By Christina of The Mane Objective
I know what you’re thinking. Every day, there seems to be a new set of “rules” for naturals to abide by — and it seems like the more we understand about our hair, the more obscure those rules become. Don’t worry — I’m not here to trick you into believing that you need to hang upside down off the side of your bed for 20 minutes every night to stimulate scalp circulation, or to coat your hair in bacon grease for extra moisture and shine. I’m simply here to suggest that there are certain practices we naturals sometimes skip (I’m guilty of many of these too), to the detriment of our hair.
With folks running around working overtime, in school, raising families, running businesses and others professing themselves to be “lazy” naturals, cutting corners in hair care is bound to happen. Here are five habits to get out of before it’s too late:
1. Set It & Forget It Syndrome
(Yes, I’ve seen a lot of infomercials in my day). For many naturals, especially those transitioning, wigs and weaves are a go-to style. Unfortunately, some of us become so concerned with the hair on the outside that we forget allllllll about the hair underneath. By far, wigs are the best protective style to wear. But all that protection is for naught if your actual hair becomes dry, brittle, and breaks from neglect. Even worse (and more gross), dirt, sweat and other moisture can become trapped under wigs and weaves and have your scalp smelling like death. So even if you do decide to go the full coverage route, please make time to take care of your natural hair underneath. How frequently you wash, condition, and re-moisturize your hair depends on how much you sweat, among other factors.
2. Shoddy Wash Jobs
The whole point of cleansing hair and scalp is to make sure they’re well, clean…right? If you have already made up your mind to cleanse your hair and scalp — whether it be via co-wash, shampoo, sulfate, sulfate-free, apple cider vinegar, baking soda, Aztec healing clay, or anything else — be sure to do a thorough job. While it is important to remove buildup from your hair, getting the buildup off of your scalp is equally as important. If you always co-wash, or use a lot of silicone products that are prone to building up, clarifying your hair and scalp regularly is especially important; so as to not suffocate the follicles. How to best accomplish both without totally stripping your hair is totally up to you…and your hair!
3. Skimming on the Conditioner
I was also guilty of this one, especially since I began co-washing with the awesomely luxurious Aussie Moist. I figured since I was washing my hair with conditioner, I didn’t need to waste more time conditioning it. There was nothing particularly wrong with my logic per-se, but I did notice that I had to re-moisturize my hair quite frequently. Then a few weeks ago it dawned on me, that maybe I should try conditioning my hair for added moisture retention. I began slathering my co-washed tresses with Shea Moisture’s Raw Shea Restorative Conditioner and haven’t looked back since. My hair is softer, smoother, and I am not re-moisturizing nearly as frequently. If you moisturize and seal after your co-washes and you are still having trouble retaining moisture, this could be your culprit. If regular conditioning isn’t doing it for you, kick it up a notch to deep conditioning or add your favorite oils to your current product and see what happens!
4. Half-Hearted Detangling
This one scares me the most. I try to detangle, co-wash, and condition my hair weekly but sometimes, I do it a little more frequently. My hair likes to tangle itself just for funsies, and I am deathly afraid that I’ll randomly wake up one morning with one giant dred. I say all this to say — if you’re going to detangle your hair, do it right. Be thorough. If you use a wide tooth comb, make sure that comb is able to get through all sections of your hair. If you finger detangle, be especially meticulous. Don’t do a rush job because you’re tired, or don’t have enough time. If you don’t relish cutting knots and chunks of un-detangleable hair off of your hair, commit to quality detangle time. Grab a season of Family Guy or turn on a Law & Order SVU marathon (my personal preferences), and get going.
5. Not Covering Hair at Night
I used to be suuuuuuuuper guilty of this one. Sometimes, you’re just so beat at the end of the day that taking the two, five, ten or twenty minutes required to protect your hair in a scarf or bonnet seems to be an impossible task. Or maybe you just perfected your wash n’ go routine and want to make sure your curls stay poppin’ for the rest of the week. If you’re like me, you probably are so exhausted that you nodded off in the middle of reading or writing, and didn’t realize it until the next morning. We already know the dangers of sleeping on cotton pillowcases with our hair unprotected — dryness and breakage city. If you’re prone to passing out some nights without protecting your hair, the best investment you could make is in a satin pillowcase.
What are some bad natural habits you’ve developed as a result of being busy?
For the woman that said she doesn’t have the breakage problem because she wears LOCS!!!!!!! First off…you don’t ahve breakage or shedding because your hair style uses old hair that should have shed a long time ago in the locking process. So when you have “LONG” Dreads….it is not hte same as LONG HAIR….because the length (like the end of your “hair)…isn’t even attached to your scalp a lot of times…
People I know with dreads can sometimes pull really really hard at the end of their dreads and break off like one ince because it is really just hair that should have shed many many months ago but the locking process just keeps it in the “Mix”
IJS
I am inclined to agree and disagree with Linda’s explanation. Yes locks has a substantial amount of shed hair in the “mix” however a lot of people with long locks (ends) still have said attached to their roots, while other don’t. Apart from shedding, hairs terminal lenght and interlocking yechniques influence hair loss on locks. So…. Yea not all seeminly long hair in the “mix” are bounded in
everyone sheds up to/at least 100 strands a day
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I’ve been sporting my natural hair for some 15 years now. It was glorious hair for many years and my hair sheds naturally, nothing to alarm me, or so I thought. Now I’ve realized it’s thinned out as no new hair has replaced the lost ones and I’m now at my wits end as how to get it to start growing again. I do braids and it picks up a little, but sheds again when the braids are removed so I’ve now become a wiggy as well, but there’s nothing like my own. I guess I’ll just continue trying different products till I find something that works for my hair again.
Hi Melaine, I am a black female in my late forties and have been using a whole egg for protein on my hair that has become, thicker, shinier, stronger and longer. Every 1-2 weeks I apply an egg unto my hair, massages it, then place a plastic cap on my head for about 15 minutes, rinse with warm water, shampoo/condition using Pantene.
I have been guilty of not covering up my whole life! I discovered this website about a week ago, as I have just decided to really embark on the journey of going more natural with my personal care. A few years ago I decided that my hubby and I would eat as much from scratch as we could manage, and we left a lot of preservatives and other junk behind. That has been super great. Now I want to see what store bought personal care products we can replace. So I’ve been scouring the web for hair care recipes. This site is a gem!!! I never even knew what “protective styling” meant before, which I am a bit embarrassed to admit. But, then, I am the daughter of a Puerto Rican woman who has been mistaken for white because of her fair skin and only slightly wavy hair. I underwent the big chop in grade school and had relaxers all through middle and high school. Once I started college, I felt like my hair needed a break, so I decided not to relax again when I was due. I am now 34 and haven’t relaxed it since. I think when I was younger I just didn’t know how to handle my hair. For me, the “I hate my hair” days were not so much a result of how it looks, but my frustration at not knowing how to get it to be it’s best. Now I’ve had a winning combo of products giving me happy results for years, but they’re all full of things I cannot pronounce. I am finding that the more time goes by, the more I want to put only the healthiest substances in and on my body. I am so thankful for this site and others like naturallycurly.com. We want to start a family, and I am pretty sure that if we have daughters, their hair will surely be more textured than mine (which is 3c), and I want to make sure I will know how to care for it the right way, from the start!! So… sometime this weekend I will be picking up my bedtime scarf!! :) Thanks again for all this awesome information!!!