One significant part of natural hair is products. There is a variety of products, but not all products will work for your hair. Here are 4 ways to tell your hair hates a product.
Most naturals I know are product junkies. I was a product junkie myself until broke that cycle. Being a product junkie was not a complete loss because I did learn two things about the numerous products I owned. Lesson one: some products didn’t work for my hair, and lesson two: some products I simply did not need at all.
This post will focus on hair products that didn’t work, and how I learnt to tell if a certain hair product worked or not. To clarify, if a product doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad hair product and doesn’t work completely. These products will still work for other people because our hair is different and individual.
Before you can be certain of a product, you should use it multiple times. One usage simply is not enough.
1. The power of touch
Touch your hair after using a product. Feel your hair with your hands/fingers; your hair may feel soft and moisturized, rough and course or feel no different than it did before. Whatever a product is meant to achieve, if you can’t feel that effect on your hair, it’s very likely that product does not work for your hair.
2. Short-lived results
Assume that you’re using a leave-in conditioner, ideally your hair should remain moisturized for 2-3 days (depending on your hair style). However, if the intended effects last only hours, or a day, then that product may not be suited for your hair.
3. Flaking
Flaking is when products dry on your hair strands and leave behind white flakes. I do realize that flaking may also be caused by build up, using too much product or mixing many different products together. But, if a products flakes on its own then it may not be the right one for your hair. This is common with low porosity hair as well.
4. Itchiness
Some products have ingredients that our scalp hates. Pay attention to your scalp, if you notice itching with certain products, your scalp does not like that product.
These are 4 ways I identify products that do not work for my hair. If you’ve got your own unique way to identify if a product works for your hair or not, I would love to hear it.
Atukunda Mercy Sabiiti
11 September, 2018 at 5:49 pm
I used to think my hair was the problem because usually the moisturizing products I use work for like three hours and then my hair is back to what it was before and yet for my friends, the entire day their hair is soft and moisturized. Can you tell which product will work for your hair because I’m still struggling with this??
Phelis Nakato
12 September, 2018 at 1:17 am
3 hours is a very short time 😀 but I know what you mean. Can I ask, how do you moisturize your hair? And also, do you know your hair porosity? For me I have low porosity hair, so I really pay attention to the ingredients. Low porosity hair doesn’t like protein, it makes low porosity hair hard and rough (but its good for high porosity hair). So in the ingredients list I look out for hydrolyzed protein . Some leave-in conditioners have this (like Kentaro). The products that work for my hair so far, is Cantu shea butter leave in (the one in an orange tin, I get mine from beauty corner). I also use Thamani botanicals, but mostly I use Cantu.