Blog Posts

How To Choose Great Natural Hair Products

Hey Juss Friends!

As you can tell from the title, we are going to cover some simple ways to choose better products for your natural hair. Many times, when developing a routine and trying to master the natural hair care, it’s easy to get taken advantage of by the beauty industry. I mean, let’s be completely honest here, natural hair care is HUGE BUSINESS right now and shows no signs of slacking up in the future.

I get it! BB (big beauty) wants to cash in on our new journeys back to ourselves and, mainly, on our ignorance. Many companies use great ingredients in their products and many others do not.

Side note: Before I go too far, let me tell you that today’s insight is brought to you by one of my favorites! When I go to the nail salon, I almost always grab color by ORLY! I keep it at home to use on my baby girl as well because it’s… (you guessed it!) VEGAN. Check out their latest & great here ➡️ ORLY Fall 2019 Color Collection ⬅️

Sooooo back to these quality of hair products…. No, I DO NOT use 100% green, clean hair products, yet. I would love to, but there are some things that I tolerate because they work EXCEPTIONALLY WELL🥴. And, guess what? That’s okay because it’s my hair! I’m aware of many of the risks, and I choose to look past some. I am personally writing you today to let you know that YOU have that same liberty. My only purpose is to share information to challenge you to at least research, then make informed decisions about your hair care products.

Ingredients???

We always say read the label, but what really does that mean? In the natural hair, or any hair, community, the quality of hair products can affect your journey to the point to where you want to quit and go back to the ‘creamy crack’. If we are buying and utilizing trash products, it doesn’t matter how great or consistent our routine is. This can result in an unsuccessful, unenjoyable natural hair experience.

The experts I follow on Instagram @iamblackgirlcurls, who happen to be licensed professionals, have compiled a plethora of information you should see! Not sponsored ➡️ http://www.blackcurlmagic.com/ just great information to pass along.

Let me dive in by saying every product that says “For Natural Hair” surprisingly is not actually for natural hair. Some are not at all designed with our hair in mind.

Reading the label means that before you decide to purchase that shampoo, conditioner, leave-in or whatever, flip the bottle over and look at the ingredient list. I have literally stood in the ethnic aisle of Target googling words in the ingredient list. Sometimes I’ll take a picture to research further(without purchasing) and watching some Youtube reviews 😌 before I buy.

The first 5 ingredients listed are the largest portion of its consistency. This is often referred to in the natural hair community as The First 5 Rule. Usually any good, moisturizing product will list water (aqua) first. Since learning this, I don’t buy anything for my hair that does not have Water as its first ingredient any more.

So after water you may see a whole bunch of long words that I can’t pronounce… this is when I start googling usually 😂. These may look familiar…

And Lauryl Alcohol sometimes. (From random video on YouTube)

These are known as Fatty Alcohols.

When we see alcohol, we usually have a bad thought associated with it. In this case they are good. The longer molecular structure of these alcohols make them ‘oily’ which allows for conditioning to take place in our kinky strands.

Since I mentioned the good alcohols, let me also tell you about those bad ones, too.

List from Naturally Curly Blog site

…to name a few. These are listed as the not so good alcohols. They are small chains as far as their molecular structure. It’s also cited that these are small enough to absorb into hair shaft and cause frizzy, dry and dull hair.

These 2 types of alcohols above are used in shampoos, conditioners, leave ins, etc. The purpose of them is to make sure the other ingredients mixed well, such as, liquids and oils.

No Sulfates?

These guys have a terrible reputation. Although they should be used with caution, they are not bad for us Naturals. Sulfate surfactants basically a fancy name for soap. Our hair gets DIRTY! It’s exposed to elements everyday. Not to mention the toxins in our environments, the smoke, dust, our germy hands🤢..etc. so sometimes soap is needed!

Sulfates usually have the word ‘sulfate’ in the name on most labeling. I prefer to have this for a clarifying (deep cleaning) shampoo. I clarify on wash day once a month at least to strip all of the oil and products, etc, away from my hair. The other wash weeks, I use moisturizing shampoo that may not have as many or as strong of a sulfate. I suggest that you try to look for shampoo that doesn’t have any sulfates in the top 5 unless it’s for clarification only, and none at all in conditioners if you can.

Oils.. 🥺

There are oils in a lot of our shampoos and conditioners… like most if not all. Leave ins, too! My suggestions is that you try not use products with any oils in the top 5 ingredients (or 7-8 really). I went into a little more details in my YouTube about Why My Natural Hair Hasn’t been Growing. I will have another upload coming specifically about oil over usage on natural hair so subscribe there and stay tuned.

Let me just emphasize my point… The oils inside of hair products are different from the oil that is a hair product itself. The oils mixed inside of products are more refined and processed in a way making them, sometimes, less heavy than just the pure oils. This, in turn, is meant to make those oils less potent and less likely to sit on top of the hair strands so they won’t be clogged and resistant to moisture in the future. Moisture resistance in hair leads to most naturals problem… DRY HAIR. Whenever you’re unsure because the names are never that easy to pronounce usually, just google it lol.

