What Have You Learned About Your Hair This Past Year?

I thought being natural my whole life would make me an expert on my own hair. But this past year alone, I've learned so much about my hair and sometimes throw my hands up at the sky yelling, why didn't I do this before?! When I first started embracing my hair a little over a year-and-a-half ago I jumped on bandwagons, tried products without researching and used methods and techniques on my hair that didn't work. I thought that as naturals we all had to do the same thing!

That's okay though, those days are gone. 2010 was good to my hair, even as I was trying to figure things out about it. The main things I've learned are:

- My hair needs to be cleansed with shampoo every 5-7 days, no matter the season. As long as I use moisturizing shampoos like Jessicurl's Cleansing Cream or Curls Curlicious Cleansing Cream my hair does just fine.
- Since using more organic/"natural" products, my "naked" hair feels much silkier and smoother. I do use "drugstore" products like IC Fantasia gel but mostly sticking to organic products has made my hair "feel" better
- My hair isn't much of a fan of castor oil. It loves coconut oil and jojoba oil.
- I cannot use shea butter by itself, it has to be mixed like Oyin's Whipped Pudding.
- I don't really *need* to DC after a henna treatment. I do anyway because it can't hurt, but my hair doesn't really dry out.
- Less is always best! All I really need to use is a leave-in conditioner, a styling product and seal with an oil no matter how I'm doing my hair. That's it!

I've retained a lot of length just from the summer until now simply because I have realized these things about my hair. I don't remember my hair (and scalp!) ever looking and feeling this strong and healthy.

What have you learned about your natural hair in 2010?