6 Bad Hair Habits Every Natural Should Stop Now

You are natural now and with this journey you are going to go through trials and errors you can’t even imagine. You are excited that now your hair is creamy crack free then soon you realize that there is a multitude of methods, techniques, tools, products, regimens to making your natural journey work for you and to be successful at it.

If you go into it blindly you can easily become overwhelmed and feel in over your head. Before you start second rethinking your decision to come back natural let me make you aware of some mistakes you want to avoid. Avoiding these bad habits that many new naturals have will make your journey a lot more pleasurable. Trust me.

1. Going back to natural blindly

Would you go to an unfamiliar environment do you walk around with your eyes closed? Probably not. If you did chances are you are not going to make it very far or you will end up hurting yourself.

See coming back to natural as weird as this might sound will be an unfamiliar environment for you starting out. You don’t know your natural nor do you know anything about being natural except the fact, you want to be natural again. Well, educate yourself!

Learn exactly what it means to be natural again. Define for yourself why you want to be natural again and build from there. Use that reason as your foundation for wanting to be you, naturally. Rely on books, articles, blogs or other written media that give you the insights about hair.

Notice I didn’t say go to YouTube, which is sort of self-sabotaging because I have my own YouTube channel (Nappyfu). Don’t get me wrong I recommend YouTube just not in the beginning of your journey because it is a cluster of naturals sharing their experience based on their own hair type.

Chances are it will not be anything like what you will experience with your own hair. Subconsciously you may expect the same outcome as the Youtuber and when it does not materialize you may become discouraged.

Many times I receive emails from my Nappyfu friends saying, “I followed everything I saw her do in the video down to the products and my results were horrible, I don’t get it.” You’re not going to get it because you don’t know “the why” of why it did not work for you.

Each step you do to your hair, every product you place on your hair, and every method you see others do has a DNA to it. If you are not a match for it, then it will fail.

This can all be avoided if you learn about hair from researched data, published articles, facts and concrete evidence.

You learn the what, when, why, and how of hair and all that it is associated with. So if you end up following a method you see on YouTube you will know what to do to make it work for your hair. If it doesn’t you know why. Knowledge is power.

2. Not staying in your texture lane

Not trying to discriminate but this is for my type 4c ladies. Us kinky*, little, coily naturals who know damn well that curling creams are not going to curl a damn thing on our healthy hair.

Tools like the denman brush* are the devil. Be aware that to straighten our hair “without heat” will take several techniques, fasting and a prayer.

We hold a black card membership to the “High Shrinkage Club”. Our hair doesn’t clump and slick edges is a frenemy. Slick these edges? Where they do that at? Lol. Like seriously when I say stay in your texture lane, I mean have realistic expectations about your particular kinky texture.

Don’t do curly methods thinking you will get curly results. Reality check it doesn’t work like that. We have the most intricate hair shape of all naturals and it’s extremely combated and interconnected. Or kinky hair twists within itself.

You see curly hair bends and changes direction as it grows however, kinky* hair also has a torsion twist where the hair strand itself twist on its axis. In other words it twists more with the twist. Which is why we usually get clouded results as opposed to clumps. Have you seen 4c hair under a microscope?

I am definitely the first one to look at other textures and use some of the methods I see used however, I already know what results to expect. If I use rollers my hair will not come out as straight as the girl with type 3c hair it will comes out a bit puffy and still show some of my natural texture.

If I use a gel to slick my edges down I know it’s not going to last all day like the girl with type 4a hair. It’s going to last 2.5 seconds, if that. Knowing your texture lane this way will ensure you have realistic expectations about what your results will be or how your hair will respond.

3. Trying everything that’s trending

Have you heard of peer pressure? Peer pressure by definition is:

The social influence a peer group exerts on its individual members, as each member attempts to conform to the expectations of the group (Dictionary.com).

Social media is the biggest peer pressuring “bully” and we are all guilty to giving in sometimes. Specifically focusing on the natural hair community what you see trending mostly are hairstyles and methods that are usually labeled as pretty, fierce, chic, simple, easy and whatever marketing phrase used to get you to try it.