I pray that it helps!

Don’t forget to check out ORLY Fall 2019 Color Collection!

Thanks so much for reading this article, Juss Friends! Don’t forget to subscribe for more content like this. Also let me know below what other topics you would like to dive in to….

Also comment any questions that you may have so that I can try to help however necessary.

-Meko ✌🏾

by Juss Meko

RECLAIMING MY TIME: Let’s Stop “Doin TOO MUCH” with Our Natural Hair🧐

Hey Juss Friends!

Auntie Maxine Waters is joining us today ❤️

Many of us naturals or people that want to be naturals are just overwhelmed by the whole idea, right?

If you talk to any black woman about hair, you would find that a lot who aren’t natural want to be natural but they’re just under the impression that natural hair is far too complex. I GET IT! I’ve been natural again since 2011 and it’s been a journey.

In 2011, was when i had my last relaxer and i knew absolutely NOTHING about my hair. I mean even though, at that point in my life, I had already been natural before for longer than i was relaxed. But on this journey, it’s been different. My mother took amazing care of my natural hair! When i was under her care, my hair was literally waist length for years. It was thick and long!

So in the past year or 3, I’ve been wanting to simplify this natural hair thing. I WILL NEVER BE RELAXED, EVER AGAIN! That’s a definite, but while I’m natural for life….. What now?!

For me, wash days, had become annoying and now that i have a daughter it’s double the work because little sister’s hair is growing! I didn’t like that the idea of caring for my crown was feeling like a chore that I DREADED instead of the self-care it should feel like.

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So I started looking at ways to simplify on Youtube of course🤗..

I looked into protective styles first… braids, twists, etc…. those are great, BUT what is the point of having beautiful natural hair that you can’t wear???

Next, I looked at twist out, braid outs, Bantu knots, etc. and I enjoy all of these styles as well, BUT they still require quite a bit of time to do. Then, multiply that times 2 for Royale and I both…. ummmmm so yeah 🚫

My sister-friend Q, (SHE’s AMAZING.. check out her blog here ➡️ http://raquiladnai.com), has an amazing head of natural hair and 2 daughters WITH HEADS FULL OF HAIR! She pointed me in the direction of Black Girl Curls http://www.blackcurlmagic.com/ Instagram. A pair of hair stylists that are teaching and allowing us to wear our hair in its natural state and flourish. They seriously take the stupid out of natural hair😂😂

Of course, I was absolutely intrigued because it was common sense.

Why do we make natural hair so complicated? Why do we think it takes a week to wash and style natural hair? Why do we use oil? Where did these rituals come from?? WHY WHY WHY????

The common denominator was, of course, YouTube and social media. We have learned a lot from other bloggers and things that aren’t of the professional opinion. I think it had to happen that way to get the majority of people away from the relaxed state of mind because many ‘hair stylists’ couldn’t tell you anything about natural hair either at the time. No shade, but just saying…. The early influencers were sharing their journeys with us and started a revolutionary time in history.. no doubt about it!

Natural hair looks different but isn’t that much different from any other hair. EVERYONE HAS NATURAL HAIR, naturally straight to naturally curly or kinky….. The basic building blocks are the same.

Because of these commonalities, our hair needs similar treatment…. the big combo!

Simply Shampoo. Condition. Style.

Yep… that’s it. There are no magic products! I think as naturals we have been conditioned to think that the products make our hair amazing. Although there are really great quality products that should probably be used and really bad quality products that should probably never be used, it’s more about technique than product.

The biggest issue I think is we should not be afraid of shampoo. It is our friend; we just need to know what kinds to use and when. Clarify once a month and use moisturizing shampoos for the other wash days in the month. Once a week is a good place to start. I shampoo every week and then I deep condition every week. Same routine for my baby girl.

After conditioning, i use leave in conditioner or hair milk and a styler (usually a gel). DONE! Now, there are techniques to get the desired look specifically. A shower takes about 15 minutes but when I’m doing my hair it adds about 20 more minutes. AND DONE! At this point I either sit under the dryer or blow dry. During the cooler temperatures, it’s not a great idea to go out with wet hair.

So, that’s right! Wash and go’s are my new love. I re-style like every 5-7 days sometimes more or less depending on what’s going on in life. But it’s become easier. My hair does not rule or ruin my lifestyle anymore lol. I’M RECLAIMING MY TIME!

Latest Wash and Go results on Day 1.

Comment to let me know if you would like a video of my latest wash and go routine. Subscribe to my YouTube so that you don’t miss though uploads Click Here. Take this journey with me… YOU CAN DO THIS NATURAL HAIR THING! I’m here to help and answer questions….

Thanks for Reading! — Meko

by Juss Meko