Weekly Healthy Hair Wash Day Routine!

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel or welcome if you are new here. For today's video, we are going to be walking through my updated weekly hair wash routine. This has definitely been a top request over the past several months because if I'm remembering correctly, I think it's been close to a year now since my last wash day routine video. So totally understand why you guys wanted an update. It has been a while, but for the longest time, my routine was exactly the same as that video. So I didn't feel the need to update you guys, but now enough has changed to where I feel like it's time to give you an update, show you my new process from start to finish. Even though a lot of the steps that I shared in that last video are still exactly the same today. So if you would like to see my current once a week, healthy hair wash day routine, then you've come to the right spot and we're going to jump into that in a minute. But before we do, please don't forget to give this video a thumbs up, subscribe to my channel. If you haven't already click on that notification bell and drop a comment below letting me know how you are doing today. And also let me know which day of the week you do your wash day routine. That's always so interesting to me. I feel like it says a lot about where you're at in life. I don't know if that's just me, like how close it is to the weekend or if it's on the weekend. So let me know in the comments below, when do you wash your hair or maybe you do it a couple of times a week, but either way, thank you so much for doing all of those things because it really helps to support me with the YouTube algorithm. So I appreciate you so much for doing that. And as always, if you need anything from me, check out my description box below. I have Lightroom preset filters for editing your Instagram photos at my SPF merch, timestamps, discount codes, links to all the products that I'll be using in this routine in today's video and links to the rest of my favorite beauty products of all time. All right, let's jump into it. All right. So my wash day routine typically starts the night before I wash my hair with a pre shampoo oil treatment. This is something that I've been doing for a few years now, and I feel like it's really made a difference in the health of the links and ends of my hair. And there's tons of different reasons why I love to do this step, but I would say the three biggest reasons are that number one, it helps to minimize breakage when I am detangling my hair before washing. Number two, it helps to add some much needed additional softness and shine to my hair. And number three, it helps to protect my fragile links and ends from the damaging effects of shampoo and water on wash day. So the oil that I've been using the most often recently for this step is the OGX miracle coconut oil. So the one that says penetrating oil on it. And the reason why I like to reach for affordable oils for this step is because I'm using so much more product than I would be if I were just applying it as a leave-in oil. If I'm using a leave-in oil, I'm only using one to two pumps of product. Then I feel better about using something that is a little bit pricier. I would go through an expensive bottle of oil so, so quickly if I was using that for this step, because I use again, a lot of products. So I like affordable. I don't think that you can really go wrong when it comes to the oil that you're using. But for me personally, I like to look for oils that have both silicones and coconut oil in them. Silicones and coconut oil have tons of different benefits, but I would say for this specific purpose, the reason why I like to use oils with silicones is because silicones really help to add much needed slip to my hair to detangle. So that again, I'm not experiencing breakage while brushing before I wash my hair. I find that if I use an oil without silicones, I don't get nearly as much slip and detangling assistance. And then for coconut oil, again, there's so many different benefits, but it's such a great oil to protect your hair from shampoo and water because it helps to kind of film a coating on the hair that also helps to prevent the hair from protein loss. So I actually have two separate videos on both silicones and coconut oil, where I talk about all the science behind those ingredients, all of the benefits, everything that you need to know the truth about them because they are both very, I would say highly debated kind of controversial hair care ingredients, if you will. So if you would like to hear more about my thoughts on those ingredients and the science behind them, I will list both of those videos below for you. So again, I will use quite a bit of product for this step. I take a generous amount and apply it evenly all over the lengths and ends of my hair. This specific oil is pretty thick. So if you are using this one or any oil that is really thick, just be careful not to go overboard with it. Otherwise it will be a lot more difficult to get that to fully rinse away in the shower unless you're really, really massaging shampoo into the ends of your hair, which is something that I prefer to avoid just to again, protect the fragile links and ends that have already been through enough over the years. And again, I prefer to apply my pre shampoo oils the night before I wash, but if that doesn't work for you, I would say aim to apply them at least 10 minutes before washing. If not longer, let them sit in your hair and then you should be good to go. So I am still using and loving my pre shampoo oils, but I actually am not doing this before every single wash anymore, which I would say is the biggest change that I have made to this specific step in my routine. So I am using an oil like this every two to three washes in a row. And then on the third or fourth wash after that, I skip this step altogether because that is when I apply K-18, I'm going to explain more about my thought process behind that