Reversing hair damage

I could have been the poster child for damaged hair.

Seriously.

After being a blonde all my life, I went dark and it dried my hair out. The ends were horrible, so I had to chop over an inch off. 

Then came a Kardashian marathon that had me determined to get healthy, shiny black hair.

So, being the product junkie I am, I hoarded every hair repair product I could find. My bathroom looked like a hair salon.

I have oils, lotions, 3 day treatments, masks, shampoos, conditioners,  styling products, all of it! All in hopes that I would repair the damage and get shine.

These are the products I've narrowed it down to, as well as a before and after picture in a time span of 3 months!

The Products:

Nexxus Pro-Mend Split End Binding Conditioner

Organix Renewing Moroccan Argan Oil shampoo

Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil

Nexxus Youth Renewal Rejuvenating Elixir

Natrol Biotin 10,000mcg Max Strength

(and Nestle Pure Life!)

and (optional) The "Wet" Brush

The Routine:

Alright...Here we go.

I actually prefer "no-poo", but because I wanted something extremely moisturizing, I wanted to add some actual shampoos.

I don't wash my hair much, nor do I blow dry it or straighten it.

Since I'm a stay at home, I don't worry too much about it looking dirty or whatever, but if I do have to go somewhere I just pull it into a messy bun and spray a bit if dry shampoo on it before hand so it has some volume.

I only wash my hair 3 times a week, sometimes only 2.

I take my Biotin every morning and I chug two bottles of water after I take it. I drink water all day and I'm convinced it truly helps with the growth, and I know the Biotin does. My nails look AMAZING!

I brush my hair with my Wet brush all the time, not just when wet. It is amazing. It doesn't break my hair and it gets tangles out so easily.

Keeping the hair smooth and tangle free will really help your hair out.

I rub a little of tropical traditions organic virgin coconut oil on my ends several times a day. It only takes a tiny bit to cover it all. My hair is dark so it doesn't look oily, but I'm sure it would require less on blonde since blonde will show more of the oil. After I apply it to my ends, I wipe my hands off a bit on a towel and then I use my finger tips and massage my scalp for approximately 1 minute.

Before I go to bed every night, I do a full coconut oil mask. I take a larger amount of the oil and saturate all of my hair, paying special attention to the ends and my layers. I use the Wet brush and brush it a lot to get the oil all over my hair and let it really absorb it. I usually just throw it in a loose bun or braid afterwards and put an elastic headband on to keep it off my face and sleep with it in my hair.

In the morning I just rinse it with cold water.

When I do wash it, I do it after washing the coconut oil out. I still use cold water and just easy gently and really only use the conditioner on my ends. I can't stress how great this coconut oil has been on my hair. Tropical Traditions was kind enough to send me a sample of the product to try out, and I really wanted to include the review in this post just to really make my readers understand that I had such great results with it that I actually made it a part of my daily routine. 

I towel dry and apply the Nexxus Elixir to the ends, and sometimes a tiny but more of the coconut oil.

I NEVER dry my hair on hot on the rare occasion I do dry it.

And I never straighten it afterwards! If I absolutely have to straighten it, I dry my hair at night and let it rest and straighten it the next day.

And here are my results:

The left side is in March, the other is from today (May).

And this is from before I started using the coconut oil and after! 

If you're interested in placing an order with Tropical Traditions and picking up the exact kind that I have used you can visit their website here:

http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/virgin_coconut_oil.htm

If by some chance you don't love the results you get with your hair, you can reuse the product for hundreds of other purposes! I apply it all over my body as a moisturizer, I use it as an eye makeup remover, and it works great (for me) at treating acne. You can cook with it as well (it doesn't even store in your body as fat!) and it has so many medicinal purposes I can't even begin to list them all. Its a really great investment that I don't feel like any of you will regret!