How about a quick backstory on how humidity frizz comes to the fore? The moisture from the air enters the hair’s cuticle causing it to swell and hair begins to revert. So if you ever wondered how your curly hairstyle turned into a bigger curly poof (sometimes this works in your favor, and sometimes it doesn’t), or why your straight hairstyle reverted in muggy weather, you know now. Can you prevent it from happening? Of course, you can! Read on to find out how a good natural hair care routine can help prevent frizz from starting, and what products can stop frizz in its tracks.
Creating a Good Natural Hair Care Routine
When building a natural hair care routine, the first thing you’ll need to realize is one simple rule: No curl is created equal. There are different natural hair curl patterns. Your frizz factor, my frizz factor—all different. Understand that your texture may and will differ from your besties. We all have beautiful heads of curls. Let’s move on with some simple natural hair tips to help you build your regimen. If you’re transitioning natural hair, remember that you’ll be dealing with hair that has two textures, and it’s really dry. Now is the best time to figure out which products you’re going to be using on your natural hair. Building a natural hair care routine is quite simple to do and also very simple to make it hard. No need to raid your nearest drugstore or beauty supply store. Ask around first, try samples from friends with similar hair textures. Then, start researching and testing out new shampoos and conditioners.
Natural Hair Care: Transitioning Hair and Cutting
Some natural hair transitioners opt for big chopping and some don’t. The choice is yours, and if you have the guts to rock a cute teeny weeny afro, make sure you get the cut that complements your face. Wait until your hair grows to a decent length, so a stylist can cut your hair into the shape you want and that you can live with.
Protective styles are your BFF!
The ballerina bun was my BFF, but there are several stylish protective hairstyles to try. Try out space buns, halo twists or box braids. Protective styles are extremely helpful for transitioning natural hair as they hide stringy straight ends, and are meant to be worn throughout the week (or sometimes longer) without daily maintenance. Since your hair is fragile during your transition, it’s best to keep your hands out of your hair on a daily basis as constant combing or brushing can contribute to breakage, especially when your hair is dry.
Trim ends more often
Another friend of yours is the scissor. Don’t run away from it! Often times, as you transition, the ends of your hair become frayed, brittle, and uneven. Keep your ends trimmed, and think of it this way: each trim is a cut closer to your natural hair texture. Read on how to bring moisture back into transitioning hair and keep up a good natural hair care routine.
Step 1: Pre-Shampoo your hair
There are many stages of cleaning involved with natural hair. Many women swear by a pre-shampoo process as part of their natural hair care routine; where they use an oil, such as olive oil, throughout their strands. This process helps to protect hair especially during the shampooing process, which can strip your locks of their natural oils.
Step 2: Cleanse your hair weekly or monthly.
Many naturals are on the fence about shampooing and whether they should use a sulfate-free shampoo or not. Shampoos work to cleanse and dissolve grease and oil from your hair and scalp. Try Dove Absolute Curls Ultra Nourishing Shampoo, which is formulated specifically for curly hair. Together with Dove Absolute Curls Ultra Nourishing Conditioner, the system is tailored to moisturize natural hair. Those who co-wash their natural hair should cleanse their hair at least once a week with shampoo in order remove grime as well as residue from hair products such as styling products.
Step 3: Condition weekly.
Curly hair craves moisture, and there’s nothing that adds hydration to your locks more than conditioner. As your hair product BFF, be sure to condition at least once a week to reap its all over hair benefits. Be sure to focus on any dry areas, especially the ends! Try Dove Absolute Curls Ultra Nourishing Conditioner.
Step 4: Detangle your hair.
A good conditioner will leave your curls feeling soft, quenched and prepared for the detangling process. You may opt to detangle while the conditioner is still in your hair as it helps to provide slip, making the detangling process that much easier. Detangle hair using with conditioner in it or while under running water using a wide-toothed comb. The water helps loosen up the strands. If you don’t have a wide-toothed comb, use your fingers and don’t substitute for a fine comb as it will create tension and may lead to pulling out some of your precious curls.
Step 5: Apply deep conditioner or hair mask.
For an added boost of conditioning, you’ll need to add natural hair treatments into your routine. You can simply apply a deep conditioner or hair mask after your conditioning process, or in lieu of it. Deep conditioners and hair masks help nourish and restore your curls. Sometimes your curlicues deserve a special treatment. Along with restoration and revival of your curls, many deep treatments help prevent frizz since they penetrate the hair cuticle, helping to define curls and hydrate the hair. As much as natural hair is prone to dryness, it’s also prone to frizz. Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion Smoothing Conditioner gently conditions hair and helps replenish keratin for smooth and manageable hair. Try this hair care system out to control frizz and annoying flyaways. Attention, natural hair transitioners: You may want to do this step weekly, as your hair is super fragile during your transition. Make sure the hair, especially the demarcation line that separates your chemically treated hair from your natural texture, is always handled with care. This part of your hair is very weak. Weekly treatments will help to strengthen the hair, making your transition much easier. If your hair is in need of restoration and a dose of moisture, slather Nexxus Humectress Restoring Masque onto your strands. This formula is enriched with concentrated, pure elastin protein and caviar complex. After washing with shampoo and conditioner, apply this buttery mask from mid-lengths to ends of your hair. Use a wide-tooth comb and cover your hair with a shower cap for about five minutes. Meet the moisture mask that delivers intense moisture into your hair, making it feel touchably soft. Suave Professionals Coconut Milk Intense Moisture Mask‘s rich formula is infused with coconut milk, and penetrates the hair so that the moisture gets into the hair shaft. Douse hair from mid-shaft to the ends with this moisture mask, then allow it to work its magic in just under 10 minutes. Step 6: Use leave-in treatments on a weekly basis. Optional, but beneficial: You might as well just do it! Weekly leave-in treatments come in right after steps 2 or 4 after rinsing. Many leave-in treatments and conditioners provide slip as they moisturize and make your hair more manageable. If you skipped the detangling step while conditioning, you can slide it right back in during this step. Apply your leave-in conditioner like Dove Absolute Curls Leave-In Detangler and detangle with your fingers or a wide-toothed comb. Detangled hair allows for a no-fuss styling routine.
