The Great "Going Natural" Guide ~ Part Two

Styling Aides

• Once you've finished washing or co-washing, the next step is what to do with that pile of hair on-top your head. First key is to not use a regular towel to dry your hair. If you do, just lightly use the towel to keep your hair from being dripping wet. 
• There are a few handy hair utensils you may want to have on hand when your getting prepared to style your wet hair, here are a list of my favorites:
• The Spritz Bottle
• Your spritz bottle can contain any type of moisturizer in it, as long as there is some water there to keep the hair you're not styling, easy to manage once you get around to it. You never want to style too dry hair -- that would lead to  breakage. 
• Typically, my spritz bottle contains:
• distilled water
• A leave-in conditioner (Giovanni Direct Leave-IN or Kinky Curly Knot Today)
• peppermint oil (I'll cover more about oils in part 3, but just know that peppermint oil smells amazing, relieves an itchy scalp and keeps dandruff away. Peppermint oil mixed with jojoba and glycerin helps grow hair).
• Bobby pins, clips, shower comb, styling rods or any other type of aid. 
• You should apply a leave-in conditioner like Kinky Curly Knot Today or Giovanni Direct Leave-In before you begin styling.
• Other styling aids that I use or have used after applying a leave-in  (in order of favorite to least favorite):
• Kinky Curly Spiral Spritz
• Karen's Body Beautiful Sweet Ambrosia
• Karen's Body Beautiful Hair Nectar
• Miss Jessie's Curly Buttercream

Styles

• There are plenty of styles out there for the natural fashionista, below I've listed a few that have helped me get through my transitioning phase, however I should add that whenever I did transitioning styles like braid-outs or twist-out, I would use bobby pins or perm rods on the ends of my hair that were still relaxed in order to hide the difference in the two textures:
• When transitioning:
• Braid-out
• Twist-out
• Kinky Twists
• Braids
• Up-dos
• Not Transitioning:
• Wash-N-Go

In Part 3, I'll talk all the extras to going natural such as protecting your hair when sleep, the benefit of oils and perfect places around the web to look for resources and help.