My first piece of advice is to adjust your expectations. Natural hair does what it wants to, embrace this, treat your hair nicely and it will give you its best. Trying to fight with your hair instead of accepting her will make you an unhappy natural. Natural hair grows outwards at least a little, possibly a lot - do not try to get it as sleek as relaxed hair. Your efforts could frustrate you and damage your hair due to tension and potentially harmful product choices. Your hair is beautiful. Repeat this every morning and every night until you believe it. It will become even more beautiful as you care for it, so things will get even better than this current awesomeness! Shrinkage is cool and amazing, it makes us unique, embrace it. Your hair is naturally curly (tight or loose), embrace that and make that your new normal. Don't feel like you're holding your breath waiting to straighten to see your "real" hair. Length is not your real hair, whatever goal you have is not your real hair. Your real hair is right there on your head wanting a little r e s p e c t and affection, so give some sugar (yes that's a humectant so you can, but more on that later, this sugar is the lovvveeey dovvvveeey kind :)). A healthy and positive perspective about natural hair is sooooo important but unfortunately it's often the lesson that's missed in this commercialized, curl-ist, length-rat-race that is the natural hair air out there.
Once you have a healthy and positive perspective you are ready to get into the technical hair care details. Firstly, you should have an idea of what a hair strand looks like. Finer hair types often don't have a medulla, but all hair has a cortex surrounded by protective cuticles. When we talk about moisturizing, we are talking about getting moisture past the cuticles and into the cortex. The cortex also contains the pigment or color. Products like semi permanent / permanent dyes that affect your color work by forcing open your cuticles and adding pigment to your cortex; they usually have some finishing rinse or technique to close your cuticles again.
Next, find out about the details of your particular hair structure by finding out your porosity, thickness and strand diameter. Your hair porosity will help you determine how to get moisture into your hair and how to preserve that moisture for as long as possible. If you have low porosity hair then you can get more moisture into your hair by raising your hair cuticle slightly using moderate heat. Once your hair is moisturized you can use oils or possibly even just organic gels to seal in this moisture. You may not need to use heavier butters to seal as your hair naturally retains more moisture. If you have high porosity then your hair absorbs moisture easily but you need to be extra cautious with sealing in order to retain that moisture. You can seal using oils or heavier butters (if you do not have fine strands). Be sure to test your hair porosity on freshly washed hair. Another useful piece of knowledge is whether you have relatively few or many strands of hair are on your head. Your strand density helps immediately give you some insight on how many strands you should be loosing due to normal shedding. It will also help you determine what kinds of moisturizers and products you can use to achieve your optimal look. If you thinner hair, volume is important and you want to look into safe volumizing techniques. If you have thick hair, some of you might desire to "moderately" "lay" your hair to achieve a sleeker look. I caution moderation here because my philosophy is that excessively laying your edges is one of the best ways to lose those edges due to tension. Over here in the healthy hair camp we do not call broken hair "edges" and we do not solve our broken "edges" problem by making it worse due to tension or drying edge control products. I personally "lay" my edges with castor oil over whatever styling product I used and that's laid enough for me. I chose castor oil because it is also good for hair strength and growth. Finally, your strand diameter will tell you likely your hair is to be "weighed down" by products and whether you need to be extra careful to avoid damage when manipulating or stressing your hair. Those with fine strands need to be careful when detangling, dyeing, or applying high heat, for example. Remember that even if it turns out that you don't have to be extra careful, you still have to be *regular* careful, so don't use coarse strands as an excuse to go crazy. My personal combination is low porosity, coarse strands and thick / dense hair. I need to do a little extra to get moisture in, but my hair retains moisture fairly easily. Also I experience very little breakage and tangles as long as I take good care of my hair. The links provided give excellent information on how to test your hair and more information on what to do with the results. So go forth and check them out and then be sure to come back to read the rest of my natural manual.
Now that you know the basics of what you hair is like, the next part of basically all you need is what to do to maintain your hair. Simply: cleanse, condition, moisturize, maintain your protein-moisture balance, protect your hair, check for split ends / brittle / damaged hair and correct the cause of these issues as well as trim the damaged hair if needed. Yup that's it, happy "natural"ing :). How you do each of these steps are up to you and whatever works for you. I would advise that you avoid shampoos with sulphates since sulphates strip your hair of moisture, sebum and oils. Some people shampoo only monthly, or even never, while others shampoo weekly. Some people cowash frequently (glossary check!). Do what works for you. Before cleansing, I pre poo with penetrating oils like coconut, avocado and olive oils to avoid hygral fatigue. If you avoid silicones and use more organic products in your hair then you may not need a heavy duty shampoo. If you're going HAM at the dollar store for products then you might need to cleanse more to get the build up out of your hair. Some rules of thumb are: if your hair is itchy cleanse, if your hair seems more limp or less responsive to products than usual then clarify. If you use heavy products then expect to need to do more thorough cleansing. Conditioning is important to strengthen, moisturize and protect your hair. Deep conditioning in particular can amp up these benefits. Too much conditioning can cause build up and throw off your moisture-protein balance by causing your hair to become over-moisturized and weak. Generally you can try doing a protein treatment on your hair every 4-6 weeks, followed by a moisturizing conditioning treatment. If you see some benefit after the protein treatment then you can keep up this regimen and reapply protein when you find that your hair needs that pick-me-up again.
