Do you wish for shiny, silky hair fit for a goddess?  Here are some all natural tips for inexpensively achieving soft, shiny hair.  Long hair is sexy yet in order to grow hair long and keep it soft and luxurious you must take care of your hair.  It takes some patience to grow and maintain goddess hair.  A healthy diet and deep conditioning treatments will be essential for growing out and keeping your hair goddess beautiful and shiny.

Diet for shiny hair

First and foremost, be sure to eat fruits and vegetables and get enough protein in your every day diet.  Healthy nutrients, getting sufficient protein in your diet,  and drinking plenty of fluids are the tried and true methods for naturally shiny hair.  You can get the protein through lean meats like chicken and fish, or from vegetarian foods rich in protein such as soybeans, lentils, chickpeas and other beans.

Another dieting trick for shiny hair is to consume the healthy oils.  Avocados and nuts as well as fish or olive oils contain the healthy type of fat.  Healthy fats are packed with omegas which will lead to shinier hair.  Everyone who has a horse knows that if they feed it wheatgerm oil and oats the coat will be shiny and soft.  The same applies to humans.  Healthy oils and protein will make your hair soft and shiny as it grows out.

Organic shampoo and conditioners for shiny hair

Be sure to try a variety of shampoos and conditioners.  Some organic product lines come free of chemicals, fragrance, alcohol, and artificial additives.  Certain shampoos are gentler than others.  You can try shampoo that is free of lauryl sulfate and ammonium lauryl sulfate.  The rub is that the gentler the shampoo, the less able it is to remove silicon buildup and product residue.  The trick is to try a variety of different shampoo and conditioner brands.  Changing conditioners can make a huge difference.  I have tried conditioners out that turn my hair to straw when compared to other conditioners that make it soft as silk. 

Another avenue to experiment with is try a conditioner or shampoo for a different hair type.  I used shampoos and conditioners for dry hair for years.  Oddly enough, when I tried Finesse texture enhancing conditioner for regular hair it made my hair ten times softer.  Don’t be afraid to experiment with brands, mix and match shampoos and conditioners, and go out of your comfort zone.  Eventually you will land on the perfect conditioner brand for your specific hair.

Home remedies for shiny hair

There are certain home remedies for shiny hair that you can try out just for fun.  Depending on how long your hair is, you can add a few tablespoons of mayonnaise and warmed avocado oil to your conditioner.  Leave on for a few minutes while relaxing in the warm bath.  If the mixture works, next time you can safely leave it on for longer.  Be sure to rinse such concoctions well as otherwise they will leave residue in your hair.

Home remedy ingredients for the hair include mayonnaise, egg yolks mixed with olive oil, aloe Vera gel mixed with honey, coffee, and apple cider vinegar.  Apple cider vinegar is often used as a cleaning agent and to remove any dull residue from the hair.  If these remedies are too stinky for you, then just try mixing some natural oil into your favorite conditioner.  Carrot oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, a mixture of oils, or just the classic V05 hot oil treatment all work.  The favorites among the celebrities are argon oil and Moroccan oil.  The brand Moroccan Oil puts out a nice hair oil that is especially formulated for hair.

Deep condition

Once you have discovered an oil treatment that works well for you, you can leave it on longer.  Some women will oil their ends overnight or sit in a stream room with an oil treatment such as olive oil on the ends.  Oil treatments reduce the dryness making the hair look softer and shinier.

You can purchase deep conditioning treatments at the drug store, salon or beauty supply store.  These treatments can be safely left on for an hour or more, just follow the directions for use.  Apply a quality deep conditioning treatment to the hair once or twice a month to soften it and your hair will look shinier afterwards. Dry hair loses its shine so periodic deep conditioning treatments to add back moisture and repair dry hair will definitely help your hair.

Cold water rinse for shiny hair

Hair stylists always recommend a cold water rinse for shiny hair.  The warm water is dulling to the hair.  The same theory is at play when stylists blast your hair with cold air at the conclusion of a blow dry.  The cold air sets and seals the style and infuses shine to the hair.  Sealing the cuticles with a cold water rinse or cold air at the conclusion of a blow dry will make your hair look shiny.

Minimize the damage from styling

Be careful of washing and styling hair excessively.  Depending on your hair type you should go as long as you can before shampooing hair.  If you must shampoo daily use a gentle brand shampoo.  Otherwise, wait as long as you can to let the natural oils develop.  Try different means of preserving your hairstyle that will help it last longer so you don’t have to shampoo and restyle as often.  Putting long hair up at night in a loose bun, and sleeping on a soft silk pillowcase can prolong your blow-dry or hair style.

If you style your hair frequently then minimize the damage by using low heat, ionic blow dryer, or heat treatment sprays.  Protect your hair from excessive heat.  If you blow dry try the ionic brand blow dryers.  If you flat iron try the ceramic plated irons which are far gentler on the hair.  They cost more, but its worth it as your hair won’t break.

