Great hair starts on the inside. Good diet, rest, plenty of water. Some people say that eight glasses of water a day are enough, but more and more the recommendation is half your body weight in ounces. For example, if you with 120 lbs, you should drink 60 oz of water a day. Yes, I know it sounds like a lot, but your body is mostly water. So, when you don’t get enough you are hurting everything from your skin to your brain.

Beside all that there are some other things you can do. For example, we all know that curlers, straighteners and blow dryers damage your hair. But how many of us use them? What you can do is protect your hair before you try to scorch it with all that heat. There are heat protectors for your hair that come in sprays and creams. A lot of them do not only help protect your hair from heat damage, but are made to help with other problems like tame frizz and fly-aways. Heat protectors are also available pretty much everywhere so you won’t have to worry about looking too hard for them.

Okay, so hair sprays, gels, mousse, wax, and all that other stuff can make your hair look great, but what about all that build-up that you are left with? There is actually a really simple solution to not only getting all of this out of your hair but turning your regular shampoo into a super cleaning shampoo. And the solution is: baking soda! All you have to do is mix about a teaspoon full of baking soda into your shampoo once a week. It will gently help clean your hair and help remove all the stuff that has built up in it.

You should also take a close look at the ingredients of your shampoo. Many of them contain products like sodium lauryl sulfate, which is actually an industrial cleanser. The reasons they put it in is that it is both cheap and it causes the shampoo to lather. However, it damages your hair at the same time. A lot of the synthetics break down your hair making it brittle, and then it breaks. By taking out the lauryl sulfates you will be doing your hair a great favor.

So what about breakage? Well, you should start at the bottom of your hair and work your way up when brushing, and be careful with your hair when it is wet. Hair can be easily broken while wet so only use a wide-toothed comb. Brush your hair before you go into the shower and do not pile your hair on top of your head. When styling stay far far away from elastics with the metal pieces. The metal causes to much stress on the hair and can break it. While you sleep you can opt for either stain pillow cases or tying a scarf around your hair to protect it.