Hair Hair everywhere... (my hair care routine)

Hair Hair everywhere

How I take care of my crazy, curly hair. 

Just to let you know, most of the products I use come from the UK store BodyCare and you cannot see their products online so I'm afraid that I cannot link them for you, sorry about that.  

There is no denying that my hair is crazy, curly around 95% of the time. I blame the fact that I am both part Scottish and part Irish and therefore it's down to my genes (that also explains why I'm a redhead). Anyway, it has taken me many years to accept just how my hair looks and the right way to take care of it. 

Now you may be asking "but Abbie, how does your hair link to your anxiety and mental well-being?". Well you see, when I was around 6/7 years old, for whatever which we still don't know to this day, my hair was falling out to the point where I had bald spots on my head and I would wake up to clumps of hair on my pillow. The only solution to this was to have my remaining hair cut very short to give my hair a chance to grow back as the thick mess it was. This luckily worked but it affected me in a way I didn't think it would and I ended up not having my hair cut again until I was 12 out if fear of it getting thin and short again. I'm happy to say that this is no longer the case (but I still only get a trim around once a year) and that now I spend a lot of time on my hair. When it comes to helping with my anxiety disorder, my hair is usually the first thing people notice about me and therefore I like to make an effort so that people get a good first impression of me and honestly, when my hair is looking good, I feel good and confident so improves my mood and makes me feel like I can take on the day. (I really hope that all makes sense, I'm not even 100% sure myself if it does lol).

So now that I've explained all that, let's get on with seeing how I care for my hair and I away, take care of myself and my mental well-being.

Step 1: I like to wet my hair and apply my argan oil (something I really like to use to add moisture) hair mask on it to leave on for a minimum of 2 hours before washing my hair. Now the label on the mask says to only leave on for 5 minutes but because of just how dry my hair can get so anything to add and lock in moisture is a win in my book. 
 (left -the mask I use
right- me with the mask on, featuring awkward posing, something you'll see a lot in this post)











Step 2: once the mask has been in my hair for at least 2 hours, I was like to condition and then shampoo my hair. Yep, you read that right. I condition and then was my hair. After I have rinsed out the hair mask, I put A LOT of conditioner onto my hair and leave it on for around 5 minutes, to help my hair to get more moisture, while I wash my body. I then rinse that out and then shampoo my hair. It may seem weird to some of you but I like to shampoo after I condition so that the shampoo washes out any conditioner residue left in my hair so that the curls don't get weighed down by it. If you find that you often have residue left in your hair after conditioning it, I would definitely recommend trying this reverse method out. 
(left- the shampoo and conditioner I use, centre- me straight out of the shower with my micro fibre towel around my hair, right- how my hair looks after being in the towel for around 10 minutes). 












Step 3: after I have washed my hair and left it in the towel for around 10 minutes, I put a leave-in conditioner into my hair and at the moment I am using one that I made to help hair keep its curl. I then do something called "plopping" where I literally "plop" (best word ever) onto the top of my head and tie a silk scarf around it which I then sleep in (I always do my hair at night, imagine trying to do all this in a morning). I like to use a silk scarf around for my hair because as many people with curly hair know, you don't brush it and using silk really helps to minimise any breakage there may be in the hair, especially while sleeping so it doesn't rub against the cotton fibres in pillow casings. 
(left- the leave in conditioner I use, right- me looking as fabulous as ever as I walk around my house with my hair polped on top of my head and a big, bright silk scarf wrapped around it).



















Step 4: I enjoy the glorious curls that I have been blessed with and I have spent so long on.


And that does it for my hair care routine and how looking after my hair helps me with my confidence and my anxiety. As always if you have any questions be sure to comment below, follow my blog to see my future posts and share this with someone you think it might help.

Stay happy, stay healthy, from Abbie xx

Comments

  1. I'm in the process of writing a hair related post as well. My hair loves Argan Oil too! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wish I had seen this before cutting my hair...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your curls are popping. Love it

    ReplyDelete

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