The Best Natural Hair Styles for Traveling

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One thing I really hate about air travel, besides the horrible food, the lines in security, and the layovers, is the dry air on the airplane. I don’t know what happens to you, but if I wear my hair out during a flight it becomes hard, dry and brittle.

Airplanes are notorious for having dry air. It causes problems for people with respiratory issues like asthma. It dries out your nose and eyes making you more prone to get infections and catch viruses. And most importantly for the readers of this blog, it dries out your hair.

Protecting you hair from dry airplane air is as important as protecting it in the wintertime. I prepare my hair for travel by moisturising it well the day before. I wash and condition my hair. If you use a leave-in conditioner apply that to your hair. I’m not using a leave-in at the moment. I just wet my hair and then apply some jojoba oil to it to hold in the moisture.

Once you apply your leave-in use a oil to seal in the moisture. Like I said I use jojoba. It’s expensive, but it’s a light oil that is the closest to the oil your hair makes naturally. It doesn’t leave my hair feeling super greasy and that’s good.

I divide my hair into sections and comb it out gently with a wide-toothed comb. Then I start twisting it. I’m guilty of lack of creativity in this department. I use the same protective style most of the time and that’s two strand twists. I usually use a little raw shea butter on my hair when I twist it. It helps hold my hair in the twists a little better. I’m not a product junkie and really don’t even have any hair products right now, but there are a few I want to try. I usually put in medium sized twists that take about an hour for me to do on my hole head. At night sleep with in a satin bonnet and the next day you’re ready to travel.

Two-strand-twists isn’t the only protective style you can wear on a plane trip. It’s just what works best for me. Any style that tucks your ends away so they aren’t exposed to the dry air will protect them. You can wear your hair in braids, twists, up in a bun. The possibilities are endless really.

Once I arrive at my destination, my twists still look great. I usually keep them in for half of the week and then I wear a twist-out for the other half. It’s easy and there’s no fussing around with my hair. I hate fussing around.

If you want to keep your hair looking healthy during your next flight a protective style is the best way to go. The other thing that will help keep your hair healthy is drinking plenty of water on the flight. That’s important to keep your body from getting to dried out in general. You should opt for water over other beverages and drink as much as you can. It not just good for your hair. It will also help combat jet lag. Trust me.

My Hair Cut

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I cut my hair pretty short! I know it was a crazy thing to do, but I didn’t mean to do it. I was trying to even it out and I ended up cutting most of it off. Here’s the the whole sad story.

Not too long ago I decided to start deadlocks. I see people with beautiful locs all the time and I have loc envy. I’m constantly watching YouTube loc goddesses like Chescaleigh and The Bronze Goddess and thinking that maybe I should start locs. They look so good and the hairstyles those ladies wear are so elegant.

The problem is that I’ve tried to start locs four times now and each time was an epic fail. For my most recent attempt I tried starting my locs with two strand twists using interlocking to tighten them. That worked well for me because I usually wear my hair in two strand twists anyway when it’s loose.

Anyway, it didn’t take long for me to get all kinds of build up in my hair. That’s the problem I always have with locs. I’m prone to build up.

After about six months I decided to take my locs down, but because they were interlocked that was rough going. To make a long story short I damaged my hair a bit and ended up needing to cut a lot of the ends. I got a bit out of control with the cutting and ended up with hair shorter than I wanted. That sucks.

I don’t know how long my hair was before I cut it, but here’s a picture of what it looked like.

Yes, I know I’m totally posing in this picture. Ignore that please. That was when I first started locing my hair.

Now my hair looks like this…

That’s me on the day I got my UK passport. My hair is in two strand twists here too. It’s a pretty huge different in length. My hair hasn’t been this short in a very long time. It’s taking some getting used to.

I’ve decided to start posting on this blog regularly to chart my hair growth. I’ve always wanted to have long hair, but I end up cutting it way more often then I really want to. I thought that tracking my journey here would help me keep the scissors out of my hair.

Length Check Starting Point

  • Front: 81/2 inches
  • Side: 6 1/4 inches
  • Back: 3 1/2 inches

Finding Natural Products for Black Hair

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I’ve been natural for a long time. When I first decided to go natural I didn’t really think much about the products I used, but as time passed I began more and more interested in using natural products. It seemed like using natural products was a natural extenstion of going natural for me.

Why Natural Products

Many conventional products have synethic ingredients that aren’t exactly healthy for your hair. Tightly curled hair is quite fragile and tends to be dry. Using a product that is drying and harsh will cause your hair to break off. Here are some ingredients to avoid in hair products.

