How to Develop The Perfect Hair Regimen (5 tips)
Last updated on May 27th, 2023 at 01:51 pm
Do you want to develop a hair regimen that works for you without it being too complicated?
There’s such an over saturation of information around that it can be difficult to know where to begin. This is especially true if you are just beginning to embrace your natural hair.
How you cared for your hair in a chemically processed state will be very different from how you care for your hair in its natural state.
If you didn’t have a particular hair regimen you followed back then, you’ll certainly need to follow one now because, let’s face it – natural hair care isn’t easy!
Before you read the five tips I have for you to develop your perfect hair regimen, here are some additional resources to help in your journey:
Let’s Develop A Hair Regimen!
Know Your Porosity
More than anything else in this world when it comes to developing the perfect hair regimen (the one that works for your hair), you need to know your hair’s porosity.
Knowing your porosity levels (and sometimes you may have more than one porosity on your head) will help you determine two things:
- the methods and routines that work best for your hair (ex: moisturizing low porosity hair)
- the products that will work best in your regimen
When it comes to porosity, here are the scaled down facts:
Low porosity hair is hair that has a tight layer of cuticles making it difficult for moisture to penetrate the hair strand.
High porosity hair is hair that is basically the opposite of low porosity hair. The cuticles are raised and moisture easily escapes the hair strand.
Medium porosity hair is balanced hair that holds onto moisture more effectively.
Simply Organic Beauty does a great job of explaining it all in detail. You’ll also find tips on how to determine your hair’s porosity here.
Figure out which porosity level your hair is (or combination) and you are well on your way to developing the perfect hair regimen.
Know Your Hair Type
Forget about the hair typing system for a moment. There’s 4 main hair types:
- Straight
- Wavy
- Curly
- Kinky
Within those hair types is where you’ll find the sub-types that make up hair typing system by Andre Walker.
There’s much debate about the usefulness of the hair typing system. Yet, what it is useful for is helping you to find others with a similar hair type so that you can scale down the types of hair styles and products that can be useful for your hair.
Identify Your Hair’s Needs
Just like there is no one head of hair that’s identical on the planet, there’s no set of hair needs that are identical.
We each have our vice when it comes to our hair. Sometimes our concerns are the same but how we remedy them definitely varies.
That’s why it’s important to find out what it is that your hair needs and not just what you think it needs based on a similar problem one of your fellow naturals has.
Be Selective With Product Choices
Choose a minimal range of hair products in each of the following categories you can use in rotation:
– Cleansers
– Conditioners
– Strengtheners
– Stylers
You don’t want your hair to overwhelm your product stash or you won’t be able to easily identify what works best for your hair.
You may notice that I didn’t list sealants or oils, pre-poos or other specialty products. That’s because depending on your hair’s porosity and type, they may be optional. At the very least, they are subject to your specific hair’s needs.
But if you do need to use a sealant, here are: the best sealants for natural hair.
Style with Simplicity
Trying any and every style in your hair can lead to over manipulation. Keep it simple.
That’s not to say you can never change up your style but it’s best to just
do so on occasion. If you have a special event to attend, feel feee to step outside of your routine hair styles.
Using my own styling regimen as an example, I typically do wash and gos in the summer and twist that turn into the occasional twist out in the winter.
Toward the end of the week, just before wash day those styles go up into a bun of some sort. There is very little manipulation I put my fine natural hair through.
Then, when I have a special event or party to attend (example: a wedding), I will do a Curlformers / Waveforms set or other hair style which requires a bit more manipulation to create.
Developing a hair regimen that’s perfect for you is based on a number of factors: Porosity, hair type, hair needs, products choice and styling simply.
Spend time familiarizing yourself with your hair and you’ll be able to develop YOUR perfect hair regimen.
