The top five struggles we see women experiencing with their natural hair all lead back to mindset. Mindset is defined as the established set of attitudes held by someone. What we think about our hair and the voices that we allow to live rent free in our heads impact us so much more than a product or styling technique. These five reasons we’re going to dive into aren’t things that are technically happening, but things happening in our minds. We believe mindset is 10% of our hair and 90% in our head. Let’s explain the top five reasons why we believe your natural hair is still dry.
#1: DIY without the Knowledge
This reason is one that stresses us out the most and has been the hardest to change amongst naturals. Somewhere down the line, we were led to believe that natural hair is something everyone had to do completely on their own, and that isn’t the case. Many naturals have resorted to making their own DIY concoctions at home, mixtures that even included food that’s not beneficial to the hair.
Raise your hand if you were a salon regular when you had relaxed hair.
If you were a person that wasn’t about that hair life, you can still not be about that hair life. We’re not saying that you need to stop DIY-ing entirely, but this is where partnering and creating a relationship with a professional well versed in tight curls + natural hair can not only help guide you down the right path, but can also help save you money on the front and backend.
We created an online directory of independent stylists who have taken Cut It Kinky education. If you’re unable to find a professional in your area, we shared 3 Tips for How to Find a Curl Specialist in Your Area.
#2: Neglect
Many of us think that we can “protective style” our way to length, that water is the problem and we should only shampoo our hair once a month. We get on buses and trains, other people’s cars, our hair comes to the bathroom with us among other places. Imagine at the end of 2-3 weeks how dirty our hair is. This is where we start to discuss with our in salon and digital clients the importance of cleansing and conditioning our hair every 7 to 10 days.
We can’t neglect our hair and the way that we’re actually hydrating our hair is cleansing and conditioning. We’re not spray bottling or adding more products to our hair once it seems “dry.” We’re using high quality cleansers and conditioners and choosing the appropriate cleanser based on how dirty our hair is. We’re all about keeping hair care very simple.
#3: Soundbite Hair Care
We think that we can crowdsource hair care information from people who only do their own hair or gain tips and take small pieces and put it somewhere it doesn’t fit from a professional or group of professionals. We’re taking soundbites from everybody and they mama and trying to trial and error our way to bomb hair. When you take one piece of information from a professional and tie another piece to a blogger who has amazing hair genetically, you’re not getting the full picture. You’re not getting A to Z, you’re getting A to B.
We’ve got to stop receiving soundbite information and actually take the time to learn the full picture. Hair care is comprehensive. That’s the reason why we created our consumer education platform, The SeeSomeCurls Visual Library, because we realized that consumers weren’t getting the full picture of hair care.
#4: The Product Chase
Products are tools that help solve an issue or create a look. Just like a pen is a tool, you need the right type of paper to use the pen. It’s the same with hair care. You have to first understand your hair in order in order to correctly use the product.
#5: Letting Go of Our Relaxed Hair Mindset
Relaxers have always been familiar for most women and it symbolized social acceptance. Relaxed hair was perceived as easy to style and led to freedom since we no longer had to cry and throw a fit while getting our hair combed.
Aeleise got a relaxer at 10 years old when somebody called her a “nappy headed b****” in front of the entire school. Aishia had a relaxer from 13 to 30 years old.
For a lot of us, relaxers were all we knew. We weren’t using to shampooing regularly, we were scared of water and we were used to being able to spray an oil sheen or gloss silicone product on our hair. Our mindset is that relaxed hair care should be the same as natural hair care and it’s not.
We expect that natural hair will behave like relaxed hair in staying smooth, shiny and what we think of as hydrated. We have to adjust our mindsets in order to properly care for our natural hair.
Ready to take the stupid out of natural hair and learn how to properly care for yours? Our SeeSomeCurls Visual Library digital course was created to help you simplify your hair care, master your signature style and get your mind and hair salon ready. Learn more by clicking here.
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