If you’re a black woman considering ditching relaxers and straighteners, your biggest question may be how to start your natural hair journey. Fortunately, there is YouTube – a life-changing platform with thousands of videos on natural hair care and natural hairstyles. But with so many different channels available, it can be difficult to know who to follow. Here are five channels you should follow if you’re considering or have started your natural hair journey, along with some basic channel selection criteria to follow.
What to look for when following channels
It’s easy to get starstruck when you see a beautiful black woman with long, healthy type 4b or 4c hair. Seeing this always gives a little hope to any woman who has had her big shot. Still, it’s important to keep in mind that even if you share similar hair textures with a YouTube star, everyone’s hair is different. This is one of the reasons why it’s important to be a bit selective when choosing who to follow.
And while there are common practices within the natural hair community, there are no hard and fast rules for natural hair care except to avoid treatments or products that contain toxic chemicals.
When you come across different YouTube channels, ask the following questions.
How transparent are they with their background? Can you follow their journey from start to finish? Do they share different parts of the journey? Do they show a variety of natural black hairstyles?
Do they back up what they say with personal experience and science? Caring for natural hair is a process that involves trial and error, experimentation, and sometimes a bit of luck. One way to know if the information you are listening to is authentic is to pay attention to what they share from their own experience in addition to paying attention to the factual information they share. They don’t have to be a scientist, but can they at least define and mention some of the anatomy or breakdown of hair?
What are people saying in the comments? People are honest on the internet. If people share their positive experiences, it’s a good sign that a channel knows what they’re talking about.
Do they have a similar hair texture to yours or do they have a hair texture that you admire? It’s fine to admire and follow someone who has a different curl pattern to yours; however, you may not be able to apply the same techniques. You have to embrace the texture of your hair and learn to take care of it as it is.
University loops
College Curls is the channel for anyone who is busy and a bit lazy when it comes to natural hair care. Francis, the creator of the channel, understands how tiring and challenging the natural hair journey can be. Therefore, she has spent the past 10 years determining her hair needs and supporting others along the way. On her channel, she has created fun, creative and lively videos on everything hair care, from wash day instructions to how to grow your hair out. This channel covers all your natural hair care needs and answers all your questions.
star puppy
What’s great about this channel is that Danielle or Star Puppy is honest, funny and entertaining. She takes you on the journey with her, from fixing her baldness to trying Bandu knots or dyeing her 4c hair. She makes you feel supported knowing that the natural hair journey isn’t always easy but it’s always worth it.
DESZREN
It’s your go-to channel for all things locs. On this channel there are tutorials on how to twist and twist your locs, as well as instructions and videos to help you troubleshoot locs issues. The creator also takes you on her journey with videos on monthly updates to her loc growth journey.
Naturally curly
NaturallyCurly.com is a platform developed in 1998 that caters to all shapes of curls whether they become loose, curly or wavy. Having natural hair often raises many questions. You may have wondered why your hair is curly or curly or why it grows out instead of falling out. Maybe you’ve been frustrated with why your hair isn’t growing. Or maybe you’re tired of relying on products to make your hair behave a certain way. The answer to allaying your frustration might be to rely on science. On this YouTube channel, they’ve created a series of videos focused on hair science to help you understand the mechanics and chemical breakdown of your hair.
Woch Beauty
This is a great channel for finding easy hairstyles for natural hair. It offers tutorials and videos around a variety of styles. This includes braid styles, twists, afro styles, etc. There’s even a playlist for cute hairstyles for short, awkward lengths.
The videos tend to be compilations of different women with different hair textures. So there’s a video for you no matter where you are on your natural hair journey.
Natural hair care can feel like work. By putting in the work now, you can reap the benefits later. These benefits include having beautiful and healthy hair, but also having confidence in who you are. And remember, when you feel tired, confused and frustrated with your hair, there are thousands of women who have felt the same way. Thank goodness many of these women decided to go in front of a camera and share their experiences with the world.
