Aesthetic Hair Care: What It Is and How to Do it
Aesthetic hair care is all about focusing on implementing hair routines that make your hair visually more attractive.
For a healthy hair aesthetic, you need to use certain hair products, techniques, and routines that enhance your hair’s appearance. For example, making it shinier, smoother, or more manageable. The approach combines both beauty and hair care so that your hair is healthy and looks great too.
It’s those practices that keep your hair healthy while making it look polished and beautiful when styled.
The goal of achieving hair that’s aesthetically pleasing is to create a hair care regimen that consists of routines that balance maintaining your hair’s health with its overall appearance.
In this article I share some daily hair care practices, weekly treatments, and styling tips to help you elevate the appearance of your hair so you get that polished aesthetic you’re looking for.
Now, because this is a natural hair blog I will share tips specifically for caring for natural hair / curly hair. That doesn’t mean that if you have straight hair, you won’t gain anything from reading. So read on.
Daily Hair Care: The Essentials of a Great Foundation
Consistency in daily hair care practices is key to keeping your hair looking its best day-to-day.
Here are some simple but effective daily habits to enhance the beauty of your hair:
- Scalp massages
- Moisturizing
- Adding light oils to enhance the natural sheen of your hair
Moisture and Shine
Hydrated hair always looks better. Use a lightweight leave-in conditioner or hair oil each day (or every few days) to maintain moisture levels and give your hair a healthy, natural shine.
Avoid products that leave buildup or make your hair appear greasy. Instead, look for oils like argan or jojoba that absorb quickly and add a beautiful shine without that heavy build-up.
Gentle Detangling
Tangles and knots can lead to breakage and frizz, making hair appear dull.
For those of us with natural hair, detangling should typically occur on wash day when your hair is loaded with conditioner. You’d use a wide-tooth comb or a detangling brush, starting from the ends and working your way up. This reduces breakage and keeps the hair cuticles smooth.
Protect Your Hair at Night
Nothing ruins a beautiful head of hair like frizz.
Protecting your hair at night with satin or silk in the form of a bonnet or scarf, or at least sleeping on a satin or silk pillowcase can improve your hair’s appearance at night.
Is right twice a day These fabrics reduce friction, helping your hair retain its moisture and smoothness overnight. This means less frizz and fewer tangles to deal with in the morning.
Deep Conditioning & Protein Treating
Don’t underestimate the power of deep conditioning. It is essential for keeping your hair soft and manageable.
The same goes for strengthening or protein treatments. If you’re experiencing dry hair, you want to use a deep conditioner that’s moisture-focused.
If your hair is breaking, you need to do a protein treatment and balance that treatment out with moisture.
Aesthetic hair care also involves keeping a good balance between moisture and strength.
Clarify Regularly
Now, regularly may be different for each person depending on how much styling product you use daily.
If your hair starts to look dull or weighed down, it’s likely you have product buildup. Doing a clarifying rinse can remove buildup and restore shine.
You can also use a clarifying shampoo or an apple cider vinegar rinse to remove buildup. This will restore your hair’s natural shine and make styling more effective.
Scalp Care
For aesthetic hair care, don’t overlook the scalp. A healthy scalp is the foundation for beautiful-looking hair.
Be sure to Incorporate scalp exfoliation and massages into your hair regimen.
Use a scalp scrub or massage once a week. This will remove dead skin cells and promote circulation leading to healthy hair growth.
Polishing Your Look When Styling
The way you style your hair directly impacts how it looks. Aesthetic styling is about enhancing your hair’s natural beauty with mindful techniques that minimize the risk of damage.
This includes how you heat style (more details below), ditching harmful brushes, & combs, and just as important, how you finish off a style.
Every style is a bit more aesthetically pleasing with a little bit of shine or “polish.”
Protective Styling
On days when you don’t want to manipulate your hair too much, consider protective styles like braids, buns, or twists. These styles not only shield your hair from damage but also give it a neat appearance.
Plus, protective styles can last for several days while still looking neat, giving you a break from daily styling.
Use Caution When Heat Styling
When using heat styling tools like flat irons or curling wands, always use a heat protectant to prevent heat damage. Keep the heat seating from medium to low heat. There’s no need for bone straight hair.
While heat styling can enhance the aesthetics of your hair, giving it a sleek and smooth finish, it does have its drawbacks. So, proceed with caution.
Straightening natural hair (especially fine natural hair) can kill its volume and potentially damage the texture. So don’t overuse heat and finish off your heat styling sessions with a lightweight product that enhances shine
Use Less Hair Product
For those of us with natural hair, we’ve been conditioned to use a lot of product. While they may be beneficial when conditioning our hair, it’s certainly not going to help the aesthetic when styling.
So, to avoid weighed-down, greasy-looking hair, keep your styling products light. Go for mousses, light-holding gels, and other products with a flexible hold. For extra shine, finish with a shine mist of glossy spray. I like this one from Carol’s Daughter.
Give Your Hair Some Self Care With Pampering Routines
Self-care for your hair is about giving it the extra attention needed to keep it looking fabulous. It’s giving your hair a spa day.
In this article, I share 10 ways to give yourself a hair spa day, It includes pampering hair routines like:
Get or Do Regular Trims
For a good, healthy hair aesthetic, keep split ends at bay by getting regular trims or doing trims at home if you know what you’re doing.
There is a silly recommendation of trimming your hair every 6 to 8 weeks, but that’s ridiculous if you’re trying to maintain any type of length. So, trim your hair as needed.
If you find your detangling sessions are a little bit longer, trim. If your ends feel rough, trim.
Lastly, if your styles just don’t look as good as they normally would, a trim may be an order
Black Curly Hair Aesthetic
When it comes to hair aesthetic, black women can rock hairstyles that those with straight hair can’t. Well, they can. They just won’t look as nice. That’s just my opinion. It’s about the texture and curl of the hair that brings it all together.
As a black woman with curly hair, I like to do hairstyles that play up my personality while not being overly manipulative to my fine strands.
Here are some looks that are cute, simplistic, and or protective. Only one style was done on my straightened hair and it was all about protection. The aesthetic? A sleek protective look for commuting – when arriving at the destination, straight hair with curled ends.
This was all about the health of my hair.
To wrap it up, aesthetic hair care is about more than just sporting a gorgeous hairstyle. It’s just most important to focus on the health of your hair. It’s about creating and following routines to enhance the look, feel, and style of your hair every day.
By doing a few simple daily habits, weekly treatments, and mindful styling techniques, your hair can look its best, reflecting both beauty and health. Of course, it’s not without effort but putting forth the effort is worth it.
