How To Grow Hip Length Hair | Historical, Natural Routine (Loads More Tips!)

Wow, can I just say who knew that so many of you would be interested in ditching, the conventional shampoo and literally switching to washing your hair with Clay, I'm here to say that it's not as crazy as it sounds. Six years ago, after cutting my hair to chin length to start fresh on my hair growth journey, I switched over my hair routine to more of a historic, inspired, natural and minimalist hair care routine, and the results have been insane. My hair is now at hip length, which is longer than it has ever been, and the ends are as healthy and even and thriving as they have ever been in my life in this video. I really want to share all the things that I think you need to know if you are interested in transitioning, your own hair care routine to the routine that I outlined in my previous video or to one inspired by it. These are all the gaps that I think need to be filled in, especially for people with finer or straighter hair types than mine on how they can adapt this routine to work for them. This will also be extremely helpful for you if you are transitioning over from having used conventional shampoos and conditioners and you're now wanting to try out a more natural and historically inspired routine with minimal products for the full historical and minimalist and natural hair care routine. That I outlined in my first video be sure to check it out. It will be linked in the description and in the cards of this video. At some point, if you want to hear my own full hair care story, then be sure to watch that video, where I go into detail and share lots of old, somewhat embarrassing photos of myself if you're new here hi, I'm Catherine and I have been running this Vintage and historically inspired sewing and shoemaking channel since early 2020, but during that time I have been quietly embarked on my own hair care and hair growth Journey using natural products and historically inspired practices. If you are interested in more hair care, videos like this one, as well as historical and vintage sewing and shoemaking, be sure to subscribe and stay tuned until the end of the video for an exciting announcement about this channel. This video will cover several topics, including the main historical Hair Care tool. I think everyone should have in their hair care Arsenal my tips for those with finer or straighter hair types who want to adapt this routine to work for them without weighing their hair down with too much oils or things like that. What you need to know about hair growth versus hair length retention and how it affects your own hair growth Journey, the importance of a specific type of hair rinse, especially if you are transitioning away from conventional shampoos. Finally, stay tuned until close to the end of the video when I will be sharing the One supplement that I believe, if you're going to just take one supplement to help your hair grow. This is the one and I'll be sharing how it has made a world of difference in my own hair growth journey and increasing dramatically my own hair growth rate, so right off the bat I'm going to warn you, this is going to be another longer video. So many of you are planning on embarking on this journey in your own hair care Journeys, and I really just want to fill in any gaps that were left from my previous video. This video will, of course, be fully time stamped so feel free to jump around to whatever section the video interests you. I know what it's like, not having very much time to watch YouTube videos. So that's why I'm putting all the time stamps in there for you. So you can skip around to whatever topic applies to you most or interests you most so going forward. I will, of course be releasing more hair care videos interspersed with my historical sewing and shoemaking videos and going forward the hair care videos that I will be releasing. Will be shorter and more topically focused, so each video will focus on one specific topic or Hair Care technique or Hair Care procedure, so there will be a little something for everyone before we jump into that. I would like to give a shout out to vavaya. Vavaya is an eco-conscious luxury, three footwear company and their motto for their beautiful Footwear is stylish sustainability and that could not apply more to vavaya's beautiful Footwear. So they create elegant Timeless Footwear of all types from ballet flats to slippers to knee-high boots, but most of their Footwear is made using entirely recycled materials, namely recycled water bottles are actually used through this amazing process to create the threads that are later knitted together into The uppers of these shoes, so my boots, that the Via kindly sent me are made of knit Wool Wool, of course, is a renewable resource and it was sheared from well-fed and happy sheep. They literally feel like the most comfy stocking. You can imagine who knew that a waterproof boot could literally feel like a stocking when you wear it like. It is amazing, and can I just say that as a historical Shoemaker, this Footwear from papaya is fascinating to me, because historically most ladies shoes and boots were much softer and more flexible than what we're used to in the modern day. Can I just say how excited I am about my pair of boots from pavaya? They literally feel almost identical to my 1820s boots, just in how they Flex, with my foot and stretch with my foot and leg and they're soft, like you touch on the top and they're soft and Squishy they're, not all stiff and structured and hard and again Papaya's Company goal is to create a positive impact on the world and the people around them. If you are looking for a pair of elegant Timeless shoes that are comfortable and waterproof and eco-conscious look no further than vavaya, they sell all kinds of Footwear from boots to ballet flats to slippers, flats and heels. If you use the code in the description, the Via new, you will get 10 off your first order. Okay, so if you missed my last video again check it out in the description, but the main gist of it is that I have noticed, I'm sure all of you have noticed as well that historical women clearly knew how to grow very long and healthy hair. In that video, I shared several photos of historical women with ankle length, hair and, even though those particular women were extreme examples of the phenomenon I'm talking about. The fact is that most historical women had much longer hair than what we have today. Of course, part of this was due to their cultural Aesthetics and not cutting their hair very often. But the fact remains that there are so many people today struggling and Desiring to grow long