Keeping your hair well-coiffed can be an expensive endeavor for most women — especially if you’re newly out of school, or still in the middle of it. The truth is, these relatively frugal times translate into a new appreciation for your natural hair, since you have to take a break from pampering it with expensive solutions every so often.
The general rule involves scaling back your use of products, and investing in smaller amounts of greener organics that promote the long-term health of your hair and body. You will find that you can use these products conservatively, save time on hair care (not much time, though), and still keep your natural hair in tip-top shape. Let’s get into more targeted details of the steps you can take to keep your natural hair full and beautiful.
Grab Plenty of the Essentials for Hair Care
This, basically, means to make sure you’ve got a stash of the basics for the hair of any woman. This encompasses sealing oil from a reputable manufacturer, deep cleansing shampoo, and an effective brand of deep protein shampoo. Before bills became a reality after you left your parent’s house, it was easy to have 4-5 different types of shampoo — especially since you shared them with mom. Fact is, you only really need one kind; especially if it’s an effective kind that doesn’t weigh your hair down. Gone are the two dozen steps in your old process of making your hair shimmer; also gone are the days of multiple types of shampoo. Try this on for size and appreciate the difference and time saved.
Skip the Salon and Do It at Home
Obviously this doesn’t mean you can never set foot in a salon again! It just means to do it sparingly, because there is a viable alternative. By getting into the habit of doing it yourself, you will get better and better at it — as well as save tons of money. As a newfound naturalista where hair care is concerned, it’s in your best interest to learn how to make a deep conditioner solution at home. In fact, we’ll get you off to a good start:
- Find a 100ml spray bottle and fill half of it with water
- Pick out your go-to deep conditioner and drop a teaspoonful inside the spray bottle
- Also put a teaspoonful of glycerin in the bottle
- Lastly, drop an additional teaspoonful of rosewater in and close the top of the spray bottle tightly.
Now shake it up vigorously to get the ingredients to mix and your leave-in-conditioner is ready for the work ahead. If you want to avoid the artificial stuff altogether, then use avocado oil, sunflower oil, olive oil, sesame oil or coconut oil and substitute these for the spray bottle concoction.
Keep It Simple – The Basics Rule
Ultimately, once you realize that the primary goal of any hair care regimen is to make sure your delicate strands are moisturized. Obviously, there are ancillary or additional goals, too — such as rendering an especially cute hairstyle. But to maintain the sanctity of your locks, you have to protect them from breakage, which is the point of moisturization. If nothing else, water will do the job if you do it right. After all, what did women of the distant past do to maintain their locks? Exactly — cleansed them, moisturized them and sealed them for perfection.
Product recommendations:
Minimize the Occurrences of Natural Haircare
Not only does this obviously give your hair a break, but it gives you one, too. Try to deep condition only once per week,; you can implement both a 7-day cycle and a 10-day cycle in-between deep conditions. Not only do you save on product, you save a lot of time and energy. By giving your hair a break, you prolong the lifetimes of individual strands.
When you consider that the average cost of a capable bottle of deep conditioner is around $50, using it sparingly saves you a lot of money. In fact, you can even alternate between the higher-end brands, and a low-end cheap one — as long as you periodically freshen your hair up with the good stuff several times a month. One week on, one week off seems to be a good general rule.
Consider Your Local Vendors
Never forget that everyone’s trying to sell to you — women’s hair care is, after all, a billion-dollar business. From Kenyan brands to others, see if you can find them at your local hair shop instead of a department store. You won’t have to deal so much with the latter’s overhead, and you still get adequate hair care. Hopefully all of this newfound naturalista stuff takes root, and you enjoy your new routine and see the promised results.
