How to Master How to Care For Natural Hair in 42 Minutes.

Hey guys, it's Shimi and welcome back to my channel. Really excited for this video. If you can't tell by the way, I'm smiling. I feel like I've been wanting to make this video for a very long time. Everything that I do to my hair that has helped it grow and just how I have found ways to care for my hair to make the process of taking care of my hair as easy as possible for me. Years and years of trial and error that have led me to learn some of the things that I've learned. So,

I really wanted to make a video just putting everything that I know into this one video. So, it's going to be grab a pen and paper. It's going to be a very thorough video. Everything literally every single thing that I do. I'm also a chemist. I don't know if I say that enough on my YouTube, but that is what I do outside of YouTube. Like that's what my degrees are in. Masters is in cosmetic chemistry, undergrad chemistry. Worked in hair research. Someone who studies who spends pretty much all of my time studying hair. It's actually

crazy how much of my life revolves around hair. I have come to know a lot about hair, which I enjoy. So, I will be going through everything that I know. We're going to be straight to the point so that we can get to everything. But I really hope that this video is helpful for you. So, let's just get started. Okay, so a lot of us as black women, our hair is growing. Like our hair pretty much grows the same rate as other races. Granted, some of us our hair can grow slightly slower, but for the

vast majority, the problem isn't growth. The problem is that our hair is breaking faster than it is growing. And if we can figure out how to allow our hair to break less, then we'll be able to actually retain the length that it's growing and it will grow longer over time. So that's what I'll be talking about in this video. What are ways that we can learn about better ways of caring for our hair, especially if we were never taught. So I'll be going through all of those things, how to care for your hair better so

that it doesn't break as much. And the second part is how to do less to your hair. So, I'll be talking about like low manipulation styles, protective styling, that stuff, how to care for your hair, not doing as much to it, and then the first half will be when you are doing stuff to it, cuz that's when all the breakage really happens when you are doing stuff to it, how to actually care for your hair in ways that are gentle. Let's just get started. So, when it comes to mastering every part of your natural hair

care, I'm going to divide this video by first talking about the wash day process, how to go through a wash day process and tips and tricks for best practices for that, and then how to style your hair afterwards. different ways of styling your natural hair and tips and tricks for caring for your hair while you're wearing it out. And then lastly, I'll talk about whenever you're putting your hair away and protective styles, tips and tricks and best practices for going about that in some of the best ways that make your hair care journey a lot

easier overall and allow you to retain more length as well. Once you've understood and mastered all of these three aspects of caring for your hair, you're literally a natural hair master and you can do anything to your hair. So, let's just get started. Wash day process. So during the wash day process is where a lot of breakage can occur. So I'm going to walk you guys through how I go about my wash day to make the process as easy as possible and then also how to be gentle as you're washing your hair during your wash

day process to limit as much breakage as possible. So as you can see I stepped inside the shower and right now I'm just wetting my hair. Later on in this video I'll go through everything that I do before stepping in the shower. But once I'm actually in the shower the first thing that I do is I wet my hair fully as you can see me doing right here. And I tend to wash my hair in two sections. Depending on the thickness of your hair, you may be able to get away with just washing all of

your hair in one big section, but to make it a little bit less overwhelming for me, it just is easier for me to wash my hair in two sections cuz my hair is a little bit thicker. But so I start with this side of my head. And right now, I'm actually going to go ahead and apply just a tiny bit of conditioner to my hair to just make sure I can run through my fingers to make sure that there aren't any major tangles in my hair before shampooing. I don't always do this, but sometimes I

do this if I just want to make sure my hair is really good to go ahead and start shampooing and that there aren't any major major tangles in my hair that would make my wash day really hard. And then once I do that, I go ahead and apply the shampoo and shampoo and lather up my hair going in a downward motion. Doing this to make sure that I don't use this opportunity to create tangles in my hair. This can make such a big difference in how easy your wash day process is. If you don't tangle

up your hair during the shampoo process, by just making sure you're going in a downward motion as you're shampooing your hair. And then the shampoo that you're actually using also plays a huge role in how easy your wash day process will be. You want to make sure that you're using a shampoo that's able to thoroughly cleanse your hair and your scalp and then also not strip your hair and make it be overly tangled. So, the shampoo that I'm using in my hair, as you can see, is set. Set hair care is the brand that I've

been working on for the past 3 years. Finally, I can announce it. Those of you guys who have been following me know that I have been hinting and like being very um elusive. It's been over like 3 years since I first mentioned this on my channel and it's like finally I'm ready to share it with you guys. This is what I've been using on my own hair. Literally just born out of me wanting to create things that helped me specifically helped me have an easier time with my own hair and then also make it a

