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| 1BlessedNatural: 6 Mistakes I Made as a New Natural |
It’s been over 5 years since my Big Chop. Even though, my natural hair is healthy now, I made a lot of mistakes with it along the way. Here are 6 of them:
1. Applied oil to my hair before applying a moisturizer... When I first starting using oils and butters on my hair, I would apply them before the moisturizer and then wonder why my hair was so dry. Oils and butters are used for sealing. You can wet your hair and then apply the oils to seal in the moisture. This method prevents the moisture from evaporating quickly.
2. Flat ironed my roots while I was transitioning... During the month before I did my Big Chop I visited a salon to get my hair blown out and flat ironed. Big mistake! This resulted in heat damage. When I did finger coils, the hair in my bang area wouldn’t curl properly. Once the heat damaged area grew out, I realized what happened.
3. Used too many products that weren’t PH balanced... If you’ve visited this site before, then you know I was an extreme product junky when I first went natural. What I didn’t realize was that many of the products I used knocked off my pH balance and caused my seborrheic dermatitis to flare up. Always check the product label.
4. Didn’t research my hair porosity… Knowing your hair porosity is very important, because it enables you to pick the correct products/techniques for your hair. Hair porosity is the term used for the way your hair retains moisture. After doing a strand test, I realized my hair had low porosity, so I needed to lift the cuticles of it to allow moisture in. One of the ways I did this was by using a heating cap during conditioning.
5. Trimmed too much of my hair or trimmed too often... Before I started trimming my hair in twists, I tried doing it while my hair was wet and dry. These methods resulted in me cutting too much hair. Plus, I had to learn to trim my hair as needed instead of following a schedule.
6. Ignored my intuition…There were times when I had a funny feelings about products, but I used them anyway. It resulted in me throwing them away, which was a waste of money.
What are some mistakes you made when you first went natural?
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