African-American Hair Care is often considered too confusing and time-consuming which, I’m afraid, caused many women to forget their gorgeous locks and experiment with procedures that make hair more manageable. However, once you have a child whose hair you need to style or simply decide to go natural, you might get a bit frustrated because you don’t know how to care for your African-American hair. Don’t worry – it’s a «live and learn» thing! You will get used to it and, in order to help you do that, I’ve made a collection of some of the most important rules of ethnic hair care:

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1. Brush with Care

Regardless of how strong and luscious it looks, African-American hair needs a delicate touch to stay beautiful and grow long. It tangles and breaks very easily which means that you absolutely must take very good care of how you brush it. The solution? Wide toothed comb – a very effective tool that will help you remove tangles and style your gorgeous mane without breakage and unnecessary pain! And remember, African-American hair care is not something you do in a hurry so take your time and give your hair all the attention it needs.

2. Moisturize

Ethnic hair care routine needs to involve a lot of good moisturizing products such as leave in conditioners, deep conditioners, pomades and natural oils which you’ll apply pretty much as frequent as possible. African-American hair has raised cuticles which makes it very vulnerable and unable to retain moisture naturally. In order to overcompensate for that, you’ll need to «feed» it with as much as good quality ingredients you can and your hair will repay you by looking good, being healthy, strong and able to grow without breaking off.

3. Experiment with Protective Styles

Different types of braids, knots and twists will help you protect your hair from knotting, tangling and breaking off in a very stylish way! I personally love these super-creative styles and find the fact that each one of them results in different types of curls or waves very fascinating!

4. Don’t Shampoo Too Often

Due to the flat, ribbon-like shape of strands, African-American hair loses moisture very fast and over-shampooing might damage it more than you think. That’s why your African-American hair care routine needs involve mild nurturing shampoos which you’ll use once a week instead of everyday. In case washing your hair every day is a must, do your best to use very little shampoo or, if possible, no shampoo at all.

Embrace your individuality and transform your look by trying out a unique shade. Did you know that green hair is associated with nature, creativity, and growth? So go ahead, experiment with this bold hair color to represent a new phase in your life, waiting to blossom like a fresh spring leaf.

5. Sleep with a Nightcap

Silk or satin – a night cap is an absolute must! This is not one of those strictly ethnic hair care tips but something I often suggest to all girls who are suffering from dry, frizzy hair that breaks and tangles easily. Why? Because it will help protect your hair while you toss and tumble in your sleep allowing you to have a nice, easily manageable, not to mention healthier, hairstyle upon waking up!

6. Massage

Now here’s one interesting tip on ethnic hair care that you might want to remember – some say that massaging your scalp every day forces it to produce more oil! Now, what we all know for sure is that massage does help increase the circulation of blood inside the scalp making the hair not only healthy but able to grow faster and longer so you might want to give it a shot anyways.

7. Use Products Made for African-American Hair Care

Products that do such a good job for Caucasian hair might and probably will prove to be useless for your hair. But, hey… that’s just normal and works both ways! So, instead of just picking up any shampoo or conditioner for dry, curly hair, invest your money in products that are specially formulated for ethnic hair care and will be able to give you great results.

What are your African-American hair care musts and how skilled in ethnic hair care are you?

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Where Thoughts and Opinions Converge

Anonymous
2012-06-13T22:24:10.000Z
love the article... thanks a lot.
Anonymous
2012-06-21T04:32:13.000Z
Thank you to whoever write this article! It was great! It would be helpful as an extension of this article to list the best hair care products for black woman, as far as the best shampoos and conditioners that we can find.
Eva
2012-02-20T01:54:26.000Z
There's no such thing as "african american" hair vs. "caucasian hair". There are different textures based upon curl pattern. Also the use of "black hair products" is blatantly offensive. Products are not race specific so your racial overtones are offensive at best.
Hair
2012-12-30T06:07:15.000Z
Whoa! I'm a hairstylist...I think ethnic hair is an insult. Ethnic does not mean African American, black, Hispanic etc! Everyone has an ethnicity so that means whoever developed this term excludes all people of "color"! Hair is hair, we all bleed red, there are different characteristics true! However I do not believe in products just for certain races or ethnicities! Many black women with natural hair use garneir fruits and other product lines with much success. I am not agreeing or arguing with the authors of this posts this is just my thought...please do not get offended. I think there is just different ways you take care of different curl patterns, textures(fine/med/corse), density, porosity! I am not saying there is not a different in Asian, black, white hair however it has nothing to do with the person's ethnicity. I have seen Japanese woman with coarse, tightly curled hair,heavy density: white woman with very fine, straight hair avg density and black woman with med texture ...(many black womem i have styled their hair think its very coarse when its actually pretty fine)...wavy hair with avg density...hair is hair it's not a racial/ethnic/nationality thing it's a HUMAN thing :)
Theo
2012-02-20T03:13:23.000Z
This is true. When you have ethnic hair, like mee :) you have to do these things to make sure its nice. I have to comb my hair out every night so that it does not knot up. We need this kind of care. But we are not the only ones :0 I have many friends who are caucasian and have straight wavy and curly hair, and they need some of the kind of care that I do with my hair too, which they do. SO my point is, that its not always about the ethnicity but just basically your hair structure whether black white or whatever beautiful race you are. I am done speaking my point of view. <3 Loved te post! -Theo :)
Stacey
2012-10-18T14:46:47.000Z
I love this article, I do all of these things and my hair grows a lot faster as a result as well. Good job! I use Cantu shampoo and conditioner (Wal-Mart is where I've been able to find it). Great for relaxed hair in my opinion. Plenty of moisture. When I wear my hair natural I use their leave in conditioner, but I use Noodle Head (at Sally's) to hold my curls.
Zina
2013-02-25T07:36:45.000Z
Thanks!! I am African-American and I appreciate this article as well as those about essential oils and hair growth! Good stuff! Z
Vijay
2012-07-18T03:20:27.000Z
Thank you for the article. I actually picked up a couple points. Sorry, some people for some reason were offended.