Well my relaxer treatment has been fine although I think that it could do with going down in strength as my hair was pretty limp after a few days and I really do not like that. However what is more pressing to me right now is that my hair is now down to my armpits I can see that it is damaged in places. It makes me sad because it seems that all the heat that I put on my hair earlier this year caused serious breakage and dryness that now having reached a goal point I can see more clearly.
This has happened to me before in 2004, my hair had grown to a beautiful length, or so I thought until my cousin pointed out that my hair needed a trim. I thought she was just jealous but checked myself into a hair dresser anyway. I was smug sitting in that chair, I had been doing hot oil treatments, using mild relaxers and it had really paid off. Then the hair dresser pointed out that the back of my hair was very uneven and sure enough my nape had broken off leaving a space in my hair line. I cut my hair and then disheartened by my loss of progress I simply decided to give up and shave my hair and go natural. That was when my serial transitioning began and ended only two weeks ago, six years later.
I was really upset at first because then I had thought it was colour treatments I had done, but as the damaged has occurred much higher the hair shaft then my last colour two years ago I had to conclude that it was something that I had done since to damage my hair. Then it hit me, back then I flat ironed my hair every week after air drying. Due to my hairs thickness I tend to do a really good job on the fine haired nape and hair line but the middle of the hair gets less heat. Except when I heat trained, then I was very through, to the point where I could smell burning hair, my hair was dry from all the heat but I was convinced it would work so I carried on going. For all the good its done me I should have just taken a pair of scissors and chopped parts of my hair off.
So as a result I have decided to give up heat, in all honesty I have noticed that my GHD's are too hot for me and I only blow dry on cool. However even that has caused further breakage and its clear that my relaxed hair can not handle heat and I am never going to have waist length hair unless I stop using it. Well a couple of strands will get there but nobody likes that look.
I also consider my hair to be course but I have realised that not all of it is, only the crown, so I am going to stop using course relaxers, I am now going to use mild only. I will begin at the point that needs the most time and end at the part that needs the least. Hopefully these changes will stop further damage occurring. 2012 will be the year of the air dry style :-)
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Monday, 21 November 2011
Healthy relaxed hair tips, building a routine.
With this new revelation that relaxed hair is the way for me I started to rethink my routine. If I am going to become a committed chemical user then I wanted to do it well. I also had to think about how to keep my hair slippery and free from tangles. I have learned a few things in this last year about my chemically treated hair that I would like to share.
I now wash my hair in the sink, not the shower. For years I have been untangling my hair in the shower with plenty of conditioner from scalp to tip. That has caused mechanical breakage due to the wet tension and over stretched my hair weakening it as well as irritation because my scalp hates conditioner. I have sensitive skin and I barely use anything on it, I now do the same for my scalp. I now untangle my hair, plait three ways, shampoo with a sulfate free conditioner and then condition the last two thirds of my hair under a plastic cap for at least an hour. I rinse very well in the sink losing no hair as it has already been removed when untangling and then finally add a watery leave in conditioner and pour olive oil on the center of my scalp and smooth down to the tips of my hair.
I have started to use Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the ends of my hair to keep it lubricated and to condition my scalp after washing. I have discovered that that not all EVOO is equal, some brands are too light for my hair, but my favorite so far is the unfiltered bottle of Fillipo Berio that I picked up in Waitrose for 3.99. There is a liter of it and because its unfiltered it contains more body and a bit if sedament. It also works in my daughters fine 3C hair.
I have also started to roller set under a warm bonnet and blow dry on warm occasionally with no ill effect. This was a sort of evolution of sorts, as when I flat ironed my hair and I realised that I really did not like to do something that I knew would leave my hair dry and split in a couple of days. I really enjoy roller setting but it takes me about 48 hours to dry it naturally and sleeping on them gives me a headache so I use my bonnet on cool for about and hour and pin curl the areas that may be damp. I use my leave in and a little silicone or even better olive oil and the result is lovely heavy hair, full of moisture. I like my hair to be in large waves which suits my love of vintage style but I also would like to experiment with the large purple rollers. Problem is that my hair is so dense that I need a few packs for the job, storage is a problem as I seem to have a lot of rollers, my kids love to play with them.
I also blow dry my hair wet, I always thought I should air dry first to about 80% but the Science of Black Hair taught me to use water content as an additional buffer against heat damage. So now I squeeze out the moisture with a towel and then add a leave in and a silicone blow dry gently on cool with a paddle brush. I keep the blow dryer concentrator nozzle a few inches away from my hair, once dry I seal my hair with some EVOO as I want to stop my ends from being crunchy. They are usually a little damp as I do not dry them completely and I like my ends to be to be lubricated and free from tangles.
I no longer avoid from silicone as its a great at protecting my hair from damage and helps stop tangles from forming. This means I do not have to invest in expensive silicone free conditioners, I am not doing the curly girl method anyway so why avoid silicone? Even the strongest one can be washed away with sulfates.
I have realised that I am protein sensitive, I love hard protein and now use it every other week or I do a henna treatment. However I can not use light proteins as my regular conditioner and there are so many of them out there. Finding a leave in has been testing due to the fact that the companies make leave in conditioner for people with damaged hair and so they contain protein. I can only use a protein twice a week tops and if I seal with coconut oil my hair is rigid the next day.
In fact I now see my extra virgin coconut oil as a protein sealant and my extra virgin olive oil as a moisturising sealant. Its very important that I remember this when I am choosing my oils before I go to be or I will end up with difficult hair in the morning. I also use shea butter as a creamy moisturiser on damp hair but it has so be sealed with EVOO to take away the waxy finish that can leave my hair a little dull. I am allergic to caster oil, it makes my scalp break out and become sore, horrible as its a fantastic lubricant,
So my last relaxer was on the 20th November 2011, I had washed and deep conditioned with nexxus emergencee and Humectress, and then air dried in a bun. On the night of the 19th I pretreated my ends with olive oil, this left my hair easy to part in the morning. After applying ORS Lye in normal strength with an applicator brush starting at the crown, I smoothed lightly and rinsed in the sink then used the last of my ORS hair mayonaise as a mid relaxer protein treatment. Conditioners have a lower ph than relaxer so the neutralising process had already begun (see science of black hair book) I left the protein on for about ten minutes, then rinsed, used my ORS neutralising shampoo and then deep conditioned with the last of my humectress for an hour. The result was fantastic, I am closer to bra strap and when I dried my hair it was heavy and full of moisture, I can not remember when my hair was this long or healthy.
So I am trying to stick to what I know to avoid buying too many products, I recently had a big clear out. I am however having some problems finding the perfect moisturiser other than water so I have decided to try Joico Daily Care detangling leave in as it was on special offer on amazon. Nexxus has a brilliant moisturiser but it only comes in 300ml that is not enough for the twelve pound price. Joico was twelve pounds for 1000ml on special offer! I am also on the look out for a new deep moisture conditioner as Humectress says leave on for three minutes and I need hardcore moisture. It just does not work for me the instructions should say ten minutes or longer. So next I am going to try Joico moisture recovery balm and I managed to get 500ml quite cheap and apparently a little goes a long way. I will do a review on these products as soon as I ave given them a good trial.
Well I hope this helps somebody, I feel my hair journey that has been almost a decade now I finally turning a corner and I can see long hair at the end of the tunnel. I think 2012 will be a good year :-)
I now wash my hair in the sink, not the shower. For years I have been untangling my hair in the shower with plenty of conditioner from scalp to tip. That has caused mechanical breakage due to the wet tension and over stretched my hair weakening it as well as irritation because my scalp hates conditioner. I have sensitive skin and I barely use anything on it, I now do the same for my scalp. I now untangle my hair, plait three ways, shampoo with a sulfate free conditioner and then condition the last two thirds of my hair under a plastic cap for at least an hour. I rinse very well in the sink losing no hair as it has already been removed when untangling and then finally add a watery leave in conditioner and pour olive oil on the center of my scalp and smooth down to the tips of my hair.
I have started to use Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the ends of my hair to keep it lubricated and to condition my scalp after washing. I have discovered that that not all EVOO is equal, some brands are too light for my hair, but my favorite so far is the unfiltered bottle of Fillipo Berio that I picked up in Waitrose for 3.99. There is a liter of it and because its unfiltered it contains more body and a bit if sedament. It also works in my daughters fine 3C hair.
