Hello everyone!

So probably the most overwhelming/exciting/confusing parts of moving into your natural hair journey is figuring out what your routine should be and what your hair likes.  I remember after I decided I was going to go natural I was so overwhelmed with all the information out there on the internet.  Everyone would talk about how it was important to develop some kind of routine and how it would be different for everybody, but what does that mean??  I wanted product names, I wanted to know how often people were using what, etc.  So I want to make sure that I provide people with some options and some names just to start out with, and maybe you can use that as a starting point.  OR…if all else fails, do what I do and head over to the natural hair section and sniff around.  When it came down to it, after I saw some of the brands mentioned online by other naturalistas, I made my decisions off of what I thought smelled the best.  That seems kind of silly but, it was important to me that I liked how my hair was smelling.  Okay!  On to the good stuff!

1. Anti-breakage Keratin Oil from Organix, $5.49 at Wal-Mart, but also sold at Target, Walgreens, and most other drug stores.

This wasn’t a part of my hair care routine until the 2nd month, but oh my goodness, I LOVE this stuff! I got my sister to start using it too.  It’s from the Organix line, which is one of the more expensive lines sold at drug stores, but their stuff is great so it makes sense!  I’ll talk about the line more when I get to my conditioner that I use, but you’ll notice that this spray is of the same line within Organix.  Organix has multiple lines of products within their brand, I’ve seen naturalistas use the argan oil of morocco line, coconut milk line, or brazilian keratin therapy line, but again, I based my choice off of smell. Y’all…this stuff smells amazing, almost like perfume.  So not only will you be smelling nice, but you’ll be giving your hair an extra Keratin boost.  Keratin’s important because it’s a protein that helps define the structure of our hair, and, when hydrolyzed, Keratin has moisturizing properties. So this product is great for making the hair stronger and moisturized (two things your hair needs to not break off, hence, anti-breakage in the product name).  I spray this product in my hair after my moisturizing step in the morning, but I know my sister uses it after straightening her hair.  I had initially heard about this product from the glamtwinz on YouTube and they would just carry it around and spray it on their hair during the day when they needed a moisture boost.  All of these are great options!

2. Coconut oil, $6.98 and up at any grocery or health food store

MY HAIR LOVES COCONUT OIL.  If you’ve done any kind of google search looking at natural hair products and things I’m sure you’ve seen a ton of girls saying “I’m in love with the coco” because it’s just. that. good. Coconut oil is like magic.  You can eat it or cook with it, use it on your skin, and now I’m telling you to use it on your hair!  My hair drinks this stuff up like its nobodies business, and I love smelling like a coconut all of the time.  When creating your natural hair regimen it’s not just enough to moisturize, you need something to seal in that moisture, that’s where oils come in.  Putting an oil on your hair after moisturizing helps your hair retain that moisture and seals it in by producing an extra oil layer over your strands.  There’s scientific evidence that this is true and blackgirllonghair talks about that study here. So I chose coconut oil, but there are many other oils to choose from including almond, sunflower, grapeseed, and jojoba.  I use coconut oil as my last step every night after moisturizing.  I used to also do it in the day time but I found that my hair seemed greasy, or oily rather, so I moved it to my night routine only so my hair could absorb while I slept.

3. As I Am Double Butter Cream, $25.19 at Sally’s with a Beauty Club card

MOISTURE MOISTURE MOISTURE is so important for getting you hair to a healthy place and making sure it stays there.  One of the hardest parts of figuring out my routine was finding a moisturizer that I really felt like my hair liked.  I started off with an olive oil spray but that didn’t really feel like it was getting it done to me so I asked my old trichologist and she suggested this product and it’s all I’ve ever used since.  I think my hair likes it because it’s of a thicker consistency and my hair is super thick and just drinks up moisture.  They have another moisturizer in their line that I haven’t used, but if anyone else has tried both of the two, let me know what you like or don’t like about them.  I use this product twice daily as 1 of 2 moisturizing products that I put on my hair.

