Hello to all, Naturacurls here with a burning desire to answer this question:
“Why is natural hair so expensive??”
Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmVV6ZWaRc |This is a great video in which Naptural85 one of my favorite natural hair Youtubers explains on how natural hair doesn’t have to be expensive. Don’t worry the link goes to another tab/window. ^-^
And this statement:
“Caring for natural hair is too expensive… smh”
I do agree that providing the needs for natural hair can be expensive at some point, or all together, as with all things. In total everyone spends a lot on haircare needs, it’s no different to buying skincare products and make-up. You can make it as expensive or as cheap as you want to. Now that that’s out of the way, here are different routes to go from the cheapest regimen to most expensive (not unnecessarily expensive though) regimen. All are awesome and will benefit your hair, plus keep that money where it belongs; your wallet.
1. Most inexpensive option: Water-only Washing, or if you’re interested in natural hair abbreviations, “W.O.W”. Because it saves a ton of money! ^.^
Some of you might know what W.O.W. is, some might not. But fear not I’ll explain! \(^-^)/ “W.O.W” is pretty self-explanatory, only washing with water, right? There’s much more to that. You start off with clarified and/or detoxed hair to remove everything, then as frequently as possible wash your hair with only water. Your hair will be dry at first because it’s not covered in your own sebum or butters and oils to moisturize, so the water won’t be sealed and will just wisp away.. 😦 But it will eventually bring the sebum down to the shaft of your hair, finally to the ends! ^.^ A lot of you may have thought that you have to wait and not wash often so the sebum can come down, but that’s a myth that has been busted  (By me of course.. ^.<) The reason sebum won’t fully coat our hair is because 1. We don’t wash often and 2. We use products that disturb the process. We also tend to have less sebum in general. The water, having it’s chance to shine will help spread the sebum to the shaft of your hair.
CONCLUSION: The sebum basically eliminates the need of sealing oils and butters, and water will be all you need to moisturize, PLUS hearing other people’s experience you retain much more length than you would with products.. sweet! That eliminates a majority of oils and creams. I personally don’t know a lot about W.O.W. myself nor do I plan to try it, but if you’re interested then feel free to research further and prepare to be relieved because you’ll be saving tons of money. 😉 Also please do share your progress, I’d love to learn about W.O.W. myself. 🙂
2. Middle-ground: Making your own hair products (Which is what I’m trying to do currently! 😀 I was actually inspired by Naptural85 who mostly makes her own hair products.)
Source:http://www.kinksarethenewpink.com/2014/01/moisturizing-mist-for-natural-hair.html
So this route has 2 roads you can go through, Road 1: Buying all ingredients needed at once or in bulk, which would be expensive at first you can imagine but pretty inexpensive in the long run, or Road 2: buying a few or one at a time. I’m going through Road 2! If you loovvee DIY (I’m beginning to.. lol a DIY newbie here!) this is perfect! And don’t worry, making products are easy. You just mix ingredients together! So no worries, it’s all good. I currently only have coconut oil as a new added feature (yes I JUST decided to buy coconut oil, I know), extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), and.. water? Other than that I have conditioner, barely-finished shampoo once I started co-washing pretty recently (YES.. pretty recently! xD), and aloe vera gel as just a gel, but it isn’t 100% aloe vera so afterwards it’s getting replaced with flaxseed gel) and I have had no problems so far. Really the only thing you’d need pre-made is a conditioner (cheap conditioner preferably to save the most money. Don’t underestimate one, most of the time they work just as well if not better than fancy ol’ conditioner. ^^)
3. Most expensive but easiest: What I like to call the “Mainstream Route” because most naturals fall into this category, Buying products!
Source:http://enjoyingthejourneys.com/2010/11/24/natural-hairhair-productsjunkie-confession/
Let me start off with this: Here are a list of items which are all you really need.. of course you can buy extra if you’re willing to spend a bit of more money.
1. A Moisturizing (sulfate-free) shampoo and/or clarifying agent and moisturizing conditioner
2. A Leave-In Conditioner / Daily Moisturizer (Remember: It ISN’T a moisturizer if it doesn’t contain water high in the ingredients list (usually first or second)
3. Deep Conditioner
4. Sealant (A sealant is what seals in the moisture, AKA water the purest form of moisture. It includes oils and butters)
The most Most products you can buy are 6, and I’m guessing some of you want a gel as well for styling, which might make it 7 if you buy one but here’s what I suggest: Making your own clarifying agent (It’s like a “deep shampoo”. Moisturizing shampoos are just for casual cleansing as conditioners are casual, well, conditioners, if that makes sense.) and gel. Flaxseeds are super inexpensive and can be reused as well, and you only really need apple cider vinegar (ACV) and water to clarify (there are more ways) so I don’t find the point in buying a clarifying shampoo or gel. But if you still want to go through, feel free to. 🙂
Also, to make sure that you don’t have to go through hundreds of trial and error, learn NOT about your hair type (which is very overrated in my opinion) but about porosity, density, and strand thickness. Whether you hair is low, medium, or high porosity, high medium or low density, and if your strands are fine, medium or coarse. Those are what really helps you in making sure products work for your hair.. there’s no such thing as “What product works for my hair type?” Hair texture does have its place but in terms of finding products then not much.”
FINAL THOUGHTS:Â I believe the reason providing for your natural hair can be expensive for a lot of people is either because they’re falling into the hype of companies and unnecessary “needs”, or getting the exact same items as your favorite vlogger/blogger and being disappointed, very common reasons being that she’s your “hair crush” or having the same hair type as you, in which like I said before hair typing and hair texture does have its place, but not with products. Also not taking the time to actually learn about your hair, and EXPERIMENTING, RESEARCHING about qualities of your porosity, density, and strand thickness, and realizing this isn’t the end-all-be-all of being natural. Store-bought hair products may be the mainstream around our community but there are amazing and dreadfully underrated options out there, even more than what I provided!
For DIY hair products, buying 100% real ingredients gives best results, and if you decide to try the first 2 and make better choices with the third route, please feel free to share your progress and comment down any questions, comments, or concerns. I’d love to hear from all of you! ^_^
TYSM for reading and part 2: Hair tools is coming up next so stay tuned!
               ~Naturacurls♥
MerryCoils 