Okay guys. My hair, no joke, 4 years ago was like freaking silk. No lie. There are a lot of genetic gifts I was not lucky enough to get, but luscious, Indian locks was indeed one of them. I literally had thick, soft, straight, wash and go hair that always looked amazing.

Look how healthy my hair is!

Fast forward to 3 kids later, a few shitty haircuts that involved my whole head being razored (no, I’m not kidding – like razored even my hairline giving me these ridic spikeys that are still growing in), a few years older and moving to a town that had “hard” water that is filled with all sorts of metals and chemicals including, my hair started looking drab, dead, dry, brittle, coarse, lack luster and even started to change in texture to have curls and kinks. I had no idea what was going on and checked all my hormones, did blood work, got trims, hair masks, all of it – nada.

Do you see the difference? It’s drab, lack luster and flat here!

The Main Culprit Affecting My Hair:

While my bad haircut and age may have had a minor affect on things, the learned the main culprit was the hard water. Here’s the low down on hard water, how it can affect your hair and what to do about it.

Water hardness refers to the percentage of mineral salts that water contains. Hard water has a high concentration of dissolved minerals, specifically calcium and magnesium, but may also include copper, iron, and chlorine. Soft water, such as clean rainwater or distilled water, contains very few or no calcium and magnesium

Here are some of the main effects of hard water on your hair:

1. Greasy and dirty looking hair: Minerals dissolved in water form deposits on your hair weighing it down. Your hair may feel sticky and dirty near the scalp, no matter how often you wash it. At the same time, your ends may become overly dry and prone to splitting and breaking.
2. Changes in hair color: Mineral deposits and the high content of iron in hard water can cause color fading or even affect the results of salon coloring services. Iron in water acts as an oxidizer, causing brassy tones in light blonde hair and coppery red highlights in dark hair. The more you wash your hair, it will continue to turn more orange. Blond highlights may look orange even with a water softener system installed.
3. Dry and dull hair: Mineral scales can cause your hair to look greasy. You need to wash your hair more frequently and to use more shampoo. Over-washing leaves your hair dry, straw-like, and brittle while your scalp may feel itchy and flaky. The mineral build-up also causes loss of shine, leaving your hair looking dull and lifeless.
4. Unmanageable hair: Frequent washing and use of sulfate-containing shampoos will disrupt the cuticle layer, increasing the rough texture of your hair, making it prone to frizziness, and full of split ends. Rough hair gets easily tangled and may be difficult to style.  Damaged hair doesn’t hold curl well and your perm will fade faster.
5. Thinning hair: Mineral build-up affects hair’s elasticity, making it more prone to breakage. Hard water buildup on the scalp may clog the roots and interfere with the growth of new hair. Calcium deposits on the scalp may cause dry and itchy scalp with powdery flakes.

Let me preface this all by saying, my hair was so straight before moving to this town (yes this actually all went down after I moved to this town with the hard water, which coincided with birthing my 3rd) that even after getting my hair curled or getting a perm, it would literally just fall straight out due to it being SO soft, thick and straight. It couldn’t hold a curl if it wanted to. But from this nasty water, throw in loss of collagen from aging and my janked up haircuts growing in, my hair was shot to shit. Yes, razoring your hair takes years to grow back, even if you have fast growing hair, and it also massively damages your hair. I’m telling you, I no longer could run my fingers through my hair and let is just go. I would get out of the shower and it was hard, brittle, weak and shattered.

This set me out on an intense hair journey to get to the bottom of my hair problems and fix it once and for all. I mean, for a woman, I think we can all agree, that when your hair looks like shit, you do not feel great, and when your hair looks amazing, you could be wearing a garbage bag but you feel on top of the world. Am I right?

Well, get excited, because I’m about to share the 5 things I did to transform my hair back to healthy, wash and go, soft hair.