I have also started to roller set under a warm bonnet and blow dry on warm occasionally with no ill effect. This was a sort of evolution of sorts, as when I flat ironed my hair and I realised that I really did not like to do something that I knew would leave my hair dry and split in a couple of days. I really enjoy roller setting but it takes me about 48 hours to dry it naturally and sleeping on them gives me a headache so I use my bonnet on cool for about and hour and pin curl the areas that may be damp. I use my leave in and a little silicone or even better olive oil and the result is lovely heavy hair, full of moisture. I like my hair to be in large waves which suits my love of vintage style but I also would like to experiment with the large purple rollers. Problem is that my hair is so dense that I need a few packs for the job, storage is a problem as I seem to have a lot of rollers, my kids love to play with them.
I also blow dry my hair wet, I always thought I should air dry first to about 80% but the Science of Black Hair taught me to use water content as an additional buffer against heat damage. So now I squeeze out the moisture with a towel and then add a leave in and a silicone blow dry gently on cool with a paddle brush. I keep the blow dryer concentrator nozzle a few inches away from my hair, once dry I seal my hair with some EVOO as I want to stop my ends from being crunchy. They are usually a little damp as I do not dry them completely and I like my ends to be to be lubricated and free from tangles.
I no longer avoid from silicone as its a great at protecting my hair from damage and helps stop tangles from forming. This means I do not have to invest in expensive silicone free conditioners, I am not doing the curly girl method anyway so why avoid silicone? Even the strongest one can be washed away with sulfates.
I have realised that I am protein sensitive, I love hard protein and now use it every other week or I do a henna treatment. However I can not use light proteins as my regular conditioner and there are so many of them out there. Finding a leave in has been testing due to the fact that the companies make leave in conditioner for people with damaged hair and so they contain protein. I can only use a protein twice a week tops and if I seal with coconut oil my hair is rigid the next day.
In fact I now see my extra virgin coconut oil as a protein sealant and my extra virgin olive oil as a moisturising sealant. Its very important that I remember this when I am choosing my oils before I go to be or I will end up with difficult hair in the morning. I also use shea butter as a creamy moisturiser on damp hair but it has so be sealed with EVOO to take away the waxy finish that can leave my hair a little dull. I am allergic to caster oil, it makes my scalp break out and become sore, horrible as its a fantastic lubricant,
So my last relaxer was on the 20th November 2011, I had washed and deep conditioned with nexxus emergencee and Humectress, and then air dried in a bun. On the night of the 19th I pretreated my ends with olive oil, this left my hair easy to part in the morning. After applying ORS Lye in normal strength with an applicator brush starting at the crown, I smoothed lightly and rinsed in the sink then used the last of my ORS hair mayonaise as a mid relaxer protein treatment. Conditioners have a lower ph than relaxer so the neutralising process had already begun (see science of black hair book) I left the protein on for about ten minutes, then rinsed, used my ORS neutralising shampoo and then deep conditioned with the last of my humectress for an hour. The result was fantastic, I am closer to bra strap and when I dried my hair it was heavy and full of moisture, I can not remember when my hair was this long or healthy.
So I am trying to stick to what I know to avoid buying too many products, I recently had a big clear out. I am however having some problems finding the perfect moisturiser other than water so I have decided to try Joico Daily Care detangling leave in as it was on special offer on amazon. Nexxus has a brilliant moisturiser but it only comes in 300ml that is not enough for the twelve pound price. Joico was twelve pounds for 1000ml on special offer! I am also on the look out for a new deep moisture conditioner as Humectress says leave on for three minutes and I need hardcore moisture. It just does not work for me the instructions should say ten minutes or longer. So next I am going to try Joico moisture recovery balm and I managed to get 500ml quite cheap and apparently a little goes a long way. I will do a review on these products as soon as I ave given them a good trial.
Well I hope this helps somebody, I feel my hair journey that has been almost a decade now I finally turning a corner and I can see long hair at the end of the tunnel. I think 2012 will be a good year :-)
Accepting that relaxer is your styling choice.
Friends, I recently came to an important conclusion, I have tried to stop relaxing my hair and I have tried every technique but in the end I have come to the conclusion that my indecision is literally ruining my hair. Looking after anything requires patience and consistency, and changing your regime every few weeks is the complete opposite of what you need to grow your hair long and strong. I have been so all over the place jumping on every band wagon going and believing every hype that I read about that this year and as a result I have experienced some breakage and thinning that I can see that I can pin point back to transitioning or stretching my relaxer for too long, using to much heat trying to "heat train" my new growth.
My thick, course and dense hair hides the damage well and I am still on my way to bra strap despite all my changes, but I have seen the most growth in the last four months when I started taking it easy on my hair and swore off anything more than dusting my ends. You see, my hair is damaged and cutting off that damage will give me instant relief but, I think my ends will always have a certain amount of damage so I might as well learn to manage it rather than cutting it off. Its just so demotivating to grow your hair and then chop off three inches, that is four to six months growth.
My previous relaxer was in September after a four month stretch, I thought that I was transitioning but with my hair gaining length I really wanted to enjoy it. I avoided heat, especially my flat iron as I noticed that it made my new growth very dry which eventually leads to breakage. My hair was feeling strong and after some encouragement from a friend I took the plunge and relaxed using Organic Root Stimulator's lye relaxer. I was really pleased with the results but I had this strong feeling of failure and guilt, I deleted my blog in shame. All I could think was why can't I transition am I ashamed of my natural beauty, do I have issues with how God made me?
I started to research relaxer addiction on the internet....and then I came to my senses, I was not addicted to relaxer, I just love to where my textured hair straight. My hair does not look European, Asian, or otherwise. My hair looks like what it is, course, chemically straightened hair, its unique in its own right and its beautiful. Its me, just like I love to wear the colour red and form fitting dresses, its a part of my personal style and I should not feel ashamed.
My thick, course and dense hair hides the damage well and I am still on my way to bra strap despite all my changes, but I have seen the most growth in the last four months when I started taking it easy on my hair and swore off anything more than dusting my ends. You see, my hair is damaged and cutting off that damage will give me instant relief but, I think my ends will always have a certain amount of damage so I might as well learn to manage it rather than cutting it off. Its just so demotivating to grow your hair and then chop off three inches, that is four to six months growth.
My previous relaxer was in September after a four month stretch, I thought that I was transitioning but with my hair gaining length I really wanted to enjoy it. I avoided heat, especially my flat iron as I noticed that it made my new growth very dry which eventually leads to breakage. My hair was feeling strong and after some encouragement from a friend I took the plunge and relaxed using Organic Root Stimulator's lye relaxer. I was really pleased with the results but I had this strong feeling of failure and guilt, I deleted my blog in shame. All I could think was why can't I transition am I ashamed of my natural beauty, do I have issues with how God made me?
I started to research relaxer addiction on the internet....and then I came to my senses, I was not addicted to relaxer, I just love to where my textured hair straight. My hair does not look European, Asian, or otherwise. My hair looks like what it is, course, chemically straightened hair, its unique in its own right and its beautiful. Its me, just like I love to wear the colour red and form fitting dresses, its a part of my personal style and I should not feel ashamed.
Friday, 28 October 2011
Transitioning your mind may take years.
I relaxed again, I do not even know what to say, my hair looks beautiful and full and healthy.
I am using a lot of olive oil as a deep conditioner and sealent and no heat and it is really helping. I still struggle with a dry scalp but its not half as bad as it used to be. Would still love long natural hair, just not the right time i guess, I am starting to think that I would have to transition with braids or something. I really like my relaxed hair I have to say so my problem is not knowledge its a mental transition that I am struggling with and at the moment its a loosing battle.
I am using a lot of olive oil as a deep conditioner and sealent and no heat and it is really helping. I still struggle with a dry scalp but its not half as bad as it used to be. Would still love long natural hair, just not the right time i guess, I am starting to think that I would have to transition with braids or something. I really like my relaxed hair I have to say so my problem is not knowledge its a mental transition that I am struggling with and at the moment its a loosing battle.
Friday, 16 September 2011
I'm bored
I have been on this journey for so long that I am now just bored. There seems to be no definitive answer to my transitioning conundrum. If I use not heat I have tangles at the root and crazy tangles on my ends. If I use heat then my roots are baby smooth but my mid hair to ends starts to feel really dry on day two and my scalp feels tight because of the heat.
I hate extensions and wigs because they bore me too quickly for the effort it takes to install them. I just feel like it's not worth the bother.
I am also bored of relaxed hair, it's the endless cycle of grow, perm, burn, heal, grow, perm....
