These natural hair tips are for any curly haired cutie, no matter your hair type! Add these essential natural hair tips into your regimen and you will see a significant, positive change in the overall health and growth of your hair!
1. Get a silk pillowcase or scarf and use it every night
This natural hair tip is really important because it is what protects our curly locks at night. Without this natural hair tip, none of the other ones matter because you ruin all of your natural hair progress when you don’t have correct nightly protection.
With that being said, invest in a satin or silk scarf and/or satin or silk pillowcase. You can get them both for less than $20 on Amazon. In my opinion, the silk pillowcase is better for natural hair because even if your scarf comes off at night, you still have that extra protection.
If you want a higher quality scarf, I recommend checking out TheRealReal, a consignment store that sells extremely high end fashion items for up to 90%! When you sign up, you automatically get $25 credit towards your future purchases!
Satin and silk are two amazing materials when it comes to natural hair. Without getting too much into the science things, silk/satin basically protects the moisture in your natural hair. Moisture retention is a key factor when it comes to long, healthy natural hair so make sure you make this natural hair tip your first priority to get a silk pillowcase or silk scarf in order to protect your locks.
TheRealReal has a vast variety of designer silk scarfs for a reasonable price!
2. Get a heavy duty spray bottle for Aloe Vera juice and water
Another vital natural hair tip that all natural hair types can benefit from is your 1:1 (aloe vera juice: water) spray bottle. Aloe vera juice is amazing. It is one of my 13 Beauty Tips for Less than $5. There are so many great health benefits to aloe vera juice, especially for us naturals.
Spray (a lot, slightly drench your hair) aloe vera juice/water into your natural locs atleast once a day, and if you have drier hair you may want to do it once in the morning and once at night. You will start to significant improvement in the overall state of your natural hair: it will be healthier, stronger, shinier and longer.
I make sure I spray at least once a day but my natural hair does not need as much moisture as others (It takes foreverrrrr for my hair to dry). If you have a similar hair type as mine(3b/3c), once a day should work perfectly for you.
The other part to this natural hair tip is to invest in a heavy duty, preferably a cleaning spray bottle. You can usually find these at your local dollar store in the cleaning supplies aisle. I recommend these over your basic, small stylish spray bottle because they are way more likely to break (I broke 2 in a week). Instead of wasting your time and money, follow this natural hair tip and invest in a large, heavy duty spray bottle. You will thank yourself because it will last you forever.
3. Section your hair to detangle and style
Whoever told you that your natural hair was “nappy”, “not combable”, or “impossible to detangle”, tell them that’s bullshit. An essential part of being a healthy natural is mastering the art of detangling your hair. This natural hair tip is to make sure that you always section your wet hair before detangling and styling.
I am currently only 6 months into my post big chop journey, so this natural hair tip currently does not apply to me or any other natural with a TWA (Teeny weeny Afro).
If your hair is a long enough to split into 2-4 sections, follow this natural hair tip like it is the only tip you were ever given in your life. Without sectioning your hair before detangling, you risk adding greater damage to your hair.
Also always start detangling from the ends, then move up the shaft to the root after the ends are detangled. If you do the roots then ends, your ends will break off because it will be almost impossible to get to the end of your strands without ripping through the detangled ends.
In addition, always detangle and style on wet or damp natural hair. The wetter the natural hair, the better. No matter your natural hair tip. Only detangling when wet or damp reduces the chance of your hair breaking off. Breakage is one way to NOT have healthy natural hair.
Sectioning your natural hair makes it easier to maintain and comb through. I personally only like to detangle when my hair is coated with a good-slip conditioner or thick moisturizing cream. Most of the time, especially now with my TWA, I just finger detangle. However, during wash days I like to use my denman brush ($12 on Amazon) to detangle and deep condition because I know it will cover all areas of my hair.
4. Deep condition 1 or 2x per week
Deep conditioning is what keeps every natural’s hair moisturized, therefore this is a vital natural hair tip. ALWAYS deep condition your hair once a week, no matter what. If your hair is dyed or dries up quickly, deep conditioning two times a week would be your best bet. I usually do twice a week, and that gives me shiny natural hair.
There is a lot of deep conditioners on the market to choose from so you may not know where to start. Some of my favorite’s are Carol’s Daughter Almond Milk Ultra Nourishing Mask and Aussie Moist 3 Minute Miracle Deep Conditioner. Both provide great slip and leave my hair feeling more moisturized than ever. Try them out and tell me what you think!
5. Always pre-poo with oil before washing your hair
Pre-poo is just another word for massaging your scalp with oil before you wash your hair with sulfate-free shampoo. I usually use coconut oil or almond oil, and Jamaican black castor oil in the winter. These are all great oils you can use in your natural hair. Here are some you can try:
Try to do this natural hair tip for at least 15 minutes before washing your hair. The longer you pre-poo the better. I usually do anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight.
6. Don’t touch natural hair until it’s 100% dry
This one of the natural hair tips can be easier said than done at first, but with practice you will be thanking yourself.
In order to avoid chronic frizz, breakage, product build up and just a bad hair day in general, do not touch your hair after you’re done styling it until it is 100% dry. If you have to use a hair diffuser to get it to dry quicker, use one.