  • Isopropyl Alcohol dries the hair and causes breakage.
  • Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) strips the hair by dissolving the natural oils.
  • Propylene Glycol (PG) detoriates the proteins in the hair.
  • Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) is a foaming agent that stips the hair of moisture.
  • Petroleum dries the hair.
  • Mineral oil is a petroleum byproduct that dries the hair.

These are just a few of the ingedients that you should be putting on your hair. They will dry the hair and make it more prone to breakage.

You should also avoid artificial preservatives and artificial fragrances. Everything that you put on your hair gets on your scalp and absorbs into your bloodstream. Remember that when you’re choosing your hair products.

Natural Ingredients

There are plenty of natural ingredients you can look for in hair products that will nourish the hair and add to its general overall health. Oils and butters are great on our hair. Look for products that contain ingredients like these.

  • coconut oil
  • almond oil
  • olive oil
  • avocado oil
  • jojoba oil
  • castor oil
  • shea butter
  • water
  • glycerine

Some people’s hair responds well to some of these ingredients and some don’t. Like I know some people who have problems with glycerine actually making their hair dry and I know some people whose hair loves glycerine. You have to be mindful of which ingredients work best in your hair.

You can even buy some of these ingredients separately and mix them together to make your own products. I make a hair butter that I use with I twist or braid my hair with shea butter, almond oil, coconut oil, glycerine, rosewater, honey, and aloe gel. I put all those ingredients in my food processor and whip them up really good. You can do the same thing with products that work really well in your hair.

Product Brands

There are quite a few brands of products you can buy that are made for curly hair. I’m not a product junky so most of these products I haven’t tried. I tend to keep my regiem very basic. Here are some brands for curly hair to look out for. You can buy these products in beauty supply store, at Target or online.

  • Bee Mine Products
  • Blended Beauty
  • Jessicurl
  • Carol’s Daughter
  • Karen’s Body Beautiful
  • Oyin Handmade
  • CURLS
  • Kinky-Curly
  • Uncle Funky’s Daugther
  • Deva Curl
  • Miss Jessie’s
  • Mixed Chicks
  • Curl Junkie
  • Jane Carter Solution
  • KomazaCare
  • Mop Top
  • Brown Butter Beauty
  • Surls by Sisters Smith
  • Taliah Waajid Black Earth Products
  • Afroveda

I hope this list gives you a good starting point for hair products. Just choose a hair line and start trying the products. There are lots of videos on YouTube of naturals reviewing products. Check a few of them out to help you decide what you what to try.

Natural Styles for Black Women’s Hair

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There are many styling options for natural hair. As black women we are often not very aware of our natural hair texture and how versitile it is. Many of us have had relaxers for so long and so we’ve been quite out of touch when it comes to our hair.

Here are some popular styling options for natural black hair that you can try.

The Wash and Go

This is an easy style. You just wet your hair to revive the curls and go. To make this style work well you need to find products that work really well with your curls. Those products are different to different people. I prefer natural products. Using natural products seems to be a good extension of going natural to me, but I know many natural women who don’t care about how natural their products are.

When you choose products you should beware of sulfates, petroleum, alcohol and silicones. None of these products do any favors to natural hair.

In order to make your wash and good look great use a good moisturizing product, another product to seal in moisture like a natural oil, and a styler to help hold your lovely curls in place.

The Blowout

I know a few women who wear a blowout and look absolutely great. I’ve never done it though. It’s a good funky style and if you feel like you can pull it off go right a head.

When using heat on your hair make sure that your hair is well protected by product. Honestly, I haven’t owned a blow dryer in about ten years so I can’t give any great advice about this style. The best I can say is be careful not to damage your hair in the drying process.

Braid, Cornrows, and Twists

Braids, twists and cornrows are great styling options for natural hair. They also make wonderful protective styles that will help prevent breakage so you can see more length in your hair each month. They are easy styles because once they’re done you can leave them alone for a while with no problem.

My favorite style is the two strand twist. I wear my hair in twists for half the week and in a twist out for the other half of the week.

Locs

I don’t currently have locs, but I think they’re a lovely style. I’ve had locs twice. The first time I semi-freesformed them and the second time I started them with two strand twists.

Locs can be started in a variety of ways. Freeform locs are started by not combing the hair at all and letting it naturally loc together. Other ways to start locs are by putting the hair into single strand twists, two strand twists or braids. There are also super thin Sisterlocks. All these options are good for starting locs. Your hair type and the amount of time and money you can spend on upkeep will help you determine which one is good for your.