hair, who have literally not even trimmed their hair in years, and yet it remains stuck at the same length. So clearly, there is much more to Growing long hair than just not cutting it, and our historical ancestors clearly knew something we didn't when it came to Hair Care. That was why, after a whole lifetime of not being able to grow a long or healthy hair, I finally reached a breaking point. I was having tons of breakage and hair loss and I decided to literally cut off my heritage chin length to start fresh, and that was when I dug into more of a historically inspired and natural hair care. Routine and the results have been astounding. So, after not quite six years, my hair has grown from chin length to hip length and again this was after a period of time in my life prior to cutting my hair, where I had not even trimmed it for about five years and it had maybe gained One or two inches in that time, which then I lost to extreme breakage. So this has been a drastic difference for me and in this video I'm going to be filling in more of the gaps from my previous video of how you can implement this in your life and filling in other information. That, I think, is vital to know and understand about this kind of hair care, routine foreign. So, even though many of the Hair Care ingredients and techniques and principles that I have shared in my video and will be sharing in this video, Even though these techniques have been used by women of all ethnicities and cultures around the world throughout much of human history, There are a few specific cultures and ethnicities that I would like to give a knot of gratitude to for helping me in my own personal hair growth Journey. So, firstly, I'd like to give a knot of appreciation to the Natural kinky hair community here on YouTube, who are very generous with their knowledge, and can I just say that 4C, hair or otherwise, natural kinky hair is a lot more challenging to grow than many straight Haired people recognize now my hair does not fit into either the kinky hair category or the straight hair category it's kind of in between on that Spectrum, but in what it likes and how it likes to be cured, for it is closer to the kinky end of The spectrum when it comes to hair textures, which is why I have personally gravitated towards so many of these amazing YouTubers and the techniques they have shared. So while, during the 20th century, most of the straight-haired people in the world have transitioned towards using commercialized conventional chemically. Based products in their hair and most of them have been able to get away with it with hair that still looks relatively healthy. This simply does not work for natural kinky hair, which is why I believe that they have been able to continue these age-old traditions of gentle, Hair Care, hair, oiling and all of these other techniques that help the hair to grow and remain healthy. My own sister Ellie, who is an amazing singer and you should check out her YouTube channel. I will link it in the description she has 4C hair and I have been helping to care for it here and there since she was a baby. So I know firsthand that kinky hair has much different requirements than straight hair, but the beautiful thing about these methods that I have adapted for my own hair is that they can really be be adapted for any hair type, because if gentle and natural hair care can Grow 4C, natural hair: it can grow straight hair too, which is why I have used these techniques with so much success, and and really these techniques have been practiced with different Alterations by people of all ethnicities throughout history. I will be linking some channels and videos from the natural kinky hair community, in the description that I have found particularly helpful on my own hair growth and Hair Care Journey, so be sure to check that out. I'Ve also learned a lot about growing long, healthy hair from the Indian and are you Vedic traditions, and I will likewise be linking channels or videos in the description that I have found helpful from this community now the ayurvedic Community is partially responsible for popularizing. The concept of hair and scalp, oiling and recently well within the past couple years. I actually found out that the Sanskrit word for oil sneha actually also means love, and I just think that is such a beautiful picture. The oil as love concept, because every time I like put oil on my hair ends or on my scalp and do an oil treatment, I visualize that I'm spreading like visceral love on my hair and my scalp, and the results have definitely spoken for themselves. My hair is super healthy and happy now from the oiling and the other practices that I have been using. So now, let's jump into something that is very important to know when it comes to Growing long and healthy hair length retention versus hair growth. We need to talk about the elephant in the room if we're talking about growing long hair, and we all know that hair grows from our scalp. Why on Earth are we talking so much about how to care for the ends of our hair and how to be gentle with the hair that is already out when we know that hair is growing from up here and not down here it really comes down to The concept of hair growth versus hair length retention, and let me just say that growing long hair is unavoidably intertwined with hair length retention. Now, what do I mean by hair length retention if you haven't heard this term before it basically is simply referring to how you keep the hair? That'S already on your head, grown out of your head from breaking off and losing its length, and the reason this is so important is because I can say from personal experience years of personal experience that no matter how much your hair is growing out of your scalp. If it is breaking off at the ends faster or even just at the same rate as it's growing, you are not going to see any of that extra length you're going to think your hair has just stopped growing when in reality, it's just that your hair is Breaking off at the same rate that it is growing and for most people, hair doesn't grow particularly fast. I think they say about half an inch. A month is like the average and I'd say that's more on the ideal side me personally up until recently and beginning to take a supplement that I'm actually going to talk about towards the end of the video. My hair growth rate was much slower than average from everything I could tell, and even so the growth, the little bit of growth that I was seeing. I was never actually like realizing. My hair was not looking visually longer, despite years of not even trimming it simply because my ends were breaking off just as fast or faster than my