How To Maintain Silky Hair

You lot know silky hair when you lot see it: shiny, salubrious, and free of tangles. But if you, like me, put your pilus through the ringer, styling it with hot tools, using tons of product, and coloring it regularly, silkiness seems simply but a dream. Luckily, with the right products, you and I both can improve the look and feel of our pilus in only a few weeks—peculiarly since silky pilus relies on the health and status of the cuticle (the outside layer), according to Steven Picciano, a national creative person for Goldwell.

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"The surface of your hair is kind of similar shingles on a roof," he explains. "When all of those shingles [aka the cuticle layer] lay downward and polish from roots to ends, that's when your pilus looks and feels shine and shiny—not knotty and tangled; it'south also when it reflects the almost light."

That said, if you're reading this because y'all deal with dullness and tangles daily/weekly/whenever, follow the eight tips beneath to transform your strands and restore your natural shine.

1. Exist mindful when shampooing.

When shampooing, the tendency is to pile your hair on tiptop of your head, and launder the entire length of your strands. This technique non only creates tangles, but also dries out the ends of the hair, which already lack wet—especially of those with curly pilus.

"With naturally straight hair, oil from the scalp can go from roots to ends very speedily considering gravity will pull information technology down," Picciano says. "But with curly hair, the oil has to travel around the coiled shaft, so the oil doesn't get there as quickly."

What this means is that people with curly hair don't need to shampoo their hair as often. And, when it is time to launder, consider swapping out your regs shampoo with a cleansing conditioner to proceed from stripping your hair of its necessary natural oils.

two. Comb when moisture, brush when dry.

The Wet Brush Original Detangler

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Picciano says almost people are not fragile enough when brushing, which tin can prevent your hair from looking its best.

"If you lot're raking through wet hair with a paddle castor, that detangling noise that you lot're used to hearing is actually the sound of your hair ripping. Instead of smoothing the cuticle, this action is causing impairment to the outside layer."

A gentler fashion to detangle hair? Using a comb when information technology's moisture (or a brush designed for utilize on wet pilus), and only using a brush when your hair is dry. Work through the knots and tangles past starting at the ends before moving to the middle and roots, rather than working from roots to ends, which could worsen the problem.

3. Employ a T-shirt to dry out your hair instead of a towel.

Somewhere along the mode, we wrongly learned to "rough dry out" pilus past rubbing a towel back and forth against it. This action creates friction, which fluffs upward the cuticle. And when the cuticles are fluffed up, they grab on one another, cause knots and breakage, and result in frizz.

"The number 1 key to having smooth hair is no friction," Picciano says. "When someone's pilus gets super tangly, it's normally considering the cuticle is open. The tighter the cuticle, the more resistant it is to opening, and the smoother the pilus is overall."

So, switch out your fluffy friction-causing towel for a smoother cotton T-shirt. And instead of rubbing your head, wrap the ends in the shirt and squeeze all the water out, working information technology down to the ends.

4. Slumber on silk pillowcases.

If yous're currently using a cotton pillowcase, that very well might be the cause of your frizzy or tangled hair. Makes sense if y'all call back about it: a silky smooth pillowcase leads to silky smooth strands. C otton absorbs all the wet from your strands, while silk or satin maintains the oils necessary for nourished hair.

5. E'er stop blow drying with a blast of common cold air.

It sounds like a time-sucking extra pace, but Picciano argues that finishing a blow out with common cold air after the hair is dry out is key for non only locking in the amount of volume, direction of your mode, and movement of your pilus, information technology also helps close the cuticle.

"1000 ake certain to always use a nozzle or concentrator," he says. "It makes certain the direction of the air goes from roots to ends, closing the cuticle rather than roughing it upward," he says. Employ your hand like rake to rummage your hair. "Simply put your fingers into your hair with them open up, gently shut them, and and then slide them down the hair shaft to duster that cuticle closed, followed by a cold shot of air to seal it."

6. Contain healthy fats into your diet.

"Light reflection and smoothness is all about wet and having the proper lipids," Picciano says. "It's harder to have beautiful, shiny, cogitating oils in your pilus if you don't have any oils in your diet. That'southward why eating healthy fats, like basics, avocados, and salmon, is important—it will help keep your lipids higher. Even an Omega-3 supplement is great for that."

Picciano besides stresses the importance of hydration and drinking lots of water each and every day.

"I know it sounds so obvious, but if your skin is dry, your pilus will be likewise," he adds. "If your interior trunk is dry out, at that place won't exist any h2o to feed your cells. It'south all nearly being hydrated and having a counterbalanced lipid diet."

7. Add together blistering soda to a clarifying shampoo.

R+Co Oblivion Clarifying Shampoo

Water with heavy metals or minerals can not only wreck havoc on your expensive color, merely also dry out out your strands and cause dullness—aka the opposite of silkiness. If the area you live in has hard water, try an at-home remedy, similar adding a trivial scrap of baking soda to your clarifying shampoo once a week (or every other calendar week for those with color-treated hair).

"Baking soda increases the level of surfactants, giving you a little bit more scrub," Picciano says. "It'll as well open up the cuticle a little more, helping to remove more buildup. If yous take colour-treated pilus, this should happen once every other week; another solution is to purchase a filter for your shower head."

8. Look for products with hydrolyzed keratin.

When shopping for your haircare, search the label for an ingredient called hydrolyzed keratin, which Picciano says is the best ingredient for achieving silky pilus. Keratin (a structural protein) is necessary for restoring strength in damaged hair and hydrolyzed means it's in a smaller liquid class so it can penetrate and work on the interior of the hair. Picciano suggests trying the Kerasilk line (available at salons that bear Goldwell), which has products that incorporate keratin, actual silk proteins, and skincare-quality ingredients for ultimate smoothness.

Brooke Shunatona Brooke Shunatona is a contributing author for Cosmopolitan.com.