We’ve all seen the commercials featuring the guys and gals with perfect hair. Forget all that. It’s highly likely that it’s all photoshopped and airbrushed and post-produced to oblivion. These are our top 10 healthy natural hair hacks to try, though not necessarily simultaneously. Even if your hair is bleached, colored, and damaged, some of these are applicable across the board.

Different products, chemicals, appliances, plus abrasive use of comb, brush, and fingers – these can all affect your hair in a major way, especially at the level of the root. The genetic component is very dominant, and it tends to express itself. But there are things you can do to help your hair do its thing.

Our hair follicles are what continue to grow and help us gain length. Hair goes through three different phases, and one of them is the growth phase. Depending on your genetic makeup and your hair care routine, your hairs’ cycle of growth and shedding can be lengthened and strengthened and otherwise manipulated in a natural way, so you gain stronger longer hair over time.

How To Keep Your Hair Healthy

Woman With Healthy Hair

First off, it’s best to decide what your idea of healthy hair actually is. You don’t necessarily have to go with the Webster’s dictionary definition, but you should know how you yourself define it, in order to know when you’ve crossed a line into unhealthy territory.

So, what constitutes healthy hair? By and large, it is cleanliness, strength, softness, flexibility, shine, and solid ends. These are perceived by many to be the primary characteristics of a healthy head of hair.

As for how to keep your hair healthy, the rule of thumb in many cases is: less is more. The more you mess with your hair, the more chances there are of you damaging it and throwing it off course. If left to its own devices, hair is sort of a self-cleaning and self-maintaining strand of protein. I mean, it won’t actually clean itself, but it possesses the ability to adapt and maintain itself to some extent. 

Just to be very clear; you won’t be able to just neglect your hair completely and expect it to look great. You’ll most likely have to put some effort into it, even on the most basic level of personal hygiene, water, shampoo, and employing a proper drying technique.

Vitamins For Healthy Hair Breakdown

Eating Properly Helps With Healthy Hair

Vitamins are essential, and they’re a part of the wonderful duo we call vitamins and minerals. Our body needs them to function properly, to develop, and to stay alive and kicking. Hair cells are always growing, albeit not at the same time. Each hair that is currently on your head is going through a cycle of its own.

We shed 50-100 strands of hair each day, according to researchers, as part of the natural process. But if you are interested in keeping the hair healthier and also cultivating a longer growth phase, vitamins and minerals might be your ticket. As I said before, you can never tell what is going to affect you and how. You could go through the proper motions, eat properly or take all the right supplements, and so on, but still end up with a balding or thinning top.

Whether it’s vitamins or “hacks”, you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t count on one single technique or hack to get you everything you want from your hair. Often, it is the combination of effort, environment, and genes which make the hair healthy or not too healthy. But whatever the case is, there is something that can be done as long as your follicles are functioning.

Top 10 Healthy Natural Hair Hacks

Girl With Healthy Hair

Hair hacks may be the wrong way to put it since there are so many different factors involved – not the least of which is your hair type. Let’s just say these are solid practices and principles, if not universal laws or one-size-fits-all hacks.

1. Diet Counts

Like, a lot. The blood that courses through your veins nourishes your entire body, including the hair follicles. The makeup of your blood is always affected by what you physically consume and take in. Nutrient-rich blood equals healthier hair development, and it can naturally aid the hair from the inside out.

2. Oils

Essential Oils For Healthy Hair

Essential oils and vegetable oils can do wonders for your hair, whether at the level of the scalp and root or the hair strand itself. Used wisely, a product like coconut oil or jojoba oil (for example) can revitalize dry, limp, and lifeless hair. These oils are often very potent, so take care not to saturate yourself with them. Keep things in moderation.

3. Avoid Over-Maintenance

Many products etc. advertise that they will make your hair 50 shades of awesome. But when you over-wash, over-maintain, and over-manipulate your hair (with products, hot appliances, hair ties, and other methods) you’re possibly causing buildup, tugging at the delicate roots, and preventing the hair from doing its natural thing.

4. Regular Trims

Hair Trims Promotes Healthy Natural Hair

Taking a bit off your ends once every two or three months can do a lot to promote hair health and rejuvenate your strands. Split ends are definitely a contributing factor to hair weakness and brittleness, so by trimming the ends of your hair you are helping out the entire head. If you’re trimming at home, make sure to do it with a fitting pair of scissors.

5. Brush & Comb

These two common hair-maintenance tools are popular for a good reason, and they can be exceedingly helpful providing you use them right. What I mean is things like: choose the right brush and comb for your hair type; avoid brushing sopping wet hair; when detangling, do it from the bottom up; be gentle, and avoid unnecessary roughness; keep the comb and brush clean.

6. Start Warm, End Cold

Warm Water Promotes Natural Healthy Hair

Use warm water before applying products to your hair, and finish your shower with a cold-ish rinse. This is a well-known hack, and it’s all about sealing the hair cuticle and letting the moisture and nutrients remain inside to work their magic. Notice it is not “start hot, end freezing” – it needs to be in moderation so you don’t harm yourself.

7. T-shirts And Microfiber Towels IN, Normal Towels OUT

This one is more controversial than others on this list. Is it a hack? Is it a myth? Is it just for curly hair? There are many different opinions on this one, but there is something to be said for not using a regular towel to dry the hair. People tend to be aggressive, to rip and tangle the hair as they are drying it. And with the hair already being in a vulnerable state of wetness, an alternative method might be worth looking into.

8. BS/ACV Cleanses

Apple Cider Vinegar Shampoos for Healthy Natural Hair

Using baking soda to deep clean, followed by apple cider vinegar to condition. Combine this with your favorite essential oils and viola! – you have a hair routine that works really well for different hair types. You still need to figure out the proper ratios and maybe experiment a little, but doing this cleanse can help set your hair right. Not for daily use, since these substances are very potent.

9. Let The Sunshine In

Sunlight Can Help With Naturally Healthy Hair

Sunlight stimulates the production of Vitamin D in our body, and this contributes to healthy and strong hair. Be sun smart, though, and look after yourself. Letting your hair soak up some sun is one of the best ways to help your hair come alive. I especially love it when I can air dry my hair outside. You want natural? What’s more natural than water and sunlight. 

10. Natural Hair Mask 

Using a natural hair mask (avocado, eggs, yogurt, tea, what have you) once a week can increase the health and happiness of your locks. Sometimes you don’t manage to take care of your hair as much as you’d like,  sometimes the elements and products are working against you. Natural hair masks a great way to balance your hair and keep it vibrant and strong.

Conclusion

These hair hacks are not all they’re cracked up to be, because a “hack” is meant to be like a backdoor of sorts, an indirect passage. So, perhaps these are not classic hacks. It’s not a backdoor which I have outlined with these 10 simple tips, but rather the straight and narrow path to happy and healthy hair. There are so many similar lists and hair hacks online, and it’s on you to pick and choose. If one of these piques your interest, invest some effort into applying it to your life (and scalp).

Manipulate and intervene little, and you stand to gain large rewards. Water, sun, diet, trims, oils, vinegar – these have been used for many thousands of years, and have proven themselves worthy of attention even in this modern era. Ask yourself, before anything: why not take the natural route? Is there anything stopping you from doing so?

Healthy hair is less prone to weakness and breakage. All hair can be made to look better on the outside, but the strength and resilience of the hair stem from their living roots. You don’t have to get rid of all of your scalp’s natural oil and buildup. It’s about keeping things in balance, and giving your hair what it needs to grow, ideally without overwhelming it.