I'll be sharing a simple regimen for naturalistas with long hair.
Different stages, different care
MODEL 3:
You've passed the teeny weeny afro stage, weathered the storm of the in between to midlength stage and now your kinks are approaching bra strap to waist length and beyond!
Everyone thinks you have it easy. With long natural hair you can rock any style, try any colour, rock a big bad fro and lots of things people view as impossible with other lengths. You've reached the nirvana of natural hair, right?
Wrong.
You know the truth.
With longer natural hair comes
- Longer detangling time ( Your hair seems to love the game of Tangle Tag)
- Longer styling time (good work out for the arms, though), so most times you just bun up and go.
- More dryness....the sound of a bowl of cornflakes and the sound your hair makes when you touch it are in perfect harmony!
- Bigger products ( 8 oz and below are just samples!)
If this is you, I hear ya!
At this stage, it's time to concentrate on your midlength and ends. Those babies are old and need a lot of TLC.
Your hair products and your methods will have to change.
Once you were switching up your styles and color like a chameleon, now ....er..not so much.
Once you were excited to check your length retention by heat straightening, now...those babies need a vacay.
It's also time to get a professional trim to get rid of raggedy ends.
It's time to invest in good quality haircare products and combs. No more trying out every and any product you can lay your hands on...your aged hair can only take so much! It's useful to check out product reviews. Look for the words moisturising and strengthening.
Hair products
- Sulfate free shampoo with moisturising properties.
- A big vat of conditioner...I'm talking family, salon quantity sizes cos your hair will be eating this up. The more slip it has, the better.
- A creamy leave in conditioner. The creamier and more moisturising, the better. Infact, this is where you should splurge without guilt.
- A moisturising deep conditioning masque....emphasis on masque.
- A protein treatment.
- Two types of oils....one with strengthening properties and another for sealing. If you find one that does both jobs, better!
- A styler . Most stylers at this stage will be drying to the length of your hair. Creamy stylers are preferable to foam stylers. Gels should be limited to taming edges.
Recommended regimen.
Week 1.
This week should start your washday and it should be on a day when you are free so you don't rush the process and damage your hair. Let's assume your weekend starts on Saturday.
On Friday night, apply your strengthening oil (e.g coconut oil, palm kernel oil) to damp hair. Leave overnight. This will serve as your prepoo step. You can also decide to do an overnight henna treatment.
The next day, layer on your conditioner and detangle from tips to roots. (In my experience, detangling longer natural hair dry with just a conditioner reduces breakage....it's not a rule though...do what works best for you. You've come far enough to know). You can fingerdetangle or use a shower comb. Invest in good quality wide tooth combs...trust me, it makes a difference.
Twist each detangled section. ( I prefer twists to braids because it's easier to take each one out for thorough rinsing and redo).
Apply shampoo to scalp alone, lather and rinse. The run off should cleanse the length of hair without stripping.
Apply deep conditioner to hair alone and leave on for recommended time. Then rinse.
You can also do a final rinse using dilute Apple Cider Vinegar ( 1:3 part water), tea rinse or baking soda rinse.
Blot dry. Apply leave in conditioner, seal with oil and style to stretch. Once dry, style as desired.
Week 2 Moisturise and seal.
Week 3
Cowash, moisturise and seal.
Week 4
Get ready to take down style to prepare for the wash week.
Again, this regimen is more of a guide than a rule. Adjust as much as you can depending on your time schedule and hair type. I usually advocate once a month shampoo and weekly cowash because I believe the less you do to your hair, the less mechanical damage you inflict on it.
The above regimen is designed for naturals who style their hair without extensions. I'll write and extensive post for caring for your natural hair with extensions.
So, here ends my series on Natural Hair Regimens. Next series will be Troubleshooting for natural hair issues.
Feel free to ask questions you'll like have answered in the next post. If you have suggestions to developing a hair regimen that worked for you and your hair, please don't hesitate to share...I really don't know it all o!
In my last post, I shared a simple regimen for the busy naturalista with the teeny weeny fro. Today, I'll share a simple regimen for the naturalista with 'in between' length to medium length natural hair.
