I know in past posts I’ve stressed the importance of finding and exploring what works for you when it comes to your natural hair journey. I still believe in that.
What I am sharing in today’s post is some hard limits that I’ve found do my tresses no good in bypassing or just plain ignoring.
DON’T attempt to trim your own split ends.
As someone who thought it would be a time and money saving venture to do it myself a few months ago, I beseech you to leave this for the professionals. Not only will you cut off more or less than you should, but you’ll use the wrong cutting style too and make your split ends worse.
DON’T forgo trimming your split ends.
I’m long overdue a trim as I write this, so I am side-eyeing myself. Every 3 months works for me.
DON’T use a towel to dry your hair off.
I touched on this in one of my previous posts, but the gist is to dry your hair off using a soft cotton t-shirt and not to rub, just sponge at it instead.
DON’T use apple cider vinegar rinse after you’ve been scratching your scalp.
OUCH. You’ve been warned.
DON’T go to sleep without braiding your hair up in sections.
Well unless you don’t want to wake up to a dry, tangled mess of an ‘fro that you’ll waste an hour detangling and suffer unnecessary breakage on your ends.
DON’T wash your hair without braiding it up in sections.
Unlike the point above, bypassing this tip will leave you with a wet, tangled mess of a ‘fro and still cause unnecessary breakage when you’re detangling it.
DON’T let your conditioner get too touchy feely with your scalp during co-washing.
The point of co-washing is to rehydrate your hair, conditioner tends to irritate your scalp so keep it off it. If you really do need to cleanse your scalp whilst co-washing, then apply an apple cider vinegar rinse at the end of your wash.
DON’T run a comb through your hair whilst it’s dry.
If you do, all you’re doing is inviting unnecessary breakage to your ends. Only use a wide-toothed comb when hair is saturated with conditioner or water, and even then comb from the tips to the root (and not the other way round).
DON’T leave your protective styles in longer than six weeks
Yes, protective styles are there to help you retain your length and grow your hair with minimal manipulation from you. However, if you leave your braids and weaves in longer than 6 weeks, you are asking for a big dread-locked kind of problem of the super breakage kind.
DON’T skimp on applying product to your ends.
Your ends are your oldest and most fragile part of your hair shaft. Keep this part of your hair healthy, moisturised and breakage-free is a crucial key in retaining your hair length and maintaining it’s health. So always make sure you concentrate your leave-in conditioner and sealing oils (like Shea butter, my favourite) to this part of your hair shaft.
DON’T compare your hair growth and texture to anyone else’s.
When I started out on my natural hair journey I wanted big, BIG hair like I’d seen on Pinterest or YouTube. Only to find out that that kind of hair takes a lot of time, care and, oh yes, GENETICS to get. So rather embrace the uniqueness that is your hair and its texture and see where it takes you instead.
I would really love to hear what your go to “DON’Ts” are, so drop me a line in the comments.
Be good, chickens!
V x
VimfromZim 