Lifestyle: How to prevent single strand knots on natural hair

Our guest feature today is from one of our favourite Naturalistas Chinwe Juliet of IGBOCURLS.

Today she teaches us how to prevent single strand knots on natural hair.

She writes;

As long as you have natural hair, you pretty much have single strand knots. They are also known as SSK’s in the natural hair community.

When I started off on my natural healthy hair journey, I had no clue what single strand knots were and I didn’t know my hair could naturally curl up on itself because not many people talked about it then. I only began to notice it, after I did my big chop. You can read my hair story here.

Every time I washed my hair in sections, the ends of my natural hair at my nape, which is the kinkiest part of my hair, will feel very rough and I always wondered why that was.

“Here’s the thing, the tighter your curl pattern is, the more your hair can shrink. The more your hair shrinks, the more it curls up on itself forming Single Strand Knots. “

So how can you prevent or reduce the appearance of Single Strand Knots on your Natural Hair? Here are four ways below that have helped me in the past 4 years of being natural.

1.Use heavy butters or oils on your ends- Whenever you are moisturizing your natural hair, try to use a heavy butter or oil on your ends. This weighs your ends down, thus, preventing it from curling up on itself.

2.Twirl your ends- When styling, twirl your ends around your finger to clump your curls. This makes your ends curl in the same direction and prevents SSK’s.

3.Keep your Natural hair in Stretched styles- Once you begin the follow the steps above, your ends will mostly be smooth when styling. Keeping your natural hair in stretched styles will also prevent SSK’s when you re-moisturize it with a water based spritz.

4.Wash your Natural hair in twists or braids. This has been the best method to reduce single strand knots on my natural hair over the past few years. SSK’s take place mostly when your natural hair is wet, therefore, most SSK’s happen on wash day. In other words, when you wash your hair in a twisted or braided section, your hair is already clumped together and that automatically prevents your ends from curling on itself.

Oh and don’t forget to concentrate your deep conditioner on your ends. They are the oldest part of your hair and the most susceptible to breakage so they need more love!

Get more tips from Chinwe Juliet on igbocurls.com or her on her YouTube below