Extreme hair breakage

Gabrielle is right that a proper diet supersedes all else. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 12 (I’m now 30), and had to give up dairy while nursing my baby–this forced me to start eating *a ton* of soy beans (edamame) to get the protein I needed. My hair grew several more inches and got stronger and thicker, which is strange since women usualy lose hair after giving birth. Now I make sure to get high protein and vitamins from natural food as well as multivitamin supplements.

So, now I have waist length hair and have had to play with my routine due to Bikram. Initially I wore it in a bun at the crown of my head, but I did notice breakage. Wet (including sweaty) hair breaks really easily, so to avoid any tugging I switched to a braid, and I noticed many women at my studio do the same.

On days with Bikram class I shampoo thoroughly (scalp to ends) to get all the salts from the sweat out of my hair. Salts can also lead to breakage by building up and over-drying the hair. I dilute and lather my shampoo before applying it to avoid putting full strength product on my hair. You can spend alot on shampoo (Redken “All Soft” is my favorite vice, available at beauty supply stores and hair salons), but I typically use a cheap “daily” formula shampoo most of the time. Suave makes a good one, about $2-3 per bottle. I then use a liberal amount of conditioner. I never comb my hair while wet. I towel dry and then blow dry my hair while it is still all knotty from washing and then comb it once it is mostly dry–surprisingly it works pretty well.

On days with no Bikram class, I sometimes do a “conditioner only” wash…just using water to massage my scalp clean and then put conditioner on the ends of the hair. Alternately, if your hair is too oily to skip shampooing, consider diluting and lathering a small amount of shampoo in your hands and use it to wash only the scalp, avoiding the ends of the hair. Then let the shampoo rinse through the ends when you rinse with water. This allows the ends of the hair to retain some of your natural oils. Follow with conditioner.

You can also play with jojoba oil, and Vo5 makes some really nice hot oil products that leave the hair so soft and silky and not at all oily–it’s well worth the cost (a few dollars once every week or two). I also use a wide tooth comb and a boar bristle brush; wire brushes (especially the kind with knobs at the end of the bristles) can snag and break long hair. Hope this helps 🙂