Hair Care Routine

As the importance of skincare has blown up in the past few years, I often find hair health to take the backburner in self care routines. Here are some of the products and tools I use to keep my hair strong and managed. Each of them are cruelty free and vegan :)

Note: My hair is naturally thick and oftentimes dry so these are just products I've found to work for me :)

---

In Shower

Shampoo

After going back and forth between shampoos of different price points and promises, I realized the most import thing I had to look for was a product free from sulfates and parabens. As sulfates cause colored hair to fade, and parabens wear your hair down over time, this shampoo is perfect for anyone with color treated hair. Furthermore, Love Beauty and Planet recently came out with this shampoo in bar form, which I will definitely be purchasing to reduce my ecological footprint. My favorite part about this brand is their focus on carbon emissions. Love Beauty and Planet doesn't claim to be perfect, and for every carbon ton they produce, they donate $40 to help reduce emissions and landfill waste.

where to buy: https://bit.ly/3aLjqC0 (bottle) https://bit.ly/2RdjvGZ(bar)

company missions and donations: https://bit.ly/2JI4Mzm

Conditioner

Similar to Love Beauty and Planet, Soapbox is color safe and avoids sulfates and parabens. As a brand, Soapbox donates a bar of soap for each product purchased. Furthermore, the company strives to avoid competition with local businesses in the communities they donate to. I really encourage anyone looking for new brands of hair care to invest in companies that invest in our world.

where to buy: https://bit.ly/3bKQHgK

company missions and donations: https://bit.ly/3aNUcD8

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is an awesome natural product to use in hair for both moisture and hair growth. Although the type or brand of coconut oil isn't highly significant, I recently found Nutvia's squeezable coconut oil to be easiest to use. I apply coconut oil to my ends before my shampoo for a few minutes once a week. Better yet, this company's facility is zero waste, and they are connected with a series of climate conscious organizations.

where to buy: https://bit.ly/2V89zPU

company missions and donations: https://bit.ly/2wjOzgW

Styling

OIL

I've gone through a ton of different hair oils for styling, however, I find my hair to work best with this OGX weightless hydrating oil mist. I use this on the ends of my hair after air drying.

more on: https://bit.ly/39Op197

HOW I CURL MY HAIR

1) Evaluate your natural wave pattern. When curling my hair, I like to keep the amount of hair I curl to a minimum in order to avoid too much heat damage. When air drying my hair, the back pieces tend to wave up and crease, while the front stays fairly straight. Choose your barrel size based off the tightness of your pre-existing waves. If you don't have any wave to your hair, look up the tightness of the curl you want to achieve before choosing an iron.

2) Choose your iron. Even though I have tried both large and small barrelled irons, I find smaller irons tend to blend in with my hair more naturally. I use this $20 3/4 inch barrelled iron: https://bit.ly/3bTvp0k

3) Curl your hair. I usually take a few 2 or 3 inch sections of hair framing my face and curl them outward (I don't use the clip on the barrel, I just wrap the hair with my hand as if it was a wand). This is going to give the illusion of more blown out, natural waves. When I wrap the framing hair around the barrall, I wrap the it around once, hold it for 3 or 4 seconds, and then quickly wrap and unwrap the remaining hair. This is going to keep your hair out of your face and help it blend seamlessly. 

NO IRON? HEATLESS CURLS:
I think I've experimented with almost every method of heatless hair curling, but this is the one I've found to give curls most similar to that of my wand. Although it may sound odd, wrapping damp hair around the belt to your bathrobe can surprisingly make really pretty curls! There are tons of pinterest and youtube tutorials, however, I find them to come out best when avoiding tight curls. Instead, try to keep as much length to the spiral as possible.