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Keeping long hair healthy requires a few extra steps and specially designed styling products. Its extra weight pulls down the hair shaft, making it prone to breakage. Use a shampoo and conditioner with strengthening proteins, designed specifically to safeguard growing strands (several drugstore brands have long-hair-specific formulas).
Make regular visits to the salon to have your ends trimmed. Many women with long hair avoid this step, but half-inch trims are recommended every month. It may seem counterproductive, but the more frequently you trim long hair, the healthier it remains---and healthy hair grows faster than damaged hair. -
In the fashion world, there's been an increasing reaction against stick-straight, ultra-sleek hair. As Vogue's Sally Singer reported in the June 2009 issue, designers and hairstylists are rediscovering a softer, more natural silhouette that embraces a little bit of frizz. The stylists she interviewed recommend thickening lotion, U-shaped hairpins and climate-control styling spray to give hair a soft, slightly messy look.
To create this style, begin with just-washed hair. Spritz damp hair with styling spray to give it a little texture and holding power. Separate hair into sections, roll those sections into buns and secure them with bobby pins. Thin hair may require only two sections (think pigtails), while thick hair probably needs as many as four sections. Keep sections small enough so that the hair won't take hours to dry. When hair has fully air-dried, unpin each section and finger-comb it lightly. Separate any clumps and scrunch lightly with a shine-enhancing serum. -
Most curls are created with heated styling tools such as a curling iron or crimping iron, but long hair is especially prone to heat damage. If possible, keep your use of these tools to a minimum, and always apply a protective styling product to guard your hair from the blistering heat of these appliances. (Heat-activated leave-in conditioners can work wonders on dry, scratchy strands.) Follow any stressful styling with a weekly deep conditioner, hair mask or hot oil treatment.
Rollers are a far healthier alternative for creating curls. Foam-core soft rollers are gentle on your hair, and work well if you have at least 6 hours to sleep on them. They are much less damaging than hot rollers or Velcro rollers, and they come in different sizes to easily accommodate long hair. Do not roll them too tightly---if you put too much pressure on your fragile strands, the hair shaft could snap. Once you remove the rollers, lightly finger-comb your curls to separate them, and spread a dime-sized amount of silicone-based smoothing lotion on your ends.
