4C natural hair is an absolutely beautiful texture type. Its full-bodied, dense foundation is an amazing foundation to create and showcase a variety of gorgeous, textured styles. The beautiful appearance of 4C natural hair also comes with numerous care and maintenance challenges. Because this texture is coarse and naturally lacks definition, it requires more time and attention and is generally harder to manage on a consistent basis. That being said, here are a few tips and tricks on how to manage and style natural 4c hair.
1. Take Care of Your Scalp
Caring for your scalp is essential. By consistently taking care of your scalp you can alleviate a lot of natural hair pain that could come with seemingly unmanageable 4c hair. First, don’t wash your hair too often. The more you wash your hair, the more oils that your scalp needs end up getting washed away and you could experience a dryness. When you do wash your hair, make sure to wash all excess product from your hair. Also, deep condition your hair regularly. It’s essential for healthy moisturized hair and will also benefit your scalp health as well.
2. Detangling Your Hair
It’s also important to make sure that you detangle your hair because of how dense 4c hair can become. Ultimately, tangled hair can shrink and lead to matts and knots that can lead to breakage. This can be a painful experience as you try to untangle and force those tangles and knots out. So, first, try to stretch your hair after a wash day. Use two-strand twists or three-strand braids as your base. Stretching your 4c hair will make it less likely that it will break and give you knots. Next, detangle your hair in sections. This will prevent you from wanting to grab a pair of scissors and getting uber frustrated. Third, add a 4c hair product with a good amount of oils, such as olive oil in the ingredients. You’re looking for a nice amount of slip that will allow you to use your fingers instead of a brush. That’s the last part; use your fingers and be patient getting the tangles out.
3. Regularly Timed Trims
4C hair often experiences split ends. Clipping your ends every six weeks, albeit at the expense of compromising on some length, is a worthwhile strategy to preventing split ends and helps to keep fairy knots from forming. Regularly timed trims will help maintain healthy ends and void unwanted breakage and damage.
4. Moisturize Continually
Key to maintaining any type of curly/coily texture, but especially 4C hair, is moisture retention. The best 4C hair type products will have ingredients that produce long-lasting hydration and that seals moisture into the hair shaft from the inside out. Make sure to look for products with natural ingredients like olive oil and shea butter that give strength and shine. Using the LOC method (leave-in, oil, cream) seals in moisture and helps to beautifully transform dull hair.
We hope this advice was useful to you. Your 4C hair is gorgeous and deserves the best products. Take a look at our 4C hair products for Type 4 Hair and keep your hair healthy. You deserve it.
