Natural Hair Styles for African American Hair 2012

African American hair is versatile for wearing natural hair, more natural hairstylist are setting up hair salons to meet the demand for black hair care.

The following guide will give you some options on what you can do for hair care and hairstyling tips.

• what is your lifestyle?

When deciding on a natural hairstyle the first thing you will need to consider is what type of lifestyle do you lead, is it an active one.

Time will be an issue so you must pick a natural hairstyle that will be easy to maintain.

Quick and easy low maintenance natural hairstyles that will not require lots of your time is going to be your most important priority.

• Short natural hairstyles or long natural hairstyles

Next you will have to ask yourself if you want to wear a curly short hairstyle or a long wavy hairstyle.

Longer hairstyles will take less care and up keep compared to a shorter hairstyle, short hair requires constant trims to make it look neat and stylish.

Also some short hairstyles go out of fashion and may give you an out of date look.

If you do not want such a permanent commitment you could go for cornrows, micro braids or individual braided hairstyles that can come in various lengths from chin length, shoulder length or longer.

Does your hair feel dry, brittle and crunchy? if you have answered yes it could be because you are using the wrong type of hair styling products.

One thing you will want to do is to research black hair product descriptions and make sure there are no harsh chemicals or alcohol .

These are popular styles for winter months as well as it is a low maintenance hairstyle.

As the hair grows it will continue to loc together until the hair is permanently in this style, if you decide to remove the locs sometimes it will require for them to be cut out.

Wet setting the hair is another way to style different hair types. The hair is smooth as it is damp from water and leave in conditioners.

As the hair air drys with the rollers or for a quicker result you can sit under a hair dryer and the final result will allow for big bouncy curls.

Learning how to maintain and take care of natural hair starts with learning about the ingredients in hair products.

Some of the benefits of going natural is the ease of wash and go with the right conditioners and gels you can easily get ready each morning without a lot of fuss

• Wash and go natural hairstyles

. First it will take a 5 min or less routine of wetting hair then adding gel or conditioner and then styling hair. You can let your hair air dry or use a hair dryer with a attached diffuser.

• Natural locs hairstyles or natural braid hairstyles

Some are choosing to wear locs and get them done by a natural hair specialist who is a consultant for those who want to wear locs.

The process requires that the hair is locked together as the hair meshes and dreads together.

The texture of your natural hair will determine how you will end up wearing it on a daily basis.

If you have been wearing your hair straight with chemical relaxers you will find that it will take some time to learn what your hair type actually is.

Kinky coily hair will look different then a loose curl pattern. If the hair is smooth and wavy the natural hairstyle can be easier to manage than tighter curls.

For instance a wash and go is easier if you have a curl pattern that is not going to frizz up or have maximum shrinkage.

Hair that has a kinky texture will work best with a braid-out or twist-out because it will stretch the hair out into a managable style.

You can find hair product ingredient lists on the web and here are some of the agents found in your favorite gels, creams, shampoos, conditioners and sprays.

• Anionic Surfactants - Detergency, foaming
• Amphoteric Surfactants, Used to provide mild cleansing, as well as some aid in foaming
• Cationic Surfactants, Quaternary Ammonium compounds:used to provide conditioning, some detergency, emulsion stabilization:
• Nonionic Surfactants, Used for gentle cleansing and for emulsion stabilization:
• Emulsifiers, Larger surfactants used to stabilize emulsions (droplets of oils in water)
• Preservatives, Thickeners, Naturally derived polymers,
• Humectants - Attract water to the hair to keep the moisture content high
• Cationic Polymers, Positively charged polymers that provide silkening and smoothing effects by adhering to the surface of the hair due to the hair’s overall negative charge:
• Silicones, Used to add shine and gloss to hair, decrease combing friction and tangling, provide conditioning, and act as humectants
• Organic oils, Emollient effects, conditioning
• Proteins, Humectants, conditioners
• Vitamins, Emollient Esters, Provide conditioning to the hair and give a soft, smooth feel
• Alkanolamides, Emulsifying agents / emulsion stabilisers / surfactants / viscosity controlling agents
• Amines, Emulsifiers and conditioning agents
• pH-adjusters, Salts, Fatty Alcohols, UV Filters/sunscreens,
• Natural Oils, Provide emolliency, conditioning, add shine
• Amine Oxides, Used to help disperse dyes in product

As you read through the list you can see that most of it you can not recognize or understand unless you are a chemistry major but basically the point is that if you know what is in the products you put in your hair the better your hair will look and feel.