little bit easier for me to get to certain goals that I had with my hair. So I made them for myself to kind of honestly help me get to certain goals a little bit easier in terms of being able to have an easier time with my hair and retaining length. So, which is also part of the reason why this has taken me so long. A lot of like scientific laboratory clinical dermatologist testing has gone into this. Like the shampoo is scientifically proven to reduce breakage by 56%. And then the conditioner is scientifically proven to reduce

breakage by 76%. They've all been dermatologist tested. I don't like fragrance. I have fragrance allergies. So, they're all fragrance free. So much has gone into this. If I begin to speak about it, it'll take too long. Yes, set hair care. It's the idea of feeling all set in your hair care. I know for me it has been a journey with learning how to care for my hair. So with like the videos that I make on YouTube and like the purpose of this hair care line in general is just that idea of like yes as black

women how we can come to that feeling of feeling set with our hair care and just feeling capable and confident in our abilities to care for our hair by ourselves. So it's just been a whole emotional journey for me with even making these products and being able to bring them to life and even like oh there's so much to go into it. But right now, I'm just thoroughly going through to rinse out all the shampoo for my hair cuz a lot of us, especially with thicker hair, are leaving shampoo in our hair. But yeah, I

was just talking about like so much to go into it. But like with the branding and everything behind the products, even the packaging, I wanted it to be something that looked pretty in my bathroom and just like the same way that skincare and other parts of my self-care journey are, I really wanted hair care that was like for my hair type specifically to also kind of be have that same type of feeling. the hair care experience for us being as beautiful of an experience as possible through like everything that goes into the brand with like

the actual formulations, the way they perform, the way that they were approached scientifically, how much they simplify the hair care process, everything that I'll get into later on as well. Just feeling set in your hair care and just experiencing your care and all parts of life really beautifully. But yeah, this is what I use on my hair and have been using and have played a big role in allowing me to have an easier time with my hair and assisting a lot in the process of me being able to retain length and avoid breakage. So, this

is the first time I've ever actually mentioned the actual name and everything. So, if you were watching this video early, you're probably one of the first people. So, the website isn't open yet and we're going to have pre-orders later on, but if you go and click down on the website, you can put in your email to know exactly when we launch. And if you're part of like the early people that have been watching and waiting on this, I wanted to give like a $5 gift card for those people who have been on this journey with

me and are part of like the early people to this thing that I'm just super super excited to finally bring out into the world. And if you're watching this later, the website could just also be open and you could just go ahead and purchase depending on when you're watching it. If you're early, you can get that $5 gift card and everything like that. Or it could be at the time when pre-orders are open. So depending on just click the link and you'll find out where we are currently. But yeah, back to this video. So, I'm

continuing on. I rinse out the shampoo. I'm able to fully cleanse my hair in one wash and it's not it doesn't feel stripped or tangled or anything. So, I can move on easily with the next conditioning step. That's another thing. I don't like to have to use multiple different shampoos so I can save time just one that could fully clean my hair cuz sometimes you can go on the other end like you have your very very stripping shampoos which cause a lot of tangling and make your hair feel really really rough and make your wash

day a lot harder. But a lot of shampoos are on the other extreme where they aren't cleansing at all and they're leaving buildup on your hair, which over time will cause its own problems. So, this thoroughly cleanses your hair, but it doesn't leave your hair stripped or tangled at all. The shampoo you use also plays a big role in the health of your scalp, which is a video that I need to make specifically about dandruff, dry scalp, dermatitis, over production of oil on our scalp, all like the scalp issues that a lot of us face.

Your shampoo does play a role in that, how drying it is to your skin and whether or not it's fully cleansing. And it's so actually crazy to me how much fragrance we put on the skin on our scalp. We would never put such heavy heavy fragrances in our skinincare. So it's always been interesting to me how much fragrance we put on the skin on our scalp which is more sensitive than the skin on our face. But yeah, all those things play a role into the shampoo that you use and it affects both your actual hair

strands but also is important for your scalp as well. And then so yeah, moving on. Once I do that, I go in with the conditioner. This is also the time in my wash day process where I detangle my hair. So, I'm detangling my hair in this exact manner. The way that I go about my detangling process is I only finger detangle. Personally, I find it for Alias my hair to be a lot faster and simpler for me to just finger detangle in the manner that you see me doing right here. Using a conditioner that has

a lot of slip. I'm using the set conditioner. the more wet your hair is, especially if the water is on the warmer side or hotter side, and then the more conditioner that has a lot of slip, the easier this detangling process will be for you. The set conditioner, it having a lot of slip has helped me a lot with reducing time in my wash day process. Anyone who has ever used a conditioner that doesn't have that much lip, you'll realize the crazy difference it can literally make and how much headache it gives you. It having

