I have studied several different women's hair routine with natural hair and what I have found was that there seem to be few rules or hair laws that seem to apply. Here a few hair laws I have heard that I have seen exceptions to.
1. Do not use blow dryers on natural hair (I have seen this law broken by several people with long natural hair, some use heat weekly while others use it monthly. Some seem to be ok with any altered texture as a result of frequent straightening, others claim to see no difference in their hair texture as a result of heat. I have tried heat and my texture was alterted severly after one proffessional flat-iron and blow dry. Some sections of my hair remained straight and others remained permanentely in a loose texture. I want my natural curls tight so for me I will not be playing around with heat. When it comes to length I have seen long hair that has been heat treated.
2. Do not use flat irons (Same as blow dryers)
3. Do not use sulfate shampoo ( This one is funny, because the majority of shampoos on the markert contain sulfates and even those so called natural shampoos that are sulfate-free still raise the culticle of the hair shaft and make my hair feel stripped. This is why I pretreat with Olive Oil no matter what I am using.
4. Do not use hair grease aka mineral (My hair grew quite long as a child and the only thing used on my hair was grease and water. My hair seems to respond the same way to mineral oil products as it does with shea butter, olive oil and other natural oils. When used dry it just sits on top of my hair. I only use Olive Oil as a pre shampoo treatment and once it is washed out with soap no oils of any kind other than the kind coming from my scalp itself touch my hair until my next wash.
5. Wash your hair weekly ( I have seen and heard it all regarding the frequency of washing your hair, every thing from once a month to every day washing. I think this one is truly up to personal needs. If one is not using lots of products I suspect one could get away with washing less frequently, but it dependeds on the needs of that persons scalp. I have seen long hair on people who wash monthly as well as daily. I think there are multiple factors here such as products used in styling, daily maintenance, hair style itself, whether your hair is loose or braided, activity level, the health of the scalp, the amount of oil produced by the scalp, sweat, dandruff, and products used to clean the hair. I personally like to wash my hair every seven days, because my hair starts to feel limp to me after any longer than that. If my hair is loose I like to wash it nightly. I have gone months when I was younger without washing and my hair did not fall out, nor did I develop any scalp condition. I have also had a bi weekly routine. I think the only real practical reason I could see for not washing my hair every week, but rather once a month is less detangling sessions weekly which would mean less manipulation which would mean less breakage. I would still have to moisturize my hair at least once a week, I cannot stain putting any products on hair that has not been freshy washed so I would probably be likely to apply products only once a month. I am basically a person that does not believe that products really any thing to my hair except dirty it, outside of shampoo and conditioner.
6. Wear protective styles ( I have seen lots of people grow long hair using protective styles, but I think the style you get, whether the braids are too tight, and the length of time you wear them impact whether the style is really working to preserve the hair. If you dont touch your hair much I guess it would have less opportunity to break. Plently people touch their hair once a day and still have long hair so I guess it depends on the person.
CLM
Friday, April 1, 2011
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