Breakage, also known as the absolute bane of the curly girl’s existence, can greatly hinder your natural hair journey. It destroys our ability to maintain length, and perpetuates split ends and weak hair. Since I big chopped, I don’t think I’ve experienced much breakage, but I get a little concerned when I’m adding products or doing a scalp massage and a few strands are left on my hands. I mean though, is this breakage, or just regular strands shedding?? I don’t have any hairs on my comb in the shower and obviously my hair is too short to have strands shedding on my clothes, so this could be totally normal. However, WildChild isn’t taking any chances! So, here are some tips on how to prevent breakage, and I will be doing these – I live in a dry climate as well, so I certainly need all the moisture I can get:

1. Sleep with a satin pillowcase and/or bonnet. Seriously, I can’t stress this enough. When I was sleeping on my cotton pillowcase, my hair felt like straight up straw in the morning. No more!

2. Seal nightly with shea butter, olive oil or coconut oil. Personally, my hair isn’t really a fan of oil use alone, so I use shea. Random tip: pure shea butter is also awesome as a tattoo moisturizer!

3. Deep treatments 2x a week. My personal fave so far is the honey/olive oil combo.

4. NEVER EVER comb dry hair. You’re just asking for ridiculous breakage! I only place a comb near my head in the shower with a ton of conditioner.

5. Change products periodically so your hair doesn’t get used to one thing. This is where I’m kind of messing up. My styling products get a healthy rotation, but for the past two months I’ve been using my Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle condish as my cowash AND leave-in. Um, yea…gotta give it a break for a little. I ordered the Pumpkin Seed Oil Conditioner and two Daily Leave-Ins from Darcy’s Botanicals last night. I may also try the Hello Hydration conditioner as well (tried the Totally Twisted, hated it…)

6. If you live in a fairly warm climate, wet your hair every day. Otherwise, at least try every three days or so. Remember, natural hair loves the moisture from H2O. Also, drink it!

7. No heat! I have not applied any heat to my hair since October, and don’t plan to. I think my flat iron is even broken, but I don’t even care. If you must use heat, try a hood dryer, rather than ones with comb attachments.

Anyway, that’s all I got right now. Oh, I also need to keep my hands out of my head. My bad!