Beauty | How I Wash and Style My Short Natural Hair

I cut my hair a few weeks ago (thanks again to Andrew at Bumble and bumble. for SUCH a great cut!) and my hair regimen has been so simple since chopping my hair off. Every week I wash my hair with shampoo, detangle with conditioner and then deep condition with heat. Then I apply a leave-in to my soaking wet hair and let it air dry before styling with perm rods. In the middle of each week, I cowash my hair and re-style. And then I repeat!

On Tuesday I had been wearing a five-day-old rod set, and my hair was in dire need of moisture.

The curls held up pretty well, but I couldn’t go another day without giving my hair it’s favorite type of moisture: WATER. When I got my haircut at Bumble, Andrew told me that my hair really craves moisture, but not the type from products: it prefers water! So that’s why in addition to washing my hair with shampoo weekly, I make sure I co-wash my hair in the middle of each week. This keeps my hair moisturized and breakage-free.

When I get into the shower, my hair is sectioned off into four sections. I drench each section with water and then shampoo with Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle. After I rinse the shampoo out, I detangle with Trader Joe’s Nourish Spa Conditioner. Trader Joe’s makes the BEST shampoo and conditioner I’ve EVER used. The products are really hydrating and my hair always feels clean, but NEVER feels stripped.

After shampooing and detangling, I apply my deep conditioner to my soaking wet hair while I’m still in the shower. I’ve used SheaMoisture’s Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque for YEARS. I buy about 5 or 6 at a time so that I know I always have some on hand. Once I’ve applied a liberal amount of deep conditioner to my hair, I put on a shower cap, step out of the shower, and sit under my hooded dryer for 15 minutes.

Then I get BACK into the shower and rinse out the deep conditioner. Once all the product is out, I apply my leave-in to my soaking wet hair. Andrew told me that because my hair loves water, the best way to get the benefits of my products is to apply them to my soaking wet hair. Right now I’m trying the Camille Rose Naturals Coconut Water Leave-in Treatment. I’ve been using this since I ran out of my Karens Body Beautiful Sweet Ambrosia Leave-in. I really like the Camille Rose Naturals leave-in because once I apply it to my hair, I don’t feel like I need to use another conditioning product when I’m styling.

This is what my hair looks like after I’ve applied my leave-in. It’s so short! And as you can see, there are no curls in there. The most “uniform” texture I have are those waves that you see. Those are leftovers from my rod sets! I’m a fine-haired 4C, which means I don’t have a uniform or defined curl pattern. Because my hair is so fine, it’s prone to breakage, but since cutting my hair and increasing the amount of water it gets, I haven’t experienced any breakage at all! The first time I ran my fingers through my short hair and didn’t see any little broken pieces of hair all over my hands, I literally cried tears of relief. I’d been dealing with breakage for YEARS, and all I had to do was get a haircut to reveal the super healthy hair underneath. Seriously, if you’re having problems with breakage, dryness, tangles and/or split ends…you may want to cut a few inches off. Your hair WILL grow back. It doesn’t make sense to hang on to damage!

I can’t style my hair when it’s soaking wet like this, or it would NEVER dry. So I let it air dry for a while, so that the leave-in can penetrate my hair. Then I take an old t-shirt and soak up some of the water before I start styling my hair.

So on a normal night, I section my hair smaller than this, but I was EXHAUSTED and I wanted to finish my hair as quickly as possible, so these sections are a bit bigger than normal. I two-strand halfway down each section (so the ends aren’t twisted) and I roll the section up on a pink perm rod. Because I’ve already used a leave-in, I don’t use a conditioner to set my twists. All I use is Eco-Styler Gel (the olive oil one).

I use a modified “Denman” brush (a fake Denman from the beauty supply store) to brush the gel into each section before I twist it and put it on the roller. This makes sure the curls come out nice and smooth, which is why I can go a few days without re-setting. And like I said, I don’t like to set my hair when it’s soaking wet, but if it gets too dry, I’ll spritz it with a little water.

Once I’ve finished my hair, I use my blow dryer to start the drying process and then I go to sleep on my satin pillowcase (I don’t tie my hair down with a scarf or anything). But on Tuesday night I didn’t use my blow dryer, and I finished my hair really late, so it didn’t completely dry the next morning. Because of that, my hair was fluffier than usual, but it wasn’t bad.

When I take my hair off the roller, I twist it off in the same direction I rolled it on. I don’t pull the rollers out of my hair. Also, I start in the front of my hair because it’s easier for me, but if you’re trying this style, you don’t have to start in the front.

When I separate the twists, I use Oyin Handmade Sugar Berries Pomade to moisturize and seal my hair. I emulsify the product into almost a liquid by rubbing it in my hands. I have to do this before I use it because the pomade is too stiff for my fine hair.

Now once all the twists are separated, it’s time to fluff and style! I use a good old fashioned Afro pick for this part. I use the pick to fluff out my roots ONLY. I don’t drag the pick through the ends of my hair. If I want to separate the ends, I use my fingers.

Like I said, my hair wasn’t 100% dry when I took out the rollers, so the result was really fluffy hair, but usually this style creates SUPER defined curls. After I shake out my hair a little bit (to get rid of the actual bits of sugar that the Oyin pomade leaves behind), I’m all done!

To preserve the style I just sleep on my satin pillowcase, and I sleep on my arm anyway, so I don’t mush the curls. In the morning I just use the pick to fluff out the top and then I’m ready to go. The Oyin pomade is so effective at moisturizing and sealing my hair that I usually don’t need to moisturize my hair every day. I just wait until co-wash day to moisturize my hair with water (I plan to co-wash and re-style my hair on Friday night).

As the days roll on, my hair gets bigger and fluffier, and you can really see the shape of the cut (longer on the top and shorter on the sides and in the back). I plan to experiment with other styles (Curlformers are next) and different sizes of perm rods. But so far, this style and new hair care regimen are really working for me!

Hope that was helpful. And again, if you’re experiencing less-than-healthy hair, get a trim!

XO

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