With all the information out there on Natural hair care it may seem confusing for someone new on their natural hair journey to know what to do and what not to do on their hair.
That's why I've put together an easy guide that will help new naturals with their hair care.
I've listed down below the basic things everyone on natural hair should know about natural hair care.
1. Moisturizing
Keeping your hair moisturized is very basic. It prevents your hair from getting too dry and at the end of the day breaking off.
The best way to keep your hair properly moisturized is by using water, a water based product like leave in conditioner, moisturizing cream and then oil. The oil helps to lock in the moisture in your hair.
2. Oiling the scalp
Massaging the scalp with oil regularly helps stimulate hair growth and also keeps the scalp healthy. Good oil options you could use on your hair are olive oil, coconut oil, black castor oil, almond oil, argan oil, aloe vera oil and a whole lot of others.
3. Deep conditioning
Deep conditioning is an important step you shouldn't miss when washing your hair. There are some conditioners that are made solely for deep conditioning and then there are moisturizing/protein based conditioners. You could use either of them.
Basically how you deep condition is to apply your conditioner after you’ve shampooed, cover your hair with a plastic bag or shower cap and leave it in your hair for about 15-30 minutes before rinsing it out. This is opposed to the regular conditioning where you condition your hair and rinse it out immediately.
Deep conditioning helps to strengthen your hair and lock in moisture in the hair strands. Your focus when deep conditioning should be on your hair strands and not your scalp.
4. Pre poo / Hot oil treatment
To pre poo is to get your hair ready for shampooing using oil or heavy butters like shea butter or an already formulated product for pre poo.
How do you pre poo?
You apply whatever you're using on your hair then cover your hair still using a plastic bag or shower cap. You can have it in your hair for as long as you want since it's just oil and won't do any harm to your hair. After pre pooing you can go ahead and wash your hair.
What pre poo does is that it helps to slightly detangle your hair, soften it and also prevent your shampoo from striping out the moisture in your hair.
Hot oil treatment on the other hand is treating your hair with hot oil. How is this done?
Put your preferred choice of oil in a plastic container, place it in a pot of water and boil for some minutes. When it's hot enough apply on clean damp hair and cover with a shower cap or plastic bag for about 20 minutes. After which you wash your hair and moisturize.
It's good to do this once a month, once in two months or at least once in three months. This will help prevent your hair from protein loss.
If you do not already know, the hair is made up of a protein called keratin which helps to keep it strong and growing.
5. Hair porosity
This is how well your hair is able to absorb and hold in moisture. There are three levels of hair porosity Low, high and medium.
Hair with low porosity doesn't absorbs moisture easily. So most times when you apply products on it, the product just sits on the hair and hardly penetrates. Nonetheless this type of hair is considered healthy because when it absorbs moisture it retains it for a longer time.
It's best to use light products on this hair type and apply less amount of product on it so it can easily absorb it.
Hair with high porosity lets in much moisture but also loses it easily. This hair type works best with heavy products like heavy butters e.g shea butter.
Hair with medium porosity allows the right amount of moisture to get into the hair and prevents too much from escaping. You can use both light and heavy products on it.
You can determine your porosity level by doing a test called the float test.
Put a strand of your hair in a bowl or cup of water. If it floats on the water you have low porosity, if it sinks you have high porosity and if either floats or sink then you have medium porosity.
For your float test to be effective use clean strands of hair to carry out the test.
Why it is important to know your porosity level is that it helps with your choice of products.
6. Protect your hair by covering it at night
You do this by using either a satin or silk bonnet, scarf or pillowcase. The reason for using a satin or silk material is that the material doesn’t suck up the moisture and oil in your hair like how the cotton material or any other material would do.
7. Regular combing of the hair isn't necessary
Combing the hair regularly isn’t necessary, that’s too much tension on your scalp except your hair is still very short.
The hair should be combed out properly mostly on wash days. For every other day you could just fluff it out and your good to go.
If there’s need to comb out the hair any other day, you’re to spray water and apply a leave in conditioner or cream on the hair to reduce the friction and as well avoid much breakage.
8. It's best to wash your hair with warm water
This helps to open up your pores for better shampooing and also for the products you’ll use afterwards to easily penetrate into your hair. It also makes hair detangling easy.
Though some people say they prefer washing their hair with cold water but personally for me it leaves my hair dry. So you could experiment and find out which one works best for your hair.