hair was growing. So why was my hair breaking off as fast as it was growing, mainly due to the improper way that I was caring for my hair up until my haircut and my hair routine drastic changes, mainly, I blame my practice of relatively rough wet detangling of my hair. In the shower, which believe it or not, is the typically recommended procedure for most people with curly or even wavy hair, and if that's working for you go for it, I have nothing bad to say about that, but it clearly was not working for me and the Reason is, as I explained in my previous video, that hair is about 30 percent more weak when it's in a wet State, because it's salt bonds are all dissolved. So it's more likely to snap and break without you even noticing, when you detangle it wet and in fact, throughout most of History, women mainly dry detangle, their hair, not wet detangled, and that's mostly due to the fact that they simply didn't wash their hair very often. Either due to a lack of access to running water and or a fear of the health effects of having damp hair and possibly catching a chill things like that, so they came to rely on other practices of caring for their hair, which didn't involve water and a Lot of commercialized products actually no commercialized products because they didn't have them until the 20th century. In my opinion, wet detangling probably actually began being pushed in the 20th century sometime, especially for curly haired people like me, probably being pushed by companies selling these commercial hair products. Like conditioner, because when you wet detangle curly hair, you need to use a ton of conditioner in order to lubricate the hair enough to be able to get it comb through it, while in the shower and make your curls look all nice. So if you think about it, it's actually a very commercialized way of caring for your hair, because you need to use a lot more products when you're caring for it in this way now back to the topic of length retention and why it is so important after I began becoming more aware of practices like scalp, oiling and other hair growth, promoting practices like scalp, massage things like that. I knew that my hair was growing faster from my scalp than it had been before. I noticed lots of baby hairs coming in where I'd had. You know a bit of receding edges after having babies and things I noticed. Baby hair is growing and I noticed those baby hairs quickly becoming longer. So clearly my hair was growing, and yet there was a period of time where I still had not figured out the importance of dry detangling, my hair and specifically fingered dry detangling, my hair in order to be gentle, and so even though my hair was growing fast. I barely saw an increase in length. It was increasing, but just not very fast and not fast enough for someone who had a chin length haircut and desperately wants long hair. It was only when I switched to dry detangling my hair, and only using my fingers and being much more gentle with my hair care practices that I finally started, seeing an increase in my hair length and actually seeing some growth occur. So another important practical thing that you can Implement right now that will help you retain length, is the practice of sealing your ends with a light oil after a shower. Now, if you have finer hair or straighter hair that gets weighed down more easily, you don't necessarily have to do this with oil. I'M going to talk about that more in a later section, but I don't think there's many people who can't handle just a couple drops literally like a couple drops of a very lightweight oil like jojoba oil and honestly, there's probably lighter weight oils than jojoba oil. I'M not super familiar with them at this point, because my heart likes jojoba oil, but I think most people's hair could handle just a couple literal just drops of oil and rub it in your hands. Warm it up and add it to your ends. When your hair is damp after getting out of the shower, what this does is the oil creates a seal around the moisture in your hair and that's what you want because ends are the most liable to become brittle and snap off. So you really want to seal in that moisture. So here I am demonstrating to you my winter hair sealing routine teen, which works for my hair. Now, if you have lighter like finer hair that becomes easier weighted down, you might not want to use this, but what I do is I actually mix jojoba oil and some shea butter. I keep this very simple. I literally just keep a bottle of jojoba oil and a container of shea butter in my bathroom drawer, and I literally just put some dabs in my hand, mix it together and add it to the ends of my hair when it's damp. Now, if it's winter time, this is, I only do this in the winter time and that's a really great time to use it, because it's obviously colder and windier outside there's also a lot of heating going on within your home. So your hair is more likely to become dry also, even if you do have a straighter or finer hair type, but your hair is already relatively long. Your hair still might enjoy this. Just obviously use moderation use the amount that works for you, but the longer your hair becomes the more likely your ends are to need some extra TLC and some extra protection and jojoba oil and Shea Butter really work great for this now I also add some light Oils to my hair to the ends of my hair throughout the week when I'm driving finger detangling - and I do demonstrate this in my previous video - so be sure to check that out. But I will say that some people will actually lightly Mist their hair with some water or aloe vera juice, first, before applying the oil, because you're adding the moisture into your hair and then you're sealing it in personally, I don't usually do that for my hair, simply Because every time I add water back into my hair, it causes the tangles to kind of recongregate, and during the week I'm typically like working on getting the tangles out before my next wash day, one week after the previous wash day, so the oils work well. For me, but if you have a straighter hair type and you're not worried about Tangles, you could also just lightly Mist it with some aloe vera juice and then apply a little bit of light oil. Or if your hair is super fine - and you don't want to use any oil, you could even just do the aloe vera juice, but we'll talk about that more later, have you ever had the experience of teaching someone else about a topic and simultaneously re-learning? That topic yourself well, that was exactly what happened to me during the process of researching and creating my last historical hair care video, and what did I relearn the value of for bristle brushing? I have been