There is a common misconception that in order to have beautiful natural hair, you have to do a lot. But the natural gurus on our writing staff know better than that. Over the next several days we will share how our writers maintain incredible natural hair on very simple and basic regimens. First up is Tori.
My lazy natural hair regimen was created over the years to save time on my hair routine and maintenance. The more my hair grew, the more I realized that it was taking a significant amount of time to care for my hair. So, now my current hair regimen would contain only a few basic steps.
Wash day every one to two weeks
I typically wash my hair every one to two weeks. On wash days, I start off by deep conditioning for about 30 minutes on dry hair that has been lightly spritzed with water. I typically do this before washing to eliminate getting in and out of the shower repeatedly. Next, I go on to shampoo my hair (lathering once or twice) and use a regular conditioner to lightly condition my hair. After getting out of the shower, I add my leave-ins, moisturizer, and oil, and then twist in about 8–12 large twists.
Pulled back twists during the week
Usually I keep these twists pulled into a bun throughout my workweek for ease of maintenance and to make wearing hats for work less of a challenge. Sometimes, I may also wear my hair in a loose ponytail. I typically re-moisturize once per week using water, my moisturizer, and oil. My routine throughout the week will take no more than five to ten minutes to complete.
Braidouts when I’m feeling fancy
When I am feeling fancy, I remove my jumbo twists and prepare my hair for a braidout, which I will typically wear when not protective styling. After moisturizing and braiding, I let the style set for a few hours or overnight. Removing the braids the next day will reveal a ‘fancier’ hairdo that I can dress up or down.
Clay and protein treatments from time to time
Also, for days when I have more time and want to get fancy, my wash days may also include a special treatment, such as a clay or protein treatment. These special treatments will usually be done on damp hair prior to washing and will stay in my hair for a couple hours, followed by my regular wash routine.
As stated previously, I arrived at this lazy hair regimen because I realized that my hair maintenance routine was taking a big chunk of time. When I started doing my lazy hair regimen, I cut back on time significantly, without affecting the quality of maintenance my hair received.
Ladies, what are your thoughts on my regimen? How is it similar to or different from yours?
Why is there zero mention of her detangling routine? And I’m not sure how this is lazy.…I feel like most of us naturals have a routine like this when we’re not doing something fancy to our hair for an event. This is almost exactly my regimen…
Exactly…that’s what I was also wondering. Cause de tangling is necessary…isn’t it? I thought that maybe she doesn’t detangle, but how in the world can she get away with that. I think she forgot to mention it. But it would be nice to know at what part of this routine does she detangle. There are two options. At the beginning before washing out the deep conditioner and or afterward during the twisting.
I’m guessing she detangles during the conditioning or twisting phase. It’s what I do and unless I’m going days sleeping on loose hair, it only takes about 15–30 minutes on wet/saturated hair.
Lucky you– what’s your hair like? I’ve never heard of detangling only taking 15–30 minutes on fine, type 4 hair like mine. But I finger detangle exclusively because my hair can’t handle tools, and I have to be thorough at every wash to avoid matting, so there’s that.
I have very fine 4C hair through 90% of my head and a little 4B in the back. I don’t use tools unless I need a straight part for a hairstyle (which is rare). I detangle on wet, oiled hair once a week before I shampoo. The only time it takes me more than 30 minutes to detangle is when I’ve gone several days of sleeping on loose hair, which I rarely do. As long as I put my hair in 4–10 braids to go to bed every night (and that only takes 10 minutes depending on how many braids… Read more »
Nice! My 4C hair is actually much easier to detangle than my 4A/B hair because its pattern makes it less resistant to stretching for me, and it doesn’t tangle as much in a stretched style. Also, I can’t work with less than 12 braids in my hair as a minimum, and there’s no way in hell fewer would work for me. I’ve tried, and it’s not thorough enough detangling for me. But I don’t sleep with my hair out–it’s almost always in twists or a protective style. I could probably only use 4–10 braids if my hair was longer, but… Read more »
I love this article! As a natural who recently big chopped again. .n more importantly a busy wife and mother I do not have the time for the 2+ hour hair regimen I read many naturals have n i do sometimes wonder can I achieve healthy hair with less active time investment. Your hair is gorgeous thank you for this.