Moisturizing is a step all on its own because you can (and as a new natural probably should) moisturize outside of wash day (yeh wash day is a thing lol, you'll see). The most popular natural hair method of moisturizing is the LOC / LCO method. This is a good place to start. I would add starting with damp hair before you do LOC / LCO and using a butter based product for C. At least at the beginning you will probably need a huge moisture boost so part your hair in small rows and do LOC/LCO on each row individually, from root to tip. This will more thoroughly moisturize your hair and allow you to reach a satisfactory moisture level faster. As your moisture improves you can make larger sections or perform LOC/LCO less often. Be careful not to use too much oil. You never want the moisture to have evaporated from your hair but the oil to still be present, otherwise that oil will block some of your next application of moisture from getting into your hair. I use a spray bottle with oils and possibly a little water to help distribute the oils. Another tip is that it's quite okay to have more than one spray bottle! You can have one for sealing, one for deeper moisture, and one then for whatever else you find that you need. The possibilities are endless! I like to spritz with my spray bottle, I'm a spritz chick. To that end I sometimes purchase moisturizing sprays. Some people also have their own awesome home made moisture mix going. Your spray bottle is uniquely you. Just try not to add too many things at once to your spray bottle (or your hair regimen or your life or your... ) so that you can tell which ingredients are working or not working for you. I really focus on getting my moisture in on wash day, but spritzing daily helps me maintain my moisture and refresh my curls. I chose to say protect your hair rather than style your hair because for healthy hair you want to make sure that you are using safe products and safe methods for styling. The details of how you style is up to you as well. Just try not to regularly stress any particular area of your hair, especially your vulnerable edges. Also make sure that your styles work with your hair. If your hair tangles easily or dries out quickly then you may not want to leave your hair open for a long time, for example. Sleeping on a silk / satin pillowcase or using a silk / satin bonnet also protects your hair by protecting it from dryness and breakage. Finding the right amount of manipulation for your hair is important as well. You want to detangle often enough to avoid accumulating shed hairs but not so often that you damage or wear down your strands from too much manipulation. Pineappling can help your styles last longer as well so that you are not forced to manipulate too often to create new hairstyles.
The final step is to check the strands that come loose from your scalp to determine whether they are naturally shed, whether they are broken and whether they are strong or split or damaged. Shed hairs have a tiny white bulb on one end so you can randomly spot check fallen hairs for this. If you don't find that bulb then your hair could be breaking. You can gently pull the ends of the fallen strands to see if they stretch overly, break easily or have multiple weak spots. You can visually examine these fallen strands for split ends. If many of your strands are broken or damaged then you need to examine or change your regimen AND you need to check with your stylist to see whether and how much of a trim is needed. Split ends need to be trimmed before the split travels further up the shaft and damages more of the length of your hair.
Another tip that deserves its own section is this one: try to avoid becoming a product junkie. Don't just go buying stuff based on the promises on the front of the jar or the praises from other naturals, read the ingredients! Learn what works for your hair, learn what your hair needs. You can never learn this if you stumble around grabbing random products and not reading what's in them to learn what's affecting your hair. Read up about what each ingredient does (and I do mean every single one!) so you won't be purchasing blind. Read the reviews on a product before you buy it, but also think about how the ingredients might affect your hair based on the experience you've been carefully acquiring and noting. Don't buy 10 different shea moisture shampoos if you didn't like the first one and the other 9 have similar ingredients. Start with purchasing a shampoo, deep conditioner, conditioner and leave in. A detangler, cream moisturizer or organic gel (you recognize the ingredients for the most part) can also be purchased based on your needs and styling preferences. I would suggest that the rest of your initial product focus should be on natural oils, moisturizers, conditioners etc until you learn your hair. Look at the ingredients in the fancy products you buy and then google how you can make your own DIY products using them. Shea butter, bentonite clay, marshmallow root, honey, are all examples of natural products that can work wonders for you without some of the parabens, EDTA and other toxins that some (most!) hair products throw in. EWG is a great resource for checking EVERY SINGLE INGREDIENT in your product to see how toxic they might be. You can also just put the ingredient name and "hair" into google search. Another tip is to categorize all of your products based on whether they contain proteins, glycerine or water-insoluble ingredients. Some people find that they are protein sensitive and need to avoid or control the amount of protein in their products. Glycerine is best used when the air has around 50-75% humidity so sometimes you may want to use or not use your products with glycerine depending on the weather. Products containing water-insoluble ingredients coat the hair strands, may block moisture from your hair, and would need tougher cleansing to remove than products that are water-soluble. Water-insoluble ingredients include some silicones and petroleum based chemicals like mineral oils (I don't use these but I include it just in case you are willing to). I also usually google the ingredient name and "water soluble" or "water solubility" to check this.
My last tip is that it's okay if something doesn't work for you. There is no law of being natural that everyone needs to follow. I very rarely use creams since I find them to be too heavy for my tastes and styling preferences. I use only tiny amounts of oils outside of my pre poo. So yes that means I don't LOC or LCO. On wash day I may use a little Aloe Vera juice, then I 'L', then I use an organic gel or light water based cream and my spray bottle containing water and a little oil. I avoid all water-insoluble products so that my hair readily absorbs moisture. I also currently use a seamless wide tooth comb for detangling weekly. I will continue using this until my finger detangling starts meeting my detangling needs. So I don't follow all the rules and I still get along fine. Most people start with the basics and then modify as their hair "tells them to" (yes your hair will start talking to you lol, not literally but almost!).
Finally, and most importantly, just enjoy it! Accept your hair and give her free reign to do what she wants to do as long as she's healthy!
So there you have it, now you can confidently say you understand the basics of natural hair. Good luck new naturals, enjoy your healthy fabulous hair and look out for more tips! Share this with other new naturals in need of a one stop starting point, or even seasoned naturals who might be struggling.
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