The Student Room Group

Black Girls With Natural Hair

Been seeing that there are quiet a few fellow natural haired ladies on TSR so here's a place for all of us to share our stories and tips on taking care of and growing our natural hair. :smile::cool:

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Hey, I just finished my year long transition. My hair has so much shrinkage (the joys of being type 4). My hair is shoulder length but shrinks up to a twa. I'm terrible at styling, although my twist outs are pretty good, so I mainly stick to wash and go's
Reply 2
Original post by heirloom
Hey, I just finished my year long transition. My hair has so much shrinkage (the joys of being type 4). My hair is shoulder length but shrinks up to a twa. I'm terrible at styling, although my twist outs are pretty good, so I mainly stick to wash and go's


Oh wow that is so long!!! So when you said you had finished transitioning do you mean you have now cut of all the relaxed ends?

Honestly shrinkage is my no.1 natural hair problem. So annoying
Reply 3
I forgot to do mine. So I've been natural fot about two years. I think my hair type is 4c. I actually just shaved my head two weeks ago to start again i was really unhappy with my edges. Before that it was a twa/ inbetween stage which i usually wore as a wash'n'go.
I've been 'natural' for a year now and big chopped in February and my hair has been growing thicker and thicker but the only bad thing is the shrinkage which I don't get to see too often since I wear protective styles (weaves)

Posted from TSR Mobile
I've been on and off trying to grow my hair for the past 3 years but only really started getting the hang of it this year. I wasn't giving my hair enough water, was using heat to stretch it to become more manageable and I was breaking my ends off because I was also combing it while dry. This was severely hampering my hair journey.

Not to mention all the experimentation with different hair oils from gunky thick JBO, to Argan Oil to Jojoba oil. I just stick to raw, organic coconut oil now. It's light, penetrating and seems to slow down the loss of protein in the strands which maintains strength..

I also realise that I wasnt paying attention to the protein balance of my hair and I now do a protein treatment once a month and lightly spritz with protein spray if I notice my ends are a bit weak. My hair is quite naturally fine, soft and curly and so managing the strength of the strands is my main priority,

I'm never good with styling my hair though even though I've seen some amazing tutorials on youtube. I wear my hair constantly in twists and wear a wig or twist out if I want a bit more variety. My hair is just short of APL and it's between 4a and 4b.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by CocoaPowder
Oh wow that is so long!!! So when you said you had finished transitioning do you mean you have now cut of all the relaxed ends?

Honestly shrinkage is my no.1 natural hair problem. So annoying

Yeah i cut off all of the straight ends. My hair grows well but the relaxer was making it so weak and I couldn't retain length at all. I did most of my transition in box braids. I'm getting them installed again in next weekend. My hair seems to thrive when I leave it alone and do scalp massages
Reply 7
Original post by MissB26
I've been 'natural' for a year now and big chopped in February and my hair has been growing thicker and thicker but the only bad thing is the shrinkage which I don't get to see too often since I wear protective styles (weaves)

Posted from TSR Mobile


Just wondering how do you maintain your weave? Like making sure it doesn't become itchy ? Wanna try it as a protective style this winter when my hair grows :smile:
Yes!!!! I love this thread!!
natural hair woo.
Can you add #teamnatural in the title?!
type 4c/4b wooo

My hair is like a bundle of textures! The sides are really loose and the front is really tight!! Haha
Reply 9
Original post by heirloom
Yeah i cut off all of the straight ends. My hair grows well but the relaxer was making it so weak and I couldn't retain length at all. I did most of my transition in box braids. I'm getting them installed again in next weekend. My hair seems to thrive when I leave it alone and do scalp massages


Awesome! Love box braids :smile:
Original post by CocoaPowder
Awesome! Love box braids :smile:

I love them. I get them long enough for them to touch my bum lol. They just make anyone that has them look regal in my opinion
Original post by anonymouspie227
Yes!!!! I love this thread!!
natural hair woo.
Can you add #teamnatural in the title?!
type 4c/4b wooo

My hair is like a bundle of textures! The sides are really loose and the front is really tight!! Haha


Yeah I'll do it when i figure it out :smile:

That sounds pretty cool. How do you usually style yours?
Original post by CocoaPowder
Just wondering how do you maintain your weave? Like making sure it doesn't become itchy ? Wanna try it as a protective style this winter when my hair grows :smile:


