Top 10 Rules of Disciplined Hair Care
Hair care is a bit of science, a bit skill, and a bit of trial and error. Sometimes it’s easy to be all over the place with no real focus when it comes to maintaining our crowns. That’s why we need some “rules” to help us with building an organized hair care routine.
So, what I’d like to do is give you 10 “rules” for disciplined hair care. These are things you can implement over time and make into habits. I’ve discovered how effective these are over the years—some I’m still working on.
The goal is to help you to become more disciplined with your natural hair care routines which build up the totality of your hair regimen. Work on things gradually so that eventually you can just enjoy your God given hair – fine or not.
10) Spend 5-10 Minutes each day giving your hair what it needs
That could be giving your delicate strands an infusion of moisture or just making sure tangles and knots haven’t taken over (aka you likely need an infusion of moisture).
9) Put your products away
If you’re anything like me, you dig into multiple products at a time in order to tame your mane: Moisturizers, oils, gels, and the like. If you’re in a hurry, you may leave these products lying around with shed hairs in them.
But your hair care product stash shouldn’t become another source of stress. Organizing your hair products doesn’t have to mean having a Pinterest-cute setup with matching containers and perfectly labeled shelves. It just needs to make sense for you.
Keep the products you use most often somewhere that’s easy to reach. Then, group similar products together if that helps you find what you need.
Moisturizers can go in one area, stylers in another, treatments somewhere else. Your hair product storage can be as simple as baskets, bins, drawers, or a shelf. The goal is to know what you have and where to find it.
This can also help you avoid buying products you already own simply because they disappeared into the back of a cabinet. And when your products are easy to see and access, your actual hair care routine becomes easier too.
At the end of the day, take a minute to clean off any messy lids, remove stray shed hairs that may have found their way into your products, close everything properly, and put it back where it belongs.
Your hair care organization doesn’t need to be pretty. It needs to be practical to make sure everything has a place, and it’s in its place. You can pretty it up if you want later.
And, if you want to really be on top of your products and even have a smart tracker tell you what products to reach for next, check out the Hair Product Inventory and Rotation Dashboard.
8) Refresh or neaten up your hair every morning
This may seem like common sense, but sometimes even if you tie your hair down (or up) before bed, there are certain hairs that just need refreshing. Taming flyaways and frizzy areas can refresh a style nicely so you won’t need to wash your hair from scratch.
A little edge control can help neaten up a style when you want to look a bit more polished. A neat head of hair can make a huge impact on how you view yourself on a given day.
What tips on how to train your curls? Read this: Train Your Natural Curls: Make Them Behave
7) Attend to your hair every night
What you do to your hair before bed matters. You don’t need a long or complicated night hair care routine, but you do want to take a few minutes to protect your hair before you go to sleep.
Start by paying attention to what your hair needs. If it feels dry, that may mean adding a small amount of moisturizer followed by sealing your ends with a light oil.
Then, think about how you’re going to protect your hair while sleeping. The goal is to reduce friction and keep your hair from rubbing against your pillowcase and sheets all night (especially if they aren’t silk or satin).
Depending on your hairstyle, that may mean loosely putting up curls into a pineapple, wrapping it in a satin scarf, or wearing a bonnet.
Your nighttime hairstyle should protect your hair without putting unnecessary tension on your strands or edges. Avoid securing your hair too tightly just to keep it perfectly in place. You’re trying to protect your hair while you sleep, not create another source of breakage.
This is also a good time to check your ends. They’re the oldest and most fragile part of your hair, so make sure they aren’t left exposed to unnecessary friction.
A few minutes of attention at night can also make your morning hair routine easier. Instead of waking up to tangled, dry, or flattened hair that requires a lot of manipulation, you’ve already done some of the work the night before.
The point isn’t to have a perfect hair routine every night. It’s to make protecting your hair before bed a habit.
Lastly, consider doing scalp massages a few times a week to increase blood flow to the scalp. This can help with stimulating hair growth.
6) Have an Easy Go to Style
Let’s face it. Sometimes you don’t feel like spending a bunch of time doing your hair. As long as it’s cleaned and well conditioned, who cares if it’s the wash and go of the decade or frizz-free and popping with juicy curls.
Having a go-to style that’s quick and easy will help you to be more disciplined with maintaining your hair. For me, that’s a nice neat bun or two cornrows. I can easily tie these hairstyles down at night and not have to do much else to maintain them for a couple of days. Plus, they are great when you’re looking to do protective styling or low manipulation styling.
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5) Keep your scalp clean at all times
Even if you’re not looking to grow long hair, you want to have a healthy scalp, and a healthy scalp starts with it first being a clean scalp. This is a major thing to pay attention to for disciplined hair. It starts with your scalp.
If you massage your scalp with oil or use a lot of hair products on a regular basis, you will likely get buildup on the scalp that needs to be cleansed away so that it can breathe.
Related article: The Benefits of Scalp Exfoliation for a Clean Scalp
4) Do less
Over the last couple of years, minimalism in virtually every aspect of life has definitely become a trend. And while I’m not one that is content with just 3 or 4 hair products at my disposal, I have definitely managed to substantially cut down on the number of hair products I use. I even do less in the form of hair styling.
I remember when I first went natural. I wanted to try nearly every hair tutorial I came across. I also wanted to try every hair product that promised a big reward. Fast forward to today, and I know what my hair likes, and I know what styles it looks best in.
This is critical for fine natural hair because if you do less stuff to your hair, that means less manipulation and more savings for your wallet too. You will be able to appreciate seeing your hair flourish in its own lane.
Now that’s one of the rules for disciplined hair that I can stand by. Who doesn’t want to save money while saving strands?!
3) Know When to DIY
DIY hair products and hair practices are increasingly popular as people seek to take ownership of their own hair care. This is a great thing because nobody will care for your hair as carefully as you. However, there’s a time to know when to seek the help of a professional. It doesn’t have to be a regular occurrence either.
For example, if you are not confident creating your own hair products or you are uncomfortable trimming your own hair, invest in good quality natural hair care products (they have good, clean ingredients) or seek out a stylist whom you’ve vetted to help you out. Can I get an amen?
2) Evolve and Change
A whole year is a significant span of time. Our lives change, our hair changes, and of course, the seasons change! (At least where I live in NY). You best believe your hair routine will change too! What makes sense for how to treat your hair in the winter may not make sense in the summer. Heavy butters on a hot day, anyone?
Bottom line, let your hair care routine evolve and change to match your hair’s needs as well as any unique circumstances that may arise. This will help you organize your hair care in a flexible way.
1) Attend to Hair Problems Immediately
While you don’t have to run and grab the scissors at the first sign of a split end, there are other hair issues that you most certainly need to attend to right away. At the top of the charts is hair breakage.
Allowing your hair to break without giving attention to doing a protein treatment and deep conditioning right away can significantly affect your length retention.
On a smaller scale, if you notice your hair looking limp and lifeless, weighed down by product, wash it and reset it.
Attending to any hair problems that arise right away helps you to not only build discipline with your hair care. You can easily avoid bigger problems down the line.
That’s it for the top 10 rules for disciplined hair that will help you organize your hair care.
Watch this complimentary video,
The Express Guide to Healthy Fine Natural Hair:
