The Getting Started Guide for Natural Hair Care

1) If you don’t know much about natural hair care start by getting an understanding of the structure of hair and how it grows.

2) Study your own hair and analyze your hair characteristics to determine the curl pattern, porosity, density, and texture. This will also help you determine what you need to do to meet your individual hair needs.

3) Do not be a hair follower. Focus on learning what your hair likes and dislikes through trial and error. Use the advice of others but do not take it as the gospel and do not do things just because everyone else is doing it; this even includes tips you get from me. Just because it works for MsLala doesn’t mean it works for everyone.

4)Avoid information overload. There is so much information out there. I encourage you to go through the hair care section of this site first. Then you may want to check out some of the books and other recommended resources.

5) Acronyms and terminology can become overwhelming. Visit hair terms if your come across a word or acronym that you do not know.

6) As you try different techniques and products with your hair you can then begin creating your regimen. Many times people want to jump right into making a hair regimen but you have to know what works for you before doing this. Keep track of the products, tools, and techniques that work best for your hair and use this knowledge to create a hair routine.

7) Once you know what your hair likes and begin to get your hair on track in terms of health you can begin to set length goals. I strongly encourage you however to be patient and to focus more on health than obtaining a certain length. Length will be the benefit of properly cared for hair.

8) If you are serious about meeting hair goals I encourage you to take pictures periodically. Do not become obsessed about this but it can be helpful. Often it will seem that your hair is not making any improvement but going back to look at pictures can prove otherwise.

9) Learn to style your own natural hair. I think it is important to know how to do atleast 1 or 2 different styles on your own, even if you prefer going to a stylist.

10) Everyone has hurdles but don’t let them stop you. As long as I have been natural I still have setbacks sometimes. I have had to deal with breakage, damage etc… but I learn from my mistakes and issues and move forward.