So I am bored but I so not sure what to do. Scalp feels better without shampoo and hair feels moist without heat but styling remains a massive challenge. Starting to think I am going to have to make a hat to cover my hair so I for not have to deal with it any more.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Dry scalp when transitioning.
Yesterday I gave my hair a henna treatment, it really warmed up my indigo black hair, finally, and I was super pleased. I have really struggled to go pass five days without washing, in fact three is really the max and so my scalp has suffered, the crown is dry and painful and I have realised that I am going to have to no poo for a while and stop blow drying my roots. I believe that I am sensitive to shampoo and the heat from my hairdryer. This is really annoying as I hate dealing with the curly snarls on my relaxed hair which will either A rip off my relaxed hair or B cause single strand knots. So I had a real brainstorm about the situation, what to do about my need to cut down on heat AND keep my scalp moisturised AND my new growth healthy tangle free. Then I remembered the water, glycerin and oil spritz that I used after my relaxers three years ago. Then I used to spritz my hair and keep it in a moist bun for a week after a relaxer and I did not use heat and it made my hair silly soft. I still love my creamy leave in sealed with coconut oil but I have not moisturised my scalp on a regular basis as cantu does not like new growth so this will have to be it. My priority is maintaining my length and minimising knots the supper sleek look is not really my priority especially as it always results in breakage in the end.
So looks like my regimen has evolved yet again. I really hope that I am bsl by next February
So looks like my regimen has evolved yet again. I really hope that I am bsl by next February
Monday, 29 August 2011
New regimen, low heat less washing. 21 INCH HAIR!
Since reading SBH book I have been very aware of the state of my hair. I have not relaxed again and I think I am about three months post, In fact lets just say that I last relaxed the 1st June 2011. I am not excited with the three months as I have bee here before. I just can not wait for six months to arrive again so that I can start to really enjoy the challenge of transitioning.
So far `I have learned, on refection, that my hair being course and wiry does well with gentle heat to help me manage the density but not very well with air drying and flat ironing. I have an unbelievable amount of breakage on my crown from the bad relaxer I had before my last. I left it for about five weeks before correcting and air dried it lose to try and keep breakage down. Hair always all over the floor I knew something was wrong, however it was not until I tried to air dry a roller set that I really saw the damage as there seemed to be lots of short hairs within my long hair all over my head. My ends are pretty good with just the odd split end but inside my dense hair I would say I have 80-70% breakage at the point of that relaxer application.
I have also rediscovered the very curly tight 'O' type hair on my crown which tends to be the worse for breakage and when fully natural, knots. I have neglected this area and have decided that I am going to maintain my transitioning hair through gentle blow drying only. I only use heat which feel comfortable against my skin and I hold my damp (not wet) hair taught as I dry, concentrating on the roots mainly.
To of set this new addition to my regimen I have decided to try and use less products so that I do not have to wash so often. I mean I have dry scalp and dry hair, so really I am only washing off what I put on my scalp, so to keep my scalp clean I will not add too much product.
I have also been on a search for a creamy leave-in and I found it! Cantu Shea butter Leave-in. £5.50 for 500g, a good price and it offers moisture and heat protection. I used this on towel dried hair before I went to bed, ignoring my healthy new growth. Then I spritzed my roots with water in the morning, added my nexxus heat protection spray and divided it into small sections for blow drying. The result was lovely soft hair that was not weighed down of stick straight. I plan to moisturise every night wear my hair up as it is getting quite long now and can get in the way.
Products:
Shampoo- Nexxus moisturising shampoo, Kelate for clarifying before a protein treatment.
Conditioner- Nexxus moisturising conditioner (managed to get 1 litre very cheap) HSR for pre-poos.
Protein-Nexxus Emergencee my hair loves protein! pree poo GPB if I feel it needs a boost.
Leave in- Cantu Shea butter, this contains glycerin so I hope that it will work well with water spritz.
Moisturiser- water bottle spritz (mineral water)
Sealant- coconut oil, moisturising in its own right and soaks through to the cortex leaving opportunity for further moisture.
Style- NO heat and protective styling, buns, trying to avoid hair bands, pincurls.
Wash every two weeks prepoo and wash day before, sleep in four loose pincurls with leave-in conditioner. Blow dry in morning, moisturise nightly, hard protein every six weeks.
This should save me money too as I have been washing up to twice a week and slapping heavy products on as if there is no tomorrow.
Good news in that my hair is now 21 inches long, only three inches left until bra strap! Six months!
So far `I have learned, on refection, that my hair being course and wiry does well with gentle heat to help me manage the density but not very well with air drying and flat ironing. I have an unbelievable amount of breakage on my crown from the bad relaxer I had before my last. I left it for about five weeks before correcting and air dried it lose to try and keep breakage down. Hair always all over the floor I knew something was wrong, however it was not until I tried to air dry a roller set that I really saw the damage as there seemed to be lots of short hairs within my long hair all over my head. My ends are pretty good with just the odd split end but inside my dense hair I would say I have 80-70% breakage at the point of that relaxer application.
I have also rediscovered the very curly tight 'O' type hair on my crown which tends to be the worse for breakage and when fully natural, knots. I have neglected this area and have decided that I am going to maintain my transitioning hair through gentle blow drying only. I only use heat which feel comfortable against my skin and I hold my damp (not wet) hair taught as I dry, concentrating on the roots mainly.
To of set this new addition to my regimen I have decided to try and use less products so that I do not have to wash so often. I mean I have dry scalp and dry hair, so really I am only washing off what I put on my scalp, so to keep my scalp clean I will not add too much product.
I have also been on a search for a creamy leave-in and I found it! Cantu Shea butter Leave-in. £5.50 for 500g, a good price and it offers moisture and heat protection. I used this on towel dried hair before I went to bed, ignoring my healthy new growth. Then I spritzed my roots with water in the morning, added my nexxus heat protection spray and divided it into small sections for blow drying. The result was lovely soft hair that was not weighed down of stick straight. I plan to moisturise every night wear my hair up as it is getting quite long now and can get in the way.
Products:
Shampoo- Nexxus moisturising shampoo, Kelate for clarifying before a protein treatment.
Conditioner- Nexxus moisturising conditioner (managed to get 1 litre very cheap) HSR for pre-poos.
Protein-Nexxus Emergencee my hair loves protein! pree poo GPB if I feel it needs a boost.
Leave in- Cantu Shea butter, this contains glycerin so I hope that it will work well with water spritz.
Moisturiser- water bottle spritz (mineral water)
Sealant- coconut oil, moisturising in its own right and soaks through to the cortex leaving opportunity for further moisture.
Style- NO heat and protective styling, buns, trying to avoid hair bands, pincurls.
Wash every two weeks prepoo and wash day before, sleep in four loose pincurls with leave-in conditioner. Blow dry in morning, moisturise nightly, hard protein every six weeks.
This should save me money too as I have been washing up to twice a week and slapping heavy products on as if there is no tomorrow.
Good news in that my hair is now 21 inches long, only three inches left until bra strap! Six months!
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Yet another revelation and my new method
As I am rebuilding my regimen I decided to go product shopping. I knew what I did not want in my products so I spent a long time just staring at the ingredients looking for the most healthy ingredients for the least money. I was not impressed with organic root stimulator (old staple), I do not know if there is a new formula available in the states but here the line is just full of mineral oil. I decided to get the same staples that I used with success to grow out my damaged hair when I started this journey years ago. I have only ever been patient enough to grow out damage once, The funny thing is that I had a very serious trim before hand and I have started to wonder if that might be in order.
Organics is a line that is not mineral oil or petroleum heavy, they also have an interesting deep conditioner for damaged hair, its a light protein and it states that you should leave it in or rinse it out. I think that it looks like a practical answer to my dryness. I will do a review once I have finished my first jar.
I had a bit of a revelation whilst in the store, I was looking for a moisturising deep conditioner and could only find one and that contained mineral oil. I looked at all the products and noticed that they were all for damaged hair and then it hit me. The companies are selling us home relaxers to inexperienced non professionals in order to fix out "problem" texture. However these products cause us more issues such as dryness, breakage, baldness, thinning, brittle dull hair fibers and then they sell us more products to help manage the problem. This type of back end hair shop is designed to keep us down, if it was aimed at making the our hair moist and healthy they would be doing themselves out of business. At that thought I turned on my heal and left the shop. I only wished I had done this sooner as the last shop where I had made a purchase charged me twice rendering further shopping, difficult.
