The 9-Step Hair Routine Experts Swear By for Stronger Hair

Tired of dealing with hair that always seems to look so brittle and lifeless? Sometimes, all you need to do to turn things around for your locks is make a few tweaks to your hair routine. Read on as Nubi shares a 9-step hair routine that experts recommend for achieving hair that feels stronger and more resilient. We’ll also talk you through a few additional tips to ensure that your mane always looks shiny, bouncy, and beautifully healthy! 

1) Start With a Pre-Shampoo Treatment

While keeping your hair clean is important, the harsh ingredients that many shampoos contain are notorious for stripping away the hair’s natural protective oils. These oils need to be retained as much as possible if you’re hoping for stronger strands, which is where a pre-shampoo treatment can help.

These products are applied to dry hair about 15-30 minutes before you wash your hair. They reduce the risk of damage from powerful surfactants while also helping to loosen buildup so that your shampoo doesn’t have to work quite so hard to wash that debris away. Many formulas also boast hydrating and strengthening benefits, making these worth seeking out.

2) Exfoliate Your Scalp

After stepping into the shower, before reaching for your shampoo, the next step in your hair routine give your scalp some TLC. How? By exfoliating it. Just like the skin everywhere else on your face and body, the skin on your scalp can quickly end up cluttered with dead skin cells and other impurities. These can affect everything from hair growth to hair strength, which is why you should be regularly exfoliating them away.

Wondering how you go about exfoliating your scalp? A scalp scrub is the easiest way. This is usually applied once the hair and scalp is wet but before a shampoo is used. Simply work a small amount of the product into your scalp and then gently massage your scalp for a couple of minutes, before rinsing the scrub away.

3) Cleanse With a Strengthening Shampoo

While all shampoos are designed to clean the hair and scalp, some formulas will have other benefits too. If you’re hoping for stronger hair, then you’ll need a shampoo that’s geared toward helping with this.

This means looking for a shampoo that contains some of the following ingredients:

• Proteins, such as peptides or keratin
• Biotin
• Plant oils and butters
• Aloe vera

4) Condition and Detangle

The next step in your hair routine after shampooing your hair should always be to apply a conditioner. Even a gentle shampoo will still remove some of the protective layer that coats each strand of hair, and a conditioner will help to restore that.

While you’re at it, spend some time detangling your locks too. Do this while your conditioner is sitting in your hair as it will help to provide some extra lubrication. Tangles will quickly weaken your strands so make an effort to keep your hair as tangle-free as possible. Start detangling with your fingers, beginning at the ends of your hair and working your way up, before utilizing a detangling brush or a wide-toothed comb.

5) Gently Towel-Dry

Once you’re done washing and conditioning your hair, it’s time to gently towel-dry it. Gently is the key word here. Your hair is in its most fragile state when it’s wet. This is when it’s most prone to breakages, which you don’t want to encourage.

The most useful product to have at this stage of your hair routine is a microfiber towel. Use it to gently squeeze water out of your hair before blotting your strands to dab away excess moisture. Thanks to how absorbent microfiber is, this process should be pretty quick!

6) Hydrate and Protect

Now that your hair is still wet but not completely soaking, it’s time to give your strands some extra help. This is the perfect time to apply hair serums and heat protectant products because your hair is most permeable when it’s wet.

Since you don’t want to overload your hair with different products, try to find an all-in-one formula that does what you need. For most, this would be a hydrating heat protectant. It’ll allow you to heat style your hair with minimal damage while also helping to boost your hair’s moisture content.

7) Finish the Drying Process With a Blow Dryer

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While you may think that leaving your hair to air dry is the safest option for your strands, this isn’t actually the case. Instead, studies show that air drying can actually cause more damage to the cell membrane complex of each strand. This is due to how air drying means that your hair experiences prolonged water exposure, which, as we’ve mentioned, weakens your strands. 

With that said, blow drying is only safer if it’s done in the right way. Keep your blow dryer continuously in motion and make sure that you’re holding it at least 15cm away from your hair. A blow dryer with a powerful motor, like the Nubi Blow Me Away blow dryer, will also be better for your locks. It will get the job done much faster, saving you from prolonged heat exposure.

