My Hair routine

My routine varies a bit, but I’ll write down what I usually do...

Current Routine:
I wash my hair in the morning before work and let it dry on the way in to work. If it's a dry morning, it's almost dry by the time I get in (about 2.5 hours from washing until I arrive at my desk), but if it's a wet morning, it can take twice that long. But, I like the feel of just-washed hair when I want to wear it down, so don’t mind this routine. In the winter I might use a blower to dry my scalp before leaving, but since it’s usually not that cold here and my hair is pretty much dry on my scalp when I leave, I rarely have to do that. I wash on Monday and Thursday mornings. Sometimes I will wash on the weekend if I want to wear it down for a date or something, but normally I wash twice a week.

Prior to most washings, I apply a heavy jojoba oiling the night before. I saturate the length below my ears and leave it in overnight. I do a total washing (including the length) to get rid of the oil, but my length feels very moisturized and not the least bit dry. I tried CO washing and didn’t like it at all. Maybe my hair is too fine; don’t know, but CO made it lank and dull.

Washing Routine, done usually twice a week:

1. Deep jojoba application the night before washing
2. Wash all of hair, then rinse thoroughly
3. Apply white vinegar rinse*, then rinse thoroughly
4. Apply conditioner and put on shower cap to keep conditioner in hair for at least 5 minutes, then rinse. I usually let the shower water hit the shower cap to give myself a “heat treatment” in the shower.

*Vinegar Rinse: I keep a large plastic cup in my shower; it probably holds about a quart of water. I also keep a big jug of white vinegar in my shower. I usually add about ¼ cup of vinegar to the container of water and then pour over my hair. It makes my hair shiny and I use it every time I wash.

If I don’t have a lot of oil in my hair, I always do a CWC (condition/wash/condition). Sometimes I’ll forget to add the jojoba the night before, or my hair just doesn’t seem to need it, so I’ll do a CWC the next wash.

Towel Drying: While in the shower and after the water has been turned off, I twist my hair enough to get out the dripping water. I then wrap my hair into a towel and get out of the shower. After about 5 minutes, I take off the towel, reverse it and put it back on (so that the dry part of it is where the wet part used to be). After about 5 more minutes, I take the towel off and add Back to Basics Detangler, Leave-In Conditioning and Detangling Spray and then comb out with a wide-tooth seamless comb. My hair doesn't tangle a lot, but the detangling spray makes the comb really glide through.

Additional Leave-Ins: After I comb my hair out, I always add a bit (enough to barely coat both of my hands) of jojoba to the length. Then, when my hair is almost dry, I spritz the length with some of the mix I keep in a 4-ounce blue glass bottle (4 ounces distilled water mixed with 15 drops of Aura Cacia grapefruit essential oil). The detangler, jojoba and grapefruit EO mix are the only leave-ins I use currently. In the past I've used one of several leave-ins that I like on top of the jojoba, depending on what I wanted to do with my hair. If I was going to plop and/or scrunch I add Jessicurls Rockin’ Ringlets or another product to help my waves form. With my current length of 36" I don't plop anymore since the waves don't form very well with all the weight of my hair.

Regular Drying: After adding the leave-ins, I air dry. I don’t comb or brush my hair while it’s drying, though I might turn my head upside down and shake it around to get more air in between the hair to speed up the process (and give me a bit more “oomph”.) It usually takes my hair around 3 hours to dry if I’m up and moving around.

Plopping: I don't currently plop or use a hair dryer at all, but when my hair was shorter and I wanted more waves, I plopped and scrunched. After adding the products I like, I plopped into a large aquis type towel I got from LisaJaney, and left it up for 15 to 30 minutes if I was doing it in the morning before work, or longer if I had time. Once I took the towel down I’d either air-dry or use my dryer with a diffuser on warm (never hot) air. Using the diffuser gave me nicer and more prominent waves, but I don’t like using the dryer. I used do that for special occasions when my hair was shorter.