I am trying a new method at the moment, its not exciting or mind blowing, in fact quite the opposite. Its called being patient, consistent and giving it time. I used to be into quick answers, throwing away products and damaged hair and sporting a short do. It feels good at first but then unwanted attention ensues with a focus on my hair style and my reason behind it. Nothing is going to change for the outside world, my hair will just be up and off my neck, slicked into a bun or roll of some sort .
The transition is at the ten week point, a hard place to be in as I have roughly one inch and a half of natural hair which is showing like a bit of fuzz at the front of my hair line. Its very hard to slick it down and its disrupting my hair pattern without adding any real waves when worn back. No matter I know that in a month my line of demarcation will shift and it will be plain sailing until I reach six months and then its going into uncharted territory Hoorah!
Reviews, thrills and spills to come, and I must get some images sorted.
Mwaz!
Organics is a line that is not mineral oil or petroleum heavy, they also have an interesting deep conditioner for damaged hair, its a light protein and it states that you should leave it in or rinse it out. I think that it looks like a practical answer to my dryness. I will do a review once I have finished my first jar.
I had a bit of a revelation whilst in the store, I was looking for a moisturising deep conditioner and could only find one and that contained mineral oil. I looked at all the products and noticed that they were all for damaged hair and then it hit me. The companies are selling us home relaxers to inexperienced non professionals in order to fix out "problem" texture. However these products cause us more issues such as dryness, breakage, baldness, thinning, brittle dull hair fibers and then they sell us more products to help manage the problem. This type of back end hair shop is designed to keep us down, if it was aimed at making the our hair moist and healthy they would be doing themselves out of business. At that thought I turned on my heal and left the shop. I only wished I had done this sooner as the last shop where I had made a purchase charged me twice rendering further shopping, difficult.
I am trying a new method at the moment, its not exciting or mind blowing, in fact quite the opposite. Its called being patient, consistent and giving it time. I used to be into quick answers, throwing away products and damaged hair and sporting a short do. It feels good at first but then unwanted attention ensues with a focus on my hair style and my reason behind it. Nothing is going to change for the outside world, my hair will just be up and off my neck, slicked into a bun or roll of some sort .
The transition is at the ten week point, a hard place to be in as I have roughly one inch and a half of natural hair which is showing like a bit of fuzz at the front of my hair line. Its very hard to slick it down and its disrupting my hair pattern without adding any real waves when worn back. No matter I know that in a month my line of demarcation will shift and it will be plain sailing until I reach six months and then its going into uncharted territory Hoorah!
Reviews, thrills and spills to come, and I must get some images sorted.
Mwaz!
Friday, 5 August 2011
The Science of Black Hair, great for transitioners.
Since my last post I relaxed my hair again, I am sure you must be rolling your eyes wondering why I can not just commit to the cause. Well to be honest my hair was breaking from its half processed chemical state. I figured that I could not take the relaxer out so I may as well do it properly and start a fresh, or cut it all off.
After that I sort of stopped thinking about it and started abusing my hair a little, I started to use a lot of serum and heat to create the shine and movement that I craved. However now I have about an inch and a half of natural hair I have had to turn my attention back to transitioning again.
I needed to do something new and fast as I have noticed that I have been on this journey for so long now that I have started to repeat myself. I have really done everything out there but succeed. I had started to see lots of information pop up about a revolutionary new book "The Science of Black Hair" its written by a Scientist named Audrey Davis-Sivasothy. I have read many of her articles over the years and I know that she has helped thousands of women.
I was most excited to read about transitioning, because there is a serious lack of information about how to transition. I find women who have stopped perming all the time but I feel that you can not always trust a video sometimes you just want the hard facts. However once I started to read the book I realised that there was so much that I was in denial about regarding the state of my hair. There was such a wealth of information that the scales literally fell from my eyes and I had to face the truth that my hair was not healthy.
You see Audrey goes into such detail about the hair fiber and its make-up and how it reacts to chemicals and its environment that its very hard to say to yourself "relaxing is healthy". Its possible but without a trust worthy professional at hand you take a risk every time you self relax. I started to see that my hair was dry and that my ends where split, I needed more moisture and less manipulation. All that misinformation that I had absorbed from You Tube had actually damaged my view of what is healthy. Before I read this book my mind was teetering between just relaxing for life and giving up and transitioning or indeed delaying my transition until my hair was longer. I now see that if I had continued as I was my hair would never have reached the length I desired. Not because it can not but because I was not letting it.
I thought that I was moisturising my hair with the serums and that it was better to use a silicone heavy serum than a product containing mineral oil. TSOBH has a list of chemicals and details regarding their properties. These chemicals are actually grouped together so you can easily check your staple products for the right ingredients. It was through this that I realised that there was little difference between a heavy silicone and a synthetic oil, they both block moisture and cause dryness. In fact I was not using a moisturising leave-in conditioner at all and I had stopped sealing moisture in with oil. My hair is damaged which is why it dries so quickly, my cuticles can not keep the moisture in!
This was a wake up call to me and to be perfectly honest I do feel like having a massive hair cut and starting a fresh, but I know from experience that as my natural hair grows out the more length I have the easier it will be to wear more styles. I have very thick wire like dense hair with an S/O pattern, recognising your hair type is detailed is detailed in the book too. My hair grows long easily as it is quite tough, however I will not be able to get it past arm pit length whilst it is damaged.The downside to my hair type is that it is a nightmare to handle when short as it is so dense that you need double the amount of braids to protect it when washing or at night. Two strand twist take days, but when my hair is longer it has the length to balance the density and is actually easier to manage.
I would relax my hair again if it was just about the hair fiber but the scalp is a whole new issue. There is a chapter on how to have healthy relaxed hair and this details how to go about self relaxing safely. I thought I was pretty good at self relaxing, even if I bent the rules from time to time, however when you see on a scientific level how relaxing affects the scalp it really puts you off. I always looked at relaxing as a styling choice that looked a bit dodgy but I could not work out why, this book confirmed my suspicions, relaxing is a dangerous game of Russian roulette. I no longer think that I can be bothered to play this game of chance, I would rather take a chance on my natural hair.
So armed with this new knowledge and having rebuilt my regimen from scratch using this fantastic book, I will now enter my fifth transition. In FACT I will declare this my FIRST, serious, well informed transition. I now know what my hair is like as I have already seen it on previous big chops. Its not about self discovery, this is about discipline and patience. I hope that you have all remained patient with me as I been going along on my journey.
BUY THIS BOOK!
After that I sort of stopped thinking about it and started abusing my hair a little, I started to use a lot of serum and heat to create the shine and movement that I craved. However now I have about an inch and a half of natural hair I have had to turn my attention back to transitioning again.
I needed to do something new and fast as I have noticed that I have been on this journey for so long now that I have started to repeat myself. I have really done everything out there but succeed. I had started to see lots of information pop up about a revolutionary new book "The Science of Black Hair" its written by a Scientist named Audrey Davis-Sivasothy. I have read many of her articles over the years and I know that she has helped thousands of women.
I was most excited to read about transitioning, because there is a serious lack of information about how to transition. I find women who have stopped perming all the time but I feel that you can not always trust a video sometimes you just want the hard facts. However once I started to read the book I realised that there was so much that I was in denial about regarding the state of my hair. There was such a wealth of information that the scales literally fell from my eyes and I had to face the truth that my hair was not healthy.
You see Audrey goes into such detail about the hair fiber and its make-up and how it reacts to chemicals and its environment that its very hard to say to yourself "relaxing is healthy". Its possible but without a trust worthy professional at hand you take a risk every time you self relax. I started to see that my hair was dry and that my ends where split, I needed more moisture and less manipulation. All that misinformation that I had absorbed from You Tube had actually damaged my view of what is healthy. Before I read this book my mind was teetering between just relaxing for life and giving up and transitioning or indeed delaying my transition until my hair was longer. I now see that if I had continued as I was my hair would never have reached the length I desired. Not because it can not but because I was not letting it.
I thought that I was moisturising my hair with the serums and that it was better to use a silicone heavy serum than a product containing mineral oil. TSOBH has a list of chemicals and details regarding their properties. These chemicals are actually grouped together so you can easily check your staple products for the right ingredients. It was through this that I realised that there was little difference between a heavy silicone and a synthetic oil, they both block moisture and cause dryness. In fact I was not using a moisturising leave-in conditioner at all and I had stopped sealing moisture in with oil. My hair is damaged which is why it dries so quickly, my cuticles can not keep the moisture in!
