Hair Type: All
Hair Porosity: All
Hair Sensitivities: All
Hair Goal: All
I want to give you all the basic hair principles I know to be essential for beautiful hair growth and maintenance. It is important to know these introductory standards before getting deep into the hair secrets and world of beautiful hair growth. These princples are what I consider to be hair bible. Without these principles, you will not be able to master a steady hair growth journey that maintains your hair integrity.
Moisturization
The first principle for hair is always moisture. You hear about moisturizing from everywhere so this concept is probably famililar to most people. But moisture is a principle that can be easily misunderstood.
The first step in moisture is to hydrate. Now you may ask, why is hydration and moisture NOT the same thing? Hydration is the act of adding water to a medium (the medium being your hair). Moisture is the act of retaining the hydration in your hair for a long period of time. First you add water to hydrate your hair. Secondly, use an oil to retain the moisture in your hair strands long enough for the water to benefit your hair.
Moisurization allows your hair to remain flexible and plaible. Moisture retention is the first sign of hair health. Moisture keeps your hair elastic, helps your hair to stretch to mitigate breakage, keeps hair strands full, and adds weight to your hair strands. Moisturized hair has bounce and can hold a curl. Moisturized hair feels soft and smooth.
Fortification
This is my favorite principle and the key to true length retention and strength maintenance. Fortifying and strengthening the hair is key to hair growth. It is also the reason why many people still struggle with their hair growth. Not using enough protein and nutrients to strengthen your hair strands and support yout hair follicles is the difference between growing hair with ease or struggling with too many setbacks. Remember that once your hair leaves the root, it is dead. It is completelty up to you to maintain your hair strength or it will continue to break down.
Protein-rich hair is is strong, soft, and full. It does not break easily or often and there is minimal shedding. Protein-rich hair also holds moisture in for weeks, even months, if given the chance. Lastly, protein-rich hair grows easily and keeps length easily.
Lubrication
This principle is extremely important but can be overlooked. Especially today, with the trend of not using oils unless they have been formulated into store-brought products. The principle of lubrication requires you to use liquid oils or butters to smooth the hair and mitigate friction. Lubrication is also needed to seal hydration into your hair strands.
Our hair is prone to breakage for many reasons. One of the reasons being our curl pattern. It exacerbates tangling, knotting, and matting. Sleeking the hair and adding some oil can help hair slide together and prevent so much tangling and matting issues. Adding that slip, using some type of oil, can also mitigate breakage. Remember, breakage is the number one enemy of length retention. Do not underestimate breakage. And do NOT underestimate your need for oils.
Low Manipulation
This is an underrated principle but as this blog continues, you will understand why this is what I call hair bible. Low manipulation is the act of not intensely handling your hair everyday, or handling it too much. Of all the hair types, our hair is the most fragile. It cannot be done every single day, sleeked every single day, braided or twisted out every. single. day. Your hair needs to rest and you need to learn to do your hair and leave it alone. Or use as little handling as possible.
You need to learn to style your hair and then leave it alone. Doing this increases the length of your hair retaining moisture and reduces breakage. Doing protective styles, which is part of the low manipulation principle, adds a barrier of protection from the environment.
Tension
The principle of stretch! No, I do not mean tight braids, hahaaha. Tension, in this sense, is the act of pulling the hair and stretching it. The tighter your curl pattern, the more important it is to stretch your hair. I may have mentioned this 70 times already, but our hair is the most fragile. The shape of our curl pattern alone encourages breakage. Combining our curl pattern with dehydration or brittleness? Game over. You have officially lost your ends. Stretching the hair prevents breakage because it puts your hair in a stronger state. Hair that is stretched, can withstand negative impact much better than hair that is not.
The act of tugging at the base, gently, also stimulates and encourages hair growth. Be mindful to not tug to the point of pain or irritation. It is important not to compromise your hairline and your hair roots to prevent traction alopecia.
What Does This Mean For You?
If you know you are doing well in some principles but your hair is not where you want it to be, look into the others. You may be doing poorly in the other principles which is why your hair is not growing. I do not believe one principle is really more important than the other. This is because all the principles affect each other. Manipulating your hair too often will decrease your moisture retention and increase breakage. Fortifying the hair helps your hair to absorb water better and increase moisture retention. Tension/stretching the hair helps hair to grow consistently and allows hair to be less fragile. And so much more.
This is part of holistic hair care and why I consider these principles to be hair bible. Anyone who has flourishing hair is knowingly, or unknowingly, following these guidelines. And anyone who is struggling with some factor, whether it is length retention and breakage, dehydrated or brittle hair, tangling, etc...most likely, you are doing poorly in one or more of the principles.
Master these principles and your hair will thank you!
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