When I stopped touching my hair when it was wet I noticed amazing differences in the overall health of my hair. I know it can be tempting, but don’t do it!
7. Cut back on heat
As a natural curly girl, the truth in the matter is our curly hair is not meant to be straight. It is not in our biological makeup, however us naturals still get our hair straightened by adding loads of heat to our hair.
This natural hair tip is to cut back on heat. I haven’t used heat in over a year and I miss nothing about it. I have no desire to pick up a flat iron. This is an important tip in the natural hair tips!
Sometimes heat damage can be so bad that your curls wont revert back to curly after wetting them! If you don’t believe me, look at the pictures from August 2016 when I started my natural hair journey. In most of these pictures I had just wet my hair, yet it was still straight due to all the heat damage!
If you want to see a real change in your curls, don’t use heat at all. Make it a fun game to do the #noHeatChallenge!
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8. Use aloe Vera gel
I any of the natural hair tips that involve aloe vera because it is extremely cheap and worth it. You can find out more about my love for aloe vera here, in my Cheap Beauty Tips post. Aloe vera is absolutely amazing, including when it is in gel form! It is also one of the 7 Natural Hair Products Every Natural Should Own.
Another good thing about aloe vera gel is it is extremely cheap. You can get it here for less than $8. I also use it to lay my edges!9. Use conditioner to train your edges
If you like to have your edges laid but feel like they are never up to your standards, this natural hair tips for you.
A great way to “train” your edges to lay is to lay them with conditioner at night as if you were using gel or edge control. It trains your edges to stay down and laid all throughout the day. It also does not irritate your forehead to do this.
My favorite conditioner to use to lay my edges at night is the Aussie Moist Conditioner. You can get it from Wal Mart or any local drug store for less than $6.
10. Use a t-shirt instead of towel on your natural curls
This vital one of the 14 essential natural hair tips is to remind you that our natural curls are very sensitive to moisture retention (keeping moisture in our hair for appropriate amounts of time). So, with that being said, do not use a towel when drying your hair, and use a cotton t-shirt instead.
Making this small switch in your natural hair regimen will help you by keeping your hair soft and moisturized after wetting it.
11. Do protein treatments every 4-6 weeks, more often if curls are colored or chemically processed
This essential of the natural hair tips is important because doing protein treatments is what strengthens your curls. Especially if you have dye or recovering from a relaxer, protein treatments are vital to the health of your natural hair.
You are supposed to do protein treatments ever 4-6 weeks, but if you have dye, I would do every 1-3 weeks, depending on the health of your hair.
If you are recovering from a relaxer (this means you have chemically damaged hair) then I recommend doing protein treatments once a week or once every 2 weeks.Another thing I recommend dyed and post-relaxed naturals is using a sulfate-free, protein based shampoo and conditioner. My favorite is the OGX Anti-Breakage Keratin Shampoo and Conditioner. It leaves my hair feeling so soft and moisturized that I do not even need to deep condition after washing it if I wanted to. (I still deep condition though).
As for pure protein treatments I recommend the 2-Step Aphogee Protein Treatment (It works amazing, you will literally see some of your curls bounce back).
For a little bit more moisturizing protein mask, I recommend the Palmers Coconut Protein Mask. You can get it from your local Target or Walmart. I’ve only ever seen them come in single packs but they always leave my natural hair feeling perfect and are great for overnight treatments.
12. Use sulfate-free shampoo
This is another one of those vital natural hair tips because sulfate is every natural’s worst enemy. To put it simply, sulfate is a chemical that strips our hair. One of the main rules in the natural hair community is to always use sulfate-free shampoo.
OGX makes great sulfate-free shampoos and conditioners, and there are literally 20+ different types to choose from. They are also fairly cheap (you can get them for like $6 each at your local drug store) and last a good amount of time.
Another favorite shampoo is Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle shampoo. It is amazing! I absolutely love it! It makes your scalp tingle in you are washing your hair, you can literally feel it getting cleansed.
If you do not have a Trader Joe’s in your area you can get them here for $18. If you do have one in your area, purchase from there because it is only $3!
13. Accept your curl pattern for what it is and rock it
Everyone has a different curl pattern. Do not feel discouraged if you are trying everything for your natural hair and nothing is working yet. Find some girls on YouTube who’s hair looks like yours, follow some girls on IG with healthy hair that looks like yours. Someone out there has curls that look similar to yours, and you can learn tons of valuable natural information from them.
If that does not work initially, keep going. You will find what works for your curl pattern because that winning product and/or regimen is out there! Don’t give up! Your curls will love and thank you. If you are not sure which products help you get started with your journey, click here for 7 natural hair products any natural (regardless of your hair pattern) needs to own.
14. Document your natural hair journey
I want to end with this natural hair tips because it is so fun being able to see your progress in your hair journey! Why not record it? There are so many different ways you can document your hair journey. You could:
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- Journal it
- Video it
- Type it up
- Take pictures
- Make a documentary
- and more!
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Document your journey so when you have the long, gorgeous natural hair you have been working so hard for, you can always go back to see how far you’ve come.
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Original article and pictures take i1.wp.com site
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