What Do I Do With All Of The Hair Products I No Longer Use?

I’ve met women who have been natural for years. The same products they used at the beginning of their natural hair journey are the very products that they continue to use years later. They swear by these products and cannot see themselves using anything different. However, if you’re like me, 5 years into being natural, you probably have a cabinet full of natural hair products that you either no longer use or have never used and don’t intend to use. Some of you may even have several cabinets. If you’ve been natural for a while, by now you’ve probably adopted a steady hair care regimen and are committed to your go-to hair products. So what to do about all those other hair products? You know the ones everyone ranted and raved about, so you went out and bought it immediately regardless of the cost, used it and was like, “why did I buy this?” So onto the shelf it went, to Natural Hair Product Land never to be seen again. Oh, but wait, someone else has just hyped up the latest hair gel and you MUST have it, so once again you ran out, purchased it, used it, only to ask yourself the same question you asked the first time. Two products that you didn’t really like or lover isn’t a huge deal, especially when you’re newly natural. But soon you find yourself buying and buying and not using until one day, voila! you have no more room to store that product that was supposed to be the bomb.com for your hair. Fast forward into a few years later, you’re pretty much in tuned to your hair and have narrowed down your product selection, but you are now left with a ton of products that you really don’t plan to ever use.

So here are some suggestions that I have implemented over the years of my natural hair journey. It’s important to note that if you’re still up in the air about what products to use, it’s probably a good idea to keep those cabinet products around while experimenting with them rather than going out to buy the next best thing.

1. THROW THEM AWAY!
It sounds easy enough to do, but if you’ve invested some serious dough into these products, it might be a bit difficult to part ways with these products even though you aren’t’ using them. So here’s the trade off, if there is very little product left in the container, toss it. If you’re into DIY recipes, save the containers as they can be used as storage for your hair product. Otherwise, if you feel that you’ve invested way too much cash and still have unopened containers or barely used products, save them and keep reading.

2. GIVE THEM AWAY
Even if you’ve used it before, it’s okay to give them away, keeping in mind that there is still a generous amount of product left. Consider giving products away to friends or relatives that are newly natural. They just may end up loving the product that they otherwise wouldn’t have been introduced to if you hadn’t given it to them in the first place. Products that have never been opened and if you don’t ever plan on opening them should really be on your giveaway list unless it was store bought and you plan on returning the product to the store.

3. USE WHAT’S LEFT
I don’t know how many times I’ve done this, but having some of those extra products stashed in my cabinet has helped to save my wash day many of times. If I happen to be out or almost out of my favorite conditioner, for example, I will simply use one I have in my cabinet. Obviously, if you feel that any of your extra products have caused damage to your hair, you would not be able to do this, but I’m referring to products that we simply don’t care enough for to continue using it or to repurchase it. So if I’m in a bind on wash day, that old product that I have stashed away may actually help me out.

4. RECYCLE IT
Yes, recycle. And by recycle, I mean mixing your favorite oil to that old conditioner and using it as a pre-poo. Or using it as a rinse out conditioner, as a leave-in, or as a deep conditioner. I had several deep conditioners that I would either mix together or would rinse our right after cleansing my hair. Another idea is to add your favorite conditioner to that bottle of shampoo that you thought left your hair feeling dry, for example. You can also add your favorite oils to hair butters or mix hair butters together for added moisture. Create a hair spritzer by adding conditioner, oils, and aloe vera juice. The possibilities are endless. Sometimes the mixture of certain products gives our hair strands some well needed benefits. At the same time, you’re clearing your cabinets which is also a plus.

At the end of the day, or rather at the end of or during your natural hair journey, the goal is to get to know your hair. This requires some trials and tribulations, not to mention a ton of experimentation with hair regimens and hair products. So don’t feel bad if you’ve stocked up on numerous hair products over the years only to find and to be dedicated to your fav products that have yielded positive results for your beautiful strands!

Happy Healthy Hair Journey!