This was a wake up call to me and to be perfectly honest I do feel like having a massive hair cut and starting a fresh, but I know from experience that as my natural hair grows out the more length I have the easier it will be to wear more styles. I have very thick wire like dense hair with an S/O pattern, recognising your hair type is detailed is detailed in the book too. My hair grows long easily as it is quite tough, however I will not be able to get it past arm pit length whilst it is damaged.The downside to my hair type is that it is a nightmare to handle when short as it is so dense that you need double the amount of braids to protect it when washing or at night. Two strand twist take days, but when my hair is longer it has the length to balance the density and is actually easier to manage.
I would relax my hair again if it was just about the hair fiber but the scalp is a whole new issue. There is a chapter on how to have healthy relaxed hair and this details how to go about self relaxing safely. I thought I was pretty good at self relaxing, even if I bent the rules from time to time, however when you see on a scientific level how relaxing affects the scalp it really puts you off. I always looked at relaxing as a styling choice that looked a bit dodgy but I could not work out why, this book confirmed my suspicions, relaxing is a dangerous game of Russian roulette. I no longer think that I can be bothered to play this game of chance, I would rather take a chance on my natural hair.
So armed with this new knowledge and having rebuilt my regimen from scratch using this fantastic book, I will now enter my fifth transition. In FACT I will declare this my FIRST, serious, well informed transition. I now know what my hair is like as I have already seen it on previous big chops. Its not about self discovery, this is about discipline and patience. I hope that you have all remained patient with me as I been going along on my journey.
BUY THIS BOOK!
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Is this really my fifth transition?
After my stint at heat training, my hair is really very dry so I decided to stop using heat, the dryness however had a partner, harsh sulfates. I decided that as much as I love the nexxus shampoo on my hair it has not been doing wonders for my scalp so I have stopped using my Therapee shampoo. I decided to go back to Aubrey organics that I used in my third transition, that was after all the best my hair has ever been in my life. My retrospective has really helped me evaluate what works for me and what does not.
Now since I have given up heat my hair has shown just how natural it still is, I mean the relaxer hardly effected it, its about as natural as someone who uses dye on natural hair, dryer and slightly looser but with lots of body, I essentially have about nine months of natural hair on my head and as my new growth comes in this becomes more and more obvious. The texture is not consistent and I would not continue to under process the chemical and an alternative as I think its harder than natural hair as its just damaged.
My hair is quite fragile so I have taken to detangling with my fingers, this is a first for me and takes some patience but its working. I feel that its making me see that my harsh manual manipulation of my hair is in someway to blame for my split ends. My Denman brush is too harsh too, my best brush is a boar bristle brush used only for smoothing my hair line. The Aubrey Organics (AO) Honeysuckle rose conditioner and shampoo as well as the AO GPB new lavender and ylang ylang line has softened my new growth and I wish that I never stopped using them as they simply are the best for me. Armed with this knowledge i am going to continue to keep my hair clean and simple, so that I can concentrate on my new business and getting my body back :-)
Now since I have given up heat my hair has shown just how natural it still is, I mean the relaxer hardly effected it, its about as natural as someone who uses dye on natural hair, dryer and slightly looser but with lots of body, I essentially have about nine months of natural hair on my head and as my new growth comes in this becomes more and more obvious. The texture is not consistent and I would not continue to under process the chemical and an alternative as I think its harder than natural hair as its just damaged.
My hair is quite fragile so I have taken to detangling with my fingers, this is a first for me and takes some patience but its working. I feel that its making me see that my harsh manual manipulation of my hair is in someway to blame for my split ends. My Denman brush is too harsh too, my best brush is a boar bristle brush used only for smoothing my hair line. The Aubrey Organics (AO) Honeysuckle rose conditioner and shampoo as well as the AO GPB new lavender and ylang ylang line has softened my new growth and I wish that I never stopped using them as they simply are the best for me. Armed with this knowledge i am going to continue to keep my hair clean and simple, so that I can concentrate on my new business and getting my body back :-)
Transitioning Tales, natural products means health over style.
My third transition was a more knowledgeable decision, I had collar bone length (pass shoulder length not quite apl) hair and I was dye free, my hair was a natural reddish brown. I used a lot of the healthy hair practices you may already be familiar with and had been heat and dye free for almost a two years. I had also stretched for the last sixteen weeks of my second pregnancy and had glimpsed my natural texture, at one point I had used heat to get a relaxed look and realised that you did not have to have a relaxer to achieve straight hair, I still relaxed again but a small seed had been placed in my mind.I had discovered natural hair concoctions and it was a complete revelation to me that natural plant based products could give me healthy manageable hair, however when it was time to style my hair with heat or chemicals I seemed to be undoing all my hair work.
It was impossible to use a flat iron as it would bake these virgin goods onto the hair strand and cause damage. I had also noticed that my healthier hair was more resistant to the relaxer, my hair is very course and thick but has a looser texture sort of a 3c/4a. I find that without the double processing from the permanent dyes I used to use and the applications of henna coating my hair strands my hair was becoming more and more resistant and this left me with texlaxed hair. To deal with my many variations of texture I had rediscovered heat styling and chi silk infusion which gave me bone straight silky hair that to be honest I loved. However a day or too after a styling session, with high quality salon products and tools, my hair had split ends. Was it old damage getting aggravated and splitting? I would never reach waist length with all these splits! I had to evaluate weather I wanted to go straight and smooth or long and healthy. It was a hard decision, so I cut to shoulder length in order to get rid of the bad relaxer that ended my last transition and then thought better off chopping hair off completely.
Looking back I know that I big chopped to stop myself from relaxing and because I loved all the images I had seen on the Internet. I had read some really strong political articals and blogs on natural hair and wanted to be apart of this natural journey. I started to despise my relaxed hair, like an ulcer, no worse a cancer that had to be cut off so that I could be healthy. Finally I suffered an accident and hurt my leg, I could not walk and so decided to big chop as I could not be fussed with my hair anymore.
I had mixed reviews, my online community seemed both horrified and inspired by my chop but I did find that some went as far to stop all communication as I was no longer on their long relaxed hair journey. Friends and family said I looked good but I could see that they thought I was crazy. This was my best experience natural products worked well for me and without the relaxer to break up the party my hair just continued to thrive.
This was my most healthy experience, I stopped using products with sulfates and silicone, bought ayurvedic powders and African oils. Body art quality henna for colour and strength and made my own conditioner in my kitchen. I bathed my hair in coconut milk leave in and my curls hung drunk with moisture in pretty twist. I made a satin pillow case an matching scarf to keep my hair moist as I slept. However I hated my length and started out with scab hair or ends with a little relaxer left behind or damaged by the blades of the shaver. The only mistake I had made was using an electric shaver to start my journey and I should have transitioned for at least a year before cutting.
However I had a major setback at ten months later. My hair was getting a good length and was beautiful to me to the touch, it was at its best but I wanted it to be longer I experimented with braids that I rinsed every other day with conditioning herbs a great idea! I will do that again but I had started to realise that more shorter length made installing braids long and exhausting and I could not do the the thicker braids to make it easier and less damaging to my scalp. I used indigo to dye it jet black but at Christmas decided that I wanted cherry red hair. I reasoned that the reason why dye had recked my hair before was because my hair had not been healthy enough. I was so wrong, when I dyed my hair with chemicals over henna treated hair and I experienced horrid hair! My hair went from its best to its very worst. I discovered single strand knots and moisture refused to stay in my strands. I know realise that my cuticle was damaged and my hair had become porous. I was so depressed that a month before a year anniversary I decided to put a relaxer in to stop the de-tangling nightmare I suffered daily.
It was impossible to use a flat iron as it would bake these virgin goods onto the hair strand and cause damage. I had also noticed that my healthier hair was more resistant to the relaxer, my hair is very course and thick but has a looser texture sort of a 3c/4a. I find that without the double processing from the permanent dyes I used to use and the applications of henna coating my hair strands my hair was becoming more and more resistant and this left me with texlaxed hair. To deal with my many variations of texture I had rediscovered heat styling and chi silk infusion which gave me bone straight silky hair that to be honest I loved. However a day or too after a styling session, with high quality salon products and tools, my hair had split ends. Was it old damage getting aggravated and splitting? I would never reach waist length with all these splits! I had to evaluate weather I wanted to go straight and smooth or long and healthy. It was a hard decision, so I cut to shoulder length in order to get rid of the bad relaxer that ended my last transition and then thought better off chopping hair off completely.
