Regimen Changes

Hey there,

Now that fall is officially here, I can comment and honestly say that this was a great summer for my hair. I learned a lot, experimented and I think I have found a way of managing my hair that will give me consistent, reliable results that isn't so time consuming that it is unsustainable. I am currently in the process of applying for a few post-baccalaureate programs, so next fall I may be back to school. This has me seriously considering my regimen and the time I devote to my hair, and how much of this I can realistically keep up with when my schedule becomes more hectic. Rather than wait until that occurs, I've decided to start making some adjustments while I still have the time to alter techniques if necessary. So here are a few of the things that I have either added or re-instituted into my regimen while making adjustments:

Combing - I stopped using combs for probably about 6 months at some point during the last year. While not combing certainly reduced the amount of breakage I encountered on a daily basis, my detangling sessions were taking entirely too long and I would become either frustrated or tired. I opted to reintroduce combing about 2 months ago with the arrival of my seamless combs (thanks to Ebony of L4L for the idea :). I have to admit, seamless combs changed all of the expectations I had of combs prior to use. Although I only comb damp hair on wash and co-wash days, regular combing has seriously decreased my detangling burden and keeps my hair smooth and managable throughout the week. #winning.

Flexi-rods - These rollers truly are bananas. They make my ends as smooth as magnetic rollers, for a similar length of time with about 25% of the work. I'm not really sure if that can be beat. I find that my ends remain smoother for a few days at a time so I experience less dryness, breakage and way fewer tangles. Flexi-rods will certainly be a new staple in my regimen.

Silicone - I'm going to be honest, my hair and silicone have always gotten along well, it's really my scalp and silicone that can't seem to see eye-to-eye. Even since the beginning of my hair journey, I opted to keep my silicone-containing deep conditioners because they aid in detangling, as well as my leave-ins because they aid in moisture retention. However, I kicked silicone out of my daily routine because I didn't want to have to use sulfate shampoos more than once or twice a month. Recently, I added a daily moisturizer that contains dimethicone (gasp! lol), Mizani Butter Rich Deep Nourishing Hairdress, it works fantastically. It keeps my hair smooth, and moist for the entire day all while smelling simply delicious. I just have to be sure to clarify more frequently now.

Less Shampooing - Let me just say, this isn't completely by choice. I've always shampooed my hair twice a week because my scalp is oily, I work out often and my scalp gets pretty irritated when left dirty for extended periods of time. However, since my wash days take so long now (pre-poo, detangle, shampoo, DC, detangle, air-dry/style...), I will absolutely not have the time to do my second wash during the week. I have decided to co-wash twice a week and do my full wash day routine (including shampoo) once a week. This is a fairly new addition and I am still evaluating how my hair and scalp feel about this. I have to co-wash more often because my scalp has never gotten completely clean from co-washing, but at least its a much shorter process.

These are just a few ways in which I am cutting back on the more time consuming parts of my regimen; less time spent styling due to more co-washing and flexi-rod use, more combing fewer marathon detangling sessions and smoother hair and silicone is well, awesome, when used moderately lol.

Thanks for reading :),