Transitioning 101 by IntelligentBeauty (Part 2)

PRODUCTS

When talking about products to use during the transition it is important to note that what you used for your relaxed hair, very often, will not work as you transition into naturally curly hair. The reason is there are many ingredients in relaxed hair products that do not agree with our natural curly hair. Many of those products are loaded with synthetic ingredients that give smoothness, shine and make the hair

look moisturized. But they also tend to block out moisture, build up on hair strands, and disguise the healthy of the hair. Naturally curly hair thrives on moisture, but water is not enough. There needs to be quality natural ingredients in the products you purchase. Avoid products with mineral oil or petrolatum oil (petroleum) in them because these are synthetic oils that coat and suffocate the hair shaft, blocking moisture and drying out the hair. If applied directly to the scalp, these ingredients can actually retard growth.

Silicones are also another synthetic ingredient to avoid, especially in transition. Silicone ingredients are usually used to give smoothness to the hair. However silicones also tend to disguise the health of the hair, making the hair appear healthy, shiny, and moisturized therefore creating a dependency on them. Ingredients like these tend to cause build up on the hair as well, therefore causing you to use sulfate shampoos. Sulfate containing shampoos are not a good option to clean hair because it is a harsh chemical that tends to strip the hair of all moisture as it cleans. Also with prolonged use can ultimately make the hair dry, frizzy and cause breakage. The concept here is if you use harmful synthetic ingredients in your conditioning products weekly, or even daily, on you hair, then you must use the harmful sulfate containing shampoos to remove the build up. However, if you use natural conditioners (oils, butters, creams, milks) on your hair, then you can use other harmless methods to clean your hair, such as baking soda, acv rinses, and cowashing.

Cowashing is using conditioners as another method of cleaning the hair; I will talk about this further later. Conditioners do have mild surfactants (soap) that, along with the rubbing action of your hands on the scalp, can clean the scalp and hair very well. It can be done as often as you like and it boosts your hair's moisture level. Moisture is so important because when you hair is moisturized, it will not frizzy, dry, and becomes extremely soft, great sheen, and is manageable. Also you would not have to be dependent on bad ingredient products to give you these results. Side note: healthy natural hair has sheen, not so much a shine. However the shine can be accomplished by adding natural oils like jojoba oil, extra virgin coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, sweet almond oil, etc.

So how should we be using these natural quality products? What should our regimen be?

IntelligentBeauty will address those questions in Part 3 of Transitioning 101