A lot of you have been writing to me lately and asking me about my hair! It is very sweet and very flattering that some of you like my hair :), but I promise you that it was not always the case that I had good hair!! Once upon a time, I had to keep my hair in a bun all the time, because it was so dry and brittle, and clumped together like semi, unintentional dreadlocks. Soooo not pretty! And quite unfortunate. So If my hair can change, and now be healthy and soft with very minimal care, the same can happen for you, and you truly can grow the hair you want from the inside out!
I promise you that your diet has a major impact on your hair. The changes might not show as quickly as other parts of your body when you change your diet, because your body will work to cleanse, repair and revitalize the more life-giving parts of your body, like your organs, blood, digestive tract, etc. You will usually see a difference in your skin first before your hair. But as you continue to cleanse and alkalize your body, consuming plenty of beauty minerals a day, your hair will start to really shift!
Here are a few of my hair tips:
1. Eat your greens! (I’m sure you knew that would be my number #1 🙂 ). Again, the easiest way to really up the anty on your intake of greens to to get your Green Smoothies in!!
2. Use minimal products. They just weigh your hair down. Your hair really doesn’t need that much. The peeps in Bora Bora that didn’t put anything in their hair had stunning locks! My routine is this: Shampoo, condition, and comb my hair out in the shower. When I get out, I turn my head upside down and put a little bit of leave in conditioner in it. That’s it! Air dry all the way, all the time. Sometimes, if I am in a rush (or forgot shampoo, like this last trip to LA!) I just wash it with water. But I never skip the leave-in conditioner!
3. Use products without sulfates/sulfites– these are toxic ingredients that will go into your scalp and body. There are a bunch out there now. I like the Hamadi and Ojon brands. One of my yoga students Emily gave me a bottle of Bumble and Bumble’s Curl Conscious leave in. It rocks the house! But it is not exactly natural, unfortunately!
4. If your hair is feeling really weighed down, I highly recommend a Lemon Rinse. Simply dampen your hair, then pour lemon juice onto your scalp and massage in. Leave in for 5-10 minutes. Rinse out. For this you don’t have to squeeze fresh lemon juice, you can use the pre-bottled stuff. Save the fresh lemons for your salads and smoothies!! It’s a really great and natural way to cleanse out any old debris from your hair and scalp.
5. Cut down on the really acidic stuff that will delay how the changes in your diet that will affect your hair. The really acidic stuff includes coffee, sodas, all dairy products including yogurt, meat, refined sugar and refined starches. You know, the crap you hear me tell you to avoid over and over again. But now that you know it will affect the bounciness and beauty of your HAIR, maybe you will listen now, hmmmmmm?? 🙂
I’m excited for you to have GREAT HAIR, and really love using organic makeup brands!
Lots of love,
xx Kimberly
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Hello Kim,
Neutral henna (Cassia Obovata) also does wonders for hair! It’s 100% natural, and it makes my hair really shiny and stronger.
Ghassoul is great too.
Now, about the green smoothie, is zucchini considered as a green? Because it tastes quite good with apples!
Have a nice day,
Ophélie
Hey Ophelie,
Great! Thanks for sharing about the henna. Is that a form that doesn’t color your hair a different color?
And yes, zucchini is a great inclusion!!!
xx Kimberly
Hey Kim,
It doesn’t color your hair at all, because this is not real henna actually. Henna always color your hair. What is called neutral henna is Cassia Obovata. It looks and smell like henna, hence the unofficial name.
It’s really great. It makes your hair stronger, really shiny. My hair even looks thicker. It can be drying though, so beware if you already have dry locks. I would recommend adding coconut oil to your mix.
xoxo
Ophélie
Ophelie, Wow, thanks! You learn something new every day. I do love coconut oil!!
Hi Kim,
I agree with everyone else – your hair is absolutely gorgeous! My hair is very fine and was getting dry, but I started putting coconut oil in my hair before bed and rinsing it out in the morning and my hair has never looked shinier! I only do that once a week though, but I’ve gotten so many compliments from people! I’ve never used leave-in conditioner before. What brand do you use on a daily basis?
Keep up the great work. I LOVE your blog and because of you, I now drink 32-48 oz of green smoothies a day and feel SOO light and energized 🙂
Thanks again!
Em
Hi Em,
Thanks!!! I am sure your hair will rebuild with the Green Smoothie over time! Be sure to cut out dairy too for faster results.
I use coconut oil also sometimes as my leave-in conditioner!! If it works for you I would stick with it for sure. I don’t use very much, because it can get oily, if I’m not rinsing it out, but it was my only hair product for months when I was traveling across Asia. 🙂
Like I said, I like the Hamadi brand, which is pretty natural, as another option. 🙂
Come visit me soon!
