Natural Hair Care for Black Women

Ask any hairstylist how they would describe African American women's hair and the first two words they are likely to use are brittle and hard to take care of. Many spend countless hours and thousands of dollars trying different types of hair treatment to straighten their hair and make it easier to take care of. The good news is that there are a number of different types of natural hair care for black women which are far less damaging than using heat or harsh chemical types of hair treatment.

It All Starts When You Are Standing in the Shower

The best form of hair treatment starts from the moment you step into the shower. When your hair is wet, it is in its most vulnerable state. Hair that is wet is brittle and easily damaged. To help reduce the risk of this type of damage, you need to use a shampoo made with natural ingredients as part of your hair treatment program. Choose one that does not contain harsh chemicals which can strip your hair of the natural oils which keep it strong and healthy. Sulfate free shampoos can be used, but all-natural ones make a much better choice.

You should never shampoo more than three times per week as this form of hair treatment can dry your hair out causing even more damage. Choose an all-natural conditioner as these contain a number of herbs, minerals, and botanicals carefully chosen to nourish and strengthen your hair. You should never wash your hair unless you are going to condition it at the same time. Doing so will leave it stripped of these nutrients and open to all forms of damage.

Once You Step Out of the Shower

When you step out of the shower, your hair is still wet and vulnerable. As part of better hair treatment, you should never use anything besides a wide tooth comb on your wet hair. At this stage your hair is still extremely brittle, if you use a brush or fine tooth comb, you will break large amounts of hair. Use a towel to pat your hair dry or bundle your hair inside of the towel to dry. Using a blow dryer may be one of the worst forms of hair treatment at this point as your hair has no defense against the heat and is easily dried out and damaged. You can massage in a heat protectant as a hair treatment to help if you can't resist using a hair drier.

Beware of the Stylist in You

Women love to style their hair and the modern style of flat hair amongst African American women has become extremely popular. Flat hair is far easier to take care of, but the chemical or heat related hair treatment used to achieve this style is very damaging. If you must use a flat iron or blow dryer to straighten your hair, you need to use an oil based hair treatment made to protect your hair from heat damage. A far better choice is going with a style which does not require straightening as often as possible and reserving the flat hair for special occasions.

Keep Your Hair Moist

African American hair is by nature very dry and requires special types of hair treatment. One of the best forms of hair treatment is to keep your hair as moist as possible. While you might already be using a top quality natural conditioner, you should be using a moisturizer on top of this. Your hair will absorb all the moisture it can and the more moisturizer you can give, the better it will look and feel. The best moisturizers contain coconut oil, olive oil, jojoba oil, or carrot oil. This form of hair treatment is the final touch in your search for the best natural hair care for black women.

How to Stop Hair Shedding with Proper Hair Care?

Hair Shedding is a problem for millions of women, who for some unknown reason begin to shed handfuls of hair each day. The good news is that there is almost always a reason for hair shedding, and stopping your hair from falling out is often easier than you might think. Keep in mind that everyone sheds some hair each day, up to 100 hairs. Anything over that might indicate a problem and it might be time to head to a dermatologist or doctor to find out why.

First Steps in Diagnosing Hair Shedding

Before you can decide how to stop hair shedding, you must first know why you are shedding hair. A doctor will ask you several questions about your nutrition, and your hair care routines, then will order some blood tests. Blood tests will check for a variety of disorders and illnesses that might be at the root of your hair shedding. Your doctor may also decide to do an analysis on your hair to see if it is lacking in any particular nutrients.

Get Checked for Your Thyroid and Other Conditions

A blood test can reveal whether or not there are any medical conditions at the root of your hair shedding. Most common are thyroid disorders, diabetes, and other auto immune disorders. In many cases you will also have other symptoms of a medical problem, such as fatigue, dry skin, or weight loss or gain. Once medical conditions have been ruled out it is time to look at things such as diet and hair care.

One if the Simplest Things to Fix

Often hair shedding is a product of poor diet and nutrient deficiencies. The good news is that these are very easy to fix either by adding certain foods or supplements into your diet or by adding these nutrients directly to your hair. A spoon of molasses in a cup of warm water provides a wealth of important nutrients to your hair. Simply massage into your hair and into the roots, leave it for one hour and rinse.

