 Hi, so we are back with another video and today we're going to cover five tips for healthy natural hair. And I feel like we've had this discussion before, girl, but I've been noticing several comments now on some of my older videos. People bringing up some hair issues that they're having, just questions in general when it, as it pertains to healthy natural hair, excuse me. So while I'm going over these tips, I'm actually going to be pre-pooing my hair. Now, this is going to be a separate video on the pre-poo. I'm basically using all things coconut. So I have a pre-poo in here of coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut vinegar, did I know there was such a thing? Yes, girl. And I purchased it from Walmart, coconut vinegar, okay? And what else? Swabs, coconut conditioner, which is a very affordable conditioner with great slip, okay? I'm going to go ahead and take my hair down and I have some water here that I'm going to be spraying on my hair and we're going to get started with this pre-poo. I have a feeling things, you know what, I have a feeling things are going to be great. So this is a very old perm rod, like several days old, but she's kind of, this would be a really cute, curly fro, huh? I know. Yeah. So I'm going to go ahead and section her off and get started. So just to give you a brief background, when it comes to my hair, I've never, I haven't always had this much hair correction. I had thick hair when I was relaxed. I've been natural for 10 years. I went natural when I was 30. I'm 39, but it'll be 40 this year. So about 10 years, okay? It'll be 10 years coming up in April. So I am a mixture, it's for a hair type. I'm a mixture of 4B and 4C and I am low porosity. Sometimes I can dip into the medium porosity for a while there. I was medium porosity, but I'm pretty sure I'm low porosity right now. This is going to be a little unusual as far as one of the first things I'm going to mention is I think that one of the keys is to change your perspective or your expectations, especially if you are in the 4 category. Everything that you thought about going natural, being natural, all the expectations that you had for washing your hair, styling your hair, out the door, okay? Especially if you're going on YouTube and comparing the current state of your hair while you're transitioning perhaps and you're seeing all these things. Don't do that one. Don't compare yourself. Don't compare your journey or whatever to others. Don't even compare your length. I know a lot of times we've seen those funny pictures of someone saying, I've been natural for, my girl, Avon Douglas is so one of them. I've been natural for three years, ball head, you know, or TWA and someone else they have an afro been natural for three years. I know there was a picture of me floating around at a shaving head and then three years later my hair is down here. Everyone's journey is different, okay? Everyone's growth is going to be different. Now, absolutely there is an average growth of hair. Some people may be going through life changes, you know, hormonal changes, shedding, having multiple children and that will affect the growth of your hair and the condition of your hair. You know, with me personally, my hair always grew fast even when I was relaxed. My hair was always thick. Yeah, change your expectations, okay? You're going to be running into some people who are not going to like your natural hair. There's going to be some people who are going to be confused and like, what's going on? But I think, you know, I don't think a lot of that is happening so much now as opposed to six, seven years ago because there's so many people that have since gone natural and we see it now with celebrities and stuff like that and it's being more accepted in the workplace. So another tip is to make sure that you address any hair concerns or hair issues sooner than later, okay? Don't just think that your hair, if you're having some issues with detangling your hair. Girl, your hair is not going to detangle itself. You're going to have to come up with a regimen. You're going to have to come up with some products that work well for your hair, your texture, whatever and properly detangle your hair. If your hair is breaking off, if your hair is shedding, now shedding could be a little bit different because that may be hormonal but if there is something that is happening that you know that you can correct, correct it sooner than later. I know oftentimes, I'll get a message here on YouTube. I got one a couple of months ago and the young lady basically was like, she was having issues with her hair. She doesn't know what to do. It's breaking off. At this point, she's thinking about putting a texture on it. Why would you do that? Because now we're putting, I'm not going to say another problem. We're basically putting a bandaid on it or I'll hear someone say, well, my hair just isn't doing what I want it to do or it's not growing, I'm going to put a protective style. I'm going to put it in a protective style and leave it alone. Okay, do you have a game plan for when you take those braids out? If you're not incorporating healthy hair habits, which we'll talk about later on, then you're just going to be completing the cycle over and over and your hair is never, that's why oftentimes I'll read comments from women that say, oh, my hair has, I've been natural for six or seven years and it's been at the same length. Well, you're just not retaining them. Your hair is growing. You're not retaining that