when we get to the K-18 step in this whole routine, but just know that whenever I'm applying that damage repair treatment, I am not applying a pre shampoo oil, otherwise I will always do this. All right, next is a completely new step that I have added to my routine and that is to apply a scalp treatment. This is a product category that I have been experimenting with depending on how my scalp is feeling each week. But because I am an infrequent washer, I find that my scalp typically responds really well to treatments that have a combination of gentle exfoliants and scalp soothers. So the treatment that I've been using the most lately is the Inkey List Salicylic Acid Exfoliating Scalp Treatment. This has a combination of 2% salicylic acid to exfoliate and reduce excess oils, panthenol to soothe and hydrate, and an ingredient called Fluidipure that is supposed to minimize redness and irritation. I like to apply this in sections on my scalp, so I will lift up my hair and kind of just dab it along my scalp, dab it along my scalp. That sounded weird. The Inkey List has since repackaged this, so it's now bigger and has a little nozzle on it that makes application a lot easier. So I will be purchasing that for sure once this is fully gone, which it almost is. But I like to apply this in sections and then massage it into my scalp for several minutes. Some weeks I will do this the night before I wash my hair along with my pre-shampoo oils. Other weeks I will just apply it the morning that I'm going to wash my hair and then shampoo it out several hours later in the afternoon. So I think depending on the type of scalp treatment that you're using, you can kind of experiment and figure out what works best for you as far as timing. But either way, this is a product that I have been really, really loving. I feel like it just makes my scalp feel so much more comfortable and it really helps to relieve itch, which is great. Okay, so I am almost ready to get in the shower. Not quite. First, I have to detangle my hair before even getting it wet so that I am minimizing the chance of getting even more tangles and snarls in the shower while shampooing. So I have a new brush. You guys are like, are you kidding? You show a new brush every video. I know, but I can explain. This was just because when I was at Ulta, the Wet Brush Pro was out of stock. So I was looking around trying to find something similar and found this. It is the Olivia Garden Styler. It's set up in the same way as the Wet Brush Pro with the soft boar bristles and then widely spaced plastic bristles, which is what I have found works best for me. And I don't know if I'm making this up, but I feel like it is even softer than the Wet Brush Pro, a little bit more comfortable to use. I don't know. I don't know if I should say that, but I do really love it. So I think either way, this brush, Wet Brush Pro, they're both great. Now we are finally ready to turn the water on. I know it's quite a process to even get to that point, but I wanted to make sure that I was quickly calling out the hard water filter that I always have in my shower head in case any of you are new here. So I started to use this a few years ago. I've made no change to the filter that I'm using. And the reason why I wanted to use it is because water, and especially hard water in cities, is notorious for having a lot of chemicals and minerals and metals that can not only damage the hair, but also cause color fade and cause your color to go brassy. And I look back at pictures in college and I'm like, oh honey, that's some yellow hair you got there. So ever since using this, my hair just doesn't get brassy anymore. I get that question all the time. How do you prevent brass? What purple shampoo do you use? I don't use purple shampoo. It's this, I swear. It's so, so good. So if there are other hard water filters out there that you guys have been interested in or heard things about that you want me to try, I'm definitely down. I have been curious to test out others, see if there's anything even better out there, but I feel like there's not that many filters to begin with. So for now she stays because she has not led me astray. She has not done me wrong. And sometimes if it's not broke, you just don't fix it. All right, let's get this wash process actually started, shall we? So the first thing that I do of course is get my hair wet, but I want to just highlight this step because I think it's one that's really easy to rush through and not put much thought behind. But I have found that the way that I wet my hair actually makes a really big difference in how clean my hair is after I wash. So because I have such dense or thick hair, I like to wet my hair in sections, move it around, flip my hair upside down. I spend quite a bit of time wetting my hair because if I don't, my hair just does not feel or look as clean after because I feel like the shampoo is just then not working as evenly. So soak my hair, make sure it's evenly wet, and then I'm finally ready for shampoo. I recently posted a review on the new K18 shampoos and I have been using these for a while because they sent them over to me before the launch. So I had a good amount of time to test them out beforehand, but I have continued to use them ever since because I am in love with both of them. So I will either use the Peptide Prep pH Maintenance Shampoo or the Peptide Prep Detox Shampoo depending on what I'm in the mood for and the level of oil and buildup that I have on my hair. But for today's video, we are going to be using the Peptide Prep Detox Shampoo and the review that I posted on these, I really dive into ingredients and formula, all of that, of course. So I'm not going to repeat all of that there. I will just list that review below for you. But I will just say that this shampoo has tons of amazing ingredients for clarifying the hair and removing buildup while also having the lowest pH that I have literally ever seen a shampoo have. It has a pH range between 3.8 and 4.2. Are