Natural Hair

Natural Hair

Natural hair is Afro-textured hair which is left chemically unaltered; in other words, hair which has not been relaxed or permed.

There’s a huge amount of diversity within the African diaspora, and in the same way, there’s a lot of diversity in the hair we have. Natural hair tends to fall between the 2C and 4C range, so it’s usually curly or coily (not wavy or straight). The coily-nature of natural hair strands means that each strand interweaves and takes up a lot more space compared to straight hair. As a result, natural hair appears far denser than any other hair type.

As porosity increases with chemical and physical damage to one’s hair, natural hair is often low porosity as it has incurred minimal chemical damage. Contrary to popular belief, natural hair can be super dense or not very dense at all.

Moisturising your natural hair:

Moisturising natural hair can be quite tasking. The low porosity tendency of natural hair means that it can be fairly challenging to get moisture to penetrate its strands, however, once it’s in, it’s there to stay. Use the LCO (Liquid Conditioner, Cream Conditioner, Oil) method to moisturise your hair; it’s very important that you use cream before oil for low porosity hair types, as the oil will prevent the cream from penetrating if you do it the other way round. 

LOC Interlude: The LOC method is lauded as the most effective way of properly moisturising Afro-textured hair. It’s pretty simple, LOC stands for Liquid, Oil and Cream, and it can be used on hair of all curl patterns, including relaxed hair! The method goes as follows: hydrate your hair with a water-based product (Liquid), lock in that hydration by moisturising with an oil-based product (Oil) and seal the hair cuticle with a cream product (Cream). 

LOC is the standard form, but there’s a couple of variations on this moisturisation method:

• LCO: This stands for Liquid, Cream and Oil. It’s the exact same steps as in the LOC method, just in a different order. This method is recommended for low porosity hair as the use of Cream before the Oil increases the amount of moisturisation being put into one’s hair before sealing the cuticle. Low porosity hair types are more difficult to get moisture into, but manage to keep it tightly locked in, so the LCO method puts the emphasis on hydration and moisturisation as opposed to sealing it in.
• LO: This is simply Liquid and Oil. It’s recommended for medium porosity hair, as this hair type absorbs and releases at an intermediate rate, so it doesn’t need too much moisturisation or too much locking in. Just a little of each is perfect.

The standard LOC method is highly recommended for high porosity hair as both the O and the C steps to the method contribute to barricading the moisture in.

Finally, on moisturising your natural hair, we recommend using a steam cap to deep condition and/or warming up your conditioners before you apply them. 

Achieve this with the following OLORI products:

• For hydrating and moisturising: DamageBeGone 3-in-1 Multi Conditioner
• For sealing: DamageBeGone Happy Hair Butter
• For deep conditioning: DamageBeGone Deep Conditioner

Protective styling:

The best way to get moisture to stay locked into your hair is to use a protective style. Styling natural hair in braids and twists is a centuries-old practice, originating in African communities. Hairstyling was intricate and beautifully aesthetic, yet hugely practical as it allowed the original naturalistas to keep their hair moisturised for longer. We recommend keeping your hair in styles such as two (or three) strand twists or braids most of the time to keep your moisture locked in. Use a spray bottle filled with a mixture of leave-in conditioner, your choice of oil and water to moisturise your hair while still in its protective style.

Achieve this with the following OLORI products:

• For sealing: DamageBeGone Happy Hair Butter
• For your spray bottle: DamageBeGone 3-in-1 Multi Conditioner

Wash Day:

The infamous wash day. Wash day has a bad rep as a lot of naturals see it as an extremely tedious and exhausting downside to being natural. However, we at OLORI, see it slightly differently. Think of it as a bi-monthly spa day for your hair…

Start by parting your hair into four sections. Liberally moisturise each section and detangle them as you go along, using your fingers, then a wide-toothed comb then a small toothed comb.

Once each section is detangled, go ahead and work your favourite shampoo into your hair, focusing it on your scalp and the hair closest to your head. Once you feel your hair is sufficiently lathered, rinse this out.

Deep condition your hair; we recommend spending 20 to 40 minutes on this step. Wash this out with a small amount of shampoo, then finally moisturise your wet strands using the LCO method and pop your hair into a simple protective style, such as big twists. You’re done!

Achieve this with the following OLORI products:

• For shampooing: DamageBeGone Conditioning Shampoo
• For detangling, hydrating and moisturising: DamageBeGone 3-in-1 Multi Conditioner
• For deep conditioning: DamageBeGone Deep Conditioner
• For sealing: DamageBeGone Happy Hair Butter