The Caribbean Secrets Cosmetics Blog is dedicated to educating our community about hair care tips, techniques, and history that will help maximize your curly hair's potential. Your curly hair deserves growth, more definition, and moisture throughout the day. We feel that having healthy hair is important and is vital to the productivity in our communities around the world because when your hair looks good you will be more confident and perform better in everything you do. We want to be apart of your journey. Our aim is to give your hair-care regimen an extra boost because we value you and your curly hair. We hope that this helps!

The Truth

Have you ever thought about how the hair styling tools you are using affects the overall health of your hair? Are the tools you use, working with or against your hair goals?

Truth is, selecting the right hair styling tools for your textured hair is just as important as implementing healthy products to your hair care regimen. If the hair tools you are using are poorly designed or misused, this can wreak havoc on your textured hair by removing moisture and stripping away important layers of your hair cuticle. If you are unsure about the tools you are using or have no clue where you should start, continue reading this blog as we have listed some valuable tips below.

3 Types of Hair Styling Tools

1. HANDS

Our hands are the most versatile hair styling tool that we have at our disposal. As a result of our hands' functionality and flexibility, they are able to accomplish looks that combs and brushes simply cannot. In addition to the versatility that our hands provide for the styling process, styling with our hands provides more control than other conventional hair styling tools.  Please be sure that when styling with your hands that your hands are clean, moisturized, and callous-free to prevent hair damage. There are many different methods that people can use to accomplish their desired style with their hands. Below we have listed a few.

Praying Hair Method

One way to style curly hair is by using the Praying Hands Method. This method is used for smoothing and styling product over curly hair to prevent frizziness. With this method, instead of raking product through your curls, you rub it between your palms, and use flattened praying hands to smooth and distribute product from root to end. 

Scrunching Hair Method

To enhance the appearance of your curls scrunching is a hairstyling method where you cup and squeeze your hair in your hands or a towel to help shape your curls. Depending on your hair texture and length this method can be used to make you curls appear to have more volume and definition. 

2. COMBS

Combs are a very popular hair styling tool that is used for all hair textures. However combs should be used with caution to prevent hair breakage.  Close-toothed combs, combs with broken or chipped teeth and those with seams should be avoided because they are more likely to snag your hair and cause breakage.

Combs seams are little tiny plastic ridges alongside the lining of the teeth of your combs. These seams are dangerous because they can pull and snag your textured hair when passing the comb through your hair. 

People with coarse or kinky hair, should choose combs with teeth that are more spread apart and seamless. Seamless combs are the safest combs to use for textured hair. The most popular seamless combs are made from wood, high quality plastics, and organic materials. 

***Bonus Tip***
Before combing your textured hair make sure that your hair is moisturized with water and/or coated with a moisturizer or oil to lessen the amount of hair breakage that combing may cause. After moisturizing your hair, slowly finger comb it by gently running your fingers through your hair to slightly detangle your coils. Then gently and slowly comb your hair in a step down manner, using larger toothed combs first, then moving down to smaller toothed combs as needed to successfully detangle your hair with minimal breakage.

3. Brushes

Brushing textured hair is tough on the hair cuticle and should be kept to a minimum. Over time, excessive brushing can cause friction on hair, leading to cuticle damage and breakage. Moderate brushing with natural boar-bristle brushes is the safest option for natural textured hair types. Before brushing, make sure that your hair is semi-dry, moisturized and oiled to reduce hair breakage. 

***WARNING***
Avoid brushing your hair with rough, plastic bristles as they will break your textured hair especially where hair is transitioning from relaxed to natural hair.

We hope that this blog has helped you gain a better understanding of the different hair styling tools that you can use for your textured hair and the best way to use these tools! Please use this information at your discretion to better approach your hair care journey.