How to create a natural hair care regimen Part 1

You want to create a natural hair care regimen? Well I’m here to help you make the process easier. A regimen is a routine (that you create) to keep your hair healthy. A hair regimen provides structure and consistency towards the process of taking care of your hair. You plan your regimen in advance and stick to it for a prolonged period of time. Establishing a regimen that works for you is key to long, healthy, lustrous natural hair. It is important to build a good regimen, not just any type of regimen. This means incorporating various aspects such as protein treatments and moisture treatments to provide a necessary balance between moisture and protein. The necessary components of a hair regimen involve: cleansing, conditioning, moisturizing, sealing, detangling, and protective styling.

Natural hair, like any other hair type, needs to be clean and your scalp needs to breathe in order for healthy hair to grow. The use of a gentle, sulfate- free shampoo can help achieve this. Co-washing can be done between shampoos but should not be heavily relied on as conditioners wont adequately cleanse your scalp of product buildup. Most women with natural hair wash their hair somewhere between once a week, to once a month. I urge readers to experiment and find out what frequency works best for you—starting with once a week and then experimenting with longer intervals. If you cleanse less often, go lighter with other products to avoid buildup. If you cleanse more often, be more diligent with moisturizers.

There are three main categories of conditioners and they are all very important, so read carefully! In fact, take notes dear readers. A daily or rinse-out conditioner is a light conditioner that can be used on a daily basis and is meant to be washed out. It helps with detangling hair, eliminate frizz, and hydrate hair. Use this anytime your hair gets wet. Leave in conditioners are applied after washing to damp, or dry hair before styling. This conditioner is meant to stay in the hair until your next wash so it should not be washed off immediately. Use a leave in conditioner every day or at least 4x a week. A deep conditioner is an intensive moisturizing and nourishing treatment. This conditioner is left on for a certain amount of time, spanning from 15 minutes to hours at times. Deep conditioners provide not just moisture, but all the nutrients your hair needs to be really healthy. I recommend deep conditioning 1-2 times a week, especially if you are just starting your hair regimen.

Moisturizing is another vital part of a healthy hair care regimen. Depending on the porosity of your hair, you may need to moisturize your strands on a daily basis. Moisture helps with breakage, dryness, tangling, matting, and even hair loss. Some naturals choose to moisturize at night to avoid the hair looking weighed down. Specific methods can be implemented here, such as the LOC method, which I will touch upon in upcoming posts.

Stay tuned for part 2 of creating your natural hair care regimen…