This post should really be titled “The FIRST Thing You Should Do Before Washing Natural Hair if You Don’t Like Breakage” but I went ahead and assumed that was everybody – but if you like breakage, please let me know and I will start a prayer group on your behalf. Us gals with natural hair, we have so much to do and when we muster up the courage, strength, and time to wash our beautiful kinky hair, we’d all like as much of it to stay on our heads right? Since we’re all educated on natural hair basics, we know we’re supposed to finger detangle, deep condition, steam, be gentle, wash in sections, keep your hair elongated, and rinse with cold water, but are you ready for maybe the most important step BEFORE all those?

FILE YOUR NAILS

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Our nails can be weapons. You’ve probably seen enough World Star videos or accidentally scratched yourself to know this is the case. But our nails’ most vulnerable enemy is our fragile natural hair strands. There have been one too many times when I was trying to detangle or shampoo my hair and a jagged nail or chipped polish got caught in my hair. Guess who won the fight? Nails almost always come out on top because they’re attached to your hands – you’re more likely to yank your hand away from a snag in your hair than to gently remove the caught hair strand!

So whether you wear artificial nails or your own, before you wash your hair, make sure you file any jagged nails edges and clean off any chipped and peeling nail polish. It would be counterproductive if you’re doing everything right on wash day, especially finger detangling, but every time you gently separate strands from one another, they get caught on a nail of yours.

Do you check your nails before washing your hair? Have you ever noticed that your nails might be causing breakage?

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