Kimberly
Hey Kim,
You are absolutely gorgeous. Besides having my dream hair your smile lights up a room. But back to the hair! haha…I’ve been trying to grow my hair out for about 9 years now! And it’s still only about shoulder length. I eat a well balanced diet (I’m obsessed with green smoothies!!) and I’ve tried everything from biotin to pre-natal vitamins to grow my hair and nothing seems to work. I HAVE been highlighting my hair since I was in 9th grade (I’m 23 now). Recently in the past year I’ve been cutting down on the highlighting and when I do I use an organic highlighter which is better then that peroxide I was using previously. Any other suggestions?! Thanks!!
Hi Jocelyn,
Well thanks but look whose talking! YOU are gorgeous!! Hmmm. Even if your diet is good, cleansing is the other part of the battle. We have to pull toxicity and acidity out of the body. Even if your diet it good- and actually I should say especially when your diet is good, waste can get kicked up and recirculate. Acidity can help keep the blood from circulating alkaline minerals efficiently around the body, and to the hair. So just throwing supplements on top of the acidic condition of the body isn’t really going to help on its own. Besides also eating well, gravity-centered colonics have really helped me get old waste out. So have daily probiotics (I like the Dr. Ohhira brand), dry skin brushing, and drinking Kombucha. Also, make sure you eat your fruit and smoothies on an empty stomach, to prevent the acidification of the fruit!
Let me know what you think of these ideas and which are feasible for you—- and write me back!
Lots of love!
Jocelyn
Hi!
Thanks for the tips for good hair! 🙂 I found your blog about a month ago and have been reading it ever since. I’ve also started to change my diet to more and more towards raw and organic. It’s been really great to notice that nowdays there is a lot less highly processed food products and sweets and such in my grocery basket, even though I used to have quite a sweet tooth. I’ve managed to satisfy my need for sweet with raisins. 🙂
I haven’t been able to give up coffee (even tough I’ve tried many times before for various reasons), but after reading this post I’ll have to try harder. About three/four years ago, my hair started to fall of rapidly and it got really thin. I went to the doctor various times, had expensive tests done but no one could really tell me why I was loosing hair. The test results were fine, and in the end one doctor told just to start eating iron pills, since my hemoglobin was slightly below average. I suspect now that the reason for the hair loss was a change in my diet and other habits, since I moved out of my childhood home (my parents were organic farmers and I lived in the countryside eating mostly food that was made from the products that grew in the farm) to go and study in university. I started to consume a lot more coffee, alcohol and microwave meals that I had ever before.
I struggeled with the hair loss for sometime, but then I just accepted the fact that no pill that a doctor could give me or what I could get from the pharmacy could cure me. I started to eat a lot of vitamin pills etc (even though I know they aren’t as good as getting the vitamins from actual food) and gave up most hair products. I now use only organic shampoo and conditioner (and my sometimes on rare occasions hairspray).
After I started using organic shampoo etc. I noticed that my scalp looked better, and the hair loss didn’t continue as rapidly as it had been. My hair isn’t as good as it was in my teenage years, but I hope that by changing my diet more towards raw I’ll eventually get back my old head of hair. 🙂
Hi Riia!
That is wonderful about the changes you are making in your diet and in your life!
If you continue to alkalize your body, you should see improvements in your hair. I’m not sure what your diet was like before, but what can be helpful for most every one, to help remove excess acid from the body, is to try some gravity-centered colonics. It can help your whole body rebalance.
Good luck with your hair and keep in touch!
xx Kimberly
Yeah Kim!! Great Post. I can truly attest to the difference products with mostly if not all natural/organic ingredients make! They truly changed my hair for the better! love ya
Thanks Girl. 🙂 Which products do you use in Jamaica? Do you put coconut oil in your hair?
Love!!
Thanks for the great post. I’ll try the Hamadi brand. I have a question about how you style your hair. You said after washing your hair you put leave in conditioner in it and let it air dry. You don’t put it in a towel or bun? Do you let it air dry straight? Also, do you have any advice for getting your hair cut to work with this method of styling? I have very thick long wavy hair and I would love to have it look fabulous and spend less time styling it. When I saw your post it got me all excited and I would love to know exactly how you do it! Thanks for the great blog, I love it!
Hey Tonia!
If you put your hair up in a towel or in a bun (both of which I used to do), you “squash” its natural texture. There is a salon here in NYC called Diva Curl, and 2 of my friends go there and taught me all about how I was “squashing” my waves. That’s why I comb it in the shower now. I don’t do anything to it while it is drying, that way its real body can come out. The only thing I do is bobby pin back the hair out of my eyes in the front when its drying so I can still function!
The hair cut is key to everything. I used to get my hair angled in the front. Then I was on a shoot one day, and the hair person was like, “Girl, your hair is heavy! You need layers!” She cut layers into the back and all around my hair, but subtle. It instantly made my hair bouncy and looked like it was styled a lot! She has been cutting my hair ever since. 🙂 So for me, not having my hair all one big layer, and just a little angling on the side, has made all the difference in the world. Now it has life!
Hope that helps. Let me know how you do. 🙂
xx Kimberly
Hello hello again!!
