Beginners guide to: ‘A holistic healthy hair care regime and lifestyle’
The natural hair movement which started in America and has made its way to the UK and Europe has resulted in many positive changes for the Black and Mixed Heritage community in a few ways. The drive regarding women wanting to move away from the use of chemicals resulted in a significant drop in sales of products and marketing for chemically treated hair. This resulted in the cosmetic world, investing in making and marketing products researched and designed for the use on natural hair. This then resulted in:
- Greater knowledge and understanding around the science of Afro-textured hair and what it needs to be healthy, whether, natural, relaxed (via chemicals) and greater focus on locs as a preference for natural hair.
- Greater information via Google and YouTube on women sharing their stories of using this knowledge to change the way, they previously cared for their hair. The main changes are related to the increased frequency of washing and conditioning, so hair is fully hydrated. This then allows your beautiful curl pattern to reveal itself, as hair was previously lacking in essential moisture due to us not having this information and not having the cosmetic world be invested in making products which was in our hair’s best interest and well-being.
Afro-textured hair is Naturally Curly
Hair type and curl pattern both describe the shape of your hair and how hair naturally grows, such as straight, wavy or curly hair types. No two heads are alike, and each head is unique like our fingerprints. Afro-Textured hair is naturally curly, and the shape or pattern of our curls is determined by the shape of our hair follicle. The more oval its shape, the curlier the hair will be. Heat, chemicals, damage and a lack of moisture presented in the cortex of the hair can alter how your curl pattern presents itself. In this context lots of us are walking around, not even knowing that we have a beautiful curl pattern. We know from our African ancestry and from the women and men living in different parts of Africa today that Afro-textured hair is very diverse, and our curl pattern range from:
- Loose curls
- Curly
- Coily curl
- Tighter curls and coils
Most of us will have a combination of different curl patterns, with one of two different patterns being the most dominant.
The question is therefore not actually,’ How do you get those curls’ but should be: What do I need to do, to see my naturally curly hair?
- Adopting a healthy hair care regimen of weekly/2 weekly washing/conditioning, deep conditioning to allow water and essential healthy ingredients to fully penetrate the hair’s cortex.
- This regimen needs to be consistent to see significant results- 3-6 months.
- Once your curls begin to reveal themselves, you can then use products, designed to set your curls, such as gels, curling creams, curling custards and curling mousses to set these beautiful curls, show casing the hair that was designed just for you, regarding your ethnicity and cultural identity.
- Remember, your curls need to be set with a gel or curling cream whilst your hair is wet and curly as it will then dry in the same way.
