Simple Steps That Work
Has the hair care market exploded with new products coming out for every possible “concern” that could exist? Or is it just me?
Ive noticed over the last few years, hair oils, scalp treatments, head spas etc. popping up all over social media and even in my own neighborhood. As with all things, the minute anything new pops up in terms of skincare or, in this case, hair care, it explodes into thousands of new products and routines – all promising miracles and achieving nothing except gaslighting consumers into a 25 step routine.
Around 2021, while still dealing with the pandemic, I dyed my hair for a brownish balayage to feel better about life (lol). It looked amazing .. for a few weeks. Not doing anything to protect my colored hair. It all eventually turned blondish as the color washed out, and brittle and frizzy with dryness. In 2023, I finally went into a hair salon to figure out what to do, and low and behold, I had to chop all my hair off into a bob.
“Your hair is completely dead” the hair stylist told me.
My heart literally dropped. I am someone blessed with Indian genes so my hair game has always been pretty top tier. Never really had to work that hard to grow my hair out or even do much to sustain healthy hair due to my genetics. Hearing that though .. boy was that a dramatic way to learn something simple – gotta take care of your hair folks least it turns dead and falls off.
Coming home with a bob I hated, I resorted to learning and doing what I could to re-grow my hair back quickly. Have to admit though, it was confusing. Scalp treatments was something I hadn’t really thought about before and thought that must be important. Hair steaming seemed like an interesting concept. BUT I also knew, the simplier and consistent a routine the better.
After a year and half of breaking down a routine that I can stick with and has proven to work, I think all these fancy treatments and excessive products is totally uncessarary and are just getting people to spend their hard earned money on stuff they don’t need.
7 Step Hair Routine
- Scalp Oiling
- Shampoo
- Conditioner/Deep Conditioner
- Leave in Conditioner
- Heat Protectant
- Blow Dry
- Hair Oil
I try to wash my hair every 3 days. Having naturally curly hair means I don’t need to wash my hair everyday, but really its dependent on when your hair gets dirty. Does it feel gross is what I usually ask myself 😂. Before washing my hair, I use Jojoba oil only on my scalp by taking a few drops on the tips of hands, and massaging it onto my scalp slowly. Don’t aggressive try to rub the oil in. All that does is it irritates the scalp and leads to more hair breakage. The gentler you do anything, the better. Leave the hair oil in for 2ish hours before hair washing.
Next is to shampoo, usually shampooing twice is pretty good to make sure your scalp is clean and all the oil is out. I like to just use my fingers and using the same method to apply the hair oil, use to shampoo. Not aggressively since hair when wet is naturally weaker.
Next, condition your hair either with regular conditioner or a deep hair conditioning treatment. Leave in your hair, really for as long as you can. Afterword, wrap your hair up in a microfiber towel to promote less frizziness. Press on the towel to soak up extra water.
Once your hair is damp, with the excessive water soaked up by the microfiber towel, apply your leave in conditioner and heat protectant. Blow drying your hair is better for your scalp since having your scalp wet for a long time isn’t a good thing. Continue with whatever heat styling you prefer to do and finishing up with hair oil.
Hair oil is super important to follow up with to ensure less frizziness but also to make sure your ends don’t end up dry. Preventing split ends and dryness will help ensure your hair throughout your head remains healthy – not just the part closest to your scalp which is new hair, constantly being nourished with your scalps natural oil.
Important: oil the mid – ends of your hair everyday with hair oil. This is really the game changer to help your hair to grow faster. Since I’ve started to incorporate this whole routine, my hair has grown down to my waist.
Try it avoid getting haircuts for as long as you can if your goal is to grow out your hair. By putting a few drops of hair oil on the mid to end of your hair, your hair will be less prone to split ends and breakage in general. As your hair gets stronger, it will start to grow.
