Hello ladies,

Below are twenty-seven things you can do to improve the health of your hair and keep it from shedding prematurely or breaking off. The Goal? To keep your hair on your head!

Not including the obvious elimination of chemical treatments, this comprehensive list contains all you need to maintain a healthy head of hair. They are categorized by care/maintenance and styling. 

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Are you seeking longer healthier hair? When I first went natural I will admit I wanted my hair to grow super long like the girls I saw on YouTube. As I got farther into my journey I realized what I really wanted was healthy hair. I like my hair long, but its nothing if it’s not healthy. Over the years I have developed a healthy hair regimen and began sticking to it religiously. I have compiled a list of some practices that I use to achieve healthy long hair.

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It’s officially been almost one year and six months that I’ve been natural. I couldn’t be more enthused about the current condition of my hair and the things I have learned along my journey. However, like many naturals, I recently hit a growth plateau. In other words, my hair just didn’t seem to be growing (or retaining) at the same rate as it did at the beginning of my natural haircare journey. Here are some useful tips that can help naturals get over the hump:

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Detangling
For many of us, it might as well be a four letter word. Some of us avoid it until our hair is on the brink of disaster, while others may do some form of it a few times a week or even daily. We all know the dangers of pushing detangling sessions too far back -- from breakage and matting to cutting out clumps of knots. But what about detangling too frequently? Is there a such thing as doing too much detangling?

There's an old adage that says, too much of anything is bad for you. By and large, that tends to be true. Detangling is great for releasing shed hairs, making the removal of buildup easier, and not to mention, it is the cornerstone of every fabulous natural hair style. But when done too often, detangling can lead to the following:

Fall is upon us and winter is not far off as we are feeling the cooler temperatures and gearing up for the holiday season. It may not be apparent just yet, but naturals will need to get ready for the fall and winter weather for our hair. More naturals will be protective styling or adjust their spray bottle concoctions, but naturals with high porosity hair will also need to find ways to absorb just enough moisture - and retain it.

Here are 25 things you can do to improve your natural hair and prevent damage.  The goal here- to keep your hair on your head with these tips for retaining length!

Not including the obvious elimination of chemical treatments, this list of tips for retaining length contains all you need to maintain a healthy head of hair. They are categorized by care/maintenance and styling.

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Just kidding, there really is no secret! The answer is more obvious than you think (and it's retaining the growth that's the real problem).


I remember when I first went natural; my hair was such a priority. I made sure to abide by every natural hair rule and didn’t skip a step on washday. Over time I slowly started skipping steps and cutting corners, expecting the same results. It simply doesn’t work that way. Growing long natural hair is a process. Think of it as growing a plant: If you decide that you’ll water it when you want and constantly alternate between drought and flood, chances are you won’t get the results you desire. I’m back to following the most important rules: pre-pooing, deep conditioning and detangling only when wet/damp. If you’ve stopped, you should should start following the rules again.

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Read any curly forum, group, or blog, and you will quickly be faced with questions like: Where can I get the most moisture? What products will yield the most moisture? What’s the secret ingredient for moisture?

Having curly hair is a never-ending quest for hydration, and many naturals suffer from dry hair or brittle ends, which then lead to fragile hair and breakage. If you want to give your hair the best possible chance of retaining length and feeling its softest, then you need to keep your hair moisturized, with an emphasis on your ends.

No matter the hair type, all hair needs a balance of protein and moisture. The protein is called keratin and whenever that delicate balance is off kilter, we tend to see breakage. Just like anything in life, you can’t have too much of one without affecting the other and our hair needs protein and moisture to stay healthy and look great.  Keeping the moisture/protein balance in check requires attention, and many naturals are quick to add moisture, but rather hesitant to add protein. Protein treatments help to “patch” cracked, chipped or missing cuticle in damaged hair and “gaps” in porous hair. Protein, when used correctly, temporarily shores hair up against environmental and mechanical damage. (Shelli, Split End Prevention)
Finding the right protein treatment depends on your hair’s needs and your hair maintenance so here are some great protein-enriched products to help your strands stay strong and healthy!

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Via African Naturalistas

It's protective styling season for many of us, but before you call up your hairstylist, please take the time to read this post in full.

What is protective styling?
The definition of this term varies from person to person and blogger to blogger. But I define protective styling as any style that protects your hair from physical, chemical and environmental disturbances.

Physical disturbances involve daily styling, combing, and any curl/coil alteration such as twists, braids, "out styles", up-dos, stretched hairstyles and the like.

Chemical alteration involves heat and color treatments.

Environmental disturbances involve elements/pollutants from the air which can bind to the hair strands and cause damage. Environmental disturbances also involve extreme weather conditions such heat and frost.