MODEL 2:
She has done the big chop like a year ago and her hair has grown. It's not long enough to pack into a bun, neither is it short enough to rock an unnoticeable fro. Her hair gets tangled easily. Add that to dryness and little pieces of hair clogging the shower drain. People are constantly telling her to do something with her hair...'does she want to cut it short or does she want to loc it?' They ask. She's really too busy to deal with the detangling, the side comments and the dry state of her hair but she's also tired of putting her hair in kinky twists and weaves because it seems to worsen the state of her hair. Natural hair was supposed to be fun and free...why does she feel trapped. She just can't deal....
If this model describes your current state of affairs, you are not alone.
We all long for the big bad fro and having hair down the back of our knees but the reality of the matter is you'll just have more hair to deal with and if you can go through this stage where your hair is having a mid life crisis or should I say, mid length crisis, then you're well qualified to handle that long, thick mass of hair you've always dreamt about.
As your natural grows longer, it gets older and can't stay as supple is it did when it was a baby fro. This is because, lubricating oils can't travel down to the tips due to the growing mass of twists, it has weathered several damaging actions from combing, styling and the environment and it is getting more porous as the cuticle wears down due to all these actions. Most of which is inevitable. The most you can do is reduce the frequency with which they occur and that's kinda hard considering the hair isn't long enough to pack into a bun which you can leave alone....
What's a naturalista to do?
At this stage, you have three points to focus on.
- moisture retention
- damage control
- length retention
If you've got moisture control and damage control covered, you've also got length retention.
Here's a simple regimen to make this happen.
First you'll need
- A sulphate free shampoo or cowash conditioner
- A normal rinse out conditioner (choose one that can act as base for deep conditioning)
- A leave in conditioner (should pack a major moisture punch)
- A styler or gel
- An oil
- A protein treatment
As usual, I recommend that washdays take place on your free days ... Friday, Saturday or Sunday...which ever you prefer.
Week 1.
- Let this week start your main wash day.
Begin with a protein treatment. It helps reinforce your hair and prevents breakage. You can do this before you shampoo your hair or after you shampoo your hair depending on which your hair prefers. (Try both out to see which one you like). Leave the treatment in for 30 mins, then rinse off.
- Apply a conditioner, rinse out, blot dry, apply leave in to damp hair, twist to stretch then style. Stretching your hair makes it easier to style and reduces tangles. Here are other methods of stretching your hair.
- Once your hair is stretched and dry, you can proceed to styling. For styling, I'd suggest hairstyles that'll last you two weeks or three.
Suggestions include crochet braids, cornrows, chunky twists, rod sets, and weaves/wigs. If you're partial to leaving your hair out, you can try mini twists which will yield well defined twist outs later.
- Within the week, moisturise edges and ends especially with a leave in and seal with oil if needed.
Week 2: Daily moisturising and satin bonnet for night.
Week 3: Daily moisturising and if on minitwists, it's time to take it out for neat, defined twistouts. Don't fluff. It will get fuller as the days go by.
Week 4: Get ready for takedown. Deep condition hair (apply conditioner mixed with oil of choice or you can purchase a deep conditioner. Leave overnight and proceed to wash day as week 1.
To reduce tangles during washday, try to prepare your hair as advised in this post
To know what special treatment to solve particular issues with your hair, see useful tips here
About hairstyling
Feel free to try out new hairstyles but I suggest you do so during the holidays or weekends if you're a working person just in case it's a fail. There's absolutely no excuse taking a failed hairstyle to work and then complain that it was not well received because you are natural. It was simply not received because your style didn't look good.
I know you may be bored with all things twists, extensions and would really like to rock all those gorgeous hairstyles you see on YouTube but the truth is without practice, those styles can be time consuming. You really need to take time out to make it look good.
You don't have to be a style aficionado though, sometimes all you need to master are three hairstyles.
- One hairstyle appropriate for work
- One hairstyle appropriate for weekends out
- One hairstyle for special events.
You can add more if you like but these three are enough.
This new year, I'm sure most resolutions, hair wise is along the lines of healthy, longer, thicker natural hair. Some of you may have decided to transition to natural hair and may have big chopped. So, now what?
