Jasmine Zik: Going Natural? Find Out How to Choose Your Products

Whether you call it a trend, a movement, an identity or anything else, I believe going natural is one of the healthiest decision one can ever make concerning one’s body.

It not only transforms the structure of your hair and looks, it sorta transforms your mind! You become more aware of things/substances you previously ignored, begin to see benefits and disadvantages of some habits and foods you eat. It also makes you more inquisitive, careful and creative.

Stop for a moment and think about it…since you decided to go natural you’re kinda eating healthy foods, you’re reading up more articles to find out ‘how and why’ on issues relating to your hair, you’re trying out new things, aren’t you? Coming up with your own DIY for almost everything-hahahahaha… it clicked yeah?

What have you become? A scientist? A researcher? Socialist? Advocate? Healthier? You’re drinking loads of water, eating fruits and foods you didn’t care much about – at a rate that might even sound alarming considering your kind of person.

You find yourself concocting things in your kitchen like a scientist carrying out experiments in the lab that leaves everyone around you, especially the boys who don’t get it, speechless and wondering why you’re pouring stuff that’s meant to be cooked in a pot on your hair, saying it’ll make it healthy…. Yep! We all get that.

Peradventure you’re new to this- being natural-doing the big chop or transitioning and you’re feeling lost as all the info you get are overwhelming, relax! you’ll get a grasp of it very soon and quickly too.

One of the major problems we encounter is choosing products that would work. Here are a few guidelines that should help…

Know your hair and what it needs
You might need to do a few experiments at the beginning stage and you should be aware that it’s sometimes, more difficult for transitioners as they deal with two different textures. You can start with products from the same line as they were made to work together(for example, you can use shampoo, conditioner, cowash and deep conditioner from Eden Body Works,the Mane Choice or Cantu etc). Later on, you can create your own hair care regimen.

Budget
Make a list of the basic products. It’ll help you know how much you’ll be spending; after a while you’ll get a hang of how long they last for you, then you’ll be able to tell how often you’ll be spending. Be sure to subscribe to natural hair blogs,newsletters,follow pages on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter to be alerted when sales are going on. That way you’ll be able to save a few bucks on products.

Contents
After you have found out what your hair needs (find the basics here), you will need to watch out for harmful ingredients in certain products and also ingredients that your hair doesn’t work well with(watch out for reactions, a product worked for me doesn’t necessarily translate that it would work as well as it did for you).

Communicate
Read reviews on products,blogs and articles. Don’t be shy or afraid to speak to someone with gorgeous hair, who you think might help on how they achieved a style or what products they use. Share your opinions especially a new hair hack you figured out (you don’t have to start a blog,but why not! if you want to).

Make friends, Who knows? They might own products that don’t work for them but works for you. Who says no to freebies? You can even trade/swap products.

Experiment
Don’t be afraid to use DIY products sometimes, it’ll help your product last longer and save you immediate expenses. Sometimes ‘quantity’ is ‘quality’ sometimes it’s not; at other times ‘expensive’ doesn’t exactly mean ‘best’. Be sure during your experimentation periods to try out cheaper products, or ones in smaller or larger quantities, you’ll be surprised!

Photo Credit: Iamknotteebynature.com