How I Care for my Natural Hair

Well hello my fellow fashionistas!

So, I have been getting a lot of questions about my hair.  Everyone wants to know how I care for my hair.  I would be more than happy to explain how I care for my hair; however, I want everyone to understand that you have to do what works for your hair! What works for my hair may not work for you and vice versa.  So my biggest advice here is to PAY ATTENTION to your hair and body.  Our bodies react to everything we put on it and in it.  STOP and PAY ATTENTION.  It could save you lots of time and money.

I have and still continue to do research on how to care for my hair.  I have read many books and subscribed to many blogs.  One book I read about a year ago was Curly Like Me by Teri LaFlesh.  You can buy the book or if you are a library nerd like me, you can check it out at your local library.  I found her story to be very inspiring.

To be honest, when I read this book, I thought to myself  "Nahhhh, this will not work for me but I appreciated the read" and then I dropped the book off at the library.  Months later after trying braids, I felt very frustrated with my hair.  It was big, dry and frizzy.  I started following Teri's method by accident.  Tired and frustrated, I got out of the shower after washing my hair and I did not rinse out the conditioner.  When I woke up the next day, I almost cried.  My hair was back to normal.

Teri offers the rules and tips on her "Tightly Curly Method". I follow this method for the most part with some slight modifications.  Again, do what works for your hair.  Please check out Teri's website and/or book for her full method.  I am just going to summarize how I care for my hair here.

1. Moisture is key for curly hair!  Keep your hair moisturized.
2. I mix my own oil treatment for my hair.  I use it as a hot oil treatment and moisturizer.  I make it in 2 main scents for now: lemongrass and lavender. I also sell this treatment for $8 (comes in an 8 oz bottle) for those who don't feel up to mixing their own products.
3. I try to limit shampooing my hair.  1-2 times a month.  Shampoos tend to dry my hair and make it hard.
4. I pretty much wash my hair with conditioner.  Brands I love the most are: Aussie, Tresseme and Nature's Gate.  I will detangle my hair with a wide tooth comb while the conditioner is in my hair.
5. I deep condition every week. I use cholesterol or my new favorite Camille Rose Algae Deep Conditioner. The latter is much pricier.
6. I then apply another conditioner to my hair after rinsing out the deep conditioner.  This is very important, I use a regular conditioner and then I leave it in.  Not a leave-in...just a regular conditioner.  My favorites are Nature's Gate (tea tree and biotin).
7. I then apply a curly pudding or custard.  My hair is too soft to just stop at the conditioner so I have to have a product that will hold my curls and stop frizz.  My favorites are Kinky Kurly and Queen Helene.  Many people complain about hardness of these types of products.  Just use less of it.  Personally I prefer the hardness as it will help my curls last at least a week.
8. Lastly, I add my oil moisturizer.

Sometimes I will use Kinky Kurly's Knot Today which is a detangler and I also have a spray bottle with a mixture of conditioner/water/my oil moisturizer to spritz my hair.

Below is how my hair turns out the next day.  It is just a simple wash and go.

This is an old picture to show how important moisture is for curly hair and especially if it is color treated! I only used a small bit of conditioner in my hair with some mousse and gel. 

In this photo I used Kinky Kurly curl custard and that's it.  Again moisture is key! My hair is still very frizzy here.

Until next time....