4 Winter Natural Hair Care Myths Debunked
There’s a lot of misconceptions on Beyoncé’s Internet when it comes to winter hair care. As licensed stylists + tight curl educators we’re here to set the record straight when it comes to what type of special natural hair care routine you should adapt in the cold and brittle months—and spoiler alert, it actually doesn’t change.
As tight curlies + naturals, we should still be cleansing, conditioning and styling on a regular basis. We should also be partnered with a professional stylist to receive regular maintenance cuts. This blog post will debunk four common winter hair care myths that we hear year over year.
Myth #1: Shampoo Less, As Shampoo Dries Out Your Natural Hair
There’s many misconceptions out there on the true purpose of shampoo.
“A shampoo is technically designed to clean the scalp of sebum and prevent the development of folliculitis and seborrheic dermatitis. Shampoos are intended to rid the hair of sebum, sweat components, desquamated stratum corneum, styling products and environmental dirt. The idea of beautifying the hair is really a secondary concern that is primarily released by a conditioner.”
This simply means that shampoo is used to clean. It is not a product to make your hair feel soft, look shiny, or appear moisturized. We often hear that shampoo makes the hair feel stripped or dry, so the person doesn’t use it at all or will use it the least number of times they can get away with.
What most people are indicated as “stripped” is really them feeling the real surface texture of their hair. Even moisturizing shampoos aren’t meant to moisturize your hair, they just contain more emollients to leave that smooth coating on the hair after shampooing. Somewhat negating the clean that you are likely seeking on wash day.
Regardless of the particular season, you should still be cleansing your hair with the appropriate shampoo every 5 to 7 days, based on your lifestyle.
Myth #2: Weekly Deep Conditioning Is a Must
The need to deep condition weekly truly has the natural hair community in a chokehold. Here’s what you need to know about deep conditioners—they’re actually treatments used to address to a specific hair issue or challenge.
If you’re not experiencing a specific hair issue or challenge, deep conditioning isn’t needed on a weekly basis. Granted, it’s your prerogative should you still decide to use one, but that’s the equivalent to taking pain medication when you’re in no pain.
In order to evaluate if you’re experiencing an issue with your hair, you must first have a good understanding of how your hair behaves. Without this prior knowledge, it’s impossible to know which treatment you should be using to address your issue.
Myth #3: Wear Protective Styles to Protect Your Natural Hair
Contrary to popular belief, protective styling is not really protective. For real? That’s right! We are not sure how wigs, weaves, crochet, faux locs, and braids have been dubbed protective styles.
How are we protecting our hair when we are starving it from hydration, causing breakage due to friction, and allowing sweat/debris/skin cells build up on the scalp skin breeding bacteria and fungi along the way? What if we told you the most “protective” style is the one you can execute well and cleanse/condition/care for regularly every 7-10 days.
We’ve coined these type of style options as “alternative styles.” They are an alternate option to wearing your real hair. They are luxury style options as they take even more maintenance than a regular style. You have to have a hair budget, time budget, and dollar budget to wear these styles successfully.
While wearing an alternative style, the hair and scalp must be thoroughly cleansed regularly. This is often easier to outsource to a stylist who can properly see/feel their way to your scalp with product and their hands. Then it’s imperative that the additional hair and your hair be dried fully under hooded dryer. Failure to complete this step can cause mildew and molding at the scalp and within the crevices of the style as well as breed bacteria and fungi. The additional hair often needs restyling with heat or tools to look good again.
“PRO TIP: It is important to note that alternative style applications are best suited for hair that is already in a healthy hydrated state with an intact cuticle. Those with weak, thirsty, brittle, or damaged hair should avoid these styling options at all costs because friction and chronic dehydration are the enemies of compromised hair.”
Myth #4: Routinely Use the LOC Method for Moisture
In the natural hair community, the LOC method is an acronym for “liquid, oil, cream.” Here at Black Girl Curls, we’d like to throw this entire method into the garbage, respectively.
The debate between LCO and LOC should not even exist. There are so many methods out there claiming to moisturize and/or seal hair, that we’ve completely bypassed the fact that conditioner is the true sealant. This statement has been controversial since our initial appearance on the Internet back in 2015, but here’s why.
If our conditioner was doing its job of lowering the ph, depositing humectants/ emollients/vitamins/etc., smoothing the strand, and leaving behind a moisturized (containing water) hair strand, why would we then need to add a leave in conditioner which is really a no-hold styling product? Then, add an oil that is going to make the hair hydrophobic and greasy. Then add yet another product or cream, on top of that.
Where have we left room for a water based/water soluble styling product with holding factor to create styles that last longer than a New York minute? By the time we have arrived at styling we have piled on 3 additional layers that aren’t doing anything to help the hair retain water and, in some instances, will act to repel both the water that is already in the hair and any water that the hair can pick up from the atmosphere.
When you’re using quality cleanser + conditioner that are successfully addressing the challenges you’re having with your hair, there’s no need to pile so much product onto it thinking that we are doing something good.
The feeling that your hair has after you have done all the oiling and buttering isn’t moisturized hair, it’s just product buildup. We understand that this is how many of us think moisturized hair feels like. Product companies bank on you thinking that the bare feeling of your moisturized (containing water) has you scared that there is something wrong with your hair. That it is "dryyyyyyyy."
Ready to Tune Out All the Internet Noise Regarding Natural Hair Care?
If you’re spending all day washing and styling your natural hair, re-twisting your hair nightly or experiencing wash and go’s that just don’t “go", then this is a great time for you to join our consumer education platform, The SeeSomeCurls Visual Library.
Our 1.1K+ community of tight curl + naturals are shaving more than 50% of time off their wash day, being showered left and right with hair compliments, and are receiving direct support of a very encouraging community of tight curlies + naturals who have been exactly where you are.
