Has your hair ever been so difficult to manage that you had —what feels like— a never-ending bad hair day? I’m not talking about your hair not cooperating for a day or two, but I mean weeks and even months of your hair just not doing what you need it to do, at all.
You try a twist out and it’s way too frizzy; You go for a wash and go, and humidity makes a joke out of you! Heck, even your protective styles ain’t protective styling like they really need to. No matter how much we care for our hair, we all have those moments where it’s just…difficult. Plain and simple.
But don’t worry! Just because your hair is being difficult doesn’t mean that it’s a lost cause! In fact, there are a few things you can do to get it together! Here’s how to recover from that extended bad hair day.
Try a hot oil treatment.
When it comes to managing difficult hair, hot oil treatments are truly underrated! Sure, deep conditioning brings you tons of hydration and moisture, but working with hot oil is how you get both moisture and strength for your scalp, roots, and hair strands.
You can use whichever oils that work best for you—jojoba, sweet almond, coconut, argan, carrot, and the like—and safely heat it up using one of the two most effective methods:
- Hot Water Method: Pouring all of your oils into a heat-safe glass or plastic container with a top and then sitting it in a bowl of super hot water for a few minutes. This is safer than directly warming up the oil on the stove or in the microwave because it’ll prevent the oil from getting way too hot for your scalp.
- Shower Cap Method: This is the easiest technique because all you have to do is put the oil directly on your hair, cover your head with a plastic bag or shower cap, and evenly apply heat to the outside of the cap for 15-30 minutes.
No matter what route you take, a hot oil treatment will tackle difficult-to-manage hair by going directly to the source of the problem: the scalp and roots. Thus, it’s the perfect option for finally getting dry, brittle, and frizzy hair under control.
Hit it with a full-blown protein treatment.
Does your hair ever feel gummy? You know, shedding and breaking every time it’s wet, easily becoming weighed down when you apply products, and looking lifeless and limp even after it’s fully dried. If so, this is a sign that the “difficult” hair you’re talking about actually just needs some tender love and care in the form of protein.
This is where protein treatments, like ApHogee, come in. Often times, they’re two-step treatment where you strengthen your hair with a protein mask in the first step and then deeply moisturize and hydrate in the second step.
This, along with with healthy habits like drinking water, upping your protein intake with lean meats and vegetables, and taking vitamins will help your hair bounce back quickly.
Change your styling tools.
Sometimes the problem isn’t your hair—it’s the styling tools you’re using. Everything ain’t for everybody, and this could very well be the case for your combs and brushes. Perhaps that wide tooth comb and denman brush combo you love isn’t hitting like you think it is.
Or maybe it’s time to give that hard-bristle brush a break and use something softer to bring out your definition. Whatever it may be, try switching up the types of hair supplies you use to style your hair and I bet the whole process will become a lot less difficult.
And to be clear, you don’t have to change your styling tools completely! Of course you still need combs, brushes, rollers, rods, and the like, but consider the shapes, sizes, and purposes of each and every tool you use and rethink how you utilize them all.
Just let it be.
While this is the easiest step to perform, it’s also the most difficult to accept mentally. Sometimes our hair isn’t meant to be manipulated into what we want it to be, sometimes it’s just supposed to be left exactly how it is. And that’s perfectly okay.
This doesn’t mean to just not do your hair at all. It just means you don’t need to try so hard to make your hair be something that it isn’t necessarily cut out to be. Take a deep breath and acknowledge that your hair isn’t difficult—it just is.