familiar with the benefits for hair care of borbously brushing since I began my historical Hair Care Journey about six years ago, when I cut my hair, but I have been quite on and off with it during that time, simply because of my own hair Type and struggling to find a way for board bristle brushing to work for my own hair type, but with all that being said, let's jump into a quick mini crash course on board bristle brushes and what their benefits are for the hair. This is a boar bristle, brush foreign. You can see it's made up of these very closely. Packed stiff, bore, bristles and bore bristles are, of course, from a pig or a boar, but what sets apart a boar bristle brush from a regular Brush by the way, don't mind the fact that I'm missing some bristles at the top. This is I've had this. For many years now - and it's been through a lot of washing and things, but what makes a boar bristle brush different than a regular brush is that a regular brush is designed to detangle the hair. So it's made with relatively distantly spaced, very stiff, bristles, rigid bristles, like plastic ones or wooden ones, and by the way I do think a wooden brush can be a good tool, especially if you have straighter hair. So I'm not bashing it at all. But, needless to say, those brushes are a different animal than a boar bristle brush a boar bristle brush, which only has 100 boar bristles is not designed to detangle the hair, but rather it's designed as a styling and health maintenance tool for the hair. So how does it do this? First of all, because it's made up of of literal hairs, albeit much stiffer hairs than ours and you're brushing your own hair with it. It does a really really cool, unique job at cleansing the hair and smoothing down the hair cuticles. Removing dust and debris, and also the coolest thing, is that it's basically the historical equivalent of dry shampoo, because it does such a good job at picking up your scalp oils, bringing them away from your scalp, removing any visible greasiness. And then, as you bring the brush down the length of your hair, it draws those oils down the length of your hair and conditions. Your hair, and can I just say that your own natural, scalp, oils and sebum are life for your hair. There is no commercial or store-bought or plant-based oil that can compete with your own natural scalp oils and sebum. I know to a modern Western perspective. We'Re taught that skin oils and scalp oils are inherently dirty and bad, and we need to remove them with soap and shampoo as often as possible. But the fact is that your your scalp and your hair need scalp oils to remain healthy and to grow and, for example, for those of us with curlier hair. That'S why we typically struggle more with dry hair, simply because the texture of our hair tends to prevent our natural oils from traveling down the length of the hair shaft, which is why I personally have to supplement with jojoba oil on my ends. But, needless to say, aboard bristle brush is an amazing tool. I mean, if you have straighter hair. There are basically like no caveats. You need to go there and get yourself a boar bristle brush, especially if you are trying to decrease the amount of times you shampoo. Your hair or transition completely away from conventional shampoo. It'S an amazing tool not only because it acts as a dry shampoo, but because it doesn't just get rid of those oils the way a dry shampoo does it actually brings them down the length of your hair, which conditions the length of your hair and helps keep It healthy it can also really help improve shine because it Smooths the cuticle as it goes down. So now. I would like to talk about the different types of boar, bristle brushes that are available in the modern day and hopefully clear up a bit of confusion as to why I am personally recommending a 100 boar bristle brush, as opposed to what's called a mixed, bore. Bristle brush so historically speaking, women who used more whistle brushes, only use the 100 boar bristle kind and in fact the ones we see in history actually had somewhat longer bristles than the ones we typically see today, and I would love to find a historical replica of One but anyways they mostly used 100. They only used 100 boar bristle brushes, but the thing about a 100 boar bristle brush is like we said earlier. It does not detangle the hair, so you do need to go in first with either your fingers any tangle. Your hair, or with a wide tooth wooden comb or whatever other detangling tool that you prefer that you know, is gentle and safe for your hair. Historical women typically would use a wooden wide tooth comb. First personally, I like to use my fingers first because I prefer finger detangling for my own hair type. Now the thing is nowadays: 100 boar, bristle brushes are typically marketed as being for only people with thin or fine hair, and that's because the fact that they don't penetrate into thicker hair types. But I would argue that that's actually the benefit of a boar bristle brush and that's why historical women were able to do those 100 Strokes a night, as the old adage says, those weren't 100 Strokes with a typical modern hair brush that was detangling. The hair 100 Strokes with one of those would probably be quite damaging, but 100 Strokes with a war. Bristle brush actually sounds quite Health, giving to the hair, because it does all that conditioning bringing your scalp oils down it Smooths the hair. It brings shine. It stimulates your scalp really well as you're brushing around your scalp. So that's what they're talking about now, they're also nowadays of available. What'S called a mixed bore, bristle brush, which has stiffer typically nylon bristles mixed in with the boar bristles, and it actually does penetrate into the hair, and it can be a great styling tool depending on your own hair type, and how what you like to do with Your hair, so I'm not bashing them, but I'm just explaining to you why I personally recommend the 100 boar bristle brush, because you're able to get all of those Health giving benefits of the boar bristle brush without having to worry about the brush on every single stroke. Penetrating into your hair, detangling it and potentially causing damage because the more times you attempt to detangle your hair, the more likely some snapping is to occur. So I prefer to keep my boar bristle brushing separate from my detangling. So now I'm going to demonstrate for you how I make a boar bristle brush work for my own hair, which is a thicker and curly hair type. First of all, big disclaimer. I don't even attempt to use a board bristle brush until later in the week when my curl pattern has relaxed and I've already been working on