Tiny Bits of Happiness | 4 Easy Steps Natural Hair

Easy Simple Steps to be Kinder to Your Hair

Having a simple hair routine that embraces natural texture and style feels like a chance at winning the lottery. I’m such a sucker for simplicity and simple routines at heart. I feel the pull for simple hair routines especially when the weather starts to warm up. I also love finding products and routines that are kinder to my hair and overall improve the look and health of it. Over the past year I’ve slowly been exploring the world of naturally wavy hair and figuring out what works for me. And I’ve learned a lot. A LOT. Especially about what I feel like feels good and works for me.

simpler & kinder hair routines

First, I didn’t even realize I had wavy hair until last summer. I am 32 years old and I had zero idea I had wavy/curly hair. It is comical. When you brush and blow dry and do all these things that pull your hair and tell it to do certain things, ya never give it a chance to breath and do it’s own thing. I truly love having my chair curled and tidy for lots of occasions, but I also love having a routine that embraces my natural hair in a healthy and low maintenance way. Don’t get me wrong, there are days when blow drying my hair and curling it feels like the best thing. But there are many more days where I feel like washing it and not thinking about it.

few things to cover first—

Think of your end goal— what is it that you hope to gain or want from your wavy hair experience? A quicker hair routine? A way to not use heat tools on your hair? To find out the best way to get your waves to look their best? From what I’ve learned there are two different camps.

Simple Routine Low Maintenance Wavy Hair
Trying to get the best possible curl and style out of your natural textured hair

These are two totally different roads and camps, so don’t get them confused like I did. There is so much information out there. Figure out how much research or effort you are willing to invest, but honestly these four simple steps will help you embrace your hair without doing crazy deep dives into the world of Curly Girl Method.

Last summer when I started this I quickly got wrapped up in it and started buying a lot of products and felt like my hair never looked great. It was too complicated and I felt like I was constantly searching for products that would work rather than letting my hair do her thing. So I am very much in the first camp for focusing on the low maintenance hair and not working about perfect curl shapes or lots of steps with an extensive list of products.

Interested in more information? Google search “Curly Girl Method” and you can read the book as well. There are groups and hashtags and lots of ladies using lots of products and trying different things to embrace their natural curls . I’ve decided my limit is 3 products outside of washing my hair and I only want to air dry. One area that is helpful is to get to know your hair— here are a few important baseline questions to get to know and find the answers to.

Quick Facts-

The is the briefest of a brief overview. Most of this will leave you wanting or needing more information if this is your first foray into natural hair. There’s tons and tons of information on the internets. Be kind to yourself and start slow.

wavy, curly or coily?

Hair can be broken down to types and there are variations within those types—

Type 2 are Wavy.
Type 3 are Curly hair
Type 4 are tight Coil hairs.

density

This is how much hair you have and this will help you figure out what type of products will make it feel good. If you have less dense hair you don’t want to weigh it down and if you have really dense hair you can use heavier products.

porosity

Does your hair take a long time to air dry or does it air dry really quick? Porosity is how your hair retains and reacts to moisture. You can do more research, but here are the two most important facts

High Porosity: Absorbs water quickly, cuticles are open. can get wet quickly and tangles easily. When it’s wet it can be weighed down, absorbs moisture easily, can air dry more quickly (often associated with wavy and curly hair)
Low Porosity: tight cuticles, almost repels water, will take a long time to air dry
Medium Porosity: Exactly what it sounds like, you land in the middle of these two camps.

(1) Don’t Brush Your Hair— Comb in the Shower

This is the first step to letting your hair do it’s thing without you getting in the way. Do not brush your hair after you shower. You will still comb your hair, but you will do it in the shower with a wide tooth comb while you have conditioner in your hair. I typically shampoo and condition my hair twice while I am in the shower. I really love the Kristin Ess Fragrance Free Shampoo and Conditioner or her new Curl Enhancing Shampoo and Conditioner. Both are amazing price points and work super well.

