Taking Care of Your Natural Hair During Social Distancing – Things You’ve Been Meaning to Do

There are a variety of natural hair activities and steps one can add to their natural hair routine. Some take longer than others, or some look interesting but maybe you haven’t found the need to try them yet. During this time of quarantine, I wanted to share some ways you can try some different techniques to add to your natural hair regimen in ways you might not have had the time and space to do prior to the #stayathome requirement. 

Give Yourself a Hot Oil Treatment 

Hot oil treatments are really helpful for helping to smooth and prevent split ends and also promote hair growth from massaging the oil into the scalp. Adding heat once your hair is fully saturated in oils, helps to open the hair cuticles so that the oils can fully penetrate the hair. In my recent hot oil treatment, I added growth promoting essential oils like rosemary, lavender, and peppermint oil. Massaging these oils into your scalp help to stimulate blood flow and it’s also feels amazing! 

Check out my TikTok tutorial on how to make a hot oil treatment mixture: 

Detangle Your Hair

I admit I sometimes skip this step since my hair is fairly stretched by the time wash day rolls around my hair is stretched from twists or buns. However, the step of detangling my hair and coating it with a conditioner helps to make the rest of wash day just a little quicker and smoother. 

What you’ll need and what to do: 

• A wide-toothed comb or your fingers 
• A detangling cream, such as the Hydrating Buttercream, or a DIY mix of water, conditioner, a spray bottle 
• Section hair in 4ths and detangle row by row 

Trim Your Ends

With all of the amazing regimens added to your routine, it will all be for granted if you forget to tidy up the ends of your hair. The ends of your hair naturally are more prone to breakage and eventually splitting off. So it’s important to be proactive in trimming the pieces of hair that simply need to be let go. You have to let go of the old to make room for the new. 

What you’ll need and what to do: 

• Shear scissors, smaller toothed comb, oil, blow dryer (optional) 
• Can trim while your hair is in twists or after stretching your hair 
• Can trim while your hair is blown out 
• Feel or see where your hair starts to become more brittle, tangled, or sparse, and trim that portion
• You can expect to trim about ¼ of an inch depending on general health of your hair 
• Section hair in 4ths and detangle row by row 

Here are some awesome tutorials:

Here’s how I trimmed my hair when I was abroad in Italy and couldn’t find a stylist:  Check out blog post here

DIY masks and mixes to try 

• Bentonite Clay Mask 
• Yam and olive oil 
• Honey, banana and yogurt 
• Rice Water Challenge
• Flaxseed gel

Try Doing Protective Styles YOURSELF

Have you ever wanted to try to learn how to braid, crochet, or twist? Well now is the perfect time to experiment with a style without having to worry about having to go out in public in case the style doesn’t work out! If you happen to have some extra packs of hair to try out box braids, you can spend as long as you need to get the parts just right and master the technique. Or if braiding is a skill that seems to have passed you up, spend some time on YouTube to nail down the 3 strand technique. 

Try Doing Mini Protective Styles 

Other mini protective styles or low maintenance styles can be super helpful if you don’t feel like having to style your hair before the Zoom/Teams calls. Right now I am rocking some twists for the week and even though there’s nowhere to go to unleash a twist-out, I might at least be able to take some cute pictures of the results. Other weekly protective styles ideas could be 2 cornrows, plats, Bantu knots, singles, mini buns, or hair wraps.

African Threading Method

I’ve always wanted to try this heatless stretching technique, known as the African threading method. The results look as if you blow-dried your hair and it’s a great chance to do a length check once you take the thread out. 

What you’ll need and what to do: 

• Use hair thread or yarn 
• Hair oil to oil your scalp 
• In small sections, literally wrap the thread around your hair
• Be sure your hair is detangled as you wrap the thread through each section
• When you get to your ends, add a moisturizer and tie the thread at the ends

As always,

Take it step by step and DaibyDai