FOUR EASY STEPS FOR STICKING TO YOUR HAIR CARE REGIMEN

If you are like most of us, there is the likelihood that you’ve more than on one occasion decided to be more consistent in your natural hair routine. And then you wake up one morning and realise that you haven’t done anything of such for the past month. Yikes!

You are definitely not alone. The thing is, this happens to the very best of us. Whether we like it or not, life happens and it happens very fast, and we often find that even our best intentions don’t come to fruition.

If you’ve ever struggled to stick to a hair care regimen, I am sharing some tips with you that will help you find an effective regimen you can integrate easily into your active lifestyle.

Tips for sticking to your hair care routine

Begin small: The problem with most of us is that we want to begin with a bang. Life, however, teaches that the more drastic the change and the bigger the investment involved, the less likely we are to stick to our resolutions. Your job obligations remain the same. Your duties to your family remain the same. And the time at your disposal has not magically increased. So, if your new hair regimen requires you to spend five hours every week pre-shampooing, washing, detangling, deep conditioning, and styling, that’s less time you have to see to other areas of your life. As time goes on, you will have to trade one aspect of your new life for the other, and odds are that your new hair care routine will be given the boot. If you begin small, however, it is easier to integrate your new changes into your lifestyle more seamlessly.

Buy high quality tools: You need to be able to execute all aspects of your hair care regimen effectively if you are to be encouraged to stick to it. If your hair clips, brushes, combs, detanglers and other hair tools are causing you to waste time when you care for your hair, it's time to get rid of them and buy high quality ones. They’ll make your hair care regimen much more easier. And then, you are more likely to stick to it.

Be realistic: One reason a lot of naturals abandon their new hair care regimen is that they were expecting radical changes. The truth is that there is no hair care routine, no matter how advanced, that can give you a totally different hair texture. No matter your hair type, your objective should be making your hair softer, fuller, stronger, and more manageable. When these are your goals, you are less likely to abandon hair care routines much more often.

Exercise the virtue of patience: There are certain lifestyle changes that yield immediate results. And then, there are those that will take time before you see the results. Hair care falls into the latter category, and this is why you need to be patient. It doesn’t matter how very well you care for your hair, it probably won’t grow more than half an inch per month, so it may take several months before you see a noticeable difference in your hair's length, health, and fullness. The best thing you can do is to be consistent and continue to give your hair the attention and love it deserves. The big difference will eventually come.

Creating a healthy hair regimen

The objective of a hair care routine is to maintain healthy hair. At the end of the day, your specific regimen will depend on the qualities of your hair (whether it is curly or kinky, fine or coarse, long or short, thick or thin).However, there are certain general components that all naturalistas need to incorporate into their hair care regimens. They are:

Shampoo. It lifts the hair cuticles, breaks up oil and dirt, and then suspends these unwanted oil and dirt so they can be rinsed away.

Condition. When you condition your hair, it closes the cuticle and makes it smooth, slippery and easy for the comb to pass through.

Moisturise. Naturally curly hair tends to dry out, and this is why you should endeavour to fit a moisturiser into your hair care routine.

Seal. When you seal your hair with a sealant, the moisture you apply to the hair is retained. And the good news is that you can get a sealant that contains your favourite oil(s).

Now, all I’ve mentioned above are the basics of hair care routine. You can add other steps (such as deep treatment) to your routine as it pleases and works for you.

Find a hair regimen that works for you

Every head of hair is different, and this is why no two hair care regimens would ever exactly be the same. In fact, they shouldn’t.

If you don't know where to start, begin with the basics highlighted above, and then build on it as you get more educated in your hair journey.

Here’s a toast to your beautiful, healthy head of hair.