Most people complain that natural hair care is time consuming and my mantra is ' Natural hair care should not be time consuming or stressful'.
To help make this possible, I will share different regimens for different hair lengths and different time schedules (because some of us have less free time than others). They have worked for me, my family (mum, sisters, cousins), friends and feedback from NappyGirl Kit Users has shown them to be useful.
These regimens are just suggested guidelines not a rule. Feel free to do what keeps your situation happy. (P.S. For more about my regimen, check out my feature on the yummy blog of BeautifullyNappy!)
First, I'll start with a simple regimen for the new naturalista who did the big chop and is sporting a teeny weeny afro.
Source: pintrest.com
MODEL 1. WORKING NATURALISTA
She has been used to monthly salon visits when she was relaxed (had her hair shampooed, deep conditioned and styled). She doesn't have any idea about moisturising her hair daily because she rarely had it out, has a busy weekday but free weekends (i.e. Saturday and Sunday), showers everyday, leaves as early as 5am to go to work and comes back as late as 7-8 pm dead tired. If this sounds like you, no probs.
With a teeny weeny afro (twa) and for a beginning naturalista, you need to concentrate more on moisture retention than how long your hair grows. It goes hand in hand though. Well moisturised hair helps you retain length which invariably leads to longer hair....so focus on moisture.
Also don't fall into the trap of being obsessed with coil definition. Some people have teeny weeny fros with natural coil definition while others don't. If your hair falls in the latter category, there's no need to fret. Just moisturise, pat and go.
Products you will need are.
- Sulfate free shampoo or cowash conditioner for cleansing
- Normal conditioner for detangling
- Leave in conditioner
- Oil for sealing
- Styler or gel especially as your hair gets longer.
A useful regimen can be like this.
Week 1: Co wash when you shower twice a week. On other days you can simply allow your hair to get wet. Detangle with shower comb. Blot off excess water, apply leave in conditioner of your choice and seal with oil. Go about your toilette as usual.
Daily apply conditioner to your hair as you would your skin.
Week 2: Same as week 1
Week 3: Same as week 1
Week 4: Shampoo, condition, moisturise and seal.
To make it easier, you can make washday any weekend you are free, so your weekdays will just be wetting under shower and moisturising.
Twice a week cowashing means if you cowashed on Sunday, you simply wet your hair Monday through Wed, cowash Thursday, wet Friday and Saturday and cowash Sunday. Repeat cycle. It shouldn't take much time since your hair is shorter. Just an extra 15 to 20 mins in addition to your shower time. The less fancy you get the better for you. Save all the pre poos and what nots for less busy days or on your day off.
This is also where good products come in.
If your shampoo cleanses and detangles without stripping,
if your conditioner softens your hair without coating,
if your leave in conditioner moisturises your hair up to two days without buildup and drying
if your oil seals in that moisture long enough without stickiness
and if your styler holds your style in place without crunching and flaking, then you've saved yourself the extra stress and time correcting these problems.
You can switch up the regimen to fit it better into your routine but the less drama you have with caring for your natural hair, the better it will be in the long run and the easier it will be to grow your hair longer.
Next post will be a natural hair regimen for a busy naturalista with 'in between length' hair.
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, feel free to add.
For you and you and you and YOU....2015 is going to be an awesomtastic year!!!!
Whatever stuff didn't work out last year....it's sooo last year...leave it in the past, John!
It's going to work out this time!
I'm really optimistic about this year and I do hope I'm infecting someone!
Before I fully start rambling about this year, I really want to say a big THANK GOD!!! Blogging for almost 3 years no be beans o!
I want to say THANK YOU to all readers, followers , commentators , sponsors and lovers of everything NappilyNigerianGirl...blog, twitter, Facebook and Instagram! You guys inspire me to keep blabbing about all things hair without feeling like I'm shallow...lol!
I have a dance routine I worked out just for you guys....
Special thanks goes to my fellow hair and beauty bloggers for all the love and support. I could start listing but I don't want to skip any names because you are all important to me...but y'all know yourselves! *hugs*
We really have to organise a national Nigerian hair and beauty bloggers meetup!