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I honestly am kicking myself for not having my hairdresser take a picture of the back of my hair when it was at its worst. Last week you may have heard my lesson learned while I was sharing it on Instagram Stories, but if you didn’t, let me catch you up to speed.

While my hair has always been on the thin side, I have always considered myself lucky to have a pretty great head of hair. It dries straight, is overall no fuss no muss and for the most part was always what I thought to be healthy. Fast forward to current time, I had started to curl my hair daily for taking blog photos (I shoot almost every day) and at times had curled my hair more than once a day. I swore (and still do) by my T3 curling iron, but what I didn’t realize is that I was setting the heat up way too high and holding my curl for way too long.

Over the past two months, I noticed a change in my hair, and quickly blamed my hairdresser that it must have been a botched haircut I just never picked up on before. As each day passed my hair seemed to get worse and I noticed how bad it was even more. Thankfully in this career, I have an almost daily record of myself and quickly scrolled back to right when I got my last haircut to see if anything looked funny. Nope, my hair looked great! So when I just recently went in for my cut and highlights (I go about every 4 months), I broke down to my hairdresser asking what the heck could be going wrong. He almost instantly knew that I was damaging my hair and could see the amount of breakage. He took a mirror, twirled me around and showed me the back or my head and I literally let out a HUGE gasp. It had looked as if my 4 year old niece took a pair of scissors and cut a triangle out of the back of my hair. Not only were my ends severely damaged, but I also had huge chunks on the side of my head that I just blamed on awkward hair growth.

Three hours later I left the salon feeling a bit naked (due to my new locks…or lack there of), shocked and wanting to make a change. While I typically use a heat protectant on my hair, it just wasn’t good enough. I of course took to social media to share this story with you all and was overwhelmed with the amount of interest, similarities and stories from you all with your hair journey. You all are the best for sending in the vitamin and hair care recommendations I asked for and once again I was blown away by the interest you all had in the lists I compiled.

So with that all being said, I thought this post would be well received and helpful to you all! I am sharing the lists as well as a few other tips I have learned and hopefully we can all start to know how to take care of ourselves and our hair a little bit better. As always, shout with any questions and I would love to continue to hear from you all your personal stories, suggestions and experiences!

TIPS + TRICKS FOR HEALTHIER HAIR:

• Maxtrix 5000 – helps with hair, skin + nails
• Collagen Peptides Powder – A LOT of you recommended this! I have been hearing more and more about this product and excited to do a bit of research. Does anyone know if you can take this with vitamins?
• Biotin (5000mg) – Olly gummies was a suggested brand by a few, but my hesitation is the amount of added sugar in this particular brand. Also, a vegetarian capsule was suggested when looking at brands so you are not digesting the plastic
• Eating healthy fats
• Tip – if you don’t want to use heat, a texture spray all over after a shower will work great! Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray was a popular recommendation. I ordered this and will get back to you on my thoughts!
• It’s A Ten leave in conditioner – (recommended by a few!)
• Olaplex – a pre-wash for blondes
• Heat Protector – I use this one  while my hair is still damp and before I apply any heat.
• My hairdresser suggested buying a diffuser to attach to your hairdryer to distribute the heat.

I also mentioned I wanted to take a better look at my overall health and incorporate vitamins back into my life. I have a super sensitive stomach and you all had some amazing suggestions for organic vitamins that don’t hurt your stomach!

• Prenatal Vitamins – SO many recommendations for this!! These also help with skin. I was told you can ask your OB for a prescription for prenatal vitamins so they are more affordable…totally worth a shot.
• Olly Women’s Multi-Vitamins – they make a variety of vitamins, my only concern as mentioned above is the additional sugar.
• New Chapter Organics (prenatal specifically) – I ended up ordering these and so far love them. You take 3 a day and they are completely vegetarian and do not upset my stomach at all and there isn’t a harsh smell you have to cover by stuffing crackers into your mouth either (true story of how I ate vitamins in the past). While I haven’t yet taken them on an empty stomach, it says you can!
• Tip – If worried about your stomach hurting, take right before bed.
• Garden of Life
• Carlton Nutrients – expensive, but great quality…you mix into water.
• HUM