But I have always been trying to find the best way to care for my long hair. I have researched odd methods - water-only washing, conditioner-only washing - you name it, I checked it out. Some were too extreme for me, and others didn't sound as though they would really address my main issues.
I have long blonde hair down nearly down to my elbows - from my hairline to my ends it's about two feet long at the moment. It is also highlighted every 8 weeks by my stylist and trimmed at this time. But I suffer from oily scalp and dry ends - combination hair - probably due to the highlights and probably also due to daily torture that I wreck upon it.
My goal is to be able to grow my hair down to my natural waist line. It was there about three years ago and I had to cut off six inches due to washing it everyday, which dried it out. Ironically I was air-drying my hair back then, so the problem wasn't with heat.
My current hair routine is thus:
- shampoo/condition every other day, followed by products, blow dry, and finishing products
- deep conditioner on weekends
- reconstructive mask after highlights; also refrain from washing 2 days after highlights
- hair constantly down unless studying
So now I've decided that I'll try different methods - maybe for a month at a time - and document my findings. This is going to be a hair diary, to put it simply.
For the next month, I'm going to try to experiment with three different methods that have caught my attention.
- Updos
- Sunday clarifying; CO wash as needed
- Nix blowdrying
Updos.
Basically the theory here is that when your hair is down for the majority of the time, it is susceptible to damage from wind, rain, cold/hot weather, and even getting stuck in your car door when you shut it. Yes, this is a big problem of mine.
So by putting your hair up you will be saving the precious ends of your hair from the elements.
I am a girl who ALWAYS has her hair down, unless I'm studying when I keep it in a clip. I find it odd not to feel my hair on my shoulders/back, and honestly, I have always been under the impression that it isn't a good idea to keep your hair up for very long. When I was younger, my ex-stylist told me that by keeping your hair in the same hold day after day (a high ponytail, whatever), the strands are weakened at that point and will break.
Maybe a different style each day would a) keep my strands from breaking and weakening, and b) save my ends from daily torment.
We'll see.
Washing.
I'm essentially making my own method out of different theories. Conditioner-only (CO) washes, in a nutshell, use conditioner as both a shampoo and a conditioner. I feel as though my scalp would eventually suffer from build-up, so I'm not too fond of this method. There are also some "long-hairs" who only S/C a few days a month, aka clarify, while water-only (WO) washing during the week.
While my ends are very dry, I also have an oily scalp. So while I can imagine that the last third of my hair wouldn't mind a clarifying wash once a week, this would not be the case for the top third of my hair.
Instead, I will still wash my hair whenever necessary, but will simply rinse and condition the last half of my hair, since that is the part that suffers the most from dryness. I am not an athlete or anything, so I feel that by simply rinsing my scalp for a few minutes, I will take care of the excess oil.
And Sundays I will shampoo and condition. Since I currently deep condition once a week, I'll probably save it for Sunday as well.
"Blow frying."
This is another term that I have come across while studying long hair care. And basically, most long hairs swear that if you want long, healthy hair, you absolutely must not straighten, blow dry, or otherwise torture your hair with heat.
Again, I have hair nearly down to my elbows. For the past school year, I have blow dried my hair every time that I have come out of the shower. My hair is naturally straight with maybe a wave or two in it, but if I blow dry it, my hair looks as though it's been flat ironed. So luckily I do not damage it as much as someone who straightens their hair daily, but I can see that by using the "blow fryer" 3-4 times a week, this may also be damaging my hair.
Unfortunately I notice that my hair is 2-3 shades darker whenever I skip the blow dryer. Originally I believed that this was my imagination, until my boyfriend pointed it out one day. So this may be hard for me to do in the long run -- plus I enjoy being able to dry my hair in 20 minutes, rather than waiting for it to air dry for hours. So we will see how true I stay to this.
This will probably be one of my longer posts - I really just want to keep track of my daily hair care.
So far this week:
Monday: S/C wash, air dry, kept down
Tuesday: CO wash, air dry, kept down
Wednesday: no wash, kept in a cinnabun
So far, I can say that my hair is definitely a few shades darker, and seems like it has more frizz since I am skipping the blow dryer. Since I am not an athlete, my scalp doesn't seem to be suffering from lack of shampoo and my hair still feels silky right when I'm out of the shower. I may have to give up on giving up the "blow fryer" if I can't handle this look.
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