Personalized Hair Care

I have come across a lot of questions online related to choosing the right products for hair growth (e.g conditioners, shampoo, hair and scalp treatment). Every woman seems to be looking for that "magic in a bottle", which simply doesn't exist.  I have found that the only "magical" thing that is going on for these women with beautiful "locs" is their never ending commitment to maintaining and pampering their hair (some of these women out here are SERIOUS about their hair!). More importantly, there doesn't seem to be any one hair product that can do everything you need. Speaking from experience I have had to use a number of products to achieve the look I was trying to create, which may even require me to add additional stuff (e.g. oils) to various products to make my hair behave.

Finding the right products that worked for my hair was not an easy thing to achieve. Creating a regimen is even harder. My hair has various needs depending on the weather and my stress level at the time. Oh yes, stress seems to be impacting my hair in a negative way. So a lot of my hair success (and disasters) have been achieved through trial an error and borrowing ideas from other women.

In a previous post (Back to Basics) I have already shared ways you can encourage successful hair growth, but I thought I would spend some time discussing the way I've streamlined my products and fine tune my hair regimen. Tons of women have shared their secrets on hair growth online--and I have been so appreciative. Time to pay it forward.

So this is where I began:

1. Create a chart that will help you organize the products your using. Some women like to use a journal, go right a head if that is what you prefer. I persoanlly found that when I have the information all together on one page it has helped me a lot more than flipping through various pages to see what I did/didn't do. I have organized my chart by product type (e.g. shampoos, conditioners) which has been helpful to me. 
2. Your chart should have five columns which should include: Product Used, How Much Used, Additions, Issues trying to Address and Comments:

Product  (e.g. AOHR)	How Much (e.g. 2 tbsp)	Additions (e.g. EVCO, EVOO)	Issue Address (e.g. dryness, breakage)	Comments (e.g. hair felt soft and moisturized)

These columns will help you examine what you are doing to your hair and the way each product is responding to your hair. Does 1/4 vs 1/8 cup of Sweet Almond Oil make my hair moisturized or does it make it feel slick and greasy? Does your hair feel dry or mushy after using a particular shampoo or conditioner?

3. Be VERY specific about how much product you are using and what you are doing with it (e.g. 2 tbsp of jojoba oil mixed in 1/2 cup of Aubrey's GPB Conditioner). It may sound silly, but I have found that if I am even 1 tbsp off with a particular product my hair responds differently.
4. Document how your hair feels before, during,  immediately after and a few days after using a product. What do you notice, if anything?
5.  Measure your process and document any changes in hair in the "Issues Trying to Address" category. This section will be filled in over time as your hair grows and in between shampoos.
6. Use the product long enough to give it a chance.

I know this may feel a little time consuming in the beginning, but I found has been so helpful. Not only did it save me money because I was only buying and using products that proved to work for MY hair, I discovered I had much more room under my cabinet than I thought as I began throwing away the crap that wasn't working. More importantly my hair was finally growing! For years I would be using a product because everyone swore by it, only to find it completely ruined my hair, but I wasn't in touch with my hair enough to know before it was too late. This problem was usually masked because 1) I was using to much crap to begin with so it was hard to tell what product specifically was messing up my hair or 2) I just wasn't paying attention. Trying this method will slow you down a lot and force you to pay attention to what is going on with your hair.