finger, detangling it on the in the evenings throughout the days leading up to that. I also like to apply some light oils to my ends in the evenings, not necessarily every evening, but that also helps to get my hair detangled and in a more kind of straightened out state so that the brush is able to go through my hair or to Brush my hair, I should say, without causing any matting now in these clips, you will notice that my hair looks quite oily, and that is because this is literally after, like several days after my wash day, and it's not oily for my natural scalp oils, because that Never happens to me, I wish my scalp would produce more oil. Honestly, I have a drier scalp and I think that's why my hair tends to have a slower growth rate than most people, but anyways. My hair is oily because it is winter and windy and cold. Here in Canada, and I have been really going crazy with the jojoba oil and Shea Butter throughout the week, I've been wearing my hair up every day, so a little bit of greasiness is certainly not going to show and it's nice to know that my ends have Been protected and nourished, but this is also a great demo for those of you who do struggle more with an oily scalp and would like to see how a board bristle brush can help to redistribute those oils. However, I will say that, since my hair is literally containing a shea butter, this brush is not going to work as well at redistributing the oil as it would if it was just dealing with your own natural scalp oils, which are obviously much lighter than shea butter. So, basically, now that my hair is detangled, I simply separate into small sections and lightly brush with the board bristle brush each of those sections. I typically start at the bottom and then work my way up to the top, making sure that I get all the way up to my scalp. So I can pick up some of those oils on the brush and then draw it back down. What I especially like about this is that for someone like me, I actually have different textures of hair on my head. I like to think of this as kind of a road map to my different ancestors genetics, all mixed together on my scalp. So in the front, my hair is straighter and if I do get any oil that's visible on my scalp, it will typically only be in this area. So what I do is, I typically focus on the areas of my hair that do have more oil, and then I will bring the brush over to the areas of my hair, like at the back that are drier, and then I'm able to condition those areas with The natural oils, or, in this case the shea butter and jojoba oil from the sections that are naturally more oily now again, it is vitally important when you're using a 100 boar bristle brush to detangle your hair thoroughly. First, if you don't do this, the bore bristle brush will cause matting in your hair. So at any point, when I'm using the brush, if I feel a tangle in a certain section, I immediately put the brush down and go in with my fingers and remove that tangle first, another great thing about a war Bissell brush is: it can be used as A styling tool when you're putting your hair into any updo, you can actually use it to brush your edges and get them to lie nice and smooth and sleekly. So now, let's jump into the importance of a specific type of hair rinse, especially if you are going. No poo with your hair routine. Do you smell that? Oh yeah, it's just my vinegar, hair rinse just kidding my vinegar, hair rinse does not smell like vinegar at all, or at least it the smell dissipates very quickly. So don't worry about that. Let'S talk about the importance of using an apple, cider, vinegar rinse, especially if you are transitioning away from conventional shampoos and using something like a clay wash to clean your hair. Instead, while I have a lot of criticisms about conventional shampoos and they do tend to strip my own hair - and I don't like using them for that reason, they do have one benefit, and that is convenience. What is convenient about them is not just that you can buy them in a store, but also that they they really combine two steps into one, if you're, washing your hair, with something like a clay or even something like a natural shampoo bar or a natural olive Oil soap or something like that, you typically need to First, do the clay wash or the natural soap, and then you need to follow it up with an apple, cider, vinegar, rinse, the apple cider, vinegar, rinse in is an essential step for softening the hair after it Has had the oils cleansed out of it with the clay or whatever other step other than shampoo, that you're using shampoo will typically do this cleansing and softening process all in one, which is why it's obviously more convenient. But if you're wanting to transition away from conventional shampoos, but it's an essential step to pair your clay wash or whatever your no poo method is with an apple, cider, vinegar, rinse. It completes the cleansing process of your hair. This is especially helpful from for me because I do oil treatments before I wash my hair, and so the apple cider, vinegar rinse is like an insurance policy to make sure that my hair is completely decreased because it is a natural Degreaser, vinegar is, and it also Leaves the hair, nice and soft, because, when you're using a clay wash one of the beautiful things about it is that it is so deeply nourishing and mineral Rich for your hair, but the potential downside of that. If you want to call it, that is, if you don't pair it with an apple cider, your vinegar rinse, especially in the beginning, when your hair is getting used to all of this extra nourishment from the clay, it could potentially leave your hair feeling a bit too Strengthened and a bit like just not soft like you would want it to be so. The vinegar rinse helps complete the cleansing process and it softens up the hair again in the case of a clay wash. The vinegar. Rinse is also a great idea because it can remove any possible residue of the clay that could still be in your hair. While we're here talking about clay, I decided I wanted to give you guys a couple extra notes or cautions about clay washing that I think, are very important to know. So. First of all, when you're mixing your clay wash, you do not want it to have the consistency of like a clay face mask like a mud like texture. That was a mistake. I made myself when I first started clay washing about eight years ago. The problem with thick clay washes is that it's very difficult to rinse out of your hair, and it can just be like an overload of nourishment in mineral for your hair and potentially leave it feeling like a bit over strengthened and because it's difficult to rinse out When it's thick, it can leave a powdery sort of clay