Love thy mane: The Do’s and Don’ts for a healthy hair

Hello Jaffa,

Let us talk about our hair today – our mane. How much do we love our hair? I’m not talking about hair extensions here but our “real” hair. Thy mane is thy crown, when you love your crown it loves you back. A proper care for your crown won’t leave it rusty, old and dirty looking. The Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found on the skin. It is a biomaterial primarily composed of a protein called keratin, the visible hair is the hair shaft which is considered dead because it doesn’t display any biochemical activity of the body. Ok! Enough of the biology, I hate it too hehe. The point is that the visible hair we see is very fragile and we need to handle it with care.

In life, you don’t sow grapes and expect to reap apples, so it is with our mane, how we treat it reflects. “Abegi jo my hair is just annoying so lemme do quick and goan fix weave-on”, Dear sister, diaris God o. Neglecting your crown and rushing to give it a quick fix won’t change the fact that you have a bad hair you can’t stand. The time has come for us to deliberately give due attention to our hair (not extensions o!).

Your hair doesn’t seem to grow because you’ve neglected it for so long and it’s tired of you too. Let’s get something straight, the hair grows 1-1.5 inches EVERY month. Your hair doesn’t grow past the neck or shoulder length because you haven’t been able to retain length. I know ladies that are on their way to healthy waist length hair holup holup! I’m not talking about African-Americans, I’m talking about Nigerian ladies. Well, I’m not all about the length I’m about having a healthy head of hair long or short. Your hair can grow any length if you feed it right and keep it healthy.

Having healthy hair is not going “natural” neither is it going “relaxed”. Know yourself, know your hair and know what works best for you. “ahh my hair is just too stubborn I’ve to relax it o”, sister your hair is beautiful, relaxing is not an escape route. Discover what works best for the texture of your hair and love thy mane. “mstchew this yeye hair is always cutting lemme just cut it and go natural” Bebe even if you go natural and you don’t take care of thy mane it’s still going to “cut” and you will be angrier.

Let’s take a quick peek at some basic simple do’s and don’ts for healthy, happy and manageable mane and banish bad hair. Let’s go first with the don’ts.

DON’TS:

• Use heat styling tools daily, they weaken the hair.
• Be harsh while handling the hair, the hair is very fragile and should be handled with care. Tell your stylist to handle your hair like a freshly laid egg
• Relax your hair regularly; this one is for the relaxed hair squad. It’s advisable you relax your hair at least 8 weeks after your last touch up and relax ONLY the new growth.
• Wear your hair extensions for too long; I was guilty of this one. It’s a very bad habit that affects the health of our hair and scalp especially when we totally neglect the hair.

DO’S:

• Moisturize thy mane daily. As we need food daily to keep healthy and strong, our hair needs to be moisturized daily to keep it healthy and strong. Be sure to use a hair MOISTURIZER and not hair cream, more on that later.
• Wash your hair weekly. Wash your hair weekly to remove excess product buildup, ensure you use a sulfate free shampoo or black soap (e.g dudu osun) for your weekly wash because they are mild on the hair, unlike sulfate shampoos. You can also co-wash (using a silicon free conditioner to wash your hair) this would be great for the natural hair squad.
• Deep condition weekly using a protein conditioner and/or moisturizing conditioner.
• Oil and massage the scalp weekly and every other day using natural oils like coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, almond oil etc.
• Air-dry your hair. This method involves letting the hair dry on its own without the use of heat. Since our hair is prone to dryness it’s healthier
• Eat right and exercise. Yes! You read well hehe. Eat right, means taking care of your hair inside out. What you eat and drink affects the health of your hair. Hair loves proteins, vitamins, in fact, balanced diet and tons of water, hydration is key. Exercise that body let there be proper blood circulation.
• Protect your hair before you go to bed at night using a satin scarf, bonnet or pillow case.
• Get “shearful”. Having a cheerful hair will require you to get “shearful”. Get rid of the weak and damaged ends of your hair, holding onto it will cause more harm than good.
• Protect the ends of your hair. The ends are the weakest and oldest part of your hair so ensure they have protected always. Avoid styles that will expose them and embrace styles that will hide them.

Take a deep breath, let it out, say to yourself “I shall love my mane”. Be beautiful and stay confident about your hair.