9. Comb your hair with a wide tooth
10. Detangling properly on dry hair leads to breakage
You could gently detangle your hair using your fingers when it is dry but when you want to properly detangle using a comb or brush never do so on dry hair if your hair length is important to you.
11. Have a wash day routine
Have a routine for washing and treating your hair on your wash days.
A simple order you could follow is this; pre poo, shampoo, deep condition, moisturize.
How often you wash your hair depends on our scalp condition, the type of products you use and your lifestyle. Pay attention to your hair and know when to wash it, if it isn’t necessary to wash your hair so often like every 2-3 days then don’t.
In my opinion shampooing the hair so often makes the hair cuticle weak which will lead to much breakage.
12. Shrinkage is a sign that your hair is healthy
Natural hair has properties like density, elasticity, strand size, all of which affects how the hair looks. If shrinkage makes your hair look shorter than it actually is embrace it sis, it's a sign that your hair is healthy.
13. Hair shedding and breakage is normal
Hair shedding and breakage is normal when it comes to hair especially type4 hair because it is the most fragile out of all hair types.
What isn't normal is excessive shedding and breakage. If you're to experience this then you are to look into your hair routine and products to know what may be causing it.
14. Having a spray bottle is necessary.
It makes refreshing your hair with water when it needs it so much easier.
15. A list of things you should have for your hair care includes;
Wide tooth comb
Spray bottle
Satin or silk bonnet|scarf|pillowcase
Leave in conditioner
Moisturizing cream/hair butters
Oil
Shampoo
Conditioner
I put it in this order cos I know some people may not be able to buy all the hair care products,and tools at once.
There are obviously other products and tools that further help with hair care which are not in this list but these are the very essentials you should have.
16. The ends of your hair is more prone to damage and breakage. Keep them tucked away as much as you can and also seal with oils and heavy butters regularly.
They are the oldest part of your hair and they are what will form the length of your hair as it grows.
17. The hairs in your edges are fragile and gets pulled out easily. So to keep them from getting damaged;
keep it moisturized
massage often with your preferred oil
avoid putting much pressure on it when making protective styles.
18. Minimize stretching your hair with direct heat such as hot combing, blow drying.
There are other ways you could stretch your hair such as threading, braid out, twist out, bantu knots etc
If you must stretch your hair using heat then you'll have to make use of a heat protectant product to prevent your hair from getting heat damaged.
When your hair gets heat damaged it loses it's curls and coils. Making it look more like a relaxed hair. This shows that your hair being shrinked is a sign that it's healthy.
19. The goal should be health over length
I also emphasised this in my last newsletter. Hair in itself grows about ½ inch per month, that's about 6 inches in a year which is a good growth rate. It is factors like excess heat styling, bad hair regimen, bad diet, wrong hair products, etc that causes the hair to have split ends and breakages which reduces the hair in length and volume.
So the issue is not that our hair isn't growing rather it's how we treat and manage it that determines its state.
Healthy hair is the goal
20. Oil is not moisture.
Oils help promote hair growth and gives your hair shine as well, but isn't in any way water. The hair needs water to grow. It can be compared to a plant in the soil (the scalp) which needs to be watered and nurtured so as to grow. So yeah, the hair needs to be moisturized often. Use moisturizing products that has water as it's first ingredient and also water in itself.
Does this exempt the role oils play in hair growth, no. Both oil and moisture is needed to promote hair growth, but don't let oil take the place of moisture in your hair care.
21. Your hair doesn't have to be dripping wet before you know it's moisturised. If it feels supple, soft and not frizzy then it's moisturised. Try keeping your hair in this state always.
22. Having a hair regimen is essential.
A hair regimen is simply a routine you follow in taking care of your hair. It mustn't be something too serious. It could be as simple as;
Having a fixed wash day interval
Deep conditioning after you wash
Using certain products on your hair that keeps it healthy.
Putting your hair in a protective style at certain times e.g during harmattan, when travelling etc
Keeping your hair regimen as simple as you can makes it easier for you to keep up with it.
23. Keep your hair tools clean
Having your combs, brushes, hair clips, bonnet, scarves and spray bottle dirty causes bacteria and fungi to form on it and guess where they will end up?... your hair.
24. Don't partake in every DIY trending just to make your hair grow faster. It's good to know the things that are good for your hair and work with them mostly.
25. If growing out your hair and keeping it healthy is important to you then you'll have to give some of your time to taking care of it. This is the only way you can keep it healthy and well groomed.
Thanks dear. This is really enlightening
Thanks. This is very informative and useful.