8) Style Your Locks

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Let’s talk about styling. Whether you choose to quickly whip your hair up into a ponytail or you prefer to spend some time curling your locks to perfection, this is a step that’s in everyone’s hair routine. While you may not think that styling has much of an effect on how strong and healthy your strands feel, it has a surprising impact…

Firstly, heat styling, as you probably know, can be quite damaging to the hair. If you’re going to heat style, pick a styling tool that keeps the appearance of damage to a minimum. The Nubi Soft N’ Straight 1.25” Ceramic Purple Styler, for example, has gentle ceramic plates, an adjustable temperature dial, infrared heat, and negative ion technology. All come together to give you beautifully straight hair with no visible damage. 

If you often rely on tight hairstyles, this is something worth changing too if you’re hoping for stronger hair. Any hairstyles that place pressure on the roots will only end up weakening your strands over time, contributing to thinning, hair loss, and other problems. Mix it up when it comes to your hairstyles, opting for low-pressure looks whenever possible.

9) Smooth and Seal

The last step in your hair routine should be to smooth and seal your freshly styled locks. How? Hair serums or oils are a good way to do this. Your hair type and style will dictate how and where to apply the product to ensure a glossy finish.

Other Ways to Achieve Stronger-Looking Hair

As important as your hair routine is, there are other things to keep in mind too if you want to achieve stronger-looking hair as quickly as possible:

Feed Your Hair From Within

Your diet has a huge impact on your hair. Give your body the nutrients that it needs and it will send these to your scalp, providing the building blocks for strong and healthy strands. Likewise, if your diet isn’t on the healthy side, your hair will be lacking in certain nutrients…and this will show! 

What do you need to be eating for healthy-looking hair? 

A fresh and balanced diet should give you all of the hair-loving nutrients that your locks need. With that said, certain foods contain more of these than others, so try to increase your intake of the following:

• Eggs
• Oily fish, like salmon and mackerel
• Lean proteins, like chicken
• Nuts, especially walnuts and almonds
• Sweet potatoes and carrots
• Berries
• Sunflower seeds

Protect Against the Elements

The environment can really take a toll on your strands. From the sun’s UV rays, which dry out and weaken the hair, to strong winds, which, again, dry out the hair while exacerbating breakages and encouraging tangles, your hair can never really catch a break!

This is why it’s so important to keep your hair protected against the elements. If you’re in the sun, wear a hat or wrap a scarf around your locks. The latter works in the wind too. Protective hairstyles, such as braids, also help to minimize the surface area of hair that’s exposed to environmental aggressors.

Save Your Strands From Sleep Damage

Did you know that a large amount of the damage that occurs to your hair takes place overnight? 

It all comes down to your pillowcase. If you sleep on cotton or a similar material, your hair will experience friction each time it rubs against that pillow. This friction leads to breakages and hair loss – the opposite of the stronger hair you’re trying to achieve! Cotton is also a relatively absorbent material, meaning that it will be sucking moisture out of your strands while you sleep.

Instead, switch to silk. Satin is a good option too if you’re on a budget. Both are such smooth materials that there’s no friction to worry about when your hair is being pushed against your pillow. They also aren’t as absorbent as cotton, which will leave your hair feeling better hydrated each morning. This in itself will give your hair a stronger and more elastic finish.

Regular Trims Are Essential

If your hair hasn’t been looking its best and you haven’t had a trim for a few months, then this could be why. Trims aren’t just about keeping your hair’s length under control. They’re also essential for minimizing damage and boosting strength. 

How? Trims focus on the ends of the hair, which are most prone to damage. Split ends, for example, are very common. Ignore them and they’ll run rampant, spreading up your lengths and causing even more of your hair to split and fray. Trim those ends away and not only will you immediately be rocking a fresher look but you’ll also be keeping your hair safe from further damage.

Summary

If you want stronger hair, you’ll need to be committed to your new hair routine – this isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight. However, follow the steps that we’ve shared above consistently and regularly and you’ll soon start to see some improvements in the look and feel of your hair. 

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