It’s Getting Hot in Here!

This post was inspired by a conversation I had with fellow curly I met in Macys concerned about enduring hot ass weather this upcoming holiday weekend. Although it is still technically Spring, we are experiencing Summer like weather conditions. This weekend the weather man promises high temps and humidity so you know what means….natural hair alert!!!! Weather surpassing 90 degrees, humidity and smoke filled barbeques with the family this weekend all pose a threat to your coifed mane. We women, especially naturalistas, put a lot of energy into our hair; searching the blogs and vlogs for haircare tips, forever looking for new products. There’s nothing worse than spending hours on your hair only for it to fail half way through the day.

First off, no matter what the weather, length, occasion, etc. your hair always needs these 3 essential things:

1. Water – must add moisture, must add moisture, must add moisture. I don’t care how many times it’s documented in the blogaspheres of natural hair, dryness is still a chief concern simply because of the nature of natural hair. You can’t go wrong with good old H2O as well as water based products.

2. Leave- in conditioner – if you have not incorporated a good leave in into your regimen, please do so. It is imperative to combating dryness and breakage.

3. Sealant – after you’ve added moisture, you want to keep it. How do you do that? By sealing it in. *Holds 2 fingers to throat like Martin* “Lock it in”

That being said, there are some additional risks when it comes to warmer temperatures. Summer tresses are faced with uphill battles against humidity and frizz which can make it difficult to maintain your look. Here are a few quick suggestions for this weekend:

1. Do a prepoo process to help with frizz using olive, coconut, jojoba, or argan oil. (whichever your textured hair responds to)

2. After shampooing/co washing – rinse with cold or cool water, which helps seal the cuticle.

3. After wet styling leave it alone. I am super guilty of hand in hair syndrome. Sometimes I fluff and fluff while its wet and 99.99% of the time, it ends up in disaster. Not allowing the hair to dry naturally without intervening, is a quick way to allow unwanted frizz into your life. Also use a climate control product to help repel humidity. 

4. Heat – why bother? I know it’s tempting to see how much length you’ve gained or want to try something new but heat is not the answer on a day like this. For one, a natural hair blow out followed by a flat iron cannot withstand the humid conditions. Chances are it will succumb to the elements before you even arrive at the cookout. For two, most likely your hair will soak in all of that smoke from the grill cooking up all that tasty cookout food and you will end up wanting to wash it out anyway after all that work. Talk about a waste of time. 

5. Protect – of course protected styling is always great to combat heat. It’s off your face and neck, the ends are hidden, #whatmorecanIsay. One cure for lack of creativity in the styling department is to try a hair ornament like the grecian or boho style headbands that are all the rage right now. This is a good way to play up a very simple hairstyle.

*Obviously, it goes much deeper than these few things when it comes to dealing with hot weather; there’s dew points, humectants, anti-humectants, yada yada yada…so much more on the topic which requires a separate post.