My Natural Hair Routine | Longer Stronger Hair

Hello there friends and welcome back to our little house on the mountain. If you are a returning subscriber, thank you so much as always for clicking on the video. And if you are new here, I would love to have you stay around and subscribe and check out our other videos. But today we are going to do my most frequently requested video, which is all about my natural hair care routine. Today it is hair washing day. Starting out, I have to say this because I always say this stuff and I know some people find it annoying, but I do believe that the most important part of skincare and hair care is what goes on inside of your body. Because the things that go on inside of your body are going to eventually come out of your body and you are going to see signs of what's going on inside your body in your skin, in your eyes, in your hair, in your nails. And the body does this as a survival mechanism to get toxins out of your body so that it can function well. So I was a vegetarian for 18 years and I slowly transitioned into more of a whole foods nourishing traditions style diet, which has a very strong focus on nutrient density. Being fully and completely nourished, a lot of proteins, a lot of healthy fats, and a very colorful array of real foods. And so I wanted to share with you some of the best foods for hair growth. This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but these are some things that I would encourage you to think about adding into your diet if you haven't already or adding in more of. Collagen rich foods, things like homemade bone broths, which are very budget friendly to make. If you want to get a collagen supplement that you can add into things like protein shakes or smoothies, they do make powdered collagen and they also make liquid collagen. This is just a grass-fed collagen peptide powder from Thrive Market. But if you don't want to spend any extra money on collagen powders or liquid, you can get collagen from collagen rich foods by adding more of those into your diet. And like I said, bone broth is a wonderful way. Homemade bone broth is a wonderful way to get that natural collagen and gelatin into your diet, which is going to be excellent for your skin, your hair, and your nails. And I do have a bone broth beginners video here on the channel, which I will also link in the description box and pin it in the comments below. The other foods that are great for your hair are sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are very strengthening for the hair. Omega-3 fatty acids are also incredible for your skin, your hair, and your nails. And it nourishes you internally. Things that are very important, like your brain. Cruciferous vegetables, the one vegetable group that most people in the Western world do not eat enough of, and they are incredible for your liver health and your gut health. A lot of people have an issue eating them raw unless they are fermented. So my suggestion would be to increase the cruciferous vegetables in your diet by roasting them or by fermenting them. A homemade fermented sauerkraut is extremely budget-friendly and is wonderful for your gut. So your bitter herbs, soaked, properly soaked nuts, and pumpkin seeds. Things like Brazil nuts have a lot of B vitamins in them, and B vitamins on the inside will be great for your hair on the outside. Properly soaking pumpkin seeds are full of zinc, and zinc is another vitamin that is wonderful for hair health. Eggs, pastured eggs, backyard eggs, whatever the best quality of egg you can get, those are a fantastic food for your hair. Both to put on your hair, I know it sounds weird and gross, but historically that's what a lot of women did, and also to consume internally. And the last one I have on my list is citrus. It's also very, very good for your hair. So let's just talk about a few basics. Hair types. There are a variety of hair types, and they go from hair type 1a all the way to 4c. 1a and 1b and 1c is going to be your straight hair, and it's going to go in order from the coarseness of how straight it is. So 1a is going to be very straight, fine hair, and then in your twos, which is what I have, I have a slightly wavy hair depending on what time of the year, how much humidity there is. My hair will get much wavier or curlier in the summer, and it'll be a little bit straighter in the winter. So I'm in the 2 range, which is wavy, and then in the 3 range, from 3a to 3c, we have degrees of curly hair. And then in the 4s, from 4a to 4c, we have more tightly coiled hair. There are genetic factors to that obviously with the hair types. However, what I want to say as we go into this is that our modern day hair care practices have created more oil issues with the scalp. So a lot of the hair care products today and the things that we're putting on our scalp and in our hair are very harsh. They have harsh chemicals in them, kind of like detergents. And so there is a transitional period that goes on between a more modern chemical hair care routine and a more historical natural hair care routine. There will be a transition period where you are going to think to yourself, this is not working for me, what in the world is going on? So I'd have to go from every three days, and I know some people wash every day. So you might go every two days, then every three days, and your hair is going to feel really greasy and you're just going to want to wash it so bad. But you're going to have to let yourself go more and more and more until ideally you get to that one week mark where you're washing your hair once a week. And some people with hair in the 4 range, 4a to 4c, will even wash their hair once a month. And it is time to wash my hair, but as you can see it's not covered