One of the most popular questions that I get asked most often usually has to do with natural hair product recommendations.
Natural hair growth is one of those things in life that you have to be patient with. While the latest and greatest hair product can help you to achieve many things, there are still so many things that they cannot do for you.
So, before you hit the “compose” button to send me an email asking me for a product recommendation to help solve your hair issue, please take the time to read these Ten things that your natural hair products WILL NOT do for you!
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1. Make Your Hair Grow
I might sound like a broken record for what I’m about to say to you, but for the sake of anyone reading my blog post for the first time, let me remind you again that hair growth is controlled by genetics.
This means that it cannot be controlled by human influences. Since most hair products are to be applied on your hair, they lack the ability to affect the internal factors that control hair growth.
2. Thicken Your Hair
Hair thickness is another hair characteristic that is controlled by genetics. This pretty much means that if your hair follicles cannot product thick hair, no amount of castor oil will thicken your hair for you.
The thickness that a lot of women often experience with castor oil often has to do with the build-up of castor oil on the hair strands which makes the hair to appear thick. Part of it also has to do with a “placebo effect” whereby you suddenly start to see and feel certain things that you expect to feel.
3. Change Your Curl Pattern
Your curl pattern is also another genetically pre-determined hair characteristic that you cannot alter, unless you change the chemical composition of your hair, either with heat (flat iron) or with a texturizer or relaxer.
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4 Change Your Bad Hair Habits
If you’re the type that likes to get braids done so that you can forget about your hair for 3-4 months at a time, you shouldn’t expect a hair product to make up for any hair damage that you might have incurred during those months. Healthy hair requires a change in your habit and your thoughts about hair care.
5. Make Your Hair Easier To Care For
If you’re looking for that magic product that will make your natural hair easier to care for, I’m sorry to let you know that such products haven’t been invented yet. Natural hair care can be easy to manage though if you have a regimen that you follow consistently.
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6. Stop Breakage
Since breakage is mostly caused by external stress such as aggressive combing, “destructive hairstyles“, excessive heat, daily wear-and-tear and other manipulation that is applied on the hair, a fancy product just won’t prevent all these human manipulations from happening.
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7. Eliminate Split Ends
Like breakage, split ends often happen as a result of excessive manipulation that is done on the hair. Split ends is also a natural symptom of cuticle degeneration towards the ends of the hair.
As the hair grows further away from the scalp, it loses a few cuticle layers that protect the cortex of the hair. Because the ends have fewer to no cuticle layers, it will thin out, resulting in splitting ends. The lack of overlapping layers of cuticle makes the ends to be vulnerable to damage.
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8. Stop Shedding
In my Book “365 Natural Hair Growth Secrets”, I talked about the 4 stages of the hair growth cycle. I explained how the hair sheds at the third stage of the hair growth cycle, and I also explained certain factors that can influence your hair shedding rate.
Since shedding happens from the inside out, a hair product will not be able to stop this natural process from happening.
9. Define Your Hairstyle
Certain hairstyles such as wash and go, twist outs and many “out” styles aren’t always easy for Type 4 Naturals. It took me a few years to start achieving a defined twist out, even that is a hit or a miss. Due to the nature of my hair, I know that it will be a waste of my time to do a wash and go.
10. Love Your Hair
While a hair product can do many wonders for your hair, the last thing that it will not do for you is to make you love your natural hair if you didn’t.
It’s up to you to change your thinking about your hair and accept it for all it is and what it’s not. For practical steps on how to love and accept your natural hair, CLICK HERE.
Maybe I’m wrong, how have you been able to solve your hair problems with a hair product?