Beauty: How To Care For Your Natural Hair

Photo credit: essence.com

Most times, we often complain about our natural hair not growing out to that particular bounce we want.

It remains in a particular length for years.

We see happy naturals with their full afro and stretched out relaxed hair, hung on their shoulders or beyond but one thing you should know is this; having a healthy hair doesn't come cheap.

By coming cheap, I simply mean you don't expect a miracle to happen on your hair if you don't take care of it.

 Recently I had the big chop after I was tired of my chemically relaxed hair breaking and thinning. It had no weight and also maintained an eight inch length for a period of seven years. I started reading up articles on how to care for my hair and make it look like what I saw on Google; then I realized, I have actually been mishandling my hair.

I relaxed almost every month, I didn't have a particular regimen so I just used anything. I shuffled between stylists and it contributed a lot to my hair loss. There was always heat on my hair partly from using hot dryers and hot combs which also lead to hair breakage.

At a point, I got tired of the hair so I decided to transition for five months, just figure out how my hair works. During the transitioning, the more I washed, the more I shedded hair.

 My hair became a nightmare so one day, I took a scissors and snipped out the damaged edges to reveal my fro; afterwards, I had no major regrets.

 My hair was 2.5 inches long after the BC and it has been one month now and 1.5 inches longer. The shrinkage is not so much maybe because I am a beginner but when I do a two strand twist or thread, it stretches out.

In this short period my hair has given me joy but I am still figuring out a lot of things to do with it, like styling, wash and go, co washing (which has been really helpful) and a lot of others.

Here are ways you can repair your damaged natural hair.

Going Completly Natural:
This involves total cutting of relaxed edges to reveal your natural fro. After this, educate yourself more on which regimen you should use and make sure you filter off most advise you see online. Remember, what works for an individual may not work for you so do not try everything at once. Take it one step at a time until you understand which product works for you. You will need to moisturize often at the early stage, every day or every two days (for this I use organics Shea butter moisturizer). A good moisturizer has water as a base, a spray bottle is also important for people with low porosity hair (unable to retain moisture) and it contains water and a little bit of your moisturizer. You also need an oil to seal off moisture since moisture is water based, if you don't seal, it goes back to the atmosphere leaving your hair dry (olive oil, coconut oil are examples). If you want to try the LOC method (Liquid, Oil and Cream) make sure you seal off with satin scarf at night so that the heat from your hair can serve as steam (for cream I used organics hair mayonnaise). Use shampoos that are not harsh, example shampoos that are organic. I use a harsh shampoo basically due to budget so I make sure I co wash often (washing with only conditioner) because conditioners have less chemicals in them.

Texlaxing:
In this you under process your hair when relaxing not allowing it to be completely straight out. It also gives you a healthier and thicker hair. This kind of hair is also good in retaining moisture. Texlaxing should be done every five-six  months. You can also LOC in your texlaxed hair and always use an organic relaxer. Make sure you go for one that is of a low budget so that you won’t have to shuffle between products.

Photo credit: Rehairducation. 

Example of texlaxed hair.

Relaxed hair:
You can maintain a healthy relaxed hair if you have a good hair regimen. You can also use an organic relaxer with Olive oil. A lye relaxer is much better because you hair still gets to retain it's thickness but a no lye relaxer often gives you a weaker hair. Difference between lye and no lye in layman's terms is a lye relaxer is in singles and no lye comes as a kit. Avoid heat on your hair and always use a warm air to dry. Cut down on the use of hot Combs for at least once every year and also relax every three months maximum.

Also what you take inside your body also helps in hair growth, drinking lots of water and eating healthy will help nourish your hair inside out. Avoid having a dirty scalp and wash hair every week or two weeks. Care for your hair like you care for your own body and watch magic happen.

 I look forward to mine.