I’m the first to admit that my hair isn’t always at its finest.  I mean, come on.  Most moms totally get this.  And Texas water is….wow.  Just wow.  The hard water here has been really well, uh, hard on my hair.  It’s getting better, so maybe my hair is adjusting.  (I don’t even know if that’s possible.)

Anyway, despite my hair troubles, my daughters have beautiful, thick healthy hair.  I wish they would actually keep it brushed and let me braid it or something, but…  I will say they are doing better.  Especially the littlest one.  We brush her hair at least four times a day and it is always tangled.  Always.  But lately, she has been a little more agreeable to the brushing.  :)

The tweens are starting to care more about their hair and have taken to straightening it.  You know, just in case Justin Bieber shows up at the door.

Now, if I’m honest, I have to admit that I used to have long, thick pretty hair, too.  And with a little more time and effort, I still could, Texas water and all.  When I actually take it out of the ponytail, it’s (finally) in pretty good condition again.  I just struggle with the actually taking it out of the ponytail part…

But getting (and keeping!) healthy hair is something many women struggle with.  So, I thought I’d take just a few moments today to share some of the tips that we use around here to keep our hair pretty and healthy.

1) Wash and condition regularly.  If you have dry hair, do NOT wash your hair everyday.  That does not make you dirty.  You can bathe/shower without washing your hair.  If you don’t have dry hair, I suppose you could continue washing it every single day, but it may not be necessary.  Try skipping a day and seeing how it looks/feels.

What do we do?  Well, my girls are active.  They play outside a lot, they like to somersault around the house, etc.  So they wash their hair every day.  My hair is very dry and I’m not as active as I should be.  I’m certainly not somersaulting around the house (though I did do a bridge when playing Cranium the other night…more about that another time…).  I wash my hair every other day.  (GASP!)

I’m not going to suggest any magical shampoos and/or conditioners.  My kids like to use our soap to wash their hair and their hair is strong enough and healthy enough that they can sometimes get away with that.  I can’t.  I tried, but I strongly dislike that gummy feeling I get from putting soap in my hair.  We tried organic shampoos and conditioners from Whole Foods and Natural Grocers, but they were too expensive and honestly, I didn’t think they did much better than my soap.  I tried doing the baking soda thing, but no.  My hair felt thick and dirty.  And I tried using just vinegar for conditioning and I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t rock that.

So, for now, I am using whatever I get on sale at CVS, provided it’s not too cheap.  REALLY cheap stuff, again, tends to gum up my hair just like soap.  Dove, Aussie, Herbal Essences, Clear, and the like are on sale at CVS all the time and although I think their ingredients are unsafe, I can’t find anything that is safe, affordable and actually works!  All that to say that I don’t have a shampoo recommendation!  But feel free to make some in the comments.

2) NEVER brush wet hair.  Just the sound of it makes me cringe.  Bizi tries to do it sometimes and I remind her that it will break all her pretty little baby hair!  And yours, too!  Don’t do it.  Use a wide-tooth detangling comb, similar to the one in the picture below.

Yes, that one is mine.  And yes, it’s seen better days.  As you can probably tell…  I have had this comb since high school.  And in high school, I had pretty hair.  So see, this is all coming together now.

3) Drink LOTS of water.  LOTS.  Not just for your hair, but for your health in general.  I like to use a tumbler like this:

I know that’s a horribly blurry (and large) picture, but I’m fairly certain everyone’s seen a cup before, so I think we’ll be okay.  Anyway, drink lots of water.  Shoot for 80 oz. a day.  Some people like to use rubber bands or washi tape to keep track of how much they drink and those are great ideas.  Me, I forget to move the bands or mark the tape or whatever, but I can remember how many times I’ve filled the cup.  Yes, that’s how my brain works.  Do what works for you, but remember: 80 oz.

If you can’t seem to remember to get started on your water drinking every morning, try including it in your morning routine or add it to your schedule.  (No schedule?! WHAT?!)  And encourage your kiddos to do the same.  Our kids have a morning routine and their last step before settling down to do their morning reading is to make sure they have a full glass of water.  Super important, guys.  Super important.

4) Every Friday night, we slather coconut oil on our hair.  I’ll do another post sometime about exactly how we do it, but it’s not to difficult to figure out.  The short version is this: before bed, put coconut oil on your hair (at least the ends if you don’t want to do your whole head).  Wrap it up in a towel and sleep.  In the morning, shampoo out.  You might need to shampoo it twice to get it all out.  Most people don’t need to condition after this, but if you have dry hair like mine, go ahead.  My hair just feels odd if I don’t condition it.

And there you go.  Four great tips to awesome hair!  Try them out and let me know how they work for you!