The World of Overwhelming Hair Care Info

When I first started embracing my natural hair about a year ago, I was overwhelmed by the many different hair care philosophies out there. I dabbled in a lot of these methods trying to discover which ones work for me. I did okay with the curly girl method because I hated shampoo anyway but not using silicones was a little confusing for me since I didn't quite understand what silicones were.

I went through a stage of not buying products I considered "unnatural." I wanted ingredients that were organic and pure. Let me just say that as a college student, that wasn't ideal because shit was expensive.  And then I got frustrated with products and hair stuff because I lacked the time and energy with my school work and just used protective styled, which grew my hair a tremendous amount, but I ended up having to trim my damage ends because of how neglectful I was, but that's a whole other post entirely....

Then there was the wash and gos. I started doing them last summer and hated it. My hair has a few textures with a variety of curls so they weren't uniformed. They shrank up and by the end of the day I looked like a fuzz ball with undefined curls. I was also buying products just because they promised to make my hair curly without knowing how to use them. There are certain products I might have to revisit simply for this reason...

At the moment, I think I am ingredient conscious and spending a decent amount of care for my hair. You might notice that I bold the first five ingredients of each product I review because those are the most active ingredients in a product. I really like to consider what I am putting in my hair because then I can gauge how my hair will react. So it's a mix between "natural" and "commercial" ingredients for me. I know that generally, products with mineral oil really doesn't do much for my hair because my strands basically feel like there is a coating on it that I don't like. I avoid sulfates because my hair goes haywire. Even olive oil is a hit and miss with me, and I tend to only use it in cold weather. Silicones help tame my natural frizz (I embrace my frizz, but I don't want it uncontrollable). I'm still not keen on wash and gos.

Even though I have been natural my entire life, I didn't know or understand my hair until recently. I have sifted through different philosophies and jumped on bandwagons that I have since gotten off of (thankfully). This is my first summer equipped with the knowledge and the tools to maintain beautiful and healthy curly hair that is being seen as a "fad" by mainstream. However, it's a permanent main stay for me...