a lot of slip was a huge factor and has helped me a lot in my wash day process without using any silicones. It's like good ingredients. That's crazy crazy slip which makes the detangling process a lot faster for me. And then once I'm done detangling my hair, I just twist up that section. And this conditioner also functions as leave-in. So I'm also leaving a little bit of it left in my hair and adding some in my hair to function as leave-in conditioner. and then I proceed to detangling the next section of my head. So, this

was something that it hasn't always been this smooth for me. The things that helped me with being able to not have my detangling portion be such a struggle is one, how I step inside the shower. So, my hair wasn't tangled with before I stepped inside the shower. And towards the end of this video, I'm going to talk about exactly what I did before stepping inside the shower. So, that plays a huge role. And then number two, the way I shampooed my hair, because I went in a downward motion, I wasn't adding any additional tangles to

my hair. And because I was using a a shampoo that doesn't tangle my hair that's able to fully clean my hair without leaving it stripped and really tangled. All of those things play a huge role in now at this step of detangling my hair, I'm able to have a much smoother process with detangling. Another thing that really helped me was not being obsessive about like needing a fine tooth comb to be able to pass through my hair. Like if I was to go through, even after finger detangling, if I was to try and go through

my hair with a fine tooth comb, it probably wouldn't go through. As long as I can easily run my fingers through it, that's enough. And that alone has saved me so much headache. And you will see like even after with come styling and doing everything that I need to do afterwards, just simply finger detangling my hair is enough for everything that I'm going to do later on to be able to run smoothly. So being able to do that quickly with a conditioner that has a lot of slip has all been able to make this step

go a lot more quickly for me. And then at this time also is when you do have the option to deep condition. So this conditioner, it's a multi-unctioning conditioner. So it also functions as deep conditioner. So, if I wanted to deep condition my hair, what I would do is I would apply a bunch of the product into my hair. And then I would just step outside and use a plastic cap to allow the steam to develop and then use a dryer to apply heat. So, that allow it to penetrate. And you can do it like

at least with this product, it's like 5 to 15 minutes that's recommended and that's all you need to deep condition. So, deep conditioning is something that you do have the option to do, which would be a step after you've shampooed your hair. Deep conditioning helps a lot. If your hair gets to a point where it's starting to feel very, very hard and brittle. This is something that I notice my hair sometimes needs deep conditioning whenever I use a lot of heat. Like I've been blowing out my hair a lot lately. So, whenever I do stuff

like that, then I may go in and deep condition my hair. But for a general wash day, I just go ahead and proceed by shampooing my hair. As you can see me doing again now on this section, rinsing out the shampoo fully and then just using the conditioner as regular conditioner, detangling, and then leaving some in as leave-in. But at that point in your routine is when you could do something like a deep conditioner or a protein treatment. protein treatments would be beneficial if your hair is on the other side of the spectrum where it

doesn't feel too hard, it feels too soft and it's breaking because it just feels so incredibly fragile. So, at that point, you can do that if you need to. But generally speaking, only if you have extreme cases of something is wrong with your hair, then I would dabble into doing more intense treatments. But especially if you're just starting off with taking care of your natural hair, just learn the basics cuz there you can go into problems with moisture overload, protein overload, and then you're trying to work backwards trying to get back to where you started.

So just for most of us, the hair that grows out of our scalp as it is, it doesn't need extra all these extra treatments. Unless you've been doing like crazy things to your hair, like have over bleached it and damaged it and done so many crazy things to your hair, then you can start looking into doing some of those other treatments, which I have dedicated videos on to how protein works and what moisture overload is. If you want to learn more about that in depth, but this video is just about the basics of how to

care for your natural hair. And the basic the basics that I do 95% of the time is just shampoo, condition, leave-in, and I move on. Especially if you're using a conditioner that is well formulated, like this conditioner. It is also a deep conditioner, so it is well formulated enough for you to condition with it and it still be just all you need to move on. That was a big part of me creating this brand as well, the idea of working smarter and not harder and making the my hair care routine as simple as possible and

allowing certain products to do multiple things. So, because the conditioner has so many functions, it allows the whole wash day process to be so much easier when you don't have to use like 10,000 products to do one thing. If I could just formulate one really good product that could do a lot of different things, that was the goal. It makes the whole process of caring for your hair a lot faster and easier. So, yeah. So, once I'm done with all of that that I've shown you in the shower, I'm left with these Swix Twists and

we can step out of the shower and talk about my next favorite part, which is styling. So, let's get into the styling portion and how to take care of your hair outside of the shower and when you are wearing it out and doing different things to your hair, how do you take care of your hair in a way that is gentle, that is caring, allows it to not break, and helps you to retain length and just overall master knowing how to take care of your hair. So, when it comes to styling my hair, I'm either

