Long Healthy Relaxed Hair Pyramid - A Regimen At A Glance

Just like diets, it’s difficult if not impossible to create a one size fits all approach to relaxed hair care. Even with tools and example regimens already on the website the endless questions I was still getting told me that the subject hadn’t been covered well enough.

Better is this pyramid below that shows at a glance what you should be doing daily, weekly monthly etc for the health and length of your relaxed hair growth. The pyramid by no means encompasses all aspects of relaxed hair health but it does give you a general overview on what is needed to create a good regimen.

Click Image To Enlarge

Share the graphic on your website!

You will notice that I have not included mid week co-washes here. This is because I don’t think that they are completely necessary during the grow out phase of hair care as they encourage more manipulation than is necessary. You can certainly include them in your regimen once you get to your goal length.

Here’s a quick rundown of the pyramid contents.

Daily

• You should moisturize and seal daily or at least every other day depending on your hair’s needs.
• Drink water daily, this helps with optimal skin and hair health.
• Take your vitamins daily for maximum effect if you have opted to use them in your regimen.
• Style your hair with your fingers only!
•  Green house effect (GHE) some people add this to their regimen daily to increase hair growth.
•  Accessorize daily to avoid getting bored with protective styling!
•  Wear a satin bonnet* nightly or alternatively sleep on a satin or silk pillowcase.

Weekly

•  This is your wash day so pre-poo before your wash to prevent hygral fatigue.
•  Preferably choose sulfate free shampoos to wash your hair or skip the shampoo step all together.
•  Deep condition preferably with heat and alternate your protein and moisturizing deep treatments.
•  Steam treatment – You can do this every other week instead of weekly but don’t bother with the steam when you do a protein DC.
•  Scalp massage – Optimally you should do this daily but if you skip it, give your scalp a good massage while you wash your hair.
•  Combs and brushes should only be used on your wash day. Detangle GENTLY from ends to roots.

Monthly

•  Protective style for a least 3 weeks out of every month for the best length retention.
•  These protective styles can also be installed/redone monthly too so take down the weave* or braids and redo them after giving your hair and scalp a good cleaning.
•  Protective styling can also be done by way of up-do’s or any other ‘no touch’ hairstyle.
•  Do your hot oil or other treatments like the caramel treatment or henna.
•  Depending on how many oil or silicone containing products you use, you may choose to clarify your hair monthly.

4-8 Weeks

•  Provided you are not protein sensitive you should do your hard protein treatment like Aphogee at around the 6 week mark.
•  Clarify your hair. At this stage you can break out sulfate containing shampoos or invest in a very good cleansing sulfate free one. This gets rid of all oils* and silicone residue you have accumulated in your strands over the last few weeks.
•  If you pay a stylist to do your braided installs and it would be too expensive for you redo them monthly you can certainly stretch them to 8 weeks but don’t go longer than this to avoid matting.

12+ Weeks

•  This is certainly open to interpretation but your relaxers should be at the very least 12 weeks apart, the usual 8 weeks just doesn’t cut it if you want long hair. Most long haired relaxed ladies do epic 20+ week stretches so you may or may not want to emulate that area of their regimen. Alternatively you could work your way up by increasing your stretches by a couple of weeks at a time. It’s easier than you think!

Occasionally

•  I’m sure y’all know this but your flat irons*, curlers, hand dryers or any other heated tools (except stand/bonnet dryers) should only be used OCCASIONALLY. This means for special events like your birthday or Auntie Sara’s wedding where you are the maid of honor not payday or a Tuesday! For everyday work or school hair you should either be roller setting or air drying.
•  Trim your hair only when needed. I think it’s ridiculous to trim your hair monthly just because your hairdresser says you should, particularly if you hair grows slowly. If you hair doesn’t need it then don’t trim, you can dust your ends when needed (clip individual strands when you see a split end) otherwise I leave it up to you to decide your own trimming schedule.

Here is the long healthy natural hair pyramid!