Not everything that glitters will glitter on you. Yea I know that’s not the saying but work with me here. Just because that bantu knot out looked so great on that girl does not mean you have to do it too. You don’t have to subject your hair to fit into the most popular hairstyle that everyone is doing.

Nor subject your pocket book to buy the products that everyone swears is their holy grail. Let me tell you something, a lot of those people who are holy grail-ing that product are being paid to shout it from the mountain tops. If you already have a regimen involving products and styles your hair likes and thrives on then stick to them.

Ok try something new every blue moon but always keep your foundation. Do you know why our children and even some men’s hair grows so well and strong? Their regimens are simple and minimal.

You are not doing a new style on your child’s hair every week because that’s what is trending. You are keeping it simple and minimal. If you are constantly changing with the natural hair masses then you don’t know “who is your natural?”

4. Moisturizing daily with water. Maybe you shouldn’t?

In my video “Daily Moisturizing Might Not Be For You” I discuss how moisturizing daily might be a method you should not try. When I say daily moisturizing I am referring to methods such as “wash and go” using water or water based products.

The constant saturation of water, raking of product and tedious defining might be too much wear and tear on hair that has high shrinkage. When high shrinkage hair is left open and free our strands interlock usually resulting is pesky knots and tangles.

Even if you don’t leave it free and open, our wet hair still shrinks within that braid or twist so it meshes together. That’s why when you take the braid down you experience some tangling. Speaking of tangling in my video “They Say 4c Should Not Wash and Go” tells it all.

For my nappyfu friends I went through the “wash and go” experience and I think I can confidently say it’s not for high shrinkage club members. No matter how you do it. This type of daily moisturizing is not ideal for hair that shrinks up more than 2-4 inches its true length.

You can moisturize every hour if you want but if you are a high shrinkage natural this might not be the route you want to go if healthy hair and growth is your goal. If your regimen is on point you can manage to skip a few days in between moisturizing.

5. Not knowing WHO your natural is

What is your natural hair language? Does she thrive in the winter? Hate the summer? Love the spring? Coast through the fall? Does your natural like oils*?

Or is it more of a butter lover? Learn your hair. Learning your hair is loving your hair. When you do this you can look at other naturals and not drool with envy to the point you start viewing your hair through negative eyes. Look at the mirror and really explore your natural hair.

Get in there touch it, feel it, carefully play with it. Look at your scalp then follow down the whole hair strand. You should familiarize yourself with your hair to the point if something is not right you can tell quickly.

Have a Kanye mindset, love your hair, and be all into your hair like its God’s gift to you. Well, it pretty much is. (If you don’t feel your hair is a gift, then you still have some loving to do. Contact me for help.)

6. Not reading ingredients and following product directions

You see this new product that in bold letter says “Argan Oil* and Marshmallow Root” on the front and before you bought it you probably searched YouTube on how to use this product.

You go home and use the product they way YouTube showed you and unfortunately it doesn’t work out for you. Now you’re puzzled on why it didn’t work.

You contemplate returning this open product and if you bought it from Walmart you probably can (ratchet life). However, instead you keep it and just utilize it in different mixes and concoctions (kitchentician things).

If you had read the ingredient list and followed the directions on the product your results might have been different. What you fail to realize it that you did not follow the direction of the product.

It is important to follow the directions verbatim that is on the product and to read and understand the ingredients contained in your hair products.

The maker of the product has spent several months and some several years going through the development phase of their line. They have tested it and modified it continuously before finally finding the perfect formation to be released into your hands. The directions they provide have been proven to be the most effective way to use their product. They would know best as opposed to someone who was not a part of the developmental process.

The marketing team has done their research they know what words to bold and highlight to get you to buy the product. Don’t be fooled, instead read the labels. Don’t be misled, instead follow the directions given to you on the product.

Your natural journey is going to be filled with a lot of trials and errors. Mistakes are inevitable they are going to happen however, there are some mistakes you can try to avoid among the many we naturally make.

Here I only give 6 mistakes a lot of us naturals make. However, there are plenty more and if I were to mention them all I’d be writing a book!

Nonetheless, I believe this helps so if you want to know more of the mistakes I think us naturals make check out my channel Nappyfu TV.

What are some of your natural hair mistakes? What changes will you make today?