Mom washes daughters 4c natural hair with Nylah Naturals hair care kit [tutorial]

In this tutorial, mom washes daughters 4c natural hair with Nylah Naturals hair care kit. After our last tutorial with Bourn Beautiful Naturals, you asked for more tutorials with our brand partners. This time, we hosted a tutorial with the founder of the brand and also the inspiration behind the natural hair range during lockdown. We want you to continue to look after your hair and your children’s afro and curly hair during the quarantine period.

The Nylah Naturals UK brand is named after Kam’s daughter Nylah, and her “wonderfully kinky, afro hair that delights me”, says the female boss. It’s a family brand that celebrates heritage, hair and science. The new hair care products have the kinks and curls of many, poppin’ in the UK and America.

As usual, we did a quick fireside to get to know the CEOs of this Birmingham based black hair brand.

Fireside questions with founder Kam and daughter Nylah

Bantu knots or chiney bumps? Chiney bumps, we’re Caribbean so we call it chiney bumps.

Scrabble or Monopoly? Scrabble.

Christmas or Kwanza? Kwanza.  

Club or bar? Bar with bae. Club with the girls.

Chocolate or vanilla ice-cream? Nylah: vanilla. Kam: I’m boogie so I like Hargondarz strawberry cheesecake. 

Saturday soup or Sunday dinner? Nylah: Sunday dinner. Kam: Saturday soup.

Watch or play sports. Nylah: play. Kam: I like to participate but I’m not very sporty.

Plan-tin or plan-tain. Plan-tin. We keep it Caribbean in here.

Who is your most inspirational black figure? Queen Nzingha and Harriet Tubman. Both of them were very strong women who were very instrumental in the transatlantic slave movement. The amount of strength that it took for them to achieve the things that they achieved, not only just for themselves but for a whole nation of people, is phenomenal. So both of those women are just incredible sources of inspiration for me. Especially Queen Nzingha, if you know her story, you will know that she’s amazing.

Nylah, how do you feel about the family business being named after you? 

Nylah: I feel really grateful that mom chose me.

Kam: Because you inspired me that’s why I chose you. 

Let’s get into the natural hair tutorial with the Nylah Naturals wash day kit

Nylah’s hair has been detangled, ready to start the washing process.

Nylah’s 4c natural hair

Nylah has 4c natural hair, which doesn’t really have a defined curl pattern it’s just really thick and dense. She has quite thirsty hair so we’re constantly having to moisturise it. Although her hair is quite dense her strands are really really fine. As a result of that, I’m always having to be mindful about making sure that I’m adding strengthners to her hair. Also, being very very delicate with it so I don’t break it and rip it.

Nylah and I live in a hard water area, so we have a shower filter.

The Strength and Shine Shampoo Cream 

It’s really thick textured cream, so you have to give it a really good squeeze to get it out. I wanted it to be that way because it’s quite moisturising. I intentionally didn’t add a lot of water to this product because I wanted it to have a lot of the active ingredients as opposed to being 60% water like most shampoos. It contains more active ingredients that are going to moisturise and strengthen the hair (plus you have water in your shower 😀).

Benefits of the shampoo cream 

This natural shampoo for natural hair has active ingredients, is moisturising and good for thinning hair.

Active ingredients: some of the active ingredients in the shampoo are shea butter and jojoba oil. Jojoba oil is a really good moisturising oil and it’s also the closest match in terms of its chemical structure to the natural sebum that we produce in our natural hair. Therefore, it’s a fantastic oil to include in hair care products for afro and curly hair. 

Pea protein: we also use pea protein and this really helps to strengthen the hair. It helps to prevent breakage, promotes scalp help to help produce voluminous hair, hydrate the hair and help it to grow. Also, it’s hydrophilic, so it binds with water and it brings moisture and hydration deeper into the roots of the hair. 

Good for thinning hair: it also has anti-ageing properties as well. As we get older the follicles start to age. The anagen phase of the hair growth cycle starts to reduce and so does the strand density. Therefore, it’s really good to have an anti-ageing product in the hair to just fight that. 

Directions for using the shampoo cream

Activate: rub the natural shampoo together in your hands to really break it down. 

Apply: make sure the hair is damp before applying the cream in and wet it with water to activate the foam. 

Tips: if you’re going to massage the scalp, make sure you use the tips of your fingers, not your nails, to avoid scratching and irritating the scalp. Get a shower filter if you live in a hard water area, as it will get rid all the hard water and chlorine in your water which is what causes the build of soap clumps in your hair that can also cause breakage. 

Next…natural conditioner 

Now I am going to add the Super Botanicals Conditioner. This has very fatty oil, it’s really great for the hair and adds moisture. The natural conditioner contains pea protein for the same reasons as the shampoo, for strength and moisture, therefore a really good protein. In addition, we’ve got shea butter and everybody knows and loves how moisturising and how soft shea butter is so we’ve also added that to the conditioner.

