The other day while grabbing some coffee with a friend of mine who has GORGEOUS, thick, but messy curls, out of curiosity I asked her what her hair routine was. I was beyond shocked, and mildly horrified when she explained to me that she didn’t have a specific hair routine, washed her hair everyday, and worst of all: brushed it when it was dry. I thought it would be a good idea to make a post about simple tips on how to keep your curls hydrated and combat frizz, both of which could ultimately change the texture of your curls. I will include my own hair routine, which has been created based off of years- and I mean YEARS- of reading articles & curly hair forums and watching YouTube videos. I will also include a few techniques that I have tried that didn’t work specifically for my hair, but may for yours! Remember, every curl and hair type is different, but here’s a list of things that I do regularly.

Tips on Keeping Your Curls Hydrated & My Washing Routine

It’s extremely common for curly, thick hair to get easily dried out. Due to the fact that curls have a more coarse texture, it’s extra hard for the natural oils from your scalp to coat the entire shaft of your hair. Therefore your ends may end up dry, but your scalp may feel dirty. Because of this, I wash my hair only a few times a week, and conditioner has become my best friend.

Do not wash your hair everyday. If you wash your hair everyday, the chemicals in your shampoo strip your hair of its natural oils; causing your scalp to produce more oil in order to hydrate your hair. Try to sacrifice 2 or 3 days of dirty curls to begin cutting down on the amount of times you wash your hair each week. You can jump into it right away, or you can do it slowly. For example, wash your hair on a Monday and then wait until Wednesday to wash it again. Therefore you change your routine to washing every other day, and can then begin prolonging the days in between washes. Your scalp will get used to the lack of washing, and will stop making so much oil. I wash my hair 3 times a week, and my scalp never feels dry or dirty! Only shampoo your roots & condition your ends. In the shower, I only use shampoo to massage my scalp, and let it rinse out over my ends. The ends of your hair do NOT need to be shampoo’d, because it simply dries out your hair. The ends of your hair usually aren’t dirty, so rinsing them is enough. After I shampoo my roots, I condition only the ends of my hair, starting at the hair a little above shoulder length. I try not to condition my roots, because since I wait so long in between washes, the conditioner may cause my roots to feel greasy due to build up. Never brush your curls when they are dry. I have done a lot of research on brushing. Many articles say that brushing your hair when dry is detrimental to your curls, but also brushing your hair when wet can cause as much breakage as brushing them dry. I never actually need to brush my hair, because it just turns into this giant frizz-ball of embarrassment. In order to get out all of my knots, I only brush my hair in the shower after it has soaked in conditioner. After shampooing my roots, I load my ends with conditioner and let it sit in my hair while I shave my legs, wash my face, etc. Afterwards I brush my hair out with my fingers, while it still has a lot of conditioner. The conditioner helps with de-tangling, and using my fingers (you can also use a wide tooth comb) helps prevent any breakage! After brushing my hair in the shower, I don’t brush it once I’m out or even when it’s dry. I only brush it in the shower. Try to avoid shampoos with Sulfates, Parabens, and Alcohol. One of the most shocking things I learned about shampoo is that it contains a lot of chemicals that dry out your hair if used regularly. Some articles even claim that these ingredients can cause cancer in humans. You can try the OGX Quenching Coconut Curls Shampoo and Not Your Mother’s Way To Grow Shampoo which are both sulfate and paraben free. The line I personally use is the Herbal Essences Naked Moisture Shampoo & Conditioner which is silicone, paraben, and dye free. Experiment with going “No Poo”. The No Poo or no shampoo method became super trendy a few years back, and Lord knows I jumped on that bandwagon right away. The no poo theory states that hair isn’t meant to be washed everyday with harsh shampoos and that it only became a necessity to bathe everyday only once homes got running water. This method includes using alternative shampoos, such as shampoo bars, apple cider vinegar, and baking soda. After doing a lot of research, I convinced my mom to order me some Chagrin Valley Sample Shampoo Bars and stopped using regular shampoo cold turkey. All of the different kinds of shampoo bars that I ordered smelled amazing, and didn’t leave my hair feeling dirty or greasy. It’s said that it takes about a couple weeks for your hair to get used to shampoo bars, but I found that after about a month my hair texture had not gone back to normal. My hair felt gummy and it was constantly tangled. My curls were definitely more defined, but I didn’t like the way my hair felt. I didn’t go as far as trying an apple cider vinegar hair rinse, but before I began using the shampoo bars I washed my hair once with baking soda to get rid of the build up from my regular shampoo and conditioner. I found that the no-poo method personally didn’t work for me (or that maybe I just gave up before I had given my hair enough time to get used to its new routine), but after some more recent research, a few of the people who inspired me try no poo a few years back are still no poo to this day. Also to my excitement/devastation, Lush Cosmetics began making shampoo bars, but only after I had switched back to regular shampoo. Use a hair mask at least once a week. Because of my busy schedule, I don’t have enough time to whip together a homemade hair mask and let it sit in my hair for 30 minutes or an hour, although I have done so from time to time. I don’t recommend any hair masks with eggs, because it left my hair smelling like scrambled eggs even after 3 washes. EW. I personally like to use a generous amount of OGX Sea Mineral Moisture Deep Conditioning Treatment or even just my regular conditioner to coat all of my hair (roots included), wrap it up on top of my head and hold with a clip, and sleep with it overnight. In the morning I comb my fingers through it in the shower, rinse with warm water, and apply a little shampoo to my roots. It leaves my hair feeling super refreshed and hydrated. If you sleep with a hair mask in overnight, I definitely recommend wrapping your hair with a shower cap (and bobby pin into place), saran wrap, or even a plastic grocery bag, and cover your pillow with a towel because it will get messy. The only downside to the OGX deep treatment that I use is that the sweet fragrance is a little overwhelming, but I have gotten used to it after a few uses. Use a cleansing conditioner every once in a while. During the summer when I go to the beach to soak up the sun and when i’m going constantly in and out of chlorine and salt water pools, my hair is notorious for not being able to handle all of my activities or the sweltering heat. It drys out like crazy, so I like to give it a break by switching out my regular shampoo for a cleansing conditioner. This makes my hair routine one step less, and leaves my hair feeling clean and hydrated without having to strip it of its natural oils by shampooing my hair. My absolute favorite product that I swear by is the Herbal Essences Naked Cleansing Conditioner, which is herbal mint scent just like my shampoo and conditioner. It’s gentle enough to use everyday, which sometimes is needed after long, adventure-filled days at the beach and on vacation. I use it the same way I would use shampoo, except I apply it to all of my hair and really massage my roots to make sure it gets really clean. You need to work with it (because it won’t lather like real shampoo) and due to the fact that it’s so creamy you need to make sure you rinse it out all the way or it could weigh down your hair. I personally love using cleansing conditioner over the summer, but I like using it every once in a while during the other seasons to let my hair rest a little bit.