I’m a lazy natural and my regimen is very similar. For me, keeping it simple seems to lead to longer hair. Too much manipulation leads to breakage on my hair so I usually wear braids or twists and it’s growing great. Plus, I don’t feel like spending more than 10–20 minutes on my hair most days.
Her hair is beautiful. If I washed my hair every 1 or 2 weeks, my scalp would be a dry itchy mess and my hair would feel like straw. My hair is still pretty short so I can still wash and go every 2 days. I’m just worried about what I’m going to so once it starts getting significantly longer, though. I guess I’ll figure it out when that time comes.
You will oil your scalp and keep it moving until the 2 week mark lol. Trust me, its way easier to wash your hair often when its shorter. Once it gets longer, you’re going to feel like, “aint nobody got time for that” Just watch.
The washing isn’t even the hard part for longer hair… it’s the DRYING process that gets me!
Wow very interesting the different challenges different hair types or textures or porosities face! for me definitely the washing and detangle is the longest for me but I don’t care about drying as my hiar dries in twists and will dry by the next day usually!
My hair is longer and no way I can go two weeks or I would have those same issues.
I’m very interesting in your detangling routine. For me, detangling is always the most difficult and time-consuming part of maintaining natural hair.
I am currently going through a regimen change because I dont have time for all the ins and outs of wash day. But I do moisture everyday because my hair is really dry. I will try the deep conditioning before washing thing. I for some reason felt like washing first is better and you wont wash out the effects of deep conditioning (smh am an idiot)…Thanks for the tips btw. Gorgeous hair.
Do you ever detangle?
I wear my braided updo for a month then take it done and give it a break for a day with a braid out then I get it rebraided .
Awesome regimen Leah!!!
Same here. It’s nice to know it wasn’t just me.…
Sooo how and when do you detangle? Please help a sister out with details on the fastest possible detangling technique with minimal damage on very tightly coiled type 4 hair
My regimen is the exact same on most weeks. I place my twists in for the week if going somewhere ill take them out. Yes when i don’t have time for my hair this lazy regimen is the way to go
how about when you sweat? I have straight hair and when I sweat (now that is summer I sweat everyday) My head feels so hot and kind of nasty and unfomfortable. Washing my hair often feels better to clean up the sweat and uncomfortable feeling. Now, my daughter is mixed and has hair similar to yours. She is a child so she runs and sweats a lot. I dont like it when she goes to sleep with sweat hair because I think that she also feel hot and uncomfortable and I want to wash her hair more often but I… Read more »
maybe instead of going through washing you can just clean her scalp (which is what I do when I’ve got a long term protective style in like mini twists) with a mixture of Apple Cider Vinegar, aloe vera juice and water. I’m not sure of the actual amounts but you only need a little. Mix it together and dab into cotton balls and wipe her scalp. very good for cleaning and feels refreshing too! Hope this is a good suggestion 🙂
I work out and run a lot so I actually wash my hair every time I sweat. I part and twist my hair first, and rinse my scalp without disturbing the hair too much. My actually likes being drenched often, but I twist first to keep the curls defined.
I’ve been struggling with my hair for years and finally figured out it was due to health issues that i’m sorting out. I now have hope that my hair will be long and healthy like yours in a few years!
Girl, you hair looks good! I go to the shop every other month. In the off month I shampoo, condition and roll (perm rods)or braid (depending on how I feel after the shampoo). The shampooing process gives my arms a workout. Oh, by the way I have locs.
I’m a lazy natural with medium length hair that I’m growing long and I just protective style with a braided updo mosturize my hair , wash every two weeks , take the braided updo down and it’s a braid out for at least a day , and then get it rebraided . When I want to stop protective styling I would do braid outs all the time .