Omega 3 fatty acids can be added both to your hair or your diet. Flax seed oil makes a great warm oil treatment, and flax, chia, hemp, and oily fish in your diet will also help your hair to shine and be less prone to hair shedding. Borage oil supplements can help to reduce inflammation and promote healthy sebum (scalp oil).

A mineral deficiency can also affect hair shedding. Important minerals for your hair include calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, and zinc. You can add these minerals to your diet by eating lots of vegetables, or you can take a mineral supplement.

Treating Your Hair Gently

If you know you have an issue with hair shedding, how your treat and care for your hair can make a big difference. Moisturizing your hair is essential, and you need to make sure the conditioning treatment you use gets all the way down to the roots. Use a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner, and a monthly deep conditioning treatment. You can also use leave in daily moisturizers and oil serums to help protect from both hair shedding and breakage.

When brushing your hair, brush from the tips up, gently removing tangles as you work. If you start at the roots you are much more likely to have issues with hair shedding and breakage. Make sure to use the right brush or comb for your hair, and do not over brush your hair.

With the right care your hair can remain healthy and strong, and you can keep hair shedding down to a minimum. Finding the right cause for your hair shedding is vital to being able to remedy the problem. If you are unable to stop hair shedding on your own, a trip to the doctor should be able to help you determine the reason for hair shedding and get your hair back on the right track to health once more.

African American Hair Care - Best Shampoo for Hair Breakage

Hair breakage is such a common problem, that people from every part of the world can relate to it, regardless of background or income. While it is normal to lose 50-200 hair each day, shedding hair more than that is a cause for concern. Being left with embarrassing bald spots in place of hair is every person’s nightmare. To ensure you stop losing hair, you need to follow an extensive hair care routine that would include proper diet, using the best shampoo for breakage and some precautions. Your hair is important for your self-confidence and must not be lost due to uncontrollable breakage.

Once you notice hair breakage, you must begin to resolve it immediately. It is more important for a woman to maintain her crowning glory because a bald man may get easily accepted, but a woman with bald hair is a total no-no. So trying your best for preventing hair breakage should be your prime motto. Let nothing ruin your gorgeous hair.

Hair breakage causes

There are several causes of hair breakage in African Americans, owing to the unique texture of Black hair. African American hair has a non-uniform thickness and tends to be fragile in the thinner areas, leading to breakage. Women in these parts have a tendency to use strong rollers to give a special look to their hair. Some breakage also results due to the tight braiding of the hair or due to chemical treatments that damage the cortex.

Preventive measures

While some hair breakage is inevitable, a few precautionary measures will go a long way in preventing breakage:

• The most important method of avoiding breakage is using a gentle shampoo that prevents and fixes hair breakage. Choose the best shampoo for breakage and wash your hair carefully and follow it with a moisturizing conditioner. A shampoo that is mild, conditions hair, does not strip the hair of its natural oils and is restorative in nature i.e. helps to thicken hair and seal split ends is the best shampoo for breakage.

• Avoid hairstyles that are tight and lead to breakage. Try to avoid using fancy hair accessories or rubber bands that put unnecessary pressure on your hair and lead to breakage.

• Limit the use chemicals to style your hair. It gives your hair some time to recover in the period between treatments. Also, limit the use of dryers and curlers as they might give you split ends. Dry hair form split ends easily and split ends are a reigning cause for breakage.

• Massage your scalp using some lavender or almond oil and do it for a few minutes daily, so as to improve circulation. Massaging keeps your follicles active and results in healthy hair.

• Once a week, give your scalp a hot oil treatment. Use warm olive or coconut oil to massage your head an hour before shampooing.

• Proper nutrition is the key to healthy hair. Adopt a diet that is rich in fats, whole grains and vitamins. Changing your diet works on your hair from the inside, leading to stronger hair.

• Be stress free. Many times, excessive stress and tension is the cause of hair fall. Meditation will help you restore your hormonal balance and reduce stress.

