If you have always had a relaxer or always gone to a salon or stylist to have your hair done the ins and outs of caring for you natural hair may be all new to you. Don’t worry, we all have to start somewhere. Caring for your hair in its natural state is not harder than caring for you hair relaxed.

If you have always had a relaxer or always gone to a salon or stylist to have your hair done the ins and outs of caring for you natural hair may be all new to you. Don’t worry, we all have to start somewhere. Caring for your hair in its natural state is not harder than caring for you hair relaxed.

There are some concepts that you will need to learn. You may need to get acquainted with a new vocabulary. You will need to change some habits. Once you learn the basics, things will only get easier.

One of the first things that you will want to understand is how your hair is structured. You may be in for a surprise when you realize that naturally curly/coily hair is much more delicate than straight hair. And you thought that you had the rough stuff and everyone else’s was delicate and fine. Not so.

Now we really can’t generalize about hair, especially if you live in the United States. Most black Americans have ancestry that is of more than one race. Your heritage affects your hair and your hair type. So as you are getting to know your hair, keep that in mind. This article will be offering general guidelines that will help you to make a stress free transition for any hair type. As you get to know your hair you will come to learn what works best for you.

Just remember no matter what your hair type or texture is , it is better to work with your hair and not against it .

Coming Clean: The Truth About Washing Your hair

Ok, one of the first things you will probably want to know is how to keep your hair clean. So that is where we will start. If you are like most people you grew up seeing shampoo commercials where models piled their hair on top of their heads and lathered it up with loads of shampoo. Scrub, scrub, scrub, lather, lather, lather rinse and your hair is squeaky clean.

If that gave you the idea that shampoo is essential to having clean hair. You are not alone. Most people feel that they can’t get their hair clean without using shampoo. That is not completely true. The truth about shampoo is that you really don’t need it at all.

Most commercial shampoos are harsh on your hair and contain chemicals that could actually make you sick. No, I am not telling you should give up on washing your hair. There are lots of natural alternatives to shampoo, as well as ways to shampoo your hair that are less harmful to it.

Conditioning: The Key to Healthy Happy Hair

Ok, you say if shampoo is bad what about conditioner. You know conditioner was actually invented to counteract the negative effects of shampoo. Yep, it’s true. Let me let you in on a-not-so-secret secret. Many curly/coily haired people have found that they can skip the shampooing step all together and go straight to conditioning. They have found that their hair responds by being easier to manage.

In addition to washing your hair in a way that conditions it instead of strips it, you may also want to work a monthly or bi-monthly deep conditioning treatment into your hair care routine. This all depends on the condition of your hair. If your hair is not damage or you don’t color your hair you may be able to go longer between deep conditioning treatments. You should treat your hair to a deep treatment at least once a year.

You don’t need to go over board, too much of a good thing can be bad. There is no need to deep condition your hair every time you wash. You will probably find that as you start to wash your hair in ways that are gentle and nurturing, it will respond by being easier to manage.

Drying Your Hair without Drying It Out

Try to remember: curly hair loves moisture. You will find that many of your styling options will call for you to just blot your hair to get most of the water out and then let it air dry.

There are times when you need to get your hair dry. Some styles look best and stay longer once your hair is dry (wet sets, straw curls, straighter looks). There are techniques to drying your hair without totally drying it out. Air drying, if you have the time, is always the best. A hood dryer on medium to cool is another alternative.

You may want to rebel against nature-just a little- and temporarily heat straighten your hair. If you do, you will need to use more drastic drying methods (blow drying, flat ironing or hot combing) to get it straight. Still, there are kinder gentler ways to do everything –even to coax your hair to straighten out.

Protective Styling

In general it is better to work with nature and not against it. One of the ways that you can do that is to wear protective styles. That is styles that work with your hair and put handling to a minimum. Excess combing, brushing and manipulating can lead to hair damage and hinder hair growth.

Trimming Your Ends

Split and damaged ends will hinder hair growth in relaxed hair as well as natural hair. One of the blessings of having natural hair is that you are not doing many of the things that cause spit ends in the first place. Still split ends occur even in the best kept natural hair. Trimming them away is a part of hair care. Believe it or not your hair will grow more.

Now it is important for me to clear up the misconception that you may have about trimming ends. Trimming ends doesn’t cause hair to grow. It keeps damage at bay. If left to themselves your splits wouldn’t stay at the ends of your hair. They would travel up the hairs shaft causing irreparable damage as they moved along.

Don’t believe the hype of the lotions and potions. You can’t heal split ends. Some things may make your cuticle look less rough but the only way to get rid of splits is to trim them off.

To sum it up

This article has been a general overview of natural hair care. If you haven’t already, click on the hyperlinks through out this article to get more extensive information on the various topics.

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written by islandwoman, August 26, 2008

I have had twists in my hair for a month going on 2 months. What is the safest way of removing them without breakage?

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written by tia245, September 06, 2008

Hi Islandwoman!
I'm guessing by now that you may have removed your twists, but here goes. I use castor oil and a generous amount of conditioner. I use a palmful of conditioner on each quarter of my head. Work a small amount of castor oil into each twist and then coat your hair with conditioner. Cover your head with a plastic cap and leave on overnight or for a few hours. Use more conditioner on the ends of your hair before combing. To avoid breakage, start at the ends and comb out upwards towards your scalp. Be gentle with the combing. Undo no more than 4 twists at a time to comb through because you will have a lot of shed hair to get out.

Tish

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