My hair is mega long. Like when it’s straightened, the longest layers are at or past my waist. It’s long and it’s thick – every hair stylist I’ve ever gone to has been like “shew girl, you got some hair.”
I haven’t always kept my hair long, but I’ve had it this long twice. The first time was as I was leading up to my (first) wedding. I wanted it long for wedding pictures, but I didn’t really have a routine for hair care outside of brushing, washing & conditioning, and styling it. I wasn’t in the habit of really spending time or money on my hair to keep it healthy, so it was the hot mess express. I actually ended up with a pretty serious knot before my wedding, and my parents (yes, both mom and dad) had to help me get it out so I wouldn’t have to hack my hair before the big day.
Once I was married, I did like a lot of girls do after a big life change, and I got it hacked short – like shoulder length.
When I became pregnant with my son a few years later, I was already in the process of growing it out, and it was already what most would call medium-long in length. Having my little one actually dried my hair out a lot, so my entire pregnancy and still to this day after, I don’t have to wash my hair except every 5 to 7 days. (Kinda a great push present, honestly.)
You might think that I sound like the kind of girl who would go get it chopped again when the divorce happened, since I was so eager to change things with a relationship life stage previously, but I was bound and determined to keep my long hair. I love my mermaid hair, so it was staying, even if my husband was not.
I did start investing in way better hair care, though. I decided I wasn’t going to wear it up all the time, and I wasn’t going to skimp on my products, either. (Not to say I spend a ton on hair products, but there was a lot of financial control in my marriage, and I was on such a strict budget each month that I didn’t have extra money to invest in a lot of the things I had wanted to try for my personal care. Looking back, that’s really unhealthy and should have been a red flag, but hindsight is 20-20, and I can devote a whole separate post to that in the future, if you’re interested.)
All of that to say that when I was finally on my own and responsible for my own finances, I started making sure I could afford reasonably priced hair care items. I wanted something that was set aside for me, and that seemed like a reasonable priority to have, and I’ve kept up with it pretty well since then.
I’ve gotten into the habit of deep conditioning my hair every couple weeks. A few weeks ago now, I posted a few pictures from an adventure to an old prison in East Tennessee with my boyfriend (LINK TO FB), and a few friends posted comments about my hair, and one suggested I try a tutorial-style post on my blog. So I took some pictures and a time lapse the last time I deep conditioned my hair and styled it after.
I admittedly have two different processes. When I’m going to wash my hair like normal, I use Not Your Mother’s Long & Strong Shampoo and Blue Sea Kale & Pure Coconut Water Conditioner. When I’m going to deep condition, I first wash with Aussie’s Miracle Volume Shampoo, then do the deep conditioning.
I’ve used a lot of different conditioner packets, and my all-time favorite is Palmer’s Coconut Oil Deep Conditioning Protein Pack. I can usually get 2 uses out of a packet, and with my long and thick hair, I think that’s pretty impressive. First, I suds up my entire scalp with the Aussie Miracle Volume Shampoo and wash like normal. Then, I only apply the Palmer’s Conditioner to the bottom half of my hair, so about earlobes down. I let this sit, then rinse it out after about 10-15 minutes. My hair immediately feels silkier and smells AMAZING.
After my shower, I let my hair towel dry. If I’m doing this in the morning, like I was this day, I let it towel dry while I do my makeup. If it’s in the evening, I’ll let it towel dry while I fold laundry, run the vacuum, work on a graduate school assignment or reading, or watch an episode of a sitcom. It really only needs to towel dry for like 20-30 minutes, since I always blow dry it too.
As you can see in the time lapse above, I blow dry my hair on high for a good little while (again, I have a ton of it). Once it’s fairly dry, I spray in some OGX Renewing Argan Oil of Morocco, just on the ends – similar to where I put the conditioner – to give it a little extra shine. I use the blow dryer on low this time and just make sure I can brush through it really smoothly. (Even if I’m just re-straightening my hair throughout the week when I’m not washing, I’ll often do a few sprays of the Argan Oil again. I think it really makes my hair look shiny and smooth and put together.)
Then, I separate my hair out into sections. I use an inexpensive hair claw-styled clip to pull the sections up that I’m not straightening yet. Something like this works really well. As I straighten it, I also use dry shampoo at the roots to give a little lift – and to keep me from having to wash my hair earlier than about 5 days. For a dry shampoo that works fairly well but is still affordable, I like Not Your Mother’s Beach Babe Texturing Dry Shampoo. You do have to brush through to diffuse some of the powdery spray, but it holds up really well for me.
As you’ll see, my toddler son felt he needed to make an entrance toward the end of my time lapse video. He really likes for me to do his hair when I’m doing mine, so I always share a spray of my detangler of choice, Not Your Mother’s Knotty to Nice detangler and then brush through his hair for him. This detangler is my favorite one that I use throughout the week when I’m not washing or conditioning my hair in the shower, so I definitely recommend it if you have long hair that you wear in a messy bun often.
The final step for me, before doing a final brush through but after I’ve finished straightening my hair, is to protect my ends from too much damage. Let’s be honest – most of us aren’t getting our trimmed as often as we need to (I’m world’s worst at this) even when there isn’t a pandemic raging around us. So while COVID-19 is running the show, with salons requiring masks and it being harder than ever to prioritize your hair’s health, your ends are gonna be SPLIT. So this product is one that a stylist recommended to me, and I absolutely love it and think it makes a huge difference in my hair health. Strong Sexy Hair Seal the Deal is a split-end mending product made with aloe that really makes your ends appear smooth and uniform. I can’t recommend this enough, seriously.
So that’s my straight-hair tutorial for long hair! What do you do with your long hair? Do you have favorite products that I should try? Comment below!
Kate with a Twang 