Hey! It's been awhile! I've started my job up at the preschool for the summer, which is crazy but I do love the kids. Plus I need $$$ for a 3DS. Anyway.

On my tumblr I posted pictures of my hair growth in 6 months: 

Pretty scraggly in the second picture, I know. I never got a trim during this period, which is terrible for me, I love haircuts and it's important for me to keep up with split ends, I know. With living at school, even though I came home a lot, college made it more difficult to get to a salon. (excuses, excuses.) But in terms of hair damage, I didn't need a trim until the last month or so. That was due to pure laziness. 

This is my hair after a trim, she took almost an inch off. (I'm actually sitting up straight in this picture)

After posting these pictures, I got a couple asks about my hair routine. I went a little crazy and wrote more than I thought I did, so I'm just going to go ahead and adapt it for here. 

What I Do To Keep My Hair Relatively Healthy:

 One overall tip, and what I find to be the most important, is to always be conscious of what you are doing to your hair. Like, no amount of hair product is going to cover up constant damage from rough drying with towels, or wind, or over-shampooing, or ripping through wet (or dry) tangles with a brush, etc. 

That being said, this is what I do personally. I really try not to shampoo all that much, and when I do, I'm so careful to use as little as I can ONLY on the roots. A quick squeeze with leftover suds as you rinse through the ends is typically enough to clean the length of the hair. (keep in mind, I have fine, straight hair prone to oil. Seriously, don't rub shampoo all up on yo ends unless you have major product buildup) 

Of course I limit the use of heat tools, blah blah. That's half because of laziness but hey whatever. I like sleeping in foam rollers. blah blah heat protection we've heard it all before blah blah. It all comes back to being aware of what you are doing to your hair.

 If you haven't already TRY DRY SHAMPOO. The only brands i really recommend are "Pssst" (personal favorite) or Batiste (although I don't like the scented one, very stong and old-ladyish.) I like the Suave one as well, but that adds more texture to hair, I guess it just depends what I'm going for. Walgreens also has a generic dry shampoo which i'm trying out, it's awesome so far. Stay far away from the Tresseme one, or anything that comes out of the can wet. You literally just need powder in a can.

I tend to change up shampoos a lot, but i'll name some of my favorites. I like shampoos that are meant for moisture but also lather and therefore clean well. I've really liked the Lush Jumping Juniper solid bar (it's good for oily hair), the Organix Hydrating Macadamia Oil shampoo (very creamy but lathers up well), Head and Shoulders in Ocean Lift (purple bottle, for when my scalp gets a lil' itchy in winter, plus I love the scent), and i'm currently using Aveda Color Conserve. It's okay so far but it's pretty expensive so I probably won't buy it again. My ALL TIME favorite shampoo is definitely the Suave Professionals Almond and Shea Butter. It's so cheap (like $2)  and really works well for moisturizing without being too heavy. As for conditioners, my favorites have been the Suave Professionals Almond and Shea butter (they work great with different products or together) and the Aussie 3-Minute Miracle deep conditioner. I wash my hair first thing in the shower and let my conditioner sit in a side bun until i'm ready to get out. (more recently, with my red-colored hair, I've been only washing in tepid water or cooler. I can't even begin to tell you how much this helps with fading.)

 I've experimented with olive oil and coconut oil treatments. They have been pretty nice.  I literally just warm the oil and massage into dry hair and scalp. I keep it in for as long as I can and then wash it out. Instead of going straight in with lots of shampoo to get out the excess oil, I rub in any old conditioner on the ends for a bit, rinse, then shampoo as normal. I've found that this greatly lessens the amount of drying shampoo I need to use on my ends.

A few leave-in conditioners I've liked are the "Light Moroccan Argan Oil" and "Coconut Milk Anti-breakage Serum" from Organix (in very small amounts), and the Got2b "Smooth Operator Lustre Lotion." I think it's important to just put something in your hair before it dries.

I've never really fallen in love with a volumizing product or texturizer or hairspray or mousse. Life is hard with flat hair.

And uh that's pretty much it, I'd love to know if anyone has tried these products; I'd also love to to hear what you like/your routine! 

(if u have google+ u can comment pls help me 2 feel cool)