styling my hair to wear out or to put it away in like a protective style. So, first we're going to talk about styling it to wear out. And I'm going to walk you guys through the twist out, the wash and go, and the blowout. If you can do those three things, you're pretty much a full natural hair stylist. Like that's pretty much all I do in the foundation of like 90 99% of all natural hairstyles. So, first the twist out. So, as you saw from earlier, I came out of the shower with my hair in

six big twist. Now, if I'm really really lazy with my twist outs, I sometimes just leave my hair in those six big twists that I ended with. I'll pack it to where it's flatter and is a little bit stretched out, and that will be my twist out. I literally just go to sleep, especially if I do my hair late at night and the next morning I will unravel my hair and I have my twist out. Very lazy version of a twist out, but it works. It works. And then you can style your hair afterwards. Today

on that day I did like a half up, half down. Very simple, very easy way of um styling my hair. But if I want to do like a more legit twist out, I also realize that whenever I do a more legit twist out and I actually like twist my hair with products, my hair does feel nicer. So if I put a little bit more effort, then I will start with those six big twist from the shower. And then I'll divide each of those bigger twists into two or three smaller twists. And the product I'm using

to twist up my hair is just a twisting gel. And this is from set. And that won't be out until later. I'm only going to launch with the shampoo and conditioner. And then later on I'll incorporate the styling products. I wanted to just have the basics out first, but in terms of so you know what I'm using, that is what I'm using. And then so yeah, I divide each of those six big twists into either two or three smaller twists and I'm left with these twists. And then the next morning I untwist it and I

have my twist out. I also I So if I want my twist out to be a little bit stretched, I should have packed it kind of like you saw me do in the original where I packed and pulled the twist back to kind of stretch them out before I was going to sleep. But if I want to stretch my hair after the fact, then what I do is I wrap my hair for sleep, as you can see me doing right here, where I grab two halves of my hair, and then I bobby pin it flat

and stretched out and I put the scarf around my head and I tie it. And then so the next day, my hair is a little bit more stretch. And then I have my twist up. And then so the second common hairstyle for natural hair that you can do as well is the classic wash and go. So the way I've been doing my wash and goes currently is I go in with gel. This is again gel from set. And I apply the gel onto all of my wets. Here I have the shower cap there just to

keep my hair from drying and keep it wet. So yeah, I just stepped outside the shower. Instead of me stepping outside of the shower with those six twists, I just stepped outside of the shower with all of my hair loose. And then I'm applying all of the gel to my hair, going kind of section by section to make sure that it gets to all parts of my hair. And then I once I'm finished applying all of the gel, I allow it to dry. And it's pretty much like 80% dry besides some of the insides are

a little bit still wet. And then once it's at that point where it's pretty much all dry, I go in and stretch it with a blow dryer in the manner that you see me doing right here. So I go through all of my hair and I stretch it like this. And all I'm doing is pulling on my hair and then applying low heat to get my hair to become stretched out. So as you can see, there was a lot of shrinkage before and then I'm able to show a little bit more length by stretching it

with a blow dryer. This whole process kind of takes a while. So that's part of the reason why I don't do wash and goes in this method very often cuz I have to go in apply the gel to all the parts of my hair, let it dry, and then go in and then stretch out my hair. So I feel like there's other ways of me styling my hair that are a little bit faster. And if I wanted to achieve this style, I've literally achieved my hair looking exactly like this with the wig and it takes

2 seconds for special occasions really cuz this probably is like what if I'm wearing my natural hair out, this is probably my most complimented way of wearing it out. I think something about my curls being very small and very defined, people are just fascinated by my hair whenever I wear it in a wash and go, like a stretch wash and go like this. But if I do want a faster way of doing a wash and go, if you remember, if you guys have been following me, my old method of doing a wash and go where

I didn't stretch my hair, I would just apply gel to all of my hair, as you can see me doing right here. Not really being too particular about going in in sections. This whole process takes like 20 minutes maximum. is put in all of the gel just like that and you let it dry and you're done. So the actual wash day or like styling part only takes like 20 minutes. So that's the way I would do it if I wanted it to be quick. You just apply gel onto your wet hair and go. There's more

shrinkage, but that's the easy way of doing a wash and go. My easy way of doing a wash and go if you want to stretch your hair afterwards. The only difference is that you do need to be more particular about going in in sections with a hard holding gel and then letting it dry and then later on going in with a blow dryer to stretch it out. But yeah, that is how to do a wash and go. So yes, now the third way of styling your hair, this has been my go-to method cuz I think

