Maintaining Those Luscious Locks: Conditioning

Today, we're talking hair. Long hair. I've talked about it before, but for those of you that haven't been around these parts: I've been growing my hair out for almost 3 years.. (probably a little bit longer, but I try not to remember the short haired years..) I've tried almost everything you can try to "grow your hair faster" and I can honestly tell you the one thing that helped, was not getting it cut all the time. But that's a different topic, today we're talking about conditioning that luscious mane, get it girl.

My hair and I have been through thick and thin together, and most of the time it lets me down so it's not exactly best friend material. But, I've learned some ways to beat it into submission.  I've always had super super super thick hair, seriously going bald is something I've never even contemplated, (knock on wood) but it's not always a blessing, there are so many other things going on, the weight of your hair isn't something you also want to have to worry about.  I've talked about pre-shampoo-ing before, but I'm going to go into more detail. Pre-Shampoo: There are tons of things you can use for this step, coconut oil has worked the best for me. You can use regular conditioner, but if it has a ton of silicone in it, it won't rinse out. Even when you wash it you'll have that didn't-rinse-your-hair residue feel. If you can't find coconut oil (or don't want to buy it because they only sell HUGE containers and you don't think you'll be able to use all of it, I know I've been there) you could even use olive oil. How to apply: There's two ways you could do this,  1) LAYER YOUR HAIR, even if you have thin hair this will help coat all the strands. (technical term: strands.) Take a quarter size amount, rub in between fingers to melt. Start closer to the end and run your oil coated fingers down the strands. I usually go up to about mid layer. I don't want the oil or conditioner (or whatever I'm using) on my roots, because that could be a disaster the next day. Re-layer and repeat until satisfied. Leave in for about 30 minutes to an hour, I do mine as soon as I get home and leave it in until I'm ready to shower.  The second way to do this is (messier, but) more effective I feel. I scoop some coconut oil out into a microwavable safe bowl and melt it. Once my hair is layered I dip the ends in the bowl all the way up to where I would normally stop the layer. After it's dipped, work the oil down almost like you're squeezing this out. I want to say this works because the heat is opening up the follicles but I don't think that's right because a) I'm not a scientist and b) pretty sure follicles are at the top of your head. It is what it is.  After you've pre-shampooed, wash it out, and use a regular (not deep conditioner or extremely hydrating) I use Tresemme damage control conditioner after I've washed the oil out. Once that's rinsed out and I've towel dried my hair I spray a leave in conditioner on my ends to keep them from splitting and frizzing.  On nights that I don't pre-shampoo, I wash my hair first, deep condition immediately after and let it sit while I finish showering. The last thing I do is rinse the conditioner and wash my face. When I don't pre-shampoo I use more leave in conditioner after I towel dry.  The key to frizz taming is condition condition condition. As much as you can. Do it all on one night and see how much better your hair feels the next day! Be careful not to put too much on your roots though, it won't be luscious, it'll be ludicrous.