New Hair Resolutions
Ringing in the New Year is always filled with excitement. A promise of something new, something magical. A new year of endless possibilities.
Well, we did our research and according to a recent ComRes poll, the most common New Year’s resolutions include exercising more, losing weight and eating healthier. While men usually resolve to spend more time with family, drink less and stop smoking.
Some of you have already written down your new year’s resolutions or created your vision boards. “This will be my year!” is a commonplace statement in January, but by April most lists or vision boards have already started collecting dust under the bed.
Like most people, my new year’s resolutions did not include my hair goals. I usually go with the flow; polarizing between growing and cutting my hair. So this year, I decided to chart out a clear map of what I would like to achieve over the next 12 months and put an action plan in place to ensure my success.
To help you achieve your hair goals, we’ve charted some practical steps to ensure your New Hair resolutions are successful. With that said, the first thing to note is to not set yourself up for failure by vowing to make huge changes that will be hard to keep. Instead, follow these five easy steps to make your new hair resolution stick.
- Just pick one goal
If you want to change your hair, don’t try to change everything at once. Most people set goals that are too radical and end up being overwhelmed when they don’t see quick results. Ensuring failure by April. So the first thing to do is decide on what you want from your hair this year. Do you want to add length? Or Volume? Grow out your edges? Return to your natural hair colour or go blond or red safely? All these goals require a different set of actions and maintenance plans that can only be determined once you know what your overall hair goals are.
- Plan ahead
To ensure success you need to research the change you’re making and plan ahead so you have the resources available when you need them. Research how to achieve your hair goals. There are so many resources including haircare magazines, websites and salon professionals that can provide you with all the information and hacks to achieve your goals. Plan for success. Get everything ready so things will run smoothly. This includes getting the right haircare products and tools to achieve your goals.
- Anticipate problems
Like all goals, results take time to show. There will be problems so make a list of what they’ll be, for example transitioning from chemically treated hair to natural hair is generally expensive as you need to care for two different hair textures at the same time. So set aside a budget for your hair. While growing your hair out longer requires major time investment so you might have to schedule Sundays at home to do your treatments and styling. Once you’ve identified the challenges that will probably occur, based on the research you did for your specific hair goals; you can then easily work out ways to cope with them when they inevitably crop up.
- Accept (temporary) failure
Perseverance is the key to success. Most people want to give up when they are overwhelmed with temporary failure. It’s usually very difficult to see our own progress and end up believing no change or improvements are occurring. Before you start your hair journey, take pictures so you can refer back to them when you feel defeated. Alternatively, stick to one hairdresser at the beginning of your new hair resolutions. Having someone else around to objectively chart your progress can serve as a great source of encouragement to keep going when you want to give up.
- Plan rewards
Small rewards are great encouragement to keep you going during the hardest days. Personally, I love food and that serves as a great reward. A celebratory dinner with a friend to discuss my progress or a slice of chocolate cake would work great for me. There are a lot of ways to reward yourself for your progress. E.g. when you start noticing results, book a photoshoot to capture your new look.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/common-new-years-resolutions-stick/
– Paulina Mbago
