How Did You Create Your Hair Regimen?

[discodumpling]

Knowing & doing are two different things. I've always known how to get & maintain healthy hair. I just always got side tracked by LIFE.

My regimen is ever evolving towards the bare minimum WATER & oil. In April 2007 when I BC'd I was like "what next?" I stalked Fotki's & came to the realization that the ladies with hair I most admired kept it extremely simple. Scaling down the products and "things" they did to their hair as their journeys progressed.

I am thankful that I was able to take a shortcut & avoid all of that trial & error; benefitting from the experience of thousands of women on the web.

 

[luvSLave]

Before hairboards my regimen consisted of going to the salon once a week. My stylist was into healthy hair so that actually worked okay for me. Then I moved to a new state and had no idea what to do. I somehow linked to LHCF after doing a search on self-maintenance and basically read everything in the archives and began trying things one by one so I'd know what worked for me and what didn't. It took a while, but I have a regimen that works great and I'm rarely tempted to try something new unless it has ingredients that I know to be effective on my hair.

 

[oooop2]

Well I wore a BC for 8yrs and had my last cut in Nov 2005. Once my hair started growing, I just did the exact same thing I did when I had a BC. Latter up w/ shampoo, do a quick condish, then slap some african pride grease on my head and called it a day. Then once my hair stared growing to a length that I could twist, I would literally RACK through my hair in the shower w/ a wide tooth comb after being shampooed but before being conditioned. Looking back it SADDENS me how much hair I was pulling out of my head. I remember saying to myself, dang you definitely loose a lot of hair once your hair starts growing out. I had no clue, since my natural journey was only at the BC stage for 8yrs.

My daughters skins actually led me to the boards. She for the past year, she's had this funky thing growing on her leg. The Drs here have been beyond USELESS. So I did a search of BLK Derm in the Houston area (since I will be there in the summer) and it led me to BHM.

Once there, I found several people w/ a TON of knowledge to share and I started adapting my regime based on what they said. It's been 6m now, and although I am still tweeking my regime, I am beyond happy w/ my hair.

 

[Inches411]

I think it started with finding this website then machiereamours @ healthy textures. I just went and picked up stuff almost everyday and started experimenting. I think at that point i was just wanted to know how to do my hair myself. I thought it was sad that if I didnt have an appointment to the dominicans and i had to go somewhere my had just had to look like whatever cause i did not know how to do it myself. From this website i learned how to rollerset my own hair, applying relaxers the correct way, co washing, and prepoo, and about protein and moisturizing shampoos. My hair was decent since the lady who did it always took care of it but i never knew what was going on I just sat there. Now i know alot... as far as regimen is concerned i dont have a set one but whenever i wash i make sure to use the proper shampoo and conditioner and leave in and heat protectant. I really want to just stick to maybe one line of products or maybe two but its so hard to find a set of products that work well together thats not too expensive. mabye ill sit down and work on this today. for now im going to just use up all the products i have now until they are done..

 

[Aggie]

I was searching the web for long hair growth solutions and I came across BHM where I met Tasha there. She told me about LHCF. I started lurking for about 3 months and I was impressed with the knowledge of all the ladies here and then I joined. I also leatned about Sistaslick's website and articles on hair care. I printed almost everything I could find about hair care. Then I was directed to Macherieamour's website - healthytextures.com and I learned some more there.

I did not know how to take care of my hair before these sites. I am so glad I found them all. Now I rarely go to my stylist for my hair anymore. I even learned how to self-relax, something I was always too scared to do myself because I thought I would mess it up and lose all my hair. I was protective styling before these sites but didn't know that it had a name. Thank you LHCF sistas, luv ya!

 

[Angelicus]

I was reading Motowngirl.com's website about co-washing and that's how I created a regimen. When I got on LHCF I got reintroduced to rollersetting, learned what a flat iron was, and found staple products that have been with me since 2003.