4. Anti-breakage Keratin Oil Conditioner, $5.74 for 13oz at Wal-Mart, but also sold at Target, Walgreens, and most other drug stores

So within the natural world there’s this thing called co-washing, where you can do a pre-poo before hand, or not, and you just wash your hair  with conditioner.  Shampoos have drying agents that aren’t the best for natural hair, so many naturalistas use them sparingly.  I’ve never done a pre-poo but I wash my hair once a week with this conditioner.  It smells exactly like the spray (a.k.a. AMAZING) and I was so shocked how soft my hair was after using it.  Like I said earlier, I had heard about the Organix line from some other naturalistas online, but before I bought it at the store I was reading the label (make this a habit when buying your natural hair products!  The first ingredient should always be water, and you need to make sure there’s no secret bad stuff that you’re going to be putting on your head) and it said that it had methosulfate in it.  All these red flags and bells and whistles went off because I have been trained that all sulfates are bad.  So of course, I did a quick google search and apparently a lot of other women had the same concern I did.  Apparently, this methosulfate isn’t really a sulfate at all, and has amazing detangling properties that are so mild on the hair that they are often used on babies!  Curly Nikki (LOVE her) goes into more detail about that here. Then after using the conditioner for the first time, I was amazed at how detangling it was!  This is super important for natural kinky hair that so easily tangles. I fell in love.  I was already in love, but that just sealed the deal.  So again,  I use this once a week for a wash as my shampoo and my conditioner.

5. Cantu Coconut Curling Cream, $5.99 at Sally’s with Beauty Club card, but also sold at Wal-Mart and Walgreens.

So while perusing the web, I saw a lot of people mentioning things about getting something to define your curls.  There are so many products that do that, so for the time being I just went with this one (I currently use something else that I LOVE, and I’ll post that in product reviews).  As winter in New York rolled around, my moisturizer wasn’t enough to keep my hair’s thirst quenched, so I started adding this in as a second moisturizer and my hair really responded! I’m not sure if I’ll continue to do this as temperatures warm up, but we’ll see. So the product is intended as a curl definer and it really does do that.  Every time I put it on I can instantly see my curls become longer and more defined.  So as a moisturizer or as a curl definer, this product does its job!

6. Cantu Leave-in Conditioner, $11.69 for one with a pump at Sally’s with a Beauty Club card, or $5.49 for the one shown in the picture at Walgreens.

Deep conditioning is an important part of the natural regimen because it really helps to keep your hair moisturized and give it that extra oomph!  The frequency in which you deep condition is up to you, and I’ve heard people do it multiple times a week and some people who only do it once or twice a month.  I just deep condition every week after my wash.  After I get out of the shower, I put on the deep conditioner and then a shower cap and sit under the dryer for 30-45 minutes, then I rinse out. It’s definitely a bit of a time commitment but it’s an important step in getting your hair to where you want it to be, which is at its healthiest!

7. Mane ‘n Tail Hair Strengthener, $5.49 at Sally’s with Beauty Club card

I’m a little upset with how pricey this is, but it is completely worth it.  This is the product that I credit with getting my edges to grow back as quickly as they did.  I forget where I heard about this, I’m pretty sure I read about it in Nylon but I went to pick it up and I’ve used it ever since.  It’s the first thing I spray on my hair every morning before I begin my moisturizing routine and it does a good job of kind of loosing up my curls that have dried up and gotten packed together over night.  In fact, this product is so important to me, I think I’ll do a review on it. So…tbc.

SO TO SUM UP MY HAIR ROUTINE:

MORNING:

1) Mane ‘n Tail hair strengthener

2) As I Am Double Butter Cream

3) Cantu Coconut Curling Cream

4) Organix anti-breakage Keratin oil spray

EVENING:

1) As I Am Double Butter Cream

2) Cantu Coconut Curling Cream

3) Coconut Oil

WASH-DAY (x1 a week):

1) Wash with Organix anti-breakage Keratin conditioner

2) Condition with Organix anti-breakage Keratin conditioner

3) Apply Cantu Leave in Conditioner and add shower cap. Sit under dryer for 30-45 minutes.

I hope y’all find this helpful.  Share your routines with me down below!