Combing and Brushing: After air drying, I comb my hair with a wide tooth comb when it’s completely dry. I occasionally use a brush during the day with plastic teeth that are placed far apart from each other and are soft and have a lot of give to them. It’s almost like a comb only it’s got more than one row and the teeth aren’t rigid. It’s hard to explain. It was inexpensive. If I wear my hair down, I will brush my hair every once in awhile, so I do brush, but I use a comb probably 95% of the time on the length. I use a BBB when I oil my hair with jojoba the night before washing to make sure it’s distributed all throughout my hair. I mainly use a brush right before taking a shower to "scritch" my scalp and pull out any loose hair and for styling purposes. Other than that- the longer my hair gets, the more it seems to prefer being combed.

After combing out my hair after it dries, I always spritz the length with the grapefruit water mix and sort of scrunch the ends a bit. It makes my waves come out more and my hair really seems to love the grapefruit EO. It is also wonderful on the days I don't wash because it puts the little waves back in my length again each morning and takes away any "bed head" creases or bends. It also seems to help keep my hair conditioned and "moisturized" (though I am sure that it not technically what it does).

Products:
My current favorite shampoos and conditioners:
- Aveda Color Conserve shampoo and conditioner
- Aveda Sap Moss shampoo and conditioner
- Catwalk Oatmeal and Honey shampoo and conditioner
- Big Sexy Hair shampoo and condioner (in red bottle - tacky packaging, but it makes my hair feel "full")

Favorite Leave-Ins:
- Jojoba oil
- Back to Basics Detangler, Leave-In Conditioning and Detangling Spray
- Mix of distilled water and Aura Cacia grapefruit essential oil

Others I have used and liked (but are not currently in my rotation):
- Neutrogena Triple Moisture shampoo and conditioner
- Paul Mitchell Shampoo and several of his conditioners
- Aubrey Organics GPB shampoo and conditioner though Aubrey's stuff has been making my ends look dry lately

I generally like to steer clear of SLS’s, but not because they irritate my hair or scalp. I just think the jury is out on their safety. Though, sometimes I find a product that contains sodium laureth sulfate that I like a lot...

I don’t have a problem with a few silicones and can take or leave them it seems.

Heat Treatments: I like to do a deep heat treatment once a month. I usually use a Kiehl’s product, but the last time I used it, it didn’t work like it used to. I wonder if it’s because of the different water at my new house? I’ll test it again and see.

Hair Toys: I can’t use metal barrettes. I used to use them for lots of half-updos, but discovered they were severing some of my hairs. I could see a line of shorter hairs where I wore them. I switched to all plastic barrettes, safe metal ones or hair slides.

Sleeping: I wear my hair down and sleep on a silk pillowcase. Since I have down pillows, it’s like sleeping on a cloud. I prefer silk to satin, but they are unfortunately more expensive.

Growing Out My Perm: It's been asked how I dealt with growing out my nasty perm of years and years. The main thing I discovered first was using jojoba. Immediately my hair seemed to get more pliable and happier. The next thing was washing less. Until I found the hair boards, I washed and blew my hair dry EVERY SINGLE DAY. And I used industrial strength shampoo and no leave-ins. So, once I started treating my hair better, it just slowly improved. But, I hated the half-straight half-permed look and until about a year ago, blew my hair dry when I washed my hair. I think that might have damaged the top layer (canopy) of my hair a bit and one of the reasons why I had to get good trim last week. Even though I washed my hair less frequently, I was still blowing it dry. I never used hot air, but I still think the brushing it straight as I held the warm air on it was hard on it.

Of course, all during the growing out of my perm, I’d get trims to rid myself of it slowly but surely. While I saw others on the boards letting their hair just grow and grow, I had to constantly trim mine because it looked fried. I’ve always been one to prefer quality over quantity. It’s why I had my recent trim. But now my perm is ALL GONE. I took 3 years, but I’m pretty happy with my hair right now.

I hope this is helpful in some way. My "routine" is quite simple I think and I don't really obsess about my hair. I've been interested in trying some of the herbs some of the folks are using in cleaning their hair, but my color is too light (some of the herbs darken hair) and right now I just don't have the time for much kitchen witchery... but maybe sometime soon!