The goal of most 4c naturalistas (including me) is achieving waist-length at a stage in their natural hair journey. In my head, I have already started calculating how much I will make from being the ‘Face of hair growth products ‘ of many companies all over the world and I know I am not alone 😀

Now this hair goal is achievable with patience, following a good regimen and of course with the absence of ‘village people’s interference’. My Nigerian sisters will understand the last sentence.

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In fact, throughout the my journey as a naturalista, I have made many mistakes but the following mistakes top the list:

1. Using hair dye on my hair which resulted to losing a big chunk of my hair.
Bad hair dye job!

2. Skipping the deep-conditioning process because I was too lazy to care for my hair.

3. Allowing untrained Hair Sytlists to style my hair because I wanted to ‘move their ministry to their permanent sites’.

4. Buying tons of hair products because they were endorsed by My YouTube sisters which in turn caused product buildup.

5. Not following up with moisture treatments and after my protein treatment and many more.

Now, making these mistakes gave me the opportunity to learn and to evolve but if you are reading this post, I really do not want you to make similar mistake so read to the end because I will reveal 4c hair secret to you in the end.


1. Wearing your protective styles for too long.

chiomaschmitz hair
box braids protective style

Hey girl, don’t do this if you want to retain length. Now ‘for too long’ is relative and I will explain the reason why I said so.

I wore my medium-sized box braids for 2 weeks and when I took it down, I noticed I shedded lots of hair. But before you fret, know that it is perfectly normal to shed about 100 hair strands per day and this accumulates if you leave your protective style on for along time.  However, when you lose chunks of your hair after taking down your protective style, then something is wrong!

I was a victim to this even though I moisturized my hair daily using the LIQUID- CREAM – OIL method, but I wasn’t spared.  *sad face!!

So for most of us who wear protective styles especially ones with extensions for more than 5 weeks, just be aware this could be one of the reasons why you are shedding to much hair.

How to avoid it: spritz and seal in the moisture at least twice a day and please, for the love of your hair, take it down after 5 weeks or less.

2. Making use of  hair dye

chiomaschmitz hair
damaged hair as a result of hair dye

Speaking from experience, this was one the reason why I couldn’t retain my hair length for six months. My hair was definitely growing but it sheds and breaks at the same rate. I don’t care what anyone who sells dye says but I maintain that hair dye (apart from henna) is very bad for your 4c natural hair because most hair dye contains ammonia and hey, that is some serious chemical.

To avoid this: do not use hair dye but if you must use them, apply them only on your tips and make sure you deep-condition weekly and do LCO method daily after spritzing your hair. Can you keep up? If not, toss the hair dye idea completely.

3. Diet

If you eat pizza or Burger King menus on daily basis without including vegetables and vitamins in your diet, then sister, prepare to pick chunks of your hair from the ground. Am I witness?

Of course sis! Everything I included here are from personal experience.

Take vitamins like omega 3-6-9 if you can’t eat fruits or take vitamins that contains biotin ( but know that most women complained they had breakouts while taking this. So if you have acne-sensitive skin like mine, then stay away from biotin and eat fruits).

My husband always makes me orange juice and most times, slip in vitamin pills inside. You can do this as well.

Healthy hair in a 2 strand twist


1. Tea rinse

Yup! You can use a green or black tea, cook it and once it cools down, use it to rinse your hair and please Do Not wash it out. You can even add some to your spritz bottle.

2. Deep condition your hair.

Yes darling, do this on your wash days which should be weekly if you can. It helps to restore moisture to your hair and makes it more healthy and manageable.

3. Leave-in conditioner

Please dont ever skip this again. You can add some to your spritz bottle or just apply it on your hair before styling your hair.

Now as I promised above, I will give you a secret especially for my 4c sisters with high porosity hair as mine. I actually paid my trichologist for this piece of information but I will be dishing it out here for free which is why you will need to subscribe to get more info like this.


So if you notice that your hair is still very hard, painful to comb and not soft, then do this:

1. Wash with a sulphate-free shampoo

2. Use good rinse out conditioners like Tresemme.

3. Deep condition using As Iam Hydration Elation condition or Shea Moisture strengthen and restore deep conditioner and wrap it up with a plastic bag for 40 mins.

4. Use keracare leave in conditioner and seal with Shea butter.

Still having problems with your hair ,comment below and I will give you more tips.

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  1. Thank you Chima for sharing tis, I still cringe when I see ladies with bad hairs. Maintaining good and healthy hair is not hard .

  2. what a refreshing and classy photo you have up there? If I may ask, why is your leather pants from?? xx and great post too!

  3. I am currently unhappy with my hair and life in general. For the past few years since I joined the natural hair bandwagon, my hair has been growing at a snail speed and I don’t even retain length for whatever reason which I think it’s safe to allude it to the village people factor you pointed in your post. I have resolved to give it one last try after reading your post and if it doesn’t work, I will shave it all off and know that at least I tried..”. I tried…… Chioma , I tried!!!!

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