"Don't try too hard."

This has come up often lately in my various internet travels.  I tried to make a joke about it the other day and no one got it.

Years ago, I used to play a videogame on Regular NES called Faxanadu.  In the game, occasionally you could visit a shopkeeper.  The shopkeeper could dispense useful 
items such as "Dried meat to bring energy, 50 golds."  He also dispensed the following advice:

"Don't try too hard."

This usually resulted in my housemates and I jumping up and down, and shouting, "What do you mean DON'T TRY TOO HARD???  It's six AM and we've been playing this thing for eighteen hours!!!!   DON'T TRY TOO HARD????"

The more people I see who are in the trenches of trying to recover from a hair disaster though, the more this advice comes to mind.  At times it is like
"I put a chemical process on my hair and now I don't know what to do!  I conditioned it five times today and nothing helps!"
And then I am like, "Dude, settle down, let it rest for a while."  Then they come on an hour later and go, 
"I just used two different protein packs and four conditioners and it's just making it worse!"

Some of the best hair products are time and rest, and they are free.

I'm not an advocate of the idea that we are only supposed to rarely get our hair wet and condition it.  My hair seems to love being watered and conditioned regularly, just about every day.  What I am mostly against is trying a zillion new things in a day, and that much rinsing and manipulation.  
 
If you try so many things in a day, and still have problems, it may be just from trying so many things in a day.  Even if it is a specific product issue, no one can ever diagnose which one, if you tried so many things.

The times that I've peroxided my hair into puffiness, or done other terrible things to it, I had to leave it alone for a while.  Yes, deep treatments and other things did eventually help, but not all in one day.  It just had to settle down for a while first.

I'm saying this in the hopes that it will help someone with a hair disaster.  If your hair is long enough to put up, put it up and forget about it for a bit.  It will settle some.

Don't try too hard!