Take Care of Yourself From the Inside Out
This is one of the most important things you can do for your hair and your body. Your hair needs water, minerals and nutrients in order to grow healthy and stay healthy. Your hair cannot receive what you do not give it. If you do not consume essential nutrients, your hair will not flourish on the outside. Don’t expect your hair to achieve its full potential if you do not take care of your body. Remember that your hair grows from your body.
I remember a point in my life when I was overweight and dehydrated and my hair was a reflection of my inner health. It was dry, damaged, dull and brittle and shed at the mere sight of a brush. Once I began to eat more healthy, workout and consume more water, I began to notice that my hair appear more healthy.
#2 Wash Your Hair in Sections
Because 4c hair typically shrinks and is easily tangled, washing in sections will help retain length. Wash each section and place that section in a big braid, clips or ponytail holder. By doing this, you keep your hair stretched, preventing detangling and unnecessary damage.
#3 Moisturize
Next to consuming proper nutrients and staying hydrated, this is the next most important thing you can do for your hair. Not only is 4c type hair pretty fragile, it is also dry and needs consistent moisture. The best moisturizers can be created at home, using products found in your kitchen. Keep in mind that once your moisturize, you should always seal in the moisture with an essential oil such as grapeseed or olive oil. Naturals with every hair type can benefit from this tip. But because a 4c natural’s coils and kinks do not allow for as much sebum or moisture distribution, 4c’s would probably benefit the most.
#4 Deep Condition
You should make deep conditioning a regular part of your hair care regimen. I recommend doing so about 2 to 4 times per month, using a sulfate free water based condition. After thoroughly conditioning your hair, place a plastic cap on over your hair and sit under a warm-hot dryer for 15 – 25 minutes. You can also use a hot towel. After each deep conditioning treatment, you will notice that your hair becomes more bouncy and lively.
#5 Pre-Poo
Try prepooing the night before washing your hair. This will give your hair added strength and protection, preventing damage and breaking from the manipulation of styling — ultimately allowing you to retain length.
#6 Manipulate Hair as Little as Possible
As I mentioned earlier, 4c hair is more fragile than other hair types. The more you manipulate your hair, the more you will find that your hair breaks, tangles and knots. The more your hair breaks, the more difficult it becomes to retain that length you are looking for.
#7 Style With Your Fingers
Mid-shaft splitting can be cause by too much combing and brushing. 4c (kinky) hair is more likely to break due to using these harsh tools to style the hair. Keep the use of combs and brushes to a minimum and limit detangling to finger detangling. It helps to add a little oil to the tips of your fingers before tempting to detangle each section of your hair.
#8 Wear Your Hair in Protective Styles
Twists, buns, braids and other bounded styles keep the hair in place and prevent tangling and those little annoying knots. The hair tends to break and those annoying knots, so we want to avoid these as much as possible. Breakage takes away from your length.
#9 Stretched Styles
Stretched styles – twist-outs, braid-outs, bantu knot outs, etc. – are good go-to styles when you want to wear your loose and free. Stretched styles can be good for retaining length for many of the same reasons that bounded styles help — they keep the individual strands from tanging and knotting, which ultimately prevents breakage.
#10 Patience
Understanding that healthy hair and maximum length will not come over night will save on the discouragement and headache. The journey to your hair reaching is maximum potential requires much patience care and consistency.
How do you retain length on your 4c hair type?
I am one year natural and my 4c hair grows like a weed. However due to the fact that I am fairly new to this, I know now that even 4c hair varies from person to person . I used to die tangled my hair wet as recently as last week, and I wondered why so much of my hair was coming out. All the youtube videos and the websites say to detangle hair wet. Then it dawned on me….my hair is very fine, meaning that the strans themselveS are skinny! I knew this already because my hair lack volume when straightened, but I didn’t know how to treat fine, 4c hair. I can’t comb my hair wet because my hair will come out right at the root! So now, after months of due tangling wet and unnecessary hair loss ….I have learned that I must detangle and comb my hair when it is either dry or a little damp. ANOTHER RULE SHOULD BE- LEARN YOUR HAIR! It will take time though because everyone is different.
I have fine 4c hair too. I’m finally finding a hair regimen that works well for me and now that I don’t try to detangle my hair when it is wet, I’ve noticed that I have very little hair in any comb I use! That was one of the best lessons I’ve learned since transitioning to my natural hair! I still try new things or products, but have found those that work best for my hair and I plan on sticking to that routine until my hair tells me to stop. Right now I’m using Water, Eco Styler Olive Oil gel, As I Am Curling Jelly, Olive Oil, Taliah Waajid’s Black Earth Leave-In Conditioner and styling my two strand twist outs – Loving how my hair is responding. It definitely takes time to learn your own head of hair – what works for someone else may not necessarily work for you,
I have a 4c hair and my hair bothers me a lot at times. It looks like there is a price to pay if you want to look beautiful. You mentioned that we should “Manipulate Hair as Little as Possible”. Does this mean we need to avoid the use of hair straightener?
Donna,
Straightening the hair requires a significant amount of manipulation but it’s also about frequency, which is why the statement said, “as little as possible.” Certain natural hair practices such as straightening or adding coloring should be done in moderation and with caution. I would suggest you try one of the suggested stretched styles first- a braidout, twistout, or a rod set. Some styles will take a little patience in order to learn, but that’s just hair!
