Greetings!
It’s time to document my hair goals again. What about you? What 2019 hair-related goals do you have?
Setting A Doable, Prioritized Amount of Hair-Related Goals
I feel that in the past I’ve been overly ambitious and have set too many yearly hair goals. To combat that this year, I’m going to create TWO separate lists of hair goals: a prioritized set of hair goals and a secondary set of these-would-be-nice-to-do hair goals. This way I still get to jot down all the stuff I FEEL ambitious about, but at the same time I am being realistic and acknowledging that the prioritized hair goals are the focal, doable goals. 🙂
My Prioritized, Hair-Related Goals for 2019
| Goal #1 | To enjoy my hair immensely. |
| Goal #2 | To treat and experience wash day as not a chore, but a wonderful spa day. (It’s a blessing to be able to afford and do wash day!) |
| Goal #3 | To keep my hair relatively tangle-free from wash day to wash day. |
| Goal #4 | To predetangle faithfully (toward increasing length retention): I recently discovered a predetangling method that drastically reduces mechanical damage, single-strand knots, and breakage during detangling. Method: Before putting a detangling tool to the hair, gently/partially FINGER detangle roots and FULLY elongate and FULLY FINGER detangle ends. |
| Goal #5 | To drastically reduce tension on the hair that comes from pulling detangling tools through my hair: Technique #1: When the Wet brush or Denman brush meets resistance when I’m pulling it down through a section of hair, remove the brush by pulling it straight up and out of the hair section, then reinsert the brush ever-so-slightly further down the length of the section. Technique #2: As I’m pulling the Denman brush through a section of my hair and I encounter slight resistance, rock the Denman brush while pulling it through the hair. Accomplish this by rotating my wrist as I pull it through a section of hair. This causes the brush to gently, slowly move through the resistance. |
| Goal #6 | To keep my hair strengthened, hydrated, and moisturized. |
| Goal #7 | To at least once a month but up to every wash day apply an ayurvedic ACV spritz and/or and ayurvedic fermented rice water leave-in conditioner. |
A Little about My Priority Hair Goals
I am already doing most of the above, so this list is not overly ambitious. 😀 A few thoughts:
Goal #2 — to experience wash day like a spa day and not like a chore — is very, very important to me: I realize that it is SILLY to experience stress over my hair at this stage in the game. My hair should just be a joy! I mean, I know how to keep my hair tangle-free. I know how to have a speedy wash day, if I want. I know how to style very quickly, if I want. I know how to puff a failed styling attempt and call it a day. There really is ZERO REASON to have a stressed mindset about my hair. I think I let myself become conditioned to the idea that “my hair is hard” or “my hair takes hours and hours.” Time to toss that. It is unnecessary harm to my physical health to feel manufactured stress over my hair!
Goal #4 and #5 — regarding low-damage detangling — have been game changers!!! I have learned to FIRST finger de-web my roots and fully finger detangle and de-knot my ends using the shingle-and-peel method (see video below) . . . and this way detangling with my tool after this is a BREEEEEEEEEZE and I loose very little hair. I realize that I had been giving too much detangling responsibility to hair tools such as brushes and combs. Starting out going in with a detangling brush is no bueno for fine hair in my experience: It translates to a LOT, LOT, LOT of tension on my hair. Sometimes it even results in my tying knots into my hair via the motion of brushing through my hair.
Trichologist Lisa Akbari demonstrates how to divide the detangling task between one’s fingers and a tool. She really gets into the demo around time stamp 4:50. IT’S GENIUS and affirms my discovery. Please check it out:
The peel-and-shingle method of detangling is GENIUS!!! I combine it with the method above to result in a ridiculously small amount of hair in the brush. ❤ ❤ ❤
My Secondary Hair-Related Goals
The goals below are great, and I feel I will do most if not all of these at various times during 2019. No pressure though. 😉
- To cowash more and shampoo less. When cowashing, to use a dedicated CLEANSING cowash, not just conditioner. When shampooing, to use the Olaplex No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo.
- To do several clay hair (and facial) masks.
- To get a professional silk press and trim every 3-4 months.
- To improve hair health by staying internally hydrated, maintaining healthy nutrition, and by taking a great, general vitamin (not a hair, skin, and nails vitamin).