Things You Should Avoid with Curly Hair

Chemicals Dyes. As a non-natural redhead for 4 years, I used to have to dye my hair with chemical box dye every 6 weeks. Although this absolutely ruined my hair, I couldn’t see myself giving up my red locks anytime in the near future. A little over a year ago, one of my best friends (who is also a hair dresser) and I came across Lush Cosmetic’s Henna Dye and were curious enough to try it. Because of the length and thickness of my hair, the application process took hours, but I WILL NEVER EVER GO BACK TO CHEMICAL DYE EVER AGAIN. Henna Dye was possibly one of the best things to ever happen in my life. Although it is pricey (one henna brick is $25 which barely covers all of my hair), It’s the best, most flattering color I’ve ever come across, it’s all natural which means it won’t dry out your hair, and it’s so long-lasting that I only have to dye it every 3 months and even then I can get away with only dying my roots because the color hardly fades. I use the Caca Rouge shade (which literally translates to Red Poop in French), and it gives me an awesome, fire-y ginger color that I’m absolutely in love with. Lush’s henna dye comes in 4 shades, Caca Rouge (Bright Red), Caca Marron (Auburn), Caca Brun (Brown), and Caca Noir (Black). I highly, highly recommend henna dye, and will be making a post soon on my experience, the application process, and some tips when using it! Using any heat tools on your hair. Let’s put it this way, if there were Ten Commandments in the Curl World Number 1 would be “Thou Shalt Not Use Heat on Thy Own Hair”. Any kind of style tool that uses heat: blow dryers, curling irons, and straighteners should absolutely be avoided at all costs. These all disturb your hair’s natural curl pattern, and I don’t even want to get into how much damage heat causes to your hair. Limit your heat tools use for only a must-have style for that holiday party, date, or picture day, but no other time! When you do use styling tools, make sure you use a heat protectant! Learn to embrace your natural curls!

Although this post may seem overwhelming and the tips seem hard to keep up with, I promise you that it’s a whole lot easier than it looks! This is pretty much a short overview of some rules that I follow with my own hair, and I highly recommend trying out these tips if you have curly, thick, wavy, long, or kinky hair. Please comment below if you want to contribute any tips, and please leave some feedback if you try out this routine! Thanks so much for reading & good luck. xx

-Steph