Carly Walker in Venice
Ideas, Los Angeles, Westside Wisdom

Westside Wisdom: Hair Hacks From a Fortune Teller

I decided to start a new series on my blog called West Side Wisdom. Why? Because some of us thought we had street smarts only to move to LA and realize we were useless.

Lucky for me, I live in a city that is a smorgosborg of human beings who have mastered life hacks worth noting. As a result, one of my goals this year is to stop looking at my phone when I go places, and start picking the brains of West LA’s finest.

Round 1: Hair Hacks From a Fortune Teller

I was at a beauty supply store pretending that my hair wasn’t over bleached and suffering from grocery store soap, when I met a fortune teller. I call her a fortune teller because she had a flawless accent and eyes that defaulted to looking directly into my soul. I normally don’t ask questions, but I had hit a breaking point. I held up a bottle and asked her from across the store, “Will this fix my hair?”

She hung up her landline phone while slowly unravelling the chord wrapped around her fingernails, and leaned forward. “Can I touch your hair?”

“Yes.”

She touched my hair, twitched, and let the silence build up before opening her arms to the entire store and saying, “these products will not save you.”

A unique sales approach.

“In Santa Monica the water is terrible,” she continued. “If you don’t drink it. Why would you wash your hair in it?”

And just like that my juvenile mind was mildly blown.

I have been searching for years for the perfect shampoo and the answer was right in front of me. It had nothing to do with the shampoo. It had everything to do with the one other substance that goes through my hair daily, water.

The WHOLE time?

She then explained how this cousin and that cousin and this neighbor and her mother all use shower filters from Home Depot. They are $30.00 or less my friends and anyone can install it.

She drew me in for the next half hour with hair advice that cost less than a bottle of fancy leave in conditioner from Beverly Hills and has single-handedly saved my hair from feeling like straw. So from the fortune teller herself, here is a glimpse into a better future.
Hair_Hacks

1) Get a shower filter. It’s like dancing in a fountain of youth. (And is also better for your skin.)
2) Never brush your hair wet. You are basically ripping it out. Use a wide-tooth comb like this one. Don’t use a brush until it is at least half-dry. I even prefer to comb my hair out in the shower to lose less hair.
3) Trim your hair often (at least every 3 months). Your hair is like a plant. If the tips of a plant are dead, it can’t grow so you have to trim them. Same concept here. Long healthy locks start from the ends of your hair.
4) Wash your hair less. Make a shower cap and dry shampoo your best friend. Try only shampooing it 3-4 times a week.
5) Give It The Magic Treatment. Once a week, put conditioner on the bottom half of your locks while it is dry. Let it sit for five minutes before getting in the shower. While in the shower, shampoo the roots of your hair only, and leave the bottom half of your locks alone. Let the water naturally rinse it out. (I like using Moroccan Oil Hydrating Shampoo, and Moisture Repair Conditioner).

Bonus tip: Use no crease hair ties. These ties are softer on your hair and don’t cause as much breakage.

And there you have it. Two cents that make sense.

One thing I love about where I live is that no one keeps personal boundaries. People aren’t afraid to ask about your life and instantly invite themselves to become a part of it. So warm up a little (it’s 80 degrees here) and start chatting more with strangers. If you listen, more often then not, they have something valuable to say.

And even if it isn’t valuable, you can pretend it is an abstract metaphor for something valuable.

We could go either way on this.

Images: Shower Filter – Amazon, Comb – Sephora, Plant – Sunset Magazine, Dry Shampoo – Klorane, Shower Cap – Pinterest Puppy, Shampoo/Conditioner – Moroccan Oil

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