My Hair Care & Curling Routine
As I say all the time, you guys are all so wonderful and I am always getting the most wonderful compliments and questions on social media about my hair care and routine. So as promised, today I am sharing my crazy lion mane and posting images that I never thought I would show anyone. Ever. Yes, my hair pre-flat iron and curling iron craziness. I swear that every single time I brush my hair post “natural drying”, Mark gives me the same wide eyed stare. Yes babe, my hair really does get this huge. Every single time. God blessed me with a ton of hair but I am not going to lie…it’s also a ton of work. Although I have a lot of hair, each strand is actually really fine so that makes it extra tricky.
So before I get started with my washing/drying/straightening/curling process let me say that I am NOT a hair stylist, NOT a cosmetologist and most definitely NOT a hair care professional. I am simply a girl with a head full of hair that has my own system of caring for it as a busy mommy, designer and blogger.
Now I will give you my “tricks” on caring for, growing and maintaining all this hair! Oh and I have linked ALL of my go-to hair care products and styling tools at the bottom of this post.
1.Biotin- I swear by taking 10,000mcg of Biotin every single day. Unfortunately I have a health condition that prevents me from taking some vitamins (as strange as that sounds, it is indeed true) so I simply take plain ol’ Biotin.
2. I absolutely do not wash my hair everyday. And although you are probably thinking, well lucky her!, I swear you can train your hair to do the same. I really think that your natural hair oils keep it healthy and strong if you wait at least every other day to wash and dry. I wash mine…eeek… once or twice a week. It is so very dry and honestly hardly ever gets oily. Believe me, if I had to do all of this daily, a baseball cap would become my very best friend.
3. I do not blow dry my hair. Say what?!? Yes, indeed it is true. I let my hair air dry when I wash it, usually at night, and then I do the process I share below the following morning. I try and save it from as much heat damage as possible.
4. Lay low on the bleach. Although my hair is naturally super duper dark, I prefer for it to be light and bright around my face. I used to get full highlights and then started to wonder why my hair never seemed to grow long. Once I started just doing a partial and leaving most of the back and all of the underneath dark, it started the grow like a weed. Bleach is not a girl’s best friend. I can promise you.
Now onto the craziness. Beware… you’re about to say WOAH…
1.As I mentioned above, I almost always wash my hair the night before. I brush through it with a Wet Brush several times to tame the curls and then that is all!
2. The following morning, I brush through it all really good first…
3. Next I section it off leaving about 1/6 of my hair down underneath to get started…
4. Although I have tried and tried to omit this step and use my curling wand entirely, I do flat iron my hair about 1/3-1/2 the way down from the root loosening my grip as I go down…
5. Next, starting about where I left off the the flat iron, I start wrapping my hair around the wand all the way to the bottom and then wrap the rest of the way up to my roots. Yes, I should use a heat glove and you should definitely use a heat glove but I almost never do.
6. Once I let out the curl from the wand I hold it until it cools to maintain a tight curl…
7. Continue the above steps section by section…
And here are my go-to hair care products and styling tools…
XOXO, Brittany Hayes
Tori says
Sounds like my hair exactly. I just stop with the straightener. I’m not very good with a curling iron. Most people I know think I have this long shiny perfectly straight hair.
Katherine B says
Thanks for sharing! You have given me some great ideas! A few additional questions for you…. do you workout much? And do you ever use a dry shampoo? I find that my head can be pretty sweaty after a good workout and therefore usually end up washing it every day. My daughter only washes her hair once a week and uses dry shampoo the rest of the time, but she also doesn’t work out much. I am wondering if I will just have to resign myself to continuing the daily washings. Any experience here? Thanks!
Debbie says
Brittany, you don’t use a mousse or hair spray? I used to use mousse before styling like the way you do and my hair looked full of body. However, that’s when I washed my hair every other day because otherwise it would be crunchy on outside but oily on the inside. Now I wash 2x a week but don’t use any mousse and minimal hair spray if needed. My hair is shiny, smooth and soft to the touch. It doesn’t get oily because I think my hair is now used to it. I just wish it’s full bodied like when I used mousse. I’ll have to try Biotin and see if it will help.
To Katherine, I work out every day and I also thought I needed to shampoo often because I would get sweaty scalp. After going to 2x a week washings my scalp/hair got used to it. By the 4th or 3rd day I normally wear my hair in a bun, pony tail, braid, or pinned back just because it’s no longer as fluffy. This is my experience anyway.
Katherine B says
Debbie – thanks for the input! I will have to do some experimenting
icc world t20 says
Amazing blog! Do you have any recommendations for aspiring writers?
I’m hoping to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out
there that I’m completely overwhelmed .. Any recommendations?
Thanks a lot!
five nights at freddy's says
I will make sure to bookmark it and come back to learn extra of your helpful info. Thank you for the post. I will definitely comeback.
Stacey says
We have very similar hair types! Have you ever tried hot rollers instead of a curling wand? I used to do your same routine (even straightening first to tame curls/frizz) but a friend introduced me to a multi-size hot roller set and it was LIFE CHANGING! Cut down the routine and I even like the look of my curls better. I no longer have to straighten first. I think my set is discontinued by Tigi BedHead but there are a lot of similar sets. What I love about it is while my hair sets in curlers I can do my make-up or other tasks so it helps the morning routine all-around.
Brittany Hayes says
Well dang, I may have to try that!!! Thanks so much for sharing!
Gabriella @ MagicInMotionHair says
Just run into your blog today, It is very helpful thanks for sharing you haircare routine, definitely gonna apply soon!
Kelly says
What a great everyday routine! I’ll definitely be taking tips from this! I often have a very busy schedule, so I LOVE using products like dry shampoo and sculpting taffy! Totally transforms my bed-head, and gets me ready for a day of full hair!