MY EIGHT NATURAL HAIR CARE ESSENTIALS

So far, in my natural hair adventures, I've come to realise that every hair type has its ups and downs. That’s a fact. Luckily for us, there are items available now to make caring for our hair easier and if you’ve got kinky/coily hair like me, these items are a must-have.





DETANGLING BRUSHES

When I first got started on my natural hair journey, I was told to stay away from combs and brushes because they cause breakage too often for comfort and to just use my hands to detangle instead. Screw that. If you’ve got the time and energy for that, great! But some of us.... some of us are lazy, okay? So a detangling brush comes in very handy. When do you detangle? I usually do this right after washing and conditioning my hair along with a leave in conditioner.
I go in with this yummy oval brush which removes all knots and broken hair. You might have noticed that this brush has been used quite a lot. It’s a fav.

Then, I go in with the styling brush which is a lot denser so it also helps to stretch my hair.



A SILK/SATIN PILLOWCASE

Honestly, I avoided this for the longest time because I thought it wouldn’t go with the theme of my bedroom. Yes people, I’m that shallow. But now that I finally bought it, I see what the hype for it was about. First, it’s hella comforting and soothing to touch and more importantly, it helps retain moisture while you sleep. Plus it doesn’t look bad at all, if anything, it adds a sort of boujee vibe to my room and I got it in black which I love so definitely get yours in whatever colour you want. You won’t regret it.



HAIR CLAMPS

I got this lot at a very good deal of N2000 for 12 clamps and these come in handy when I’m co-washing, twisting or doing a wash and go. It's useful when our hair becomes denser from shrinking so much and therefore becomes more difficult to section on its own. Clamps help to move the hair out of the way while you’re busy with one section.



A TAIL COMB

This is something everyone has, I’m sure. It’s not always necessary since fingers do a fine job creating sections in the hair but for neater look, a tail comb is the way to go. I've got both this and the rat tail comb which has a metallic end but I find that tends to get caught between my hair and cause breakage so I stopped using it.



THE AFRO PICK

If you don’t have an Afro pick yet and you've got kinky hair... what the hell are you doing? The comb is specially designed to help fluff natural hair and subsequently making it look fuller. My hair never stops shrinking so I generally take this comb to just about everywhere and fluff out my Afro puff on the go.



HAIR BANDS

Yup, that’s right. Those are bra straps.
I get lots of questions about what I use to pack my hair up without causing damage to it (FYI in case you haven’t noticed, my hair is always in a puff, I’ll explain why later). I used to watch a lot of YouTube videos on how to get a puff and noticed that they usually used some sort of hair band that was stretchy enough to be worn around the neck and yet still hold the puff firmly. Naturally, I searched and searched for this same item but I couldn’t find it anywhere in the Nigerian market so I had to improvise. I got these straps for about N1000 for 10 and I’ve never looked back. The hook thingy at the end serves to keep the makeshift hair band in place and because of it's length I can easily make my puff tighter or looser, depending on my mood and where I’m going.


HONOURABLE MENTIONS
A wide tooth comb
A spray bottle
Bobby pins

I hope you found this article helpful.
Which items do you have already? Are there any you would recommend? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below, thank you.