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What you should know about trimming natural hair
Trimming is the part of our hair regimen that we have a love- hate relationship with. We know that we should stay on top of it by adding it to our natural hair routine, but after all the years of trying to grow our hair out we just hate to part with any bit of our natural tresses. When it comes to trimming many naturals might have questions such as ‘How do I know when to trim?’, ‘How often should I trim?’, ‘How do I trim?’, ‘Should I let a professional trim my hair?’ and ‘Does trimming make my hair grow?’ Here are some things you should know about trimming natural hair.
How do you know when it's time for a trim?
You know when it’s time to trim your hair because we can see and feel it. If you have thin ends, no volume, detangling takes longer, twist and braid outs look stringy and raggedy and you have tons of split and damaged ends. Once we see these signs it is time to let those ends go.
How often should you trim?
How often you trim depends on you and your hair growth cycle. You can always prevent split ends and tangles by making trimming apart of your natural hair regimen. Our hair starts to split after 3 months so you can trim your hair quarterly or 1-2 times per year. Also, you can do a major trim once per year but dust your ends as needed.
How to trim your natural hair?
You can trim on wet or dry hair; on dry hair you can start by stretching the hair by flat ironing it, blow drying or using a banding or twisting method. On wet hair you will need to use a conditioner to detangle and comb through. Then you smooth out the hair between your index and middle fingers or with a fine tooth comb, stopping before you get to the ends and cutting off the frizzy ends or cut even layers to frame your face using a pair of professional sheers.
If you don’t trust yourself you can always go to a professional but if you are afraid your stylist will get scissor happy and cut off more than is needed, you can always watch millions of YouTube videos and learn to do it yourself.
Here is an instructional video from one of my favorite natural hair Youtube bloggers, Natural85, to get you started.
Does trimming help your hair grow?
Let’s set the record straight, trimming your hair every month does NOT make your hair grow faster. Think about it, cutting the ends of your hair does not stimulate blood flow to your scalp and does not make the hair from your roots grow faster, so let’s let this hair myth die within the natural hair community.
In order to prevent tangles, split ends and breakage trimming should be apart of your natural hair regimen. Regular trims will help to hold your styles and give you strong healthy growing hair.