Natural Hair: breaking it down to the basics
Some of us are gluttons for punishment. We have the unnerving habit of putting way too much thought into anything really. When it comes to our hair, we do the same thing.
“How often should I wash my hair?”
"When should I trim?”
"Is it bad to co-wash?”
“Why is my hair always dry?”
“Am I not supposed to use oil?”
I've heard it ALL and I've asked some of the same questions.
The ultimate take-away is as simple as understanding that your natural hair journey is one of trial-and-error and there's no way of getting around that. Your experiences will CERTAINLY be different from your family, friends and influencers- and for any number of reasons.
Our body chemistry, including that of our hair and scalp are affected by any number of things:
hormones
diet
prescription and recreational drug use
activity level
climate we live
condition of our running water
the amount of water we drink
It's important to have this understanding on YOUR personal journey. More importantly, as you learn from others, use their experiences as a guidline and not a standard.
All that said, there actually are some pretty basic principles you should understand before diving into the next (or first!) stage of your journey.
Understanding these 4 key things will help you narrow down which products and maintenance routines work best for YOU.
porosity
thickness
density
curl pattern
4 Basic Things You Should Know About Natural Hair
Thickness
The thickness of our hair is determined by the size of our hair strands.
While there isn't a thickness scale for determining where we stand, thick hair tends to hold onto styles better because thicker hair has more reinforcement.
Thin hair is typically easier to comb through unless there's issues with frizz, split ends, raised cuticles and matting.
Texture
From bone-straight to afro-kinky, the texture of our hair is determined by our curl pattern. There are levels to this, honey! Bone straight, loose waves, body waves and deep waves, loose curls, tight curls, z-shaped and s-shaped curls. Sounds like a hunt for your next weave bundles but that's because everything's connected and the industry needs inspiration from somewhere.
Density
The density of our hair is based in the number of hair on your head.
Part your from forehead to nape and separate the hair on each side with your hands. High density curlies will see less scalp when they do this because they have a higher number of hairs covering the surface area of their scalp.
Ever found yourself saying your natural protective style looks “spacey” or scanty? You may have low-density hair.
Keep in mind, you can have low-density hair that is thick. In the same way, you can have a dense, or full head, of thin hair.
Porosity
Our hair porosity is determined by how well our hair holds onto moisture.
High porosity hair is highly porous and absorbs moisture easily. For the same reason, it loses moisture just as fast. This hair type needs help with sealing the cuticles to lock moisture in.
Low porosity hair has no difficulty holding on to moisture. The issue is actually getting the moisture IN. Low-porosity hair types should use measures like steaming to infuse moisture into the hair.