Just wondering when you say to avoid the dairy products, i drink milk everyday with my cereal…if i stop it, where would i get calcium???? Is it already in the greens??
Oh! and btw, do you use natural/organic make up??? If u do, could you give some brand names!! Would love to try some!
Hope your well!! Have a lovely week ahead of you!!
P.S Going to make my first green smoothie tomorrow!! Excited! x x x
Hi Kim,
First off i just wanna say that i love your blog ever since i came across it a few days ago i have been reading it non stop. You are an amazing women and truley inspiring!
I have tried the green smoothie twice and am feeling fantastic!
I have oily dandruff have used medicated shampoos but they dont work at all in fact they make the problem worse and I cant seem to get rid of it i am using pantene at the moment also i massage my scalp with coconut oil occasionally. i know that sulfates are not good for the health of my scalp but i have tried many sulfate free shampoos such as giovanni aubrey etc. but i find that they dont clean my hair properly even when i wash twice and i find that i loose more hair because i have to really massage the shampoo into my scalp and hair where as with the panetene i hardly have to use any and my hair is clean no problems.
So my question is can i still use pantene or should i use giovanni and there a different way to use it?
xoxox
Lilly
Hi Lilly!
As your diet improves so will your hair. Try the Ojon brand, I really like it and it is sulfate-free.
Come visit me again!
xo
Hi Kimberly,
Do you have any advice for us ladies suffering from scalp problems like sebborheic dermatitis? I have long, wavy, ultra thick coarse hair. I suffered from acne since I was eight and sebborheic dermatitis on my scalp since my early twenties. I discovered dandruff shampoos do not really work for me. In the summer when it’s hot and humid, my scalp will break out and I will develop a bacterial infection. Right now I am on tetracycline to get rid of the bacterial infection on my scalp. Any advice on how I can treat this problem? Prevent it from happening? I admit I don’t always eat properly. I am addicted to sugar especially sugary drinks like Pepsi. I also have very oily skin that has the tendency to break out. I will be 45 next week. Could you PLEASE help me? Thank you so much! My dermatologist recommended me to wash my hair more often, but the truth is I was already washing my hair every other day and sometimes every two days. I’ve also been told by doctors not to use conditioner. What is your advice? Please help! I’ve suffered from these problems since I was eight years old and I’m so tired of it!
PS. Any thoughts on how to improve asthma? endometriosis? I have those conditions too! I really want to get healthy and improve my general health! Thank you for reading this and any help you can give me!
Maria
Hi Kimberly!
So, I know that diet can keep your hair shiny and reverse gray, but can it reverse hair loss? I’m only 21, and my hair started falling out when I was fifteen. My mother took me to dermatologists, but the only thing they said was that my thinning was genetic and due to excess testosterone and that there was NOTHING I could do about it except treat it with Rogaine. Every day. For the rest of my life. I really want thicker hair like normal youthful girls, but NO THANK YOU! I’m not balding like a cancer patient, but my hair, particularly at the part, is much more sparse than I would like it to be. I’m just so sick of people telling me that all my problems, not just hair loss, are “genetic” and that “there’s nothing I can do.” Is there any hope that becoming a raw foodist will help me have normal hair? Is there any additional advice you can give?
Thank you!
Hi Elisabeth,
This is my first post because I feel so bad that you are experiencing this issue. I just wanted to reinforce what Kimberly says about eating greens, avoiding sugars, and supplementing where needed. If you are serious about keeping your hair, I would follow Kimberly’s detox lifestyle to a ‘T’. From my personal experience, I have been taking biotin and silica for several years and have gone from short, dry, and brittle to long, hydrated, and healthy. There are also other supplements you can take, like B vitamins and ensure you are getting a lot of plant based protein. What has helped me a lot with the health of my hair is avoiding sulfates. My hair is definitely thicker and fuller. I use WEN by Chaz Dean and Deva Curl (which does not have silicon and WEN does). Please don’t let those dermatologists discourage you from finding a solution. I would encourage you to seek out advice from a nutritionist or naturopath since we know our hair grows from the inside out, not outside in.
WEN hair care:
http://www.qvc.com/WEN-Beauty.category.6285.html?refine=1282822+4294966535
Hi. Kimberly,
I don’t know have a blender but could you suggest some foods I could eat that are really good for your hair, also does your chia shake promote hair growth. Thanks!
Thank you, I’ve just been looking for information about this topic for a while and yours is the best I’ve discovered so far. But, what in regards to the bottom line? Are you certain in regards to the supply?|What i don’t realize is actually how you are no longer really a lot more neatly-appreciated than you might be now. You are so intelligent.
Hello!
I too suffer from severe dry scalp! It gets very very itchy at times! I have a very good diet but I have been back and forth on dairy a few times a month. I dont drink or smoke. My dr has prescribed a special shampoo and oil which havent helped much. Are they any foods or supplements you reccomend that could help?
Thank you so much!
BTWI bought your book last night and I couldnt put it down! I am having zuchini with the pesto sauce for lunch! Yum
Kerry
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