How to care for your natural hair

These, days, it is not strange to see women sporting natural hair. This is because many women are ditching relaxers and perm for natural hair styles. In this piece, Enwezor of Photizo Life Foundation and founder of Natural Hair Summit offers tips on how to maintain natural hair.

 

If you want to go natural, you have two options; you can either cut  off the whole   hair or you can transition  from relaxed or permed gradually to natural hair;  that is, you   can  trim off the  hair weekly or twice a week until just the natural one is left.

However, it is important to note that when you transition from permed or relaxed hair, you will have two types of hair textures- the relaxed and the natural.

To avoid hair breakage, the way you will handle  your natural hair is not the same way you will handle the relaxed one. That  means it is not the same way you will comb the natural that you will comb the relaxed hair.

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To maintain your natural hair, you need to stay off  the social media, especially You Tube videos. This is because some of these videos may be very confusing. You may not have the same hair type or hair texture with  the people who are styling their hair on You Tube, so the hair product they are using may not be good for your hair. What I always  advise people to do is to learn their hair type and learn the products that are good for them.

You can also visit a natural hair care salon within your area and let the natural hair stylist there give you advice and recommendations on the products that are good for your hair type.

A lot of people buy several products and complain that none of them is working. It is because they keep using everything;  but  it doesn’t work that way.

One of the major things you need to learn about your hair is that it loves water and water loves it. Pour a little water on your hair and let it be damp to an extent before you comb it. Never comb your hair dry  because it is going to give you pain and your hair is going to break. Also, moisturise the hair with natural hair leave-in conditioner, coconut oil, shea butter and so on.

Always comb from the tips all the way down to the root of the hair. Sometimes, you don’t even need to comb your hair; just detangle them with your fingers. You can divide your hair into four sections and detangle  them gradually before combing everything together. These are things that you can do to help manage your hair better and reduce the stress you put on the hair.

When going to bed at night, you can leave your hair  in a bond or use scarf around it so  that when you wake up in the night, it won’t  be tangled; or you can braid it into two or four then use your scarf to cover it.

You can also wash your hair once in two weeks. When you do this, you have less breakage. You can trim your hair after six or eight months, and this is better done in a natural hair care salon. If you want it to be curly, there are certain products you need to use. You will need to employ the services of a professional who will teach you how to achieve a curly hair pattern.