Looking back I know that I big chopped to stop myself from relaxing and because I loved all the images I had seen on the Internet. I had read some really strong political articals and blogs on natural hair and wanted to be apart of this natural journey. I started to despise my relaxed hair, like an ulcer, no worse a cancer that had to be cut off so that I could be healthy. Finally I suffered an accident and hurt my leg, I could not walk and so decided to big chop as I could not be fussed with my hair anymore.
I had mixed reviews, my online community seemed both horrified and inspired by my chop but I did find that some went as far to stop all communication as I was no longer on their long relaxed hair journey. Friends and family said I looked good but I could see that they thought I was crazy. This was my best experience natural products worked well for me and without the relaxer to break up the party my hair just continued to thrive.
This was my most healthy experience, I stopped using products with sulfates and silicone, bought ayurvedic powders and African oils. Body art quality henna for colour and strength and made my own conditioner in my kitchen. I bathed my hair in coconut milk leave in and my curls hung drunk with moisture in pretty twist. I made a satin pillow case an matching scarf to keep my hair moist as I slept. However I hated my length and started out with scab hair or ends with a little relaxer left behind or damaged by the blades of the shaver. The only mistake I had made was using an electric shaver to start my journey and I should have transitioned for at least a year before cutting.
However I had a major setback at ten months later. My hair was getting a good length and was beautiful to me to the touch, it was at its best but I wanted it to be longer I experimented with braids that I rinsed every other day with conditioning herbs a great idea! I will do that again but I had started to realise that more shorter length made installing braids long and exhausting and I could not do the the thicker braids to make it easier and less damaging to my scalp. I used indigo to dye it jet black but at Christmas decided that I wanted cherry red hair. I reasoned that the reason why dye had recked my hair before was because my hair had not been healthy enough. I was so wrong, when I dyed my hair with chemicals over henna treated hair and I experienced horrid hair! My hair went from its best to its very worst. I discovered single strand knots and moisture refused to stay in my strands. I know realise that my cuticle was damaged and my hair had become porous. I was so depressed that a month before a year anniversary I decided to put a relaxer in to stop the de-tangling nightmare I suffered daily.
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Nappturalite Radio show features Kimmaytube on hair and personality types and Chicoro.
I have recently rediscovered Kimmaytube, I was absolutely shocked to see that in the time that I had not checked out her channel, about 18 months, she had gone from armpit length and reached waist length! Curious I started to watch her videos, she is a fantastic editor and very watchable and soon came across a link to a radio show featuring Chicoro and her book "grow It".
Well I could not wait to hear from Chicoro as she does not have a channel on you tube or anything other than her fotki album but it was Kim Love that featured a very interesting view that I thought very relevant to my journey. Kim has observed that people with extrovert personality are more likely to keep on changing their hair and may have issues or setbacks when trying to reach their hair goals. Introvert people on the other hand are more likely to stick to their regimen, be consistent and reach their hair goals with a minimal hiccup.
I think this is certainly true for me but interestingly I am not a typical extrovert, if anything I struggle between the too. I have often aspired to be an extrovert but I am pretty quite in truth. I do not always feel comfortable in the limelight if its for the wrong reason, lady gaga for example is too much for me. I think that I like attention for getting it right and hope that my personality will attract people. I look beautiful when I keep it simple and my natural journey is about celebrating the simplicity of my beauty rather than covering it up and trying to make it something it is not.
Another idea is that people tend to react to large events in their life by changing their hair ie: the break-up haircut. Now this is more to the point for me, if I look at my progress on Fotki, I can name big events that directly correlate with every haircut or big chop that I have done. Even my recent relaxer was because we had building works done and I wanted to feel more put together with all the strangers in my house, transitioning hair often does not look presentable. If I feel frustrated or vulnerable I always relax my hair or chop it off, to make my life "easier" then when the dust has settled I morn my decision and carry on growing the long natural hair I yearn for. So if life was more routine for me, more safe I would be less likely to make such drastic changes to my appearance.
I have had many, many severe changes in my twenties, very severe. However now I am 31, I have had three children and married the love of my life, live in a beautiful house in a pleasant village, I feel for the first time in my life that I am ready for simplicity. I aspire to simplicity, organisation and routine and a simple hair regimen with no bells or whistles will be apart of this.
This is why with my fifth and final transition I have turned my attention to my scalp as its the only living part of the equation. Don't get me wrong I will moisturise my hair but using heat and chemicals hurts my scalp but not my hair so if I keep my scalp in mind maybe I can learn to be more gentle and considerate. Of course those process weather my hair and cause breakage but breaking does not hurt whilst a sore, burnt scalp does. I have very little natural hair at the moment so I am targeting my hair through my scalp so that my new growth is healthy and whole. This idea is a simple one, lets maintain what we have and take care of it.
Kim Love and Chicoro agree that hair is a fiber that needs to be preserved, not too much combing, low manipulation, protective styles, moisture etc all keep your hair fiber intact and on your head. I have always talked about hair as being a material and I am happy to see such hair gurus say a similar thing independently.
This show was quite long and I must say I did not agree with the porosity conversation as I do not believe hair to have pores like that of the skin but in fact has cuticles that when left raised leave the hair in a porous state, that is my understanding. However this is a great show, Chicoro and Kim Love are nearer the end of the recording, happy listening.
Well I could not wait to hear from Chicoro as she does not have a channel on you tube or anything other than her fotki album but it was Kim Love that featured a very interesting view that I thought very relevant to my journey. Kim has observed that people with extrovert personality are more likely to keep on changing their hair and may have issues or setbacks when trying to reach their hair goals. Introvert people on the other hand are more likely to stick to their regimen, be consistent and reach their hair goals with a minimal hiccup.
I think this is certainly true for me but interestingly I am not a typical extrovert, if anything I struggle between the too. I have often aspired to be an extrovert but I am pretty quite in truth. I do not always feel comfortable in the limelight if its for the wrong reason, lady gaga for example is too much for me. I think that I like attention for getting it right and hope that my personality will attract people. I look beautiful when I keep it simple and my natural journey is about celebrating the simplicity of my beauty rather than covering it up and trying to make it something it is not.
Another idea is that people tend to react to large events in their life by changing their hair ie: the break-up haircut. Now this is more to the point for me, if I look at my progress on Fotki, I can name big events that directly correlate with every haircut or big chop that I have done. Even my recent relaxer was because we had building works done and I wanted to feel more put together with all the strangers in my house, transitioning hair often does not look presentable. If I feel frustrated or vulnerable I always relax my hair or chop it off, to make my life "easier" then when the dust has settled I morn my decision and carry on growing the long natural hair I yearn for. So if life was more routine for me, more safe I would be less likely to make such drastic changes to my appearance.
I have had many, many severe changes in my twenties, very severe. However now I am 31, I have had three children and married the love of my life, live in a beautiful house in a pleasant village, I feel for the first time in my life that I am ready for simplicity. I aspire to simplicity, organisation and routine and a simple hair regimen with no bells or whistles will be apart of this.
This is why with my fifth and final transition I have turned my attention to my scalp as its the only living part of the equation. Don't get me wrong I will moisturise my hair but using heat and chemicals hurts my scalp but not my hair so if I keep my scalp in mind maybe I can learn to be more gentle and considerate. Of course those process weather my hair and cause breakage but breaking does not hurt whilst a sore, burnt scalp does. I have very little natural hair at the moment so I am targeting my hair through my scalp so that my new growth is healthy and whole. This idea is a simple one, lets maintain what we have and take care of it.
Kim Love and Chicoro agree that hair is a fiber that needs to be preserved, not too much combing, low manipulation, protective styles, moisture etc all keep your hair fiber intact and on your head. I have always talked about hair as being a material and I am happy to see such hair gurus say a similar thing independently.
This show was quite long and I must say I did not agree with the porosity conversation as I do not believe hair to have pores like that of the skin but in fact has cuticles that when left raised leave the hair in a porous state, that is my understanding. However this is a great show, Chicoro and Kim Love are nearer the end of the recording, happy listening.
Listen to internet radio with Nappturalite Radio on Blog Talk Radio
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Transitioning Tales, texturiser and wigs. part two
The second transition was less about dying but all about wearing a texturizer and a wig that began to feel like it was my hair.
At the end of my first transition I had relaxed and had course damaged hair, some said it was nice but I knew the truth. I was pregnant and decided that a big chop would give me the freedom not to relax my hair. It did but my new round tummy and round head started to make me feel like a boy with a beer belly.
