If you’ve known me for more than five minutes you will know that I am all about scalp health. I firmly believe that healthy hair and bouncy curls start with your scalp. So often I see women, and I was guilty of this in the past, spending so much money on stylers, focusing on the lengths of their hair. And whilst the lengths are important, we don’t want split ends and breakage, the scalp is where we need to focus a lot of our attention! I’ve always said that you wouldn’t plant a seed in concrete and expect a flower to grow, the same goes for our hair. We can’t expect healthy hair to grow from an unhealthy scalp!
Last week I did an Instagram live where I shared my favourite scalp health products and also products I’ve found that have helped my hair loss. I grouped these products together as I believe that the two are intertwined and hair loss can easily follow an unhealthy scalp. So I thought I would share the products here complete with links and if I have them, discount codes, so all of the information is in one place for you to refer back to when you need it.
Lets dive right in!
You already knew that clarifying was the category I was going start with! It is after all the most important part of hair care! Clarifying resolves a multitude of hair issues! Over time our hair can become weighed down by the products we used, environmental pollutants and hard water mineral deposits. Not only that but this build up can sit on the scalp leading to itchiness and flakiness and long term can clog the hair follicles. When this is left untreated, hair loss can occur.
Thankfully we have clarifying and chelating shampoos! These are just shampoos that have slightly stronger surfactants to remove all this build up. What’s the difference between clarifying and chelating you ask? Chelating shampoos simply have added ingredients, such as Tetrasodium EDTA, that bind to the hard water mineral deposits and removes them. So if you have soft water you can use a clarifying shampoo and if you have hard water you will need a chelating shampoo.
The JSL Essentials Clarifying is wonderful and smells amazing. It thoroughly cleanses your hair and scalp whilst not stripping all of the moisture away. If you live in an area with soft water you could use this as your sole clarifying shampoo but if you have hard water you will need to alternate this with a chelating shampoo. You can purchase the JSL Essentials Clarifying Shampoo here and the discount code is CURLYCAST15.
The Bumble and Bumble Sunday Shampoo is chelating so if you have hard water, this will be your best friend as it contains Tetrasodium EDTA so will make short work of those mineral deposits that are binding to your hair strands. If you add this into your wash routine twice a month you will be golden! You can purchase it here.
The Briogeo Scalp Revival Shampoo is just amazing and like a spa experience in your own home! It is a shampoo that contains charcoal so will remove impurities from your hair and scalp but it is also exfoliating! Two products in one, bang for your buck! I have never had a bad washday with this product and it is one I will repurchase time and time again. You can get your hands on it here.
Hair Syrup! This is a new find for me and in complete transparency I have only used it twice so far but it had to be in my live and this post purely because of the reviews online. Review after review saying how much it has changed their hair, how much stronger it is, how quickly it is growing, how there are less split ends and damage, more shine, less tangles.
They have several different types of syrups and whilst all of them promote a healthy scalp and hair growth, they all offer different things for your hair. There is one for if you suffer with an oily scalp, or if you have a dry scalp, or damaged hair etc. So far I have purchased Rapunzel, Lemon-Aid and G&T. I really want the Grows-Mary one but I will have to wait until the beginning of July to try that one! To use them you just apply your chosen syrup to your scalp and the lengths of your hair and leave it on for at least one hour and then simply rinse and wash as normal. If you’re unsure which one will suit you most there is a quiz to take on their website and they will recommend the best one for you. You can find the website here.
I will also come back and update this post once I have been using it a few months to say whether it really does help with hair growth.
The Aveda Invati Scalp Revitalizer is a daily scalp treatment that smells amazing and is designed to keep your scalp healthy and also your hair strong so that it stays where we want it for longer, on our head! It is extremely lightweight and is as thin as water so it soaks right into your scalp and doesn’t leave a greasy residue. It also forces you to do a scalp massage once a day which stimulates the blood flow to the follicles. Win win! You can purchase the Scalp Revitalizer here and the discount code is CURLYCAST.
I originally started using Hair Fuel in December of 2022 when I was going through a bad bout of hair loss and the company contacted me asking if I would like to try one months worth for free. By the end of that first month I had signed up for the monthly subscription and I saw baby hairs in my bald patches within 3.5 weeks. Honestly I think this product is magic in a bottle! It is a weekly mask that you apply to your scalp and it does two things. Delivers nutrients to the scalp and also stimulates blood flow to the hair follicles. Just apply it to dry hair before you wash, pop a heat cap on and wait 45 minutes. Then simply rinse and wash as normal! The first time you use it the tingle might be quite intense, but by the third time I used it I hardly felt the tingle and now I love that feeling when I do because I feel like its stimulating all those follicles! You can find Hair Fuel here and the discount code is liane12.
On the same vein as Hair Fuel, Glowwa Hair Food is another hair loss product that actually works! Now whilst i can’t take this at the moment I will be straight back on it once I have finished breastfeeding. As the name suggest this is literally Hair Food for your locks! Packed full of vitamins that we may be missing from our diet. They also have a range called Meno for those that are premenopausal, going through the menopause or out the other side of it! You just take 2 tablets a day and you can find them here.
Pumpkin Seed Oil tablets I feel are the hidden secret from the hair loss world! In May 2023 I suffered an extreme bout of hair loss and my hair was falling out in clumps. Washdays I spent crying as I literally pulled handfuls of hair from my scalp. Off course I hit Google to find out what slows shedding down and I kept seeing Pumpkin Seed Oil mentioned. Now whilst they did take 5-6 weeks to start working (the hair shedding cycle i was in had to finish) once they did start working the difference was crazy. I went from losing handfuls of hair to loosing 15-20 strands at a time. They work by blocking DHT which can be a big reason for hair loss, and you just need to take 2 a day. Again I can’t take this currently but will be back on them at the beginning of July! I purchase mine here but there are several different brands available.
The Forest & Shore Hair Growth Oil has been getting rave reviews lately and if you follow Victoria on Instagram you will have seen her amazing growth results from applying this before washday! Containing Rosemary I have seen several crazy hair growth transformations! You can find Forest & Shore here. Personally I couldn’t take this for long enough to say whether it worked for my hair but I will start it again in the Summer.
I think also it’s important to remember that looking after you scalp doesn’t mean that you have to go and spend money. There are several things we can do to encourage scalp health without spending a penny!
- Not sleeping with wet hair
- Daily scalp massages
- No tight updos
- Not using elastic hair ties
- Not going too long without washing
- Drinking enough water – Our scalp is skin and gets dehydrated!
- Eating a healthy diet that includes eggs, fish and leafy greens – All great foods for our scalps! (Okay, this one costs money but you’re eating anyway!)
How do you feel about scalp health? Is it something you pay particular attention to?