Hair is an important part of your identity and instrumental in raising the level of one’s self-confidence. To combat hair shedding, follow a proper diet and use the best shampoo for breakage. Let your hair run loose and glow with health!

How to Prevent Split Ends?

There are dozens of different hair treatments on the market which claim help prevent or repair split ends. This is a common problem that everyone struggles with and one for which there are few easy answers. Most hair dressers will tell you that the easiest way to get rid of split ends is not a hair treatment but to get your hair cut frequently. But what happens when you do not want to cut your long tresses of hair? Is there a hair treatment that can either delay or avoid the inevitability of split ends or one that can repair them?

What Are Split Ends?

Split ends occur when damage is done to the protective cuticle at the end of the hair. Damage can happen is a variety of ways, hormones, excessively dry hair, and the use of hairdryers, curling irons, and chemicals can all cause damage to the ends of your hair and cause the hair strands to split. Excessive exposure to heat and the sun during the summer can also cause split ends to occur. It is also important to watch the hair treatment products you buy as well as the shampoo and conditioner you use. These products can either help to prevent split ends or cause them to be worse.

Finding the Right Hair Treatment for Split Ends

Split ends are difficult to repair once they occur, but it is possible to prevent further split ends with the proper hair treatment products. The right hair treatment products start with finding the right shampoo and conditioner. Look for a good quality moisturizing shampoo that will deep moisturize your hair. Follow up with an equally good conditioner and make sure that you concentrate on getting the moisturizer on your split ends. Leave moisturizer on for three to six minutes then rinse with cool water to seal the outer layer of the hair shaft.

Use a deep conditioning hair treatment that is specifically to help repair or prevent split ends, there are a number of good ones on the market. Look for those that are advertised to either deep condition hair or to help prevent split ends. Shine serums can be put on the ends of your hair and left in, they will help protect your hair ends from drying out during the course of the day.

Other Things You Can Do to Avoid More Damage to Your Hair

As good as a hair treatment product can be, even the best hair treatment product will not avoid split ends if you are not careful with your hair. Use a wide tooth comb to detangle your hair after washing, and comb hair gently to avoid breakage. Let your hair dry naturally whenever possible, and save the use of hair dryers and curling irons for only when you really need them. Give your hair a break from styling hair treatment products when you have nowhere to go, and try to find hair treatment products that are gentle on your hair.

Try to avoid over shampooing your hair, which will dry your hair out, no matter how conditioning a hair treatment it is. Use a water filter on your water which will remove chlorine and other chemicals which can cause damage to your hair.

What to Do if Your Hair Already Has Split Ends?

No matter how hard you try, some split ends are bound to happen, but you can slow down the occurrence of split ends and their severity by using the tips above. If your hair is already damaged choose a hair treatment that is meant to help repair split ends. Look for one which has a good reputation, as many of the hair repair products do not work. Your other option is to simply start over and have your hair trimmed. This will give you fresh un-split ends which you can then protect from getting split in the future.

Home Remedies for Hair Breakage

It is a simple fact, the more you do to your hair, such as over brushing it, using your hair dryer too often, coloring it,or having too many perms; the more likely you are to end up with damaged and broken hair. Choosing the right type of hair breakage treatment can make a huge difference in how healthy it looks and feels. Your hair is often the first thing others are likely to notice, but rather than add even more harsh chemicals to it in your search for a viable hair breakage treatment, there are a number of home remedies for hair breakage that offer better results and are less harmful to your hair.

Modify Your Diet

Believe it or not the foods you eat play a major role in the health of your hair. According to information from the Mayo clinic, proper nutrition is a vital part of any hair breakage treatment. Your hair needs plenty of iron as well as vitamins B and E to stay strong and healthy. These are nutrients you cannot get from a diet which consists of prepackaged foods. A good start in your search for a hair breakage treatment is to eat a diet which is rich in fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains.

Regular Maintenance

One of the best forms of hair breakage treatment, is to take good care of your hair. This means regularly washing it using a good quality all-natural shampoo. Follow this with an all-natural conditioner which contains ingredients such as Shea butter and whey protein as they can help strengthen your hair and restore the natural shine.

