How to Care For Black Hair: The Full Guide

October 18, 2021 1 Comment

How to Care For Black Hair: The Full Guide

Caring for black hair really isn’t as complicated as we sometimes make it seem. Here’s the full guide on how to take care of natural curly hair or kinky hair so it can thrive.

 

Level 1: The Absolute Basics You Need to Care for Natural Hair:

 

  1. A Good Shampoo

The first thing to consider when thinking about how to care for black hair is getting it clean. You need a shampoo that cleans the scalp and hair strands without leaving your hair feeling dry. Avoid products with silicones, parabens and sulfates, especially when you first start out since these can dry out your hair. We make a great shampoo that cleanses without stripping the hair. Check it out.

 

How to Shampoo Natural Hair:

  • Always split your hair into sections. A good place to start is anywhere from 4 to 8 sections.
  • Work on one section at a time. You can braid, twist or pin away the sections you’re not working on.
  • Wet the section you’re working on. Then take a small amount of shampoo and work it into your scalp.
  • If your hair is long enough, hold the ends of your hair with one hand and use the other hand to rub your scalp.
  • When that’s done, take a bit more shampoo and lather up your hair, smoothing it into your hair downwards in a praying motion.
  • After that, you can tie away the section and repeat this process for the rest of your scalp. Alternatively, rinse the shampoo out of the section, tie it up and proceed to the next section. Repeat as needed.

 

  1. A Conditioner with great slip & A Good Detangler

 

The biggest complaint most people have when trying to figure out how to maintain natural hair is how to deal with all the tangles. Depending on how your mother did your hair growing up, this probably gives you some level of PTSD. Who else felt like their soul was being pulled out their scalp?

These two things will make sure you never have that problem again.

A good conditioner for kinky and curly natural hair has tons of slip and moisture. This combination makes detangling a breeze because your hair is so much easier to comb through when moisturized. Plus, it’s slippery enough that the hair strands will be easier to separate.

As for detangling, you can use a wide tooth comb, but if you want an even easier time, invest in a detangling brush.

Our detangling brush is specially designed to reduce breakage caused by detangling, cut the time spent detangling in half, and is the easiest route for a beginner or a naturalista who has been dreading detangling of late.

How to Condition and Detangle Natural Hair

  • On freshly shampooed hair, take some conditioner and smooth it into the hair. Let that sit for a few minutes.
  • Working in sections, hold your hair about three-quarters down the length of the hair and start slowly brushing the ends of your hair. Once those get easy to comb through, slowly work your way up the length of your hair until you’re able to comb your hair from root to tip with minimal or no tangling.
  • If there are really stubborn tangles, don’t rip through them. Drop your brush or comb and work on slowly separating those strands with your hands to untangle it. If you’re unable to, grab a pair of scissors and cut just above the tangle. Afterwards, continue detangling as you were before.
  • Once you’ve gone through all of your hair, rinse out the conditioner with cold water.

 

  1. A Moisturizing Leave-in Conditioner

Now, your hair’s clean, detangled and smelling divine! Our next step is to use a leave-in conditioner. A good leave-in restores luster and moisture, helping the hair become more manageable in-between washes.

RELATED: HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT LEAVE-IN CONDITIONER FOR 3A - 4C HAIR

How to Use Leave-In on Natural Hair

  • On wet or dry hair, take a small amount of leave-in and smooth it into your hair.
  • Style as desired.
  • Spritz your hair with water and reapply leave-in every few days to keep your hair moisturized the whole week.

For best results, you’ll want to add a lil’ something on here to give you moisture for days. We’ll cover this in the next section.

 

Tip: Aim to wash and condition your hair every 1-2 weeks and keep it moisturized throughout the week. That alone will have your hair growing!

 

Level 2: The Extra Stuff You Can (and Should Do) For Your Natural Hair

Here’s where your styling, treating and moisturizing routines come in.

 

Moisturizing

Keeping your hair from getting dry in the routine above can slowly turn into a daily chore. If you’d like to keep it from becoming one, then this is for you.

The two most common methods to keep kinky and curly natural hair moisturized are the LOC and LCO method. In both of those, L stands for ‘leave-in’, O stands for ‘oil’ and C stands for ‘cream’.

If you’re following these routines, then you will apply the products, in the exact same order they appear in the abbreviations, to damp, freshly washed hair. If you want the full low-down on moisturizing natural hair for days, especially in the winter, check out this post we did.

Our curated Moisture LOC Kit comes with all three, so you don’t have to spend hours trying to find what works for you. Did I mention it gives 3-5 days of shiny, soft, moisturized hair? Check out the reviews.

 

Doing Treatments

Just like your skin, treatments can be beneficial to your hair to help with a specific problem. Treatments are usually either moisture or protein treatments. There are exceptions such as scalp treatments.

We have both a moisturizing deep conditioner and a strengthening conditioner to suit your needs whether that is to boost moisture or strengthen brittle strands.

 

Tip: If you want to amp up the benefits, throw your hair under a thermal cap. The heat will improve product absorption.

 

Styling`

Cue all of the cute styles you’ve been eyeing on Instagram. Twist outs, braid outs, flat twists… all of them. These styles often need a styling cream or gel to set the style and hold it like that for a few days.

Our styling cream for kinky and curly hair is thick enough to set the style, moisturizing enough to keep your hair soft in the style and flake-free, saving you from the embarrassment of having white flakes all over your shoulders.

The last thing I’d mention here is also try to avoid heat styling and chemical processing like texturizers or dyes as these can damage your hair, making it difficult to maintain your natural hair.

 

Now that you know the A-Z of how to care for natural hair, go out there and be great. You’ve got this!

 

Rochelle Pydana

"Scientist of Black Haircare"




1 Response

Doretha Harris-McElliott
Doretha Harris-McElliott

November 05, 2021

This was a great article with a lot of helpful information. Thanks

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