I am going to share with you about how to soften natural hair. This will be very helpful, and  ultimately change your natural hair journey. Thank me later.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been chatting to a couple of naturals via our social media.  These ladies shared with me some of their biggest natural hair struggles. After rounds of back and forth feedback, I noticed a pattern. Now come closer, I’m about to share with you the secrets of the universe! From what was shared, I realized that most of the challenges directly or indirectly stem from two things. One: the need for soft manageable natural hair, and two: the desire for long hair. Are you nodding your head in agreement? For the sake of this post, I’ll go over point number one.

4B/4C hair seems “hard” and unmanageable, but really the fact is most people who feel this way about their hair just don’t know yet how to take care of it. Many of the ladies fell in this group. In a bid to make hair softer and manageable, a number of these ladies blow dry and straighten their hair frequently with heat, while others braid it so that they won’t have to deal with their hair at all. I think it’s worth mentioning that these two practices (blow-drying and braiding) if done wrongly lead to breakage and hair loss, which then further encourages the illusion that natural hair doesn’t grow.

By now, you may start to see how these challenges can be related to one another. The solution in this case is very simple, and it is to learn how to soften natural hair safely. When your hair is soft and manageable, frequent blow-dying (blow-outs) and bad protective styling become a thing of the past. This is not a theory, these are all things I’ve been through myself.

How to soften natural hair

The best (and safest) way to soften natural hair and make it manageable is by moisturizing it. You can achieve “good” moisturization through deep conditioning (I usually do this every 2 weeks) and weekly moisturization with LOC (Liquid, Oil/Butter, Cream) or LCO method.

How to deep condition natural hair

This might seem obvious, but I have received questions about this, and I will go through the steps for the sake of anyone who may not know.

Step 1: Shampoo

I shampoo my hair, I am not afraid of shampoo. But if you use clays or any other form of gentle wash, that’s perfectly okay too.

Step 2: Apply deep conditioner to wet hair.

Cover hair with cap or many, many Kaveras (plastic bag) and let the moisturizing deep conditioner sit in your hair for specified time (usually 30mins to 1 hour), apply heat if you have low porosity hair.

How to deep condition natural hair gallery

Step 3: Rinse out the conditioner.

Yes, you wash it out, do not leave deep conditioner in your hair, this is what leave-in conditioners are for.

Deep conditioning is the first step to soften natural hair because moisture is restored to your hair. So after deep conditioning, you have to preserve this moisture in your hair. To do this, you moisturize further with the LOC or LCO method.

Because I didn’t want this post to be so long, I’m breaking it down into two parts. Follow up the rest of it in party two about further moisturization:

Part two is all about moisturizing with LOC to LCO method.