The best method I have found that helps me manipulate my hair as little as possible , and avoid the use of hair straightener is wearing a lace closure custom wig . It allows me to frequently moisturize my hair, wash , and braid it down. I’m currently offering some units to help you grow your natural healthy hair and look fashionable at the same time.
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I am 4C with fine hair, too. When my hair is pressed, it has length but absolutely NO body…no matter…I like my hair. The best tip I’ve learned is, with protective styles like twists/plaits/bantu knots, keep my ends tucked. Twisting the ends DID NOT WORK for me, but tucking them in so that they do not show DOES work. I am pleased with my growth. I do not let hairdressers “trim my ends” when I get my hair pressed, no matter much they insist it will help my growth.
I use shampoo once a month, but I cowash as needed, every 5 to 7 days. I leave my hair in it’s protective style sometimes during a cowash. Other times, if it needs to be neatened up, I separate into sections and co-wash. I practice the same routine with my daily LOC spritz. Sometimes I co-wash by putting deep conditioner on my DRY hair, putting on a cap for a couple of hours (or a heatcap for 20 minutes) then rinsing. I always moisturize after about 1 hour after a cowash.
I only use a VERY WIDE tooth comb on the shampoo weekend, when I do a section by section general detangle with a product for “slip”. Any other time I touch my hair, I use my fingers. I never manipulate my hair when it is dry.
I’ve never written on a hair blog before, but the conversation here seemed real, and I am 4C – I know the struggles.
You’re actually supposed to clip your ends every once in awhile. It actually does help your hair grow more healthy. Split ends are the enemy, remember.
This has been a struggle for me, I have been natural for three years but this is the second summer that I have actually let my 4c hair show. I just recently was my hair and found that there is breakage…….very short(I actually started to cry)in the middle and that area around it I notice that is weak(thin). Still trying to get use to this natural thing, but with the 4c hair type it is hard. I will say that when I was doing my twist out I have had the knots nor the breakage, just when I stop doing them and letting my sugar bush( as I call it) be out. But everything that was mention I’m experience it and I’m not liking it.
I had crown area breakage as well before. This can be from when you sleep at night the area is getting matted. Before you go to sleep always make sure your hair is in a bun ponytail or twists to keep this from happening. I know sometimes its hard to want to do when you are tired but try not to forget to do this. Always give this area extra moisture and attention when you condition.
I finger detangle my hair while damp and coated with coconut oil; this works the best for me. My strands are a combo of fine and medium (mostly medium). Finger detangling my hair dry still produced a lot of “snap, crackle, pop” moments and finger detangling wet hair produced too much shedding. Damp hair coated with coconut oil is the key to a perfect detangling session for me every time.
I feel like I’m reading a comment that I don’t remember writing; this is the exact case with my hair 😀
Well I’ve been natural for only a couple of months and I see that tending to natural hair especially 4 c is a bit costly ( for me anyways)
But of course there are so many at home remedies that I’m finding out to help my hair.
I too have experienced breakage or shedding if hair when de tangling while wet but I’ll take the advice from up top comments and try to de tangle when damp instead☺️
detangle with a conditioner that gives you slip i have found that to be verrrrry helpful and always start from the ends and works your way up with wide tooth comb then a detangling brush
Hey, you mailed me some time ago about making myself a home made hair mask with eggs, mayonnaise and honey. I wanted to know if the mask is leave-in or not and if it is not leave-in , for how long should I leave it on for? And please do I need to use a plastic hair cap when I use the mask?
And please what is the difference between moisturizing and conditioning?.
This is not a leave in. When you are deep conditioning it is best to use a plastic cap. A conditioner helps to improve your hair by strengthening it and making it more manageable. Whereas a moisturizer is something you would leave in your hair and not rinse out.
I have fine super dense 4c hair and the only way I can finger detangle my hair is under running water. Painless, not super time consuming, and has definitely reduced split ends and helped me retain length
After having cut 2″ off due to single strand knots, I realized I didn’t know how to effectively detangle my hair after wearing out my twist outs. In as much as they contribute to stretching the hair, they also come with a considerable amount of tangle that needs thorough detangling. I found the thorough detangling process daunting which as I earlier stated, led to rushed detangling then to single strand knots. Since then I’ve found that keeping my hair stretched using african threading is WAY more effective. It’s like constantly having a heatless blow out. I can keep my hair in African threads for up to a month with a daily spritz, daily application of shea butter to my exposed ends (ends not covered in thread) and an LOC every 5 days. Depending on how my hair feels, I throw in a scalp cleanse every 2 weeks. At the end of the month when it’s time for take down, my hair is SUPER stretched, all I do is a spritz of water and finger comb. The whole process takes less than 10 minutes and my hair is thoroughly detangled. I’ve been at it the last 3 months and managed to retain 5 inches of length since and keep those dreadful single strand knots at bay. 😀
Hi can you share African threads process? It’s my first time hearing of it.
Thanks
i see you are discussing about 4c hair and putting pictures with another curl pattern. i dont get that.
HI Brii,
What hair texture is that?
BRI
All the pictures in the post are of ladies with 4C hair!!!
My hair really cut after I texturized it please help