The 5 Essentials of Relaxed and Natural Hair Care

4. Low Manipulation/Protective Styling

All hair goes through normal wear and tear. But the more you manipulate hair, the quicker it’s going to become damaged. This applies to both natural and relaxed hair. The less stress you put on hair by manipulating it with things like combing, brushing, and styling, the less likely it will become overly damaged. With relaxed and natural hair it’s best to use wide tooth combs and minimize brushing (brushing can actually lead to hair loss). And if you’re not aware of what protective styling is, it’s just simply when you don’t wear your hair out. Wearing your hair in a protective style means that the ends, the oldest part of the hair, are usually tucked away and protected from damages elements like weather and daily wear and tear. Below are a few protective styles you can try for relaxed versus natural hair. And feel free to mix and match. Bantu knots aren’t just for us natural ladies. Relaxed haired women can look just as hot with them too!  😉

Relaxed hair: Buns, ponytails, braids, weaves, wigs, etc…

Natural hair: Braids, two-strand kinky twists, braids, weaves, wigs, shrunken afros, etc…