I decided to use a kiddie texturizer, I remember that it contained sunflower oil and made my curls drop slightly so that my hair did not look so thick and it felt good, but I soon realised that if I wanted to grow my hair with a texturizer it would be hard work keeping all the hair the same texture as my ends would gradually get straighter. I started to shave my head and it was a cool look but i felt like apart of me was missing, my long thick hair was apart of me and I thought that it was a shame that i had cut it off. I started to wish that I had stubborn fragile hair because then I could just keep it short with a clear conscience. Silly I know, but I started wearing a wig to give the hair hair I was missing I thought that I could just grow my hair in the meantime but I neglected it instead, as long as I was wearing a wig and my hair looked good who cared about the inside. However I feel other people did I remember a friend of mine sighing with relief when I finally stopped wearing the wig, I was so embarrassed as i had only looked good in my head!
By the time my son was born I had about an inch of sort of relaxed hair that I would wrap at night. However I had a new love now, someone else to concentrate on and my hair grew with a little conditioner only washing and leave in as its only aid. Six months later I had reached an awkward stage and decided to relax, my first relaxer did not work as my hair was stronger now, so I went to a hairdresser and after best part of an hour processing I had bone straight hair.
At the end of my first transition I had relaxed and had course damaged hair, some said it was nice but I knew the truth. I was pregnant and decided that a big chop would give me the freedom not to relax my hair. It did but my new round tummy and round head started to make me feel like a boy with a beer belly.
I decided to use a kiddie texturizer, I remember that it contained sunflower oil and made my curls drop slightly so that my hair did not look so thick and it felt good, but I soon realised that if I wanted to grow my hair with a texturizer it would be hard work keeping all the hair the same texture as my ends would gradually get straighter. I started to shave my head and it was a cool look but i felt like apart of me was missing, my long thick hair was apart of me and I thought that it was a shame that i had cut it off. I started to wish that I had stubborn fragile hair because then I could just keep it short with a clear conscience. Silly I know, but I started wearing a wig to give the hair hair I was missing I thought that I could just grow my hair in the meantime but I neglected it instead, as long as I was wearing a wig and my hair looked good who cared about the inside. However I feel other people did I remember a friend of mine sighing with relief when I finally stopped wearing the wig, I was so embarrassed as i had only looked good in my head!
By the time my son was born I had about an inch of sort of relaxed hair that I would wrap at night. However I had a new love now, someone else to concentrate on and my hair grew with a little conditioner only washing and leave in as its only aid. Six months later I had reached an awkward stage and decided to relax, my first relaxer did not work as my hair was stronger now, so I went to a hairdresser and after best part of an hour processing I had bone straight hair.
Transitioning tales, the beginining part one.
As I embark on my fifth transition I know that many people would have given up by now but I am really determined to make my failures a success. Every time I make a mistake I feel as if I have tried something and learned something new and knowledge is power after all. I sometimes sit down and think "this should not be so hard, its just hair" but its much harder then you would think.
It has become deeply unfashionable of late to talk about going natural as a spiritual journey and I agree and disagree with this notion. On one hand I do not think a lack of relaxer application is going to change you, nor is wearing a weave or braids for a period of time and deciding to stop applying them. I think spiritual growth is all about getting your priorities straight and deciding that actually you are more interested in how healthy you feel then how you look. This is the case in all areas of your life and indeed is a mental health issue as well as a spiritual one. Basically you can talk the talk but if you can not walk the walk you are just not going to succeed.
For example for my first transition it was all about how I looked, I wanted to have a natural hair style and to not have to apply relaxer anymore. I remember going to a party and realising that all the girls were successful educated black women and most of them had beautiful natural hair. I thought that relaxed hair would soon be out of fashion and I just had to follow the trend. I started to transition, even on my wedding day I was about twelve weeks post. I then had my new husband cut my hair after four months and sported a cute teenie weenie Afro. I kept on cutting because the style did not look great as it grew out. I slept with my hair uncovered, dyed it, played with it, put braids in, took them out and cried when my hair was not pretty. The only positive thing I did was discover sta sof fro and mini twist outs but basically it was all about appearances.
I needed to look perfect all the time and my texture surprised and embarrassed me, length was also a massive issue, I just hated short hair. I felt very unattractive and had gained a little weight too, to cover this up I tried adding waist length braids to two inches of hair. My hair was dense so it would take me hours only for me to rip them out after two weeks because the no longer looked fresh.
When I relaxed my hair eight months later it was so rough and damaged that I cut it all off and restart my transition. However my experiment had shown me that without a relaxer my hair would still suffer damage and that color was not for me it had my hair rough and dry. I knew that color was not for me and vowed to stop using it.
It has become deeply unfashionable of late to talk about going natural as a spiritual journey and I agree and disagree with this notion. On one hand I do not think a lack of relaxer application is going to change you, nor is wearing a weave or braids for a period of time and deciding to stop applying them. I think spiritual growth is all about getting your priorities straight and deciding that actually you are more interested in how healthy you feel then how you look. This is the case in all areas of your life and indeed is a mental health issue as well as a spiritual one. Basically you can talk the talk but if you can not walk the walk you are just not going to succeed.
For example for my first transition it was all about how I looked, I wanted to have a natural hair style and to not have to apply relaxer anymore. I remember going to a party and realising that all the girls were successful educated black women and most of them had beautiful natural hair. I thought that relaxed hair would soon be out of fashion and I just had to follow the trend. I started to transition, even on my wedding day I was about twelve weeks post. I then had my new husband cut my hair after four months and sported a cute teenie weenie Afro. I kept on cutting because the style did not look great as it grew out. I slept with my hair uncovered, dyed it, played with it, put braids in, took them out and cried when my hair was not pretty. The only positive thing I did was discover sta sof fro and mini twist outs but basically it was all about appearances.
I needed to look perfect all the time and my texture surprised and embarrassed me, length was also a massive issue, I just hated short hair. I felt very unattractive and had gained a little weight too, to cover this up I tried adding waist length braids to two inches of hair. My hair was dense so it would take me hours only for me to rip them out after two weeks because the no longer looked fresh.
When I relaxed my hair eight months later it was so rough and damaged that I cut it all off and restart my transition. However my experiment had shown me that without a relaxer my hair would still suffer damage and that color was not for me it had my hair rough and dry. I knew that color was not for me and vowed to stop using it.
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Natural homemade products
I returned to making my own products, I first made a caramel treatment, which loosens new growth by imparting moisture. It contains humectants and oils. Check in google for a recipe but key ingredients are banana, honey and molasses. I then made a leave in spray with coconut milk, jojoba, Shea, coconut, and caster oil with glycerin, water and peppermint/tea tree essential oils. It's more water than oil.
I use preservatives and emulsifier in my recipe as I want it to last and water and oil to blend or you get pure water based product in your spray and then the oil. My hair ESP roots were dry from a henna treatment so this worked really well. My hair is now soft. Good, as my moisture maniac is finishing much faster than I had hoped due to co washing. This way I can moisturise my roots and ends without too much build up.
I get so much satisfaction by formulating my own products with fresh natural ingredients. You should try it too.
I use preservatives and emulsifier in my recipe as I want it to last and water and oil to blend or you get pure water based product in your spray and then the oil. My hair ESP roots were dry from a henna treatment so this worked really well. My hair is now soft. Good, as my moisture maniac is finishing much faster than I had hoped due to co washing. This way I can moisturise my roots and ends without too much build up.
I get so much satisfaction by formulating my own products with fresh natural ingredients. You should try it too.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Transitioning tangles
I am a couple of days shy of 4 months post and this is the longest I have tolerated my relaxed hair for with natural roots. I have about two inches or 5 cm of natural waves, my hair is 4a but the weight of the relaxed hair is stretching my curls out.
I have researched on long hair care forum and the like and have come to the conclusion that the only way to complete a long transition is moisture and bunning. I have light breakage and a smattering of split ends, but my shedding and breakage where the relaxed hair meets the natural hair is epic (to me). I need to stop myself touching my hair as I just seem to constantly pull out four or five hairs at a time.
I have looked upon old photos of me on my fotki and I know that I don't want to go short again. Besides the fact that you still have a lot of detangling and cowashing to do, it's also a huge statement "I am going natural!!" that leaves you open to comments and suggestions. I think that is the main reason why I have failed going natural before, the length and the pressure to grow my hair back.