you kidding? Come on. So while the shampoos that I use have recently changed, nothing about the way that I apply shampoo has changed. This is also something that I have an entire video on because my shampoo process is very, very specific and I was going to say intentful and that is just not a word, purposeful, intentional. I combined those words in my head. I think I have a very purposeful, intentional shampoo process. So because I made a whole video on that, I'll list that below. And again, spare you guys all of the insane details here if you've already heard them, but I'll just quickly summarize some of my key shampoo process steps. So first, I always emulsify shampoo between my hands or rub it between my hands for several seconds so that I can get it worked up into a really nice lather so that it's easier to spread evenly throughout my hair. That is really essential for a nice, proper cleanse for me. Second, I always massage shampoo onto my scalp in sections. Kind of same idea behind why I apply or wet my hair in sections. I want to make sure that everything is evenly cleansed so that I don't end up with certain areas that are looking greasy more quickly than others or just not getting properly cleansed and not getting all of that oil and buildup removed. So I spend quite a bit of time shampooing in sections. Again, it takes a while because my hair is so dense, but it's worth it. And then I will rinse all of that away and then repeat the process of shampooing from start to finish for a second cleanse. So I have to do all of those steps. It really is a make or break for me and how my hair looks and feels after a wash day. So even though it feels like a lot of work, again, it's so worth it to me because I want my hair to feel nice and clean and fresh because it has been seven days since it felt that way. Well, okay. I guess I shouldn't say that because my hair definitely still feels really nice. Several days after I wash it, it's just once I hit day seven, I'm so ready to have that really freshly washed feel again because I definitely don't have that same feeling on day seven. We'll say that now that my hair is fully clean, I am ready to either apply K-18 or a conditioning product. And like I mentioned earlier, I apply the K-18 hair mask every three to four weeks because that is what the brand recommends. Once you are in maintenance mode with a product, when you first start using it, you're supposed to use it for six consecutive washes, but then after that you're in maintenance mode and you can use it every three to four weeks as needed. So if it is a week where I'm applying K-18, I want to make sure that my hair is as clean as possible before using it so that the K-18 peptide can actually properly penetrate my hair and work to the best of its ability. So that is why I stopped using pre-shampoo oils on the weeks where I'm using K-18. I don't want anything to interfere with the ability of this product to work its damage repair magic. K-18 should not be applied to soaking wet hair. So I will go ahead and take a microfiber towel now to gently squeeze the excess water from my hair. I will do this several times on the entire length of my ponytail to make sure that all the excess water is out so that again, this product can actually work because I obviously want it to work. Then I will split my hair into two major sections and apply four total pumps of K-18 to my hair or two pumps for each side of my head. I did learn a little hack for K-18 applications since my last wash day routine, and that is to rub the product back and forth between your hands for several seconds, similar to how you would emulsify a shampoo and then scrunch the product up into your hair from the bottom up. This is going to allow for more even distribution than if you were to not rub that product and to just kind of like rub it on top of the hair. That is something that I have found has made a really big difference in my routine with this product because a big issue that I had with K-18 before was feeling like it just wasn't evenly coating my hair, but this really, really does make a difference. So I would highly recommend trying that out. And then once the K-18 is in, you want to leave that in for four minutes. Don't let your hair get wet while that four minutes is rolling, I guess. Don't let your hair get wet for four minutes. The K-18 is working its magic in that time. It is penetrating the hair, activating whatever you want to call it. But then at that point you can re-wet your hair after the four minutes is up. And I personally like to do that because I find that my hair is just a little bit too dry to apply conditioning products evenly. So I'll re-wet my hair, but then again, wring it out a little bit. This time just with my hands, not with a towel, because I want to make sure that my hair is not dripping wet when I'm applying conditioner, otherwise it'll slip right off. Now I am finally ready to condition. And I will say that over the past several months, I've really started to pay attention to how much product I use in the conditioning process in my routine. There's so many amazing conditioning products out there. So it's very tempting to just use all of them, pile them all on at once. And I have definitely done that several times. But I have found that if I'm doing that, using a really thick, heavy pre-shampoo oil treatment, maybe a damage repair treatment, and then a shine rinse, and then a deep conditioning hair mask, and then a conditioner, my hair just doesn't feel clean when I step out of the shower. It feels way down. It feels like I have product in it and it feels like I need to get back in the shower and shampoo and start the process all over again, which is obviously not what we want. So what I have kind of changed about this routine is that I will always pick two out of the three following products, a shine rinse, a deep conditioning mask, or a deep conditioner. I absolutely love shine rinses. I feel like they're really underrated because they always