How to Stop Letting Your Hair Emotionally Trigger You

Triggers, something that we all have, one way or another. It’s understandable to have days when your hair can frustrate you— sometimes to the point where it can shift your focus, in a negative way, all throughout the day. If your hair has ever emotionally triggered you, here are a few suggestions on how to stop, prevent or minimize them from being a regular occurrence — for your hair’s sake as well as for your mental health.

1. Get to Know Your Hair Pattern, Texture and Porosity

Please take the time to understand what your hair pattern, texture and porosity are. Otherwise you are going to stay frustrated on your healthy hair journey since these three factors play a huge role in how you care for your hair. If you may or may not know what these terms mean, please devote time in your day to do some thorough research; especially since it’s possible to have more than one hair pattern/texture at the same time. 

2. Celebrate What You Know

Knowledge is power, correct? Know what else? When it comes to gathering insight on what your hair is all about, that is a call for a true celebration! Open up YouTube or social media to search for men and women who have a similar pattern, texture and porosity as yours to see what hair products or styling tricks to experiment with. Then, take a picture, post it on your social media to let other people in on the education and that you are learning how to fall in love with your hair more and more every single day. In all honesty, sometimes, we get more triggered than we should because we focus more on what we don’t like about something rather than what we do, even with our hair. By putting forth the effort to love, praise, and bless your hair — you’ll be amazed how quickly it can put your mind, body and spirit into a much better space.

3. Realize That Envy Is Futile 

Moral to the story — be blessed with what you are blessed with. There is beauty and greatness in all hair textures, and there is purpose in why we have the texture that we do. It makes absolutely no sense to wish that your hair was different from what it naturally is. Some of the very things that you may be complaining about, someone somewhere else is wishing that they could experience. Guaranteed.

4. Take “Some Time Off” from Your Locks

Something that isn’t discussed enough, is that our relationship with our hair is much like any other kind of relationship — there are good days as well as bad days. There are times when we’re about putting a lot of effort in and then there are times when we just need a break. Whether you are transitioning from damaged hair to natural and healthy hair, you are trying to grow your hair out or you’re just having a moment of disconnect with your hair, go ahead and book an appointment with a stylist to put your hair into a protective style. Soon enough, you’re going to be more than happy to get them out and focus on styling your hair again. So if you need to, take a break — so that you can decompress and your hair can get a bit of rest from styling manipulation as well. A win/win all the way around.

5. Stop Trying to Control What You Can’t

A person once said, “If you try to control everything, and then worry about the things you can’t control, you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of frustration and misery.” That being said, a main cause of your hair “emotionally triggering” you, is wanting to control something about it that you simply cannot. So, whether you’re having a bad hair day, or you wishing your hair had a different texture, or wishing your transition period only lasted a day — resolve in your mind to control ONLY what you can control. Accepting this alone is a total gamechanger — and definitely a “hair trigger” deactivator.

Let us know how you prevent your hair triggers in the comments!