5 Must Have Black Hair Care Products
If you were given five minutes to escape your house or your place of abode, what are the five hair must-haves that you should carry? I generally pitch this question to persons who are interested in growing long healthy relaxed hair and the answers would vary. The reason I ask is, you do not need more than five products to maintain hair growth at any one time. Some ladies stock up on a lot of hair care products and use them every day or every week and then complain that they are getting no results from the stuff they buy.
Fact is, the more products you use, the likelihood is there that you will dry out your hair shaft and clog your scalp thus impeding hair growth, it may even break and fall off. This is bad news for product junkies, so as a recovering junkie myself, I have to say this gently, simple is better. Depending on your hair needs, I say go with the adage that less is more. If you are new to this hair growing thing, look carefully at your stash of products and then delete the ones that are unnecessary.
Look at the ingredients on your three or four deep conditioners; they are basically the same aren’t they? Look at your shampoo; does it contain sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium laureth sulphate? Chuck it, it’s stripping your hair of well needed moisture and have dreaded side effects.
The first thing I did when I started my hair regimen is to get rid of my brush, it was the hard jagged edge type and I realised that after brushing my hair for a while masses of hair would be stuck in the bottom of the bristles. After a weeks worth of dragging it out, I would sometimes have a ball of hair in my palms, which I am pretty sure I did not have to lose.
Second thing I did was to get rid of the products which contained isopropyl alcohol, petroleum and mineral oil. I gave them to my mom, who thought that I should not be wasting perfectly good products. When I explained why I would be using them no more, she eventually gave them up too. I will explain more about these products later.
My Five Must Have Hair Care Products
After clearing my hair cabinet of most of the products, I was left with a good conditioner (I use a variety of them, I change them every three months), castor oil, coconut oil, a broad tooth comb and a silk scarf to tie my head with at nights. By the way, a good conditioner can do the job of your shampoo.
That’s it. My five things. Most of them had no additive or fillers except for my conditioners and were 100% natural. And then I realized something, the more natural the products, the better my hair started looking. Not only was it thicker and glossier but even when my hair needed to be relaxed, people were asking if I just did it. The secret to hair care is simple, less is more.
So what are your five important hair must-haves?
About Brenda Barrett
How often do you relax your hair and how long do you leave it on for? Is every 4 months okay?
Hi Rose,
I relax my hair every 4 months. I usually go to a stylist, to do it, she usually leaves it on for 15 minutes or so. Four months is definitely okay, especially if you are keeping your new growth and relaxed hair moisturized properly. When you stretch for long periods of time you need to be able to handle the moisture situation pretty well.
Where in Jamaica can Castile soap be purchased and for what price? Do you use Dr. Bronner’s?
Hi Loraine,
Where in Jamaica are you? Yes I use Dr. Bonner’s.
Hi,
I grew up being told that you have to relax your hair every 4 to 6 weeks. Even at the salon that’s what they say.
Please explain more about why it should rather be every 3 to 4 months and how to maintain your hair in between. I haven’t relaxed in 5 weeks (in fact I’m going to relax tomorrow) and my hair is already getting a bit rowdy. I’m still new to the DIY hair care world so I might still not be doing it right in terms of moisturising.
Hi Tebogo,
Welcome to the DIY hair world. I have addressed these concerns on the site but I realize that the articles are scattered all over. I will address this in a master article soon.