Hiya,
The much anticipated time has come! I’m finally going to share my daily hair regimen with you. A regimen is a process you repeat over and over again until it becomes part and parcel of your everyday routine. Below is my daily hair regimen but let me stress that everybody’s hair is different and you must first identify how your hair responds to a product when you initially start using it. If the response is good these are few traits your hair will portray; breaking or shedding will be minimized, it will be easy to comb, it will be bouncy and shinny. You know a product is not doing anything for your hair when you use it and lumps of your hair are falling out, your hair is dry and brittle, Its unmanageable; you sleep and wake up and there are strands of hair on your pillow, you sit on a chair and when you get up, the same thing; strands of hair! Now when that is happening, no matter who recommended that product to you, even if it’s me; throw it in the bin!!
There are 3 main things you want to accomplish with a daily regimen.
- You want to ensure that your hair especially at the ends are MOISTURIZED. Moisturizing is extremely essential for our Naija hair because of our weather. The humidity and heat together will dry out the little moisture your scalp naturally produces and since the strands of our hair are made up of protein bonds which can easily be broken when there is no moisture, you need to keep the moisture balanced with the protein and all that will take a simple application of hair moisturizer to your strands especially the ends because they are the oldest and most fragile part of your hair.
Now just as not all fingers are equal, not all moisturizers are equal. There are some products out there that I will tell you straight up are posing as moisturizers but are in actual fact NOT moisturizers! Please do me a favor, take a close look at the BODY LOTION you use, feel its consistency, look at its ingredients, most times the first ingredient is water(aqua). Now if you are done with my little exercise I’d like to tell you that your hair moisturizer should be just like your body lotion if not its doing nothing for your hair! Let me explain; Below are pictures of the two moisturizers I am using at the moment. The first is Africa’s Best Organics Shea Butter Plus (Dry hair and Scalp oil Moisture Therapy) it cost N600 from Lekki Oniru Market and the second One is by Excelsior Botanical Hair Systems; Anti- Breakage Hair strengthening cream From Lekki Market aswell for N1200.
As you can see from the picture with the moisturizer on my palm, these moisturizers are like body lotions that just glide down your palm and are light because of their water based nature! If you do not buy a water based hair moisturizer then the alternative which would do NOTHING for your hair is Petroleum or Mineral Oil based hair moisturizers. Who remembers BLUE MAGIC or SULPHUR 8!!! Even before I had any hair knowledge, God help any Salon stylist that brought these hair creams near my hair! lol. They are packed with mineral oil and the bad thing is that Mineral oil will NOT penetrate into your hair shaft as such an oil like most oils cannot dissolve, so all it is doing is sitting on your hair and doing nothing for your hair internally, now keep using it everyday and it will build up and finally clog your hair from any kind of moisture, no moisture means dry, brittle hair!
These days, brands like Dr Miracle, Motions, Profectiv still use mineral oil in some of their products, you know why? I hear it’s really cheap! Now I know you don’t want that cheap stuff on your hair, no matter what miracle it claims to perform! Invest in an actual moisturizer and see the difference!Below is a Picture of such a moisturizer. Please STAY AWAY!!
2.The second essential step in your regimen is SEALING the moisture into your hair strands. How? you might wonder? With essential oils like Olive Oil ( see the picture of Goya Extra Virgin Olive Oil below, cost is N 250).
Other very good oils include Coconut oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Castor Oil (A bit too thick so use a little) and Tea Tree Oil( See my collection of essential oils below; bought them in the US but I’m scouting for them here in Naija and will let you all know if I find them)!
I section my moisturized hair into four sections like I would if I am getting it relaxed and then gently coat the hair from root to tip with my oil of choice.(see picture below).
I recommend Olive oil the most because of its lightweight nature and then Coconut oil because it is the only oil that penetrates the hair shaft thus moisturizing and sealing at the same time. Sealing plays the following role; as I said earlier most oils don't dissolve, they just sit on the hair thus with sealing, as the oil sits on your hair, it prevents the moisture from escaping your hair and the moisture in turn prevents the hair from drying out and breaking! Genius!!
3.The final step for my Daily regimen is spraying a LEAVE-IN CONDITIONER on the ROOTS of my hair. Leave-in conditioners are liquid and can frizz up your ends if you have had them straightened or curled so focus on the roots of your hair which most times needs the softening from the conditioner especially when your her has new growth or in Naija Terms 'is due'. Right Now I am using Vital Olive Oil Leave In Conditioner with Pro Vitamin B5, cost N700 at a supermarket in Lekki. Below is a picture of the leave in conditioner and how I spray it, focusing on my roots.
After you have successfully gone through these steps then you proceed to combing your locks with a WIDE TOOTH COMB! It does not matter if your hair is just 4inches long, use a wide tooth comb to at least detangle your strands first before you smooth it out with a smaller comb. Remember we are trying to retain as many strands of hair as possible! Below is a picture of my wide tooth comb from Walmart. Take a close look at the teeth of the comb, so you know what to look out for when purchasing one.
In Summary, I hope this post has been useful to you. My daily regimen is pretty straight forward and I am usually done in five minutes but I must point out that when I started my hair journey I did not restrict myself to doing this regimen only once a day like I do now, I did this regimen at least twice a day. In the morning and at night( your hair is actively growing at night). So if your hair is damaged like mine was, I encourage you to go through this regimen at least twice a day. Also I would like to point out the fact that I don't believe in sticking to a whole line of products from hair companies.Some people are in a rot with their hair because for instance, they will only use products from Dr Miracle or Kera Care or Profectiv, as you can see from my product line up, I beg to differ. Why? well from the point I made earlier about mineral oil being cheap that's why companies use it, you can see that these companies want to cut costs so they cannot put the best ingredients in ALL their products. So expect that in a product line of 10 products, maybe just 4 of the products are of high quality, now do you want to be stuck with the remaining 6 crappy products? I am sure your answer is NO. So you see, please pick and choose what's best for your hair.
Ill end here but expect my WEEKEND REGIMEN, going through it together with my daily regimen has made my hair a force to reckon with. Your's can be too! Drop a comment ask a question and Ill gladly respond!
Stop By Soon,
Dabs
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