Basic Natural Hair Terms (A – Z)

A few months after I big chopped, when I was literally learning about these terms myself
When I first went natural, a lot of terms seemed pretty strange to me. I had to look up almost every word someone used until I became pretty good myself. So if you’re new to this natural hair thingy, I believe this post would be pretty helpful to you. We’re all for providing solution to your hair problems. Lets move!

Afro

This refers to big curly rounded shaped hair. Most natural hair types can achieve a fro look. Afro is almost like an African signature.

Big chop

This is the process of cutting chemically treated, or relaxed parts of your hair, exposing the original texture of your hair or bald head.

Braid Out

This is a hair style that is achieved by braiding moist or damp hair with the aim to unravel it after it dries, showing a more curl defined pattern.

Co wash

This simply means washing your hair with a conditioner only. No shampoos, just conditioners. The aim of this is to protect your hair from harsh chemicals that dry up the hair.

Detangle

This is the process of loosening knots and tangle, most found at the tips of your hair. This is usually done right before you wash your hair.

DIY

For real, this was one of the words a lot people use on their blogs and you-tube channels when talking about natural hair. I felt sill when I realised it meant Do IT Yourself, reasons best known to me lol. You guys don’t even want to know what I thought it was.

Deep Conditioning

This is a treatment applied to your hair (usually with heat) to moisturise your hair, for easy maintenance and curl enhancement. It is major key to taking care of your natural hair. You can read about the basics of deep conditioning here

Essential Oils

These are oils that promote healthy hair. You need them for your hair journey. A few of them include, rosemary oil, lavender oil, peppermint oil etc.

Fluff

To fluff means using your fingers to comb your hair to achieve a bigger volume.

Frizz

This is the dryness that happens when your hair isn’t properly moisturised. When your hair is dry, it can lead to serious breakage. Although there are a bunch of other things that could be breaking your hair and you don’t even know. You can read all about those here.

Heat damage

This is damage caused by exposure to excessive heat to your natural hair

kinky Hair

Used to describe tightly coiled hair free of chemical treatments

Moisturize

Moisturizing your hair is simply adding moisture (water, leave in conditioner, oils) that leaves your hair soft and healthy. Note that wet hair doesn’t equal moisturised hair.

Pree-poo

This is simply a treatment applied prior to washing your hair to soften and reduce loss of hair moisture. Most naturalista’s use oils as preepoo treatment.

Regimen

This refers to your hair care routine for styling, washing, etc.

Sealing

This involves applying oil or butter to the ends of your hair to retain the moisture in your hair and reduce breakage

Shampooing

Process of washing your hair with shampoo to eliminate build up and dirt

Transitioning

To go from chemically treated hair to natural hair without having to big chop, ie growing out your natural texture.

Trim

Periodic trimming of split ends and damaged parts of your hair for healthy growth

Twit out

This is a hairstyle achieved by two strand twisting of damp hair while its wet only to unravel after it gets dry.

Wash and Go

This is a method of co-washing the hair, adding a styling gel or cream without applying heat because while you go off to start your day, it dries off by itself.

Wash Day

This is a day set aside to preepoo, detangle, shampoo, condition, deep condition and moisturize your hair. I have talked about my hair routine here, do check it out.

We have finally come to the end of this post. I hope this was really helpful. please leave a comment below guys. Feel free to include any natural hair term I might have left out. Enjoy the rest of your day

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After two years of learning and growing my hair 

Fisayo <3.