it's the perfect balance of I really like the way my hair looks and then it also doesn't take me forever is the blowout. So I can blow out my hair in like 30 minutes max and it's done. So, the way I blow out my hair lately has been with the Rea. I've been really liking the Rea, honestly. Like, I feel like it allows me to not put that much manipulation on my hair with not having to go in with a brush. I can just blow out my hair. But it's only recently where I've actually learned

how to use it properly. Like, the learning curve is kind of steep unless someone explains it to you. So, I'm going to explain it right here. And so, I start with the six twist that I step out of the shower with. So, again, this is just hair that has been finger detangled and put in twist. So I go in without untwisting the twist. I just put the river in the twist. This is in real time so you can see how long I'm doing this. And this is on low heat on the highest tension setting for

a few seconds just to stretch it out and dry it a little bit. Now I'm going to unate my hair. I'm going to take half without brushing or combing it out. Doing it again. And now this is still on low heat on the highest tension setting. And I just put all of my hair in there. As you can see, not all of it is able to fit inside the river. So I'm going to actually divide this section into two just to make sure that all of my hair can actually fit inside the river. And now

I'm putting it on the high heat setting and then highest tension still. And now I'm going to dry my hair to pretty much like 95%. Dry it fully. And right now we're on two time speed. It's at double time so that this won't be too long. But yeah, I'm holding it there. And essentially I just feel for my hair to see whenever my hair is to like 95% dry and then take it out. And then at this point is when I go in and detangle my hair if I want to detangle my hair. As you

can see throughout this entire process, I never detangled my hair since stepping outside of the shower until now. And that was for a reason which I'll get into later. But then after I do that, I go in with the river one last time to get it 100% dry. And then I do the same thing to the other half of that section where I dried it to 95%. Then finger detangled, then dried it to 100% with one last pass. And then I proceeded to do the same thing to the rest of my hair from that section.

From that original twist that we had blowdried on low heat while it was still in the twist. With my hair that is now loose, I blow dry it to 95% with the Re on high heat. Then detangle and then blow dry to 100%. And then I repeat the same thing on what is left of that last section. And then I'm done drying that section. Each of these six sections probably takes me like around 5 minutes total. But yeah, just go in with each twist, dry it on low heat for a few seconds, then untwist it,

dry it to like 95% on high heat in a smaller section. And then I detangle and then dry it to 100%. And then we're done. And then I move on drying smaller sections, small enough to fit all of it into the river. Drying it to 95%. detangling and then drying to 100%. So, I demonstrated me using a brush just so you can see the concept of how I would detangle with a brush. But most of the time whenever I do a blowout, like if I'm only doing a blowout just to wear my hair in the

blowout style, I won't use a brush. I'll just lightly finger detangle if that. Sometimes I'll just blow it out and move on. I only really use a brush if I want my hair to be very very fully detangled. If I'm blowing out my hair for the purpose of like preparing for it to be braided or something like that, then I'll go in with a brush to make sure that it's very very detangled. Honestly, otherwise, I don't really ever use a brush and it keeps it very very low manipulation. And that is how I'm able to

blow out my hair easily. I say it like so casually and calmly. Now, this took me forever to figure out with the river. If I don't do it this way in these exact steps, I get a lot of tangling with my hair. This becomes a lot of a lot of work. But yes, this is the exact way that I figured out how to do it to where it only takes me like 30 minutes total and the whole process is really easy. But yes, that is how I blow out my hair. So now you have mastered,

you know, how to do the basic styling of your hair and how to do it easily and in a way that is caring towards your hair. And now you're probably asking, okay, well, after I've done my hair, how do I care for it throughout the week? How do I sleep in it? When I wake up in the morning, what do I do? what do I do daily? All of that stuff. So to explain that right now. So the way I actually care for my hair throughout the week is exactly the same in all the ways

I style my hair. So whether I'm doing a twist out, a wash and go, or a blowout, I sleep with my hair the same way every day. And then I care for my hair in the same way every day. And I either just wear it down or I'll put it up. So, the way I go to sleep with my hair whenever it is out is I grab a satin scarf like this and I just tie it around my head loosely like this and that's it. And then I just go to sleep with the back of

my hair hanging out like that if there's any hair out there to hang out if it's long enough. But yeah, that's literally how I go to sleep to preserve my hair. If I want my hair to be stretched overnight or like stay stretched, I will sleep with the way I showed you guys earlier where I'll wrap my hair in this manner, taking two halves and then laying them across my head and bobby pinning them. And then I take that satin scarf and I tie it to keep it in place. And then I can put a

bonnet on on top of it. So you can sleep in either of those two ways. That's how I sleep. whether my hair is in a blowout, a wash and go, or a twist out. The first way preserves the volume of your hair, and then the second way stretches it out. I sleep with my hair the first way most of the time just because I like to keep my hair big. But yeah, that's how I sleep with my hair. In terms of how I actually care for my hair in all of these styles, whether it's a

