NATURAL HAIR REGIMEN FOR THE MEDIUM LENGTH NATURALISTA
By Hadassah Agbaps - January 12, 2015
Hi people, what's been on?
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.
If you need more tips, here are suggestions
To request for your personalised NappyGirl Kits, send an email to nappilynigeriangirl@gmail.com
Next post will be natural hair regimens for naturalistas with long hair.
Feel free to comment, ask questions, make suggestions....all are welcome.
Till I spill again,
Live Beautifully. Naturally.
Hadassah.
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....
| Source: www.blacknaps.org |
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.
If you need more tips, here are suggestions
To request for your personalised NappyGirl Kits, send an email to nappilynigeriangirl@gmail.com
Next post will be natural hair regimens for naturalistas with long hair.
Feel free to comment, ask questions, make suggestions....all are welcome.
Till I spill again,
Live Beautifully. Naturally.
Hadassah.
11 comments
this is useful advice. i just currently came out of the in-between stage but my buns are still really small so i still consider myself more of an in-betweener lol. im really workin on length retention at d moment
ReplyDeletewww.folasoasis.com
Thank you, Fola. I'm glad the post proved useful. I'm pretty sure your hair is in good hands. Your buns may be small but your current length is perfect for frohawks and its related updo without being limp or too high!
ReplyDeletewow, my hair is at this stage, moisture control is my problem. thanks Hadassah!
ReplyDeleteThis is an apt description of my hair. I just can't seem t keep the moisture in. Please can you suggest a good leave -in?
ReplyDeleteHi dear, there's a list of good leave in conditioners on the natural hair products tab. It should help with keeping the moisture in.
ReplyDeleteHey, I've been using dudu osun to wash and Aussie moist 3 minute miracle to deep condition but recently switched to tressemme and oils. For some reason I never feel like my hair is getting clean and I don't know if it's time to switch to shampoo or this is just in my head. Also, any tips on how to extend twists to 3 weeks? By week 2 it gets old and the roots gget puffy and I go a little insane when I can't see/ feel my scalp anymore. It's not pretty.
ReplyDeleteHi Zainab! Yes it's normal to feel your hair is not clean when you switch from shampoos to conditioners for cleansing your hair because conditioners will not give the squeaky clean feeling that shampoos give. For someone battling with dry hair that is a good things as the hair won't be stripped. How often do you use the conditioner to cowash and does your conditioner contain silicones like dimethicone in it? This in addition to the quantity of oil you use afterwards may make your hair feel coated. Try and include a shampoo wash for after every third conditioner wash and see if your hair still feels the same way.
DeleteAbout extension of twists, I wrote a post about that . Do you spritz your hair often? Do you exercise regularly? Do you wash your hair with the twists in? All these can make your twists get puffy on time.
I'm one year natural, to some extent my hair keeps in moisture but recently my hair started shedding so I tried a protein deep condition with egg and a tea rinse afterwards. It reduced the shedding. Hair is presently in a small bun, I just spritz with water and oil in the morning and night, brush and re bun. No time to style hair now till weekend.
ReplyDeleteI love how simple you made this regimen. Trust me it was so confusing when i first started my NHJ. I would go on all them big blogs (dont want to mention names) and their regimen would be so lengthy and so confusing! Always trying out too many products and stuff. I thought all that "plenty" routine was what would help my hair grow. I was wrong. Lately I have developed a healthier living routine. I workout 3 - 4 times a week and i eat loads of protein. Drink lots of water and veggies too. Less to no junk food and my hair is the best it has been in years. Thicker, fuller, longer, stronger and it even retains moisture for longer than it used to. Nutrition is really important fellow naturalistas.
ReplyDeleteIv learnt that less is best with haircare. Stop stressing out, stop worrying over your hair and when it will finally grow. Sometimes just leave your hair alone.
I didnt start to retain length until i started to do protective styles for 4-5 weeks in a row. Meaning i dont touch my hair in a whole month except to moisturise every two days. No combing, no styling, no unnecessary manipulation. Sometimes i cowash once in two weeks cos i workout a lot and my scalp could get gunky from all the sweating. i went from shoulder length to almost bra strap length in a year. Even i was shocked.
Keep it simple and ur hair will thank you. Remember to be patient
Thank you, Jhennique for sharing your regimen and yes the simpler the better. On issues of so many products, most bloggers need to try out a lot of products for their readers benefit. You really don't need to purchase all. Just read their reviews. They may say a product improved moisture retention...if that's what you're battling with, perhaps that product might help. All products recommended are simply suggestions based on experience.
DeleteThank you for this information! I found it very easy and useful! I have curley hair and it is not easy to take care about it every day… And if you would like to find more information how to take care about your 4C hair and how to be new and different every day, just check my blog!
ReplyDeleteHave a question or comment? We would love you to share!!!!