My first and main priority when it comes to my hair is always hair health. When I'm shopping or testing new products it has to cater to my hair type and texture, moisturize, and use beneficial ingredients that either build my overall hair strength or promote a healthy scalp. Promising to define or elongate my curls is cool, but it's simply not enough for me.
Lately, I've been trying new products from both mainstream and startup brands to add to my collection, especially during the warmer weather. I noticed a few differences in my summer hair routine in comparison to the rest of the year. During the summer, I have to:
- Wash my hair way more frequently to avoid build-up and to just clean my sweaty scalp.
- Keep my hair moisturized.
- Protect my hair from the sun.
- Condition my hair very often.
- Use more oils.
Basically, I had to establish a routine and have the right products to properly care for my hair. If you're looking for ways to improve your summertime hair care, here are some natural hair products to add to your routine before the summer is over.
Aunt Jackie's Curl La La Defining Curl Custard
Amazon
Although it's labeled as a curl defining custard, the formula adds a ton of moisture and shine to your strands regardless of your hair type. It's kind of like an all-in-one hair cream and leave-in conditioner. It's paraben- and sulfate-free and enriched with olive oil and shea butter that will leave your curls juicy and refreshed for a few days.
Moisture Love’s Now & Forever Leave-in Conditioning Serum
This is a brand new product to me and girl, it's staying in my collection. I've never used a leave-in conditioning serum before but it definitely made detangling less time-consuming and a less dreadful process. The plant-based product is very runny which makes it easier to travel through your strands. Whether you apply it to damp or dry hair, it immediately softens and moisturizes your hair, making it easier to comb through.
Pro tip: You can also use this on your roots and ends while it's in a protective style.
Oils
Oil is pretty much the GOAT product for hair, skin, and nails, so of course, it was going to find its way on this list. Oils are essential to my summer routine for two main reasons. One, it helps seal in moisture. After I apply a condition to my hair, I seal it with either tea tree or jojoba oil (castor oil is cool too, but depending on the style, it can be too thick for some). Secondly, I use it to protect my hair from drying out in the water. Before I go into the pool, I apply oil to every strand on my head. Chlorine will literally strip all the moisture from your hair and oil helps combat that.
Moisturizing Mousse
I tend to give gels a little break in the summer. With the amount of frizz-control that I need, it requires a lot of gel and to be honest, I can't bother with any extra buildup. So instead I use a mousse that not only provides hold but moisture too.
I recommend three different mousses for the summer: Smooth'n Shine Bodifying Mousse with sweet almond oil for protective styles. It adds moisture and shine while keeping flyaway hairs in place for a longer-lasting style and protects your hair from extreme heat conditions. Next, is Design Essentials Almond and Avocado Mousse. It's good for moisturizing, adding shine, and reducing frizz by creating a strong hold. Lastly is Lottabody's Milk & Honey Curl Defining Mousse. This is for the girls who don't want such a strong hold but want to keep the curls in place. It adds shine and body to your curls with a medium hold.
Curlmix Pure Homemade Flaxseed Gel
Curlmix
So I know I said I didn't use gels, but this is the only exception. To be honest, it doesn't even feel like a gel, it feels more like a conditioning cream. The vegan and cruelty-free brand has several different formulas for all of your hair needs: hair growth, hair repair, and hair softening amongst others. The one I recommend is moisture formula. It adds a ton of moisture, especially if you're using it with another cream or custard, but it can also do wonders alone. The best part is, it doesn't leave any flakes or white residue.
Revlon Realistic Strengthening Conditioner And Butter Creme Leave-In Conditioner
Black seed oil has a number of benefits for our hair; it soothes the scalp, eliminates dryness, increases shine, nourishes hair strands, and promotes healthy hair growth. Revlon Realistic Strengthening Conditioner and Revlon Realistic Strengthening Butter Creme Leave-In Conditioner are dedicated to strengthening your hair and stimulating hair growth. I like to use the conditioner as a deep conditioner to bring my hair back to life and follow up with the butter creme for better results.
Want more stories like this? Sign up for our newsletter here and check out the related reads below:
The Lazy Girl's Guide To Natural Hair
Uncommon (But Totally Natural) Things That Are Great For Hair
This Is Why Your Natural Hair Ain't Growin'
Curl Transforming Smoothies Your Hair Will Love
Featured image by Shutterstock
- Uncommon (But Totally Natural) Things That Are Great For Hair ... ›
- My Natural Hair Routine In Quarantine - xoNecole: Women's Interest, Love, Wellness, Beauty ›
- Function Of Beauty Curly Hair Review - xoNecole: Women's Interest, Love, Wellness, Beauty ›
- How To Care For Your Hair Under A Wig - xoNecole: Women's Interest, Love, Wellness, Beauty ›
- My Natural Hair Routine In Quarantine - xoNecole: Women's Interest, Love, Wellness, Beauty ›
- The Best Curl Products for 4C Hair - Curly Hair Routine for 4C hair ›
- 32 Best Products for Natural, Kinky-Curly Hair – 2019 Reviews | Allure ›
- The 24 Best Products for Natural Hair ›
- The Best Hair Products for Natural Hair and Curly Hair ›
- 15 Natural Hair Products You Can Buy On Amazon That Work ... ›
- Natural Hair Care | Natural Hair Products | Taliah Waajid Brand ›
- The 30 Absolute Best Products for Natural Hair ›
RELATED
“During my 20s, I was not ready for more. I was living a really crazy life. It was unpredictable. I was helping somebody else grow. It was a lot, and it was intense. I was not pouring into myself the way I should’ve been,” she says in an xoNecole exclusive.
