New Year Natural Hair

 

Have you tried to care for your hair naturally but within a week, your hair felt worse and definitely not better? Well let me explain to you why? Then I will give you the best natural hair care tips for your new hair in the new year!

Standard products and their over use go against how our hair naturally maintains it’s balance. All standard shampoos contain harsh sulphates and standard conditioners and masks will contains silicones which is like wrapping your hair in plastic. These two ingredients, make it difficult to deeply nourish your natural hair. From a lifetime of using both ingredients, when you suddenly stop, you see the true damage they have done.

Not all is lost. Remember the rules we have all heard, eat well, stay hydrated and avoid heat styling.  Now add the following tips and this new year, you can embrace your new natural hair.

Benefits of Vinegar

An old wives tale of adding vinegar to your routine holds some truth. Before you skip onto the next hair care tip because you don’t want to smell of a salad dressing, hear me out.

Healthy hair comes from a healthy scalp which should be slightly acidic. This natural acidic environment will lead to smooth hair follicles, locking in hydration (more on this later), and give a beautiful shine. For your scalp, the acidic pH will protect your scalp from any fungal growth which we are all prone to.  Ever had an itch, flakey scalp? This means two things, your scalp pH is off and you may have the start of a fungus that feeds on your own dead skin cells and sebum. Vinegar is your answer.

Standard shampoo ingredients is the leading cause of the wrong pH. Also, if you live in an area of hard water, your pH will be altered.

There are two ways you can include vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is the best to use. You can include a final vinegar rinse after you wash your hair. Massage it into your scalp and then rinse through. When your hair dries, the vinegar odor will go away.

You can also rehydrate your scalp every evening by adding a dash of apple cider vinegar to a bottle on rose water and spritz your roots. This will help against a flakey scalp.

Rule of 4

The four day rule is not exact but a reminder that over washing you hair, as mentioned in the intro, may eventually lead to damaged hair.

Genetics governs how quick, long and thick our hair grows. However, lifestyle will determine how healthy that hair remains.

A healthy scalp, will produce healthy oily sebum from the food we eat, to help maintain hair growth. 

You don’t want to remove that sebum too quickly. By using shampoo on your scalp daily, your are removing this natural product. What you want to do is time your shampoo use, leaving enough days in between to let your body produce its natural oils.

The general rule is 4 full days separating wash days. In those days you can rinse your hair, as water alone will not remove oil.

If you are currently washing your hair daily, it will take time to adjust your wash routine. Start by switching to a sulphate free shampoo like Tabitha James Kraan or Innersense. Then after a few weeks, start to leave an extra day in-between uses. This will help your scalp adjust its sebum production naturally.

Layer your products

Like your skincare products, layering your hair products will help maintain the quality of the length of your hair, for thicker and longer hair if that’s your aim.

Remember the further away from your scalp your hair grows, means its effectively dead hair. Think of it like the thread of your clothes. You have to look after it to maintain the soft feeling. Otherwise it easily starts to break and tangle. You do this by locking in the hydration with a layering approach.

For soft, manageable hair without silicone, you need to lock in water. Not too much or not too little. How do you know? If you hair length feels crunchy, similar to if you have over used hair spray, your hair is lacking hydration.

To rehydrate you hair, you need a hydrating mask and oil layer.

A great mask for this purpose is aloe vera and honey. Blend together and apply generously to your ends and roots. After 20 minutes, then add a small amount of avocado oil to the ends only.  Do this at least once a week.  After a further 20mins, rinse and wash as usual.

Finally, after washing your hair, when it is damp, add one of two products.  If you have wavy or straight hair, add a small amount of Broccoli Seed oil through the ends. If your hair is curly you want to add a cream, like Boucleme Curl Cream and then the oil.  These two will prevent this lose of water from your ends, keeping the right balance of hydration.

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