Healthy hair is not only the hallmark of a healthy person, it is also the hall mark of a sane person. It is not strange to see people wearing all sorts of hair styles with creepy names and choosing strange incompatible hair care products without understanding the basic anatomy, physiology and biochemistry of their hair. What is more alarming is the quantity of selfies such ladies take with the ‘fashionable’ hair/hair style.

 

Some even go further to impress by complementing it with multi coloured faces all in the name of fashion. Not only does your dress determine the way you are addressed, your hair also determines the way you are heard. It speaks volumes about you. You will not like people to be gossiping about or commenting on your hair while you are talking about something important.

 

Many people however find it quite difficult to choose a suitable hair product probably because they do not consider the type of hair they possess or they do not have enough money to purchase these products. A friend of mine blurted out one day and said “MEHN! HAIR MAINTENANCE IS A FULL TIME BUSINESS; SOME HAIRCARE PRODUCTS ARE JUST TOO EXPENSIVE.”This was after she told me about her ordeals in the hands of numerous hair care products.

 

Great news!!!There are a plethora of hair care products ranging from the ol’ faithful gel to things like pastes, clay to pomade, rice flakes, white pepper and groundnut oil. Just joking about the last three items, that’s me thinking about food but the truth is that there are probably as much hair care products and their variants as there are textbooks but not everything is meant for your beautiful hair.

 

If you want to optimize how the precious hairstyles look, you need to choose your hair products wisely. Put a smile on your face; minimize time spent “researching and nagging” and maximize the number of “damn your hair looks good today!” or “you are extremely beautiful today” days. (Compliments always make us feel good about ourselves)

To choose the best hair care products suitable for you, it’s important to figure out something often overlooked: your hair type. You must be wondering which one is hair type again or do I have to pay for the test that will show me my hair type. Not really. There are applications that may help you with this but you should already know it from experience if you have been attentive enough. However there are standard classification systems you can use to know your hair type. Two popular ones are the Andre Walker system and the L.O.I.S System.

 

Andre walker was Oprah Winfrey’s personal stylist for 25 years. I will prefer to talk simply about the quite complex L.O.I.S system. It divides hair type broadly into 4. The straight, the wavy, the curly and the kinky hair. Each letter of the LOIS system represents one of these patterns. L stands for bend, O for curl, I for straight and S for wavy.

To determine the texture of your hair you have to rinse your hair in cold water and ensure it has no hair products. Get a strand of your hair and a piece of thread. Place both on a white paper (it’s not like we have red paper) if your hair is of the same thickness then it is medium, if your hair is thinner then it is fine. If your hair is thicker then it is thick. To get the pattern of your hair, get a few more strands and place on the same or another white paper. If most of them have bends and right angles then you are an L (kinky).If the individual strands are rolled up into a zero or a spiral then you are an O (curly). ). If the strands are as straight as the Duncan line with no curve or bend then you are an I (straight). If the strands look wavy with ups and down then you are an S (wavy). It is possible and quite common to have more than one LOIS hair pattern. In this case your hair type can be LS LOIS hair type or OI LOIS hair type. Choosing your hair products without knowing your hair type is a bit like buying shoes without knowing your foot size.

Here are a few hair care products and suitable hair types:

 

STYLING PRODUCTS:

GEL:Thicker hair and short-to-medium hair lengths and also curly and wavy hair

POMADE: Thinner hair and wavy-to-extremely curly hair. Good for all hair lengths. If you have oily hair, avoid pomade as it will make your hair greasier.

WAX: Thicker hair and medium hair lengths; oily hair

MATTE PRODUCTS: Clay, Putty, Paste, Mud, Fiber, etc- Thin-to-thicker hair, wavy hair and all hair lengths

STYLING CREAMS: Thin-to-thicker hair, wavy/curly hair and all hair lengths

MOUSSE: Thin or fine hair and curly or permed hair

VOLUMIZER: straight and curly hair

TEXTURIZERS: fine or slightly wavy hair

SHINE SERUM OR SPRAY: thick hair that lacks luster

HAIR LOTION OR STYLING LOTION: thick and straight or coarse and curly hair

FINISHING PRODUCTS

These are supplementary hair products you apply after you have already styled your hair

HAIR SPRAY:all hair types, especially thinner hair that’s likely to be weighed down by heavier products.