Your hair, just like your skin, builds up resistance to the products you use.  What works today, may not work tomorrow.  It doesn't mean the product has lost its effectiveness but rather that your hair has become accustomed to your current product line's formulation.

The objective of your products is to remove Build-up and leave beneficial residues behind to help repair, strengthen and protect your hair.  With regular usage, your shampoos and conditioners are depositing and redepositing beneficial residues on top of beneficial residues.  This constant redepositing results in build-up and decreases the overall effectiveness of your products.  The only way to get rid of these deposits are to rotate and/or use the occasional clarifying shampoo or rinse.

By rotating our products, we insuring that they're performing at their maximum and that our hair is benefiting from the products we're usage.  And finally, that we're not wasting our time, money and cabinet space in search of "newer/better" products.

How Often to Rotate?
Well this depends.  How much product are you using in-between shampoos?  How often do you shampoo your hair?  

Overall, if you have Natural or relaxed hair OR if you have dreads that you shampoo on a weekly/biweekly basis, you should rotate your products every 3-4 months OR every 8-10 shampoos.  This is a general rule but basically, as the seasons change, you should naturally begin a new rotation.

It kinda makes sense when you think about it.  In the winter your hair/scalp maybe drier so wouldn't it make sense to use a shampoo/conditioner that addresses dry hair?  In the summer, you may have problems with oilyness so a shampoo for oily hair would be ideal.  

So if you plan on implementing a rotation, you're going to need about 3 product lines to address your particular hair care issues.

What Products to Choose?
Ok, cheaper isn't always better.  Just because you're natural, curly or have Drea

dlocks doesn't mean you have-to go the inexpensive route...especially if it leads to more bad product choices.  And just because you have relaxed or chemically treated hair doesn't mean that you should avoid mild, natural products...in fact, natural/mild products are exactly what chemically treated needs.

You three basic options in terms of shampoos-Sulfate, Sulfate-Free and Castile.  Overall, it's a good idea to have a Sulfate-Free in at least one of your rotations.  They're mild and offer a good opportunity to give your hair a break from normal chemical based cleansers.

If you're going to use sulfates and sulfates only, make sure they are sodium laureTH sulfate based.  Review the Natural vs. OTC Shampoos section if you are not sure what sulfates are.

If you like Castile and will not be purchasing from naani, you may want to dilute the product with a little water.  Sometimes castile shampoos are concentrated so keep this in mind.  In concentrated formulations, the manufacturer should tell you the ratio of water to concentrate.  At naani, we specifically formulate our Castile shampoos for use on all hair types.  Many of our clients like castile because it dramatically softens hard, dry hair.

With three choices and three rotations, you could feasibly have one of each shampo type.  The products don't necessarily need to work together cause that defeats the purpose of the rotation.  You want products that are dissimilar in formula because if they're the same, what's the point?  But they have to be similar in quality as you don't want to have excellent hair during one season and crappy looking hair the next.

If you haven't had the opportunity to try natural or castile based shampoos, this would be good time.  A lot of people sleep on them or cringe at the price but I look at it this way.  After years of abusing my hair and scalp with relaxers, I don't mind giving myself some quality TLC.

In addition to selecting the types of products you're interested in, you want to keep in mind that it's not a good idea to stay within the same brand.  Meaning if you choose to go with Vive by L'Oreal as your Sodium LaureTH Sulfate shampoo, then don't select another Vive product.  The formulations maybe different but not enough to significantly boost the effects of your product rotation.

For more information on proper hair care and for a salon quality products for all hair types, textures and ethnicities, visit http://www.naani.com.