8 Tips for Starting Your Natural Hair Journey
Making the decision to go natural can be a tough one. As women our hair is a major part of what makes us feel beautiful, and a big change can be scary.
With uncertainty about your hair type and an overload of "advice" available, I know it can be hard to understand what you’re getting yourself into and if it’ll be worth it. Though everyone's natural hair journey will be different, I have a few tips that will help make the transition a little easier.
1. Set Realistic Expectations
Your hair is not going to look like every YouTube video you watch. Let’s just go ahead and get that out of the way. Many those of vloggers been natural for months, if not years, and have spent a lot of time to figure out what works for them.
Biologically we are all different, so focus your energy on finding out how your hair operated instead of trying to get it to look like someone else’s.
2. Be Patient
Patience is huge . It took me awhile to internalize this, but if I can pass anything on to new curly friends this is definitely it. Everything about natural hair is a process. Growth, detangling, styling- it all takes time.
It also takes a good amount of time to train your hair for a new, natural way of life. If you’re coming from perms or even regular heat straightening you’ll have to give you hair a chance to grow out and develop a curl pattern. If you’re going the route of transitioning instead of a big chop give yourself at least 6 months.
3. Detangle
In my opinion detangling is one of the most important things for natural hair. It will make your hair easier to style, get rid of hair that has shed, and help to prevent breakage.
How often you need to detangle will depend on your hair type and how you style it. Hair that is tightly curled and regularly worn out may need to be detangled more frequently than looser curled hair that’s kept styled.
I personally prefer wet or damp detangling, however, many other curl queens swear by dry detangling.
4. Moisturize
Dry brittle hair breaks and splits. Keeping your hair moisturized is going to be the key to helping your hair grow and look its best. Conditioning after washing will be your first line of defense, but you should also pay attention to your hair’s moisture throughout non-wash periods.
5. Take Care of Your Scalp
Taking care of your scalp is just as important as taking car of your actual hair. If your scalp isn’t healthy getting healthy hair to grow out of it will be a struggle.
Drink lots of water and maintain a balanced diet.
Exfoliate/scrub your scalp to help boost skin cell turnover. I would definitely suggest investing in a shampoo brush.
Shampoo regularly
Moisturize
6. Start a Night Routine
I say this because there will come a night when you are dog tired and you crawl up in the bed, lay your head down, and have to make the tough decision between getting up and doing something to your fro or saying “eff it” and dealing with the naps in the morning. With a night routine you’ll get in the habit of styling or at least prepping your hair for the next day. This will help you avoid unmanageable tangles, dry hair, breakage, and being late.
7. More Products Doesn’t Mean Better Hair
You’ll see bloggers/vloggers (including myself) reviewing several different brands of the same types of products. This is part of the job. Don’t get sucked in to trying to have what’s new or what everyone else is using. Beautiful, healthy, manageable hair is definitely obtainable without breaking the bank or buying a closet full of products.
If you aren’t sure which products to be using try one or two things at a time. This allow you to figure out what exactly is working and what isn’t.
8. Love and embrace your curls
Not everyone is going to dig your new look or understand why your curls look the way they do. Embrace your journey and try to love every outcome good or bad. Stick with it and have fun.