Still, as Mandi worked to get to know herself and her needs during this new phase of life, she realized the home she’d purchased wasn’t a good fit. Overwhelmed by the echoing of her voice in the spacious home, she had a breakdown and called her cousin, who immediately suggested she lease the home and live somewhere else. “I woke up in my house, and I was like, ‘This is not it for me,” she says. “All those years, I had been accustomed to living a certain way [and] in a certain house, so I bought myself a house like [my old home]. But my family was not the same. Waking up in that house by myself, it highlighted the divorce. I was like, ‘Oh, no, we can’t do this. This is not it.’ My life has changed, so my choices need to change.” At that moment, Mandi became open to the idea that there wasn’t one set way to achieve ownership on her own.
“I feel so much better. I’m in a smaller place. My best friend lives a minute from me and I can walk to her house,” she tells me during a Zoom interview from her home one recent afternoon in early February. In the past two years, she hasn’t just been advising other people on varying circumstances, she’s also been healing herself.
"During my 20s, I was not ready for more. I was living a really crazy life. It was unpredictable. I was helping somebody else grow. It was a lot, and it was intense. I was not pouring into myself the way I should’ve been."
Credit: Solmaz Saberi
If supporters began following Nazanin Mandi because of her conventional beauty or the contagious, bright, white smile she often wears in many of her photos, that’s likely not the reason they’ve stuck around. Instead, she’s amassed a following based on her transparency about her own anxiety and depression, along with the encouraging messages of self-acceptance, gratitude, ambition, and humility that are often sprinkled into her social media posts.
In an era where looking at Instagram photos of models can often lead to feelings of self-doubt and insecurity, Nazanin Mandi is determined to be more than eye candy. She’s food for her follower’s souls, too.
Since being recruited to model while dining at an In-N-Out at 10 years old, Mandi has worked in many areas of entertainment. The Valencia, California native has modeled for brands such as Olay, Savage X Fenty, and Good American. As a teen, she sang at Carnegie Hall and auditioned for season 1 of American Idol, making it all the way to Hollywood before producers disqualified her for lying about her age. (Mandi was 15 at the time, and contestants had to be at least 16 years old.) Mandi has acted, too, including appearing on Disney’s That’s So Raven as a teenager and on the BET+ series Games People Play and the Prime series Á La Carte in more recent years.
In recent years, though, she’s also expanded her professional goals outside of entertainment, too. After becoming a certified life coach in 2020, Mandi launched the membership platform You Bloome in 2022 with the hopes of providing wellness services to others, including her self-published gratitude journal. “I wish I had access to something like You Bloome earlier in my own life,” she writes on the company’s website. The actress, who has been forthcoming about her struggles with anxiety and depression, has never had a life coach, but credits therapy as a tool that “really, really saved me and it laid the foundation to who I am becoming.”
Credit: Solmaz Saberi
"I’m trying to find the balance between living life and knowing that whatever is meant for me is going to happen, but also know that I’m doing everything in my power to make those things happen and better myself."
While she’s always had a nurturing personality, Mandi says her interest in becoming a life coach was inspired by the women who would message her for advice on social media. “I would answer them back. It really sparked a fire within myself to help people,” she says.
You Bloome currently has three membership tiers, ranging in price from $2.99 to $39.99 per month. The highest tier offers a motivational text message twice a week, two live, group coaching sessions per month, and more. “We get emotional. We cry. We laugh. It’s really beautiful. I’ve built close relationships with my members through this. It’s been inspiring both ways,” Mandi says of the sessions. Still, the founder says she hopes to take on more motivational and keynote speaking opportunities in the future with the hopes of impacting as many people as possible.
And, she’s hoping to do all of this while continuing to explore a career as an entertainer.
At this point in her life, Mandi says she’s gained enough perspective on modeling, music, and acting to realize what she wants to prioritize moving forward. “We are going full force with acting,” she says, noting her goal is “to book a series regular or a film that impacts my career and the world.” She plans to continue to model, too, but has no desire to pursue music.
“I don’t want any part of that because I know what that life entails,” she says. “I don’t want to tour. I don’t want to do any of that. That is not where my heart is at.”
