6 Best Tips for your 4c Natural Hair this Spring

Temperatures are rising, cold and gloomy weather is out and, warm and sunny is in and guess what? I’ve got some quick fresh tips for your natural hair this spring!

Ecclesiastes 3:1

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven:

 

I don’t know about you but I’m happy to see winter over. 

Days are now warmer and longer, the trees are budding, the birds fill the air with beautiful songs from early in the morning. 

There is just something so special about spring, it signifies freshness and newness of life. 

And, it’s the best time to get your life and natural hair in order, right? Why not?!

So, here are my top 6 tips for your natural hair this Spring:

1. Recommit to your natural hair journey

First things first. Perhaps it is your desire to have healthy natural hair, and perhaps you even have some length goals but you have not been putting in the necessary work, I would say to you this spring “recommit”!

Healthy (and long) natural hair is achievable if you put in the right systems in place!

Don’t get fixated on your goals but on the process (your routine) and get better at that.

Over time the results will show.

This requires a mindset shift. So, sis, recommit to the journey, and let the destination merely be a guide. 

2. Reset your natural hair

Throughout the winter you may have let your natural haircare go down the drain and as a result your hair is now in shambles, don’t stress! 

One of the things I’ve come to know from my 13+ years of being natural is that our natural hair is very forgiving. 

If there’s some matting, it is dry and had been unattended/neglected while you were hibernating in the winter, then I definitely think it is salvageable. 

Add a bit moisture (water, detangler, conditioner, etc) and gently and safely detangle your hair and proceed to:

• Wash your hair thoroughly with a shampoo. Focus on your scalp! Get all the gunk (dirt and product build up) out.  This is a good spring clean for your natural hair that resets your hair and scalp. And a clean scalp is the perfect environment for healthy hair growth.

• Moisturise and seal. Use your favourite leave-in conditioner and and lock it in with an oil and/or butter.

• Trim straggly ends, knotted ends, and splitting ends! You are spring cleaning and resetting, remember? If these are left unsnipped they will set you back in the long run, and they just don’t look good. So, trim them now to get fuller looking, healthy natural hair strands! (have it professionally done if you cannot do it yourself)

• Instal a protective hairstyle. My favourite are twists. They are easy to install and they don’t cause tension to my scalp.

• Now, be consistent.

3. Simplify your natural hair routine

I’ve seen many natural hair trends come and go. The temptation can be so strong to try some of these out. If you have a routine that is working for you, then no need to complicate it with passing fads. It’s ok to let some of these miss you, mmkay! 

This spring reassess your current natural haircare routine and if your hair is healthy and thriving, then don’t try to reinvent your wheel. Keep it simple. 

But, if you’ve noticed that your hair isn’t growing healthily, it is dry, breaking, thinning, knotting, etc. then change your routine to deal with the specific issues. Only then should you do trial and error, tweak, and enhance as necessary. Do this until you find a simple enough routine and products for your natural hair. 

4. Be consistent with your regimen

Do you know where the danger is? It is right here where you don’t keep a consistent natural haircare routine! 

I think we are all guilty of this one. We let it slip, and sometimes it is from being lazy while other times its from genuine life issues getting in the way. 

Cultivate a habit of doing your natural haircare consistently. Use tools you have available to help you schedule and remember. Pencil it into your calendar, set reoccurring reminders (e.g. for wash day and for moisurising) on your phone. Automate it.

Be realistic about your time and priorities. A consistent once in two (or three or four) weeks wash day routine, for example, is better than washing your hair sporadically. 

Be consistent with your natural hair routine and you’ll see your hair thriving!

To help you, I’ve created a planner. It is so easy to use. Download it for free below. Once downloaded, you can either print it or fill it in electronically, how convenient!

Enter your name and email address and click Download free haircare planner

5. Declutter your product collection

It’s time to let the cool spring breeze blow through your natural hair product collection! 

You’ll find that you have haircare products you haven’t used in a while, and you don’ t gravitate towards them anymore.  

Check their expiry dates and if they’ve expired, throw those out. If they haven’t expired then consider giving them away.

Note: Once opened, a lot of products will be good/safe to use for the next 12 months. To check the “use before” date check the back of the packaging and you’ll see a container with an open lid and a number on the container indicating the number of months it is safe to use after opening.

So, this spring declutter your product collection and only keep the items that are in line with your simplified natural hair routine (from tip 3). 

And all you need really is a product for detangling (my current fave is from Creme of Nature for its slip you can get if from Clicks and Dischem in South Africa), a product for cleansing, another for hydrating (e.g. water or leave in conditioner), and another for sealing (e.g. shea butter). That’s it! Take a look at the basics of a natural haircare routine.

6. Make that radical change

If you’ve been thinking about changing up your hair in anyway (e.g. doing the big chop or different hairstyle), what better time to do it than in the season that symbolizes new beginnings?! Have the audacity and courage to change.

All the best with your natural hair journey this spring, Sis. May it grow and flourish. May you grow and flourish right there with it! 

Let me know your thoughts in the comments section 🙂

Love,

Mmabatho