I Have Type 4 Hair, and I'm Never Without These Products

I’ll start with a confession: I was well into my late 20s when I finally cracked the perfect haircare routine, products and all. Before that, it was all trial and error, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Identifying my hair type was half the battle, and the next hurdle was figuring out which products worked for natural hair. This might sound relatively easy, but with so many products on the market, where do you start?

Type 4 hair is fragile and extremely susceptible to dehydration and breakage. Ekwy Nnene, the founder of haircare brand Equi Botanic, tells me that there are two main objectives to consider when it comes to caring for type 4 hair: keeping hair moisturised and preventing damage to ends.

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(Image credit: @CLAIRE_MOST)

Type hair 4 comes with its own set of delicate requirements, and caring for my hair hasn’t been an easy feat. I’ve been on a long quest to figure out the best products and practices for my hair. Nnene, however, has transformed her daughter’s hair and helped many women on their natural-hair journey. What are her top three tips for caring for type 4 hair? "Always detangle before washing to reduce breakage,” she says. She also recommends "oiling ends to prevent hair strands from getting caught in drying fabrics like necks of sweaters, caps, cotton pillowcases and synthetic braids.” Most importantly, Nnene recommends "washing your scalp thoroughly” because product build-up can lead to a host of problems.

Knowing my hair type and curl pattern has significantly improved my haircare routine. However, these are not the only factors at play. Our hair is affected by several things, including porosity, density and thickness. Yes, this complicates things, but you might just have to kiss a few frogs before you find your perfect army of products. If you need a little assistance, refer to my list of 10 products (including luxurious hydrating shampoos and game-changing silk accessories) that have transformed my type 4 hair.

1. Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil Shampoo

2. Equi Botantics Black Seed Hair Oil Elixir

3. Dizziak Deep Conditioner

4. The Que Silk Headband

5. Bumble and Bumble Sunday Shampoo

6. Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque

7. Philip Kingsley Elasticizer Intensive Treatment

8. Briogeo Don’t Despair, Repair! Megatsrength + Rice Water Protein + Moisture Strengthening Treatment

9. Aveda Exfoliating Scalp Brush

10. Ori Lifestyle Deep Conditioning Heat Cap

Next Up: 10 Easy Natural Hairstyles That Have Been on My Inspo Board for Months

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Freelance Beauty Journalist

Zeynab Mohamed is a London-based freelance beauty journalist, covering beauty, wellness, lifestyle and identity-related content. Her background in psychology and her identity as a Black woman has influenced a lot of her writing and has become a driving force to create engaging content that touches on a perspective that is often neglected and speaks to other Black women who love beauty as much as she does. She is inspired by how individuals engage with beauty and how beauty can make you feel but also how beauty holds the power to connect individuals across the globe to form communities. She began her career in beauty journalism with the British Vogue team, where she discovered that beauty isn’t just frivolous but can be a tool to empower individuals and give them a voice which they were not afforded.

Zeynab is currently a beauty contributor toBest Knockoff Luxury Clothing . She has also written for Stylist, Elle, Refinery29 and Byrdie, building on her freelance portfolio and expanding on the type of content she creates in the hope of reaching diverse communities. When Zeynab is not writing and hunting down her next story, you can find her travelling the globe and tucked away with a good book.