The Ultimate Beauty Guide

For women interested in growing long, natural hair the greatest challenge can often be patience.  Hair goals should be realistic but also ambitious enough to keep you committed to your regimen. In this blog, I share 4 mistakes that stopped my hair growth and hair health.

1. Abuse of Heat

I did the occasional blow out without using heat protectant but my hair never seemed to suffer any visible damage. I even went to the salon twice to get a press and curl and my hair seemed to bounce right back. It took a really negative experience with heat for me to truly get the message that my hair care practices were nothing short of a hot mess.

2. Dry Combing

I would almost daily rake a comb through my hair with no moisturizing product. I think this was one of my most damaging practices. The regular manipulation of my hair ensured that the tangled ends were constantly being ripped out, hence the lack of retention.

And, the top hair mistake of my natural hair journey (drum roll please):

3. Hair Washing

I washed my hair like I was one of those models on a shampoo commercial. I lathered the shampoo by rubbing it throughout my hair and scalp without sectioning. Can you say tangles? I would then rip through my hair when detangling further ensuring that my hair never passed a certain length.

4. No regular moisturizing of my hair

The shea butter was fine to use but it didn’t add moisture to my hair. My hair was dry in between washes and remained so until I figured out that my hair needed to be moisturized in between washes and that moisture meant a water based product or just plain old water. Duh!