Do naturals do TOO much when it comes to hair care?

           

Co-wash,condition,deep condition, detangle! These are just some of the steps we natural ladies do to our hair on a wash day. To us naturals, it is not a lot because we love and enjoy our hair.  Most likely we  just bought a new hair product that's supposed to be the answer to all  of our problems. After washing our hair, it's on to the styling where we have our beloved Denmen brush,wide tooth and rat tail comb.You got your favorite butter,gel,wax,creme,etc. in your hand and you begin the twisting,braiding, or curl stretching  process. This may take you a while because you want that fabulous twist-out tomorrow morning.

Once you've been in the natural hair game for a while, this process really doesn't seem like much. By now you have your hair regimen down to a tee! But to the spectators, your friend who ask you to go out with them and you say"Sure let me twist my hair real quick"...An hour later you're still in the mirror and she is ready to go. Or the relaxed friend who is on the fence about natural hair and when she see's you doing your hair the first thing she say's is"See this is why I can't deal with that natural hair stuff, It's just too much." You just give her the side eye and keep twisting because you are not trying to deal with preaching to her about the beauty of natural hair. This entire natural hair process may be a bit too much for them to take in.

I  have had  my share of snarly comments about the decision of what I choose to do with my hair. I know for myself I can be a bit of a product junkie and I love a good twist-out . However, I wonder do we really make washing and styling our hair look like a chore for someone who has no idea about natural hair or on the fence about going natural? Someone who has no idea about natural hair would probably think we do the absolute most to our hair when we talk about our natural regime. In actuality, regardless if you have natural or relaxed hair we all do the same the same thing to maintain our healthy hair.The only difference is that relaxed hair has been chemically treated to become "More manageable"  then natural hair.

In my relaxed days, I know I skipped many hair care steps because I had no knowledge of how to maintain my hair. Natural hair has definitely taught me the importance of maintaining healthy hair. One of the beautiful benefits of natural hair is that you find out many healthy hair practices that you wouldn't normally understand with your relaxed hair. I know at times I can be such a lazy natural and break all the natural hair "commandments", but I feel many non-natural women feel natural women do too much to maintain our hair. So not true at all.

Knotty girls what are your thoughts?Do naturals add unnecessary steps to our hair regime? Or now that we know better we do better?

 -DARSH

Image Source: Last, First. Natural Hair Problems. 8-30-2011. Graphic. tumblr.comWeb. 15 Aug 2012. <http://naturalhairproblems.tumblr.com/>.