Many black women through their lifetime have been told a laundry list of lies about their Hair. That it’s not beautiful, it can never be long, only mixed sistas got dat gewd hayuh, that it only grows when it’s dirty, that you should hate your naps and coils, and the list goes on. Well to be quite blunt, screw all of that. All of that is just a the tiniest portions of the lies I’ve heard in my lifetime, and lord knows I’m gonna be hearing more until the day I die. But what makes me different from the girls who just eat up those lies, savoring and soaking in the self-hatred and ignorance?

I’m enlightened. I know not to believe all of that hot mess, and I want to spread the knowledge I’ve gained over the past year, since I began to truly take my hair care seriously. Now, if you’re reading this, your main goal is probably to grow long beautiful healthy hair. Let me start out by saying that you can do this, but it takes time, a serious commitment, a regimen, and support. A way to track your progress can’t hurt when you’re trying to grow your hair either because when you’re so anxious to grow it out sometimes because of the rate that hair grows at it feels like there’s no progress when there is.

Growing your hair is a very exciting thing when you’ve been told all your life it just can’t happen, but I must reiterate your hair takes TIME to grow. Hair roughly grows at about a ½ inch a month, now some of you may already be doubting me going. “Oh gurl, not my hair.” Well, yes gurl, your hair. Your hair is constantly growing, but if you see no progress it’s breaking off at the same rate that it’s growing. That’s pretty bad, so how do you fix it?

You need to be committed and have a regimen. I’m so freaking serious when I say if you’re not going to be committed, just press Ctrl + W right now. You’re not going to get ANYWHERE if you don’t stick to it. Growing hair isn’t easy for women with extremely curly or kinky hair, you can’t just do whatever the hell you want have it grow, which is an unfortunate but true fact. You need to be dedicated to keeping your hair healthy, and for that you’re going to need the right tools, products, and most importantly: a good regimen.

Now what are the right tools, products, and good regimen? Well to be quite honest… I can’t tell you that. Everyone’s hair is different, even if they have similar textures. Hair react differently to different practices and products, however there are some general things I think most newbies should have and use.

The Newbie’s Shopping List
A Wide Toothed Comb.
Raking a brush or a rat tail comb through your hair when it’s wet or dry will without fail cause breakage. Your hair need to be taken care of delicately, and to stop from matting and tangles you’re still going to need to detangle. So what do you need? A nice wide tooth comb. You should detangle in sections comb from your ends to your roots instead of raking through your roots down to your ends.
A Satin or Silk Scarf or Bonnet
Most people have cotton pillowcases. Cotton, like a sponge, will absorb the moisture you have in your hair and dry it out. Dryness leads to breakage, which we all know is the anti-christ of healthy hair. Wearing a scarf/bonnet made of satin or silk will keep in the moisture you put in to your hair, which will keep your hair healthier.

A Conditioning Shampoo
Some women don’t even use shampoo due to how sometimes they can strip the natural oils and moisture of hair, but if you don’t want to give up shampoo and find an alternative cleansing method (Hell, I don’t want to give it up, Lol.) you’re gonna want a conditioning shampoo that leave’s your hair soft instead of stripped and tangled. To find a shampoo like this, your best bet is to find a sulfate-free conditioner or a shampoo with GREAT conditioning ingredients. My fave is definitely Crème Of Nature ( The Extra Body Formula), but there are tons of other great shampoos. When shampooing remember to focus on the scalp and use the remainders on the hair, shampoo is actually just like body wash for the scalp, and a clean scalp promotes good hair growth.

Conditioner
Okay, curly hair needs moisture to thrive, so you’re gonna need to find a great conditioner for your hair to be good to go. Conditioners are VITAL to detangling with minimal breakage. (Please only detangle on wet hair saturated in conditioner!) Women with relaxed hair may like conditioners that have silicones (dimethicone, cyclomethicone, etc) which are an ingredient in conditioners to smooth hair and add slip so it’s easier to detangle. On the flip side, natural ladies, from what I’ve seen, usually benefit from more natural ingredients in their conditioner. I’m relaxed and my favorite conditioner is Aussie Moist, which retails for about 6 dollars. I’ve heard a lot of natural women say good things about Aubrey organics.

Deep Conditioner
Deep conditioning weekly can greatly improve the health of your hair. Deep conditioners can be extremely moisturizing or strengthening depending on their formula. I think good deep conditioners should be thick and creamy, but that’s just me. You should apply a DC to the entire length of your hair and put a cap on and leave it on for an extended amount of time as opposed to a normal conditioner where you’d just rinse

Leave-in Conditioner
Depending on your hair, you will need to moisturize every other day, every day, etc. To truly moisturize your hair you need a water-based moisturizer. I can not preach enough about how grease and oil do not I repeat do NOT moisturize the hair! They coat the hair, locking moisture in. That being said, you need a moisturizer to apply daily or bidaily to keep your hair from getting dry. I actually use a cheapie conditioner to moisturize my hair (V05 Moisture Milks), but that’s not the right route for everyone. Some people need a lighter moisturizer, some may even need a heavier one. This is something you’re gonna have to experiment with. Protip: For best results, moisturize in sections.

A Natural Oil
To lock in the moisture from your daily moisturizing, using a natural oil is the way to go. Oils can be light or heavy, and can be used for many things, thus being very economical. I use olive oil and I like the Africa’s Best Herbal Oil, which is a mix of several different oils.


In my opinion, these are the building blocks of a good regimen. There just are little to no women I’ve seen with great progress in their hair who don’t use all of these items in their regimen. I think a great basic regimen that can be tweaked to how the person’s needs is:

Wash, Deep Condition, Condition x1 A Week
Cowash (Rinsing your hair with just conditioner) x1 a Week
Moisturize then seal with Oil Daily or Bidaily
Wear scarf/bonnet to bed every night.

Using a regimen similar to this that is tweaked to your needs, and sticking to your hair care will definitely produce results. A good way to stay motivated is to join a haircare community like Hairlista, KISS, or LHCF. In there you find tons of women working towards the same goal who you can befriend and will help you and always drop some new knowledge and tips you’ve never heard before to help further your mission to grow healthy hair. When you join a forum or community, you’ll notice almost all the women will have pictures of their hair progress and what not. I highly recommend that you take photos of your hair monthly or after a relaxer (if you’re relaxed) to record your progress. It will keep you motivated and show you that your hair IS growing.

I tried to condense a world’s worth of knowledge into the first article in a series here, but hopefully you learned something from it. You can learn so much more by joining hair websites and reading blogs similar to mine. Here are links to a few hair care communities:
Long Hair Care Forum
Hairlista
KISS (Keep It Simple Sista)


Well that’s it for this subject for now,
Marissa