wash and go, twist out, or a blowout, honestly don't really do anything to my hair as I'm wearing it out. That includes brushing it, retwisting it, reapplying product. The only thing that I do is when I wake up in the morning after shaking out my hair, I just if I want to wear it down, I'll keep wearing it down. If I want to put it up, I'll put it up. Sometimes I'll do claw clip. Sometimes I'll do just a regular ponytail. But I literally essentially just leave my hair alone, which can be kind of a

learning curve for some people. You might think, I know at least for me, I thought I had to do more, but you will come to learn less is truly more. You can also always cater it to your own hair, but for me, I find it to be a lot less work and a lot less manipulation. And there's really not much need for me to do anything to my hair besides wake up, shake my hair out, and then put it in a ponytail if I want or just leave it down if I want. And that's all

I do to take care of my hair. And you'll probably be like, "Wait, so you don't like re moisturize or add any product?" I don't. And I don't brush my hair as well, as my mom would say. So you don't comb it? No. I literally just leave it as is. If I put my hair in a ponytail and like the edges are looking kind of rough or something, then I'll put like maybe some leave-in the same set leavein around like I'll touch up things here in there for for the most part. I don't on a

strict schedule like re moisturize every single day. The product that you left in leave-in at the beginning of your wash day, it should last you to your next wash day. So that's another thing. Whenever I'm leaving my hair out, I go usually like one week and then or two weeks. And the way you styled and set your hair on your wash day when you did your wash day should last you until your next wash day. And on my next wash day is when I reapply all of my products. So throughout the week, all I really

do is wake up, shake my hair out, and then either leave it down or I'll put it up and that's it. It makes my hair care journey super super easy. If it shrinks a little bit, you can just put it in a different style. Sometimes like especially whenever I blow out my hair. This was a day that it was especially humid. My hair went from being this long to being like this in one day. It was a very very humid day and it shrinks. But if my hair like drastically changes like that, then I just

do a different style. I'll just put it in a ponytail like you see how I did on that day and it was still a look. But that is really all I do to my hair throughout the week. It makes your life so much simpler and there's no need to do anything to your hair until it's time to wash. So, say you've gone a whole week or maximum two weeks with your hair. You have been wearing it out. You haven't combed it or drawn anything. You're probably like, "Okay, so when it comes down to that end

of the two weeks, won't my hair be tangled? How will I go about my wash day?" So, this is where trial and error will teach you that you don't need to do anything. You really don't need to do anything. After one, I usually wear my hair out for like either one or two weeks. Either whether it's a wash and go, twist out, blow out, it's all the same thing. I just step straight into the shower after. Yes, you heard that correctly. I just step straight in the shower. Now, if you were to try, which I

have done in the past early when I didn't know any better, I would try and detangle my hair first outside of the shower. And one thing about natural hair, you'll realize if you try to put your fingers through your hair when it's dry, even if you put like product in it to moisturize it and stuff, it's not going to be easy for you to run your fingers through it. But when you step inside the shower and allow your hair to become fully fully wet, you'll realize how easy it is for you to glide your hair,

especially if you add in conditioner that has a lot of slip. So, by just stepping straight in the shower, I'm able to save so much headache and so much breakage. And as you saw what I do to my hair throughout the week, I just leave it alone, go to sleep by tying something loosely around it, and then shake it out in the morning and go about my day. I don't do anything crazy to my hair that would cause it to become extremely tangled. Like I'm not backcombing or teasing or doing anything crazy. Like I didn't

experience any type of tornado or crazy or craziness that would make my hair become very very tangled. But this only applies to when I've just worn my hair out for a shorter period of time. Now, if I've just taken down my hair from like a protective style or my hair is actually genuinely tangled and I need to detangle it from like something like that or it's coming out of braids and there's knots and tangles, that is different. You do need to fully detangle your hair first. But if you just worn your hair out for like

a week or two and haven't done anything crazy to it, there's no reason why extreme tangles should form in your hair. You won't always be able to run your fingers through your hair, but it's not because your hair is tangled. It's just the nature of textured hair. It's going to be intertwined. So, it can give the impression that you have to do a lot of work to detangle it, but you really don't. You just have to get it wet. That's literally like just that one piece alone of information I hope can save so many of

you guys from so much headache. You just have to get it wet and then use a conditioner that has a lot of slip. So I just get my hair wet by stepping inside the shower. This is where before I shampoo I sometimes will go in with the conditioner first to just glide my fingers through my hair. Make sure everything is good that there aren't any major tangles. And then I proceed with my wash day in the exact same way that I showed you at the beginning of this video where I just shampoo and then I

