People ask me about and comment on my hair.
A lot.
At the grocery store, in airport lines, in my DMs. The question is almost always the same: what do you do to it?
So here’s the honest answer. Not a list of products I was handed and told to like — the exact, unglamorous routine I actually run. The one keeping my locs healthy and growing faster than they ever have.
It’s simpler than you’d think.
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. I only link what I actually use.
The Oil I Make Myself
I don’t buy a hair oil. I make one.
It’s the center of my whole routine, and it’s the first thing I’d hand you if you asked. Four ingredients, one bottle:
- Cliganic Organic Hemp Seed Oil — my carrier, my base. Light, clean, doesn’t sit heavy.
- Amazing Herbs Premium Black Seed Oil — cold-pressed and potent; a little goes a long way.
- Cliganic Organic Rosemary Essential Oil — spend five minutes in the natural-hair world and you’ll hear about rosemary. There’s a reason it never leaves the conversation.
- Cliganic Organic Peppermint Essential Oil — the one you feel. That cool tingle on the scalp? That’s it. (More on peppermint in a second — it’s stronger than it looks.)
The recipe: 2.5 oz hemp seed oil, 1.5 oz black seed oil, 30-60 drops rosemary, and 5-60 drops peppermint. Pour it all into one bottle and shake. Done.
(Essential oils are potent. If your skin runs sensitive, patch test first — and with peppermint especially, start low. More on that below.)
I keep the blend in a Bar5F Soft Squeeze Applicator Bottle — the one with the pointed tip. It costs almost nothing, and it’s half the reason this works. The tip puts the oil exactly where I want it, on my scalp and down my parts, instead of all over my hands.
Here’s the order that matters: I lightly water my hair first — a quick mist from my spray bottle, damp not soaking — and then I apply the oil. The water is the moisture. The oil seals it in. Do it backwards and you’re just coating dry hair.
How often? Usually every other day. Sometimes daily. Sometimes I’ll go a full week. I listen to my hair.
A Word on Peppermint
I first learned about peppermint oil from a stylist in Tbilisi, Georgia.
We got to talking about oils, and she told me something I didn’t know: peppermint is stronger than rosemary. More potent, more stimulating — and your scalp can be a lot more sensitive to it. It is not a “more is better” situation.
I listened. And ever since, peppermint has been in every bottle I mix. My scalp loves it.
But here’s my honest disclaimer: my scalp is strong. Sensitive, but it can take a lot. That’s why I use a full 60 drops. Yours might not — and that is completely fine.
So I always recommend starting with the lowest dose. Five drops. Ten at most. See how your scalp responds, then build from there if it wants more. What works for me is not a guarantee it works for you. Your hair and your scalp are yours — be careful with them.
And one tip I learned the hard way: if you oil your hair at night, do not sleep with it in a bun.
I repeat. Not in a bun.
The peppermint gets trapped and compacted under all that hair, and you can wake up with a pounding headache. I highly recommend wearing it loose — let your scalp breathe.
I know this because I’ve made the mistake. You don’t have to.
Water Is the Step Most People Skip
Here’s what nobody talks about enough: locs are thirsty.
I spray my hair with water almost every single day. Not product, not a mist with ten ingredients — water.
That same SUPER+ Continuous Mist Spray Bottle does the job, because the mist is fine and even — it hydrates instead of soaking one spot. Daily water, plus my every-other-day oil, is most of the whole game.
Moisture in. Oil to seal it. Repeat.
A leave-in isn’t a daily step for me — water and oil do the work. But sometimes I just want a nice leave-in, and that’s when I reach for Ouidad Moisture Lock Leave-In Conditioner. And when I’m setting Bantu knots, I use Ouidad Curl Shaper Volumizing Jelly — soft hold, no crunch — for definition.
Wash Day
When I wash, I keep it simple and I keep it strong.
I shampoo and condition with Olaplex and Joico Defy Damage. Olaplex works at the bond level — the damage you can’t see — and Joico is built to strengthen and protect. Between the two, my hair comes out feeling like it has its life together, not fried.
That’s the whole wash routine. Two products. No twelve-step anything.
And I never use regular towels on my hair if I can help it. It’s all about that microfiber, mate.
A Note on Fresh Locs
Every time I get relocked, my loctician packs my hair with so much moisture that I barely have to do anything for the first two to three weeks. It just stays hydrated.
So I ease off. Maybe oil every other day, skip some of the water. You don’t have to force a routine onto hair that already has what it needs.
Listen more than you do.
The Real Secret
Let me be as honest with you as the gym regulars were when I cornered them and asked how they looked twenty years younger than their age:
There’s no magic bottle.
The products help. The right products help a lot. But the thing actually doing the work is consistency.
Make the oil. Water your hair. Seal it in. Wash gently. Rest when your hair’s already full.
That’s it. That’s the routine. And my hair is growing faster than it ever has.
Everything I use is linked above — all of it on my Amazon storefront, all of it the real thing.
Now go make your oil.
This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
My Hair Journey Below
