Hand in Hair Syndrome

Hi, my name is Yvette I am recovering from what I’d like to refer to as ‘Hand-in-Hair’ syndromee. I said ‘recovering’ because despite knowing better, (and even cautioning you guys about it in this post) H.I.H is something I still struggle with. As a newbie natural, I just couldn’t stop touching my hair! All the excitement surrounding my natural hair, testing out products and establishing a regimen meant that I was in constant contact with my hair.

H.I.H can cause a considerable amount of stress and breakage through over manipulation. Over the years of my natural hair journey I have learned a few things, one of them being that natural hair likes to be left alone. If you don’t have to touch your hair, DON’T. If you are not doing anything that is adding value to the look, feel and/or health of your hair (protective styling, moisturizing, co-washing, deep conditioning…) don’t touch it! I attribute a lot of my H.I.H to boredom/ O.C.D, both of which are no excuse for the unnecessary manipulation. If you too are suffering from this destructive habit, here are five tips to help you nip it in the bud:

1. Stop touching your hair! Just STOP it! You’d be surprised how much this helps! (Captain Obvious!)

2. Put your hair in a protective style such as twists or braids. This can significantly reduce H.I.H as your fragile strands are tucked away from those fast fingers. Retain length while treating H.I.H syndrome? SOLD!

3. Don’t wear your hair out. Opt for up-do’s such as buns and ponytails that keep your hair out of your face, and out of reach of those lurking hands!

4. Wear your hair in a scarf. Not only is this an efficient and effective way to deal with bad hair days, (and boy have I had plenty of those!) head-wraps are super cute, and can give your outfit that added edge!

Do you have H.I.H? If so, how are you managing it? Don’t be shy ladies, SHARE!

Happy Nappy Hair,

Yvette Kemi