condition. It's literally just that simple. It's actually crazy. Like when you realize how simple it can really be. So that is how I take care of my hair whenever I'm wearing it out. That is how I'm able to put low manipulation on my hair by really just styling it and leaving it alone, babying it, and treating it gently. This is a demonstration on fake hair to show what not to do. This is something that a lot of us do and don't realize that this is the reason the main reason why our hair isn't retaining length

simply by us being so so rough to it. If this looks normal to you and if this is a way that you tend to approach your hair, I hope that by showing you another way through the demonstrations of how I take care of my hair shows you that you don't have to be that rough. Even if you are using combs or brushes, it's all about still being gentle with your hair and treating it like a delicac. For a lot of us, our hair is breaking off because we are the ones physically breaking it off every

time. We are being super super rough with it. So, just being gentle every time when you're taking care of it and doing less to it as well. And that is how you're able to reduce significantly how much breakage you are inflicting onto your hair. But yes, you can be very kind and gentle to your hair and it'll be kind back to you as well. In terms of things like trimming, trimming is something you can do as often as you feel is necessary for your hair. So, it can be once a year, once every couple of

months, just once you start to notice the ends of your hair becoming uneven or split. This will vary a lot from person to person. So, only trim based on your own hair and not based on another person's timeline, but it may help your hair tangle a little bit less at the ends when they're trimmed. So, it can help from further breakage that's caused from tangling that's happening at the ends of your hair. So, you can just trim just as needed. based on your hair and when you notice your ends becoming more uneven. So now let's

get into the last part of this video, which is protective styling. A big part of the way I wear my hair is by putting it away, putting it in protective styles. So specifically, my most common way of doing a protective style as of recent has been wigs. So now I'm going to share with you guys my wig routine because this is where really all of the growth all of the growth has been happening. So let's talk about that right now. When I talk about wigs, I'm talking V part wigs, up part wigs. I'm not really

a lace girly. I do V parts or I used to do sewins. That's what I used to call myself, but now we've upgraded to V parts. A faster version of a sew in. And you're like, wait, but do you have leave out? No, because if you haven't already seen, go see my no leaveout method. This right here, I don't have leave out, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So, first, let's just talk about the actual protective style itself. How I prepare my hair for wigs is I do flat twists, which have been such a lifesaving

thing for me. So, this is something that I do in the shower. I flat twist my hair in the shower. So, at the end of my wash day, because I'm able to flat twist my hair fairly quickly, I go ahead and flat twist my hair while it's soaking wet under running water because it makes it very, very easy for me to flat twist. Depending on how thick your hair is, you may be able to get away with just doing regular twist and then putting your hair in a ponytail. That still works for me sometimes if

I'm doing like a bigger wig, but if I want my hair to lay flat, then I need to do flat twist. I try not to spend too much time in the shower. I don't necessarily think it's that good to be in the shower for too too long. So if it takes you a while, don't do this in the shower. Step out of the shower. But so the protective style itself is actually just the twist. It's the flat twist. And then the wig itself is just how I'm styling or adorning my flat twist. But the real

protective style is just putting my hair twist and leaving it alone. Because when it comes to being able to retain more length on your hair, a big part of that is being able to leave your hair alone in things such as twists or other protective styles. If you can go periods where you're just leaving your hair alone, during that time period, you're able to give your hair breaks where it can just grow and not break. And over time, that starts to add up. As long as the protective style itself isn't causing you breakage by being

too tight or too heavy, or if the process of you actually putting your hair into that hairstyle, or the process of you taking it down from that hairstyle isn't causing you breakage, as long as you aren't causing breakage to your hair in those ways, by being able to put your hair away and give it a break in protective styles that are done correctly, you're able to give your hair a break and allow it to have periods of time where it's able to grow and not experience breakage. But it's so so important that the protective style

itself isn't causing you additional breakage by being too tight or being too heavy or if the process of you actually putting your hair into that hairstyle and taking it down isn't causing you breakage. You want to make sure that those aren't things that are additional sources for breakage. And that's why I really like flat twist. The process of actually putting my hair into flat twist is very minimal manipulation and puts very little wear and tear onto my actual hair to actually put it into the flat twist. And then the process of taking the flat twist

down is also simple and low manipulation. And so with my hair in flat twists like this, most of the time I typically leave them in for like three or four weeks just because they are kind of messy. Before I really was a proponent and I still am a proponent of very very long protective styles. So like two or 3 months so that you can give your hair an extended like a really extended time where it can just have a break. Because one thing about protective styles, if you only keep them in for like 3 weeks,

but if it's a more intricate protective style, like smaller individual braids or small intricate cornrows where you have to put more work to put your hair into that style, sometimes the amount of work and manipulation that it takes to put your hair in that style can outweigh the benefit that you're getting from leaving your hair alone if you're only leaving it alone for a very short time. At the end of the day, the purpose and the reason why protective styling works is because we're putting our hair away to give it a break to reduce how

