Is Natural Hair Maintenance Time Consuming? It Doesn’t Have To Be

As a natural, my hair has become the icebreaker whenever I meet people of color, especially those transitioning to natural hair. Most naturals complain that natural hair takes so much of their time and they were better off relaxed. I say it doesn’t have to be so time-consuming especially if you can streamline your processes and save time.

Here is what I mean:

Simplicity

Find a routine which is simple, which doesn’t cost you hours of your day. For instance, at first I used to apply a deep oil treatment before shampooing my hair, then deep condition, and then protective style to stretch.

I decided to remove deep oil treatment as I did not see any positive impact on my hair and kept the deep conditioning*, which works much better for my time.

Find what works for you

I used to 2 strand twist my hair while wet to stretch it, this left my hair dry and created single strand knots. I still use the same products but changed to stretching by doing 2 French braids and I get silky stretched hair through this process. Two simple braids shaves off loads of time and my hair gets the stretch I need.

Find a style which serves a 2 fold process

For instance, I mentioned that I stretch my hair with 2 French braids then tie a head wrap to get my edges to lie down.

Afterwards, when my hair is air dried I can go out of the house and run errands; so my hair wash day does not confine me to staying indoors.

Do your own hair

I say this because I know naturals who go to the hairdressers for shampooing, deep conditioning*, and stretching or straightening their hair.

If you did it yourself you will save the time you will spend at the hairdressers. You can even multi-task if you do it at home. For example, I love to clean the house while my hair is deep conditioning. In my opinion, that’s making good use of your time and money.

What do you do to save time with your hair care?