I like to use a wide tooth comb with a handle that I can hang off our faucet handles. It’s easy to access and it fits neatly in the shower. I would love to see a pretty one on the market, but I found a very inexpensive one at Target and it does the job juuuust fine. The products you use do matter, but don’t go product crazy. Again, the Kristin Ess Fragrance Free line (Shampoo // Conditioner) or her new Curl Enhancing line (Shampoo // Conditioner) are super affordable and a great entry product. If shampoos and conditioners have sulfates, and parabens and a slew of other ingredients it will make your hair extra frizzy and difficult for your waves to form.

(2) “Scrunch” in Conditioner

This is your second step to changing up your typical washing routine. As you are rinsing out your conditioner, you will cup your hands underneath and scrunch your hair as the water runs through it. You are essentially starting to encourage your waves and capturing moisture in your cuticles. You can also flip your head over as you wash out the conditioner and scrunch the conditioner in as you rinse it out. This is often called, “Squish to Condish.” I always squish the conditioner out, but I don’t always bend my head over. Sometimes I feel lazy and want to have a low key showering experience.

Tiny Bits of Happiness | 4 Easy Ways Natural Hair

(3) Use a Cotton Towel

This is also a big change for how most of us have always done our hair. Don’t dry your hair with your terry cloth body towel. Spray and put on product on your soaking wet hair and scrunch out moisture. Then use a cotton towel, my favorite favorite is this Sunrise Bliss towel. I used to use an old coral jcrew t-shirt and it was such an eyesore every time I had to leave it out drying and never quite went on my head right.

Sunrise Bliss is created by a women owned small business called Lakeshore Dry Goods. I am obsessed with and their towels also look so good in any space. It’s really nice using something that is designated to be a towel instead of a random left over t-shirt (though that is always an option too). It feels so good to support a badass small business for sure a reasonable price. It’s incredibly reasonably priced and I’m a total believer!

You can “plop” your hair, twist it up, or keep scrunching it let it air dry. I typically plop my hair for about 15-20 minutes and then let it air dry the rest of the time.

I am obsessed with the gray stripe towel and how it flows with my space. Doesn’t she look so cute hanging on that hook?

(4) Apply Products & Don’t fuss

Okay, here’s the tough part. Start simple and slow. In the beginning I tried to do a lot of steps and bought way too many products. Here’s the thing— natural hair is just that, it’s natural. It’s wavy and wild and doesn’t follow the rules. It’s not tidy and perfect. I have created a few baseline rules that make it seem manageable and helps keep perspective.

Only 1-3 products post shower
Air drying
Needs to feel touchable and flexible after (can’t be stiff or feeling like I need to be precious with it)
It will be wild and funky for a little bit

Truly, I love the Kristin Ess Line. I have found the Curl Defining Jelly is such a great jumping off point. It creates a little cast and hold, but it’s not overly crunchy. The hair feels touchable and it has body and movement. She also makes a Hydrating Curl Leave-in Cream.

And lastly, don’t keep fussing with it and playing with it. This encourages frizz and it will lose it’s shape. I know this hard. But try to let your hair dry and do her thing. Let her be wild and let time and good products and habits start to heal her.

Lastly, a few extra tips

Sleep with your hair in a pineapple to extend waves and style. (Put hair in a high lose pony on top of head and clip the curly forward towards front)
To refresh curls, you can either mist your hair, or gently wet your hands and start reworking your waves. I like to put some watered down product (like Curl Defining Jelly) in my hands and rake the palms over the tops of my hair and scrunch up again. This livens up the waves and helps combat frizz. I often like my day 2 hair better.
Know when to ditch a product— if your hair feels stiff or really weighed down (like you rubbed lotion all over your hair…ahem. I know a gal) then ditch that product. You can offer it to a friend. This is why it’s helpful to get to know your hair and figure out what feels good (gels or creams or mousses, etc.)
Remember, be kind to yourself. Keep it simple. Focus on being kind to your hair and letting it do her own thing. There are SO many products out on the market and LOTS of information that will advise you on lots of steps. If low maintenance is your goal (me!), then figure out how to adapt it to what feels good and manageable to you.

Who’s doing the natural hair journey with me?