The appearance of your hair reflects its condition. Healthy hair tends to also be shiny hair and keeping it in good condition is the best way to maintain that feature.
What if you don’t have the healthiest hair or want to enhance the shine in your hair even more though? Don’t worry, you can not only improve the condition of your hair but also how shiny it is too.
Methods to Increase Shine
There are several methods you can use to get shiny hair. Some of the best methods include:
- Eating a healthy diet
- Repairing damage
- Keeping your hair hydrated
- Boost shine with hair products
Eating a Healthy Diet For Shiny Hair
A healthy, balanced diet affects your entire body. If you’re not getting enough vitamins, minerals, and protein every day it will show in the condition of your hair and skin. Your body requires all of these nutrients for healthy hair and your hair can become fragile and look dull if you don’t take care of your inner health first.
While not everyone will have any deficiencies, many people don’t get enough of certain nutrients like magnesium. Certain diets may also put you more at risk of other deficiencies. If you eat a vegetarian diet but don’t substitute your protein needs with plenty of beans and other good protein sources, your hair will suffer.
Likewise, zinc plays an important part in the renewal and growth of hair and skin. Many vegetarians and vegans are at risk of deficiency in zinc because it is more commonly found in meat. People who don’t eat enough vegetables, conversely, can be deficient in many of the B vitamins that play many varied roles in processes that give rise to healthy skin and hair.
The best way to maximize the condition and appearance of your hair is to first ensure that your diet is correct. Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, along with dairy and lean meat (or vegetarian substitutes if required) is a surefire way to get vitamins, minerals, and other valuable nutrients like antioxidants that help to make you look and feel better.
You can get a good idea of how much you need by looking at the National Institute of Health’s recommendations if you’re worried that your diet may not be complete.
Repairing Damage and Hydrating Hair
Repairing damage helps to make your hair shiny by improving its condition. If you dye or lighten your hair frequently, you likely have some damage that is affecting the way that it looks.
An easy way to check your own hair for damage is to take either a single strand or just a few strands of hair between your thumb and finger and slide your hand down the hair. If it feels rough or snags, the cuticle layer is likely damaged. The roughness you feel will also prevent light from reflecting properly because of the increased surface area.
Another test to perform is the same thing but with wet hair. Your hair should spring back easily from the test. If it snaps easily, or it stretches either too much or too little, this is a sign that the elasticity and strength have been impacted. This means that the interior of your hair itself is damaged and weakened.
Fixing damage is the best way to improve the appearance of dull hair in this situation. You can’t completely rewind time to back before you dyed or lightened it but you can definitely improve it dramatically.
To do this, you should use a protein treatment to restore strength and elasticity. You can’t restore the cuticle layer if it’s damaged but you can use products like leave-in conditioners and sealing treatments after shampooing to smooth out the surface of your hair as much as possible.
These also help to minimize frizz and dryness, which are other common problems experienced with damaged hair so it’s often great to use moisturizing treatments like these for more than one reason.
Hair Products
Finally, hair products are the last step to take. The right products will work for everyone, but they work better if they’re being used on a good foundation so they shouldn’t really be considered a substitute for keeping your hair in good condition. The better your hair, the more shine you can get out of your use of products.
Some of the best products to improve hair shine include:
- Serums
- Oils
- Heat-protection sprays
Serums are based on silicone ingredients and small amounts of natural oils that help to produce a shine on their own but also enhance the shine of your hair even further by smoothing out any roughness. They also protect against humidity and prevent dry hair.
Hair oils are similar and often also contain a mixture of silicones and oils. The difference is in the ratio of ingredients as a hair oil meant for dry hair contains more oil. They’re not the best choice if you have oily hair as a result but products such as argan oil can give shine like nothing else.
Heat-protection sprays, on the other hand, are a product to use with heat-styling. Whether straightening or curling your hair, they can protect it from the heat and also smooth out the surface while adding significant shine. It’s a great way to get shiny hair if you happen to like straightened or curled styles.
Some other products like light hairsprays can also add a little additional shine to your hair but it’s important not to overuse these because they’re heavier than the other kinds of products on this list. A little used to set a finished style is a great way to add a touch more shine and lock in a style.
Another more intensive option is to use a hair gloss. This is a demi-permanent dye that improves the condition and shine of your hair without usually adding much color depending on the formulation used. A treatment like this can be applied at home or at a salon and will last a few weeks before it washes out of your hair depending on how often you shampoo.
Having shiny hair can help to make your color look more dimensional and add extra movement to any hair style. You too can have shiny hair by following the tips and tricks in this article. Have a favorite shine-boosting product to recommend? Why not leave a comment with it.
More Information
5 Tips to Fix Dry Hair – Dull hair is also often dry because the two problems are related. You can find great tips for keeping your hair hydrated and healthy in our related article here.