Tips to Help You Grow Natural Hair

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Growing natural hair long takes some patience. All hair grows and knowing what methods to use to help increase the health of your hair will help you grow long beautiful hair. Here are some helpful tips to get you started on a hair growth routine.

Moisture

Moisture is very important to your hair health. If your hair is dry it will be brittle and break off quite easily. I would recommend that don’t go any longer than three days without wetting your hair. If you don’t wet your hair that often it will start to dry out. Only water can moisturize your hair.

After you’ve wet your hair use a natural oil to seal in that moisture. You can also use the same natural oil to oil your scalp if you have problems with dry scalp. Don’t use hair grease to oil your scalp. Grease contains synthetic ingredients that actually clog the pores on the scalp and prevent hair growth.

Deep condition about once a month to soften and moisturize your hair. Deep conditioning can be more effective if you use a hood dryer or steamer when you do your deep conditioning treatment.

Products

Try to use natural products on your hair. Avoid products with drying ingredients like petroleum and alcohol. These products will help contribute to hair breakage.

Sulfate is the ingredient in shampoos that produce that thick lather you get when you wash your hair. They also dry out your hair. Sulfate free shampoos are much gentler on your hair. After you wash your hair always condition.

You should buy a silicone free conditioner. Silicones cover the hair shaft making hair that isn’t healthy seem healthy. In order to have a realistic idea about the health of your hair I’d recommend not using a silicone conditioner.

Breakage

Breakage is a bit problem when it comes to hair growth. Here are some tips you can use to help prevent breakage.

Don’t use styling tools and accessories that have rough seams or sharp edges.

Always be gentle when detangling and styling your hair. When you detangle you can do so under running water so it detangles more easily. You should also use a product in your hair that provides a lot of slip to help you detangle your hair more easily.

Wear protective styles often. They keep your ends protected so you can retain length more easily.

Wear a satin bonnet when you sleep. Rubbing your head on the pillow when you sleep will cause your hair to break. If you’re like me and you find it difficult to sleep with something tied around your head buy satin pillowcases instead.

Follow these simple tips and you’ll be able to grow long beautiful natural hair.

How to Restore Damaged Natural Hair

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Sometimes our styling methods damage our natural hair. One of the good things about having natural hair is that you can have curly hair on some days and straight hair on other days. When you’re straightening your hair you have to be very careful. You don’t want to get heat damage.

To avoid heat damage limit the amount of heat your hair is exposed to. Avoid blow-drying and flat ironing your hair on a regular basis. If you want to straighten your hair occasionally that’s fine. Your hair will be able to deal with it if you don’t apply too much heat at once.

When your blow-dry your hair only use the lowest setting. Don’t let the dryer stay on any one area of your hair too long. It’s best to use a hooded dryer. These dryers spread the heat out over your whole head and are less damaging.

If you flat iron your hair use a product that protects against heat damage. Flat iron very small sections at a time and do as few passes over the hair as possible. To help get your hair a bit straighter use a rat tail comb to guide the flat iron. Stick the comb in the section first at the root. Pull the comb down just far enough to fit your flat iron behind it and then as you run the comb down that section of hair pull the flat iron down right behind it.

You can use different methods of straighten your hair to cause less damage. Try setting your hair in rollers and using a hooded dryer to straighten it. Than you can do a silk wrap to get it even straighter.

Honestly, I haven’t straightened my hair in years and years and don’t really remember how I used to do it, but their are lots of videos you can watch on YouTube about it. YouTube has a large natural hair community.

If your hair is already damaged you can do some things to help it, but you can’t just make heat damage go away. If your hair is damaged use only gentle shampoos that are sulfate free. Always condition with a moisturizing conditioner after you wash your hair. You should also deep condition weekly.

Use a leave-in conditioner on your hair. Different hair types needs different products. Use what ever leave-in you’ve had the best experience with in the past.

Limit the your styling. When your hair is damaged it’s in a more fragile state than it normally is. Use only wide tooth combs for detangling. Make sure those combs don’t have any rough seams that can snag on the hair. Brushes and narrower tooth combs will be too rough on your hair. Don’t detangle your hair when it’s dry.

Deep condition your hair to help restore some of the moisture that’s been stripped from your hair by the heat damage. Avoid products with alcohol like gels and hair sprays that will dry out your hair even more.

Wear your hair in protective styles while it is trying to recover. Your hair is more fragile right now because it is damaged so it is even more prone to breakage than usual. Wear your hair up in protective styles to protect it from the elements and to limit the amount of styling your do to it.