residue that can dry and leave your hair a bit stiff, and we certainly do not want that. So you want a very, very, very watery clay wash when I started with Clay washes. I didn't go any more than one quarter cup of clay to two cups of liquid and in fact you could probably even start it with a bit more water, even mixture than that. It'S amazing at how potently cleansing this clay wash can be even when it's very watery. Furthermore, when you're rinsing it out of your hair, you want to make sure that you've rinsed it fully. Another thing I'd like to say is that when, after I apply the clay to my hair, as you see in this clip here, I actually like to let it sit in my hair for one to two minutes. The reason for this is because such because it's such a gentle cleansing method, you want it, you want to give it some time to sit in the hair and soak into the hair and to be able to absorb all of the oils that you want to cleanse Out of your hair - and I do repeat my clay wash one more time after rinsing it out and when I'm rinsing it out, I actually like to use a shampoo brush as I'm rinsing, to make sure that all the clay residue is rinsed out of my scalp. I have been asked several times if bentonite clay is acceptable to use and first of all, I will say that I did start out about eight years ago using bentonite clay in my hair, because that's what I had on hand, but I didn't have the best experience With it personally now, part of that is because, as I mentioned, I was using too thick of a mixture and bench. Internet clay can be very beneficial for those of you with more oily type hair, because it is more of a drying clay. If you will that's the reason why I personally do not use bentonite clay, because my hair is already dry and Russell Clay is more of a gentle moisturizing clay. So if you do choose to use bentonite do so at your own risk. Do your own research try it out, but if you have oily hair it might be beneficial for you and it's usually more accessible for people as well. So it's worth a try. Finally, I have been asked about the safety of clay, washes and vinegar, rinses for color treated hair, and my short answer to that is that I'm not overly familiar with that topic, because I myself have never dyed my hair, a short session of Internet searching on my Part did lead me to believe that there is reason to be cautious with Clay washes and vinaigreenses. Now, because we are using such diluted clay wash in such a diluted, vinegar, rinse, it's quite likely that it wouldn't have an effect on color treated hair. However, I do recommend doing a strand test first before trying this, if you do have color treated hair back to our discussion of vinegar, hair rinses. So I time out my apple cider, vinegar, rinse after I have used my natural conditioner and rinsed it out I'll. Then go in with my apple cider, vinegar, rinse in a hair, applicator bottle. I apply it right to my scalp as well as to the lengths of my hair. I then let it sit for a minute or two, and I typically like to rinse it out. Not everyone does it's really up to you, you're going to have to see what works for you. Something I really want to demonstrate to you here is that, when you're, first starting with an apple, cider, vinegar rinse, you need to make sure that you're, starting with a highly diluted mixture, because apple cider vinegar, is another one of those things that your hair and scalp Need time to adjust to, and I've made the mistake when I first started of using too strong of a solution and it just it, it was not good. It left my hair feeling a bit too clarified, I should say so: there is a sweet spot and when you're first starting that sweet spot is going to be using a much more diluted mixture, something that looks like this and then gradually as your hair becomes more Accustomed to it, or you figure out what your hair can handle, what your hair likes, you can go to a stronger, vinegar solution. This is like what I like to use now at this point. After literal years of having used vinegar, rinses, the apple cider, vinegar, rinse is also amazing for scalp health, because it helps to clean and clarify your scalp. It'S also a great blood circulation stimulator, so it brings blood circulation to the scalp, especially if you pair it with something like peppermint, essential oil, and it is somewhat antibacterial. So it can help to deal with bacteria that typically can cause dandruff, and things like that on. Your scalp foreign, let's talk about the dreaded transition period. Okay, it doesn't need to really be so dreaded, but basically I did want to give a little word of warning to those of you who are switching to more of a natural minimalist, routine, possibly ditching, conventional shampoos and conditioners that you might experience a transition period where Your hair May temporarily feel a bit worse before it feels better. That'S for a number of reasons. The first potential reason for this is that if you have been using conventional sulfate containing shampoos or conditioners that contain silicone, then while your hair is using these, it may appear healthy, because it's kind of just like absorbing it all and just like surviving. But then, once you finally take it away, your hair and scalp are like. Ah, yes, we can breathe again. We can release all this Gunk, so your hair may actually feel just like worse for a bit while it's actually detoxifying itself. Another reason your hair may feel a bit worse before it feels better is if you have been washing your hair regularly with relatively harsh shampoos, your scalp may go through a period of feeling more oily, simply because you've trained your scalp to be producing oil. At a rate to keep up with the shampoo you're using because our scalps always like to be at equilibrium, so it does compensate for these harsh shampoos. But that means that when you take the shampoo away, your scalp is going to have to go through a little transition period before it realizes that it can slow down the oil production. An easy solution to this would simply be to gradually transition away from shampoos gradually space out your washes, don't just automatically jump into a once weekly wash or you could alternate between clay washes and your regular shampoo before your hair feels ready for the full leap now. Likewise, if you have more curly or dry hair like mine, and you have been relying on a lot of conventional styling products and conditioners to weigh down your hair and to keep it manageable, if you just take all of these products away, all of a sudden, you Might have a bit of a difficult transition period. I know I did because I used to rely a lot on those products, as I shared in my previous