What are the benefits of plant-based proteins compared to animal-based proteins?

We’re a vegan brand so we don’t use any animal-derived products in our formulations. We also believe that the particular protein that we’ve chosen is the most complex which means that it’s able to add more restructuring to the hair than any other proteins such as soya. 

Do you have any technique on applying the conditioner?

Once you’ve applied the shampoo, split the hair into sections so you can apply the conditioner in all parts of the hair and don’t forget about the middle area of the hair. This helps you to evenly spread the conditioner throughout the hair.

How long do you need to leave the conditioner on for?

Wash day: At least 10  minutes to really start to work the hair. 

Deep condition: you can also use the conditioner as a deep conditioner, which you can use a hair cap and leave it on for about 30-60 minutes. 

Tip: I’ve heard a lot of people like to leave their conditioner for hours sometimes overnight which is really bad practice. Once it’s done its job, it’s really important that you do try and make sure that you’re not leaving your conditioner on for over an hour and if you don’t feel like it has worked, make sure you’re using the right conditioner. 

Hair tools

Use the Magic Star Detangling Comb to detangle with the conditioner in your hair to even it out.

Benefits of this hair styling tool are that it’s great for using for when you’re shampooing or conditioning. It’s antistatic and also non-porous so it doesn’t harbour any mould like traditional combs that you buy in your local hair shop. Typically. because of the material they’re made with, they harbour a lot of bacteria and mould. Additionally, this comb has no spikes which mean it doesn’t pull and snap at the hair. As I have mentioned, Nylah has very fine hair strands so it’s really important that I’m not pulling any of her hair strands. 

Washing tips:

When washing your hair it’s really important to make sure you’re using warm water as opposed to hot water. This will ensure that you’re not opening your cuticles and your kids’ cuticles by using really hot water. This will cause a lot of dehydration of the hair. Your cuticles respond to two things, they respond to really high water temperature and pH. We’ve formulated our products with a pH of 4.5to 5.5 which is the natural pH of your hair and scalp. After conditioning the hair it will feel really soft. 

Detangling natural hair 

Product: detangle the conditioned hair using the Nylah Naturals Super Seeds multi-purpose hair oil. 

Benefits: this oil contains 11 cold-pressed oils and they’re oils that I’ve personally chosen because they are loaded with fatty acids, amino acids vitamin A, D and E so it’s really good for your hair and scalp that’s lightweight. 

Tips: I don’t promote using heavy or thick products that stick to your finger on your scalp, as they interfere with the process of desalination and that can be really damaging for your scalp. Desalination is the cells renewing on the scalp, so stopping or disturbing that process from happening can cause dandruff and also allow fungus that naturally sits on your scalp. I recommend using something that will be quickly absorbed by the scalp and that’s how we formulated our hair oil to ensure that it does that.

I use the Super Seeds hair oil and I also have my hair cream which is the Nylah Stay Hydrated Hair Cream which will be available to purchase soon. The oil helps to lock moisture into her hair by creating a barrier so the cuticles are being closed and hydrate it.

I use them together but it depends on what you prefer. I sometimes use the oil first especially after coming out of the shower. You can do your LOC method which is your liquid, oil, cream or you can do the LCO which is the liquid, cream, oil method and they’re both really good for adding maximum hydration to the hair.

Recap on washing 4c natural hair with the Nylah natural hair shampoo, conditioner and oil

• Wash with the strength shine shampoo cream. To use it, create a lot of foam and maximise the use with that. 
• Use a shower filter if you live in a hard water area.
• Separate the hair in four sections, condition the hair and leave on for at least 10 minutes or deep condition by leaving it on for 30 minutes to an hour. 
• Detangle using the magic star seamless comb. 
• Style with the hair oil, doing a twist or braid out whilst wet.

Nylah Naturals Packaging

One of our themes for the packaging is to constantly use different Ankara designs and different colour variations. Heritage is really important to us and as black women, I feel like the Ankara pattern is inherent and something that we all recognise no matter which part of the diaspora we are from. That’s why I like our heritage to come through in the packaging and with everything that we do. I think it’s really important that as a brand we are always championing individualism as black women and our beauty as black women, and we do that throughout the image of the brand as well.

Final words from Kam, founder of Nylah Naturals

Thank you for your support and thank you for joining us along this journey and I am working so hard to just be able to expand our reach. So, thank you for being with us at this early stage of our growth. 

The Nylah Family

Let us know below if you found this tutorial on how Mom Kam washes daughter, Nylah’s 4c natural hair with Nylah Naturals hair care kit. To find out more about the founder, watch this video 👇🏾. Subscribe to our newsletter for more updates.