Anyway having made to decision to up my moisture I went shopping for silicone free conditioner. I had one in mind, a coconut conditioner by Inecto which is a cheapie. However something guided me to tkmax, unusual for me because I sew and rarly browse the clothing shops. To my delight I found a product I had wanted to try forever which is tigi moisture maniac. It was ten pounds off so about 12 pounds for 750ml. That is a lot if you are not into hair, but considering it is silicone free can be used as a cowash, deep conditioner and leave-in it was worth it. I picked up two and a sulphates free shampoo for extra thick hair.
I used the products later that day on my dry, shedding hair. Stepping into the shower, as hanging upside down results in epic tangles, I used the shampoo on just a section to see how it worked. Stripped...... Ok very strong shampoo for a sulphate free formula. Stripped is not a good result when transitioning, it leads to a detangling nightmare. I moved on to the conditioner. It was light, smelt like oranges and lemons and very moisturising, I rinsed then reapplied and left my conditioning cap on for twenty mins.
Now I have three children and youngest who is four months old, hence the post pregnancy shedding, woke up and needed feeding so I had to rinse quickly and jump out. I did not get to detangle so when she was asleep again I discovered tangles again. As my husband was in the shower I used the moisture maniac as a detangler, amazing! The comb just glided through the knots. In the end I decided to deep condition with it and rinse in the morning. I placed a shower cap on and wrapped in a stretchy scarf.
In the morning I gingerly felt my hair under the cap, it was not sticky and dried on my scalp like the elasta qp DRP but still wet and moisturising. I rinsed the conditioner out completely and my hair felt very moisturised and my new growth was relaxed and tangle free. I added a tiny coin sized amount of conditioner to my rinsed hair as a leave in and sealed with tiny amount of extra virgin coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil. My hair feels fantastic.
I think that my only regret is conditioning overnight, next time I will do it for a couple of hours on dry hair with a couple of helpful ingredients added. So this is a keeper, I hope that the litter and a half that I bought lasts the year but judging by the amount the bottle had gone down I think it will be more like six months top maybe four:-(
Anyhoo I will use it for now and make my homemade conditioner for deep conditioning as tigi MM did not top that but it is a good commercial back up.
I am going out tonight and I am going to use a donut ring to thicken my bun and that's it. No heat cowashing and hair accessories only. My regimen is starting to form.
I have researched on long hair care forum and the like and have come to the conclusion that the only way to complete a long transition is moisture and bunning. I have light breakage and a smattering of split ends, but my shedding and breakage where the relaxed hair meets the natural hair is epic (to me). I need to stop myself touching my hair as I just seem to constantly pull out four or five hairs at a time.
I have looked upon old photos of me on my fotki and I know that I don't want to go short again. Besides the fact that you still have a lot of detangling and cowashing to do, it's also a huge statement "I am going natural!!" that leaves you open to comments and suggestions. I think that is the main reason why I have failed going natural before, the length and the pressure to grow my hair back.
Anyway having made to decision to up my moisture I went shopping for silicone free conditioner. I had one in mind, a coconut conditioner by Inecto which is a cheapie. However something guided me to tkmax, unusual for me because I sew and rarly browse the clothing shops. To my delight I found a product I had wanted to try forever which is tigi moisture maniac. It was ten pounds off so about 12 pounds for 750ml. That is a lot if you are not into hair, but considering it is silicone free can be used as a cowash, deep conditioner and leave-in it was worth it. I picked up two and a sulphates free shampoo for extra thick hair.
I used the products later that day on my dry, shedding hair. Stepping into the shower, as hanging upside down results in epic tangles, I used the shampoo on just a section to see how it worked. Stripped...... Ok very strong shampoo for a sulphate free formula. Stripped is not a good result when transitioning, it leads to a detangling nightmare. I moved on to the conditioner. It was light, smelt like oranges and lemons and very moisturising, I rinsed then reapplied and left my conditioning cap on for twenty mins.
Now I have three children and youngest who is four months old, hence the post pregnancy shedding, woke up and needed feeding so I had to rinse quickly and jump out. I did not get to detangle so when she was asleep again I discovered tangles again. As my husband was in the shower I used the moisture maniac as a detangler, amazing! The comb just glided through the knots. In the end I decided to deep condition with it and rinse in the morning. I placed a shower cap on and wrapped in a stretchy scarf.
In the morning I gingerly felt my hair under the cap, it was not sticky and dried on my scalp like the elasta qp DRP but still wet and moisturising. I rinsed the conditioner out completely and my hair felt very moisturised and my new growth was relaxed and tangle free. I added a tiny coin sized amount of conditioner to my rinsed hair as a leave in and sealed with tiny amount of extra virgin coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil. My hair feels fantastic.
I think that my only regret is conditioning overnight, next time I will do it for a couple of hours on dry hair with a couple of helpful ingredients added. So this is a keeper, I hope that the litter and a half that I bought lasts the year but judging by the amount the bottle had gone down I think it will be more like six months top maybe four:-(
Anyhoo I will use it for now and make my homemade conditioner for deep conditioning as tigi MM did not top that but it is a good commercial back up.
I am going out tonight and I am going to use a donut ring to thicken my bun and that's it. No heat cowashing and hair accessories only. My regimen is starting to form.
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Why go natural, again and again...
I have been actively trying to go natural for the past five years but to be honest i remember taking a stand against relaxing when I went to uni 12 years ago. I was a late bloomer and my hair was relaxed when I was sixteen years old. I had thick long hair that stayed around armpit length as I was very attached to my blow dryer. I did not know that my hair could curl, to me it was just undefined frizz, but with biweekly shampoo deep conditioning and two strand twists I was given many compliments on my hair.
I was curious about relaxing, I hated shrinkage and wanted my hair to appear as long as possible. My first relax was an accidental texlaxed, it was the best of both worlds thick hair no shrinkage. My next relaxer was a full relax and then I discovered the downsides, breakage and I could no longer twist my hair. This is why I wanted to be natural again twisting was a part of my identity.
Since then I have gone natural three times and have had many big chops. I have discovered that a shaved head suits me but short hair does not. That my hair starts to break with a relaxer after 18 months and can not tolerate dye but that it loves henna and natural products.
I read an associated content article that said that henna could substitute a relaxer and that over time henna straightens the hair (somewhat) I want to find out if this true.
So here I go again four months post relaxer doing a long, long transition. I am using natural products and butters as out of all the regimen I have tried this works best for me. My aim and hope is that through henna use I will reduce shrinkage and strengthen my demarcation line and result in a slightly texlaxed look.
So why not just texlaxed? You may ask, the truth is that I watched the film good hair and I now dislike it, the chemical. I love straightened Afro hair but I have just gone off iit after what I saw it can do. This works for me, I am not an activist but it's just that the way I chose to style my hair is with henna not relaxer or mineral oil, sulphates, etc.
As long as I big chop at a good length I think I will make it this time and will have the big beautiful hair I have always dreamed of. Many women choose to "go natural" every day so why read my blog. Well I just wanted to show the effects of henna on natural Afro hair. Maybe it could help someone like me who wants to go natural too.
I was curious about relaxing, I hated shrinkage and wanted my hair to appear as long as possible. My first relax was an accidental texlaxed, it was the best of both worlds thick hair no shrinkage. My next relaxer was a full relax and then I discovered the downsides, breakage and I could no longer twist my hair. This is why I wanted to be natural again twisting was a part of my identity.
Since then I have gone natural three times and have had many big chops. I have discovered that a shaved head suits me but short hair does not. That my hair starts to break with a relaxer after 18 months and can not tolerate dye but that it loves henna and natural products.
I read an associated content article that said that henna could substitute a relaxer and that over time henna straightens the hair (somewhat) I want to find out if this true.
So here I go again four months post relaxer doing a long, long transition. I am using natural products and butters as out of all the regimen I have tried this works best for me. My aim and hope is that through henna use I will reduce shrinkage and strengthen my demarcation line and result in a slightly texlaxed look.
So why not just texlaxed? You may ask, the truth is that I watched the film good hair and I now dislike it, the chemical. I love straightened Afro hair but I have just gone off iit after what I saw it can do. This works for me, I am not an activist but it's just that the way I chose to style my hair is with henna not relaxer or mineral oil, sulphates, etc.
As long as I big chop at a good length I think I will make it this time and will have the big beautiful hair I have always dreamed of. Many women choose to "go natural" every day so why read my blog. Well I just wanted to show the effects of henna on natural Afro hair. Maybe it could help someone like me who wants to go natural too.
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