- To practice and improve my “curl set,” i.e. wash and go, practicing at least one curl set every month. “Wash and go” is just a misnomer at this point 😆.
- TO FINISH MY DIY ELONGATORS project (please see this post for details).
- To practice and improve my flexirod sets, practicing a flexirod set at least once a month.
My 2019 Starting Hair Care Regimen
I’ve been trying to perfect my hair care and styling regimen since first going natural. There is so much information out there, and there are so many variables. The only thing I know for sure regimen-wise at the moment is that I need to keep my hair as tangle-free as possible, which means I need to brush through my hair every 5-7 days. Otherwise, I stay pretty flexible with my regimen and try to remain free to improve it as I learn more. Below is my starting regimen for 2019.
Every 3-4 Months
Get a professional silk press and trim.
Once a Month
| Detangle and prepoo overnight | Curl Origin Double Moisture Overnight Mask, Wet Brush, and Denman 4 brush |
| Treat/exfoliate scalp | Cantu Apple Cider Vinegar Root Rinse |
| Shampoo scalp and hair | Olaplex No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo |
| Deep condition with protein | Shea Moisture Manuka Honey Masque containing GreenBeauty Real Protein, honey, and olive oil |
Once Every 5-7 Days
| Detangle | Jane Carter Curls To Go Cleansing Co Wash, Wet Brush, and Denman 4 brush |
| Treat/exfoliate scalp if prudent | Cantu Apple Cider Vinegar Root Rinse |
| Deep condition | Shea Moisture Manuka Honey Masque containing honey and olive oil |
| Oil soak hair, then rinse with water | DIY oil mix: equal parts grapeseed, avocado, olive, and coconut oils |
| Style | — elongated twist out (or brist out) OR — elongated wash and go OR — the occasional flexirod or roller set |
The video below demonstrates the regimen that has most helped me to develop my own unique regimen. I have simplified it and modified it significantly, and I wear twist outs versus twists . . . but it was a GREAT regimen from which to learn how to build my own. I use a lot of her concepts in my own regimen. I hope you find it informative!
My Starting Focal Hair Products Line-Up
| Product Category | Item |
| Shampoo | Olaplex No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo |
| Cleansing cowash | Jane Carter Curls To Go Cleansing Co Wash |
| Scalp cleanser/exfoliator | Cantu Apple Cider Vinegar Root Rinse |
| Detangler | — Curl Origin Double Moisture Overnight Mask or — Jane Carter Curls to Go Cleansing Co Wash or — Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner |
| Deep conditioner | Shea Moisture Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intense Hydration Masque (boosted with honey and olive oil) . . . with protein added as needed |
| Protein | GreenBeauty Real Protein |
| Oil soak/rinse mix | DIY oil mix: equal parts grapeseed, avocado, olive, and coconut oils |
| Liquid hydrator | Nature’s Ego Ayurvedic Blend Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Rinse (from Etsy.com) |
| Leave-in conditioner | Nature’s Ego Fermented Rice Water Cream Conditioner (from Etsy.com) |
| Styler for twist outs | — gel over cream OR — The Mane Choice Ancient Egyptian 24K Gold Gel OR — Jakeala Shiloh Hair Balm (ayurvedic, from Etsy.com) — etc. |
| Styler for wash and go’s | I’m still trialing products to identify a great styler-and-technique combo |
| “Grease” | Jakeala Shiloh Hair Balm (ayurvedic, from Etsy.com) |
| Moisturizer | Curl Origin Triple Butter Moisturizing Curl Cream |
That’s about it. I’d love to hear about your hair-related goals, your focal products, and so forth. Please feel free to share in the comments. 🙂
Happy hair growing in 2019!
Many blessings,
Yvette ❤
The Blossoming, Fit Natural 
The mental goals of enjoying your hair and approaching wash day as something enjoyable instead of a chore are awesome goals. More people need to see things like that.
