So many of us want a straight, gorgeous mane, but we aren’t exactly sure how to get there. Or our hair starts off looking good, but at some point in the day it either falls flat or gets frizzy. Let’s take a closer look at what causes frizz and how to fix it.

You spend a pretty penny to get your hair cut, colored, and styled several times each year. And when you leave the salon it looks fantastic. They straighten your hair beautifully, but then the moment you wash it for the first time after your salon trip that lustrous mane seems to have gone out the window and you end up wearing your hair up in a ponytail or scraping together some sort of sock bun until your next trip to the salon. Is this your story?

What Causes Frizzy Hair?

Generally speaking, frizzy hair lacks moisture, so any of the ways that you strip moisture from your hair can cause frizz. A number of factors in your own beauty routine can actually cause your hair to get frizzy and make it more difficult to tame. These include:

• Taking super hot and long showers.
• Shampooing your hair too often, (which, depending how dry your hair is, can mean every single day).
• Starting off with naturally drier hair.
• In the winter, even though the air lacks humidity (another cause of frizziness) the dry winter air can also cause frizz.

5 Tips for How to Tame Your Mane

Luckily, if you’re not exactly proud of your mane, you can take a number of steps to tame it.

1. Upgrade your blowdryer.

If you’ve had the same junky hair dryer for a decade, it might be time for an upgrade. Ionic technology hair dryers are a great place to start.

2. Wash your hair every other day.

Again, washing your hair every day causes frizz, so it’s best to cut back.  In other words, get yourself a good shower cap.

3. Invest in a good leave-in conditioner treatment.

Combat dryness with a good leave-in conditioner treatment. Acure has a great leave-in conditioner made with argon oil ($10). Some other great products include Rare Elements with it’s luxury brand of leave-in conditioner made with marula oil ($38) and John Masters Organics, which features another great leave-in treatment made with green tea and calendula ($20).

How to Straighten Your Hair

Make sure your hair is completely dry before getting started. You may want to air dry your hair and add an anti-frizz product like Giovanni Frizz Be Gone Hair Serum ($15). Or if you dry your hair with a blowdryer, start by flipping your head and drying from the bottom up.

1. Use a heat protection spray.

If you’re going to use a flat iron, make sure you protect your hair first by adding in heat protection spray like this one from Desert Essence ($7). It adds a layer of protection from the hot iron.

2. Iron it out.

Now it’s time to add in your flat iron. You can divide your hair into sections using hair clips, starting from underneath your hair. Gradually move toward the top of your head. Try and avoid the hair roots, which can dry out your hair.

3. Keep your hair in place.

Once your hair is the way you want it, keep it in place with a good hair spray like Beauty Without Cruelty ($7).

If you want straight and lustrous hair, don’t straighten your hair every day. In fact, do it as little as possible. It doesn’t matter how high quality the products that you use on your hair are if you apply too much heat.

4 DIY Hair Maintenance Masks to Repair Damaged Hair

Gorgeous shiny hair is healthy. That’s why hair maintenance is so important. Eating a healthy diet loaded with fruits and vegetables, hydration, and lots of good fats is a great place to start, but you should also give your hair a break every so often from washing, drying, and ironing. Additionally, a good DIY hair mask or leave-in treatment can also help. I wouldn’t necessarily do these treatments before a big event just in case it takes a few washes to remove the mask.

1. DIY Deep Conditioning Treatment

Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. mayonnaise

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients well using a whisk.
2. Cover your hair completely, using your fingers to massage into your locks.
3. Put your hair in a bun and cover with a plastic bag for 30 minutes.
4. Wash and condition your hair to remove the deep conditioning treatment.

2. Coconut and Olive Oil

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions
1. Whisk together both oils in a small bowl.

2. Using your hands, massage into your hair locks, taking time to ensure it reaches the roots.

3. Put your hair into a bun and cover with an old towel.

4. Let the hair mask sit on your hair for 30 minutes.

5. Shampoo and condition as you normally would.

3. Avocado Hair Mask

Ingredients
½ avocado, diced
1 egg yolk

Directions

1. Using a blender, combine the avocado and egg until smooth.

2. Starting at the scalp, massage into the hair, paying special attention to the roots.

3. Wrap hair in an old towel and let stand for 30 minutes.

3. Wash and condition hair as usual.

4. Aloe Vera and Olive Oil Mask:

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp. aloe vera
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 egg yolk

Directions

1. Combine all of the ingredients with a whisk.

2. Using an old comb, brush the combination into your hair. Massage combination into any remaining locks left untreated.

3. Keep in overnight for best results.

4. Wash and condition your hair as usual. You may want to repeat this treatment daily until your damaged hair feels healthy again.

Do you have any tips on straightening your hair? What are your favorite products? How do you protect your locks from heat damage? We want to know! Drop us a line via Twitter @EcoSalon.

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The post Tame Your Mane This Winter: How to Straighten Your Hair Without Damaging It appeared first on EcoSalon.

As is the case with most of my deeply held insecurities, I blame my hair obsession on Marcia Brady.

The oldest daughter and resident femme fatale of The Brady Bunch, Marcia was the personification of mid-1970s grooviness; she was also a constant reminder of my own physical shortcomings. Marcia was graceful and perky with big blue eyes and clear skin, but the most obvious difference between us was the stick-straight golden hair that fell past her shoulders in a mocking curtain of silky blonde perfection. My own hair, at the time, was an unpredictable cloud of chaos – an ethnic riot of mousey brown frizz and unruly curls, an unflattering, hard-to-groom mess.

Like other coiffure-challenged girls of my generation, I was at war with my hair and tried everything I could think of  to beat it into submission. I ironed it, oiled it and wrapped it around my head (a look my brother referred to as “nature’s turban.”) I slathered on a fruity pink gel called “Dippity Do” and set my hair with orange juice cans. At one point I experimented with a home straightening kit called Dark and Lovely, although I was neither of the two.

It took many years but I finally reached an uneasy truce with my hair – it may be charred and somewhat exhausted now, but it is also relatively straight and well-behaved, thanks to my slavish dependence on flatirons and silicone gels. I have also developed a mild case of hair-dependent agoraphobia, which means that I seldom go outside during periods of high humidity.

All of which has led me to consider the latest trend in hair straightening – the Brazillian Keratin process. This salon treatment relies on formaldehyde, a substance that up until now was best known for stopping  decay in human cadavers. While technically an organic compound, formaldehyde can hardly be called “green,” since it is a known pollutant and respiratory irritant. It is widely thought to be a carcinogen, and is commonly found in cigarette smoke, exhaust fumes, and smog.

I am at a point in my life where I am newly committed to keeping toxins out of my body and the world at large, yet I am seriously considering dousing myself in embalming fluid as a last-ditch effort to have pretty, shiny hair that won’t kink up in the rain or heat.

The foolishness of this is not lost on me, especially since I was not raised to be a shallow girl. My grandmother, who had a big influence on me, was a no-nonsense Russian immigrant, a natural beauty who taught me early on that the only cosmetic a girl really needed was a little Vaseline applied sparingly to the lips. Of course, that was easy for her to say – my grandmother grew up in late 19^th century Minsk. She may have had famines and Cossacks to deal with, but at least she didn’t have to live up to Marcia Brady.

Image: d3I

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