have 4 months to get shiny hair. help!!!

mrs_baggins

i have a wedding in 4 months so have till them to sort out my hair. its very dry and just doesnt have any kind of shine! I am growing out layers so its a bit messy due to taht as well! it totally lacks shine and lustre. I use conditioner every time i wash which is about 4 times a week although i only leave it in for a minute or so! i colour my own hair(needs must!) about every two months or so so thsi doesnt help. I was reading about it last night and it suggested leaving olive oil in for 20 mins or so which i did last night but today seems worse than before! I have fairly fine fair hair.

i know that what i eat has an effect on hair too but my diets not brill at the mo so may take vitamins. if anyone knows what foods i should be eating it would help.

i really need to have nice shiny hair by the wedding. OOh and up to recently i had trimmed regularly so there are no split ends but does look somewhat frizzy.

delain

Which shampoo/conditioner are you using?

I've got the opposite to you (thick hair and don't colour) but I find some shampoos great and others awful.

If you post what you use someone might be along with a suggestion

lei_armstrong

Coconut oil will leave your hair lovely and soft. Have you tried Argan Oil yet? Can be a bit pricey but is amazing!

flea72

Ok, the hair on your head is dead, there is nothing you can do to it that will last long term. But you can make it look less frizzy for a day or two (unless you do kill it even more by having it relaxed) by using products that put a layer of grease on, weighing down the whispy frizz

My best tip for shiny, smooth hair for a special occasion is to not do anything to it for at least two days before. So dont wash it or put any product on. This allows the natural oils to kick in and do what they are supposed to do. Then just wash and style as normal.

theoretica

I too have fine hair. Wearing it tied up most of the time helps prevent damage. I used to use almond oil for a hot oil treatment which worked but was a nuisance and sometimes needed to be washed out more than once. I currently have this stuff and tend to leave in rather longer than advised and don't use every time I wash my hair: http://www.boots.com/en/Dove-Hair-Therapy-Nourishing-Oil-Care-Express-Treatment-Conditioner-180ml_1247386/

mrs_baggins

thanks for all replies so far. I have tried Argan oil- one from boots at about £6 but they all vary so much with the amount of argan oil they have that most are probably useless! shampoo wise i must admit i use fairly cheap ones which are on offer. do any of them really make a difference do you think?

McKneff

Do you have longish hair. I always found that if my hair got that bit longer it ceased to shine, and the hairdresser said that there wasn't enough natural oil to spread along long hair, got it cut shortish and the shine came back.

maddeningly

What colour hair do you have? I find that semi permanent hair colours make your hair shiny but I am dark so don't know what they are like on blonde hair. The ojon intensive treatment, in fact their shampoo and conditioner too are really good but very pricey. The shampoo and conditioner smells amazing but the intensive stuff stinks! Have you tried treatments at the hairdressers? They tend to cost around £5 in a normal salon where I live and make your hair look shiny. I love shiny hair!

Fishingtime

Try eating Chappie
My dog has a lovely shiny coat :rotfl:

Fire_Fox

Agree hair is dead, no miracles can be performed. HOWEVER there is stuff you can do to improve the visual appearance.

There are only a very few compounds that can penetrate the hair and improve condition, hydrolysed protein and lauric acid from coconut oil are the two key ones. Most conditioners are based on silicones (-cone, -xane, -conol) and they do nothing but sit on the surface of the hair and block out useful compounds, tho they are useful for faux shine and slip (great on the wedding day itself).

Heat styling, repeat permanent dying, the sun, brushing when wet and regular shampoo (anything containing sulphate surfactants) are proven to damage the hair. Fine hair is much more vulnerable. Personally I couldn't give up permanent dye but cut back loads and stopped all the rest, my hair improved within a week quitting sulphate shampoos and silicone conditioners but others find it takes longer.

Also try avoiding terry cotton towels, use a microfibre towel and leave hair to air dry from wet not towel damp. This really works to calm wavy or curly hair (many people have hidden wave or curl, I had no idea until I was late thirties, even my mother was shocked).

Vitamins do not make up for a poor diet, you need a balance of ALL the nutrients the body needs and even then that will only affect new growth (so two inches in four months time).

sofababe

If you are blonde there's not a lot you can do, blonde hair is hard to get shiny, especially if it's curly/wavy/frizzy. I know this as I've tried lots of products to get mine to shine. If you're darker then a semi permanent will help, as will a shine spray on the day, but again not so much on curly/frizzy hair. Even if I straighten mine it still doesn't shine of it's own accord without silicon based shine spray.