Anatomy Of A Hair Crisis + How To Restore Your Hair Back To Life

This post is how-to guide on how I restored my damaged hair after a terrible experience at Toni & Guy. 

This is not a sponsored post. 
The products I used are down below. 

In May of last year, I visited the Toni & Guy Salon at Mary Brickell Village.  I paid the most I had ever, in my entire life, for a clear, cellophane glossing treatment and blowout.  I had never (and still have not) so much as highlighted my hair, much less dyed it.  I had been doing clear glossing treatments since I was in college.  In my experience, they had always made my hair soft, shiny and more manageable.  Not this time.

The stylist asked me if I wanted to do a treatment that had a color glaze in it.  I declined, telling him that I liked my naturally dark hair.  I should have known something was wrong when I felt like I had remained seated, with the glossing treatment in my hair, for way too long.  Because this wasn't my first rodeo, I knew that a) glossing treatments should not smell as foul as this did, and b) they should not be left on the hair for 30 minutes plus.
Hair Before:

Hair After: 

Nevertheless, I went home after having my hair blown out, not immediately realizing something was wrong. The following day,  I saw my hair in natural light and saw that it was red at the roots, not my naturally dark color.  As the weeks progressed, the red color faded and turned into a lightish brown color.  My hair kept getting lighter and more dry thereafter.

I visited two reputable Coral Gables salons; each informed me informed me that the glossing treatment that had been used on my hair contained 12% peroxide by volume and had not actually deposited color on my hair, but had in fact, lifted my natural color.

By July, my hair was complete straw.  The ends were so damaged I could not run a comb through them without getting major breakage.  Hair littered my bathroom floor and the inside of my sink, and it was all broken hair, not longer strands that just naturally fall out.

By August and September, anyone who touched or attempted to blow dry my hair was left with the undertaking of actually finishing the blowdry.  Many stylists stopped mid-way through blowdrying my hair, to complain, or to take more time to detangle the ends. Embarrassing!  Everywhere I went, I had to explain what happened to my hair.  Every stylist that touched my hair since my "treatment" complained about how dry and brittle it was - how difficult it was to detangle and how easily it was breaking off.

It's now February of 2015, and the damage is still there, even after several trims. Not surprisingly, the Toni & Guy salon closed down, defunct and useless.  I know, I know. It's just hair.  I get it.  I'll tell you what though, lesson learned...

Below is a list of what I've done to try and get my hair back to normal.  I hope you find these tips and products helpful.

Hair Care How To:

• H2O: I increased my water intake, ten-fold. Doing this helped hydrate everything.
• Dirty Hair: I washed my hair less frequently (gross) to allow the natural oils to replenish.
• Brushing: I started to be pretty good about brushing my hair from the root through to the ends, to distribute the natural hair oils.
• Shower Head Filter: I attached a shower head filter to eliminate the effects of the hard water that is all too common in Miami and especially in the area where I live. I use the T3 Source Shower Head Filter.  If you want to spend less money on a filter, Home Depot actually sells more affordable options.  The T3 does help with hair, and it actually also helps with making your skin softer.
• Vitamins.  I bought Nature's Bounty Hair Skin & Nails vitamin supplement.  This takes about 30 days to see a difference.  It contains 3000 mg of Biotin, among other vitamins.  It makes me break out if I take it continuously, so I alternate days.  The new hair that is growing in is really really soft and shiny.  I really recommend this specific formula.
• Silicon Mix by Bambu.  This Dominican haircare wonder has helped more than any other product that I've tried...and I've tried a lot of expensive products.  This is affordable (less than $8 on Amazon) and it really works. It's a conditioner that contains bamboo plan extracts.  I do not love the way it smells but the results are unbeatable.  The softness and the shine from this product are major. Thanks to Gissi for turning me on to it. :)
• Shampoo Change: I switched out my old shampoos for three new ones.  The first one I use is the Lanza Pure Healing clarifying shampoo.  You use it once a week and it really gets all the gunk out from dry shampoos and hair spray.  It is from the Lanza Pure Healing line of products so it's infused with ingredients that are good for your hair.  After that I shampoo with Aveeno Active Naturals Nourish and Strengthen Shampoo or Fresh's Seaberry Revitalizing Shampoo which contains a bunch of Omega's, seaberry extract and other hair friendly oils. 
• Lanza treated me to an in-salon restorative hair treatment with products from their Hair Trauma line.  I found that the conditioners from the line really do hydrate well and make combing through hair, post-shower, easier.
• Kerastase sent over their new Discipline line.  The star product from this line is the mask - the Kerastase Maskeratine.  This is great stuff.  It's super rich.  I leave it in my hair for a while.  You have to really rinse it thoroughly, but when you do, you will notice hair that's much softer and more manageable.  Another product from this line that I really love is the Kerastase Fluidissime - this is a heat protectant and anti frizz spray.  It smells really good, makes my hair very soft, and makes blowdrying hair a little easier in my opinion.