length by putting in protective styles and then taking them out incorrectly and then you're not incorporating, like I said, any healthy hair habits. Which brings me up to the next one is I am a huge advocate for, I don't even know if you want to say advocate, low manipulation, styling, protective styling, done the right way. There is a right way and wrong way to do it as far as protective styling go. Now I have never, since I've been natural for 10 years, I've never had braids and I have nothing against it but I don't find a need. I don't feel like I need to put braids in my hair to do protective styling. There are so many styles you can do with your own hair but I absolutely love to see the braids and the locks and the crochet braids and all that I'm just seeing from me personally. I don't find the need, first of all, I have too much hair, I have a big head, girl my neck would be hurting with all that hair in my head but I say if that's something that you're good at and you know how to care for your hair, absolutely incorporate that into your regimen. I wear my hair put away the majority of the time. When I do my hair is when I record a video. So I will say at this point, I've probably, I've been doing my hair a lot more often, I probably wear my hair out once every two weeks. It used to be once, one to two times a month. Now I do work from home but even then, you know, I will be able to wear my hair up in an updo whether it be, you know, in a textured updo, a blowout updo or even while in twist, which by the way, I have tons of videos on updos that I will be linking here in the cards. Yeah, low manipulation styling and again, especially if you are for a type. And I know you guys, it can be boring to do, you know, do the same type of updo or whatever but you can change it. You know, that's the beauty of having natural hairs. There's so many things that we can do, so many styles that you can do. You can wig it up. Okay, we're a wig, do a half wig. But yeah, you definitely want to make sure that you learn how to leave your hair alone. My hair, look, my hair thrives when I place them in those little raggedy ass twigs. I should say that. When I put them in, I call them semi mini twists because they're not necessarily mini twists. I put them away, I set them and I wore them for two weeks and I do so many styles. I can even wash my hair while they're still in twists. And yeah, so that's what I would definitely, definitely look into. Next up is to learn how to incorporate healthy hair habits. Now that's when we go into learning how to properly cleanse your hair, deep condition, condition your hair, moisturize your hair. If you're having problems still with moisture, there is something going on with the products you are using, how you are layering your products, and also your porosity. You may be high porosity. You may have to use liquid cream, all cream, all, there are so many. Basically you need to learn how to layer your products, okay? And also you need to ensure, and this is something that I heard from the Green Beauty Channel, shout out to you girl, is that you need to be moisturizing your hair before it's actually dry. Don't wait to feel it, oh my God, it's dry. I'm gonna moisturize it. I will also highly, highly recommend finding your staple products and sticking with it. I know I'm the last one who she be talking about. Girl, y'all have not. I have so many products at this point that there's no more room in the back. That's literally like 150, 160 products just sitting in there, and I have no more room. It's spilling everywhere. But I don't have a problem. The problem with that is that you don't give your hair a chance to get used to the product if you switch it in up every so now and then. Now if you go in between two or three conditioners or shampoos, that's okay, because that's what I do honestly. But using a new product every week, that's not good for your hair. Oftentimes also you gotta be careful about using a product once, and then you say, oh I guess it didn't work for me. If you've been using certain products for a long time and you introduce a new product, it may take a while for your hair to respond to it, unless you just had an absolute negative response. That's totally different. So that's why oftentimes when I do a review, I will state in the review, I may have to try this a few more times to see the benefit. You see what I'm saying? But yeah, stick to the same products, try them consistently. Be very consistent. Okay, if you are going to be deep conditioning your hair monthly, deep conditioning your hair monthly, if you need to remove, build up, detox your hair, do it as needed. Just because you see someone doing fenugreek oil, I'm not saying any names, me. They get, you know, they're up here with bundles of hair. Don't switch up what you're doing because you see someone on YouTube. Now they have all this growth. Keep doing what you're doing and you're going to see results. Okay, you just have to be patient with it. Okay, for us, you know, detangling, I know can be one of those things that I personally fall off of. Another one for me personally is trimming my ends. And I know, I see it all the time, comments, you know, I only cut my hair once or twice a year. Even Angel Nezzie now, so yeah, I'm calling you out girl. She, when we were speaking at the end of last year, she said, I noticed your hair was really a lot shorter than you mentioned that you cut your hair four times. I said, absolutely I did. I basically trimmed my hair every