Total Newbie, Big Sis Needed!

Hello, I just commited to going natural last week. I did my BC last thursday and now I don't know where to go. I would love to have someone give me some tips, guidance, hope lol.

Hi new-naturalle! I'm in! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Congrats on your recent BC!

I have tonnes of experience with natural hair. I've made tonnes of mistakes and have had so many ups and downs with my hair, its not funny lol. I am very willing to share my experiences.

This will most definately be a learning and growing experience for you. Handle this journey with a positive mindset and don't let others deter you.

Here are some general tips:

- Condition, condition, condition!! Quench your hair's thirst
- Avoid oils with petroleum, try using oils in pure form (olive oil, castor oil, coconut oil)
- Do NOT rely on flat irons or heat styling in general! (this may lead to heat damage, which is what I'm currently recovering from)
- Be open to experimentation. Some products that work for some people may not work for others. By experimenting with different products, you will eventually discover what works for you.
- Use alcohol-free gels/styling products
- Be very patient [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Hope this helps! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thank you!!!! I have soooo many questions. I didn't really transition so my hair is very short and I don't know what to do with it. I'm a sahm so I've been co-washing it everyday because I haven't been anywhere. But I don't know if I should should be doing that or not. I don't have any pure oils (I'm going to look for some this weekend) so I was just spraying it with a leave-in and then eco styling gel. But I never used gel with relaxed hair. I really like my new cut but I'm just not sure what to do with it. Can you reccomend any products that are good for all hair types? I know I need to try different things, but I'm a little concerned with it becoming costly.

Hi New-Naturalle,

First don't give up. Be Patient! The first time I did a B/C because I didn't really know how to take care of my hair when it grew back I got a wave newveau (its been so long I forgot how to spell it). This time around I did a long transition to learn. So I learned patience with my hair. Do you know your hair type? I'm a 4a/4b. You can do a search for hair types and find out yours. I consider my hair a more traditional "Black Girl" texture. But most people think my hair is a little different it you get my drift. You might want to eaze up on the co-washing a little bit. Avoid products with alcohol as much as possible. The alchohols can really dry your hair out. I had to experiment with different products. Depending on the look I'm going for depends on the product. Try the pure oils, olive oil, coconut oil and shea butter as a moisturizer and sealant. You don't need much about the size of a quarter maybe 50 cent piece. Try S-Curl wave gel or S-Curl No-Drip activator/moisturizer. If you have an inch or more try Lock & twist gel to do very small twist. Also look at Ni-Kiya's how-to video her hair looks great and she shows the products that she uses. Like Nikkinixnicole said moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. To help keep cost down. Look for trial sizes of the products you want to experiment with. You can also throw a "Natural Hair Party" Invite your friends and family over who are "curly girls" and have them bring the products they use and try their product on your hair. I gave one and my friends and I had a ball. I learned alot and we all experimented with each others product at no extra cost. Keep the faith, be patient, and trust yourself.

Thanks for the advice, I'm not too sure about my hair texture yet. My hubby did my BC and he cut off more than I asked him to, lol. I think the longest part may be an 1/2 inch and he faded the back and the sides so I really have no hair. But I'm thinking I'm in the 4b/c range. I really didn't think I had any curl but more of a tight wave but when its wet I do see some curl. I think it needs to grow some to tell but I will try to get a pic up. Anywhoo I want to know where everyone gets the shea butter from? Does it need to be pure, unrefined? I will love to throw a party but I dont know any other naturals like me, the ones I know never had a perm or chemical processing because they didn't need it, if you get my drift. Although now that I am becoming more aware of naturals I think I will start asking people when I see them, hopefully I won't offend anyone.

Wow congratulations. You wasted no time. Enjoy your journey.

So where are those pics ....

Here are the photos, the first two are with the ecostyler gel and the last one is without any product. My hair is really course so I'm thinking its the 4 b/c range.



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Hey New-Naturalle,

You look great! Be confident! You are not your hair. With that said, we still want our hair to look nice right and yours does and will continue too! Most of the products you can get at your local beauty supply store or some grocery stores like the s-curl products, lock and twist gel, and olive oil. The shea butter (100% natural, the raw looks lke chucks, and the pure probably has a more whipped look as long as it says 100% you're okay) and coconut oil you can get from you local beauty supply. As you hair gets longer your needs will change, product wise as well as how to change up your stlye.