The severity of the damage will determine how long you need to be ultra protective of your hair.

Using Protective Styles to Retain Length in Natural Black Hair

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Protective styling is a great tool for helping your achieve the hair length you want. Natural black hair can grow. All hair does. It grows at about a 1/2 per month. That’s average, but some people’s hair grows faster or slower than that. The speed at with your hair grows depends on your health and your genetics. Whether or not your hair retains length is dependent on styling techniques. When you style your hair it tends to break.

Afro textured hair is quite fragile. That’s just a fact. Curly hair is more prone to breakage than straight hair. Every bend in the hair creates a weak point in the strand. These weak points easily break when the hair is manipulated. The tighter the curl the weaker the hair.

Our hair becomes stressed when it is being constantly manipulated and styled. The more styling you do and the rougher the styling you do the more your hair will break off. If your hair is breaking off as much as or even more than it is growing you won’t see the length that you want.

When I was younger one of my friend’s mother had very long natural hair. Her hair stretched all the way down to her butt. I always marveled at it. I wanted my hair to be that long too. She almost always wore her hair up. I hardly ever saw her with it down. I used to wonder what the point was of having long hair if she never wore it down. I used to think that if I had hair that was that long I’d wear it down everyday. Well, my friend’s mother probably knew about something that I was completely ignorant of at the the time. That is protective styling.

The ends of your hair are the oldest part. They have been out in the elements the longest. They’ve been exposed to the most styling. They’ve been the most battered. Being out in the elements can cause this fragile part of your hair to break off. That’s why protective styling is so important. Having your ends tucked safely away protects them from damage.

Protective styling isn’t just limited to buns. There are plenty of styles you can wear that are protective. We all have our favorites, mine is two strand twists, but we can easily switch them up for a new look. Here are some of the most popular protective styles you can wear.

  • two strand twists
  • three strand twists
  • box braids
  • flat twists
  • cornrows
  • bantu knots
  • French braid
  • bun
  • French twist

Sometimes I just throw my hair up into a ponytail and tuck the ends under. That’s a really easy protective style to wear in your hair.

Protective styling doesn’t have to be boring. Play around with different ideas. You can put your hair into to many different up styles. I think if you’re creative you can wear protective styles much of the time and still have fun versatile hair.

Choosing Products for Natural Hair

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When you buy products for natural hair checking the ingredients list is very important. There are some products that claim to be good for natural hair that just aren’t because they contain ingredients that are drying and even damaging to the hair.

Petroleum and mineral oil are drying to the hair and clog the scalp. These products may leave a temporary sheen on your hair but in reality they are preventing your hair from absorbing real moisture and causing the cuticle to dry out. Avoid products with these ingredients.

Instead of synthetic oils, use products with all natural oils. Coconut oil, jojoba oil, olive oil, avocado oil, almond oil, and castor oil are all examples of good natural oils you should look for in hair products. Shea butter, cocoa butter and mango butter are also quite good and nourishing for the hair.

When you look at an ingredients list the ingredients are listed by quantity. The ingredient there is the most of in the product is listed at the top. You want water to be near the top of that ingredient list. Water is moisturizing and curly hair needs lots of it.

Glycerin is another ingredient that is good to have in your hair products. It will helps  soften your curls and helps your hair retain moisture.

There are plenty of products for us naturals on the market today. Here are some of the most well known brands for natural hair:

  • Carol’s Daughter
  • Miss Jessie’s
  • Karen’s Body Beautiful
  • JessiCurl
  • Uncle Funky’s Daughter
  • Mixed Chicks
  • Kinky Curly
  • Blended Beauty

These are just a few of the most popular hair products for curly hair. There are many more.

Don’t just assume these products are good for your hair because they’re made for curlies. I’d still read the ingredient labels carefully. As they become more popular some companies start to use cheaper ingredients in their products. Products that were once good might not always be. I can’t stress enough how important it is to read labels.

Just as a side note about reading labels, I used to use Herbal Essence conditioner in my hair. I would actually use the conditioner as a leave-in and it worked very well. Then I moved to Europe. Here I could still get the same Herbal Essence I used in the States. I used it the same way and my hair started feeling really dry and damaged. Well it turns out that the company uses different ingredients in its European products. I didn’t read the ingredients list from the start and so I didn’t realize until I read something about it online. So always check the ingredients.

The great thing is that now that natural hair is more popular you’re starting to be able to find some products that cater to natural hair in regular stores. Target carries a wide array of products for naturals now.

