5 Hair Products Every Natural Needs In their Arsenal
It’s a simple but mind-blowing concept when we tell our salon and digital clients they don’t need more products, they need more education about products, from formulation to application.
Hair care and styling success is rarely about what products you’re using. Although it may not be the best choice for long term health and hydration of the hair, we can make the same styling magic with a $2.50 styling gel that we can with a $25 styling gel.
Care and styling success is much more about the how, when, why, and for what are you using the products you have.
Products are Tools
Product selection is not trial and error. First of all, who started this lie? In all of the social forums we visit, there are hundreds of comments that state that you’ve got to keep experimenting till you find the products that work for you. That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.
Before looking for any products it’s imperative that we understand what a product is used for, why we would use it, and what is the desired result from using it.
Products are tools. If you don’t know the purpose of the tool or how to properly use it, it makes no difference how many tools you amass for your arsenal.
The Five Product Rule
We cut through the product nonsense with what we call The Five Product Rule. These are the core five products that every natural should have in their collection. The goal is to streamline what is actually necessary for successful hair care and eliminate the rest which saves money and time for naturals everywhere.
All Purpose Cleanser: Choosing the right cleanser for your hair’s needs is based on the Essential Elements of your hair, your lifestyle, and your budget. All purpose cleansers are cleansers that cleanse just enough, but not too much. They should be used every 7 to 10 days, with an average lifestyle.
Moisture Conditioner: Moisture conditioners are like water, everybody needs some to live. They can be used by all hair types but the formulation you would choose is based on your porosity/density/texture.
Base Gel: These botanical gels are used effectively for wash and go styling with a lot of additional water and dried under a hood dryer provide a set that can last 4+ days depending on Essential Elements, styling technique, and desired finish. Gels typically give a very defined, firm hold, that reduces volume.
Topper Gel/Cream/Foam: We use anti-humectant gels with polymers and carbomer as a topper layer over the botanical gels for a wash and go when the climate or lifestyle of the client determines that there is either way too much or way too little humidity in the atmosphere. We also will use light curl creams and volumizing foams in the same manner depending on the clients' hair, lifestyle, and climate.
Twisting Styler: The formula of Twist & Define Creams can look similar to that of buttercreams, but have one distinct difference. They have one or more holding ingredients in them that help to retain the form of the set from wet to dry. They are great for setting twists, braids, coils, and updo’s.
Forget the holy grail, what’s your desired styling result? Starting with the end in mind makes the entire process easier. Ask yourself a couple questions.
What is my desired style?
How do I want it to look when completed? Smooth and reflective? Fluffy and cloudy? Swingy with a ton of volume? Calm and controlled?
Is my desired result realistically achievable for the essential elements of my hair?
Do I have the adequate amount of attention, time, and energy to give this style a fighting chance to be great?
Your answers to these questions should always inform the care and styling task being taken on. There’s nothing worse than a 3 hour twist installation that there was insufficient time to let dry and cure before takedown.
Want more hair product specifics? We cover all the natural hair care fundamentals and more in our consumer education platform, The SeeSomeCurls Visual Library.
Our 900+ 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.
