How to create a hair care routine for short natural hair

“If my hair is short, I do not need to take care of it.”

 WRONG!

You always need to take care of your hair, even at its infancy. Think of taking care of your hair as a lifestyle rather than a stage you need to go through in order to grow your hair.

The good news is, taking care of short hair is way easier compared to taking care of long hair.

 In fact, it hardly feels like a routine at all because you won't need to do a lot to you hair.

Let’s discuss a little about hair care routine.

Note: this article is about pre-TWA length hair.  The stage where your hair is so small, all you can do is pat your it.

What is a hair care routine?

A hair care routine (or regimen) is created to ensure consistent efforts to take care of your hair. 

It would be something that repeats in a chosen time interval, e.g. every five days or every month. 

There are some aspects of a hair care routine that must be done daily. 

It is all up to you though, you must pay attention to your hair and use products accordingly.

 

Important note: When it comes to natural hair or hair in general, there is no definitive gospel, you are the expert when it comes to your own. Trailing and experimenting will point you toward the right hair care routine for you. 

That is why this is a guide. 

It offers the basics of hair care and an example that worked for me. Everything can be perfectly adapted to fit you, your lifestyle, and … your pocket.

 

Do you need a routine for short hair?

Some people feel like because they have short hair, they do not have to follow through a hair care routine.

 At some point, I felt that way too.

However, this is not true. Your hair needs to be tended to from its infancy. And like I said before, it does not have to be a very elaborate process. It just needs to be consistent.

 

Why it is important to have a hair care routine even with short hair

•  If you want healthy and manageable hair, it is easy to start cultivating it when you do not have too much of it to deal with.

• You can experiment and find the right products for your texture without wasting too much money buying products that your hair will eat up in a heartbeat, and then doesn’t even work for your hair.

• You gain the discipline that will be much-needed later-on when your hair is long and requires time, willingness and patience

To put it simply, if you want your hair to grow healthy, you are going to want to start taking care of it in its infancy.

Let’s take a look at what goes into a hair care routine.

 

What should be in a hair regimen?

A basic hair care routine must be divided into two: Wash days and weekdays (any other day other than WASH DAY).

 

Wash day is exactly as the name implies, a day you set aside to properly wash your hair. This can be once every 3 days, once a week, or even once a month.

 

Your weekday routine would entail everything you do between wash days (doesn’t necessarily have to be on the weekdays).

 

There is a third category which is treatment day. This is when you give your hair a boost in nutrients for growth, volume, curls, etc.

 You infuse your hair with whatever supplements it needs. This option can fall anywhere under the first two categories.

 

I’m only going to give two treatments in this article, however, there are a lot of treatments to choose from depending on what you want to get from them. 

You may go and research further on treatments if you wish to include them In your routine, but you may as well decide not to do any treatments and it could be fine at this stage.

 

Let’s take a closer look at the two categories.

 

Wash days 

The wash day process: Shampooing, Conditioning, and deep conditioning, and moisturizing.

 

•  You obviously need a shampoo for wash days since what you’d be doing is washing your hair. 

•  You need a conditioner and a deep conditioner to add in moisture since shampooing basically sweeps your scalp free of dirt and much-needed oils.

• You will then need to moisturize your hair and lock in the moisture. For this, you’ll need a moisturizer or butter of your choice and an oil.

 

Check out  what's in my products  to see what ingredients to look out for when buying hair products.

You may also co-wash your hair between wash days. 

Co-washing is when you use a conditioner or a co-wash instead of a shampoo to wash your hair. 

This means less moisture is stripped from your hair during the process and hence, not much re-moisturizing is required. 

This cuts down your wash time significantly.

Weekday

Now you must maintain your hair, making sure not to starve it of moisture and to avoid getting split ends.

Moisturization

To keep your hair moisturized, you apply water, a moisturizer, and then oil. 

This is the LCO method of moisturization. 

There are two methods of moisturization, LCO (Liquid or leave-in conditioner, Cream then Oil)and LOC(Liquid or leave-in conditioner, oil, then cream). 

You can read more here.

You can do this every day or every other day, it’s up to you.

 

One thing that should be done every day is your night-time routine.

A night-time routine is how you ensure that your hair is protected and moisturized while you sleep.

 

Night-time routine

Your night-time routine can be as simple as applying an oil to your hair and then covering your head with a silk bonnet or scarf before you sleep. 

It is very important to cover your hair with a silk scarf or bonnet. Especially if you do not have a silk/satin pillowcase that will lessen the absorption of moisture from your hair by your pillow.

 

Morning routine

A morning routine will liven up your hair and give it moisture for the day. Here, you may use styling products such as curl activators or curling cream to bring out your curls. 

You may also just apply water, oil, and a moisturizer.

 

Example of a full regimen.

Here is an example of a full regimen.

 

Wash day routine (once every week)

• Shampoo with Tresemme Botanics aloe shampoo

• Deep condition (15 min) with Originals olives deep conditioner

• Rinse off and apply My natural hair leave-in conditioner and follow it up with black Jamaican castor oil.

 

Co-wash whenever necessary (anytime between wash days)

• Wash hair with Aunt Jackie's purify me moisturizing co-wash cleanser.

• Moisturize with as I am double buttercream and follow it up with oil.

 

Weekday routine

• Apply water and Amla oil mix to hair daily

• Apply as I am double buttercream

• At night, wrap hair with a silk scarf.

As I said, this can be adapted to suit your lifestyle. You can try out any products and make your very own routine. 

If you are looking to implement treatments as well, here is where I recommend you start. 

TREATMENTS

Hot oil treatment

Hot oil treatment is a luxury for hair. It will strengthen and prevent dry and brittle split-ends-prone hair. 

These all attributes to enhanced healthy hair growth.

Protein treatment

A protein treatment is very useful when your hair looks dull and weighed down. It rejuvenates your hair strands and strengthens it. 

Protein treatments must be done in moderation or when needed because too much may cause more harm than good. 

For a more detailed look into products and their ingredients click here.

 

Just to recap, a basic hair care routine must be as follows

• Must have a day dedicated to properly washing hair and moisturizing it.

• Include a daily routine for moisturization and moisture loss prevention.

That is all for the pre-TWA hair care routine. It really does not take a lot of effort and you

create and adapt it to suit you.

 So there is no reason to groan when you think about creating a hair care routine. As you have seen, it’s not always overbearing.