Hair care!

MY HAIR CARE ROUTINE ( 7 days of no washing or products)
&
How to train your hair to not depend on shampoo and conditioner!
 

 I remember in high school and even years after saying "why can't my hair just be shiny, flat and pretty?" I would like to describe my hair as thick strands like a horse, very wavy and huge, and I've always thought it was so unmanageable. No matter how many or what type of products I would use, it would always take me (not kidding) 2-3 hours to get it to a manageable point and even then I couldn't stop trying to fix it every second. Not to mention if it got wet or humid even a little, my hair would frizz up like a fluffy poodle. It wasn't until I decided to embrace my big waves and stop relying on what I thought was the "perfect" products that I started actually loving my hair. It took some time to figure it all out but it was all worth it. 
 

How do you even start training your hair not to rely on all these products that your hair has depended on for all these years? Well I believe it all really all has to do with picking up these habits.

-Comb out frequently! For those with crazy curls or big waves like mine, you know its hard to do that and present ourselves to society. So take 2-5 minutes every other night before bed to really comb from roots to end to distribute the oils. Our hair pretty much produces a natural conditioner and keeping the flow is important. We don't want any clogged pores. 
- Do not over-condition y'all! In saying that our own natural oils are its own conditioner, using conditioner just doubles up that grease. So if you do want to do a longer time without washing your hair, I would skip the conditioner or do about 1/2 of what you normally do. In training your hair, eventually we want to not rely on conditioner since our bodies do the same thing except better!
-Manage that mid way awkward stage- So about 3 or 4 days in, my hair gets weird. A bit greasy, and the curls (or if I wear it straight) seems stale and hard to manage. At this point there a few roads to take:
1. The Stevie road. Before my shower, I comb it REALLY well and hop in the shower! This makes it easy for the oil to distribute and then wash away. Afterward, my hair does this shiny curl thing that I absolutely love! You can also make a simple fragrance mist with essential oils diluted in water to make it smell nice.
2. The apple cider vinegar rinse.  I used to use this as conditioner but found a new wash, but I hear a lot of people use this as a nice mid way gentle clean! 
-Embrace an updo or hair accessories sometimes! I can wear my hair down about 3 or 4 days out of the entire 7. With that being said, I really like undo's and I don't mind wearing hats ( I have a greek fisherman hat that makes me feel like a bad ass lol) . Down in a low bun with twists, or braids, high pony tail, messy high bun. All of that can disguise those days where you can't quite manage your hair. Sometimes it feels too greasy, sometimes it gets stiff and I always find that these choices really refresh everything.

I documented 7 days just to show you what I did with my hair!
 

DAY 1

Day 2. To be honest I just woke up and did nothing to it that day, haha. It was a bit too poofy for my liking but when I lightly curl the ends and put some almond oil afterwards, its a lot better.

Day 3. Updo's, wraps or hats on this day usually!

Day 4: Didn't have time to wash it and was in a rush so I threw it up in a pony tail even though it was definitely ready for a wash!!

Day 5: I really love this day. My hair is still wet from the shower but it dries so nice and curly and I curl a bit of the top to accentuate my underneath curls and I love it!

Day 6: Loved this day too! A nice low bun with twists. It felt nice and shiny and laid really well.

What are my products?!
Almond Oil: I use this when my hair is frizzy and it smooths out the frizz so well, all day. Do NOT use this before you take any sort of heat mechanism to it (curling iron, blow dryer, flat iron). You are essentially cooking your hair if you do that, which will compromise the quality of it (obviously, haha). I do it after, if I do use any of those.
Shampoo: Vermont soap has an all purpose, palm oil free lavender cleaner that I purchased in bulk at my favorite food co-op in Manhattan! 
Hair brush: I use Bass bamboo hair brush with wood bristles and a 100% bamboo handle! I love it so much! You can probably find it online but I bought mine at a whole foods with all recyclable, and no plastic packaging.

Now heres my documentation of the 7 days with notes that may be helpful. Dang, this may be my lengthiest blog post yet! I feel like there is just a lot to cover and this information could be helpful to some! 

1st day is WASH day: Only a quarter size amount into palm of my all purpose cleaner from Vermont Soap. Rub together til all foamy in hands then get the roots. My hair is typically really frizzy and wavy but ever since I’ve done the  5+ day thing, its tamed itself.  I won’t comb the first day, since the oils aren’t building up quite yet.

2nd day: Easy to manage and it acquires a certain shine. I just woke up, curled the ends a bit and that was it! In the evening I take about 2-5 minutes, play some music and just comb my hair from roots to end. This distributes the oil evenly and conditions the entirety of my hair. I also find that combing my hair gets rid of dandruff at the roots and any unclogs sebum glands.

3rd day: A great updo day for me! I usually throw it up in a bun with a hair wrap, maybe in a hat in a low bun or something like that. I comb 2-5 minutes before bed too!

4th day: Didn’t have time to wet it or style so I dragged the straight hair another day and threw it in a pony tail! At this point there is signs of grease and my dark hair hides it pretty well! These days usually consist of another updo, hair wrap, or hat day.

5th day: Time to change it up! When in the shower I’ll get it all wet! I may take my body/face soap bar and wash just my hair line just to avoid any breakouts along my face or my forehead. My hair is naturally big and wavy and it looks at its best in the later days of my wash timeline (4th or 5 day). I will curl the strands that are being a little flimsy. If there is some frizz on the top I will put a bit of almond oil in my hands and rub my palms together then smooth it out (a really small amount! about the 1/4 size of my pinky nail.)

6th day: Really easy to manage, it looks nice and has shine to it, I couldn't wear it down but it looked really nice in a low bun with yesterdays slight curl.

7th day: Wash! Or not, if it still looks good!