in oil. And I used to get extremely greasy hair from like here up after about three days. And I also got very bad dandruff in the fall and the winter months. And ever since I switched my diet and I switched a few things about what I was doing with my scalp, I no longer get that dandruff. Hallelujah. So these things do work, but they take some transitional time. And if you have been using very harsh chemicals on your hair and your scalp, no matter what kind of hair you have, your hair and your scalp, the pH and all of the the goodness that goes on naturally, it's going to take some time for your hair to transition. Budgeting and products, quite a topic. Some people can afford the best of the best non-toxic hair products and I'm very happy for you. I think that's fantastic. Some of us cannot. And I do have a slight pet peeve about some of these care routine videos where they offer you like, you have to go get these 20 products. And I'm like, okay, I guess we're not eating this month. And so I think it's important for us to talk about how there is a whole range of things you can do. I did want to share with you a few of the chemicals to look out for. And so keep this in mind when you're thinking about budget, because it's better to transition to something that has a few less of these chemicals in it than to try to afford something that's not in your budget that has, that lacks all of these chemicals. As long as we're trying to put wisdom in place and to make better choices, we're going to see little results. So here's some of the chemicals to look out for. Sulfates, parabens, fragrance. This one's really hard because fragrance is in almost everything in our world. FD&C color pigments, yellow number five, blue number five. All of the unnatural dyes are horrible for you on your body, in your body. They can cause neurological problems. They can cause physical problems. You want to avoid food dyes in your food, unless it is a natural food dye, like from beets, beet powder or hibiscus or something like that. But you really want to try to avoid toothpaste, hair care, any skincare food products with unnatural coloring in them. Tetrasodium ED, no sorry, ETDA, formaldehyde. Must we say much more? It's what they embalm bodies with. Probably shouldn't go on our head. SLS, mineral oil, propylene glycol, PG, it might just say PG, silicone, PNG or PEG. I don't know if I'm going to pronounce this one correctly, but if you can't pronounce something, don't eat it and probably don't put it on your skin. Diazolidinol, urea and isopropyl alcohol. One thing that I would say would be great to have on hand are bottles, spray bottles, squirt bottles, pump bottles, just empty ones that you can put your homemade products in. And so you could reuse something that you bought from the store that was a pump squeeze bottle, just clean it out and then use it for that. Or in the travel section of a lot of stores where they have the little mini size travel products, they will have things like empty squirt bottles, spray bottles in smaller mini cosmetic sizes that you can use. You can also probably get those things off of Amazon. I have here my scalp oil, which is one of the first things I'm going to be doing today for my hair care routine. Real natural oils are a girl's best friend for your skin and for your hair. Again, it's just going to take that transitional period of your hair getting used to these things, your scalp getting used to these things, and we are going to be washing this out. This is not going to stay in my hair. There are many different oils that you can use to make your pre-wash hair and scalp oil. Almond oil, which is my personal choice. I think it's light and nice for me. Coconut oil, some hate that in their hair. Some people really like it. Black castor oil, if you have damage, hair loss. Black castor oil can also be really good for the curlier and more coiled hair. Olive oil, grapeseed oil, jojoba oil, and argan oil. That is not an exhaustive list, but just some options for you. Mine is mostly almond oil with a little bit of jojoba. That's what I had in my pantry. Amazon, and I spend less by buying it in a bigger bottle. Again, we'll link below. And then I have some hair growing essential oils in here. Some of the best essential oils for your hair are rosemary, smells so good, which I have in here. Cedarwood, which I also have in here. Chamomile oil, clary sage, lavender, peppermint. If you like that kind of wake me up invigorating feeling on your scalp, a few drops of peppermint oil would be nice. Lavender is nice, but that's it. Almond oil, most of the bottle, a little bit of jojoba, and I did in here cedarwood, rosemary, and some frankincense. But again, you can mix and match depending on what you have. I have on my shirt that I don't mind getting oil on if it just so happens. And I start with my scalp oil. That is number one in my hair care day routine. And I am going to just get that all up in my scalp. You can always use a separate cheaper bulk carrier oil to do the rest of your hair. If you have very oily, fine hair, you may want to start this by only doing the ends of your hair. And I do get asked if I cut or trim my hair, and I usually will have James, my husband, trim my hair about once a year, sometimes every six months, but usually once a year. We have a little trimming party, and he will trim about two inches off for me if my hair needs it. But that is all that I do these days. And if you know my history, I was in the modeling industry for just about 12 years, and I had a lot of stuff done to my hair, a lot of people touching it and putting all kinds of chemical products in it. And my hair was in really rough shape when I left the industry, as well as my skin. It was battered