7 Things I wish I had Known Before Going Natural

Hey guys! It's Friidayy! :D lol.. Hope your week was good

Flashback Friday 

Before I cut my hair I watched so many YouTube videos and read a lot of blogs.. I think that happens to a lot of people when they decide to go natural.. I was so excited but also a bit confused because I was like wait I need conditioner, leave in conditioner, I need to deep condition, what is the LOC method?? I was just really confused and the more videos I watched, the more confused I got.

So today I want to talk about a few things I wish I had known before going natural and during my first year of having natural hair. 

1. Oil Does NOT Moisturise Hair

For the longest time I thought oil was a moisturiser. I got castor oil, coconut oil, almond oil, olive oil and tea tree oil. I would wash my hair, slap some oil in it with a little shea butter and be wondering why my hair was so hard.. hard times mehn (no pun intended). Anyway I found out that oil is a sealant so you're supposed to use it After you've moisturised your hair.  And oh yeah tea tree oil you're supposed to use just a few drops.. I used to use wayy more than a few drops when my scalp felt dry or itchy and it just made it worse cause I was using too much.

2. Deep Condition! Deep Condition!! Deep Condition!!!

Like I said in this post I didn't deep condition my hair the first few months of being natural. Maybe I thought my hair was too short for it or I didn't know exactly what to use for it. And welll since I had so many choices on products that were confusing me I decided to just buy anything for deep conditioning.
Now I deep condition once a month or if my hair is out, once a week and it makes a big difference in the health of my hair.

3. What works for one person might not work for you

I used to watch YouTube videos with people that said how they benefited from protein treatments so I tried this for a few months without good results because like I've said my hair is protein sensitive. I also got the Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque and the conditioner because a lot of 4c naturals seemed to like it but it's just sitting on my shelf because it actually made my hair feel dry. My point is there are a lot of things that will work for someone that looks like they have your hair type but won't work for you because there are other things to consider like the thickness of your strands, hair porosity, etc.

4. Money....

Depending on you, you might have to spend more than a little money trying to figure out what works for your hair. I've gotten a number of products that didn't work for me in the past 3 years but now I have my staple products so I don't have to spend a lot of money trying new products. I still try new products because but I don't spend as much as I did during my first year. This definitely doesn't apply to everyone because I know people whose hair likes anything they put in it (lucky them).. so they don't need to keep trying different products.

5. Just get a Satin Pillowcase

Cotton pillowcases are a big no no when you're sleeping with your natural hair. They end up making your hair so dry. I got a satin scarf but it always somehow ended up far from my head when I woke up. I finally got a satin pillowcase and things have been so much easier since then.

6. The LOC Method

Hmm.. This Loc method.. A lo tof people were saying they do LOC, LCO, LCCO and no matter how you did it this was the way to moisturise your hair. So I did it (Liquid, Oil, Cream) but I used water, castor oil then shea butter and like I said my hair wasn't feeling moisturised. Then I realised the liquid was for water AND a moisturiser like leave in conditioner or glycerine so that's what was missing.
So I use this method like this: Spritz my hair with water and glycerine, use my cantu leave in conditioner and then castor oil or shea butter and it keeps my hair moisturised for a day or 2.

7. Don't Sleep Without putting your hair in twists or braids

I made this mistake about a month after going natural and the result wasn't too pretty, I woke up with one side of my head totally flat and my hair was a bit tangled. This was harder for me when I had just cut my hair because I had to put it in many twists to sleep (I'm really bad at cornrows). Now, I can just put it into 2 or 4 braids and go to bed if I'm really tired.

Oyime :)