Washing Your Own Hair – Tips for Transitioning from Relaxed to Natural Hair

Posted by admin on Nov 27, 2011 in Before Your Transition to Natural, Tools | 0 comments

 

 

 

Washing Your Own Hair – Tips for Transitioning from Relaxed to Natural Hair

As you are transitioning from permed to natural hair, you will eventually wash your own hair instead of always using a salon.

The first thing that you should know is that all of those commercials that you see with women in the shower washing their hair with it all piled on top of their heads is NOT for you.  That may work for relaxed hair but washing natural hair like that will be nothing but a nightmare.

If you wash your own hair already, or if you are just starting to care for your own hair, these tips will be helpful as you transition from relaxed to natural.  I did not start off by washing my hair in sections but later into my transition I found it very helpful.

The first thing that you should do before any water touches your hair is to detangle your hair with your fingers.  This will not only help you to find knots but it will also release any shed hairs that would normally get tangled up in your hair while you wash.  Our hair sheds every single day.  Shedding is normal, breakage is not.  You can also use a wide toothed comb or brush to detangle your hair but I find that using my fingers first helps to get out any major knots or tangles before I have to pick up a hair tool.

Once your natural hair grows in, you will want to keep the detangled sections separate so they do not mingle with the hair that you have not yet detangled.  This is an important step to keep in mind while going natural without the big chop.  You will want to keep the relaxed hair and curly hair from tangling.

To wash your hair, you can use conditioner or you can use shampoo.  If you use shampoo please be aware that sulfate shampoo can be more harsh so you may want to use a small amount or dilute your shampoo with water.

I run the diluted shampoo through each section of hair, which I unbraid in the shower.  I then scrub the section of loose hair and rinse until the water runs clear.  Then I rebraid and move on to the next section.

Next I add conditioner to each braided section. I do this outside of the shower.  I unbraid each section to make sure that the conditioner is on each strand of hair.  Once the conditioner is applied, I move on to the next section and unbraid and then apply conditioner.  Many people with thick hair apply their condition in sections.

At the time, I would cover my hair with a conditioning cap for at least 30 minutes and then sit under my dryer or do housework for about an hour to let body heat help condition my hair.  Currently, I sit under a hair steamer for 20 – 30 minutes with my conditioner applied or I do housework with a conditioning cap on my head for about an hour.

The next step is to rinse the conditioner from your hair.  If your hair is in braids, you will need to loosen each braid to rinse and rebraid before moving on to the next section.  I do recommend conditioning your hair in sections if you have thick hair since you do not want your hair to get tangled after you spent so much time in the beginning keeping it from tangling.  The key is to keep the hair detangled through the entire process so you do not need to do much detangling when you are ready to style your hair.

After your conditioner is all rinsed  off, you can add your leave-in conditioner or you can just not rinse out all of the conditioner from your hair.

After your leave-in is applied, style as usual with little to no tangles!  These tips should be helpful for washing as you transition from relaxed to natural hair.