much we're doing to our hair. But if we're doing a lot to our hair to even just put it in the style and then we're not leaving the style in for a long time and then we're doing a lot to take it down, then the end result is we're actually ending up doing more to our hair. So that's why in those cases I see a lot more benefit when I leave those types of styles in for longer for like 2 or 3 months cuz those are still great styles. They actually last longer too. So you

can leave them in for several months. But if you're only leaving those types of styles in for like 2 or 3 weeks, you end up over manipulating your hair. But with a hairstyle like this, it takes me very minimal effort to actually put them in and take them down. So that's why I still see a lot of benefit even if I'm only leaving them in for like 3 weeks. But that ends up working perfectly since I have been really liking switching my hair up more frequently. Flat twists are my go-to shortterm protective style. But if

I'm putting my hair into like braids or more intricate like cornrow style, then I'll leave those types of styles. If the intent is to grow my hair and like retain length while I'm wearing those styles, then I'll leave those styles in for longer up to two or three months. And in terms of how I actually prep my hair to put my hair in these styles. So I make sure that I have leave-in in my hair that leavein and then so that's all I do for flat twist. I just flat twist it. But if I'm going

to do like box braids or more intricate cornrows or things like that, then it is helpful for me to stretch my hair out first. So I'll either stretch it by twisting up my hair, doing a twist out essentially, or I'll just blow it out, which would make the braiding process the easiest. I would just blow it out and go in with a brush where I showed you earlier when I was explaining how to do a blowout. I would use a brush at that time to make sure that my hair was nicely free of all tangles

to be easy to braid. And if you don't have a river, you can of course use just a regular blow dryer as well. And I'll link a tutorial of mine on how to use a regular blow dryer. The river is just one that I've like to use. Depending on the density, thickness, and actual texture of your hair, you may not even need to blow out your hair, but for my hair, blowing it out or at least stretching it with like doing a twist out, that helps me a lot with the braiding process go a lot

smoother if I'm doing something more intricate. And then while my hair is actually in the protective style, for the most part, I really just leave my hair alone. You can wash your hair as frequently as you would like. And then you can also oil your scalp. But for the most part, I really don't do too much to my hair while it's in a protective style. I don't use any hair oils currently, but I'm just very intentional with how I go into the protective style. Making sure that the process of me putting my hair into that

style is a gentle process and I'm not causing breakage onto my hair and my hair is well moisturized going into the protective style. And then when I'm taking it down, that's another part where I'm also being very intentional about how I take it down. Those are really the two aspects of the protective style that will matter the most and will play the biggest role in the protective style actually being protective and allowing you to retain length. How you actually put it in and how you take it down. So how you put put it in, make

sure it's not too tight or too heavy and that you are gentle with putting your hair in the style. And then when you're taking it down, making sure that you don't cause breakage when you're taking it down. just about being patient and being careful. If you feel yourself ripping out your hair, you are ripping out your hair and you're causing it to break. So, just be gentle and treat your hair like a delicacy. Really take your time. And I have I'll link pretty much every concept that I've talked about in this video has a dedicated

video. So, how I do a wash and go, how I do a twist out, how I um do every single thing, how I take down my hair, it has its own I have dedicated videos on each of these concepts. So, I'll also link them down below if you want to see it in more depth, but it's the basic concept of taking your time. That's all that is to it. Take your time. Use a conditioner that has a lot of slip. Detangle as you take down each braid instead of waiting to the end so you don't

get overwhelmed. And be intentional about not breaking your hair as you're taking it down from your protective style. And that is how you take care of your hair. Oh my goodness. Wow. We have covered everything from how to wash your hair, how to style it whenever you're wearing out, and how to use protective styling to your benefit to take care of your hair by leaving it alone so that you can avoid manipulating your hair and giving your hair as many opportunities to break. We talked about how whenever you're taking care of your hair, how to

style it and become a master at styling your hair, but also with the knowledge of knowing how to style it and care for it in a way that is low manipulation, that is gentle, that allows you to retain length and allows you to move forward with the ability to take care of your hair in an easy way. Not only easy, but also a way that benefits your hair and prevents it from breaking as much. But yeah, I really, really hope that this video was helpful helpful for you. You can come back to this video if

you forget anything. I really wanted to just have this laid out so you can share with a friend as well if they are trying to learn a little bit more about how to care for their hair. These are the things that I have come to learn over the years that help helped me a lot. So, I hope that they help you as well. Thank you again so much for watching. You can also click the link below to learn more about set. I'm really really excited and yeah, see you in the next one. Bye.