Finding a hair care routine that suits your hair type can be challenging, especially when you add problems like dryness and breakage. It doesn’t matter if you like to curl your lovely locks or prefer pin-straight hair; you’ll need a hair care routine that gives hair shine and luster all week long.
Whatever your hair needs are, there’s a routine that will keep it healthy and vibrant. We chatted with top hair care experts to help you optimize your 7-day hair care routine and get nourished, healthy hair. Here’s what you need to know.
How to Build a 7-Day Hair Care Routine
Your hair type, style, and concerns are the key factors that will shape your grooming routine. By truly understanding these aspects of your hair, you can craft ideal hair care habits that work best for you, empowering you to take control of your hair care routine.
Know Your Hair Type
Hair typically falls into one of four categories and will be thick, coarse, or fine:
- Straight
- Wavy (type 2a to 2c)
- Curly (type 3a to 3c)
- Coily/kinky (type 4a to 4c)
You’ll need to consider common hair concerns for each hair type and find the best products. For example, those with straight hair often experience greasy roots and weighed-down hair due to excess oil traveling easily down hair strands.
Identify Specific Hair Concerns
Many people have problems with frizz, dryness, a flaky scalp, breakage, or damaged strands. Once you identify the issue, add products that treat them to your weekly hair care routine.
Those with dyed, bleached, or chemically processed hair should give extra consideration to products and search for moisturizing, gentle grooming products. Folks with dyed hair are encouraged to avoid washing it daily to prevent color fading.
What’s Your Hairstyle?
Your hairstyle can also affect your hair care routine. Do you let your hair dry naturally, or are you always short on time and blast an air dryer on it? Men and women who use hot styling tools should add an extra step to their routine and apply products that protect against heat damage.
The Best Basic 7-Day Hair Care Routine
Your hair care routine will be unique to you because there are so many different hair types and issues. That said, there are a few simple steps that everyone should follow.
For most hair types and concerns, you should follow this basic hair care routine every two to four days. Ideally, you should follow the complete seven-day hair care routine below up to two times per week. Remember, this routine is flexible and can be adjusted to suit your lifestyle and hair needs, relieving any potential feelings of overwhelm.
Basic 7-Day Hair Care Routine (Two to Three Times Per Week)
- Cleanse. Shampooing your hair and scalp removes excess oil, product build-up, and dead skin cells. Use a gentle cleanser or hydrating shampoo like Blu Atlas Shampoo, which gets into the hair follicles and scrubs hair clean.
Most men and women should wash their hair about twice a week, and those with coily or kinky hair should co-wash it once a week.
- Condition. Always follow up with a hydrating conditioner that treats your hair concerns like frizz, dryness, and more. The right conditioner should inject hydration into the hair, leaving it feeling soft, slick, and not weighed down or greasy. Blu Atlas Conditioner restores moisture to your hair and works for all hair types.
- Lock in moisture. Folks who want to lock in extra hydration for their hair should use the two-step process of “moisturize and seal.” It’s ideal for coily and kinky hair that is typically dry and locks in moisture.
- Detangle, style, or protect. Now that your hair is clean and you’re out of the shower, you should detangle locks to minimize breakage, style, or protect your strands. When styling your hair, use hair products like volumizers or gel that give you your favorite hairstyle without weighing down the hair and making it look greasy.
Don’t forget to use heat protection spray when using hot styling tools.
- Spot-treat. A spot treatment is the time to treat problems like frizziness, an itchy scalp, or dryness. Use hair treatments that target your concern and use nourishing ingredients.
Best Products for a 7-Day Hair Care Routine
Because everyone’s hair type and concerns are unique, the products you’ll use in each step (listed above) vary widely. There’s no “perfect” product or tool that you must use. Instead, you’ll have to experiment with products to find ones that work for you and work well with a basic 7-day hair care routine.
- Products for cleansing and conditioning: Clarifying shampoo, daily shampoo, daily conditioner, leave-in conditioner, and deep conditioner.
- Products for locking in moisture: Hair lotion or hair oil.
- Products to detangle, style, and protect: Detangling comb or brush, detangling spray, detangling serum, mousse, pomade, dry shampoo, volumizer, gel, wax, serum, hair spray, and heat protection spray.
- Products to spot-treat: Protein treatment, scalp treatment, and hair masks.
Discovering the best products for your seven-day hair care routine is a journey of experimentation. You’ll need to test various items until you find something that enhances your hair's look and feel.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the best shampoo and conditioner for a 7-day hair care routine?
Always use a reliable cleanser and conditioner that removes excess oil and dead skin cells and ensures the hair stays healthy and vibrant. Use nourishing products like Blu Atlas Shampoo and Conditioner to keep hair strong and vibrant.
What’s a good weekly hair routine?
A good weekly hair routine includes cleansing, conditioning, moisturizing, styling, and treating hair up to two times per week. Wash your hair and follow this routine once every three to four days.
