For many women, wearing and styling natural hair can sometimes be frustrating, difficult even. It’s hard to find products that are specifically designed for our hair that produce the outcomes we want. Finding the one product that caters to all hair needs is difficult to find. If you’re thinking that it’s your fault that you can’t find the right product, it’s not.
There are so many hair product lines out now that a normal run to the nearest walmart or hair store tends to be overwhelming for most of us. A couple good products I recommend are pieces from the Carol’s Daughter, Shea Moisture, and E’Tae hair company lines. These products don’t weigh your hair down, and it doesn’t take much product to moisturize and protect your hair throughout the day.
It’s not just hair products that we need to worry about. Things like the health our hair matters too; your nightly routine or your washing routine, they factor into how healthy you hair looks– how fast it can grow, and the amount of volume you would accumulate over time. Maintaining the “natural head” look is difficult, meaning our hair requires a lot more attention than we usually would if we had a perm or a blow out.
To get an idea of how to maintain luscious healthy hair, here are 10 things you can do to maximize the health of your hair.
1) Drink Lots of Water. Drinking about half your bodyweight a day, helps to maximize moisture in your hair. It also helps your skin, too.
2) Exercise on a regular basis. Exercising helps increase air circulation to the head, which is what you want. Remember, healthy bodies grow healthy hair.
3) Scalp massages. Gently massaging your scalp every now-and-then can help increase blood flow and stimulate growth.
4) Eat Well. Eating as much veggies as you can really helps your body regulate itself. Having a balanced diet is just a small factor of it all.
5) Build a regimen. Building a hair regimen is the key to long healthy hair. The idea of a hair regimen is to increase moisture in the hair, while decreasing hair breakage and damage. For example, detangling and using leave-in conditioner, along with natural oils, are somethings I do every time I finish washing my hair. For about 4 years now I have followed these steps every 2-3 weeks, and I have seen a difference in my hair’s texture and quality. If you routinely do your hair a certain way, you’re hair will adjust to the routine. The regimen helps it grow and remain healthy.
6) Trim those split ends! Trimming your split ends on a regular basis will help your hair to grow fuller and longer. Don’t keep those split ends because they tend to make your hair look really bad and uneven. Straightening your hair without trimming it after is a bad idea because the ends of your hair can sometimes look uneven due to hair growth.
7) Air dry with t-shirts not towels. If you’re like me, the wet version of your hair tends to be in a more fragile state. I recommend you use a old t-shirt to dry your hair instead of a towel. Towels tend to have little fibers that pull on the hair as you try to dry it. Use a t-shirt, trust me, the hair pulling and pain just isn’t worth it. T-shirts have less fibers and are made of softer fabrics.
8) Avoid Heat Styling. Please avoid styling your hair with anything that has to do with heat. Yes, it’s cool to straighten your hair every now-and-then, but you can’t do it all the time. That’s the whole point of being “natural.” If you were to straighten your hair all the time, after every wash, without heat protectant, your hair will ultimately end up heat damaged. Which is something you really don’t want.
9) Don’t use henna or chemical dye. Coloring your hair is nice and all, but it’s really not good for your hair. Putting chemicals on your hair can cause breakage and harm your curl pattern.
10) Sleep with a satin cap/scarf. Wearing a satin cap or wrap around your head at night keeps the moisture in your hair. It’s important that you wear something at night to protect your hair because it can easily dry out and break off. Wearing a cap or scarf at night prevents all that. Do not brush it off when I say that you have to wear something on your head every night! It’s very important for your hair, almost like life or death.
Those were just some of the things that I recommend you do for your hair. The 10 things above are really just the basics of natural hair care. Being a “natural head” is hard, but over time it tends to get easier because you eventually get used to your hair.