Keep tangles at a minimum

Swimming in a chlorinated pool will make your hair dry, frizzy and even green.  Chlorine, being at the beach, or even riding in a convertible can tangle and knot up your hair.  The frizzier your hair is, the more difficult it will be to brush it.  Keep your hair protected and conditioned.  This will minimize dryness and you won’t have to rip and break the hair when brushing it.  Dry hair loses its shine, and hair with breakage looks fried rather than shiny.  Keep tangling activities at a minimum and if your hair is tangled up then use a de-tangling spray.  If your hair is in knots then use a ton of conditioner then neatly finger separate the worst tangles with your fingers.  Gently removing tangles with the fingers should be done when your hair is 90% dry.  Don’t ever brush or comb soaking wet hair as it can snap and break it.

Keep ends trimmed

Trim your ends frequently as the blunt edge will make hair look thicker, shinier and healthier.  Having ends that fray and fray before they finish takes away from lushness.  You can see air through the frayed ends which reduces the luxurious thickness and shine.  Find a stylist that will trim your hair regularly without chopping too much off.  If you hate the stylists invest in a good pair of hairdresser scissors and trim the ends yourself. 

Well trimmed hair will be thicker all down the shaft from top to bottom and this will make hair look healthy, luxurious and shiny.  If your hair is lighter or more porous at the ends it is time to get a trim.  The top of your hair should match closely to the bottom of your hair.  If it doesn’t, your hair won’t look shiny and healthy.  The trick to shiny hair is that the hair should look the same in color and texture from end to end.  If the top of the roots doesn’t look like the bottom of the ends it is time to trim it.

Go natural

Women that stray too far from their natural hair will not have shiny hair.  If you have waves it can be good to embrace them.  When you use a lot of product and styling to alter that natural state of your hair it can really damage it.  The more damage from processing, the less shiny your hair will look.  Women who blow dry and flat iron wavy hair think they are doing it a service and making it look better.  Often though, the straightened hair shows all of its flaws. 

Any breakage, damage, fading color or split ends will be more visible on blow dried straight hair.   Women think their hair looks neater when its straightened out however wavy hair can usually look shinier.  The waves give the hair more dimension and volume.  If your hair is softened up with conditioner and then left naturally wavy it can look shinier and more healthy than hair that is blow dried pin straight.  There is also less damage done to the hair.

Add deeper color to your hair, don’t take it away by bleaching it lighter

Women always want to go lighter and lighter with the hair color.  The problem is that this involves bleaching and lifting out the color in order to lighten it.  It is the worst process you can do to your hair.  Bleaching your hair to go shades lighter or adding highlight weave after highlight weave can seriously damage your hair.  Any strand of lightened hair that is lightened again, will be prone to breakage.  Another problem with substantially lightening your hair is that the color can get brassy.  Over processed, color stripped, brassy hair will lose all of its natural shine.

Adding rich color to the hair can make it look much shinier than taking color away.  A non-permanent color rinse on the hair can make the hair look really, really shiny.  When you add color you are damaging it way, way less than when you strip color away to lighten it.  The richness of the added color will make the hair look vibrant and shiny.  Try gentle semi-permanent color or even henna.   The closer you stay to your natural color, the better.

If you color your hair keep the color updated frequently.  The more shampoos you do, the more the color fades out, the duller and less shiny it looks.  If you can learn to use a non-permanent rinse then you can do this at home and keep up with the upkeep.  If you do your hair at the salon make sure to go frequently as the longer you wait between color touch-ups the duller your hair will get.

Stick to one or two processes and banish the rest

The more treatments and processing you do to your hair the less shiny you make it.  If you start to do multiple hair processes you will completely fry your hair and strip it of its shine.  Women who color their hair and get hair extensions, or straighten hair and bleach it too, are going to break their hair off.  The second you go into numerous processes, or bleach your hair too hard core, your hair will break.  Hair extensions look great at first but they can break your hair over time and get you into a vicious cycle of damage then hiding the damage with fake hair.  Once it thins down then breaks, the natural shine of your real hair will be gone. 

It is therefore best to choose your weapon and stick to only that.  If you need to add color, consider keeping the texture natural.  If you must straighten your hair, forego the color.  If you use extensions don’t color your hair or straighten it either.  By eliminating damaging processes you will save your hair.  Choose only the do or die processes that you can’t live without.  Stick to those.  The less processes you do to your hair the shinier it will be.  If you must change your hair then pick your one change of choice and eliminate the other processes so that you don’t break your hair off and wreck it.  Natural hair is healthy hair.

Use a drop of shine spray or gloss

A little drop of shine spray or gloss can do wonders to make your hair look shiny.  Try Citre Shine from the drug store or buy shine drops from a quality hair care line such as Kerastase.  The shine drops last a long time and you only need to apply a little bit on wet hair to get the effect.  Remember not to overdo the gloss as it will leave a gummy residue on the hair.  If you tend to overdo it, try a gloss spray and just do a light spritz on your hair when it is damp.

Remember that a healthy diet and minimal tampering with your hair is best.  Don’t smoke or abuse alcohol as these lifestyle habits are poisen to your hair.  Keep the processing down to a minimum and trim hair regularly.  Eat healthy fat and oils as this will help create softer hair as it grows out.  Dehydration and a poor diet will dry out your hair so make sure to get your nutrients and plenty of fluids too.  A good diet, deep conditioning treatments and regular trims should really help your hair be naturally shiny.