My Hair Care Routine

I feel 100% confident that my best hair days are behind me because I have AWESOME pregnancy hair and I don’t think there is anything I could ever do that would match how thick, long, and excellent my hair is when I’m growing a baby.

Still, I like my hair to look as good as possible even without all those hormones pumping through my system and I ALSO want it to be easy and not something I have to spend a lot of time thinking about.

It takes me about five minutes total to do my hair every day and when I mentioned a few weeks ago on Instagram that I only wash my hair every 7-10 days, I got an incredible number of questions about it.

I have to say, I feel a little uncomfortable talking about this because hair is not at ALL my area of expertise. I’ve basically just stumbled onto a hair care routine that works for me and I’ve just run with it.

Here’s what my hair care routine looks like like.

The first thing is that when I DO wash my hair, I’ve been using the Babe Locks hair care line. I started using it this spring and I’m VERY happy with it.

I feel like I’ve had more good hair days than I’ve ever had in my life and after nearly a decade of washing my hair only once a week, I now routinely go up to 10 days because it just keeps looking good day after day.

Here are the products I’ve been using: 

• Densifying Shampoo
• Glossy Rinse
• Densifying Conditioner
• Densifying Hair Serum (use the code JANSSEN on any of their products) I put this on at night 2-3 times a week while we’re watching a show.

For most of my growing up and all through college and grad school, I washed my hair every other day. I LOVED the days I didn’t have to wash it because it was so fast to get ready and dreaded the days where I had to wash it.

Once Ella was born, I was more rushed for time to get ready so I started going two days between washes. And within a year or two, it’d stretched to washing it only once a week. My hair gradually adjusted each time I added another day and now the idea of washing it every other day seems absolutely absurd to me – I’d be missing so many good hair days!

I personally care zero how often you wash your hair, so if you want to stick to daily or every other day washing, go right ahead. But if you’re looking to go longer between washes, know that your hair will likely adjust to it within a few weeks and produce less oil because you’re not stripping it all out every time you wash it.

As far as going so long between washes, the most common questions were:

• Do you still get your hair wet on days you don’t wash it? Nope. The whole point for me in washing my hair so infrequently is so I don’t have to deal with drying and styling from scratch, so getting it wet without washing it would defeat the whole point. I don’t use a shower cap, either – I just don’t put my head under the shower head and it stays dry.
• Do you work out? Yes! I work out six days a week, either going to the gym, running or doing a Healthy U TV class at home. And yes, I get a little sweaty and then it dries and it’s no big deal. It’s not like my hair is soaking wet from root to tip – it’s just around my hairline that gets sweaty.
• Doesn’t your hair smell? No. Both Bart and I are very sensitive to smells (I’ll notice in a heartbeat if a towel is a little bit mildewy and Bart will notice if I haven’t brushed my teeth well or if my deodorant isn’t quite doing its job and has no qualms about telling me), so I guarantee you that if my hair smelled bad, I would know. It doesn’t smell at all!
• Do you use dry shampoo? I use it maybe once a week (if that. . . I’d say I use it about 2x a month). I know that dry shampoo can cause other issues and I don’t want to be dependent on it, so I really only use it if my hair is extra flat and needs a little volume boost.
• Do you have a hair styling schedule (like wearing a hat on the last days before you wash)? Not really. I usually keep it straight for the first few days after I wash it because it’s so fast and easy, plus it gives my hair a few days without heat. I rarely feel like my hair gets to a point where I need a hat to hide it and I think curling hides my hair issues WAY better than a pony does. So basically 2-3 days of straight hair and then 5-7 days of curled hair.

When it comes to actually styling my hair on a daily basis, here’s what that looks like.

On the day I wash my hair, I dry it with this Hot Air Brush (which I love and prefer over any blow dryer). I leave it straight that day and usually keep it from being too frizzy or fly-away at the ends with this Rejuvabeads serum.

I’ve also gotten religion in the past few years about using heat protectant when I blow-dry or curl my hair and I use this one.

After a few days of straight hair, I start curling it every day until I’m ready to wash it again.

I use a L’ange Curling Wand (25 mm) that I bought a couple of years ago and I’ve been happy with it. It takes me about 10 minutes to curl my hair the first day because it’s just stick straight and then after that it takes me about 5 minutes to re-curl it each morning.

When I DO use dry shampoo, I use this one for the very important reason that they sent me three free bottles probably two years ago and I’m still only on the second bottle.

I also really really love the Powder Play volumizing and texturizing powder. I used the same bottle for literally five years. When it FINALLY ran out last year, I tried the Hairtage Magic Texturizing Powder and I haven’t liked it nearly as much but I haven’t bothered to replace it with the one I like better yet.

Anyway, there are all the things I use in my hair – I’m always trying to find a good balance of taking care of my hair and having it look good without making it too complicated. Right now, this feels like a pretty good balance!

Any questions about my hair care routine? Happy to answer!

 

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