What's Your Hair Routine?

Someone asked me this question recently and it took me some serious thought to come up with an answer. Why? Because when I started Afrobella.com, I signed on to try out and review just about every hair product that came my way.

Having said that, I must admit that I don't recommend this strategy to anyone.

I miss having a fixed regimen of hair products that I stick to, and switching products on a weekly basis can create buildup which leads to scalp flaking. In my experience, the products that work the best are those without bad-for-you hair ingredients like alcohol, mineral oil and petrolatum, and SLS.

The sad thing is, if you look at the ingredients on the back of just about any cosmetics product, that's what they're probably made of.

Here's the routine that works for me, and the products I turn to whenever my hair's all gunked up and stressing me out.

I try to preserve my hair's natural oils by not shampooing too often. I more or less follow the "no-poo" method outlined by Lorraine Massey in her book Curly Girl.

I shampoo no more than once a week, sometimes I go even longer than that. Whenever my hair's feeling dirty and my scalp's got buildup, I turn to a clarifying shampoo. I love Hair Rules Aloe Grapefruit Clarifying Shampoo, No Poo by DevaCurl, and most recently I tried the clarifying mineral shampoo by The Mineral Owl - it smells delicious and worked great. In general, clear shampoos work well for clarifying hair, and doing a very diluted apple cider vinegar rinse every two weeks or so helps to keep my scalp flake free.

Once or twice a week I use conditioner to cleanse and detangle my hair. My current go-to daily conditioner is super cheap and super good -- Trader Joe's Nourish conditioner. It costs like $3 a bottle, and the ingredients are healthy, and to boost the moisturizing power I sometimes add organic coconut oil or olive oil to the mix.

My hair is constantly thirsty, so every weekend I deep condition it. I sincerely LOVE Ojon Restorative Hair Treatment but since it's so insanely expensive, I do my deep conditioning treatment with oils. Mix some organic coconut oil, olive oil, and jojoba oil in a bowl, slather it all over my hair, pull on a heat cap and let it marinate. Another deep conditioner fave o' mine is Miss Jessie's Rapid Recovery Treatment .

For styling, I'm a very easy breezy kind of bella and generally wear my hair in a wash n' go style. My current favorite products are Moroccan Oil (which smells divine but isn't heavy enough to weigh my hair down), Curls Gel-les'c, and Cantu Grow Strong Strengthening Treatment.

For those extra extra dry tumbleweed days, I turn to Miss Jessie's Baby Buttercream and Carol's Daughter Hair Balm.

Slick some product on, let it dry, and I'm out the door! ** oh, and in this particular photo, my hair's pulled up with Tomoka's Twists!

What products are your hair's favorite? What's your hair routine? Share with me!