6 Sure Tips To Maintain Your Natural Hair Without Going Broke
6 Sure Tips To Maintain Your Natural Hair Without Going Broke |
Maintaining your natural hair on a budget? Here are some tips to help you out.
Many black women are embracing their natural hair to appreciate their beauty. But going chemical-free can be expensive. You no longer need to spend a lot on salon perms. Going chemical-free means buying natural products like creams, detanglers, conditioners, and gels. But don’t worry, you can maintain your curls without breaking the bank.
Remember when we thought going natural was budget-friendly? Natural hair has shown it can be costly. It affects your lifestyle and wallet, a struggle only natural hair lovers understand.
One reason natural hair care is expensive is that most products come from the US or UK and are shipped worldwide. So, how can you flaunt and maintain your natural hair without overspending? Whether you’re transitioning, doing the big chop, or a natural hair pro, here are 6 sure tips to keep your natural hair looking great without going broke.
6 Cheap Tips To Maintain Your Natural Hair
1. Avoid Becoming A Product Junkie
As a naturalist, you may want to catch yourself in the addictive act of acquiring too many unnecessary products that may be of little or no help to your hair growth. It’s all too easy to stock up on items to help you maintain your natural hair, especially when you’re transitioning. Before you throw another conditioner into your Target shopping cart, consider whether you actually need one. It’s also a good idea to finish one product before purchasing a similar one.
We’ve all spent several shopping excursions perusing the “ethnic hair care” section for women of color, and we are all too familiar with the never-ending search for the ideal product. We are constantly guilty of reloading our product drawers as our hair-care knowledge, needs, and habits (not to mention the seasons) change. Products are an important aspect of caring for natural hair, but it’s okay and healthy not to be a product junkie with the right mindset and knowledge.
Market analysis, estimates, and research have shown that Black women spend $7.5 billion on beauty and hair-care goods each year, spending nine times as much as the overall market. Despite these astonishing market dollar figures, the hair-care industry has been slow to respond to the requirements of people with black hair. Now, this is not particularly the focus of this article. I digress, but all I’m trying to say is this: the market is leaching off y’all anyway, as half of these products are known to contain harmful ingredients—in fact, 75% of what you call “hair-food” is totally hazardous to your natural hair! So Next time, when you’re adding to the shopping cart, remember this and buy only products that have the type of qualities and ingredients that you need for your hair. If there’s a lot of unnecessary unrelated ingredients, that’s your cue to stay away, completely. Half of those products in the market are out to target your debit cards and purses. You may need to stay wiser to protect your hair and your money.
2. Binge-watch All The YouTube Tutorials You Can Consume
Watching helpful YouTube videos cannot be reemphasized!! While leaving your hair in the hands of a licensed expert is a good idea, it’s also fine to try the DIY method. Learn a couple of fresh hairstyles to try at home by going to YouTube. You might be amazed at how good the outcomes are.
The times have changed so much, and gone are the days where you had to rely on monthly television shows or magazine/catalogs releases to gain new natural hair inspiration. All you need now is a solid WiFi connection and a YouTube account, thanks to technological advancements. A new wave of the natural hair movement has surged into unrivaled heights. The late 2000s, propelled by the Internet, ushered in various forms of content made just for black natural hair. These contents can help guide you too on your natural hair journey.
In 2019, Thanks to natural hair influencing on YouTube, natural hair videos have surpassed over 1.5 billion views and YouTube has recently been described as a source of educational information for natural hair. YouTube naturalists aren’t just creating waves in the media; they’re also here to stay. The good news is that this is accurate. The problem is, if you’re anything like me, you’re also fast on your way to becoming a YouTube-natural-hair-tutorial-junkie. You’d attempt to convince yourself otherwise and say you’re only going to watch a few videos on the app, only to realize you’ve been on for a couple of hours before you know it. It is part of the process as long as you keep it healthy and practice a little percent of what you can.
Aside from saving you money, YouTube DIY natural hair videos have another benefit: they give you a strong sense of authenticity. At the end of the day, a commercial cannot measure up to watching someone else perform the same process in a careful step-by-step explanatory video. YouTube natural hair videos, on the other hand, are significantly more original and natural. This way you can spend less on stylist’s appointments as you’d be surprised that most of these styles can be easily done at home by one’s self.
3. Get To Know Your Hair
Get to know your hair’s texture and curl pattern so you can tell which products will and won’t work for you. To save time and money, avoid buying oil-based products if you know your hair holds a lot of oil. Let’s face the facts here. Beautiful natural hair Can soak up your time and money. It may morph the moment you step out into actual weather. It may dramatically defy what other people say “good hair” should do. Heck sometimes, it might defy what you want it to do.