 

[BillsBackerz67]

i saw what most naturals were doing with my simliar hair type and i followed suit. mainly with the co washing

 

[Christa438]

I saw what most naturals were doing with my simliar hair type and i followed suit. mainly with the co washing

I love co-washes , do them every day. Though I also think healthy bone-straight hair is gorgeous, I have a thing for curly hair so I looked at the regimens of a lot of texlaxers and naturals. I used The Beginner's Guide and I also created a list of things my main inspirations' regimens had in common. I started with that as a basic regimen. Over time I have tweaked and molded my regimen to be what it is today.

 

[LadyEuphoria007]

I created my regimen based on what worked for me while I was deployed. I was able to grow and retain *finally reaching real SL the first time in my relaxed life.

I found this site when I was looking for ways to keep my new found healthy hair going strong.

I used what I did back then as a skeleton to build on. So far So good!

Thanks Yall {Hugs}

 

[iasade]

I had a pretty good regime from visiting nappturality.com after I went natural. When I joing LHCF in January 2008, I tweaked the regime and took it to the next level. I love it now and my hair has seen some great progress to me.

 

[LadyKaypnyc]

I kinda just go with the flow, I pay attention to my hair and if it's saying deep condition, I do...If I feel like clarifying, I do. I know what my hair needs, I just don't follow any particular schedule

 

[ChocolateKindOfCool]

well before i found bhm /lhfc my regimen was blue magic allday everyday
i stumbled over the C&G hair page ordered the afro detangler found out about bhm and lhfc read through hunderts of fotkis and voila my first hair regimen was created...it took me couple more month and a lot of product to refine my regimen though

 

[MonPetite]

Two words began my learning about hair 5 years ago:

CATHY HOWSE (sp?).

Since then, I've come to disagree with things she says...but I give her, her kudos. She taught me water was good for my hair, lay off heat, to DC, and that protein was my relaxed hair's friend.

 

[Energist]

I first stuck with what I knew, and then gradually began trying new things that were either recommended to me or that I've read good things about. I would work new things in one at a time and rotate so that I could compare properly. If I find something that gives me better results then I will stick with that product or products like it.

 

[Simply_Kelz]

In Philly, my regimen consisted of going to see my hairdresser every two weeks, and rubbing biosilk on my ends. I was NL, so with no real friction, I still got some length. It got cut off regularly though.

I started out planning on going to the hairdresser one week, airdrying and flatironing the next, blowdrying and bunning the next. After I dropped that hairdresser, I went to 2 shampoo washes weekly and buns. But still saw no change. The bun was harmful instead of helpful because of the brushing and combing it high, and not handling the ends with care.

After being at a loss for what to do, I joined the HYH Challenge until November. And went through ALOT of trial and error until I found what works now:

Rollersetting and bunning up until 6 weeks post .. Co-washing and bunning the last 6 weeks of the stretch.

And actually from Feb. to April, I was flatironing weekly and wearing down every day, using some crappy cone-filled leave-in that coated my ends terribly, and still saw length retention, so I know I could go far with buns.

 

[myronnie]

Well i guess my regime originated mostly from what i used to do before lhcf..i mean i moisturized my hair two times a day and shampooed once a week (but didn't deep condition) and flatironed once a day also.
So i all i did was take out the flatiron, put in a whole bunch of yummy natural products into my deep conditioner, and add sealing with oils.

 

[mrsjohnson75]

I stubbled upon Sistaslick's fotki and on the first page, she has a list of products and techniques. I printed it out and went from there. I didn't know anything about haircare, regimen, etc... or where to start.

Thank you Sistaslick!!!!!!

 

[bbdgirl]

When I came here initally I didnt have a regimen or anything close to one; at least not one that was healthy. I was looking for length retention, growth aides, and ways to combat breakage/dryness.
I quickly learned to create one by washing more frequently, dropping shampoo, adding protein and DC. I never used to at all. Scarfing my hair at night, lo-mani and protective styles. This has made all the difference in the health of my hair and of course retention followed.

