I’ve been natural for 7 years now and this journey has been quite an experience! Over the course of these past 7 years, I have come to realize that several factors will contribute to your feeling of success as a natural girl. Those things are the right products, a technique, and a routine that works for you, having the right stylist and finding your community.
I have a handful of friends and family members who are also natural. The great thing, and also the worst thing, about this is every one of them has a different hair length and texture. This is a negative because it becomes hard to share secrets and methodology between friends when all of our hair is so drastically different. What works for my cousin with medium thickness 4A hair won’t work for me with very thick 4B/4C hair. Because of this, a big part of my hair community is online on Youtube.
Youtube is such an important part of your natural hair journey. Anytime someone tells me they are considering going natural, I always stress finding Youtubers with similar hair texture and thickness and watching tons of videos. This helps you discover new products, techniques, and gives you a realistic view of what your journey will look like.
This is what I did and I have many Youtubers to thank! Here is my list of Hair influencers that changed my life!
Natural Hair Youtube Gurus to Follow
#1 Yolanda Renee
Hair Texture: I think her hair texture is a 4B. Her hair is thick but still very curly.
Length: currently it’s long but she has had a shorter cut before. If you search on her page you will find style and care videos for all lengths.
About her channel:
I’ve been following her for years and always watched her videos and picked up tips here and there, like doing hanging Bantu knots on the ends of my hair to make sure they are curly. However, the real game-changer came with her latest Twisting pattern video. I followed this video to a T and my hair came out great. This is actually how I do my hair all the time now. I think it worked out well because we have similar textures, similar hair lengths and it’s just a great instructional video!
I also love the fact that she is a fellow girl mom, to three beauties. She has a whole playlist of her hair care tips for her daughters over the course of their lives. This helped me out a lot when I started allowing my then 3-year-old to wear her hair in twist outs.
#2 Kendra Kensay formerly known as Miss Ken K
Hair Texture: I believe her hair texture is 4B/4C. She has really thick, beautiful hair.
Length: Short. Currently, she is wearing sisterlocks but most of the past videos on her channel are about short natural hair.
About her channel: This channel is for sure in my top 3 MVP of youtube channels. I always loved her tips, but when I cut my hair into a tapered afro/bob a few years ago, I visited it channel quite often. Using her Mini Pineapples method turned out to be the key to preserving my curls while keeping my roots stretched even after my hair had grown out of my cute cut.
If you have short hair or are thinking of chopping it off, she is the go to for this type of style!
#3 Hearts and cakes 90 – Brittney
Hair Texture: n/a- it’s all about wigs!
About her channel: Brittney is one of the people I go to when I’m looking for really good wig recommendations. She reviews a wide variety of synthetic and human hair wigs, priced high and low. I have bought many wigs based on her recommendations! One of the most important things I learned from her channel is how to personalize wigs to make them look more natural. She has an entire playlist that is dedicated to tips and tricks on how to make your cheap synthetic wigs look better. Do not wear them straight out of the box! Check Brittney’s Youtube channel out first! Trust me. Back when I did youtube videos, Brittney and I did a collab video! It was a great experience but unfortunately, after this, I realized the Youtube just wasn’t for me!
#4 My natural sistas – styles and technique
This channel is really unique because it is run by 3 sisters. They all have similar hair textures but different lengths and style techniques. They channel is pretty much out of use at the moment, the last video was uploaded a year ago, but the archives are still very useful. I learned a lot from the perfect twist out routine about how to take down my twists without adding extra frizz.
So these are my top channels to watch. I always recommend these because these are the ones that I actually watch and rewatch faithfully. Each one has been an integral part of my success as a natural woman and a mom to natural kiddos. Let me know who you watch and what they taught you!
Listen I’m about to run to YouTube right now! I love my natural curls but get stuck on how to style it. Thanks for this list!