Rather than using a blow dryer, gently dry your hair with a soft towel and brush through it carefully while still wet. Use your fingers to remove tangles and perhaps add in a detangler as part of your hair breakage treatment. In order to help reduce extensive damage, you should have your hair trimmed on a monthly basis to get rid of split ends.

Get a Massage

Giving your hair a good gentle massage is considered to be a good form of hair breakage treatment. However, since you are trying to prevent hair breakage, the massage must be done gently. Hair care experts recommend the use of oils such as coconut, almond, or olive that have been warmed to the touch. These oils should be left in for a short time and will help to moisturize your hair, leaving it feeling soft and silky smooth. They are also rich in vitamin E an essential part of any hair breakage treatment. After leaving the oil in your hair for a little while, shampoo and condition with natural products for the best results.

Take Care of Your Scalp

If you want your hair to remain strong and healthy, part of your hair breakage treatment should include taking care of your scalp. Create a mixture of Aloe Vera, coconut milk, and wheat gram oil. Use this mixture to shampoo your hair regularly for a few weeks. Massage the mixture thoroughly into your scalp. It will open the pores and clean them out. As a hair breakage treatment, this will help give you stronger, healthier hair.

Avoid These

There are several things you should avoid as part of your hair breakage treatment. These include the use of any hair care products which contain harsh chemicals such as shampoos, conditioners, sprays, gels, bleaches, and dyes. Put your blow dryer, curling irons, flat irons, and curlers away for a few weeks until your hair has regained its strength.

Finally, while clean hair is very important as part of your hair breakage treatment, you do not need to wash it every day, as this strips off the natural oils which help keep your hair strong and healthy. By following these hair breakage treatment tips, your hair will soon regain its strength and stop breaking.

Repairing Damaged Hair

How easy can be repairing damaged hair? It can be too easy, even if you don’t have much time for thorough hair care. We would like you to go through this write up to know how we make mistakes sometimes and endanger our own hair health. Then you will find out some easy tip on hair breakage treatment here. We believe you will find them super easy. What you can do to help your hair grow a healthy way and not to look too frizzy? Hair care treatment should start at home.

First thing first – oil your hair sometimes. If you think your hair is getting too dry, oiling the hair will control the dryness to a great extent. We know it won’t be so difficult for you managing 10 minutes from your busy schedule. You also don’t have to oil hair every day. Just two or three times a  week, that’s all. Try to use essential oil while hair massaging. The beneficial properties of essential oils don't only moisturize the hair, but also soothe the scalp. We didn’t say it earlier, but it’s also true that a hair breakage treatment will also need you to improve your scalp condition. If you have problems like itchy scalp and dandruff, get rid of them. Dandruff makes your hair dry.

You will be surprised to know that how easy it can be making homemade moisturizers. You can use grapeseed oil, Alove Vera juice and whipped shealoe. You can make a mixture of grapeseed oil and whipped shealoe. These are very effective for treating damaged hair. You can make these conditioners one time and keep them aside for week long use. Amazing, is not it? Next we are going to tell you about a few Aloe Vera recipes that you can use as hair breakage treatment.

You can make a shampoo using aloe gel and honey and apply it to repair damaged hair. Both aloe vera gel and honey is good for drawing moisture into the hair. You must be knowing already that aloe vera gel is also good for treating fungal or killing bacteria. So you can use this homemade shampoo to keep problems like scalp irritation, fungal or bacterial infection away. You can blend apple cider vinegar, aloe Vera leaves and honey together. You can also add a small amount of essential oil to the mixture to add a little good smell. This could be an excellent hair breakage treatment.

Do you know you can use alove vera as a detangler? Yes, you can prepare a mixture of homemade aloe gel, distilled water and glycerin. This mixture can work as an inexpensive homemade product for making hair smooth and tangle free. You can use this to repair hair damage and make your hair soft. And believe us, this mixture really works. You might think that glycerin will make your hair sticky. But on the contrary, it will make your hair super slippery when you dilute it with water.

Well, these tow homemade natural conditioners will work as effective hair breakage treatment and repair your hair with no cost. You can also try H2 Ion as a hair repairing solution sometimes.