The Haircare Reset Everyone Is Starting in 2026
While you may already have your haircare routine all figured out, it can sometimes be beneficial to give your locks an extra boost. There’s so much out there that can really take a toll on your strands, from environmental stress to styling habits to general wear and tear. The best way to revive the look of your mane when vitality starts to flag? An intensive haircare reset routine that you can turn to every week or two. Keep reading as Evalectric shares the New Year hair routine that everyone is talking about in 2026!
Start With a Pre-Poo
If your haircare routine usually starts with shampoo, there’s an extra step that you can add in first to give your hair some additional TLC. A pre-poo, which refers to a pre-shampoo treatment, can target a variety of issues, enabling you to really meet your hair’s needs.
What, exactly, can a pre-poo do? This all depends on the product you choose. Some are designed to give the hair some extra resilience before a shampoo is applied, while others are formulated to help with scalp problems. From pre-shampoo oils to bond builders to scalp scrubs, there are now more choices out there than ever before.
If you’ve never used a pre-poo before, start by sectioning off your hair. Then, follow the product’s directions in terms of how to apply it. Some need to be focused on the scalp, whereas others should only be applied to the ends of the hair. After this, you’ll need to wait anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes (again, this varies depending on the product) before you move on to the next step in this New Year hair routine.
Extra Tip:
If your hair is very dry and you’ve chosen a pre-poo that’s designed to hydrate and moisturize your strands, you may benefit from leaving the treatment on overnight. This will give the product some extra time to soak into your strands. However, you’ll need to cover your locks with a shower cap or a scarf to prevent the product from smearing onto your pillow.
Give Your Hair a Clarifying Cleanse
While regular shampoos, like the Evalectric Moisturizing Shampoo, work well to cleanse the scalp and hair, a clarifying shampoo will provide an even deeper cleanse. These products make use of stronger cleansing agents, making them much more intense. This is why they shouldn’t be used too often. Those powerful surfactants will strip away your hair’s protective oils if applied too frequently. However, when used as part of a haircare reset, they’ll remove all traces of dirt, excess grease, pollutants, water minerals, and other impurities that shouldn’t be left to linger on your scalp or strands.
How do you apply a clarifying shampoo? In the same way you’d apply any other shampoo. Start by wetting your hair to ensure that your hair cuticles are open, before applying a small amount of shampoo to your scalp. You’ll need to lather it up by gently massaging it into your scalp. Then, let it sit on your scalp for a minute or so. After this, rinse it off.
Extra Tip:
Many people use hot water when washing their hair. However, this is the last thing that you should be doing, especially when using a clarifying shampoo. Hot water melts the protective oils that coat your strands, meaning that subjecting your hair to hot water too often will soon leave your locks feeling dry and brittle. Keep the water temperature lukewarm when showering – this will benefit your skin as well as your hair!
Deep Condition Your Locks
While clarifying shampoos are undeniably effective, they can have the effect of removing a little too much moisture from the hair. All shampoos do this, which is why it’s so important to condition your mane after shampooing it. However, with clarifying shampoos being even more powerful, you’ll need a conditioner that offers more intensity so that you can successfully prevent the feeling of dryness.
This is where a deep conditioner comes in. They’re much richer and more heavily concentrated than regular conditioners, making them the perfect follow-on from a clarifying shampoo when your hair is in need of a reset.
Like when applying a regular conditioner, start by squeezing excess water out of your hair. Then, distribute your deep conditioner through your strands, focusing on the mid-lengths and ends of your hair. Avoid applying it to your roots – this will only cause scalp problems. Your scalp produces plenty of oil itself, so it doesn’t need the extra moisture provided by a deep conditioner.
Extra Tip:
Want to boost the moisturizing potential of your deep conditioner even further? Try adding a drop of a hydrating hair oil to the product before slathering it over your strands. Not only will this give your locks some added moisture, but hair oils are also packed with beneficial nutrients too!
Apply a Leave-in Conditioner
Ensuring that strands feel strong and healthy is the aim of this New Year hair routine, which is why the next step is to use yet another conditioner. This time, it’s a leave-in conditioner, meaning that you’ll need to step out of the shower before reaching for this product.
