5 Steps to Healthy Natural Hair This Spring
(Image source: via skoolgirlonline.co.uk)
As the winter eases, and signs of spring begin to creep in. You might be looking at ways to revive your natural hair after many long hard months wrapped under endless layers. During winter our good intentions all too often fall away. Braced with freezing temperatures good habits are abandoned in favour of keeping ourselves warm and snug, and who could blame us?
Unfortunately, our desperation to keep the cold at bay can have a negative effect on the health of our hair, from central heating to trendy bobble hats it’s as if the winter conspires to undo all of the effort we’ve put into maintaining a healthy head of hair.
However, you’ll be pleased to know that all is not lost! With the right care it’s certainly possible to revive hair that has seen better days.
I've outlined 5 simple steps to nurture your natural hair back to health.
1.Trim Your Ends
Friction from hats and woolly winter wear can take its toll on our hair during winter. Now is a good time to trim those dried out straggly ends. By taking preventative action to trim existing damage now, you’ll limit the potential for damage in the shape of dry and splitting ends to worsen. Leading to excessive breakage. The integrity of the hair strand is instantly improved allowing for healthy growth and drastically increasing the likelihood that you'll keep any additional length as your hair grows out.
2. Embrace Protective Styling
Your spring haircare needn't be as strict as in winter, however protective styling will still offer the best benefits for keeping your hair at its best. Not only will it save you time and energy on those chilly mornings when all you want is 5 extra minutes in bed, but protective styling will keep your strands protected from the elements, more importantly it will allow your hair to retain more moisture and length. By keeping your (freshly trimmed) ends safely tucked away you'll help to protect against loss from clothing friction and styling manipulation. But remember to avoid styles that will weigh down your hair and put a strain on your edges if you want to successfully maintain your growth.
3. Pre-poo
Applying conditioning natural oils to your hair before you shampoo (pre-poo) offers a long list of benefits when it comes to maintaining healthy afro hair. Whether you opt for homemade recipes or more specialised products pre-pooing is a step that shows your strands a little extra love as part of your washday routine.
The benefits include easier detangling, minimising of shedding and breakage. As well as hair that feels extra nourished as pre-poo treatments help to prevent your shampoo from stripping your hair of its natural oils a big factors of dry hair. When pre-pooing try using traditional oils such as coconut or Sweet Almond which offer good general protection to your hair. Blended oils offer more complex health benefits you could opt for Bloom-Omega Healthy Hair Oil that will add that little bit extra to your pre-poo treatments.
4. Avoid Heat
With all that dry indoor air to deal with the last thing your hair needs is more heat. It's tempting to pull out the hair dryer as the temperature drops. But your hair will already be coping with the strain of central heating and any further heat will only sap the remaining health out of your strands. Heat damage is often irreversible, so its better to stick with air drying.
5.Deep treatments
If you weren’t already religiously deep conditioning throughout winter to keep those moisture levels up, then now’s the time to start. Not only does deep conditioning offer protection to your hair it also provides effective relief from dryness, improving the texture of your and restoring lost elasticity. It’s a good way to replenish strands particularly if they are feeling brittle and more prone to snapping. Damaged hair can benefit from DC’s as the ingredients can help to fill in any holes along the strand that could cause poor porosity. To get the most out of your treatments leave them on for a minimum of 30 mins to allow the ingredients to better penetrate the hair shaft.
This piece was written by our founder and orginally published in the spring 2017 issue of PRIDE magazine.