Camille
Last relaxer/wave nouveau 03/07

New-naturalle, these pics are lovely! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I find shopping around in health food stores to be the best thing. Here, you can find pure oils, sulfate-free shampoos, and great stuff in general. If I wasn't a budget conscious ( [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] broke) student, I'd do most of my shopping at health food stores lol. The other day I spent hours in the health food store [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] ... 95% of the time, I was in the hair section [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] I should warn you about product junkyism (nonstop shopping around for products until you realize you've spent most of your yearly earnings on hair products!!) .. most naturals I know suffer from this condition and I've recenty gone from bad to worse [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] lol. Learn from this grasshopper lol [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thank you ladies, all of this info has been really helpful. I'm going to look for products tomorrow. I wanted should I use the oils and stylers at the same time. I'm afraid of putting too many things in my hair at once. But I don't know how to keep the curls it has when its wet still when its dry. It seems like with the gel it dries it doesn't retain that curl. I'm trying not to use a lot and I still don't know how to get it soft. I think I was reading about others saying their hair was really dry after the bc. I guess what I'm asking is how many products do you use at once?

Hey New-Naturalle,

After I co-wash and d/C. I use
a leave-in conditioner,
then shea butter,
then a mix of lock & twist gel and s-curl wave jel and activator to style my hair. That's 4 products for me but my hair is longer. When it was your length, I used a leave-in, moisturizer, and curl activator. With those 3, I was able to show off my curl pattern.

The gel you are using might be the reason you hair is dry and loosing its curl pattern. Just remember, you are going to have to experiment some. I really like shea butter but your hair might do better with olive oil or coconut oil. Investigate some of the curl activators. The first time I went natural I did a B/C and my hair was dry until I started using curl activators and that worked great for me. But also I didn't know about using olive oil and I don't even remember knowing about shea butter! I hope this helps.

I have been au naturel for over 10 years and I love it! I have tested and tried almost every product on the market for naturally curly hair. Finally, hair we can embrace and now I see more and more females getting curly weaves and wearing braids now. Natural hair rocks! Too bad it took me all these years of damaging my hair to figure that one out.

Oh yeah, by the way I use all the kinky-curly products! I shampoo twice a week and use a curl activator. Eco Style gel w/ Olive Oil is also great. You can get it at any Sally's.

Okay so I had to come back here and reread everything to see what I'm doing wrong. I can't seem to keep my hair moisterized for very long. I have been cowashing like one or twice a week with HE HH, but this week shampooed with kiss my face and then did a overnight dc with garnier sleek n shine and olive oil. My hair didn't feel really soft in the morning and I think that shampoo might have stripped my hair even though its sulfate free. I also have been spraying with water, conditioner, olive oil, and then shea butter mix. I mixed the shea butter with african angel coconut oil and olive oil. My hair will feel moisterized for a little bit then it starts drying out. I haven't brought any activators but maybe I will try that next. Also my hair has started to shed some when I'm putting stuff in it. Is that normal?

To be honest, I've never been a fan of garnier products. When I DC, I mix olive oil or jamaican mango & lime island oil with a leave in conditioner (a GENEROUS amount of both) and wrap my head for the night.

If your shampoo feels drying, try another sulfate free brand.. alot of curlies use giovanni products so give them a try . There are also alot of other sulfate free shampoos you could find at health food stores. You could also try rinsing with a conditioner before washing your hair with shampoo (I do this WHENEVER I'm washing with a shampoo).

I haven't heard good things about activators and I don't use them, so I have no advice to offer in that area.

In terms of the shedding, hmmmm.... humans shed hair daily regardless of the products used in their hair. However, if the shedding is excessive, it could be the products. Usually when I experience a little more shedding than usual, I take a multivitamin of a vitamin B complex. It could just be a lacking of nutrients, you never know.

Hope this helps [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

What brand of conditioner do you use? I only have a sample size of the sleek n shine but I think I will go back to the HE HH until I find something that is cone free. I think its better than the garnier. I was going to try the giovanni ones but I got confused over which onw to get so I just chose the kiss my face. When you shampoo, do you wash the conditioner out before you use the shampoo, or do you layer it on?
Also, do you leave the conditioner in as a moisterizer or something else? I'm also wondering if I should stop using the shea butter because it just seems to leave my hair feeling greasy. I guess that could also be because I'm not putting the right things underneath it. Anyway thanks for your help.

