2013 Hair growth challenge - Building your regimen

The first thing to do when starting a healthy hair journey is to build your regimen. There is so much information out there and a lot of them conflicting. Some people use mineral oil, some people don't. Some people owe their long locks to their use of only natural products, others claim that their use of silicones and other unnatural products ease the detangling process and help them retain length.  You really can't tell what will work for you until you try it. So today, we will sort through all this information and come up with a jumping off point from which to start determining what works for our hair and what doesn't.

First off, every good regimen should have the following elements:

- Cleaning
- Conditioning
- Styling/grooming
- Protecting
- Altering (optional)

Cleaning:

Having a clean scalp is necessary for optimal hair growth. However shampoos can be drying. To avoid drying out and tangling your hair, focus on your scalp when washing. Don't worry about your hair, when you rinse out the shampoo from your scalp it will run down the length of your hair and clean your hair too.

What to look for in a shampoo:
- Avoid shampoos labelled as volumizing as they tend to strip your hair of moisture
- Look for shampoos that promote moisture, hydration or claim to maintain/define curls
- Avoid shampoos that contain multiple sulphates

Some products to try:
Elasta qp creme conditioning shampoo
Design essentials moisture retention conditioning shampoo
Motions lavish conditioning shampoo
Keracare hydrating detangling shampoo
Creme of nature detangling conditioning shampoo

Conditioning:

Conditioning your hair helps keep moisture inside your cuticle, coats your hair to smoothen it and makes it easier to detangle. In some cases it repairs and temporarily fills in holes and gaps caused by chemical damage or daily wear. Conditioners can be classified as either moisturizing i.e. they help retain moisture in your hair or Protein enriched i.e. they help repair damaged hair and strengthen weakened strands. Protein conditioners are especially recommended if you have chemically treated hair.

What to look for in a moisturizing conditioner:
Look for conditioners that contain water, fats ( cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, and myristyl alcohol) and humectants (glycerin, propylene glycol, sodium lactate, sodium PCA)

Some products to try:

Kenra Moisturizing Conditioner 
Elucence Moisture Benefits conditioner 
Creme of Nature Nourishing Conditioner
Herbal Essences Replenishing conditioner
Dove Intense Moisture Conditioner
KeraCare Humecto Conditioner
Infusium Moisturizing conditioner.

Some moisturizing conditioners

What to look for in a protein conditioner:
Look for products that have amino acid, silk, collagen, keratin. Protein treatments can make your hair hard so always follow with a moisturizing treatment.

Some protein conditioners to try:
Organics Hair Mayonnaise Treatment for Damaged Hair 
Aphogee Keratin 2 Minute Reconstructor 
Affirm 5 in 1 Reconstructor 
Creme Of Nature Conditioning Reconstructor 
Organic Root Stimulator Hair Mayaonnaise 

Some mild protein treatments

Leave ins, daily moisturizing and conditioning:
 Use these to tide you over and keep your hair moisturized until your next wash. If your style allows it moisturize your hair by spritzing water or any water based leave in like infusium 23, Neutrogena triple moisture silk touch or any other leave in available to you then seal in the moisture by applying some oil to the ends of your hair.

Styling/Grooming:

- As much as possible, avoid using heat in your hair. Opt for heat free styles.
- For a sleek look, instead of blow drying and flat ironing, opt to roller set, dry slowly under a hooded dryer and then wrap (doobie)
- Rather than blow drying with heat, opt to air dry or blow dry on cool
- Rather than combing opt to finger comb when possible (combing=breakage and you really don't have to comb every day. Discussion for another day:)
- As much as possible, opt for low manipulation protective styles e.g cornrows, braids, wigs, sew in weaves etc

Protecting:

Always tie your hair up at night with a silk or satin scarf. If you are one of those who  wake up and find your scarf on the other side of the bed, you can get silk/satin pillow cases instead.

Altering (Chemical processing with a relaxer)

Natural hair is healthier than relaxed hair. However,  use the following guidelines to maintain healthy hair even when chemically processed:

- Don't relax your hair too frequently
- Don't relax your hair bone straight. Relax your hair to loosen the curl but not to get it bone straight. This is called 'texlaxing'. Your hair should still have a lot of texture to it when air dried. You can however still get it silky straight by roller setting or flat ironing. Texlaxing helps you maintain healthy hair despite having it chemically treated.

My texlaxed hair.

I plan to transition to a more textured look. Like this:

Jenny from www.justgrowalready.com

- Stretch your relaxer only if you are protective styling. If you are manipulating your hair daily while stretching you will cause breakage at the line of demarcation where your relaxed hair and new growth meet
- Depending on the rate of hair growth, aim to relax no frequently than every 2 months
- Do a protein treatment several days before and after relaxing to repair your hair and remember to use a moisturizing conditioner afterwards.

These are just guidelines. If you have difficulty finding products that you want, you may be able to work with the products that are available locally. Just check the ingredients in the products and check online for reviews so you can make an informed decision. Bear in mind that good ingredients and good reviews do not guarantee that a product will work for you so you have to monitor your hair to be sure that the products and techniques you are using are working and make necessary changes if they aren't.

If you happen to be in lagos, you can check out casabella at the palms and yinka bodyline on awolowo road (ikoyi), they both have a good selection of hair products.

If you have had a good experience with a product that I haven't mentioned please share in the comment section. Let me know if you have any questions!

xoxo
B

Edited to add:
Blacksoap has been suggested as a good alternative to a sulphate free shampoo. It is gentle, sulphate free and readily available. Here is a post on how to make your own black soap shampoo:
http://datfunkyfro.blogspot.ca/2011/02/liquid-black-soap-moisturizing-shampoo.html