How to Build a Weekly Cadence: A 7-Day Oli G Routine

The architecture is seven products. Most days you only use one or two. Here's what a real week with this routine actually looks like.

Six canaries into this body of work, you've seen the science: what a peptide is, why pH matters, when to clarify, why AquaLush replaces conditioner once a week. What you haven't seen is the part that matters most when you actually want to do it: the week. Day by day. Wash day, non-wash day, mask day, clarify day — how they sequence, where the products land, and why a routine that looks like seven products on the shelf is usually one or two on any given morning.

The architecture is a calendar, not a checklist. Here's how it plays out.

First, figure out your wash frequency

The routine flexes around how often you wash. Most people land somewhere between one and four washes per week:

• One wash a week. Common for type 4 textures and long protective-style cycles. The products and step order are identical to the rest — just spaced further apart, with deeper between-wash maintenance.
• Two washes a week. Fine for many curly and most thick textures. Often too few for very fine hair or active scalps.
• Three washes a week. The most common cadence for medium textures, color-treated hair, and active lifestyles. This is what the three-wash week below is modeled on.
• Four washes a week. Common for fine, straight, or high-sebum hair. Works as long as the shampoo is pH-balanced and gentle enough for the frequency.

If you're washing daily out of habit, try stretching by one day. The hair adapts within two to three weeks, and the routine compounds further than daily washing allows it to.

A real three-wash week

Here's what a typical week looks like for someone washing Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. The Saturday wash includes AquaLush.

Monday — wash day, standard. Total Refresh Shampoo and Conditioner at 04 Balance. Atomic on damp hair at 05 Restore. A few drops of Renew at 03 Nourish on the ends. Style.

Tuesday — non-wash day. Hair stays as it was. Brush gently. If using heat tools, Chemical Addiction at 02 Protect before the iron — every time, no exceptions. If the ends feel dry, one drop of Renew. No re-application of Atomic; the deposit from Monday's wash is still working.

Wednesday — wash day, standard. Same as Monday. Total Refresh duo, Atomic, Renew. The compounding routine.

Thursday and Friday — non-wash days. Same logic as Tuesday. Heat tool use = Chemical Addiction first. Dry ends = one drop of Renew. That's it.

Saturday — AquaLush day. Total Refresh Shampoo at 04 Balance, then AquaLush in place of the Conditioner — five minutes in the shower, mid-lengths to ends. Cool rinse. Atomic on damp hair. Renew on ends. Same routine as the other wash days, except AquaLush has done a deeper layer of peptide work the Conditioner can't reach.

Sunday — non-wash day, post-AquaLush. This is where the architecture pays off. The strand is in its best state of the week. Style as needed; the hair holds the shape longer because the peptide deposit is at maximum.

A one-wash week

For a one-wash cadence — common for type 4 textures and during protective-style cycles — the architecture compresses to a single deep wash with daily between-wash care. Saturday: Total Refresh at 04 Balance, AquaLush in place of the Conditioner, Atomic on damp hair, Renew on the ends. Sunday through Friday: a daily spritz of water mixed with a small amount of AquaLush, a pea-size amount of Atomic on the ends, a drop of Renew as needed — the same seven products, the same step order, spaced across the week instead of within it. (For the full type 4 routine, see A routine for coily hair (Type 4) — moisture is everything.)

What stays the same on every wash day

Three things repeat:

• 04 Balance. A pH-balanced cleanse — every wash, no exceptions. The cuticle stays in its native zone instead of being lifted and forced back down. (For the chemistry, see Why pH Matters: The Cuticle Story.)
• 05 Restore. Atomic on damp hair, every wash. The compound daily peptide step.
• 03 Nourish. Renew on the ends, every wash. The lipid seal.

That's the daily floor. Three products, three steps, every wash day, no variation.

The two variations: mask day and clarify day

Two wash days per week are different from the standard:

The weekly mask. Once a week, AquaLush replaces the Conditioner at 04 Balance. Everything else stays the same. (Full breakdown: AquaLush: Why Your Conditioner Deserves a Weekly Day Off.)

The clarify. Every 7–14 days, Pure Detox at 01 Cleanse swaps in for that wash's Total Refresh Shampoo. Lifts buildup that's blocking peptide penetration and accelerating color fade. Then the rest of the wash continues as normal. (When and why: Cleanse vs Clarify: When to Use Pure Detox.)

These can overlap. The clarify-before-AquaLush wash is the highest-leverage single day in the routine — Pure Detox lifts buildup so AquaLush lands deeper. Some clients schedule a clarify-and-mask every other week.

The architecture, in calendar form

Five steps. One ritual. Seven products. Six of those products show up on wash days only — three on every wash, one on mask day, one on clarify day, one before any heat tool. The seventh is the daily leave-in that runs through the whole week. Most non-wash days, you're not touching a product at all unless heat is involved.

That's the design. Heavy on the wash, light in between. The routine compounds across the week without feeling like a routine.

For the application errors that undermine this cadence, see The Five Mistakes People Make With Peptide Treatments.