I now have the fundamentals of a solid easy regimen to follow, the only thing that changes is the combination of products. And for me the learning continues. How much heat, Cones or no cones, How much protein is needed.

I learned all of this from the ladies here. My hair has blossomed and I have alot of confidence when it comes to my hair and hair in general b/c people constantly ask me what I do to my hair to make it so healthy looking.

 

[MeechUK]

Before I discovered LHCF I thought I had a routine, which did not include regular DCing or looking at dangerous chemicals. Since joining this board I have discovered that I was damaging my scalp and hair. My routine now (and thanks to Sistaslick moisture/protein balance) is now minimal and very effective. I tried a lot of different products and was not happy with many of them, but since reading the product labels this helped with my routine. I buy products which are mainly organic and natural. I have not stopped using products with Mineral Oil or Petroleum, but I use products containing these very sparingly. I no longer use shampoos containing cones or sulphates only Dr Bronners which is great, after weekly DCing. My favourite staple is ACV, which I also drink instead of popping vitamin tablets and God bless it.

Its all about what works for you, chemicals hinder my progress and I have now discovered that I am allergic to a lot of them including those in deodorants. Whatever creates a favourable environment for hair health and growth should be a staple in your routine. Its all about trial and error, you have to kiss a lot of frogs until you find a prince!

 

[joyandfaith]

My old routine was just "winging it". Now that I've found LHCF I can say I have an actual respectable regime

 

[winnettag]

I'm constantly adding to and modifying my regimen the more I learn from LHCF & Nappturality. I currently have a tweaked Crown & Glory Method.

 

[yellow08]

I had my regimen before I came to LHCF but I am always open for learning new things...

 

[naturalgurl]

I sort of "listen" to my hair. When it's dry I add more glycerin and coconut oil, when it's ok, I hold off on the glycerin and continue with coconut oil. I pretty much change up from time to time on what I use but I stick to wetting it regularly.

 

[cupcakes]

at the beginning of my journey i saw some fotkis of women with gorgeus locks and just stole bits of their regimens and made it my own

 

[ladybug71]

I didn't have a regimen until i came to the boards. i relied very heavily on my stylist for taking care of my hair.

Ditto this. I can't remember how I found this board, but my hair has vastly improved since being on it. I didn't really have a set regimen. I shampooed when I thought was really dirty, conditioned a little, and was getting a touch-up every 4 weeks. I wasn't gaining any length ever. Reading, reseaching, experimenting with what others have done and figuring out what works with my hair has helped me a LOT. I lot of my staple products and tools are because of this board. I have a good regimen now, but of course there's always room for improvement.

 

[baddison]

I'm constantly adding to and modifying my regimen the more I learn from LHCF & Nappturality. I currently have a tweaked Crown & Glory Method.

Curious to know what you have "tweaked" about it.....do share!!

 

[danigurl18]

I do trial and error.. Plus I look at the forum and ask ppl with my same hair type about ANYTHING before I purchase it... it helps save money and plus it gives you some idea on what will work

 

[Mz.Shug]

I just created my hair regimen by reading the threads and suggested sites. I'm not sure how it will work for my hair but I plan on keeping a photos and a journal to record my hair's reaction to products,protective styles,techniques,etc. This board has taught me alot in the 5days that I've been here. I know I still have much to learn but I feel I have enough knowledge to take a good first step toward longer,stronger, healthier hair.

"Knowledge is the key to success of any kind"

 

[Mamamia]

I lurked on this site for 4 years before I signed up. Im not on as much as id like but all the advice really made a difference. I read reviews, tried products, and then noted what worked for me. This site helps so much that ive recommended it to women who come into my healthfood store looking for a miracle pill to help their hair woes!

 

[cecilie]

I created my regimen with the link of Sistaslick How to built a regimen (thank you Sistaslick )
I have a regimen , I try to keep it simple , I had a severe breakage in my nape area so I will listen to my hair and I will change certain things