make my hair feel really soft and silky and make it look really shiny and healthy, but they're also incredibly lightweight. So whenever I use them, instead of something that is really thick and heavy and buttery to condition, my hair always just feels really, really light and airy and bouncy, which I absolutely love. So I am using the Amika The Flash Instant Shine Mask today. I have a lot of shine masks that I really love. So if you guys would like a video where I share my favorites, let me know. But Amika it is today. This product is incredible. It has so many nice conditioning ingredients like oils, quats, amino acids, and silicones. And like all Amika products, smells freaking divine. So I will fully saturate my lengths and ends in this. I actually feel like I apply this to more than just my lengths and ends, like above my ears on the back of my head. I just don't put this towards my roots. Otherwise I feel like it'll make my hair look a little bit greasy. So on the majority of my hair, and then I will let that sit in my hair for a few minutes before rinsing. Some brands recommend using shine rinses before conditioner, others recommend using it after. So I don't really think there's a right or wrong way. You can do whatever you want and whatever works best for you. So if I'm using a shine mask, I will follow up with either just a conditioner or just a hair mask. I don't use both of those products when I'm using a shine mask, because again, I found that it just feels like too much on my hair. But if I'm not using a shine mask, then I will use both a hair mask and a conditioner. I hope that makes sense and it's not too confusing, but I don't really have a specific cadence that I follow here as far as when I'm using which combination of products. It really just depends on what I'm in the mood for and what I want to test out. And again, I will make sure to list some of my favorite conditioners and hair masks in the description box below. But today I am using the Redken Acidic Bonding Concentrate Conditioner. This has a super low pH range between three and four and some amazing lighter weight conditioning ingredients. Like Quartz and Amodimethicone and I have found that this just agrees so, so well with my hair. My hair freaking loves this conditioner. It always feels so amazing after I use it. But whether I am using this conditioner or another conditioner or a hair mask, I will apply all of these conditioning products in the exact same way. So I will walk through that process. First I like to, again, squeeze my hair to get rid of any excess water so that the conditioner is not just slipping right off. So I will do that and then I will create four to six sections in my hair and apply the product on my lengths and ends to all of those sections. That helps to make sure that I'm actually getting an even distribution of conditioning product on my hair. Otherwise if you're just grabbing around the ponytail of your hair, like one major section of hair, there's so much of your hair that's getting neglected that really needs that conditioning love as well. The other thing that I really try to pay attention to is making sure that I'm getting an even amount of product on the very ends of my hair. I think that it's easy for a lot of the product to kind of just stick to the top section of your hair where you're first applying it and not evenly go all the way down. So that's something that I will kind of feel out after I apply conditioner or a hair mask. Sometimes I will go back in and apply a little bit more to my ends because that's what really needs it the most. Then once that product is fully applied, I will typically wrap my hair up in some sort of towel or towel wrap to let that sit in my hair for about 10 minutes before I carry on with my exfoliating and shaving and whole body self care routine. I do have an entire video on that that I will list below because that again is just a whole separate routine that warrants a separate video. So at that point I am ready to rinse that out of my hair. If I am using the hair mask conditioner combo, I don't feel the need to leave conditioner in my hair for a full 10 minutes as well. So I will leave the hair mask in for 10 minutes, rinse my hair, then apply conditioner, leave that in for just a few minutes, rinse again, and then my wash day routine is complete. Well, complete after I dry it with a microfiber towel, I guess. Then it's done. Oh my goodness. That process is a doozy. That is why I only do this once a week because I simply do not have the mental energy to do it more than that. If I did, maybe I would do it twice a week, maybe because it does feel so, so nice. And I just love the feeling of fresh, clean hair and a fresh, clean scalp. But even in doing that once a week, I just feel like my hair benefits so much from it and I am in love with that routine right now. So that's it for this video. We're going to wrap it up here. I really hope that you guys enjoyed this and found it helpful. You'll have to let me know in the comments below, what does your routine look like? Is it similar to this? What do you do differently? Are you going to make some changes to your routine after watching this video? Maybe purchase some new products. If so, as always, I will have all of the products that I talked about listed in my description box below in order of mention, and I'll leave some notes as well if it's something that I didn't really specifically talk about in detail, but all of those products will be listed and linked below for you. If you enjoyed the video, as always, please don't forget to give it a thumbs up, subscribe to my channel if you haven't already, click on that notification bell and send my channel to a friend. Thank you so, so much for doing those things. It really helps to support me and your support means the world. Thank you for watching. I love you guys so much. Make sure to stay tuned for my next video because that will be up in a few days. But until then, I hope you have a great few days.