Image Source: @nayarasantanaofc
You can check out articles like 40 Curly Hairstyle Youtube Channels to Follow & The YouTubers Who Changed the Landscape for #NaturalHair and our very own 12 Natural Hair YouTubers to Subscribe to NOW for proof that, not only are YouTube naturalistas making major waves in the media, but their presence isn’t going away no time soon. That’s the good news. The challenge is, if you’re anything like me, you can find yourself saying that you’re only going to hop onto the app to check out a video or two, only to look up and realize that you’ve easily been on for a couple of hours. Not just one day either; a few days in a row.
If you’re nodding your head up and down in agreement, while I hate to break it to you, this is a telling sign that you very well could be on your way to becoming what I call a YouTube natural hair junkie—the kind of person who watches tons of videos, never really buys any products or applies any tips long-term and finds themselves being so distracted that they don’t get what they need to get done.
If what I said just triggered you a bit, it’s cool. It (potentially”> happens to the best of us. Besides, I’ve got a few suggestions that can help you to enjoy all of the best that naturalistas on the app have to offer without you & overdosing on them in the process.
1. Know your hair type beforehand.
Man, if I only put my own advice into practice, it would’ve spared me a ton of frustration on my natural hair journey! While there are YouTube channels like Tiffany TV, Abby Jahaira, Natasha Camile, Alyssa Marie and Fresh Lengths are some naturalistas who I truly appreciate, they don’t have my hair texture (mine is mostly 4a and 4b”>. So, while they tend to share some products and hacks that might work, because they lean more into the 3c-type lane, I can’t expect to get the same results that they do via that information that they offer. That’s why, it’s so important to know what your own hair type is before you start spending hours watching YouTube natural hair videos. Otherwise, you could end up spending half of your rent money on stuff that your hair will look at like, “Why the heck did you think this was a good idea?” the moment that you put it on.
2. Be clear about what you’re looking for.
Something that I recently decided to try is colored hair wax. That had me going from Laurscurls to Slim Reshae to SheRea DelSol to Ambrosia Malbrough to Nne Unfiltered—and on and on and on. And shoot, that was just one topic! I won’t lie—some of what keeps me going on and on is because certain channels are so freakin’ entertaining. Yet time and experience have taught me that, if I want to manage my time wisely, I need to go on YouTube with an end goal in mind. If it’s hair dye tips, look for that. If it’s DIY conditioning recipes, look for that. If it’s how to dust my ends, look for that. To only put “natural hair” in the search field is just begging to spend six hours on YouTube when I know I’ve got a ton of other things on my to-do list (including actually doing my hair!”>.
3. Follow your favorites.
I’m not even going to get into who my favorites are because the list is super long. What I will say is if you want to “get into a groove” of how to find tips that you can feel confident will actually work for you so that you don’t spend a lot of time learning about things that may not, once you find favorite naturalistas, subscribe to their channel. You’ll immediately receive notifications when they load up something; that way, you won’t have to spend precious time searching for someone you really liked but didn’t retain the name or bookmark their channel in your browser.
4. Create a folder for the videos.
And what if there are particular points that a naturalista made that you want to hold onto without necessarily subscribing to their page? Another thing that you can do is create a folder, either on your computer or in one of your emails. For instance, in one of my Gmail accounts, I have an entire folder that says, “Growing Out Tips”. OnlyOneJess’s “How I Grew MY Natural Hair?? | Length RETENTION Tips + Keeping My Bleached Hair Healthy”; happycurlhappygirl’s “MY #1 TIP GROWTH TIP!! | HOW I’M RETAINING LENGTH!”; Craving Curly Kinks’s “9 Tips For Natural Hair Length Retention | Fast Hair Growth By Retaining Length”; Amber Ansah’s “Girl THIS IS HOW I Grew My Hair SO Fast!! ⎜Natural Hair Routine”, and BeautifulBrwnBabyDol’s “6 Tips to GROW Natural Hair LONG, THICK & HEALTHY After BREAKAGE | Moisturizers & Conditioners” are just a few, out of literally dozens of videos that I have in collection. But, since they are all in one folder, when I need a tip or some insight real quick, rather than hunting all through YouTube world, I can just go to my folder and revisit something that I already saved that, for whatever the reason, really stuck with me.
5. Remember that you are an individual.
One of my favorite quotes of all time is, “If two people are just alike, one of them is unnecessary.” This point applies here because, no matter how much you adore a YouTube naturalista or how many tips she offers, it’s important to keep in mind that her hair is not exactly like yours—and that’s OK. It’s a total waste of time to expect that her results are going to be the same on your head. That’s why it’s best to use any YouTube natural hair channel as inspiration, more than anything else. Remember that you—and your hair—are totally one of a kind so, at some point, you will have to get off of YouTube in order to figure out what does—and doesn’t—work best for you. Which is totally fine. Recommended even (wink”>.
Have some tips of your own to share? Drop them in the comments!