Do you really need a leave-in conditioner when you’ve already used a deep conditioner? Not always, but the fact that these products aren’t rinsed off means that they go a long way in leaving your hair feeling better protected from heat, the environment, and everything else out there that is notorious for causing damage.
Extra Tip:
Rather than applying your leave-in conditioner to soaking wet strands, give your locks a once-over with a towel first. You don’t want your conditioner to run off your strands with any extra moisture. Instead, damp, rather than completely soaked, is what you should be aiming for.
Apply a Heat Protectant Formula
If heat styling is usually a part of your hair routine, then it goes without saying that a heat protectant is a must. These products create a seal over each strand to block the brute force of any heat that’s applied. This way, if any burning occurs, it’s the heat protectant, rather than your hair, that’s primarily affected.
Heat protectants come in many forms, so pick one that’s suitable for your hair type. Oily hair does best with lightweight formulas, like sprays, whereas dry hair would benefit from a richer heat protectant, like a cream.
Depending on the product that you choose, application methods can vary. Make sure that you properly follow the usage directions on your heat protectant of choice.
Extra Tip:
Once you’ve applied your heat protectant, don’t immediately reach for a heated styling tool. Ideally, you should give the product a few minutes to sink into your strands first. This is the only way they’ll be able to provide proper protection.
Dry Your Hair Correctly
The next step in this New Year hair routine is to dry your hair. While this may sound pretty simple, many people unintentionally cause serious damage to their locks with their drying techniques, making it important to go about this step mindfully.
So, how should you dry your hair? Start with a microfiber towel. They’re much more absorbent than regular terrycloth towels. Blot excess moisture out of your hair until your strands are about 80% dry.
After this, reach for a blow dryer. While you may think that air-drying your hair is the best way forward, research shows that leaving your hair wet for extended periods of time can actually do more harm to the integrity of your strands than drying them with a blow dryer. With that said, make sure that you pick a blow dryer that has been designed to keep the appearance of damage to a minimum. The Evalectric Pro Beauty Dryer, for instance, will leave your hair feeling unbelievably silky and healthy.
Extra Tip:
When using a blow dryer on your locks, always point the nozzle downward. This will help to encourage your hair cuticles to lie flat, as opposed to pointing the nozzle upwards and causing those cuticles to lift. The end result will be hair that looks much smoother!
Preserve Your Hard Work With Overnight Protection
It goes without saying that this New Year hair routine takes some time and effort. It can feel quite disheartening to go to bed after doing all of that work, only to wake up to a mane that feels frizzy and unmanageable. It’s a common problem, mainly because most pillowcases create friction that roughs up hair cuticles. Those same pillowcases are also notorious for their absorbent qualities, meaning that they soak up moisture from your hair while you sleep.
How can you get around this? With some overnight protection in the form of a silk pillowcase. Silk is wonderfully smooth, meaning that no friction is created when your strands rub against the material while you sleep. Silk also won’t steal moisture from your locks, meaning that you’ll wake up with hair that feels better hydrated.
If you’re already using a silk pillowcase and have only noticed a slight improvement in your strands, consider investing in a silk hair wrap too. This will hold your hair in place while you sleep without causing any damage, meaning that you’ll wake up with a mane that’s much easier to manage!
Extra Tip:
While some find that, at first, wearing a silk hair wrap to bed can feel uncomfortable, this is usually down to wrapping technique. Prep your hair first by brushing it, and then pull your wrap up so that it’s turban-style around your head. Secure it with bobby pins, but don’t tie it too tightly – you don’t want to end up with a headache in the morning!
The New Year Hair Routine For a 2026 Hair Reset
If your hair would benefit from a reset this year, our New Year hair routine won’t let you down. Remember – this routine isn’t one that you should be following every couple of days. Instead, depending on your hair type, save it for every one to two weeks, or for when your hair could do with some extra TLC.
Click here to boost your New Year hair routine with more Evalectric bestsellers.
