Do You Feel That Your Natural Hair Is A Lot Of Work?

Is your natural hair a lot of work?


  • Total voters
    121

Lylddlebit

Well-Known Member
My hair was a lot of work when I started my hair care journey. A lot of money and time put into my hair was futile because it was put towards stuff that didn't work. It is easy to waste more money on stuff that doesn't work than spend it on stuff that does while you are looking for a staple, perfecting a new method or perfecting a recipe. Once I found my staples, made some of my own recipes and perfected some successful methods for my hair, it became a lot faster and cheaper. I still learn new stuff for my hair and when I do I waste more time and money to find what works for me. Even if I have guidelines of what is successful for other people I still waste time and money perfecting it for myself.

I average a 3 hour wash day now. My wash day results can last a day, a week or a month depending on my goal and the outcome. My goal is a month's worth of style. I am not able to calculate a per week amount I spend on my hair because I don't buy on schedule. I can go a year without buying anything, then splurge on something like the Revair, or buy a couple hundred dollars worth of something I like in bulk during a sale. My tools are on the expensive side but they last a really long time when I find a staple tool. Believe it or not, my hair is much cheaper now at hip length than it was at APL while I was learning how to style it natural for the first time. I am pretty sure that is because I don't use as much stuff that doesn't work as I used to and there are things that I am no longer searching for because I found what I was looking for.
 
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oneastrocurlie

Well-Known Member
This is awesome! If I can get up to 4 days out of my wash and go, I'll be more than satisfied.

What's your best combo at the moment, and how do you preserve your hair at night? Do you refresh in the morning?

Top 2 combos:
UFD Curly Magic and DE Curl defining mousse
KCNT and the curling custard from the same line

I mix a little bit Briogeo Coil Custard and water in my hand scrunch through as a refresher if needed.

99% of the time I sleep in a satin pillowcase at night. The last couple wash days I've been doing mini pineapples after day one to keep my hair from shrinking so much. Then any night after that I just sleep on my pillowcase and refluff and refresh in the morning.
 

Cattypus1

All loced up...
I say “is” but I mean “was”. I’m almost 9 months loced. Best decision ever for me and My fine, 4a-b-c with some gray hair. I sweat like crazy and I just got tired of all the detangling and twisting and untwisting and detangling and pulling and tugging, etc. only to have my hair look like it would look if I didn’t do anything. I could start the day cute but about 30 minutes in some humidity would fix that right up. I was about shoulder-length when I decdied to stop fighting and loc. It was either that or go back to relaxed.
 

Meritamen

On a happy hair journey
I don't feel like my hair is a lot of work because my routine is simple and I don't wear it out often. If I wore it loose all the time then it would be difficult. But my hair is either in twists or braids which I care for and style as if my hair were loose.
I think part of it is finding something simple that works for you. I don't have a lot of time for my hair so I found something that was simple that wouldn't take a lot of time.
 

ThePromise

Well-Known Member
I find that doing my hair is therapeutic. I look forward to washing and steaming my hair. The extra steps for mixing clay and honey not my routine makes it a bit longer, but I feel like a chemist in the lab. it does take a while to so my entire routine, but I sip tea or wine and put on some good music. My wash routine takes about 4 hours from start to finish.
 

blazingbeauty

Well-Known Member
I love caring for my hair, but that’s not to say I don’t take a deep breath before wash day. It’s one of the reasons why I wash my hair twice a month instead of weekly.

I used to do the tightly curly method exclusively (so no deep conditioning) and it worked well enough to retain length, but now that I’ve stopped cutting corners, I’ve noticed a drastic improvement in the actual quality of my hair and scalp. Because of that, I’m happy to pamper my hair (within reason).

I still don’t believe in using 50-11 products/steps though.
 

water_n_oil

Well-Known Member
No. I've simplified my routine by wearing a wash and go 90% of the time. Wash day is an hour and a half tops. 30-45 mins of that is deep conditioning.

If it took me 3 and 4 hours each time I did my hair, I'd chop it off. Not even joking.
This right here. Hour tops for a wng, banded ponytails, or 8 braids. I don't touch my hair (outside of taking the braids down) until I'm ready to wash it again.
 

GettingKinky

Well-Known Member
I don’t find my hair to be a lot of work. Once I decided to let it do what it wants it was very freeing.

I do wash n gos. I wash 2x a week and I air dry. It takes me 25 minutes to do the entire process. It shrinks up a ton, but I’ve stopped worrying about that. Once I got a Deva cut, the shape is good in its shrunken state so I’m happy.

I can workout and my hair still looks good. I pineapple at night and maybe spend 5 minutes in the morning touching up any frizzy areas.
 