video and when I took them away. I had quite a rough patch, and hopefully your transition won't need to be nearly as dramatic as mine, leading to a chin length haircut, because it's now that I've learned what I'm sharing with you about how to properly care for my hair without using all of these Conventional products, so hopefully you can learn from my experience, foreign video. I briefly mentioned that I use a very natural conditioner in my hair, but I neglected to show you guys which one that was an oversight on my part. The video was long and I forgot, but suffice it to say that I use a brand called Kalia natural they're based in Canada. They also produce their own essential oils and carrier oils, and their hair products are amazing, because, unlike most commercial claiming to be natural products that just contain a few natural ingredients thrown into a chemical soup, these Kalia products actually are natural they're, almost completely comprised of natural Plant oils, essential oils and herbal extracts and they're also an affordable price. Now, that being said, they are a Canadian company. So if you're in the states, the shipping itself might not be the best price, but that's the brand. I use and I do love them. They sell massive jugs with their conditioner, which is great for me. I will say, however, that a secondary reason why I neglected to mention the conditioner in my first video is simply because conditioner no longer holds such a prominent place of priority in my hair routine, as it used to the reason for that is because my hair is Already so well nourished and moisturized through the oil treatments I use, and the clay washes that conditioner is really secondary. It'S not this super important step and I will say that for the first few years of my natural hair care routine, I actually exclusively used DIY deep conditioners that I mixed up myself and that worked great for me nowadays. Of course, I'm enjoying the conditioner because it's more convenient for me, but either way it can work wonders, and I think, if you're caring for your hair with all of these methods, I've outlined conditioner may not be super important anymore foreign to what you have all been Waiting for which is my tips for how you can alter the hair care routine, that I've outlined in my previous video in this one to work for your own hair and scalp. If you have a finer or straighter hair type or a more oily scalp. Now some of these tips I have touched on already so you'll - probably hopefully have already gotten a lot of that. But here is my first tip. My first tip is to be flexible. The hair routine that I shared in my first video is was by no means meant to be some sort of statement that everyone should be using this exact routine. It'S outlining the routine that has worked for me and my hair through years of trial and error, and while I do recommend hair, oiling and Clay washes, and gentle detangling as a great start for most people's hair, who are interested in this at least um. It'S just a starting point and you're gon na have to do some trial and error and see what works for you and your hair and your scalp, and that is great, and that is how everyone one learns. What works for their hair and that's what's going to really make this routine become? Yours is when you actually try it and you actually tailor it to fit with you, your hair and your life. Okay. So now let's talk about oil, so when it comes to oil, I honestly think practically everyone's hair and probably their scalp could benefit from some oil. But the way you use oil is going to be so dependent on your own hair type and scalp type and your own goals, and there are so many different types of oils to choose from in different ways that you can use oil. Let'S see I'm thinking of my mother's hair right now, she does have curls but they're, not as curly as mine and her hair is very fine and it is very easily weighed down. So I'm visualizing her hair as I give these tips. So if you have hair that is fine and easily weighed down by oil or heavy products, then I would honestly recommend to only use oil once before your wash as an oil treatment so like. If you're washing your hair once a week say, do an oil treatment once a week the night before you wash and only use a lightweight oil like jojoba oil or if there's an oil, that's lighter than jojoba oil. I'M not super familiar with ultra light oils, but you could look into that. Jojoba oil is a good lightweight one, so just use a little bit of oil and make sure it's a lightweight oil and only use it before wash day in terms of sealing your ends with oil, after your wash or throughout the week. I think it's possible to make it work for fine hair. You, I don't think you should throw it out right off the bat. I think if you just literally use a couple drops of oil, you could buy one of those bottles of oil that have a literal like drop a glass dropper. So you can just drop a couple drops in your hand and rub it between your hands and then add it to your ends. I don't think that's going to weigh down anyone's hair like two drops of oil. That being said, if your hair is just super scared of oils, super weighed down easily, then just skip sealing your ends with oil and simply lightly Mist with something like aloe vera juice. Instead, now, let's say you have a very oily scalp or a condition like dandruff and you're scared to apply oil to your scalp. First of all, I don't think having an oily scalp or having a problem with dandruff necessarily means that you have to avoid oil on your scalp. It might mean that I'm not saying that you should use it, no matter what. Of course, you do you and figure out what works for you, but I don't think you need to throw it right off the table. Oil can actually be a great tool for helping to balance conditions like an oily scalp or like a bacterial caused dandruff, partly because oil can help cleanse away other oil-based substances. I don't know if you've ever heard of something called oil cleansing, but in ayurveda oil cleansing is a process where you actually clean your face using oil and oil is really great for this, because oils from your scalp are naturally soluble in other oil. So you can use your oil treatment as a means of cleansing that excess oil away from your scalp, possibly helping to cleanse away whatever bacteria are in there, especially if you use a lightweight carrier oil and mix in some naturally anti-fungal essential oils, such as tea tree Oil peppermint would probably be great for this as well. Lemon would be great for an oily scalp mix that into your lightweight jojoba oil carrier oil and apply that to your scalp and that could honestly, I think, work