Just a few things that helps me:
- Take note of the ingredients of all the products that are being used so that you can assess what elements your hair likes and dislikes. This will go a long way in helping to construct an effective, personalized regimen.
- Begin your journey by addressing your most pressing need (for me, it was combating dryness/maintaining moisture). Once you unearth a solution for that issue, it will allow for other, more obscured needs to present themselves. Eventually, your focus will shift from damage control to maintenance as your hair’s health improves.
- Sort the hair products according to their function (i.e., deep conditioner, moisturizer, leave-in conditioner, heat protectant, etc.) and constituent parts. In general, this will determine when, why and how each product will be used.
- Acquaint yourself with the various types of proteins and moisturizing elements, as well as their function. This is a crucial aspect of the regimen building process.
It is also important to keep in mind that the vast majority of hair products will fall somewhere on the moisture-protein continuum. What will determine a product’s place on that spectrum will be its ingredient list and where those ingredients fall within that list, e.g., a conditioner that contains wheat protein (moisture) as its 7th ingredient and hydrolyzed keratin (protein) as its 2nd ingredient will be classified as being a protein conditioner with some moisturizing properties.
And, of course, whenever there is doubt, Google that sucker to death.
I hope this helps!