The cumulative effect of the above can be detrimental to the health of our hair and a hindrance to hair growth.

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If you are puzzled by the title of this article then you must have missed all the hoopla surrounding this quick means to gain around an inch of hair growth in a week. Who does not want to grow their hair faster? I know many women do and a quick Google search will tell you that this is nothing new. You can find thousands, possibly even millions of articles about hair growth and hair loss.

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When it comes to our personal hair goals, a lot of times they have something to do with growth and maintaining length. If you are looking for hair length retention remedies that are completely safe, natural, and easy to follow for the beginner to the experienced natural, then check try adding these to your daily regimen.

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Anyone who recently embarked on a healthy hair journey-- either a relaxed or natural-- can attest to the significant improvement in which the consistent use of natural oils has made on their hair. The use of oils is nothing new in the Black hair community, as many of us can remember getting our hair greased after every hairstyle, and as soon as we started to see our scalp flaking.

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With 2015 in full swing, many ladies are putting their best foot forward, and focusing on improving the health of their hair. I'm right there with ya. After tons of experimentation with hair color, the Max Hydration Method and more, I'm devoting 2015 to making my hair as healthy as possible. But what does healthy natural hair look like? You may have in mind smooth, silky, well-behaved curls that bounce and flow like a dream.

Get that image out of your head.
In truth, there are 4 keys or signs of healthy hair that have absolutely nothing to do with how well-mannered or frizz-free your curls are. Check out the 4 signs and what they mean below -- your hair may be in better shape than you think!

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If you’re anything like me, you probably love trying out different hairstyles. In fact, just this weekend past weekend, I tried a rod set which took way less time to poof up than it did for me to install those bad boys. I definitely think it was a combination of the glycerin in my hair and the humidity I clearly didn’t prepare for. My hair sucked up all the moisture in the air! No biggie though, this morning I went back to what works, box braids.

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Moisturizing and sealing are important parts of natural hair care. Proper moisturizing and sealing will ensure that your hair retains moisture for as long as possible. All hair needs moisture in order to survive and keep from breaking. Here is a very basic method for moisturizing and sealing the hair.

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When you're enthusiastic about hair care and dedicated to a healthy hair journey it can be difficult to be objective about your hair. It's easy to talk about things that keep the hair healthy like gentle handling, good conditioners, and low manipulation, but if those were the only things that mattered, everyone's hair would be doing great. In reality, despite meticulous efforts to grow a long, thick head of hair, many women still struggle to maintain length and reach their other hair goals. To get past a length hurdle or stop persistent breakage you have to realize one important thing: Damage is unavoidable. If your hair isn't making progress that means it's being damaged faster than it can recover. Many natural women already steer clear of heat and chemical treatments, but mechanical damage is still an issue and it can be difficult to recognize.

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We all face dry ends from time to time. Dry ends are just a symptom of a habit (or lack thereof) that needs to be modified. As the cooler weather quickly advances, I wanted to provide some tips to bringing some moisture back to your strands. You can follow one or follow the whole sha-bang to ensure optimum results.

1. Make Sure that Your Moisturizing Ritual is Solid.
If you do not know the difference between a sealant and a moisturizer than your hair's ends probably reflect your ignorance! A moisturizer is water or a water based product (leave in conditioner). You can identify a moisturizing product by reading the ingredients on the product label.

A moisturizer will have aqua or water listed as the first ingredient. A sealant is a natural oil such as olive, jojoba, shea butter etc or (aloe vera juice/gel for finer hair that is weighed down by oil). A moisturizer is applied first and the sealant is applied second. If you are not following this process in your hair ritual than you probably should implement it to ensure healthier more moisturized hair strands.

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Hola Chicas!

I've received a bunch of emails and follow-up questions from you dolls about the Nettle Tea post and thought I'd combine three old posts (from 2009!) to give you a more comprehensive look at the power of tea for hair growth and thickening.  Below, you'll find a list of common hair issues and the herbs and oils to treat them, Zhara's Hair Growth Tea recipe and Final Rinse instructions .  Enjoy!

Hair loss/Growth Stimulating: 
Oils: seabuckthorn
Herbs: basil, burdock, nettle, parsley, rosemary, sage, yarrow, kelp (strengthens roots), horsetail, hibiscus, fenugreek, coconut milk, lavender, birch, watercress (encourages thick growth), yucca, thyme, and coltsfoot.
EO’s: basil, cajute, carrot seed, cedarwood, clary sage, cypress, eucalyptus, juniper, lavender, orange, peppermint, rosemary, clary sage, thyme, ylang ylang, lemon, yarrow, lemon balm, parsley.

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