Hello lovelies!
Well here I am, 8 months natural and still learning all manner of new things about my hair. To be more specific: I'm learning that what was true for my relaxed/transitioning hair is not necessarily true for my natural hair.
Over the past 8 months, I have been the stereotypical wash and go natural because (let's face it), I'm lazy. However, one thing I have noticed is that my hair gets dry rather quickly. Like tumbleweed dry. I could put the most moisturizing of DCs and moisturizers in my hair and my hair would just soak that ish up. This really perplexed me for awhile because I am not used to my hair doing this. Then today I figured it out.
My hair is high porosity.
Waaayyyyy back at the start of my journey when my hair was relaxed and super damaged, my hair did this exact same 'soak up all the moisture' routine. With love and care, I got my hair to normal-ish porosity and moisturizing my hair wasn't a super big issue. The problem was, I have carried this routine with me even though the condition of my hair (going from relaxed to natural) has changed. I failed to adjust!!!
So what to do with this newfound knowledge? Well, I have to treat my hair like the high porosity hair that it is. I have a plan of action based on a few things I have noticed. Product-wise, thick DCs and moisturizers make my hair sing. Here are the products that are working thus far:
DCs
TGIN Honey Hair Mask
Camille Rose Algae Renew DC
Kandy Kurls Hair Mask
Alikay Naturals Honey and Sage DC
Shea Moisture Manuka Honey and Mafura Oil masque
Moisturizers
Oyin Hair Dew
Oyin Whipped Pudding
Camille Rose Moisture Milk
Kinky Curly Knot Today (I swear this product is bae)
See the trend here? My hair just doesn't respond well to thin DCs or moisturizers (I'm looking at you Mielle Organics Babbasu DC....my hair just laughed at it. Now it's sitting my my bathroom collecting dust. Same goes for liquid leave ins.....waste o'time). Now the trick is making sure my hair holds on to the moisture that I give it for longer than a few hours. Which brings me to my next point.......
I'm also not sure why I shifted from regularly using protein conditioners. I know their benefits in helping my hair hold on to moisture but for some reason I just stopped. In this sense, I need to get back to what I know works (Komaza Protein Treatment here I come!).
I also am willing to give the Shea Moisture High Porosity line a go. I've used the finishing elixir on my hair this week and I am noticing a difference in the appearance and moisture levels of my hair. I've also seen the rave reviews of the deep conditioner. I'll purchase it this weekend and give it a go.
So the moral of the story is this: you can be that natural that thinks being natural is enough for your hair so you don't have to do anything extra or you can be that natural who is so used to routine that you fail to adjust your routine to meet the new needs of your hair. Both ends of the spectrum are equally terrible and can result in much frustration. Thus, a big lesson my my natural journey that I'd give to any new natural is to 'ADJUST if you MUST!'
Just something to think about......
