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Your hair has the potential to make a lasting first impression on individuals. Limp, greasy or dry, flat hair can affect your looks. Healthy and shiny hair will present a good picture of general health.
Keeping your hair properly cared for through regular haircuts, washing, and combing can maintain your hair at its optimum level. But proper hair health will bestow you with long and shining hair even when you’re older. Your lifestyle and diet can also impart a healthy appearance to your hair.
These are the best hair care hints for healthy and shiny hair, from modifying your routine to products to steer clear of and habits to break.
What Causes Hair to Look Dull?
Before we go into the nitty-gritty of luscious and shiny hair, we need to understand how it gets dull. Every hair strand has tiny shingles that make up the outer layer. These shingles are held erect after the hair dries from humidity or heat styling.
Shiny hair requires these shingles to remain closed. When a hair cuticle opens from damage, water can escape, something shiny hair requires.
Shiny Hair Tips
There are all sorts of products and techniques out there that can help you combat frizz, dryness, and dullness so that you can enjoy the shiny and healthy hair you want.
Use a Clarifying Shampoo
Clarifying shampoos are used to strip product buildup from your scalp. If non-washed out hair products block pores in your scalp, they can block the oil from your scalp, which is naturally secreted from penetrating your hair.
The right amount of natural hair oil will make your hair sparkle. Too much oil can make hair look greasy, and not enough oil makes hair dry.
Select silicone-free, sulphate-free, and other chemical-free products that strip natural oils from hair.
Shampoo with Cold Water
You may have witnessed a trick that salons have been using for hair treatments. When hairdressers are getting your hair ready for cutting, you may have noticed that the water temperature decreases when they shampoo it.
Heat can open up your hair cuticle, and cold can close your hair cuticle. For these reasons, warm water is generally used for shampooing and conditioning to allow the nourishing properties to travel through the hair cuticle. Cold water can actually lock in moisture and other products in hair care products.
Silk and Satin Accessories
Regular bedding materials can be rough on hair. Silk and satin don’t rub as much against hair and can allow natural hair oils to spread more evenly. They’re also great for leave-in or overnight treatments, as the products won’t just sink into the fabric.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to replace bedding, silk and satin bonnets are available to sleep in at night.
Eat the Right Foods
Look for foods rich in fatty acids such as fish, olives, and avocados. These good fats will serve your hair and skin well.
A 2018 study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences discovered that fish oil had the potential to increase the anagen, or growth phase, of the hair growth cycle.These supplements alone won’t make your hair glossier, but they could make your hair healthier, so it has a better chance of looking shinier.
Additional healthy foods for your hair are blueberries, eggs, spinach, and nuts.
Use the Right Brush
A boar bristle brush could be an ideal choice for healthy and shiny hair because it is a gentle touch unlike nylon or plastic bristles. This is because these materials lead to pulling as well as breaking of strands.
Maintain a Healthy Scalp
Maintaining a healthy scalp will make it easier for you to achieve your hair goals. One of the ways you can do this is through practising scalp massages regularly. This is not only therapeutic but can also improve your hair’s health.
Stress messes with your hair more than you’d think. When life’s got you running on fumes -whether it’s your job or family drama- your body goes into survival mode. It basically moves your hair down the priority list and reroutes all the good stuff (nutrients, blood flow, etc.) to your heart and all the vital organs. Meanwhile, your hair’s left hanging.
On the bright side, scalp massages aren’t just a fancy salon thing—they actually chill you out and help your hair bounce back a bit.
Scalp massages can potentially stimulate circulation, naturally stimulate oils, and break up product buildup, so unclogging pores is relatively easy. A 2019 study from Dermatology and Therapy found that regular scalp massages were beneficial in managing androgenetic alopecia.
Co-Wash
Co-washing means ditching your shampoo and scrubbing your hair with conditioner instead. It’s a lifesaver if you’ve got wild, curly hair that turns into a frizzy nest the second shampoo comes near it. Basically, it keeps things soft and hydrated instead of unruly and out of control.
These products shun ingredients that grant only temporary initial shine at the cost of long-term removal of essential moisture from hair. Co-washing also aids in the elimination of product buildup that causes dullness.
Reduce Heat Styling
Heat can weaken the outer protective layer of hair and lay it bare. Heat styling could be hard to eliminate for most people, based on established habits and lifestyles, but you might consider lowering the heat setting in order to prevent any potential harm.
You ought to keep your hair dryer at least 6 inches away from your head and have it moving around your head constantly. As per a 2023 American Chemical Society release, hair surface becomes more damaged with rising temperature, and the use of certain hair products alongside heat styling tools could be bad for your general health.
Also, the study showed that blow drying a hair dryer further away and in a sweeping motion can be less harmful to the hair cuticle than even just air drying your hair completely.
Protect Your Hair from the Elements
Keeping your hair alive and kicking in the summer can be tough. The sun’s out here trying to fry your strands thanks to UV rays. If you wanna avoid crispy, straw-like hair, you gotta take care in the heat.
Grab products that lock in moisture-stuff that literally seals it in, or else the sun’s just gonna suck your hair dry. Environmental stress may also occur as oxidation of the scalp. This causes hair follicles to age really fast and leads to hairs growing that are weaker and more likely to break.
Nutrition is important to avoid oxidative stress. Vitamin C and vitamin E are both well known to prevent oxidative stress.
Use a Hair Mask
A hair mask is a deep treatment for the hair that can provide an extra boost of shine and health to your locks. Unlike regular conditioning, hair masks are better able to penetrate into the hair shaft and deliver moisture and strengthening to the strands from within because they stay on for a longer duration.
A hair mask every week can help build shiny and healthy hair in the long run and provide a helping hand when you feel your hair is in need.
Healthy and Shiny Hair Care
There are a lot of things you can do to shake up your routine to try to add a little more shine to your hair and get your hair looking and feeling healthy. Small adjustments like switching up shampoo or turning the heat down on your styling tools can really make a big difference.
The only way to know the ideal products for your hair is to learn your hair type and what it requires. Your hair volume and texture will determine the ideal products and practices. In case these tips aren’t cutting it, consult a hairstylist in order to establish what professional options are available for you to breathe new life into your hair.
By David Donovan
who is a passionate writer at Hairy Hair, specializing in haircare tips, product insights, and styling advice. He simplifies science-backed hair knowledge into everyday solutions. David’s mission is to help readers feel confident and informed about their hair.
Member since August, 2025
View all the articles of David Donovan.
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