The Earth Diet: 5 TIPS for NATURAL HAIR CARE

This blog is for people who are curious about how to take care of your hair - NATURALLY.

The conventional way of taking care of our hair is by washing it with shampoo and conditioners (which are full of a lot of chemicals including preservatives and fragrances), treatments (also full of chemicals), and some people dye it at home or the salon using more chemicals. Plus we often wash our hair in water that is chemically treated with fluoride. Our hair rarely has time to breathe and be incredible. Some people report that their head is itchy and painful after visiting a salon or using hair care - and it doesn't have to be like that. Remember that whatever we put on our skin and hair gets absorbed into our blood stream, our cells and builds our body. Too many chemicals in our cells can cause acidity, inflammation, anxiety, nervous system issues, weakened immune system, burn out, adrenal burn out, depression and weight gain. Remember we are what we eat and we don't need science to know that too many chemicals in our system is not good.

Here are some tips for taking care of your hair naturally:

1. Buy organic shampoos and conditioners. You may have to test out a few to make sure they work with your hair.
2. If you do dye your hair, check out organic and more natural colors - they actually do work.
3. Get a shower filter for your shower so your hair is absorbing beautiful clean water.
4. Do a bentonite clay hair treatment once per month. Make up a mud mixture and massage it through your hair, leave for 1 hour, it will set hard and then wash out in the shower. This will remove toxins and heavy metals from your hair and scalp. My hair has more volume since I started to do this.
5. Go to a salon that is natural & organic, meaning using organic products. Google "natural salon ..." and your city.

I have been in Brisbane Australia for the past few weeks launching The Earth Diet book. I googled and found "Naturally Organic Hair Salons". What a relief and how exciting to see a salon like this! They have 3 locations; Chermside, Carindale and Indropilly. I booked in Monday morning - which is a great way to start the week btw especially if you don't particularly enjoy Monday's! They have a stunning modern location in Carindale:

I felt right at home when I saw these signs in their salon:

The thing with organic and natural salons are the prices aren't a huge difference, you might be surprised on how similar the prices are!

Their tea menu is incredible, herbal teas! I had the relaxation tea... mmmm perfect for a Monday morning!

First up Gabby my hair artist started me with a treatment wash using organic hair care.

Yes natural organic products work! Science supports it...

The end result...

And then the end result while at Flannery's - The Earth Diet book launch!

I had the opportunity to ask the owner Amanda some questions to give us more insight:
Amanda started Naturally Organic Salons 4 years.

1. What made you decide to start a business in a natural organic hair company? I worked in a male dominated industry in corporate roles for 20 years. Although I wouldn’t consider myself a girly girl, ie don’t wear nail polish (actually I can’t even file my nails), or fake tan etc etc, I have only just started cleansing and moisturising my face. BUT I love hair. I think with great hair you look and feel incredible. I would get my hair done often but struggled with the way hair salons worked. So I created the salon I wanted to go to.

2. What are the worst 3 chemicals people put on their hair without even knowing, and why1. 1.The holy grail in hair colour is the synthetic colour pigment, often known as PPD or PTD. Some colours are better than others. With the use of ammonia you need more colour pigment hence why it is not necessarily the ammonia itself is the problem but the need for more colour pigment. I look all around the world for leaders in the technology to eliminate the need for a synthetic colour colour pigment but have only found a couple that are not what you would be able to use professionally. We choose OCS as it has the smallest amount of colour pigment I can find on the market and in Australia is distributed by a health company.

2. The next I would say is silicones, they are in most cheap shampoos and conditioners and coat the hair. We see it all the time. It is the grippy feeling you feel when running your hand through your hair after you have shampooed and prior to conditioning. It creates dry nottey hair. 3. The usual cosmetic concern would be parabens. They are great for shelf life but there is too much documentation to support parabens role in our not to ignore that it is one we should be staying away from.

3. What is the best thing about getting hair done at Naturally Organic? Total relaxation, and knowing we will care for your hair as much as we care for the individual we are servicing. The staff are genuine caring people not fashionistas.

4. Can you explain how natural coloring works as a lot of people don't think it can work! Still works like a traditional colour just an ammonia replacement that enables us to use less colour pigments and helps reduce the airborn colour pigments. Then the things like the preservatives and moisturisers are replaced with gentle natural ingredients like comfrey and aloe. No real smell, less damage, less allergies and gentler on the scalp.

7 Reasons why I loved my experience at Naturally Organic Hair Salons:
1. They use filtered water!
2. They use re-foil which is recyclable foil. If your salon is NOT using re-foil they are contributing to creating a lot of rubbish on earth - and foil does not easily breakdown.
3. If you cannot afford to go to a salon, but still want to use natural and organic products they sell them at their salons, including selling natural permanent color.
4. When you are getting your hair done they have an incredible variety of herbal teas.
5. They use timber bristle brushes that does not snag on the hair, massages the scalp, you can brush the hair when wet plus is a more sustainably made brush and decomposes better.
6. They used Essence shampoo and conditioner on my hair which was designed by Kevin Murphy who also makes natural styling products.
7. They are a fume free salon!

The beautiful ladies at Naturally Organic Hair Salon. Check out the color of their hair!

Contact details:
Website: www.organichairsalons.com.au
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OrganicHairSalonCarindale

Phone: 3398 5733
Email: admin@organichairsalons.com.au

Instagram: @naturallyOrganic

Follow Gabby my stylist and colorist on Instagram @gogogabby92

Remember it's a process so take it easy and swap out one conventional product with one natural product at a time!

Love Liana
Thursday March 5th 2015
Writing this from Brisbane, Australia

P.S The Louise Hay affirmation for that day was...