You don’t have to just use products made specifically for curly or natural hair. You can use any products you want. Just read ingredients carefully to make sure the products won’t dry your hair. Stay away from petroleum products and cetearyl alcohol or cetyl alcohol. You want your hair to be soft and strong. These ingredients dry the hair making it more prone to damage.

Understanding Your Natural Hair Texture

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Knowing your natural hair texture is an important step to understanding how to care for your hair. Hair curl patterns have been classified into four types. Each type has its own properties.

The first type is type 1 which we won’t be discussing here because that’s straight hair.

The next type is 2. Type 2 hair is a loose wave. You can think of it as somewhere between straight and curly. Type 2a hair has a slight wave. Type 2b has more of a defined wave. Type 2c is large loose curls.

Type 3 curls are a tight S shape curl like a stretched slingy. If your hair is type 3a you’ll have a tighter curl pattern than a 2c, and the curls will be more of a spiral shape. 3b and 3c are tighter still. Type 3 hair has a lot of volume. Type 3 hair doesn’t have a smooth surface so it won’t lay flat. It also doesn’t reflect light in the same way as straighter hair so it isn’t as shiny. Type 3 hair easily absorbs water. This causes to shrink up quite a bit once it dries. My hair is 3c and if I pluck a hair from my head it the curls form a complete circle.

Type 4 hair has a zigzag curl pattern. The hair is very soft and the curls less defined. Type 4 hair is the most fragile type of hair. It needs to be handled with care. It has fewer cuticle layers than the other hair types and is more prone to breakage. Even when healthy this hair type will not shine naturally. Like type 3 hair the pattern of the curl doesn’t allow it to reflect light well.

Often times you’ll have multiple hair types on your head. The curliest hair is usually at the crown of your head with the looser bits at the front and sides. Knowing the types of hair pattern you have will help you better take care of your hair and determine what kind of products to use in it. The more educated you are about your hair the better you will be able to care for it. Well cared for hair is better able to retain length without breaking.

A clear way to determine your hair type is to pull out a clean strand of hair when you get out of the shower. The hair should have no product on it. How does the curl look? If it is an S shape or even if it curls into a circle you’re a Type 3. If it’s a zigzag shape then you’re a type 4.

No matter which hair type you have if you care for your hair well it will be soft and beautiful. Once you know what hair type you are start looking for examples of how to style your hair type and what products to use online.

Moisturizing Solutions for Dry Natural Hair

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Are you having a problem with dry natural hair? When your hair dries out it can feel coarse and brittle. Eventually, dryness will cause your hair to start to break off. If your hair is breaking off it will never get long. Healthy moisturized hair that is treated well will grow long.

Many people think that oil adds moisture to their hair. That is a myth. Oil doesn’t moisturize your hair at all it seals in moisture. The only thing that will truly add moisture to your hair is water.

Your hair needs water. Have you ever noticed that if you don’t wet your hair for a long time as the days progress it gets drier and drier feeling? That’s because it hasn’t come into contact with water. If you’re suffering from dry hair you need to wet your hair more often. I usually wet my hair every 2 to 3 days.

If you don’t want to wet it in the shower that’s fine. You don’t have to keep your hair soaking wet. Keep some water in a spray bottle and use it to spritz your hair sometimes. You can even use a mixture of water and something else to help smooth your hair.

These days I use rosewater and vegetable glycerin. The glycerin makes my hair feel very soft. You don’t have to use rosewater in this mixture. I would suggest using distilled water instead of tap water though because tap water has chlorine in it.

Start out by mixing equal parts vegetable glycerin and water in a spray bottle. Shake it well and spritz it on your hair as needed. That’s the basic mixture, but it may be too heavy for you. I find that using 1/4 glycerin and 3/4 water works best for me. Experiment with the water to glycerin ratio to figure out what feels best on your hair.

Another option for moisturizing your hair is a conditioner and water spritz. Mix one part conditioner and one part water in a spray bottle. Spritz that mixture on your hair as needed. You can just use your favorite conditioner for that recipe. Again you may need to adjust it for your hair type.

Applying oil to your hair after you wash and condition it will help seal in the moisture and keep your hair soft. I recommend using coconut, jojoba, olive, castor, or almond on your hair. You can add a few drops of an essential oil to your oil to give it a nice smell.

Conditioning your hair will also help it stay soft and moisturized. Be sure to condition it after every wash. You may even want to condition it even if you don’t use shampoo to wash your hair that day. This is called co washing. Deep condition your hair with a good quality deep conditioner once a month.

Keeping your hair soft and moisturized will help it healthy, strong and growing long.