5 Common Mistakes Made By The New Natural

Returning to natural hair can be an interesting journey, especially if you haven’t cared for your hair on your own in a while. Depending on your knowledge of hair, the whole process can sometimes be nothing more than trial and error.

I remember when I first began my hair journey, I had no idea what I was doing. One day, I tried doing a twist out on two month transitioning hair with no perm rods* and had no clue why I didn’t have definition (you live and you learn right?).

Well, we’ve all been there. And if you are new to a natural hair journey, you may find yourself doing one of the common mistakes below. Leave a comment if any of these apply to you!

Becoming a product junkie

The product junkie struggle is real, especially in the beginning of a hair journey. You may not have any idea what will work for your hair, so you go out and spend tons of money on new sets of products.

Your favorite blogger or vlogger may suddenly have a new staple, so you run to the store. Over time, this leads to nothing but an empty wallet and drawers full of unused products (trust me I’ve been there!).

To save yourself the trouble, do some research into products and ingredients. Learn about your hair type, and find some common suggestions.

Play around with certain products, and learn what your hair likes. You can even experiment with product recipes of your own – there are plenty of DIYs that could potentially work much better than something from the store.

Give away or trade the products that don’t work for you. Don’t keep them laying around, but don’t throw them away. A lot of natural hair groups do swap events, where people can trade gently used products. Swaps are also a great way to save money!

Not remaining consistent

Along with the thousands of hair products out there are thousands of hair care regimens, tips, and hacks. Everybody tweaks their regimen to fit their lifestyle and benefit their hair. Things may work for some people and not for others.

When creating your hair regimen, be realistic. Know how much time you can dedicate to your hair and how often you can do it without creating a burden on yourself. Don’t create an elaborate wash day regimen when you know you’ll be too tired to do all fifteen steps every week.

Also, don’t get discouraged when it seems like nothing’s happening and stop. It takes time and patience to see results. Remain consistent, compare your growth, and change things as necessary.