When I shampoo, I condition first, then I totally wash the conditioner out. Then I shampoo. Then I d/c or just condition depending on what's going on. I totally rinse that out. Then I towel dry followed by a leaving in conditioner. Lately I have been using the d/c Organic Root hair mayonaisse, rinse out then I use Infusium 23 leave-in . Next it's time for my styling products. I still use the shea butter but it sounds like that's to heavy for your hair. You might want to try a creamy leave in conditioner like Creme-of-Nature and try one of the curl activators. Experiment with the amount of product you use. After you use your leave-in conditioner, you might only need about a table spoon, try using a small amount of olive oil and a curl activator. The curl activator really helped me especially when I first B/C'd and try the activator moisturizer.

I hope this helps [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
If your hair is still cut close, I don't think you need to spray water on it. If you are setting your hair on rollers, twisting or braiding in order to help the product get absorbed and to help set it then you use the water. Try to hold the shampoos to once a week depending on how active you are. If you are working out, of course more if not relax on the shampoos. Remember everyone is different, some people over do the shampoos.

new-naturalle wrote:What brand of conditioner do you use? I only have a sample size of the sleek n shine but I think I will go back to the HE HH until I find something that is cone free. I think its better than the garnier. I was going to try the giovanni ones but I got confused over which onw to get so I just chose the kiss my face. When you shampoo, do you wash the conditioner out before you use the shampoo, or do you layer it on?
Also, do you leave the conditioner in as a moisterizer or something else? I'm also wondering if I should stop using the shea butter because it just seems to leave my hair feeling greasy. I guess that could also be because I'm not putting the right things underneath it. Anyway thanks for your help.

Lately, I've bene using HE HH and Jason conditioners.

In terms of the brands you should try, I've heard all good things about the giovanni brand so far from the people I know. I've heard and read mixed reviews about the kiss my face line. You could give both brand a try and see which one works best for you (this is my inner product junky speaking [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] lol).

Conditioner is usually quite moisturizing, but i like to add oils to it during the winter, when my hair feels extra brittle and dry.

In terms of the shea butter, maybe you could try applying it to your scalp instead of your hair (I haven't used shea butter, so I dont know much about it). Some oils are better on the scalp than in hair, perhaps shea butter is one of them?

Hope this helps [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Make sure you use a silicone free conditioner, silicones can block moisture from the hair.

Thank you for the responses, I'm starting to think that I might be expecting too much from my hair at this point. I think I'm trying to acheive a soft feel that my hair just might not be able to do. I'm going to try and switch conditioners this weekend and see what happens. I try to only shampoo every other week and co wash once weekly. But I shampoo again because I did a honey olive oil dc and I wanted to make sure it was all out. Well I let that sit for 1hr but I still didn't achieve the moisture/softness I was after. Everything seems to either absorb and do nothing or just coat the strands and feel oily and dry. So I will try giovanni this weekend and if that doesn't help then I guess I need to accept this is just the way my hair is right now. Also its still very short so if I shouldn't spray with water, then should I just apply product on dry hair?

After you shampoo your hair and towel dry your hair is damp enough, then apply the product. If, it is not time for a shampoo just apply your moisturizer or activator.

Hi, I am in need of a big sister to help me along with my journey. this will be my second time, and I do not want to give in this go round. i am going to do the big chop tomorrow so i will post pictures. Any advice is welcomed.

Hi Rosebud,

Good luck tomorrow, I remembered when I first big chopped, I was so nervous. Then when it was cut down nice and low, I think I had 1 1/2 -2 inches, I was in shock because I had never seen myself with short hair. I drove to the mall to find a wig shop then a co-worker saw me. I said why am I trying to hide myself. I went home, wigless, my husband did a double take. I said do you like it? He said it's your hair. That gave my confidence because it just didn't matter what anyone else thought. By day 3 I was loving the new look but I didn't know how to take care or style it as it got longer so when it grew back I got a wave newveau ( still can't spell it right). Hence, this this time around long tranisition to learn. I got it right.

Just remember you are not your hair. Natural hair is not maintanence free hair, just free from chemical alteration. The one thing I love about my hair is the freedom it gives me, I can go swimming with ease (no worries about chlorine and relaxer mixing), I don't worry about the weather, and of course I love the big hair.

I know your hair will turn out great. Can't wait to see the pics