How to Develop a Healthy Hair Care Routine

One of the golden rules for growing healthy natural hair is “Less is More”(see previous post on Ten Golden Rules to Grow Healthy Natural Hair).  Your hair growth does not depend on you buying lots of products. It its tempting when you read hair magazines or watch videos on U Tube to think that you need to get the variety of products being recommended otherwise your hair will not grow.  Given the consumerist focus of our societies nowadays it is perhaps natural for us to think this way. I suggest that you catch such thoughts early and resist falling prey to the product junkie phenomena. Healthy natural hair growth is not so much dependent on the quantity of products used but rather the quality of what you choose to use on your strands. Here are three important tips that I have learnt about growing healthy hair:

Get to know your hair’s natural characteristics and tailor your products to suit your hair needs.

It was only when I went natural that I allowed myself to get to know my hair characteristics without fighting against it in unhelpful ways (e.g. relaxing it or excessive use of extensions to “manage its unruliness”).  Remember Golden Rule nr 1- Accept Your Hair Texture. This rule enabled me to fully engage in a process of discovering my hair’s characteristics. So I encourage you to discover your Afro:

Ø  Is your hair strand fine, medium or thick (what some people call course)?

Ø  How much volume does your hair naturally have? 

Ø  What is your curl pattern like?

Ø  What is the level of shrinkage that your hair experience in the presence of water?

Ø  How dry is your hair?

Your hair’s levels of dryness is important as the dryer the hair the more fragile it is and the more prone it will ten be to breakage. Find our about your hair’s porosity levels (the hair’s natural ability to absorb and retain water). See an informative article on porosity here.  All of the above questions will inform your decision making about how to routinely care for your hair and what products will suit you best.

Natural ingredients provide the hair with a good foundation to grow healthy and strong. 

Remember that natural hair loves natural ingredients. On a previous post I described three of the natural ingredients that I use for my hair. There are a plethora of natural ingredients out there to suit any hair type. Other ingredients that are routinely used to care for our beautiful Afro hair include:

Almond/ Sweet Almond Oil         Aloe Vera

Avocado Oil                                Cocoa Butter

Castor Oil                                    Honey

Olive Oil                                      Vegetable Glycerine

The above list is not exhaustive, the choices are endless. Find natural ingredients that work for you and stick to them.

Avoid using harmful chemicals on your hair.  

Too many hair care products contain chemicals that are used to help preserve and extend the shelf life of its ingredients. These chemicals often have been associated with health risks and also work against your hair in a variety of ways. These include stripping the hair of much needed moisture, clogging your scalp etc. I think that it is good practice for us to become more interested in the content of the products that we buy and to spend more time reading the ingredient labels in order to avoid unintentional usage of chemical and ingredients that harm our coils. In her book Going Natural Mireille Liong-A-Kong goes through a comprehensive list of ingredients to avoid here are a few:  

Ø  Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES)- In hair care products these are used in shampoos as detergents and surfactant. They remove the hair’s natural creases, drying out the hair.

Ø  Parabens: Methylparaben, Propylparaben abd Butylparaben. Mainly used as preservatives to extend shelf life. These can cause allergic reactions if the concentration excides 5%. These have also been linked with a variety of health related problems.

Ø  Mineral Oil and Petrolatum- Mineral oil is a petrochemical by-product that coats the skin preventing it from breathing naturally. This leads to hair and skin to dry out. Petrolatum is a mineral oil jelly which has the same effect.

Ø  Alcohol- Ethanol, Denature alcohol Ethyl alcohol, Benzyl alcohol, Isopropyl alcohol should be avoided. As they can be drying and irritating to the scalp.  

I hope these tips help you establish a good hair care routine as much as they have helped me. Please feel  free to ask me questions, make comments and subscribe.should you find the blog useful.