4C hair is often seen as the most challenging hair type to grow and maintain. It can be feisty, happy, or even moody, but with the right care, your hair doesn’t have to be grumpy. Tried, tested, and trusted tips are essential for taking care of those beautiful curls. One of the main features of Type 4 hair is that it is the tightest and coarsest among afro hair textures.
The unique curl pattern consists of tight zig-zag curls and coils that are closely packed together. Despite the challenges and shrinkage associated with this texture, it is absolutely gorgeous. With a proper hair maintenance routine and a bit of TLC, you’ll begin to love your 4C hair more and more.
What is 4C Hair Routine for Growth?
To promote growth for 4C hair, keep it moisturized with oils like Shea butter or coconut oil to prevent dryness and breakage. Deep condition weekly to replenish moisture and strengthen strands. Detangle gently using water and a wide-tooth comb to avoid breakage. Dry your hair in a stretched state to reduce shrinkage and tangling. Incorporate scalp massages to boost blood flow and growth. Limit heat usage and opt for protective styles to retain length. Take breaks between styles to avoid tension, and maintain a clean scalp by trimming regularly to prevent split ends.Growing and Loving Your 4C Hair
There’s a common misconception that 4C hair can’t grow, but that’s just a myth. Here are some tips to help you in your hair growth journey while falling in love with your texture. Start with Tried, tested, and trusted tips to maintain your curls.
Focus on a hair maintenance routine you will see growth and begin to appreciate your gorgeous 4C hair. Remember, despite the challenges, your hair can thrive with the right care and maintenance.
What is 4C Hair?
4C hair has the tightest curls of all hair patterns, forming tight s’s, z’s, or coils. It shares many characteristics with type 4 hair, especially similar to 4B hair. This type of hair tends to be quite fragile and susceptible to dryness.
Individuals with 4C hair can have different hair densities and porosity, affecting how the hair behaves. Despite these challenges, understanding the defining qualities of 4C hair can help in managing and nurturing it effectively.
Features of 4C Hair
- The hair often faces dryness, even after applying a moisturizer.
- This coarse hair can be tough to comb, and managing it requires patience.
- 4c hair experiences extreme shrinkage, sometimes up to 75%, and is prone to tangles and breakage.
- The tight Z-shaped pattern of the coily hair texture further complicates its care.
- Additionally, significant shrinkage up to 70% of its stretched length is common, causing the strands to clump together. Whether thick and coarse hair or fine 4c hair, the same challenges persist.
How to Appropriately Take Care for Your 4C Hair?
Keep Your Hair Moisturized
To keep 4C hair healthy and promote growth, it’s crucial to ensure it stays moisturized and hydrated. 4C hair tends to get dry very fast due to its tightly coiled strands, which can prevent natural oil from the scalp (sebum) from spreading evenly.
This drying out can lead to breaking, frizz, and becoming tangly, resulting in a sad hair look. From my experience, using a good moisturizer and hair sealant is essential. Natural options like Shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and carrot oil are perfect for locking moisture in your hair.
This helps prevent it from breaking and keeps it looking healthy. The nature of 4C hair requires conscious efforts to maintain moisturized and hydrated hair. Including these oils in your hair care regimen can make a significant difference, ensuring your 4C hair stays healthy and vibrant.
Deep Condition Your Hair Frequently
For 4C hair growth, it’s crucial to address the constant dryness problem that makes it prone to breakage. Deep conditioning your hair is essential for strengthening it and enabling it to lock in moisture. After every wash, it’s advisable to deep condition your hair to replace the moisture and natural oils lost, keeping it hydrated.
Deep conditioning is an effective way to balance your hair’s moisture and protein needs. There’s no set-in-stone rule on how often you should deep condition, but it’s best to do it weekly or every two weeks. Even if you cut corners with a regular or thorough wash, always endeavor to deep condition frequently. This helps make your hair shiny and reduces tangles and frizz.
Detangle with Care
To promote 4C hair growth, it’s essential to detangle with care. This is the stage where you’re likely to lose most of your new hair growth and length if you don’t use patience and TLC. The 4C hair texture is prone to tangling and knots, so using the right technique and products can help minimize any hair loss.
- Detangling tips include spritzing your hair with water to make it easier to work with, finger detangling first before using detangling tools, and choosing the right detangling tool like a wide tooth comb.
- Be careful with detangling brushes as they can sometimes rip more hair than intended.
- A flexi detangling brush that glides in the direction of your hair is a good option.
- Use a detangler for extra slip, and if you don’t have a detangler, the conditioner works well.
- Always work in sections – ideally four, but if you have shorter hair, six to eight sections are better.
Dry Hair in A Stretchy State
To care for 4C hair, it’s crucial to dry hair in a stretched state because it shrinks up to 70%. This helps minimize pulling and tugging when you style your hair. The benefits of working with stretched hair include being able to track hair growth better, minimizing knots and tangles, and being easier to work with by reducing over-manipulation during detangling.
Incorporate Scalp Massages
To incorporate scalp massages into your 4C hair routine for growth, use your fingertips or a head massager a couple of times a week. Massages help increase blood flow to your hair follicles, supporting your growth goals. For best results, massage your scalp with growth oil for at least 5 minutes. This practice will make a significant difference in achieving optimal results.
Avoid Touching Your Hair
For 4C hair, it’s important to avoid touching your hair frequently. I used to feel my curls and check their length often, but I learned that this habit can lead to tangles and breakage. Over-touching your hair transfers Germs from your hand to your scalp, making it dirty and requiring you to wash it more frequently.
To maintain healthy 4C hair, less is more. Avoid over-styling by excessively combing, brushing, or styling your hair, as this leads to thinning and breakage.