and bruised and broken. So putting all that chemical stuff on, I tell you, I promise you, it backfires. So now I am going to let this chill on my hair for a few hours. A lot of people will... I hear you, buddy. I know it's probably time for you to eat. I'm gonna let this chill on my hair. A lot of people will do this before bed, the night before hair washing day, and then they will just put a satin cap or satin bonnet over their hair to protect it as they sleep, and then go into their hair washing routine the next day. But I just like doing this in the morning. So there are a lot of... No. Okay, what's on your face? What is this? There are a lot of different options when it comes to a more historical, natural approach to shampoo and conditioner and detangling spray and leave-in conditioner. I'm sure some people are going to watch this and say, no, don't do it like that, or do it like this. And I don't have all the answers. I just know what's been working for my hair and what I've seen work for other people's hair that have a different hair type than mine. And I think the best way to do this is to just talk about, historically speaking, most women had very long hair. And today, on average, most women don't let their hair get past their shoulders. And so they're always cutting off their hair and not having to contend with growing long, healthy hair. And so our modern practices of taking the products on and putting the harsh detergent chemicals in the hair, we kind of have to keep chopping off our hair because it's going to be so dry and dead at the ends and in such bad shape. And also adding on top of that a standard American or standard Western diet, our hair is just going to be in a state where we're not going to be able to grow it to the length that maybe we want to. Some people's hair is going to grow long downward and some people's hair is going to grow long more outward. But no matter which direction your hair is growing longer, if that's something that you want to achieve, we are going to have to transition out of the more modern way of treating our hair and transition more into a historical way of treating our hair. You can choose to purchase a more natural non-toxic shampoo and conditioner. If you want to just start off with that, keep it simple, do little things to transition in the beginning, that's great. There is a brand called Calia, which is a wonderful non-toxic brand of shampoo and conditioner. I've used their shampoo and conditioner. I have their leave-in conditioner spray, which I love. They are based in Canada, so there is a shipping to ship to the United States. Another option is using a Castile soap and you can get that in bulk again on Amazon. If you use an apple cider vinegar rinse after you use the Castile soap, your hair will detangle nicely and it will be smooth again because basically the Castile soap will... your hair shaft has things that are kind of like shingles and it does this little separation when you do the soap and then the apple cider vinegar rinse will help it come back together and so it'll be smooth again. So the other option for washing your hair naturally is clay. Taking some Rasul clay, or if you have really oily hair you can use bentonite clay, but it is drying so you're not going to want to use that if you already have drier hair. But a Rasul clay is more nourishing and mixing a little bit of that with water so that you have a watery mixture. Not like a thick face mask clay, but something that's watery. Putting a few essential oils in there and just doing again the top part of your hair or if your hair is oily all the way down you can do the whole thing. Now if you have a more coiled type of hair, obviously it's going to be different. Pre-oil, cleanse the scalp and scrub it really good. Some people with coiled hair that don't wash their hair as much will even do a homemade scrub and scrub their scalp with a nice homemade exfoliating scrub. Then put on their more natural or homemade conditioner or balm or shea butter and then do something leave-in. And that leave-in conditioner, whatever you choose, whatever non-toxic thing that you desire, the next day you can do a little refresh. So if you have a few pieces of your hair that you feel are a little bit more frizzy the next day, you can just take a little bit of that homemade or non-toxic leave-in conditioner and just go over those pieces. And you can do that for a couple days in a row and it'll just give your curls a nice refresh. So what I'm going to do today is I am going to do a little bit of Castile soap just on the upper part of my hair. Then I'm going to take my apple cider vinegar. I'm going to do a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with water. And I'm going to pour that over my hair. Rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse all of these oils out of my hair. That's really important, especially if you have the finer hair, you want to really get all of those oils out. And no matter what type of hair you have, you want to make sure that your scalp is nice and cleansed. So you're going to rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse. And then I am going to use something nourishing for the ends of my good morning friends. It is time to take out our hair to summarize and recap the hair care routine and have some final thoughts. So I have my hair up here in these, this little heatless curls band. So a pre oil or a scalp oil, you could use any combination of oils and carrier oils that you choose. So I scrub that into my scalp and down my hair again, depending on the type of hair that you have, you're going to want to adapt that. And then I do some sort of a cleansing. Again, you could find a non, a more non-toxic shampoo of your choice. You could