season, which would be four times that year to get it to its optimal help. When I tell you, it's pretty healthy now. But when I tell you that my hair was so healthy at the end of 2019, and that is because I stayed on top of ensuring that my ends were clipped. Okay. And then once you get a hang of it, like my stylist Ms. Erlet Pender said, then you can fall back to once or twice a year. But I mean, I'm pretty sure there are stylists who watch my videos. Any good stylist would tell you, you have to stay on top of trimming your ends and ensuring you have to be consistent with that. And that is something I am bad about. Look, I've been natural for 10 years. Yeah, I shaved my head. But the longest my hair has been able to get to was, I think the back was like 21 inches Olympus. There's no reason why I couldn't have gotten to bra length at seven or eight years. But because I go in for a trim, they always have to cut off a lot more. I'm losing all that that way. All right, y'all. And last but not least, and this is something that I have been not so great about it, but I definitely see the results of this tip. Be mindful of the products you use and be mindful of the ingredients and those products. Now, I don't know if you guys have heard the latest in regards to the diva curl products. Yeah, those need to be pulled. If you are using those, if you see them, I would highly suggest not using those products. I'm going to be linking in the cards. A YouTuber, I believe her name is the curl ninja. She used to be a diva curl unofficial ambassador, I believe. Those products are basically thinning out some women's hair and is very similar to what the Wynn products, I remember Wynn, the infocommercial, very similar to what that line is doing. I have just now, now absolutely there are some products that I use. I know have horrible ingredients, but I'm being, one of my goals for this year is to be a lot more conscious of the products that I'm using and not switching up my lines. It's like I am not, I've mentioned this several times on my channel. I do product reviews, absolutely I do product reviews. I love a new product, but I am not trying any new lines this year. I just feel like my hair at this point can't, it probably can't handle it, but mentally I can't go through all this using all these different products you guys. I honestly have been doing this as far as reviews for seven years now. Using God knows what. And there was a time where I used several products that were not so good for my hair. It took about two to three months for my hair to get back to normal and that's not good. Okay, so yeah, you know, be careful. They say that the first five ingredients, I'm saying look at all the ingredients, not just the first five. Look at all of them and just be mindful that just because it says it's natural doesn't necessarily mean that it is. That's no shade to any company after anything. Honestly, it's not, but there are some lines that I ride or die for and there are some other ones where I'm like, hmm, I'm not going to name any names, Maui, but yes. There are some that you're like, wow, you know, because you, they know what they're doing. These companies absolutely know what they're doing. A lot of us that have gone natural, we overall try to lead a healthier lifestyle overall. Okay. So they use these words, you know, hair being free. I'm sulfate free, excuse me, vegan, natural, made with coconut oil, shape butter, avocado, and we, you know, we grab those products and we're like, oh great, this is going to be good for my hair because they have all these fancy words, you know, vegan friendly and you know, all of the stuff on the packaging. And then when you're using it, you're like, it's not what you expect because it's like, wait a minute. Another thing is that oftentimes some companies will change their formulas, can too, and deny it, shade moisture. I am shading at this point because those are companies that have changed the formula of several of their products and they no longer work for, at least for me, they no longer work for my hair. So be mindful of that too. You could be using a product for a while and then you're like, wait a minute, why am I getting residue with this product now? What's going on? So yeah, you guys, that is it. If you have any suggestions down below, I know we do. I don't know at all. I don't claim to know at all. This is one of the reasons why I'm on here is to share information. It's a give or take thing. This is a relationship, okay? If you have anything else to add, let's discuss it, jot it down below in the comment section. Let me know what are you doing to ensure that you have healthy hair. And this is another thing I want to say before I get off of this because something about us having that limp. Now I get it, girl. Absolutely. You know, you want to have long, healthy hair, but long hair does not equate to healthy hair. I oftentimes see, you'll see examples of people who want to hold on to ends, hold on to damaged hair. Cut it off. Cut that off because it doesn't make any sense to hold on to that. You know, first of all, it doesn't even look right. So let's not, you know, focus too much on the length and having that long carry. Even having, you know, super thick hair. Let's just instead focus on incorporating healthy, healthy hair habits, excuse me, and great products for your hair and your hair would grow. It really will. So that is it, everyone. Thank you so much for watching and thank you as always to all of my subscribers. Take care.