| For Natural Newbies: The Enigma of Natural Hair |
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 When you decide to transition from relaxed to natural hair, you may be in for a surprise. I don’t want to scare you, but I have to keep it real. You may not know this, but natural hair is temperamental. I might even go so far as to call mine bratty. Why? Your relaxed hair and natural hair don’t like the same things.
For one, relaxed hair is more porous due to chemical processing, and absorbs products differently than natural hair, making your list of Holy Grail ingredients a total toss up. My relaxed hair did not absorb heavy butters and oils well--they made my hair very frizzy. Now, my natural hair loves them! In the same sense, lighter products worked well on my relaxed hair, but feel like I’m not even using a product when it comes to my natural hair. You may need to experiment with a number of products to figure out what works for your hair. Moisture is harder to spread down the hair shaft of curly hair due to all the twists and bends in each strand of hair. Your old moisturizers may not be enough to penetrate your hair shaft, making deep conditioning a must. I cannot stress this enough. Take advantage of natural ingredients that you may already have in your kitchen, like mayo, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, honey and yogurt, to mix hair concoctions. Aim for at least one treatment a week. If you do more wash n’ gos, I recommend two to three times a week to ensure your hair is well moisturized and soft. Oh, and please, throw away the Motions, Pink Oil Moisturizers and other products of their kind. They’re doing more harm than good. Remember, transitioning to and maintaining natural hair is a learning experience. For those of you who are natural newbies, I hope that I have given you a bit of insight, but it’s only a small piece of the puzzle. Research is very important, and there are a number of resources available online, including blogs, forums, and websites to teach you how to care properly for your hair. And in the end, it will all be worth it when your hair gets so healthy and big that it starts blocking people out of pictures! March 1, 2010
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Comments (8)
  written by jennifer stewart, June 18, 2010
i found out that a litny of product's don't necassarl'y work for me and so i had too toss them or at least give them away too some poor girl in need i live in texas and i don't need too tell yall how humid it is here this summer but my dad told me well dude your hair is so cute it was in a bun the day i wore it out my stepmom who is norwegian told me so curly i told her coily no curly she laughe'd at me so confusing my mom said you need too be fix'd up how mom relaxe'd no mom sorry no she chagrine'd well some love it other's hate it but hey the number one man in my life love's it my dad so hey i rock it for him since he is a child of the old day's lol bye keep it up sista's and never give up keep hope in your heart and life bye
written by Vonmiwi, March 31, 2010
http://afrolistasandthecity.blogspot.com
Moisture is key and all I need is a spray bottle filled with water and a little glycerin. For shine and use a mixture of coconut oil and grape seed oil.
 written by Elle , March 02, 2010
Hey y'all, thanks for the great comments! So true about water... One day I had a friend over and wasn't feeling my hair; I simply said, "Hold on a sec...I gotta wet my hair.." They looked at me like I was crazy, but I was pleased!
written by OryG, March 02, 2010
Meseret,
I so agree with "I have never had a bad hair day since becoming natural that water can't solve" and I'm stealing that line!
written by Ronnie, March 02, 2010
Ke, great comment about products working differently based on texture. Some people can use lighter weight products, some people cannot. My hair hates conditioner washes, but I know a lot of naturals who swear by them. My hair still loves protein treatments, which most naturals I know also don't like. You really have to learn your hair.
Also, my advice is to make sure you section your hair when applying product. As Elle said, it's harder to make product distribute equally, and sectioning the hair makes that task so much easier!
written by Ke, March 02, 2010
In regards to my comment on natural, organic products I did not mean that it does not work on yourself but it may work differently on your hair with depending on texture. I did not want anyone to be confused that natural ingredients such as Elle suggested as well as pure organic products sold does not work at all. It does. I am one who is living to this way of caring for my hair.
written by Ke, March 02, 2010
I certainly agree with this article. When you are transitioning from relaxed hair, please also be prepared to not expect same things in your regular look because your natural hair will fit you. It's hard to accept firsthand when you are used to looking at yourself a certain way. Trust me I thought this way plenty of times when I looked at myself in the mirror. Being natural is beautiful. Because we have so many different types of natural look, you cannot pinpoint yourself to look like the next one. We are all unique in ourselves as well as our natural hair. For me I needed to feel proud about being a natural. Walk with my head up and not down. People need to know you feel good with your decision. Yes you will experiment a lot to find what works best for your hair. Again natural, organic products do not work for everyone's hair type...even if you are in same type of hair pattern/texture. As Elle said beautifully in her article, you must MOISTURIZE. Moisture is essential to holding in product as well as nurturing your natural hair from dry spells and be subjected to breakage. Plus sometimes our water is hard, you want to make sure you are giving a lot of moisturizing haircare for your hair. Research is key. Listen to what others are saying and read what is being done to nourish natural hair. Some people get TWAs whereas others grow their relaxed hair out with getting trims of this relaxed hair off every so often. Love your hair.
Great article Elle.
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