Personal Hair care: Can A Student Do It?

--> I’ve had a post (see  here and here) on this topic but I decided to do one related to the context of Africa/West Africa/Ghana where a majority of my readers are in tertiary institutions. I started my hair journey whilst I was in school (University of Cape Coast) so I can relate to challenges that come up. How do you combine hair care with studies?

1.  First of all, create a budget- see my post on how Imanage my products. Having a budget is crucial in preventing and avoiding frustrations with handling your hair whether on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. How much do you have to spend on hair? What are your wants and needs? How long will you be in school and will the budget be a one time or monthly thing?  Are those products easily available on campus, if not, get alternatives!
2. Have protective styles you want to wear? For weaves and braids, you may choose to wash monthly.If wigs, you can get corn rows for as long as you intend to wear them. If you want to wear out 50% of the time, read point 3!
3.  Decide on the regimen (see my post on managing regimen)you want according to your lecture timetable. Continue with your regular schedule till your timetable comes out, then, you will know your free times so you can fix a day for your hair. If you are relaxed, you’ll need to learn to stretch either by wearing extensions for most part till the end of the semester, which is usually 4 months, to save you the trouble of getting a bad relaxer from an unfamiliar stylist. If you have a stylist on campus, then, you can have your regular relaxer schedule.
4.    Simplify your regimen: Skip all those things that are mere additions. I’ll suggest you get 2-in-1 products; instant deep conditioners that can also be used for co-wash eg Dark and Lovely UltraCholesterol, moisturizing as well as a cheap shampoo eg B0-16 shampoo, leave in and moisturizer eg Luster’s S-Curl, Hawaiian Silky 14-in-1 and one bottle of oil eg olive oil, coconut oil or sheabutter. If you are not a fun of air drying, kindly get flexi rods  which will help keep “puffy” hair off whilst giving you pretty curls whilst you read in your hall/hostel or even doing your weekend chores. You don’t need weekly washes, you can just co-wash and clarify every month or fortnight with a shampoo wash. Attempt new styles only when you are free; stick to what you know to avoid being late to classes. Alternatively, I’ve found that air drying in a bun help to keep frizz and puffy hair at bay. This can be taken to lectures or library too. The calculation is that the walk to these places will take you more the 5 minutes and considering our wheather here, that’ more than enough time to have 70% dry hair!
5. Have emergency hair styles eg wigs which I prefer to weaves for their versatility, handiness, inexpensive, reusable etc, buns for days you are running late and even ponytails. You can also add claw clips for variety.
6. Check the water source, wash room; where you’ll be washing, and how to avoid creating inconvenience for other users eg most halls have bath rooms at the various floors; you may need to go beyond your floor. In a hostel, you have to probably monitor when the bathrooms are free even if it is self-contained, you have to consider your roommate too! Another technique is to get an extra bucket or bowl, wash the hair into it and discard the water! This can be done at the balcony or verandah.
7. Lastly, You could do with a regular visit to a salon but personally, that can be expensive so what I’ll advice is to so do if it is absolutely necessary!!

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Enjoy your stay on campus with a fabulous hair ! Have questions or suggestions?

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