Eventhough you want healthy hair, you just don’t have the time and energy to devote to prepping your hair every morning and night like you see your favourite YouTubers do.
Instead of spending hours on your hair every week, you can simplify your regimen by practicing the following six tips.
1. Build a regimen and space out your hair rituals
You can schedule your deep conditioning treatments over a month-long period so that you don’t have to do every hair treatment known to man in one day. For instance, you can shampoo your hair in the first week, do a hot oil prepoo treatment on week 2, clay wash on week 3 and co-wash on week 4.
A regimen like this gives you a plan which will make wash days predictable and standardized.
2. Stretch out your wash days
Rather than washing your hair weekly, you can wash it every two weeks. This way, you can save yourself a few hours every other weekend to spend on other productive tasks.
To ensure that your hair stays moisturized in between your wash days, you can do a co-wash in between and wear a protective style.
3. Keep your hair protected
Hair that is twisted, flat twisted, braided or cornrowed away doesn’t require as much daily maintenance. This gives you more time spend on other activities.
Also, hair that is in these type of styles holds in moisture longer and requires fewer products and upkeep. All you might need is a light spritz few times a week to help maintain your hair while it’s in a style.
Protective styling is also great for those times when your schedule gets more hectic than normal. Just remember not to neglect your hair.
For more blog posts on protective styling, please read the following posts.
a. Hits and Misses with Protective Styling
b. A Thorough Guide on Protective Styling
c. How to Wash Your Protective Style
4. Keep it Simple
Who needs 50 products and a 10 step wash day system when you can simply stick to a few basic products and practice a simplified wash day system.
Simplified five-step wash day
- Shampoo
- Deep Condition
- Moisturize
- Seal
- Style
In terms of styling, you can stick to simple styles such as twists and braids that lasts longer than a complicated “three strand twist out” or a rod set which only lasts for a few hours.
5. Tune Out
With all the hair tips that are given out there on various social media sites, one can feel guilty by not following the latest hair tips or trying out the latest hair product.
I find that spending less time on hair forums has helped me to really stick to my regimen and eliminate my product junkiness. Think “out of sight, out of mind”.
6. Keep it Short
If all else fails, you can keep your hair in a TWA or in a short afro.
Small afros are small enough to rock a wash and go and long enough to be braided with hair extensions on days you feel like wearing long hair. For motivation on TWAs, please click this link to read about the “10 Advantages of TWAs”