The 8 healthy hair hacks that transformed my hair in 4 weeks

1. Act & Acre Scalp Detox: Given all of the gnarly build up on my scalp, the first thing I did was the Act & Acre non-toxic scalp detox and cleanse. I am a huge fan of Melissa Wood and her amazing hair, so when she recommended it as something she does to keep her hair healthy, I jumped right on it! It’s such an easy, quick way to cleanse your scalp and I was embarrassed to realize that I had never freakin cleansed my scalp before! Gross! You’re supposed to do it weekly, but after 1 session, I already saw a huge difference! It’s made of all clean, non toxic, natural ingredients and it removes all the build up, stimulating hair growth and moisturizing the scalp. I’ll be doing it again this week! Use the discount code: Vayner15 for 15% off!
2. Raindrops shower head: Omg you guys, this shower head is a game changer! It filters the water from hard, toxic water, to soft, clean water, resulting in healthier and better looking skin and hair! I’m pretty picky when it comes to shower water pressure and surface area coverage (not into the shower heads that spit water out and only hit one section of my back, if ya know what I mean!) and this shower head has the perfect pressure and coverage!
3. Olaplex 6: Okay, I mentioned that my hair had also been razored like all over the place, so the hair felt really rough, weak, damaged and thin from that. Then add on the hard water and my hair literally felt like one of my kids limp, dry, barbie dolls hair. You know that nasty, rough, straw hair?! Okay, well, enter Olaplex 6, and your hair literally, goes from that to freakin’ silk. You guys, it’s this super light cream, if you will, that you add a tiny bit to the ends of your hair and it strengthens, hydrates, moisturizes your hair leaving it feeling soft and silky! Best part is, it also speeds up blow dry time while smoothing it out, eliminating frizz and flyaways for up to 72 hours. It’s no joke. I’m SUCH a minimalist and literally never use hair products and this is one I can’t live without. I put it on my wet hair and it dries perfectly. If I decide to blow dry, it makes blow drying take no time and also makes it enjoyable as your hair is more manageable. After, your hair literally goes from gritty and hard to silky and soft.
4. SRI Salon Dry Pro Hairdryer: This blow dryer is INCREDIBLE! When I was researching the best hairdryers for 2020, this hairdryer came up as rated better (and way more cost effective) than the Dyson and rated #1 on Shopper Advocate. The reason this hair dryer is better than any others is because, it stimulates hair growth and strengthens hair with it’s red light therapy (!!), eliminates frizz, speeds up blow drying time, it’s super light weight and gives you professional results in minutes, literally. If you know me, I am such a minimalist and am not into all the bells and whistles. Honestly, I don’t have time for it. I just want to keep it plain and simple – give me a killer blow dryer that will give me great hair in minutes. This does that and does it WELL! My hair looks amazing after I blow my hair out and I honestly, put the least amount of effort into blowing my hair out as this blowdryer (with the olaplex!) does all the work for me. Use the code MISHADRYPRO for 30% off!
5. Viviscal Professional Strength: This stuff has been referred to as the miracle pill and I have to agree with that. My hair has gone from feeling and looking thin and weak to full and healthy. Also, I had tiny hairs on my hairline from the razoring (I know, don’t ask why they razored my hairline !!) but after taking these vitamins, they are starting to finally grow back in at a more rapid speed.
6. Silk Pillow Case: Did you know that cotton pillow cases can pull and tug at your hair and skin giving your hair breakage and added frizz and your skin more wrinkles? Silk pillow cases’ smooth texture eliminates the friction giving you frizz free, smooth hair and less creases and wear and tear on your skin. Also, silk’s smooth texture is also less apt to remove moisture from your skin and hair, leaving it more hydrated. Really good if you’re like me during these winter months, with my hair and skin feeling super dry.
7. Westfair Water Filtration System: Westfair water will come to your home and test your water free of charge. They can tell you exactly the mineral and chemical composition of your water, how hard or soft it is and what the best filtration system is to put into your home to transform your water to healthy, clean, soft water. This is the next step I plan on taking to fully support my hair, skin and overall health. If you are in the Westchester area, ask for Frank and please tell him I referred you! If you aren’t in the Westchester, NY area, find a local water filtration company to come and test your water. It’s pretty mind blowing and interesting to learn what is in the water you’re bathing in daily!
8. Iron supplement: Iron helps boost circulation and carries oxygen to your hair’s roots, which helps the hair grow faster and longer. I learned that my iron was low through having my doc do a full work up and started taking an iron supplement.  Other nutritional iron sources are clams, beans, lentils, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, oysters, grass-fed beef and bison.

Okay, mamas. If you’ve had any issues with your hair, get on these tips and I promise you, you’ll feel a major transformation! If you’ve had luck with getting your hair super healthy and luscious after a bad run, please let me know your tips below!

XO

Misha