wonders for certain oily, scalps or other scalp conditions. So it's worth a try. It'S worth some consideration. My final tip goes back to the boar bristle brushing so definitely reference back to that section. If you missed it, this is a very important step for accommodating a no poo or a less frequent shampooing into your hair care, routine or bristle. Brushing is the historical equivalent of dry shampoo, except it's even better, be in that it brings your scalp oils from your scalp and conditions them all the way down the rest of your hair. So definitely a boar bristle brush is a great investment for practically everyone, and it's also an amazing styling tool. If you're moving away from relying on heat tools like blow dryers and straighteners and curlers, a boar bristle brush can also be a great styling tool to manage and maintain your hair and help avoid frizz as well. So definitely reference back to that section on board. Bristle brushing, if you missed it, to trim or not to trim. That is the question. A lot of you have been asking me whether or not I choose to trim my ends, and that is a very good question and I didn't mention anything about that on my first video. So now I'm going to dive into that topic. First of all, I have been all over the map when it comes to whether or not to trim my hair or cut my hair or go to a stylist, or do it myself or never cut it. As when I was a child. I would just go in my mom would take me in for regular haircuts to the hair stylist and I would end up having inches cut off my hair each time and then in high school. I was sort of getting haircuts here and there at more of a fancy, curly hair, specializing salon, and that did work well for me and they were generally more respectful of my desire to grow my hair long. Then I faced into a period of about five years where I never trimmed my hair and I will say right off the bat that during this period my hair was not gaining any visible length, maybe a bit during like the healthiest period of time in there. But it later broke off and the length that I did gain was very uneven. Very stringy ends. So suffice it to say that now I do regularly trim my ends. However, I only do it a few times a year, maybe once every change of season or so, and let me tell you when I do it, I do it myself and I only trim off like no more than one centimeter from each lock of hair, and I Focus my trimming on ends of hair that are particularly damaged looking or where the ends are more like long like, for example, I haven't trimmed my hair properly in a while. So if I was going to do it now, ode trim right here this, like stringy bit. I would find all the pieces that have like the Stringer ends and trim those ends down and if I see split ends, I might do a bit of the Search and Destroy method, which is where you simply just cut off a split. Wherever you see it and not actually cut off the whole length of hair to get that split, so I do believe trimming is important. There'S a lot more that could be said about it and, of course I will say that, if not trimming your hair at all is working for you then go for it. I have no judgment about that whatsoever. It'S simply in my experience, didn't work well for me, which is why I do now trim and it is helping to keep my ends healthy and maintained and relatively even and in historical Hair Care manuals. You do see them talk about regular light, trims of the hair or even something called hair candling, which is a totally different subject that I don't personally ever plan on trying. But basically they did believe on removing um damage old ends of hair, and they actually talked about this in a metaphorical way as being like a pruner pruning, a bush and then it helping to create better growth and healthier growth. That was what they believed historically and in my experience, that approach has worked for me. But again I don't go to a professional, because I have a hard time, trusting them to respect my desire to grow it, and I also don't really feel a need to go to anyone, because I'm not looking for any kind of fancy style to be cut into. My hair, I'm really just looking for a totally utilitarian slight trimming of my ends. So that's where I stand on hair trimming with that being said, let's jump into a very exciting part of the video which is telling you all about the One Hair Care supplement that I think many of you could benefit from. If you only take one foreign years ago, I shared the commonly held belief that there is no such supplement that can possibly increase the rate that your hair naturally grows or even thicken your hair. Unless maybe you were severely deficient in something to begin with, but for most normal healthy people. I share that belief that it's not possible to do, however, about four years ago somewhat into my hair care journey. I first heard about a supplement that really intrigued me. It was organic sulfur, also known as MSM, and I first heard about this from The Amazing Hair Care Channel curly Proverbs, and she is one of my favorites Linked In the description of the video and she just couldn't say enough good things about what MSM has done To her own hair growth rate and many of her viewers were all saying the same thing, and let me tell you, I am not a person who likes to take a lot of supplements. I am very, very selective about the supplements I choose to take because I believe that cheap or unnecessary supplements can often do more harm than good. However, upon doing a lot of research, I have now been taking a high quality. Organic sulfur supplement for about two years. Actually, almost three years now I've been taking it for almost three years and it has made a massive difference to my hair and my hair growth rate. Let'S talk briefly about sulfur sulfur is a necessary building block of keratin, which is the substance that our hair and nails are made from, and it's also a vital nutrient for bone health and joint health. Now sulfur can only come from our diets, but the problem is that, with today's modernized farming practices, the soil levels of sulfur are quite depleted and sulfur is typically one of the first nutrients to go out of our food when the soil is depleted. So I honestly believe that probably a lot of people are walking around needing more sulfur in their lives and in their diets and they're, not getting it. So everything I'm about to say about the potential benefits of sulfur for hair growth. It'S not to say that it is some kind of Magic Bullet that can somehow speed up the genetically encoded rate that your hair naturally grows at, but rather that so many of us are walking around deficient in Sulfur and we're bearing the effects of that.