From Shower to Streets: My haircare and styling routine! ♡

Hello, buttons!

I write to you here in the heart of a desert thunderstorm, and I could not be more elated. Three cups of jasmine green tea down, and I'm ready to deliver unto you this haircare routine. You're welcome, cutie.

As you might have read, I've recently chopped a good deal of my hair off. If you haven't read about that yet, you can scroll down a ways or click right here, yep, right here, to jump straight to that post. Since cutting my hair short, it's primarily virgin now, and I don't struggle with hydrating and controlling any sort of crispy havoc to the degree that I used to. It was awful. It was the absolute worst trying to get it to do anything, ever, even with heaps of product in it. Now that it's back to its natural self, my life is easier, and quite sizably silkier. I've cut the number of products that I use in my hair by nearly half, and my heart, soul, and shriveled little college girl wallet are much happier for it.

In the shower:

Now that it takes hardly two minutes to get product through my hair (praise the l-rd above I am never having long hair again), I don't particularly care what kind of shampoo or conditioner I am using. Before, if it was even slightly wrong, my hair would become matted, crunchy, and dry. Even when I found a good one, my hair would acclimate to it after a few weeks and it would be useless. Fuck that noise, am I right?

Shampoo // I've been choosing shampoo mostly based on smell these days, and the Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Special Shampoo really shivers me timbers. I have seborrheic dermatitis (here's some information about it), and as a result I get these weird scales on the oily parts of my body, which includes my scalp. Tea tree oil does a mighty fine job at keeping those at bay, and it makes me smell vaguely like a christmas tree, which I enjoy very much.
Conditioner // To complement the minty delightfulness of my shampoo, I've stuck pretty loyally to the L'Oreal Everpure Moisture Conditioner. This stuff is sulfate free, which is neat all on its own, because it reduces build-up on my scalp and makes my dermatitis less likely to flare up; this also makes it optimum for co-washing, which I do every other day. You can read up about the co-washing technique at this link right here.
Deep Treatment // Sometimes I will toss in some of a deep conditioner with my normal one, or follow my first conditioning cycle with a second one. It's all need-based, and it depends on whether my hair has been feeling dry. When it is, I like to use the Pantene Pro-V 2 Minute Moisture Masque. It smells like jasmine and laundry detergent, and who the hell doesn't want to smell like that? It makes my hair soft and easy to finger-comb, and works nicely to prepare my hair for product.

Out of the shower:

These days, styling my hair is pretty simplistic. At long last. I look forward to it. I find joy in it. I sing little songs while I do it. It's fabulous.

My one product that I use, that's right--one product--is Garnier Fructis Style Deconstructed Move It Manipulating Gel. This stuff is absolut magic. It's a gel-cream hybrid, and it's sticky as all hell. In order to make it more spreadable, I add some water to the dollop in my hand so it doesn't gum up all in one place. I use a nickel sized dollop for each section of my hair, which is:

•  Right side (bangs) 

•  Back

•  Left side

Side note: this stuff smells like figs. I don't like figs. It fades, though.
I work that into re-wetted hair (because I usually dick around with my towel on my head while I do my makeup or wash my face), and twist uncooperative sections away from my face. If a section in the back is uncooperative, I split it into two one-inch sections and twist them towards each other. Repeat as necessary. I will never stop fiddling with my hair, it's a nervous habit I cannot seem to outgrow; however I try to touch it as little as possible. I air dry it, because the wind in the pacific northwest is usually enough to dry it within a couple of hours.

That's it, my little jellyfish. That's the "secret". People always assume that curly hair requires some sort of necromancy or virgin blood or unicorn tears in order to look nice. Sometimes it feels that way.

love, lex