SAPNK

Well-Known Member
Once I can figure out
a. A wash day style I feel comfortable with, or
b. A way to dry my hair faster
...I think I'd be set. Otherwise I'm fine with it. (Edit: ...at the moment :look:)

I think it's easy to feel like you're doing too much when you see someone who can get it all done in a few minutes, doesn't have to keep their hair stretched, or can comb through dry hair with no product. If I make those people the standard, I'm always going to feel like my hair is too much work.
 

FoxxyLocs

Well-Known Member
My hair is not a lot of work at all. I wash once a week (sometimes stretch to two weeks). I wash and go exclusively and my wash day takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. 20 min if I'm in a hurry. If I feel like blow drying (I usually don't), that's another 45 min. My hair is TBL.

When I first started I was spending hours on wash day, but I only washed every two weeks. And sometimes I washed in my protective style so it was 5-6 hours every 4 weeks.

When I started feeling like my hair was a burden I got locs. I didn't want to be a slave to my hair.

Once I got over that phase, I started wearing my loose hair again.

I think everyone should have a 5 minute style, a 1 hour style, and then your styles that take hours if you have the time. But there's no reason to feel like you HAVE to spend hours and hours on your hair every week.
 

NaturalEnigma

Well-Known Member
I think it’s way too much work. I was seriously considering relaxing at one point. I found a salon to do it but the prices to retouch a relaxer and trim were crazy. I couldn’t keep up with that maintenance. I just decided to do protective styles for a year to give myself a break becuase I didn’t want to do any drastic decisions. It feels so good not to worry about wash day, doing my hair in the morning, what my hair is going to feel like looking like that day, or how I’m going to plan my wash day or twist out around an event I want to go to. My hair always looks great with my protective styles (weaves, wigs, braids, crochet etc). I felt my confidence slipping with my natural hair becuase after a while I just left it in a puff after wash day/twist day.

What bothers me the most is that I put so much care and emphasis on my hair and it still be looking crazy. Like what’s the point. Twist outs don’t last more than a day. My hair has its 6 month moods where it either looks great or doesn’t want to cooperate.

I think we’re going to see a wave of people getting relaxers in the upcoming years. Like the OP said I noticed a lot of black women are fed up with their natural hair. Before if a YouTuber relaxed their hair they would be read for filth now it’s “We understand” “Do what makes you happy” “Natural hair is a lot of work”. I feel like most people where I’m from only wear their natural hair a few months out the year. They mostly wear protective styles. I prefer wearing my own hair but my natural hair was getting me frustrated.
 
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LynnieB

Well-Known Member
Not difficult at all. I shampoo, condition then style. Including dry time it probably takes about 2.5 hours. It usually last 7 days and add a couple more if I throw it in a puff.

I deep condition maybe once a month but it's not always necessary. I did get the black girl's version of a Devacut in February and keep up on maintenence trims every 4 months. I think that really helps keep it manageable and easier to care for.

My typical style is a defined washngo.
 

FoxxyLocs

Well-Known Member
Love this! And I agree. I've
noticed that a lot a naturals feel that their hair is too much wok or not easily manageable, and I think part of the issue is balancing 1. time, 2. achieving a certain aesthetic, and 3. Care (stretching, detangling, preventing matting) which can be difficult.

I agree that a lot of the problems naturals have stem from trying to force their hair to do something it doesn't want to do. We embraced the natural movement but still want our hair to behave like relaxed hair - sleek edges, zero frizz, perfectly shaped, etc. That accounts for a lot of the people who feel like they have to redo their twist outs everyday.

When I do a twist out (or any other style) it looks perfect for the first day usually. After that it starts to frizz, but imo it still looks fine. I don't mind if my edges aren't perfectly laid or my curls aren't uniform.

If I redid my hair every time it stopped looking perfect I'd be styling everyday and probably driving myself crazy.
 

blazingbeauty

Well-Known Member
Once I can figure out
a. A wash day style I feel comfortable with, or
b. A way to dry my hair faster
...I think I'd be set. Otherwise I'm fine with it. (Edit: ...at the moment :look:)

I think it's easy to feel like you're doing too much when you see someone who can get it all done in a few minutes, doesn't have to keep their hair stretched, or can comb through dry hair with no product. If I make those people the standard, I'm always going to feel like my hair is too much work.

Edited:
I completely agree! What’s been helping me this year is to focus instead on improving one portion of my routine at a time until I’m consistently doing the same thing and getting the same results as efficiently as possible. Then I move on. And I’m seeing progress (although sometimes I forget until I do a length check or feel how smooth my hair is getting).