Step 7: Style weekly or as needed.
Wash and go, twist out, braid out, high puff—whatever your heart desires, try it. Make sure to use an oil-based product or oils like coconut and almond during the take-down process of your braids or twists or while styling the hair to prevent any unwanted frizz.
Step 7: Moisturize and seal daily or as needed
Water is your friend when it comes to moisturizing dry natural hair. Some curly girls may not need to moisturize daily, while some may need to do it every other day. Whenever your hair feels dry, just add some moisture. You can simply do this by spritzing water onto your hair or using a daily moisturizer. Seal your moisture in with an oil, which helps trap in the moisture you’ve added to your hair. Try out Nexxus Oil Infinite Nourishing Hair Oil. These steps will keep your hair healthy, happy and easier to style most of the year. Now, for what when you’re to do when it’s super humid and hot.
Good Natural Hair Products For Fighting Off Humidity
1. Alter your shampoo and conditioner during the warmer months.
When the humidity levels are at an all-time high, the best thing you can do for your hair to save your hairstyle is to change your wash and care system. Look for a shampoo and conditioner that protect your natural hair against various climate conditions. TRESemmé Botanique Curl Hydration Shampoo and TRESemmé Botanique Curl Hydration Conditioner contain formulas specifically tailored to nourish curly hair and respect their natural definition and bounce.
2. If you’re going to wear a heat-styled hairdo, a long-lasting style starts in the shower.
Sure, we all have that special occasion that calls for a straight style just for one night—maybe longer if Mother Nature give’s us permission. However, in the back of our minds, as we flat iron, or blow dry each section of our natural hair we know is not going to last over a minute. We come up with all sorts of ways to saved our precious heat-styled ‘do, whether it’s running from the front door straight to the car, or covering our hair until we reach our destination. Ladies, we’ve been doing this wrong all along. Ahead of adding heat to natural hair, opt for using a system that ensures a long lasting style without having to fight off the enemy—humidity. Try Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion Smoothing Shampoo and Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion Smoothing Conditioner followed by Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion Heat Defense Leave-In Conditioner, a system that provides frizz control for more than just a day as it prevents frizz. If you must use heated tools, be sure to seal your strands with a heat protectant like TRESemmé Thermal Creations Heat Tamer Spray. We also have to think about the damage being done to the hair while having fun with various hairstyles. Opt for a conditioner that helps to correct the signs of damage. Dove Regenerative Nourishment Conditioner does just that. The formula is infused with Red Algae + Keratin NutriComplex, which works to repair the internal structure of damaged hair, reconstructing and strengthening it!
3. Don’t allow your wash and go’s to turn into wash and no’s.
Believe it or not, the gel you’ve decided to use to achieve your wash and go is actually attracting moisture into your hair. Don’t throw it out just yet, but store it away and use a gel that is resistant to humidity like TRESemmé Flawless Curls Gel. This gel is packed with a formula that will keep your girls defined, shiny and resistant to humid climate conditions as well as frizz.
4. Prevent humidity from entering your curls by sealing your cuticles.
As mentioned before, humidity frizz occurs when moisture from the air enters the cuticle of your hair. In order for moisture to have the ability to do so, the cuticle of the hair has to be raised. How to fix this? Use good natural hair products that will close the cuticle, such as the aforementioned Dove Absolute Curls Leave-In Detangler. After washing your hair, spray the detangler throughout your hair to smooth the fiber surface, as well as seal the hair cuticle.
5. Don’t tease your hair.
It may be tempting to tease to get volume, but all this does is cause broken strands and damage to your natural hair. Use a gentle brush to smoothen strands instead.
6. Don’t pull or tug your hair
Too much tugging or pulling at your hair will cause it to break or split. Be kind to your locks by wearing a protective (non-elastic) hair tie or a scarf. If you wear a wrap or scarf, be sure not to tug too hard at the root.
7. Tie your hair up at night.
Even your strands need some rest. At night, use a silk scarf or wrap as you cover your entire head. This helps protect your locks from breakage and also allows any deep-conditioning treatments done before bedtime to set and retain their moisture as they hydrate your locks.
8. Use some pomade.
For in-between styling and washing, consider using a thick pomade to smooth out any wayward frizz or flyaways.
