Are you a girl on a healthy hair mission? Are you determined to take your hair to the next level of strength, length, and/or thickness? That's awesome! Just don't fall into these easy traps for messing up your healthy hair regimen: 

Product selection: Be very picky about which products you are settling on for every element of your regimen. You don't want to pick an awesome shampoo and conditioner for your hair, only to have your hair sabotaged by a moisturizer that breaks your hair off. Isolate your analysis of each product on your strands to make sure that it works for your hair without side effects like breakage or shedding. 

Product use: Be careful not to abuse the product or use it carelessly. For example, a conditioner should be thoroughly rinsed out unless it specifically says that it is a "leave-in". 

Tool use: You can use the best chemicals or natural products in the world on your hair, but if you are misusing heat tools on your hair or combing or brushing your hair in a way that causes physical damage, you are doing a serious injustice to your healthy hair regimen. 

Protective styles: You may be rocking protective styles to your hair's detriment if you are not paying attention to how tight the style is or the type of manipulation you are doing to get it into that style. 

Mimicking someone else's regimen: Just because a regimen works fabulously for someone and gave them great results does not mean that it will work for you. You have a different body chemistry than they do, and those differences can drastically change how a certain product works for you, compared to someone else. (Also - don't assume that just because they have a similar curl pattern that the regimen will work for you either!). 

Advice: Be extremely careful and picky about who you take advice from when it comes to your tresses. Even if they are well informed about healthy hair care management, your best bet is to do your own research thoroughly, which will help you filter out great advice from bad advice. 

Listening to your hair: Watch for broken hairs around you wherever you work on your hair, and pay attention how it feels and looks as well. If you really want to know the condition of your hair, it will tell you in one way or another. 

The bigger picture: Your hair is a manifestation of your body, its overall health, as well as anything you put in your body (food, medicine, beverages, etc.). A healthy hair regimen cannot be isolated onto itself. You must live a healthy lifestyle as well in order to take your hair to the next level. 

-Written by: Cafe Belle's Healthy Hair Barista