Fro Plus Fashion

With the everchanging  steps, sub-steps, and sub-substeps to the entire wash day process, you can easily over do it when it comes to detangling your hair. As a 4c hair natural of 27 years, one thing I did learn is that there is such a thing as detangling too much. Trust me the frequency in which you detangle your hair can determine whether or not you’ll look like Angelica’s doll, Cynthia, within a few years. 

 

 

Here are 5 easy tips to detangling your hair without over doing it!  

1. ACCEPT THAT YOUR HAIR WILL STILL HAVE TANGLES. You know the saying, “the 1st step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem”? Well that saying can also relate to how we maintain our kinky hair. FACT: Kinky hair  is highly prone to tangling. You can denman brush that hair for as long as your arm  can take it (but keep in mind Cynthia’s picture) and it will still have a tangles here and there. The sooner you accept that fact the sooner you’ll be okay with the fact that your hair does not behave the same way as looser hair textures.

 

My raw, shrunken 4c hair!

2. ONE GOOD DETANGLING SESSION IS ENOUGH! With the previous kinky hair fact in mind, it’s best to keep detangling to a minimum. Detangling before you wash your hair, while you wash your hair, while you’re conditioning your hair, and again when you’re actually styling your hair is definitely overkilll, especially with kinky hair. I was totally guilty of this in my younger years of trying to maintain my own hair. I felt like my hair had to hang down and be manageable like everyone else’s before I even began the process of washing my hair. So I use to comb out my hair before I washed it.

3. SLIDE, SLIDE, SLIP, & SLIDE. “SLIP” is the most TAP TO READ MORE

Curl definition is one of the most sought after accomplishments in the natural hair community especially in the kinkier textures. We use a plethora of tools, products, and hair styling methods in our quest for amazing curl definition that seems to come so easy in our looser hair texture sisters. However I have one method that gives my hair undeniable curl definition and it’s ridiculously simple. I achieve the most amazing curl definition by simply twisting my hair with any styling and/or moisturizing product and letting my hair set for at least one day. On freshly washed, deep conditioned and detangled hair, the only product I used in this tutorial was Shea Moisture’s Coconut & Hibiscus Curl and Style Milk. The purpose for using this product is solely to give my hair moisture and shine.  I’ve also done this previously with various leave ins, plain 100% shea butter, and even plain water (on one extremely lazy day).

What allows me to achieve this definition is letting my hair set in the twists for at least a day. The longer you leave your hair in the twists the better.

Here’s my tutorial on how to achieve TAP TO READ MORE

  How about some tea…for your hair?!

A tea rinse is a treatment for your hair in which you basically brew a tea and drench your hair in it. What your hair receives from the rinse varies with the tea you choose. Black tea and green tea contain caffeine and it’s believed rinsing your hair with it will promote hair growth. =&0=& Shampoo , =&1=& Tea Rinse, & =&2=& Deep Condition. 

Tea rinses tend to give your hair a hard feeling. Using a deep conditioner, adds that softness back to your hair.

How to Make It

Here’s how I made my Hibiscus Tea Rinse. Most tea rinses are made from teabags containing dried herbs, but I see hibiscus flowers everywhere on my way to and from work and other places so I figured why not pick a few and make it fresh. Here’s a video of my DIY below! 

 

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 “I hate to say it, but I wanted to relax my hair…”  

 When did you go natural? Did you big chop or transition? These are just a couple of questions that you ask someone that you’re trying to get to know as it pertains to their natural hair. I’ve also asked these questions in person and in interviews for this blog , but I can’t personally answer them because I’ve never relaxed my hair. 

 

That’s me rocking a chunky twist out on shrunken hair.

 

I’ve been natural for 27 years. Although I’ve been natural for so long, I can only take ownership for the last 6 years. Up until 2009, my hair has been maintained by my mother, kitchen beauticians, or professional hair braiders with actual salons. It was not until 2009, that I became conscious of maintaining my hair through research. When I say research I mean diving into the YouTube world and discovering the natural hair community that was on there. I found inspiration and natural hair care education in YouTubers like  BlackOnyx77 , African Export, and Naptural85. I learned not only how to care for my thick, kinky 4c hair, but I came to love it. However, I wasn’t always happy to be nappy.  

Elementary school days were filled with puffs and cornrows.

When I was younger, you couldn’t catch me outside of my home with my hair out in a fro or even some jumbo prison braids. I thought I looked crazy and that my hair was not pretty. In elementary school, most girls were still natural , but that changed drastically by the time I got to high school. The majority of my female classmates wore relaxed hair or were wearing weaves. I hate to say it, but I wanted to relax my hair too.

I wanted to relax my hair because everyone else was TAP TO READ MORE