these changes anyway for my own health. Now as an added bonus, I'll have beautiful hair to boot! A lot of beauty bloggers and YouTubers also recommend taking a multivitamin or hair supplement to boost growth, but I want to try adjusting my diet first before I start adding in any sort of extra pills or potions.
WATER
Water. Water, water, water. Seriously. The human body can't do jack without it. It's important for fostering hair growth as well as cell renewal and all those other lovely things our bodies do for us to you know, keep us alive. The human body is 70% water! It's so important to hydrate, and being exposed to fake air and heavy indoor heating has really taken its toll on not just my hair, but my skin and general health as well. A good tip I find is to keep a bottle of water with/near me at all times. Even just watching TV, working, or blogging, if I have water near me, I'll drink it without even thinking about it. Before you know it you'll have downed your 8 glasses (or 2 litres) without even realising!
Tea is also a good way to get water into your system, and a great idea for winter time when drinking cold water is super unappealing.
So here we are - I've been using the Inversion Method for three days now (it's Monday), so I'll be back on the blog this Saturday to give you my results. An inch to four inches in a week? My hopes aren't high, little birds, but I am a bit of an optimist. Make sure you're following beautybyasparrow on Instagram for updates and inspo!
Until next time,
Tweet twee xx
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