Whether fine, thick, long, short, matte, glossy, curly, coily, or straight, your hair deserves respect. Get to know your hair’s curl patterns, porosity, density, and styling needs because healthy hair care coupled with hair knowledge can save you a lot of money. According to Wikipedia, Afro-textured hair can be grouped into four categories.
Andre Walker, a hairstylist, developed a numerical grading system for human hair types in 1997. Afro-textured hair is classified as ‘type 4’ in the Andre Walker Hair Typing System (there are other types of hair, defined as type 1 for straight hair; type 2 for wavy hair; type 3 for curly hair.
These hair types for black women are easily categorized with the letters A, B, and C used as indicators of the degree of coil variation in each type), with type 4C being the most exemplary of the afro-textured hair. However, due to the many diverse variations among individuals, afro-textured hair is frequently difficult to categorize. Pattern (mostly tight coils), pattern size (watch spring to chalk), density (sparse to dense), and stray are some of the variables.
You can have type 4C in the crown and type 4A in the temples. Your hair may be straight at the roots and wavy at the ends. The key is to learn what each type requires to properly style and maintain it. Getting to know your hair and the kind of products that suit it best would help you buy the best appropriate products at less costs. You’ll need to experiment with products to find the ones that work best for your hair if you want your curls to stay healthy, bouncy, and defined. The curlier and more porous your hair is, the more intensive and frequent moisturizing you’ll need to maintain it healthy.
Consult a specialist who specializes in your hair type or follow someone with your hair type on social media if you’re not sure where to begin. Once you’re sure of your hair type, you’d spend less on products and styles that would not help to maintain your natural hair growth.
4. Make Your Products
What’s better than binge-watching a DIY-style tutorial on YouTube? A DIY homemade Hair product! The greatest conditioners and moisturizers are sometimes found just in your kitchen. There are a plethora of homemade hair-care recipes available. You’ll be well on your way if you do a fast Google search. Reading the ingredients also helps you acknowledge what your natural products are made of. If you focus on the ingredients of a product rather than the description on the front of the packaging, you can save a lot of money. To attract customers’ attention, several hair product firms use attractive slogans on the front of their containers. However, if you read the components, you’ll notice that the biggest attention grabber is occasionally included near the end of the list. This usually signifies that the product contains some homemade ingredients that you can put together all by yourself.
The individual ingredients you’ll use to make your products can cost just as much as, or even less than, high-end commercial hair products. With this mix, you can easily make your hair nice, soft, and moisturized at home. Some of the most popular ingredients used are coconut oil, aloe vera gel, Shea butter, vegetable glycerine, water, etc.
These are simple affordable products you can grab from your kitchen. Making your products from your kitchen would leave you with the assurance that your hair consumes both quality and rich homemade products.
5. Join A Natural Hair Forum
Nappy Happily after is easily attainable when you’ve got a set of minded individuals to share your natural hair journey and experiences with especially without the fear of judgment or condemnation.
Joining a natural hair forum for natural hair lovers, and natural hair stylists would help you gain more insight into the world of naturalists. Natural hair forums can be a space habitat to learn new things. Hair forums are fondly characterized by loads of information on hair care tips, and discussions of product reviews. Sometimes, free consultations are often carried out on topics of remedies, causes and support for hair loss, reviews of hair care products, and a formidable list of hair products exchanges. Joining such healthy forums would help you stay a little more intentional about your hair journey, and also facilitate the growth process as you draw knowledge on other black women and their hair experiences. This would save you a lot of money when you have to gain such expertise or experiences from consultations sessions with professional experts.
6. Try Protective Hairstyles And Be Consistent With Them
Natural curls are a blessing and a burden for ladies with afro-textured hair. African-American ladies have thick, dense hair that may be expertly styled into stunning hairstyles. Natural afro hair, on the other hand, requires special attention.
Rocking protective styles has become an extra plus in the realm of natural hair, giving you more (better) options for concealing hair on a variety of levels. Twists, braids, updos, and wigs are examples of protective hairstyles. The advantages of a protective hairdo are fondly attached to the following: Protection from the weather; moisture retention; length retention; fashionable appearance, etc.
Protective hairstyles always help your hair retain moisture and prevent you from the follies of the weather. Sometimes, some protective styles can last you for a month, if don’t properly. They are less expensive when done at home with YouTube tutorial videos. Some popular examples of popular natural protective include: natural flat twist style, bantu knots, crochet braids style, knotless braids, fulani braids, etc.
All images are sourced from unsplash.com
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