New Year, New Regimen!

I am the type of person that does not like to make resolutions. Instead, I have life goals that I continue to work at each year. I will not be sharing these goals with anyone except God and my husband. But what I will share is my new regimen for my natural hair. Now this regimen is not exactly new, and I didn’t wait until the New Year to commit to it fully. However, since we have embarked upon a new year, I thought I’d share a post about my continued commitment to a regimen that works. This regimen is a “back-to-the-basics” for me. It was the regimen that had made my hair flourish in the past. It was also the regimen that I’d strayed away from for an entire year and a half (I’ll write another post about why I strayed). Nevertheless, as of September of the year 2015, I’ve been enjoying how my hair has flourished in just four months. Here is my tried-and-trusted regimen.

1. Detangling. I thoroughly detangle my hair once a week before I wash it. My detangling tool of choice is the Denman brush. I do not use a modified Denman because I find the bristles inflexible and too sharp, which causes snagging and breakage. The Denman, however, is super flexible and the bristles are soft. I separate my hair into seven sections and detangle using an inexpensive (but not cheap) conditioner. The reason I saturate my hair in conditioner while detangling is to prevent breakage by making my hair more pliable. I like the conditioner to be of a decent quality, but not cost too much money. Conditioners I’ve used in the past are Suave Naturals, TRESemme Naturals, and Aussie. All of them work great.

2. Washing. I wash my hair once a week. There was a time when my hair was super long and I washed it bi-weekly, but now I really see that no matter how long my hair gets, it likes to be washed every week! I wash my hair using Shea Moisture’s Moisture Retention shampoo. I find that this particular shampoo is not very stripping to my hair, and it leaves my scalp feeling moisturized and clean. I typically wash my hair in seven twisted sections to ensure a thorough cleaning of my scalp. I then take out the twists to thoroughly rinse my hair. To secure my hair while I finish my shower, I pull it back into a loose bun. This keeps my hair detangled and out of the way. I do not use a wash-out conditioner because the shampoo I use for my hair is not stripping.

3. Deep Conditioning. I deep condition (DC) my hair every week on wash day. This process is something I’ve strayed from in the past due to laziness. However, not deep conditioning my hair after shampooing does make a difference for my prone-to-dryness texture. I’ve found that when I skip the DC process, my hair is not a strong, shiny, or moisturized. My conditioner of choice is ORS Hair Mayonnaise combined with coconut oil. After washing my hair, I divide my hair into sections (I actually have set parts) and apply the mixture evenly. Something new I’m trying is to ensure that I get conditioner onto my scalp! It makes a difference. I then sit underneath my hair steamer for twenty minutes and then rinse my hair. My steamer of choice is the Huetiful Hair Steamer. It was definitely an investment (and overpriced!) but it does work for me better than anything else I’ve ever tried. I’ve found that the steamer makes my scalp feel less itchy as the week goes on. In addition, the steamer makes my hair feel so soft and pliable, I can literally run my fingers through it afterward. I’ve owned the steamer for six years now.

4. Moisturizing. To moisturize my hair I use a combination of Shea Moisture’s Moisture Retention leave-in conditioner (sometimes Cantu leave-in) and 100% unrefined natural shea butter. That’s it! Now, I had strayed away from the shea butter only because I’d relocated and it was no longer accessible to me at my local markets. But now that I’ve found a market that sells it, I’m back in business. Let me tell you, this stuff makes all the difference for my kinky curly hair. Since my hair is fine (yes, thick hair can be fine, too), the shea butter works well at giving my strands some weight, meaning my hair shrinks less when drying. Not to mention, this stuff acts as a barrier to the elements, protecting my ends from dryness and damage. With this combination, I do not have to re-moisturize my hair every single day (probably only twice a week) and my hair is always super shiny and healthy-looking. The best part is that the shea butter is an investment that lasts a super long time. I purchased mine four months ago and I haven’t even used half of the container yet.

5. Styling. You can find me wearing the same hairstyle most of the time—my bang-heavy updo! This updo is achieved with hair that has been set by braiding my wet hair after washing and deep conditioning it. The braidout lasts a full seven days. The key is to braid in smaller sections to insure that my hair will dry completely overnight (you can also sit under the hooded dryer for an hour). For me, small sections equal to about eight to ten braids. When setting my hair, I use the aforementioned moisturizing products (shea butter and SM leave-in) before I braid my sections. I then takedown the sections the next day and style my hair using hair pins, which literally takes less than ten minutes.

6. Restyling. I re-braid my hair in seven sections every night to preserve the texture of my braidout. Although this may seem like a lot, the process only takes about ten minutes. There is no need to detangle and usually there is no need to re-moisturize. After re-braiding the hair, I simply apply my leave-in and shea butter only to the very ends to get them to re-curl. Throughout the week, my hair is further elongated and stretched each day I re-braid it. This means that on “day one” my braidout will fall right at my neck, but by “day-seven” my hair will fall right at the shoulders (and sometimes even further). I preserve my hair while I sleep using a satin scarf.

If you’ve noticed, I use six hair products; [1] an inexpensive conditioner, [2] Shea Moisture’s shampoo, [3] Shea Moisture’s leave-in, [4] unrefined shea butter, [5] coconut oil, and [6] ORS Hair Mayonnaise. I rarely ever stray from these products. Sometimes I may use Cantu leave-in or African Pride’s hair mayonnaise but usually just to finish up the product, they do not work as effectively as their colleagues for my hair texture—but they do work if you’re looking for cheaper alternatives! One last thing I’d like to mention is that while some of these products may seem costly, I purchase them every 3-6 months, with the exception of the shea butter and coconut oil which can last up to a full year. A little goes a very long way!

#regimen #growth #detangling #washing #deepconditioning #naturalhair #moisturizing #styling