Table of Contents
1| How my journey began
This book is the culmination of years of research and trial and error along my own path to healthy hair. Learn how traditional hair care destroyed my hair, and how I found my way back to healthy hair following natural methods.
2| Understanding healthy hair
This section breaks down the structure of the hair so you better understand how its affected, for good or ill, by things you do to it.
3| Understanding types of damage
Heat, dye, chemicals, and harsh styling tools all damage hair, but they each do so in a different way. Learn about each of these types, what causes them, and how to prevent each type of damage.
4| Tools of the Trade
An overview of the basic styling tools you’ll want to have to style and protect your hair.
5| Coming to grips with reality and your hair type
Learn about your hair’s natural state and how to work with it rather than against it.
6| Diagnostics: Finding out what your hair needs
Clarifying? Protein? Moisture? We’ve all heard that our hair needs these things, but what are they? And now do you know which ones your hair needs? Find out in this chapter with a few simple tests that you can do with things already in your home.
7| Damage recovery & prevention treatments
Explore different types of natural treatments for your hair, including ones that impart protein and moisture. Inside this chapter you’ll find recipes and information about oils, butters, rinses, and herbal muds.
8| Color
Hair color is closely tied to identity. Learn what might drive you to color, and what non-damaging color options exist.
9| Trimming
Take control of your hair by learning about self-trims, microtrimming and split end hunting. This section also gives tips about selecting a pair of hair shears and busts the myth of split end repair.
10| Growing Healthy Hair
There are a few key things that can influence the rate at which your hair grows. Learn which things you can control, which things you can’t, and how to track your monthly growth.
11| Lifestyle, hydration & nutrition
Feed your body and your hair with proper nutrition, hydration, and healthy choices. Discover which nutrients are most important to hair and which foods contain them, across all diets.
12| Topical applications
Gels, creams, oils, essential oils and other serums can be applied to the scalp with the goal of stimulating growth. This section not only provides you with recipes, but also breaks down individual ingredients and their benefits so you can customize your treatments.
13| Growth-stimulating techniques
Treatments such as scalp massage, the inversion method, and acupressure not only encourage growth, they also allow you to expand your knowledge about what your hair and scalp respond best to, try something new, and empower you to be an active participant in your hair growth
Comprehensive & Flexible
This guide is does not exist to market my own products. The things I make are mentioned because the products I make and sell were ones I developed on my journey to healthy hair. I will never claim they are the only way or the best way for every individual. The best hair care routine and products are the ones that work for you. To that end, I’ve included several other recipes and treatments that you should be able to try with items you have in your house, or ones you can easily acquire at your local grocery store.
Through the entire process my hair was evolving, not only into something longer, but something healthier. One day though you’ll realize that your hair is starting to feel nice. And another day you’ll see it’s starting to shine again. Sometime from then you’ll notice that the detangling comes easier and that you may be able to push that trim back a week. Treat each of these realizations as the victory that it is.
Legal Tiny Print
Copyright ©2016 Melissa Lynn Herold. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form whatsoever, by photography or xerography or by any other means, by broadcast or transmission, by translation into any kind of language, nor by recording electronically or otherwise, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in critical articles or reviews. ISBN 13: 978-1-63489-928-4 Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2016952099 Cover design by David Herold and interior design by Melissa Herold.
Wise Ink Creative Publishing 837 Glenwood Ave Minneapolis, MN 55405 www.wiseinkpub.com
Rehabilitating Damaged Hair Naturally: A Guide © Melissa Lynn Herold. All Rights Reserved, except where otherwise noted.
Additional Resources
How do I know these methods work? I destroyed my own hair with chemical colors and nursed it back to health with natural methods.
The LOC (Liquid, Oil, Cream) method will show you how to get moisture into your hair, and keep it there with your favorite NightBlooming products.
rrehrauer@gmail.com –
This was so helpful in helping me figure out what my hair type is and how to better take care of it!
Niviria –
This is such a helpful guide. I am so glad I purchased it. Nightblooming really puts a lot of time and love into their products!
Holly W. (verified owner) –
Very insightful
Tina C. (verified owner) –
Allie M. (verified owner) –
informative, helpful, really breaks down the basics of hair, the whys, the hows, and everything else. So many options on how to view as well!
Ola A. (verified owner) –
I’m still going through it. I don’t want to overwhelm myself with reading all of it in one setting. But it will be a great source for whenever I’m facing any problem with my hair, because this guide covered everthing!
Lori (verified owner) –
I found these hair care products and books just in time. I had been using henna and non chemical shampoos to rehabilitate my own hair after a recent horrible shed following having had Covid and going into menopause. Now coming off of oral contraceptives will put more stress on my hair. I will follow all of Melissa’s recommendations in the book, and feel confident my hair can heal a little at the time. I am already experiencing a lot of new growth.
Dori U. (verified owner) –
Love this, I cant wait to use all the info in here to improve my hair.
Anna (verified owner) –
Great guide!
Shannon (verified owner) –
Years/decade+ ago, I used to spend a lot of time on hair care forums, following all the experiments. I spent years doing my own experiments, but always along the way something took me down a weird path, and I got locked into some pretty vicious cycles between chemical dying, bleaching, and then swinging back to henna, often with dramatic hair cuts in between. On a whim while starting to cycle back over to henna, I added this ebook to my shopping cart. It of course has solid info – but I especially appreciated the more psychological/social aspects touched on as well. It helped me focus a bit more on my hair care approach and the why behind my decisions and impulsivity when it comes to hair. Even got me to retry things I’d tried in the past and discarded (boar bristle brushes as an example).
A few months later: while my hair is still damaged, with the combination of Night Blooming’s shampoo & conditioner bars, healing salve, micro-trims, henna, faerie dust, and some added indigo, I’m *finally* back to a hair color that blends well with my medium brown roots and I also get to keep most of the length while I grow out all the previous years of damage.
Photos are of the bleached/toned mess I started this latest adventure with, then a combo of rusalki & genasi hennas to build back to warmth, followed by a blend of indigo with the faerie dust conditioner (shown in two different lighting settings to fully demo the neutral tone achieved and how well it blends with my roots).
While I adore the strawberry/copper hair colors from henna – my starting base is just too dark to get that shade without bleaching, and I really want to finally be off the cycle of bleaching and of chasing root/length color match ups. This book has helped me get to a solid place with that, without having to go for yet another dramatic haircut as part of ditching the chemical dyes.