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.
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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.
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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Comments
Eva: 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.
ADL: Great article! It reinforces most of the things my mom taught me about taking care of my hair. My three favorite product lines are KeraCare, Aphogree and Influance! Check them out! If you wear your hair relaxed like me, another good tip is to be careful about overprocessing your hair. African American hair is very delicate and needs love. I go atleast 8 weeks between relaxers and I make sure to give myself a protein treatment (Aphogree) 2 weeks before and after my relaxer. Also I get a roller or flexi set every week, it keeps my hair moist and I don't have to use the blow dryer and flat iron everyday.
Mary: Great article, but I have a comment about Caucasian hair products being useless on "ethnic" hair.....I know plenty of black women that prefer caucasian hair products for different reasons.
Stacey: 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.
Phaedra: I just found this site via pinterest and I was pleasantly surprised to see information specific to ethnic hair care here! I’m a black woman and have found that in many forums that discuss hair, black hair is completely ignored. (This is really discouraging, as it perpetuates the idea that since my hair is different, there must be something so wrong with my hair that discussing it would cause the reader to spontaneously combust.:-) I am appalled at those who have expressed that this article is offensive. Pointing out differences between black and white hair is no different than pointing out the differences between thick and fine hair! The idea that my hair (again, I’m a black woman with traditional, coarse African hair) can be maintained and can stay healthy by using the same products, techniques & processes that, say, Jessica Simpson uses is, quite frankly, an ignorant delusion. As I said at the beginning of this post, it’s my experience that stylists tend to shy away from addressing this issue. (Probably, in part, because they fear offending people.) In order to grow as a culture, we need to embrace these differences and learn from one another. Addressing these differences is the exact opposite of offensive; it is productive, empowering & a sign that our culture is evolving, for the better. With the negative comments I’m seeing about this article, I wanted to take the time to say THANK YOU to the author of this article for writing it. Just as with everything, there are suggestions that may not work for me. So, I probably won’t use them. But, I comment you for writing an article that offers productive suggestions for nurturing black hair. Please, please, please… ignore the naysayers & keep it up! Much love! :-) Phaedra
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