Growing natural hair can be tough sometimes. Yes, we said it. Inasmuch as we advocate for easy natural hair care practices, we admit that it could get hard. However, having a natural hair buddy can make you feel you’re not alone and add fun to the experience. This article examines who a natural hair buddy is and why you need one.
Who is a natural hair buddy?
Very simply, this is your close ally with whom you share your journey. Think of the relationship you had with your closest friend in elementary school, except now you both are grown, and rather than team assignments and projects, you’re both teaming up to make your individual hair journeys a success.
Your natural hair buddy is the first one you’re likely to tell about a styling fail or success. She’s the one you participate in hair challenges with. You might share washdays and if you’re both in the same location, you can call on her to come to your rescue while protective styling. And she can count on you to do the same for her. Summarily, your natural hair buddy is your hair partner, the lady whose hair and yours are, well, growth-mates.
Where can you find your natural hair buddy?
Anywhere! Your natural hair buddy could be your sister, cousin, mother, childhood friend, a friend you know from school or work, or even someone you met online. It could be anyone, really. All that’s required is that your buddy has natural hair and has common hair goals as you do, such as achieving healthier hair, growing longer hair, or both. But why should you even bother having a natural hair buddy if everyone has their unique journey?
Benefits of having a natural hair buddy
Here are some reasons why you need a natural hair buddy.
- Accountability
Once you begin to share your journey with your buddy and you both agree to look after the back of each other’s mane, you become accountable to each other. You can check up on how the person is doing at regular intervals. To spice things up, you might include rewards (like a washday treatment, gift products, or even lunch) and sanctions (offering the other person treatments, paying for lunch, and the likes) for doing well on one hand or not being consistent, on the other hand.
- Commitment
You’re going to have to be committed to taking care of your coils, kinks, or curls. This is because, even when plying the easy road to healthy natural hair, being intentional is important. With a hair buddy by your side – physical or virtual – it’s easier to be committed to your hair care.
- Cost Reduction
If you want to purchase products and you’re in the same location with your natural hair buddy, it’s much easier and cost-effective since you can split the cost of delivery. You might even swap or share products. Also, you would have less or no need to spend money on salon trips when your hair buddy can simply help you out.
- Consistency
Consistency is key in natural hair care. With sustained healthy hair practices, you can expect to see effective results. But life happens and sometimes throws the unexpected at one’s face. This or other factors such as a lack of motivation could result in inconsistency. Your natural hair buddy, however, will help you stay consistent through routine checks.
- Motivation
When it gets tough, keeping up with your journey, encouraging words and compliments from your hair buddy can give you just the right motivation to keep going. Even indirectly, you can get motivation from seeing her not give up. And when she’s crushing her hair goals, you’d be motivated to take yours seriously.
Conclusion: Sometimes, just one isn’t enough
So, let’s recap. Any close natural-haired friend whom you share your journey with is your hair buddy. A natural hair buddy is undoubtedly great to have. There are so many ways you can help each other succeed in your journey. So you should definitely find one. The good thing is that they’re so easy to find, especially with the online natural hair community now growing. And if you can encourage someone to return natural, then there goes your buddy!
However, while one close hair buddy is great, having several – a natural hair gang – is even more beneficial. You can decide to go all in to benefit fully from a strong support system. To do this, find a mini-community of naturalistas in natural hair groups. That way, accountability, commitment, motivation, and the other benefits of having a natural hair buddy are at the peak.
Do you have a natural hair buddy? How has she helped you in your journey? Let us know!