It’s a happy feeling to help educate people on the ways to take care of one very important asset, which is their hair. Though hair doesn’t define who people really are, it does tell you much about their style and possibly parts of their personality. It is important to promote healthy hair using natural and safe solutions and a nicely thought out daily routine. You can’t compare the amount of work and dedication like you possibly could when trying to, for example, shed 30 pounds of weight in order to prepare for a dancing event, but nonetheless, taking care of hair does require daily work and dedication. It pays off when you pay attention and make the effort.

Below contains some information laid out after interviewing a wonderful professional who has been involved in helping clients with their hair, and is an expert in her field. From gathering her knowledge, and through a few tips laid out in this article, you can learn to promote healthy hair the eco friendly and natural way.

Interview with Judy Slaughter: Judy Slaughter is a professional hairstylist and has over 40 years of experience in the hair industry. She owns her own beauty salon in the Sacramento, California area. She knows that standing out from the crowd of other salons means going the "Green" and natural route, which she said has paid off when helping out her clients. Following this model means a salon like Judy’s can be truthful to their clients about what they really need, and provide the best solutions to their needs, instead of just going the easy route to make a quick buck.

Transitioning to natural: From Judy’s experience and knowledge, women who decide to make the transition to natural are weary of doing so, and so she does what she calls a "Natural head of hairs" method for them to try for a weekend. If they like the natural style, they’ll continuously wear and maintain it. If not, they are back at her salon to make changes. She stressed that when going natural, it isn’t as easy to style your hair to match the hairstyle of celebrities like Beyonce or Lady Gaga. However, you’ll be able to rest assure that you’re getting great, healthy results.

Judy’s hair care advice: One of Judy’s thoughts on why women are having hair problems are that they tend to overuse hot utensils, and over process hair with harmful chemical based products. It comes to no surprise of those habits being the case. Aside from advising to limit those habits, one suggestion she had is brushing your hair with a boar bristol brush or use a rubber/wooden comb, and stay away from nylon brushes, which tend to rip out hair.

Using a satin scarf prior to going to sleep is another one of Judy’s suggestions. Staying away from cotton, which absorbs moisture from hair, is also a determinating factor. Prior to sleeping, applying light wave oil into hair she felt is also important for women to follow, as hair needs vitamins and nutrients throughout the night while you’re asleep. However, Judy also pointed out that more (applying more products into hair) is not the merrier, which she referred to as a way to cause clogs in the pores, dandruff, oily hair, and other problems. This means you should only use any product as recommended, which is normally a pea or dime size.

But the biggest advice Judy had to share when interviewing her was that to promote healthy hair would have to require trial and error. That statement is hard to disagree on. Though there are general healthy tips to follow, no one knows exactly what will click. Everyone’s hair is different, and that means using the same products on different types of hair can wield different results. And with every woman having a different taste when it comes to hairstyles, it’s a craft that everyone has to hone.

Supporting Hair Care Information: Judy managed to nail some simple but very important points when sharing her knowledge. She had mentioned also that women, sometimes through lack of knowledge and other times through carelessness, will cause hair problems through self-infliction, then meet up with Judy for her services. They would then rinse and repeat. It is wise not to follow this habit. Many women are doing this and they don’t even know it!

What this makes it look like is that you’re always relying on your hairstylist to service your hair to make it magically go back to full restoration. There are women that do this, and then when they’re experiencing major problems will get upset at their stylist when they themselves can’t figure out the best solution. At that point it’s out of their hands, and you’ll have to get help from a hair care consultant (or trichologist). To keep from making a situation like this occur, you should be limiting your usage from products with harmful chemicals, find products that have natural ingredients and contain vitamins to help promote healthy hair.

Limiting your usage of your flat iron or blow dryer is another helpful piece of advice. That does not mean don’t use them, it just means use them wisely. It is easy to get caught up in using your flat iron just to straighten a section of your hair that isn’t cooperating, or to get that hairstyle you want and not realizing how long you’ve been using your flat iron. And if you’re doing this daily, you don’t have to do the math to figure out the major consequences. Should you use hot utensils, you should be using a product that offers heat protection to minimize any chance of damage.

A celebrity hairstylist once mentioned that it’s important to brush your hair throughout the entire day, especially if you’re trying to add volume. She said that brushing hair five minutes at a time is important, and recommended doing this when getting ready for work, during lunch break, before going home, and prior to going to bed. With the application of good products like coconut crème, and consistent brushing, you’re giving every bit of your hair equal moisture. A brush is well suited for transferring your natural oils throughout the roots and ends of your hair. Never underestimate this one hairstyling tool.