Ever wake up in the morning and while looking at the mirror, think to yourself, “@#$%, I have to go through this again?!” Yeah, so maybe your hair looks like you put it through a rusty meat grinder, and maybe you’re tired of spending ten minutes finagling each lock of hair into place.

Luckily for us there are several ways to help us reduce the time that we spend on our hair and develop good maintenance habits. If you have an extreme hair style that requires the use of a lot of product, make sure that you wash it out every night before going to bed. Any gel, glue, paste or concrete left in your hair overnight will require more fuddling the next morning than it’s worth.

If you’re a person who likes to take showers in the morning, try switching your plan so that the pre-bed hair wash becomes a natural part of your routine. The next best recommendation is to use a leave-in conditioner after washing your hair. It will keep your hair from ending up in one of those very-hard-to-style train wrecks that you’re used to in the morning. Most leave-in conditioners contain a significant amount of oil so make sure to let them soak into your hair for a few minutes before you decide to lay down on any nice pillows.

Extreme hair styles can be a lot of work but a little planning and discipline can go a long way in reducing the time that you spend maintaining your hair.