How to choose natural hair products

In previous posts, I discussed about starting out with a natural hair tool kit that you really need in your journey. In this series of learning about hair care and knowing your hair, I aim to not only assist you in making proper decisions regarding hair care practices and products, but to actually shift your mindset to understand that hair isn’t about what “they” say you must do, but is about what “you” say you should do. This would save you the time and money purchasing products you have no business with. On this post, I am not going to list products you should buy but instead what you should look out for in a product, rather in future post, I’ll assist you in deciphering hair ingredients in to help you in buying hair products).

You need to realise that in the natural hair ‘world’ there is a lot of buzz on what hair products to buy, ranging from shampoo to conditioner, and from moisturisers to stylers. However with the vast number of options available to choose from in the market, it can become so overwhelming that searching for the right products can go from fun to frustrating. Here is a better way to look at the best ways to determine what products are best suited for your hair.

Ask yourself what you need the products to offer?

1) To deeply moisturise:  you are all about retaining moisturised hair throughout the week.

2) Strong hold and lasting curl definition: You would sacrifice products that deeply moisturise for products that gives your curls or coils strong formation.

3) To deeply cleanse and clarify: you want all traces of residue from product accumulated over the days on your hair to be removed and any buildup properly clarified with an invigorating cleanser, and not frightened at the mere mention of shampoo.

4) To mildly cleanse and condition: You don’t think you are prone to or  have accumulated much product build up from your styling products throughout the days and rather need products with more conditioning properties to add back the moisture lost into the hair strands.

5) Minimum hold and curl definition: You prefer products that offer flexibility, can offer both moisture and somewhat define your strands to a small degree.

6) To strengthen and restore: You prefer products that offers the right balance of protein and moisture all in one.

7) To make hair pliable for detangling: You prefer a product with surplus conditioning properties and ‘slip’ (slip refers to the ability of products to glide through the hair strands with little to no resistance) which will aid in properly unraveling knots or tangles with ease.

Notice from the list that I did not include products that “would offer you hair growth”. This is because even with the right products, the wrong technique would produce different results. So you can’t aim to grow longer hair without really understanding what your hair needs, hopefully with the assistance of the list above (hence having the right mindset) you can take control of each step in your hair journey.

So when next you pick up a product, read the label to understand what it is suppose to offer, however bare in mind that the ingredients list plays a much bigger role in determining the products performance than the label name (I will elaborate further on that in future posts, so stay tuned).

Like I have mentioned earlier, this hair care journey isn’t here to tell you what you must ‘do’, rather it aims to help you understand ‘how’ to begin to care for your hair by utilising the proper tools, however it starts with the mindset you choose whilst continuing your hair journey.

The next post will delve into how to understand the ingredient list which are specific to your hair needs, however figuring this out takes some trial and error, and you need to be willing to try.

Hope this post was useful to you and refined your understanding about hair care. Don’t forget to like if you found it useful and share to help others out.

Thanks for reading. If you made it this far to the post, you are much appreciated x.