Hair Care & Styling Routine

For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted long sleek looking hair! Over the past couple of years or so, I would say that my hair has gotten to a pretty long length over that time and I feel quite lucky to have been able to grow it so easily. For me personally, I never really had a sort of routine of taking care of my hair and never really use to go out of my way to make sure it was in the most perfect condition. Until recently I have been making extra sure that my hair is in a good condition and preparing it for the colour that I have been wanting for such a long time.

The whole reason why I am preparing my hair to go the colour I want is purely because I was one of the many who jumped on the bandwagon of dying your hair mahogany brown after seeing Cheryl Fernandez Versini and other celebrities go for this colour a few years back. Unfortunately for me, I have found it impossible to get the red tones out of my hair and it has resulted in me having to go through the long process of waiting for it to grow out completely. This has involved me not dying my hair since June last year, getting regular trims and doing everything I can to let my hair grow the red out of it (I am so not up for stripping my hair before you ask!). I seriously cannot wait till the day all the red is out of my hair and I can actually dye it the way I want it.

Today I thought I would share with you my hair care routine. I wouldn't say my hair is in a perfect condition right now and I am due a hair cut soon, since I am seeing my split ends reappear again. But I try to main a good routine of taking care of my hair when it comes to the washing, drying and styling process. Here's what I do to keep my hair growing and how I try to maintain healthy hair!

I normally tend to wash my hair only twice a week and sometimes three at a push. To some of you, that may be gross or way too little. But for me personally, I don't find my hair needs washing that often. Sometimes even when it's my 'hair washing day' I find I don't particularly need to wash it but still do it anyway. Excessive washing can wash out essential oils from your hair. Therefore, I stick to a two day's a week routine to prevent this from happening. Sometimes I also spray a bit of dry shampoo into my hair when it is a couple or few days old and I don't have time to wash it just yet on that particular day!

When it comes to choosing shampoo, I am more than happy to use different ones from time to time. This can be good for your hair as it means it doesn't get too use to a specific product. Right now I am using the Garnier Ultimate Blends Shampoo: The Silky Smoother. This is a new shampoo to the market and it is apart of Garnier's Ultimate Blends collection. This shampoo smells absolutely amazing, it is a mixture of vanilla milk and papaya (which is the fruit of a plant called Carica Papaya, also known as the 'fruit of the angels' and is known for it's revitalising properties).The Silky Smoother Shampoo by Garnier is especially made for those with mid-long hair prone to split ends.


When applying shampoo, I massage it into my scalp and never apply it to the ends of my hair, as I find if I do it dries it out quicker. Sometimes when I have been using a lot of product in my hair, I tend to do two shampoo's to make sure that I have really washed away any product build up in my hair. So far I have been loving this shampoo and feel's like it really does help my hair to feel smooth and even towards the ends of my hair. I would definitely recommend this if you're someone who has mid-long hair and suffers with split ends!

Moving onto conditioner, I seem to have grown this love/hate relationship with it. Sometimes I enjoy using it on my hair and other times I find that I stray away from using it. When I do use it though, I apply it to the mid-lengths and ends of my hair to give my hair shine. I rarely use conditioner on my roots as I find it can sometimes make my hair appear greasy.

Recently, I have also been investing in treatments for my hair. Again from the Garnier Ultimate Blends collection, I have been using the 'Nourishing Repairer' 1 minute treatment which is specially tailored for those with very dry and damaged hair. This treatment contains avocado oil and shea butter which helps to add shine and health to the hair. I bought this before I had my last hair cut, when my hair was really dry and damaged. Even now, I tend to use this at least once a week or every two weeks to make sure I am looking after my hair and trying to maintain healthy ends.

After I have rinsed out the shampoo from my hair, I apply this onto the ends of my hair and leave it for one minute. Once that time has passed, I tend to take a wide tooth comb or any tangle teaser to just comb through the conditioner onto the ends and make sure that I also brush out any knots that might have appeared. Then I rinse it out and move onto the drying process.

Before I dry my hair, I towel dry it a little first to make sure that I get rid of any excess water and then I tend to part my hair in it's usual parting, before I then grab my de-tangling comb and comb through my wet air from root to tip. It is so important to not use a brush on wet hair as this can damage it more. When I have finished that, I either using a hair dryer to dry my hair or leave it to dry naturally. Another option I sometimes take, is plaiting my hair whether that's French braids either side or just two normal braids, and then leaving it in over night, so then by the time I wake up in the morning it has dried into a wavy style. This saves time but also means you don't have to damage your hair by using heat!



I have been trying to stop using heated styling tools on my hair as much as possible. In the summer time it was a lot easier for me to just leave my hair to dry naturally, but obviously now into the colder months, this task is becoming a lot harder to achieve. My hair takes quite a long time to dry even when using a hair dryer, so you can imagine how long it takes if I leave it to try naturally. Therefore, I try to limit myself to using heat on my hair once a week, whether that is to dry my hair or straighten the ends of my hair. I have naturally straight hair so sometimes using straighteners can be a bit pointless, but my ends naturally tend to flick, so I like to use straighteners to just flatten down the ends of my hair.

When it comes to using heat on my hair, I make sure that I use a heat defence to protect my hair and most importantly my ends from getting damaged. The two that I go to the most are the 'Aussie Miracle Recharge: Take The Heat: Light Weight Conditioning Spray' or the 'Tresemmé: Heat Defence: Styling Spray'. Both super affordable products. Also I find that the Tresemmé 300ml bottle lasts me such a long time. I rarely have to go purchase a new one. I definitely think I will be investing in more products for my hair to create volume or texture to it!

As mentioned above, I try to stay away from my heat and I can chose to do no-heat hair styles to change up my hair every day! Sometimes, I like to plait it over night like I said to achieve a wavy look the following day, but also I sometimes tend pull my hair back into a half-up-half-down look. This helps to keep my hair away from my face, as well as create something different. Another hair style I tend to go for is just a simple messy top knot, that somehow always takes so long to achieve with my hair! Why can't I master this simple look? But this hair style is great for those days when you're having a more relaxed day or you're rocking two day old hair. Also I like to browse Pinterest for no-heat hair style ideas or watch Youtube no-heat hair style tutorials.

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To maintain healthy hair and get rid of split ends, I try to have my hair cut at least every 6-9 weeks. I have become a lot better at having this within the last few months. I use to be so bad for having my hair cut. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy having my hair done, because to be honest I quite enjoy it and love being pampered. It was just the fact that I wanted to grow my hair long and thought that if I kept getting it cut, it wouldn't grow to what I wanted it to grow to. However, I was wrong and it is so important to get regular trips to get rid of split ends. Fresh ends will help your hair to keep growing and won't break off like split ends will!