Credit: Solmaz Saberi
If you ask Mandi, she’ll tell you she feels most comfortable in front of a camera, but she’ll also admit that she’s recently experienced a lot of imposter syndrome when thinking about her acting career. “I think it’s a fear of not succeeding,” she says. If anything, she adds, she’s harder on herself now than she’s ever been. “There were distractions before. There’s no distractions now,” she says. “I’m putting pressure on myself for no reason.”
This is where the life coach’s own personal healing comes into play. Mandi says she’s learning recently that “slow progress is still big progress at the end of the day.”
“Currently, I’m trying to find the balance between living life and knowing that whatever is meant for me is going to happen, but also know that I’m doing everything in my power to make those things happen and better myself,” she adds.
Still, one of Mandi’s strengths is that she doesn’t feel the pressure to limit herself to just one passion. From working as a life coach to pursuing acting, she has given herself grace to explore all other dreams.
“We can be allowed to be many different things in this lifetime,” she says. “As people, our identities are allowed to expand. Don’t put us in a fucking box. I cannot live that way anymore.”
For more of Nazanin, follow her on Instagram @nazaninmandi.
Let’s make things inbox official! Sign up for the xoNecole newsletter for daily love, wellness, career, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.
Featured image by Solmaz Saberi
Still, people are finding love every day, so how can we go from being amongst the brokenhearted and nonbelievers? How can we get to the meat of what our needs truly are to find the love we've been searching for? Beverley Andre, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist says that the key is getting out of your own way.
Q: How can we get in our own way when it comes to relationships?
A: We get in our own way in relationships by having rigid expectations that make it difficult or impossible for someone to meet. I know this is a hot topic regarding having and maintaining standards, but there’s a fine line between reasonable expectations and creating a barrier that is nearly impossible to break through.
You have to assess the standards and see if they are genuinely in protection of you and maintain the standard of how you want to be treated, or are the standards fueled by fear and what you're really trying to do is avoid feeling hurt and disappointed, so you create this cycle where you set impossible standards that no one can meet, therefore limiting the possibility of close intimate relationships, leaving you feeling lonely and frustrated.
Q: In this dating age and era, how can we determine what our needs are versus our wants?
A: Your needs are tied to the core values and belief systems, while the wants are personality and lifestyle considerations, so I recommend creating a list of both. Identify your core values early on because those are your principles and qualities that matter most to you in a relationship. Those values are fundamental to your overall well-being. For example, do you want to be with someone who wants children, has integrity, and aligns on finances? Your values should be your deal-breakers that weed out people who are not in alignment.
For wants, think of physical, personality, and lifestyle traits that aren’t necessarily deal-breakers, aren’t tied to someone’s core traits, and don’t compromise your mental wellness. For instance, enjoying 100% of the same interests, specific physical attributes, and shared cultural background. As an extra measure, I recommend discussing your needs and wants with a trusted inner circle and getting their feedback. An inner circle should give you fair feedback instead of just agreeing with it because they’re within the inner circle.
"Your needs are tied to the core values and belief systems, while the wants are personality and lifestyle considerations."
Q: Are there fundamental needs that everyone should have or has on some level in romantic partnerships?
A: Yes, to be seen and heard. No one wants to be in a romantic partnership where they feel invisible, and their needs are met with consistent resistance just because it’s different from their partner. One of the core issues I see with couples is their inability to make space for their partner’s voice and influence. They find it difficult to see the value in what their partner is saying, especially if it contradicts their thoughts and opinions. Therefore, they register it as not being good enough and lacking merit and then get into a cycle where they inadvertently want their partner to change their minds and prove to them why they have a point.
Q: What are different examples of needs that everyone has?
A: Respect, open communication, similar values, sexual chemistry, and feeling safe emotionally and physically.
Q: How can we get to the meat of what our needs are so we can in turn get better at communicating what our needs are from an empowered place versus a disempowered one?
A: Identify your unmet childhood needs and heal them. I often see people trying to heal these wounds in relationships with people who aren’t responsible for creating them or fixing them. You can communicate your needs from an empowered and healthy place if you’re not starving. Getting to the meat of your needs will require self-exploration, curiosity, and patience to understand why the need is even a need.
"Identify your unmet childhood needs and heal them. You can communicate your needs from an empowered and healthy place if you’re not starving."
Q: What do you find your clients who are succeeding in relationships have done differently in explaining their needs to their partner?
A: They have done the self-work and healing to know their needs through individual and/or couple’s therapy. Most of the clients I’ve worked with never had the space to develop their thoughts around their needs. They’ve adopted their needs based on what they’ve seen in their personal lives from family growing up, movies, and now social media. Until you have a healthy relationship with yourself, where you’ve identified your needs and are meeting them, it isn’t easy to have that with someone else. You can’t communicate and give what you don’t know and have.
Let’s make things inbox official! Sign up for the xoNecole newsletter for daily love, wellness, career, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.
Featured image by Maskot/Getty Images
