Why you shouldn't join the natural hair bandwagon....

Sooooo this may sound counterintuitive ...right? After all, this is primarily a natural air blog ( everyone is welcome, but I'm natural at the moment and more versed in this field). Anywho, I am loving how many naturals I see when I go out. And when I get into hair conversations with people, I am so energized and willing to share everything I know.
I think back to the time I started my hair journey. I did not wake up and decide to go natural. It kind of happened. I first started my hair journey as a relaxed gal. I tried to stretch my relaxer but I found out I had badly damaged hair, and ended up cutting off all my relaxed hair a few months later. By then, I did know a bit about taking care of relaxed hair, but was still a bit clueless about natural hair.
So I stared in the mirror at my cropped kinky hair and thought, "now what!?"

Luckily I was a quick learner, but also in those early days I made use of a lot of protective styling while I educated myself.
So what's my advice? Don't just "jump on the bandwagon". Before you commit yourself to Team Natural, try and learn a bit about natural hair.
Some things I discovered once I was into my journey. This year I discovered single strand knots! When my hair was dry when I was relaxed,it still was ok to comb and looked ok....but now I'm natural, when my hair is dry!!... It's like the Sahara desert all up in there! And it's mores one to breakage in that dry state as compared to relaxed dry hair.
Natural hair isn't "easy". It requires a lot of time and energy on some days. For some of us, skip one day of moisturising and you are in trouble!
If your natural hair gets tangled....you are in trouble. It will take a lot of time and patience to work those tangles out...

It's not all doom and gloom. As you know, I LOVE my natural hair. I have now worked out a routine that works for me and my lifestyle. My regimen is part of my normal day to day life and I have engrained those habits.

My advice is know what to expect when you join team natural. You may need to learn some new techniques, such as never combing your natural hair...(gasp! We don't comb our hair!?) but overall, I have enjoyed being a natural. Some things annoy me line how my hair grows soooo slowly. I had many times I wanted to be like, screw this!, but I set realistic goals and smiled when I accomplished them. Natural hair is beautiful, and once you get the hang of it you will be on your way to beautiful kinky locks.


Stay blessed

How to shampoo and condition your hair...

So I did a wash and go today...well actually I started yesterday! I had shampooed my hair with a shampoo that my cousin left behind. its by Suave, its targetted at kids...thats right, Dora the Explorer is rught thurr on the front, whaaaat! lol! It smells yum! I mixed this with a teaspoon of olive oil to stop it from completely drying my hair and scalp. I then did an Aphogee 2 Minute treatment to strengthen my hair. I took care to apply it in sections.
I took a mixture of coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, shea butter and castor oil. I warmed this up and applied to my hair and massaged into my scalp. I put a shower cap on and went to bed.
This morning I rinsed out the oil ( if you find your hair is oily then use a little shampoo to help get it out).
This is a routine I have been doing for over three years now. I tweaked my process though, to help my products work better for me.
One important point to remember is that shampoo is for the scalp, and conditioner is for your hair.
What this means is that we use shampoo to help us cleanse our scalps and dislodge any buildup of dirt and products. Shampoos are harsher than conditioners and can strip your hair of even your natural oils.
Even top hairdressers recommend that when you shampoo your hair don't scrunch up your hair and haphazardly spread making lots of lather like they do in adverts. Rather only apply shampoo to the scalp and first one or two inches of your hair. When you rinse the shampoo, it will run over the rest of  the length of your hair and clean it.
In fact, a lot of women now pre-poo their hair. Meaning they apply oil or conditioner to the hair before shampooing to protect it from the shampoo. Your hair should not be squeaky clean.

Once you have thoroughly rinsed out the shampoo, you may apply your chosen conditioner to the length of your hair. Concentrate on the ends of the hair and work your way down to close to the scalp. Try not to massage the conditioner into your scalp. This may lead to build up.
Your scalp naturally produces oils which keep your scalp moisturiser and happy. Build up of products such as conditioner, may impede the natural process of your scalp "breathing" and allowing sebum to moisturise your scalp.

Watch out for a post in future where I will discuss how to moisturise and seal your hair once you are done with shampoo and conditioning.....

Stay blessed!

Treating my hair before braiding...

So I currently have cornrows in my hair...well just at the front anyway. The back is thick singles. I did these last week and don't intend on keeping this style for too long. Will try push it to three weeks, but I may take them out next week depending on how neat it looks...

Anywho, before I cornrowed I did a protein treatment with one of my favorite products. I first knew about it about four years ago when Ateeyaa of YouTube did videos of how it helped her hair.
I have the Aphogee Two Minute protein treatment.

                                                (There's all my Aphogee stuff to the left)

I began by co-washing my hair with Herbal Essences Hello Hydration. I then applied to Aphogee to my hair in sections. I kinda like the way it smells :) I made sure to get it evenly on my hair. Which is a feat when you have dense natural hair like mine. I made sure I got a fair amount on my ends as I am trying to keep them strong and healthy. The instructions say to keep it in for two minutes then rinse out thoroughly but I'm a G! I kept it in for 5 minutes y'all! Lol!

I followed this up with a Joico moisturising deep conditioner. Always follow up a protein treatment with a moisturising treatment to inject moisture back into your hair.
 The result? My hair was instantly stronger and the shedding was greatly reduced.
I normally use. Light protein treatment but Aphogee is my go to when I need a little more hair strength. Luckily I have two bottles that I stocked up when I last visited my family in London.
There are other brands that do protein treatments and I will keep a look out for which are readily available here in South Africa.
But if you can't wait that long, you have something that will do the job sitting in your kitchen right now( I think) ...good old eggs! Whip one egg and a teaspoon of olive oil and voila! You have a protein treatment. Bear in mind not to use hot water when rinsing this out or you will be scrambling eggs in your hair....