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The hair is an important part of the body and it is important to know how to handle it, that is, fortify yourself with the knowledge of virgin hair treatment, to facilitate good and luxuriant growth. Many individuals suffer from hair loss today because they fail to adequately provide the necessary nutrients to their hair or treated their virgin hair badly due to its mass, as is characteristic of an African.
Virgin hair treatment involves all the care you give to your hair without altering its natural state. In a time when the popular chant is to love yourself, embrace the thickness and curly nature of your African hair. With the right treatment, your virgin hair will become easier to manage, maintain, and style. Also, you will be exempted from the prevalent hair loss that comes with using most of the synthetic products that remove the keratin in your hair.
After perusing this article, you will have a good understanding of what makes your hair as curly and thick as it is. You will also have the information you need to give your virgin hair treatment regimen the right time and ingredients it needs.
Why is Your Hair the Way it is?
Your hair, by definition, is the hard part of the keratinized rod that extends beyond the surface of the skin that has hair follicles, that is they are not glabrous. In simpler terms, your hair is a defining part of you as a human. It is made of a protein called keratin and develops from a layer of skin under the dermis. It protrudes from the skin through small holes called hair follicles and receive nutrient through the network of small veins under the skin.
Different races in the world today have different hair characteristics, which varies from color, influenced by melanin, to texture – which is described in the curl pattern, consistency, and volume. It is believed that the curl of your hair and its kink, largely depends on the shape of your hair shaft, that is the outgrowth from the hair follicle. A straight hair shaft allows more disulfide bonds among the hair strands, making them curly while a curved hair shaft reduces the extent of disulfide bonding in the hair and results in straight hair. In essence, the flatter the hair shaft, the curlier the hair.
Why it is Difficult to Treat Virgin Hair as an African
As an African, your natural hair is curly and kinky, making it hard to manage, sometimes. The majority of hair treatment available are for straight hair, and since your hair isn’t straight, you are expected to first, straighten it. This means you have altered the natural state of your hair and this is usually achieved by applying relaxers that help to break down the disulfide bonds that exist in the hair strands, making them straighter.
A formerly curly hair that has been made straight by using hair relaxers is no longer considered a virgin hair. A virgin hair is one that has not been altered with any product that makes it different in curl, texture, or color.
The difficulty in managing an afro virgin hair lies in the curl and kink of the hair. Due to the nature of the hair shaft as attributed to Africans, it is difficult to get combs through the mass of hair without causing some amount of pain. Sometimes, continuous combing might lead to pulling of hair strands from the hair follicles. To address this issue, many people will rather use relaxers to make the hair easier to comb through and style. However, there are virgin hair treatments you can use instead of altering the natural state of your hair.
Virgin Hair Treatment and Remedies You Should Consider
There are many ways you can soften your hair and make it easy to style and comb without using products that will irritate your scalp and cause a decline in the production of sebum. Here are some treatment options you should consider for your virgin hair.
Avoid heating your hair
When you go to style your hair, you probably have your stylist wash and dry your hair first. While this is good, the drying may be detrimental to your scalp, and by extension, your hair. Avoid the use of hair dryer as much as possible. The heat that emanates from the dryer causes the hair follicles to shrink, and reduces the thickness of your hair over time.
It also reduces the amount of sebum the hair follicles provide for your scalp, which may encourage dandruff.
Wash less frequently
Washing your hair helps to remove excess oil, which can be annoying. However, excessively washing your hair can cause split ends due to the inadequate presence of oil. The sebum that lubricates your scalp helps the hair strands maintain their luster. Also, consider making a schedule for washing your hair, depending on the thickness of your hair and how much oil your scalp produces.
Use essential oils
In case your scalp does not produce adequate oil to soften your hair, making it difficult to manage, you can use some essential oils gotten from plants, or some homemade herbal oils, to help your hair soften better and grow well. Some of the oils you should consider include Argan oil – a major ingredient in some hair shampoos and conditioners, Coconut oil – for its effective moisturizing effect on the skin and scalp, and olive oil.
Consider Bentonite Clay
Bentonite clay is popularly used to address digestive issues but it also has beneficial effect on hair. It helps to moisten the scalp and rid it of dryness, making the hair healthy, thick, and well moisturized for easy management. It is available in many stores as hair mask and can be used periodically.
Use natural hair products
There are hair care products that only seek to soften your hair without damaging the bonding in the hair strand. Locally, there are powders, such as Chebe powder, that are made into pastes and applied to the hair to makes it grow better and softer. Also, there are herbal hair products that not only makes the hair softer and easy to manage and style but prevents scalp infection and strengthens the hair.
Conclusion
The purpose of specializing virgin hair treatment is to eliminate the use of products that will alter the natural state of the virgin hair, mostly by straightening the strands. These products can be irritants to the scalp, causing more damage in the long-term.
By using natural products that softens and moisturizes the hair, making it easy to manage and style, you will achieve the styling you want, improve the growth and health of your hair, without altering its natural state.