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Hello! I’ve been reading your posts for a year now. I like that you are very detailed and resourceful. I see that you previously used the Shea Moisture African Black Soap Shampoo and really liked it. Do you prefer the Olaplex to the Shea Moisture now? Every shampoo I have used makes my hair tangle. Do you experience this with the Olaplex? Will you still be using the Malibu C to chelate? Also, you use two brushes to detangle. Is there a reason why? Do you experience breakage with them? I currently finger detangle but I don’t think I get all the shed hairs out so I’m looking for tools to see if they will make a difference. After you detangle prior to shampooing, does your hair get tangled again during your wash day (like after shampooing, deep conditioning,do you have to go back and fully detangle again)?
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Hi, Tay! Thank you for your comment.
I still really like the Shea Moisture African Black Soap shampoo. The only reason that I’m using the Olaplex shampoo is because I’m hoping that its claims to maintain the bonds in the hair are true, and that that will lead to increased length retention for me. I don’t like the Olaplex shampoo more than the Shea Moisture ABS shampoo. Ever since I’ve started using the Olaplex shampoo, my roots have become very undefined. I have not heard of this happening to anyone else, so maybe it’s just me. Or maybe it’s not the Olaplex that is causing my roots to be undefined and it is something else. I’m hoping I can remedy this by becoming more consistent with my deep conditioning, and by using the Olaplex only once or twice a month at the most. I plan to cowash when I’m not shampooing.
Chelating: If my hair starts to seem like it contains build-up . . . or if my hair seems to stop receiving moisture, I will use the Malibu C chelating shampoo to create a completely clean, metal-free slate of hair to see if that remedies the problem. I have a water filter on my shower head, so I’m hoping that will mean that I don’t need to chelate often or at all.
Shampoo does not tangle my hair excessively. However, my hair is VERY tangle-prone, so I’ve learned to have my hair in 6 twists before shampooing. Then, in the shower I shampoo each twist one by one. Meaning, I take a twist, untwist it, apply shampoo, smooth the shampoo down that section of hair in a smoothing motion, rinse the shampoo from the section, and quickly twist it back up. Because I’m smoothing down as I shampoo, this prevents too much tangling. However, my hair is ever-tangling back up, so some tangles do get in my hair during shampooing. That is why I later use the Denman 4 brush to brush my styler through my hair just before I twist up my hair to set my twist out. Doing so removes the few tangles that have entered my hair again. I cannot finger detangle only: It leaves too many shed hairs in my head. I hope that answered your questions. Please let me know. And please let me know if you have additional questions! Blessings, Tay!
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Thank you for responding. So to be clear: you detangle before shampooing? Do you use your fingers, tool(s) or both during this stage? Also, how often during the wash day do you use tools to detangle? Which brush do you recommend for thorough detangling? Thank you!
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Yes, I detangle before shampooing and then again just before styling. When I detangle before shampooing, I finger detangle my roots and ends before picking up my Wet Brush and detangling with it. I do that section by section. THEN LATER, once it’s time to apply styler, I brush the styler through with my Denman brush.
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Regarding brush recommendations: I find that the Wet Brush does a great job of following up finger detangling. The Wet Brush is very gentle, but it’s not as thorough on my hair as the Denman brush is. For example, I can detangle with the Wet Brush to the point that the Wet Brush runs perfectly freely through my hair. Then I can try to run the Denman through my hair RIGHT afterwards, and the Denman will get “caught up”– meaning, it will catch additional tangles. I don’t like starting out with the Denman as my first tool introduced, though, because I find the Denman to be a little “harsh.” I like to wait to use it when my hair is already pretty detangled, just so that it can catch the additional tangles that the Wet Brush doesn’t . . . but so that the kindler and gentler Wet Brush can get first dibs. I hope that makes sense. I am finding that by using my fingers, then the Wet Brush, then later the Denman, that I am losing very little hair and getting very little breakage . . . way, way less than when I was using the KareCo Tangle Buster Brush. I am probably going to try that new Tangle Teezer that came out recently at Ulta, the one with the handle. I am going to see if I want to replace the Wet Brush with it. Sometimes my hair gets caught on the little balls on the Wet Brush bristles. It’s rare, but it happens every now and then. I have been seeing excellent, excellent reviews of the new handle-having Tangle Teezer. Eventually I will try the Felicia Leatherwood brush. It’s supposed to be the best of the best of the best . . . but I don’t know. 🙂
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