Use a Moderate Amount of Heat
Excessive heat styling is the enemy of 4C hair as it can easily break. It’s important to minimize heat usage to once or twice a month and always use a heat protectant. On wash days, blow drying on a low heat setting helps to get the hair stretched. My hairstylist advised me to blow dry to retain more growth.
I used to air dry my hair in twists, but it shrinks and makes detangling harder, leading to hair loss. Now, I maintain my style better by using a moderate amount of heat. Naturals can thrive with heat in moderation, avoiding heavy-handed techniques and not going back to straightening every day.
Opt for Protective Hairstyles
To retain length with 4C Natural hair, protective styles are essential. They help keep your ends tucked and minimize manipulation from daily styling. There are many options based on your preference. My favorite styles include cornrows, braiding hair, and crochet braids.
I also love sew-ins, Bantu knots, and African Threading. For longer-lasting styles, you can opt for Box braids, Chunky plaits, and Marley Twists which can last several weeks. Using extensions can add variety, but always ensure you don’t keep them in for too long to prevent tension on your hairline. Proper care and cleansing help maintain growth and prevent dryness and detangling issues.
Some great styles include Mini Twists, Flat Twists, Faux locs, Halo Twists, All-back cornrows, and Crown braids. You can also try Finger coils and Two-strand Twists. Regardless of the style you choose, remember not to keep it in for more than eight weeks to avoid build-up and ensure healthy hair.
Create a Protective Styling Regimen
For 4C natural hair to grow and thrive, you need a good protective styling regimen. First, wash and cleanse your hair and scalp regularly to keep them clean and healthy. Moisturizing and sealing your hair with oil prevents it from drying out.
Wash hair every few weeks and spritz it with a leave-in conditioner mixed with water in a spray bottle. This liquid mixture helps maintain moisture. Use a growth oil weekly, but don’t be too heavy-handed to avoid clogging your follicles.
Make sure to massage the oil into your scalp and take extra care with your edges to prevent tension and damage to your hairline. This routine offers various options to suit your maintenance needs.
Take a Gap Between Protective Styling
When aiming for hair growth, it’s crucial to give your scalp a break between protective styling sessions. Constantly doing the same styles can cause tension in your hairline, making it fragile. To avoid this, allow your hair to breathe by opting for low-manipulation styles like buns, twist-outs, and braid-outs.
This not only aids in retention but also prepares your hair for the next installation session without additional stress.
Hair Washing Routine
Keeping your scalp clean is very important for 4C hair to grow. The myth that dirty hair helps growth is not true. Just like you wouldn’t go days without washing your face to avoid clogged pores, irritation, pimples, and spots, the same applies to your hair.
Pay the same attention and care to your scalp as you do to your skin regimen. Dirt clogs hair follicles, causing itchiness and bad condition. Maintain a healthy environment for your hair to thrive.
Don’t Forget to Trim Your Ends
Regular trimming of your hair is crucial for growth. It’s simple: trim your ends every 12 weeks. If your hair is damaged, do it more regularly, around the 8-10 week mark, to prevent split ends and further damage.
If your hair is healthy, you can stretch it to the 16-week mark. Over time, you’ll figure out what works best by incorporating trims into your regimen.
Avoid Becoming a Product Mixture
When choosing products, go for those recommended by other 4C Naturalistas. Start with a tester bottle or the smallest size to see how your hair reacts. Pay attention to any drying or excessive build-up. One game-changer for me was noticing how my hair reacted to products. There are many options on the market, but once you find what works, stick to it and you’ll see a difference.
Make Sure Hair Isn’t Too Tight
When wearing protective styles regularly to retain length, ensure your hairstyle isn’t too tight. Especially with buns and ponytail styles, speak up during appointments if the stylist braids too tightly. Avoid any excessive tension to prevent hair loss and alopecia. Cornrow-based styles are a better option for growth.
Protect Your Hair at Night
A golden rule for 4C hair care is to sleep with a silk or satin scarf or bonnet. If you struggle with it staying on all night, purchase a silk or satin pillowcase for added protection. Cotton pillowcases cause hair drying, while silk pillowcases help keep moisture in your coils and curls. Satin pillowcases are cheaper but don’t retain moisture as well as silk.
Final Thoughts
Maintaining and growing 4C hair requires various elements in your hair regimen to thrive. Consistency and patience are key. If some tips don’t work, it’s fine to drop them. Trust the process, give it time, and you will see results. Your hair is beautiful, embrace the journey, and love the hair on your head by learning to care for it properly.
FAQs
How can I make my 4C hair grow faster?
Use afro hair growth products, sulphate-free shampoo, and a deep conditioner. Incorporate post-shampoo and pre-shampoo hair treatments. Cut split ends and avoid heat styling.
What is the best hair care routine for 4C hair growth?
Pre-poo, deep condition frequently, and use a silk or satin pillowcase. Use a leave-in conditioner and detangle regularly. Try co-washing, avoid sulfates, and use the LOC method. Cut split ends.
What is the 4C hair growth cycle?
Hair growth goes through 3 phases: anagen, catagen, and telogen. The natural hair cycle starts with anagen, where hair follicles grow for 2 to 6 years. The longer your anagen phase, the longer your hair will grow.
How often should I wash 4C hair for growth?
Shampoo your hair once a month with a moisturizing shampoo to cleanse your scalp properly. This creates an optimum environment for hair growth.
Dive into the world of curls with Farah, a celebrated curly hair expert whose passion and expertise have transformed her into a beacon for those seeking to embrace their natural hair texture. With a vibrant career spanning over a decade, Farah has dedicated herself to the science and art of curly hair, making her an authoritative voice in this niche. Her deep understanding of curly hair’s unique needs and challenges allows her to craft personalized care routines and styles that not only enhance the natural beauty of curls but also promote hair health.