angie1337beat asked: okay. so hi. I am seventeen and have been wearing my hair in braids for two years. With every redo, I have been snipping the relaxed ends and now my hair is in a totally natural fro. With college coming up for me in the fall, i wanna let my curls show, but i need styling and maintenance tips. Help??
first off, congratulations and I wish you all the best of luck for college! and its great to be going natural over the summer, so you can experiment with your hair and get used to your new hair before you enter school! you will be saved a lot of awkward moments that i endured going natural in college! lol
The biggest thing that you need to realize is that natural hair is stronger than chemically treated hair, but in your first few months you are dealing with fragile hair. You need to be gentle and patient with your hair. Do not get frustrated or give up on your hair! Being natural means getting to know your hair all over again!
Now, enough of the gushy stuff. Lets get to business. There are 3 things you need for your hair regimen
- Washing Regimen
- Daily Regimen
- Styling Regimen
Washing
There are several ways to wash your hair. Some people subscribe to only co washing (washing with conditioner) while others shampoo regularly. I would suggest that for your first month, you co wash you hair any time it feels dry. Get yourself a good, cheap, natural conditioner with good ingredients. Use this conditioner to wash your hair and finger detangle in the shower. Here are some cheapie conditioners I swear by
You will also want to deep condition your hair once a week. Do this with some more cheap conditioners you can find at the beauty supply store or pharmacy in the small packets you can buy for $1.50 each.
As a college kid, you will have no time or money for that expensive ish!
Daily Regimen
This part of your regimen is perhaps the most important. This is how you will keep your hair healthy inbetween washes. The key is sealing in the moisture. You will need a water based leave in (try Infusium 23 for protein or Giovanni tea tree oil for moisture), a cream based moisturizer and an oil. Remember, oil by itself doesn’t moisturize the hair; it merely locks in nutrients. The vitamins and good ingredients from the moisturizers and the oil will lock them in. You will have to play around with this because your hair may have different needs than mine does. Take a look at the picture on my blog, and if you hair looks similar to mine, I can let you know what I use. But a great line to start with is Shea Moisture for your cream moisturizer. That stuff is way cheaper than it should be, with 99% organic ingredients. A nice sized tub for $10. You will have to play around with the oil too, since some people need a light oil and another may need heavier. The oil doesn’t need to weigh down the hair, just coat it and make it healthy.
Styling Regimen
This one you will totally have to figure out on your own. Some people do twist outs and braid outs, others like to do wash and gos. I do both and have different products for each. I love my hair big and fluffy, so I dont fux with too many heavy products or gels. But I will use gels for edges. I use shea butter and shea moisture for twist outs, and a combo of other things for a wash and go….and if i want to be really fancy, I’ll slap on some expensive ass Miss Jessie’s! Again, if you have more questions as it relates to that, hit me up again!
I hope this helps. The key is to be excited about your journey and see any time that you try a product and things don’t work out, not a result of your hair misbehaving but as a time to experiment with your hair and try new things. Remember to keep your hair moisturized and trim any split ends, especially in the beginning of being natural. Also, it may sound like there are a lot of steps now, but once you get into your regimen and you find your groove, you’ll be able to rock those curls proudly on your first day of school! hope this helped, let me know if there is any thing else you would like me to go into more detail about!
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