GROWING YOUR DREAM NATURAL HAIR

   As the old saying goes "the crown and glory of a woman lies on her head", then comes the sole responsibility of cleaning and polishing the tiara (crown). Many women seem to be in a delimma about how to care, maintain the health and length of their hair.

    The purpose of this article is to make light, the complicated issues about haircare especially for women of colour or African American, African, mixed race women.

      If there is anything I have learnt from haircare routine is that, it's a more practical effort than a theoretical one. What do I mean by this you may wonder, we all know that every woman has a different type of hair from the other and these types tend to have various properties, ranging from nappy to coils, then kinks, curls and wavy. But I won't be going on an exploration journey of the science and structure of hair but rather the care and ways of maintaining and improving the length and health of these crown of glory given onto us by thy creator.

       We all know about the usual tips that hair guru give for a waist length hair with life in it (literally), but they all seem to be missing one important fact or detail that would change the hair game for all kinds of hair types, especially the nappy/afro texture hair ( sisters I know your worries and I gat you). But before I get into that let's get you started with the basics that you may have missed out on or may have taught was unimportant.

✓ Be Gentle:- when taking down your previous styles, you must be patient enough to avoid tugging on your strands to get these extension off. Avoid using shape objects e.g a sharpened rat tailed comb to take down braids.

✓ Detangle:- After taking down your previous style you've got to detangle it patiently to take out the shed you must have had during the course of having your previous hairstyle on.

✓ Pre-poo:- (I don't know about other naturals but this is the game changing tip for me). There are different ways or rather ingredients you could pre-poo with. There's the;

Oil Pre-poo

Conditioner pre-poo

Oil conditioner pre-poo

    The term pre-poo refers to the preparation before the shampoo. This preparation helps to prevent the harsh stripping properties found in your favorite shampoo and it just makes your hair soft and manageable, also prevents the hair natural oil from stripping before and after shampooing, resulting to length retention and overall health of your hair.

✓ Shampooing:- You maybe wondering what else is to be said about washing your hair in the shower well, there's more. Before shampooing your hair, section it into six parts or four depending on the thickness and length of your hair to prevent friction which could lead to tangle and breakage but if your hair is too short to section you could skip it.

✓ Deep condition:- What you want to do next when your hair is all clean is deep condition it, while still in sections. You could get an all ready made deep conditioner or you could DIY yours, whatever works for you or your hair. Next you want to put on a plastic cap and wait for the required amount of time written on the product instructions.

✓ Hair mask:- You could also at this point apply a hair mask made from your kitchen.  Eg banana hair mask, avacado hair mask, egg and olive oil hair mask. Remember the time cardio posted on her insta page her hair growth secret mask yeah? Not only does it makes your hair manageable, silk, soft and long but it also gives your hair nutrients to grow long. There are so much mask to explore and guess what? They're all in your kitchen counter top and fridge. You shouldn't be scared of showing your hair some love.

✓ Conditioning:- Next up, Conditioning, after rainsing off your hair mask, you apply a generous amount of conditioner then at this moment you comb each section of your hair to detangle properly this time, leave for a while then raise off.

Using the LOC METHOD;

Apply your leave in Conditioner

Apply your hair oil eg coconut oil, avacado oil, neem oil etc

Apply your hair cream of choice.

✓ protective styling:- After following up with your routine, you have to protect your hair against spilt ends by putting your hair in a braid, pineapple, bun, twist out or braid out to retain length and avoid constant combing of your hair.

✓ water:- The essence of water cannot be over looked or over emphasized because it keeps you hydrated and help to supply nutrients and also helps in the removal of waste products from the body.