“You should take care of your hair, the same way you take care of your skin.” – Fendi Dudi, Hair Artist

I grew up believing that popular commercial hair products are enough to keep my hair healthy and manageable. After all, they claim to use “all-natural” ingredients from fruits, flowers, and plants that sound 100% safe. However, not all brands are what they claim to be. Throughout the years of getting my hair colored, I thought everything I did was okay and that my hair just looked dry because I didn’t know how to style it properly. Part of me knew that something was wrong and global hair artist Fendi Dudi confirmed this when I met him during the R&R Day hosted by LifeFood earlier this week.

Too much bleaching, putting on different types of hair dye, shampooing everyday with harmful ingredients, and probably lack of vitamins and minerals ended up making my hair brittle and dry! Since I don’t get to meet a hair icon every day, I had a quick chit-chat with Fendi and asked him for some tips on how I can make my hair lively again. Here are some that I got, which I hope can help everyone reading this to realize that our hair needs just as much TLC as our skin and nails:

1. Avoid bleaching

People who color their hair often are aware that bleach can make their hair dry, but we still do it anyway because it’s essential to achieve light colors from pastel hues to grey tones. In some cases, bleach may cause hair fall and dandruff, too! As much as we can, we should avoid bleaching if we want to save our strands from dryness and much-dreaded split ends. If you must, allot some breathing space for your hair to recover before changing to a different hair color.

2. Get moisturizing treatments

My hair was a mess when I first stepped inside Nue Studio but I went out looking years younger. Here’s a before and after photo for reference:

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Fendi and his team applied Aveda Botanical Cream, used Nano Steamer which opens up the hair “pores” to make it smooth and shiny, and lastly, all the moisture was sealed in using a Frozen Iron. My hair became instantly manageable, smooth, volumized, and bouncy after this treatment and it lasted for a whole week! Such moisturizing treatments are important, especially for colored hair. It gives every hair strand some TLC to bring back its life.

3. Switch to all-natural hair care products

Unknown to many, there are harmful chemicals that are in our hair products. This is also something that I was advised to watch out for! I know that Sulfates and Parabens are part of the list as these strip away hair’s natural oils; however, I didn’t know that there was a loooong list to take note of. I did a bit of sleuthing online and found the following tips:

• Go for products with Coconut Oil instead of damaging Mineral Oil.
• Fragrance-free shampoos work better than those with synthetic fragrances or parfum as the latter can cause irritation.
• Do not use products with Coal Tar as they have been linked to cancer and brain damage.

The list goes on and on so I would suggest that you make your own list before your next trip to the grocery.

4. Include supplements in your diet

What we eat may not be enough to supply us with the vitamins that our body needs, thus, supplements are also very important. To make this more enjoyable, we can opt to try yummy jelly supplements over typical tablets and capsules.

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Snackable LifeFood Collagen Jelly supplement was introduced to guests who visited Nue Studio last Monday (June 6, 2022) to help us level up our beauty practices. Each jelly stick contains 2500mg of hydrolyzed marine collagen that helps create and maintain plump, supple skin. It’s also a must-try for people like me who have brittle hair and nails! LifeFood Collagen Jelly contains litchi seed extract, pomegranate essence, and grape skin extract that contains resveratrol for maintaining skin moisture and firmness, preventing signs of skin aging like dullness and wrinkles, and reducing damage to hair and nails. I’ve been taking it daily since Monday and I would eat more sticks if I could! They weren’t kidding when they said that it’s snackable and enjoyable!

Tip: Best to leave it in the fridge for a few minutes before consumption for that nostalgic cold lychee jelly vibe!

You can add LifeFood Collagen Jelly to your cart via this link.

5. Overall wellness and mindfulness

Keep yourselves in check. Sometimes, we already know that something is wrong but we don’t do anything about it because of a “pwede na ‘yan” (that will do) mindset. We sometimes wait for the worse to come (e.g. too much hair fall and breakage) before acting on it. Always remember: Prevention is better than cure! And this is applicable to overall body health, too!

We have to be mindful about what we eat and what we do to our bodies. Every part of our body — from hair down to our toe nails, deserve the same amount of tender loving care. Same goes for the insides — as what’s wrong internally eventually manifests physically. I was also introduced to other LifeFood supplements that aid different issues such as hormonal balance, PMS symptoms, and even skin health, but I’ll talk about that in a separate blog once I see the effects! 😉

For now, I hope this list was able to help you in one way or another. I swear by the Collagen Jelly! You should try it!

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