Dear black, curly and wavy girl, stop feeling the urge to straighten your hair. Your type 4 hair has curly and wavy hair patterns and it can clump.
Let go of social pressure, mainstream tv and social media beauty standards, that tell you your hair has to be molded into something else. Your hair is beautiful with every single wave and spiral pattern growing out of your scalp. Society has called this hair kinky and bad for centuries. We know better now. It is not the Shirley Temple Curls we’re used to, but it’s wavy and curly. Don’t let anybody tell you it’s not, every day, hundreds of us are showing the world with our phones and cameras, that we own curly and wavy hair structures.
I wish I would have felt this confidence in my teens to not feel insecurities about my afro hair. Society should not reward us for having the hugest afro or the longest hair. Society should accept our hair in every stage it grows. Conversations should be about cute hair styles and vibrant hair dyes. And not about the best oil or remedy to increase already genetically determined density, to thicken up hair strands (that can’t be) and to fasten hair growth. Growing 1 inch (2.54cm) per month is impossible for human hair. The average hair grows UP TO 0.6 inch per month which is about 1.5 cm.
Stop destroying yourself with images of silky hair if you don’t have it. You can not turn 4c hair into 3c hair! You are not born with it. Cottony hair is beautiful. Tiny curls are gorgeous. Tiny waves are phenomenal! Show the world your hair is outstanding. Let me say it again. We do have curly and wavy hair. Don’t put yourself into one box. Our hair can do more than just braiding and twisting it. Wigs are beautiful and clip-ins do the remedy of creating more density and long hair. But it shouldn’t distract yourself from knowing your own hair texture.
You should master the hair basics of your own hair, before you reach out for complicated hair styles. You can wear your hair curly and wavy. It would just not be the same texture and appearance that is deeply branded into your mind. Let go of all these images and free yourself. You could ease up your hair life tremendously if you start today. All you need to do is to only put products into your hair when it’s clean.
- Water rinse your hair before you start the hair wash process.
- Cleanse at least once a week.
- Clarify at least once a month.
- Condition your hair. it doesn’t always have to be deep conditioners. Rinse out conditioners are also great.
- Detangle your hair with a brush. Getting all shed hairs out will ease up your life.
- Style your hair into your desired look.
It’s not about to moisturise your hair. It’s not about finding products according to your porosity. You don’t need any products made for your porosity or hair type. If a brand says it’s for all hair types when it’s for all hair types. If a brand says it’s for curly and wavy hair, then surely it is for your hair. No matter if it’s silky or cottony. Truly cleansed and clarified hair can hold on to products better. This is all you need to know.
Porosity is about damaged hair. The higher the porosity the more it is damaged. Especially when you heat train or bleach your hair too often. I want you to rethink your low porosity levels. Do you really have high porosity hair? Does it make sense? Is your hair damaged? Do you bleach it a lot? Do you color it? Do you dye it? Do you use a lot of heat? Do you often flat iron your hair? Does your new growth looks very different from your old hair? Porosity is really about damaged hair.
We are actually all born with low porosity hair. The more you manipulate your hair the more it will change its porosity. And the worst case is high porosity hair because it’s damaged. If you made the water glass experiment, then I can happily tell you that it’s not accurate. Only scientists in the lab can truly examine your hair strands and tell you what porosity you actually have. Lemma Labs provide at home test kits that you can send back for examination.
If you think you’re experiencing low porosity hair because it repels water, please buy a clarifying solution. A shampoo that says it clarifies hair. Lather your hair twice and start observing your hair. I’m pretty sure, what you think you hair is, will be immediately vanished. Social Media has taught us to coat our hair strands with lots of buildup. People aren’t searching for proper styling products anymore. It’s all about layering products several times a week into our hair to fight dryness. Hairstyles can’t hold with a product loaded hair regimen.
And it’s also not about raw oils and butters. Big brands and clean beauty brands sell hair oils and hair serums. But in the last decades we have unlearned to use these serums and oils. Instead of covering your hair and scalp with a 1-5 drops, we’re drenching our hair and scalp with bottles of these liquids. And then comes the biggest issue. How come you can daily put products inside your hair with a hair wash of just once a month. One hair wash can not vanish the buildup created for one month.
This is why the trending 30 Day Hair Detox is getting so popular. Your hair is going into a very strict and lean diet. All your daily habits lose their function and you begin to realise that your hair was heavily coated with buildup. But you were afraid of washing it properly with good shampoos. Now you learn about water being the source of hydration. Not oils. You start to see curls and waves. Why?
It’s because shampoos lift the dirt out of your scalp & hair and water carries it away. This is when you see a reset or a reshape of your natural curl pattern. Something that you didn’t see before or you weren’t aware of, because the buildup couldn’t be rinsed away effectively. The buildup created a coating around each individual hair strand, making it unable to clump your hair strands. This is why it is very important to not blame everything on specific products or raw oils and butters. With healthy hair habits and weekly cleansing routines you could use anything. Start thinking about how you want to style your hair and not how you want to cure a problem. If the hair wash and condition is still giving you dry hair issues, something is going wrong. You’re either putting too much in your hair or you’re not washing it effectively.