I co wash my weave once a week and shampoo it with sulfate free shampoo every two weeks and I moisturise the weave with some argan oil everyday and wet it with a spray bottle mixed with conditioner. But from keeping it from itching I moisturise my hair every single day with Extra dark black jamaican castor oil and coconut oil and I also take biotin. Hope that helped :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile
Dunno if I'm allowed to crash this thread as I know a lot of black women in other forums insist I can't be natural because I'm mixed and not fully black.
Regardless...I was literally hooked on straightening until I was 16 and then I discovered weave which I got addicted to!! I love the way I look with straight hair, but havent put heat/weave in my hair for 2 years!!
So glad I never started with the creamy crack though, even though I was tempted so many times. My damage is gradually healing itself now.
Hello! :smile: I'm mixed but have afro hair, 3c/b in the front, and 4a in the back so can be a bit of a pain to deal with being so different. After having it all cut really short about 3 years ago, it's now just past my boobs in length when wet, just past shoulder length when dry.

I don't have a brilliant routine at the minute due to laziness, I only use conditioner on it, about twice a week, just standard shop bought ones. Then every night I spray it with water and apply olive oil, then sleep with a satin pillow case.I never brush or comb it, just run my fingers through with conditioner in every so often.

I used to wash it once or twice a week with apple cider vinegar only, and then use the olive oil, and it seemed much happier then, so need to go back to that.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Eveiebaby
I've been on and off trying to grow my hair for the past 3 years but only really started getting the hang of it this year. I wasn't giving my hair enough water, was using heat to stretch it to become more manageable and I was breaking my ends off because I was also combing it while dry. This was severely hampering my hair journey.

Not to mention all the experimentation with different hair oils from gunky thick JBO, to Argan Oil to Jojoba oil. I just stick to raw, organic coconut oil now. It's light, penetrating and seems to slow down the loss of protein in the strands which maintains strength..

I also realise that I wasnt paying attention to the protein balance of my hair and I now do a protein treatment once a month and lightly spritz with protein spray if I notice my ends are a bit weak. My hair is quite naturally fine, soft and curly and so managing the strength of the strands is my main priority,

I'm never good with styling my hair though even though I've seen some amazing tutorials on youtube. I wear my hair constantly in twists and wear a wig or twist out if I want a bit more variety. My hair is just short of APL and it's between 4a and 4b.


I can relate to this. The first years of being natural are so trial anf error, but once you find out what works then you set the ball rolling for your natural hair goals.

I'm so surprised the coconut oil worked for you! I guess because you said your hair is very fine. When i tried it on my hair which is very thick, i started to feel wiry and hard so i stopped using it :tongue:

One the YouTube tutorial, i feel your pain. Whenever i tried doing what they do, it's a bit of a fail, but don't give up, we'll get there :smile:
Original post by ldsbabe
Dunno if I'm allowed to crash this thread as I know a lot of black women in other forums insist I can't be natural because I'm mixed and not fully black.
Regardless...I was literally hooked on straightening until I was 16 and then I discovered weave which I got addicted to!! I love the way I look with straight hair, but havent put heat/weave in my hair for 2 years!!
So glad I never started with the creamy crack though, even though I was tempted so many times. My damage is gradually healing itself now.


You can be natural too :smile: mixed people can also relax their hair some of my mixed friends have relaxed their hair

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by heirloom
I love them. I get them long enough for them to touch my bum lol. They just make anyone that has them look regal in my opinion


Yeah! I just see all those people on tumblr with these awesome box braids . Have you ever gone for an unusual colour say purple?
Original post by ldsbabe
Dunno if I'm allowed to crash this thread as I know a lot of black women in other forums insist I can't be natural because I'm mixed and not fully black.
Regardless...I was literally hooked on straightening until I was 16 and then I discovered weave which I got addicted to!! I love the way I look with straight hair, but havent put heat/weave in my hair for 2 years!!
So glad I never started with the creamy crack though, even though I was tempted so many times. My damage is gradually healing itself now.


You're not crashing dw. You're one of the naturalista :smile:
Original post by CocoaPowder
Yeah I'll do it when i figure it out :smile:

That sounds pretty cool. How do you usually style yours?


Cool!

I mostly do protective styles because I'm trying to retain and promote growth. And it's the summer holidays so i don't plan on doing anything fancy lol

So every few days I do around 15 flat twists on my hair and i use the leave in and oil and pink moisturiser lol when doing it.

When I decide to wear my hair out i usually do a twist out.
So flat twist the day before and use some gel to get a more defined curl pattern when twisting thw hair and then after undoing thr twists use the afro comb to pick it out. And have a big ish afro :smile:
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