101 Natural Hair Tip: How To Avoid Being A Product Junkie 51-60

I can’t front, I’ve definitely had to put these tips into practice. This is one of those posts that was built from experience. Now this post is a direct follow-up to the 101 Natural Hair Tips: Transitioning Back To Natural. In case you missed it (click here) .

Trying to find the right product is no easy task. You get so frustrated thinking you’ve tried everything and nothing is working, when really you just need to find the right thing for you and stick to it for a while. So that was the bonus tip now let’s get into the rest.

1. Read labels: The reason I start with this is because you can all together avoid certain products. Such as if I see something with coconut oil in it, most times I avoid it. I know that coconut oil doesn’t work for my hair so I just avoid products with it in the first couple items on the ingredient label.
2. Get to know your hair: I always say listen to your hair. If you use a product and it agrees with your hair, stick to it. Read that label and use products like it.

3. Don’t believe the hype: Every few months there is a new buzz word or super ingredient. Many times this item has been on the ingredient list the whole time, but now that it’s the IN thing they put it on the label. Also I’ve learned that they nearly have to put in a few drops of the said miracle ingredient to have its claim on the label.
4.  Read Reviews – Now this is different from number 3, these are actual reviews from people who have legitimately used the product. I know everything isn’t for every body, but if you see a lot of favorable reviews, you may want to give it a try. But on the other hand, if no one has good things to say, maybe you should let that one slide by you.
5. Ask questions – There are so many Curltalk, CurlfriendChats, and Twitter Chats, use them to your advantage. That’s what they are there for. Just about every brand subscription box and a lot of bloggers have some kind of Q&A session in rotation. Or if you belong to a Facebook Group for natural hair, throw your question into the forum.

6. Try to get  samples: That way you can test it out and see if you like it before buying it. Now when I first found out about the natural hair community, the “natural hair meetup” was the thing to do. There you could meet local Naturalista, brand owners, and emerging socialprenures. Additionally these meetups would be sponsored by brands and they would give out swag bags full of samples and free full size bottles. The meetups aren’t as popular any more but they are still around.

7. If you have it use it: This one is a no brainer, avoid the hoard! Plain and simple, why keep piling up products when you haven’t used what you have.

8. If it doesn’t work pass it on: Again this one is a no brainer for me. I frequently pass product along to my family members that doesn’t work for me. We all have different hair textures and different products work on their hair that may not work on mine and vice versa.  So I don’t hold on to the products that I know don’t work for me. Thereby making room for other things that will work.

9. Limit the available space: Unless you’ve been there you can’t imagine how quickly the hair products can and will take up every inch of space possible. I don’t know it’s almost like they reproduce while your sleeping or something **insert mischievous laugh*** . No but really, I have a three draw bin and I’ve committed to only keeping as much as can fit in those three draws.
10. Purge every 3-6 months: This keeps your product fresh, and limits the habit of holding on to that last little bit (I’m talking to myself here). As I said above this makes room for product that you want to try. Besides if the product is organic it may have an expiration date, and you don’t want to use old product or hold onto something that’s useless.

It’s almost inevitable that most naturals have a little product junkie in us. Besides the fact that it’s expensive, it could also lead to self-defeating hair journey. Not to mention as with any guilty pleasure it takes some of the joy from the experience. Don’t let the junkie monkey get you down!