Finding Out Which New Hair Products Work for You (Diagnostic Hair Testing)

Hey Ladies (in my Beastie Boys voice),

Have you ever run into this issue? You’ve just bought 3 new hair products. One is a leave in conditioner that is supposed to strengthen your hair. One is a new crème that is supposed to soften your hair and one is a spray that is supposed to  do a million and one miracle things to your hair.

So you try them all out and your hair is left feeling dry and strawlike and you are so fed up that you spent all this money on these three hair products and they didn’t even work. ARRGGHH! So you throw them all out in frustration (or take them back to the store for a refund in frustration) blaming all three products for the now straw-like condition of your hair.

However, what you don’t know is that the “miracle” spray is the one that really jacked your hair up and the crème and leave in conditioner are truly the miracle hair products. But you don’t know that b/c you used all three products at once, overlapping them and not truly knowing the effectiveness of any of the products individually.

So this is what I do to avoid this issue:

This works best when you are doing any kind of hairstyle that requires your hair to be parted into sections (twist outs, braid outs, bantu knot outs, rollersets, etc.).

1) Take a section of your hair.

2) Use all the products that you normally use for that particular style, the ones that you already know work for your hair.

3) Then take some of ONE of the new products that you are using and apply it to that section only.

4) Then make that section distinct in some way. For ex: If I am using one clip on each section or all red elastic bands on each section then on this particular section with the new hair product I would use two hair clips or a black elastic band to make sure I knew there was something special about that particular piece of hair.

5) Do not skip this step. Write down the distinction you made so when you get ready to take down that section of hair you will know what is different about it. Maybe some of you will remember what you did differently to it but I almost never remember correctly. This defeats the purpose of the experiment.

Ex: This is an example of what I might write down Braid on left hand side bottom with two clips: Aloe Vera Juice Braid in middle of crown with purple elastic: Shea Moisture Leave In Conditioner

6) After your hair is ready to come down, take down all the sections of your hair that are not special/experimental. Get a true feel of these so called normal sections. Now take down one of the special sections of your hair. Pay close attention to it. Do you like the way it feels? Does it feel soft, moisturized, hard, dry? Does it smell good/fresh? Compare and contrast the normal section and the special section.

Does the special section feel better than the normal or do you like the way your hair feels without the new product? Then take down another one of the distinct sections if you have more than one. Compare that one to the normal section and the other special section. Eventually you will compare and contrast all the different sections of your hair.

You may find that they all feel the same. You may find that one really feels great and the other is rough. And when you find this out then you will truly know which product makes your hair feel awesome and which one makes it feel like crap.

Does the special section feel better than the normal or do you like the way your hair feels without the new product?

Using this method, i was able to learn about the benefits of aloe vera juice for hair. Give it a shot….you may find a hair product that you fall in love with and you might find that a product that you hate. You can also try this with hair products you’ve been using for years if you are having hair issues with unknown causes.

I hope this has helped you learn how to determine what products to eliminate from your regimen which ones will be the star of the show. Do you have a cool method of doing something to your hair that you haven’t seen anyone else do? I’d loved to hear about it and it might help another reader.

Let us know in the comments below.

Downloading my free hair regimen guide and that will also help you figure which products work well for you.

Peace Out,