For instance, I’ve started to incorporate DCing (instead of leaving conditioner in my hair). The only difference is I DC for 20-30 minutes, which is more than enough for my hair when I add oil and heat. I’ve tested both DCing for hours and my current routine and DCing for hours actually makes my hair weak and limp.
 
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LadyRaider

Well-Known Member
I was probably doing everything wrong... but in my relaxed days I remember waking up every morning and using the curling iron (and then all those broken pieces of hair on my shirt all day).

So no, I don't think my natural hair is any harder. I wash and go most mornings. I don't think it takes longer than that curling iron time did. I'm not a beauty queen so I don't think my hair is always perfect (sometimes I luck out) but that's not my expectations.
 

GettingKinky

Well-Known Member
I agree that a lot of the problems naturals have stem from trying to force their hair to do something it doesn't want to do. We embraced the natural movement but still want our hair to behave like relaxed hair - sleek edges, zero frizz, perfectly shaped, etc. That accounts for a lot of the people who feel like they have to redo their twist outs everyday.

I agree completely. I used to feel very self conscious wearing my wash n go to work, because it didn’t look the way I envisioned it. Now that I have accepted my hair for what it does- especially the shrinkage, I’m much more comfortable in my skin. Not to say that I’m not constantly trying to improve my wash n go, because I’m not great at it, but I wear it proudly as it is.
 

oneastrocurlie

Well-Known Member
I think we’re going to see a wave of people getting relaxers in the upcoming years. Like the OP said I noticed a lot of black women are fed up with their natural hair. Before if a YouTuber relaxed their hair they would be read for filth now it’s “We understand” “Do what makes you happy” “Natural hair is a lot of work”. I feel like most people where I’m from only wear their natural hair a few months out the year. They mostly wear protective styles. I prefer wearing my own hair but my natural hair was getting me frustrated.

I wouldn't be surprised by this. Most of my friends I've known since college are natural. Besides me only one other wears their hair out majority of the time.

The rest keep them in braids or wigs, mostly because they don't like how it looks when they try to wear it out.
 

GettingKinky

Well-Known Member
I was probably doing everything wrong... but in my relaxed days I remember waking up every morning and using the curling iron (and then all those broken pieces of hair on my shirt all day).

Me too!! The start of my HHJ was when I realized that I could put my hair in a pineapple and not have to curl it everyday. That led to me giving up direct heat and now 8 years later I’m a wash n go girl.
 

FoxxyLocs

Well-Known Member
Once I can figure out
a. A wash day style I feel comfortable with, or
b. A way to dry my hair faster
...I think I'd be set. Otherwise I'm fine with it. (Edit: ...at the moment :look:)

I think it's easy to feel like you're doing too much when you see someone who can get it all done in a few minutes, doesn't have to keep their hair stretched, or can comb through dry hair with no product. If I make those people the standard, I'm always going to feel like my hair is too much work.

It took years to get to the point where I can spend 30 minutes a week on my hair. I had dry hair for a long time which required weekly DCs. I was spending hours twisting my hair every few weeks until it got so long that it just wasn't feasible anymore. There was a lot of trial and error but I enjoyed the process. Now it's easy and simple.
 

GettingKinky

Well-Known Member
I’ve been observing the hair of women of other races and most of the time it just looks average - and many times way below average. It’s rare to see a woman with hair like what you see in commercials for hair products or in magazines.

I think a lot of black women have unrealistic expectations for their hair. It’s not going to look like model hair most of the time. Once you let your hair be real, it all gets easier.
 

blazingbeauty

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't be surprised by this. Most of my friends I've known since college are natural. Besides me only one other wears their hair out majority of the time.

The rest keep them in braids or wigs, mostly because they don't like how it looks when they try to wear it out.

Do you think locs will be the next phase? Locs are amazing for sure.
 

Cattypus1

All loced up...
No. I think people are too impatient to wait for locs to look how they want just like they are with natural hair.
Locs are indeed a process. I’ve learned to be patient but it is a different kind of patience with locs because I can’t just rewash or wet it to make it behave like I tried to do with my loose natural hair. A crazy loc Day is just that—crazy. I just have to go with it. Locs are not for everyone, patience is the main ingredient.
 

discodumpling

Well-Known Member
Sundays are my designated wash day and can range from 1.5 to 2 hrs. I like to aim for an hr long DC weekly. Cause my hair is worth it! Without DCing I can cowash and reset my wash n go in 15 minutes. Obviously that doesn't include drying time which ranges depending on if I'm air drying or sitting under the dryer.

I really try not to judge those of you with these marathon wash day sessions cause it takes time to learn YOUR natural hair. Time & lots of patience. But the rewards and results are totally worth it!
 
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