Learning how to take care of my hair has been quite the journey. This mixed-chick texture has made for a series of learning curveballs that took me a solid 23 years to fully understand. To be honest, I didn’t really fully wrap my head around proper haircare until I went to cosmetology school!
Cosmetology school is when I really started to understand the science around maintaining healthy hair despite using hair color and lots of heat. I also figured out the years of what I had been doing WRONG. Overloading my hair with Keratin and Protein/strengthening products, for instance, thinking that would make my weak/brittle ends stronger. I didn’t realize that the over-usage of protein is actually what was causing my ends to snap off like the last piece of a kit-kat bar.
Oh, and let’s not forget how I thought I needed to use an oil-based heat protector on my hair before flat ironing it. What’s it called when you coat something in oil and heat it up? Oh yeah… it’s called deep frying. I deep fried my hair almost every day for 2 years and wondered why it was damaged. I have tried it ALL.
I’ve put my hair through a LOT and it has conversely taken a LOT to grow this thick mane to a healthy place. My own trial and error combined with my years behind the chair have taught me a thing or two about how this hair thing works so today I am sharing some of my favorite hair secrets.
This one is a biggie… if not for your hair health, at least for your own mental health, lol. Like, who wants to deal with blowing out/flat ironing their hair EVERY DAY? Not me. I wash my hair only once a week which is actually great for it because I use less heat every day by just refreshing my style as needed. Plus, the natural oils your scalp produces are great for your hair. If your scalp is really oily, start off by washing only every other day, to eventually every three and gradually build your way up. In between washes, to keep your hair looking, feeling, and smelling clean, a good dry shampoo is a MUST. My favorite dry shampoo these days it the amika Perk Up Dry Shampoo because it smells divine and doesn’t leave an ashy film on my dark roots.
The double-edged sword when it comes to not washing your hair daily and using heat to refresh your style in between is that your ends can get really dry and potentially damaged. In my case, being a natural curly-girl also means that my hair is just dry by nature. So for me, keeping moisture in my hair is a no-joke, serious protocol. I like to use a little bit of serum or sometimes even just coconut oil to keep my ends moisturized… but the trick is to apply oils AFTER you’ve used heat, not prior… trust me, you don’t want to deep fry your ends. That’s a recipe for ends that are crispier than a well-done chicken wing.
Besides washing my hair weekly, I make it a habit to take extra good care of my hair every other wash. So essentially twice a month, I take extra care of my hair by using a mask. I SWEAR by prepping my hair before shampooing with Olaplex Hair Perfector. I just dampen my hair with a spray bottle and massage Olaplex into my midshaft and ends and leave it on my hair for at least 15 minutes. 
Then I shampoo it out and deep condition with an amazing mask. I like to switch it up between hydrating or repairing.
My two go-to masks are the amika Soulfood mask for nourishment or amika’s The Kure mask for repair. Sure, it all sounds high maintenance but for me it’s a weekend habit, every other weekend, that I look at as “me-time” versus a chore. It’s like doing an at-home spa day and I look forward to putting my hair masks on while I do other things! Adopting this habit has made an ENORMOUS difference in my hair and I recommend it to EVERYONE.
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