make shampoo bars. You could do the old fashioned clay and aloe or clay and water mixture. You could do a Castile soap, again, whatever works for your hair. And then if you're feeling fancy, you could do a rinse. So you can do an herbal rinse, which is basically a herbal infused water. You could also add some herbal powders to that if you want to, or you could just do a simple apple cider vinegar hair rinse. And I poured that over my hair after I washed out my cleanser. I used Castile soap this time with a tiny bit of shampoo. So after I washed that out, I did my apple cider vinegar rinse right over my hair and over my scalp, which for me helps make my hair nice and shiny when it's all done. And then I did a conditioning from about right here down to the ends of my hair with a heavier amount on the ends. And you could do this with a homemade conditioning bar, homemade conditioner, or like a butter that you make, a balm, or you could just get yourself a more non-toxic conditioner. Just use whatever seems to be working with your hair. And then I rinsed that out nice and thoroughly and really made sure that I didn't feel any of that initial oil that I put in my hair in there anymore because you don't want residue. Sometimes I will hit my head and my hair with a blast of cold water right before I get out of the shower. And then I did a light spritz when my hair was damp with a leave-in conditioner. I have the Calia leave-in conditioner. It's nice and light for my hair. If you have like the type one hair, you might want to skip putting anything in your hair at all at that point and just allowing it to dry. If you have a type four hair, you might want to put a deep leave-in conditioner in. I would just suggest trying to get things that aren't going to leave a heavy residue behind. Things that again are free of some of that list of chemicals that we mentioned before. You could again do a very very light oil. Sometimes I'll just do that over the ends of my hair, nothing up here. You could do a rose water, an aloe spray, and again I will link these. This is a leave-in styler treatment that smooths the hair. This one is free of silicone, parabens, phylates, propylene glycol, mineral oil, and petroleum. If you do need to use a little dry shampoo in between washes when you're trying to stretch things out, I did find again Beauty by Earth has a dry shampoo volume powder and it has some of the again the better ingredients of the dry shampoos that I've seen. So that basically sums it up and then during the week and right after my hair is dry and finished like this, I will put a drop just a drop or two of an essential oil on my hand because I know a lot of people like making their hair smell nice and spraying something in their hair but perfumes have a lot of chemicals in them and alcohol heavy alcohols and so I'll just put a drop or two of an essential oil that my husband likes. He likes vanilla, sweeter smells. I typically will not brush my hair when it's wet. I know some people with much curlier hair prefer to detangle their hair while it is wet with a deep conditioner on it. I prefer to let it dry, do what it's going to do, and then I will give it a little bit of a brush after it has the leave-in conditioning treatment. This is my brush of choice. So there you go. You can see it in the light. Just go step by step. Take it easy on yourself. Work on maybe putting more nourishing foods in your diet, taking out some of the things that cause chronic inflammation. If I could give one piece of advice to younger women, it is that if you want to have nice hair as you get older and older, leave your hair alone as much as possible. If you want to use a little bit of heat like one of those wands to do the waves or you use a straightener, just try to use it less. Try to use it less days a week. Maybe one day and then let your hair kind of fall into more of its natural texture as the week goes on. When we are always fighting against the hair that we've been given, that's when the most damage is going to be done. So when we're fighting against the color and we're bleaching our hair, we're heavily dyeing our hair, we are putting tons of chemicals in our hair to change the texture, we are going to have some negative results. So I just think it's good for, well, it's good for our hair, but it's also good for our heart to work on that journey of contentment and enhancing what we have, learning to really work with what we have, learning the things that God's put on the earth, the oils and things that work the best with our particular hair. And I really do think that it's deeper than just the hair and the skin. It is a, these things are a healing journey where we're healing relationships with ourselves. And I think that that's a beautiful thing. Just think about it. Your scalp, what's right under here? Your precious, precious brain that you need to think all the good thoughts that you're going to start thinking about your hair. So I hope that you guys enjoyed this video, that you got something out of it, maybe some tips or encouragement or little things that you're thinking about, maybe changing in your hair routine. I hope you enjoyed seeing a little piece of my natural hair routine. And I just wanted to tell you that I am so appreciative that you took the time today to choose to click on this video, watch our channel. If you're new here, I would love to have you subscribe. And if you wouldn't mind liking the video and even considering sharing it with someone, that would be very, very helpful to me. And a big shout out to our patrons over on Patreon for helping make all of this possible. I love you all from the bottom of my heart and Lord willing, I will see all of you right here on the next one. Bye friends.