Naturally You: Journey to Healthy long Hair

Low Manipulation, Give your hair some rest

2011-12-31T21:19:00.000-08:00

Low manipulation hair styles, are hair styles that gives your hair a chance to rest. This resting period involves not combing, pulling, brushing, or messing with your hair in anyway. Low manipulation hair styles are: twist outs, box braids, two-strand twist, rod sets, bantu knots, etc. Also, having your hair in a low manipulation hair styles means that you are not applying heat to your hair. Again, this is like a resting period, where you just style it and leave it.

Bantu Knots

Low manipulation hair styles are the best, especially if you’re transitioning. Since there are two different textures that you are trying to work having a style that blends your straight ends with your natural hair, without heat, is the best solution. Also working with braids and twist out give you (if your transitioning) a chance to work with the styles that you will most likely be doing when your natural.

curlying the ends with straws

straw results

However, when you are natural these styles are great too. Low manipulation gives your hair a chance to rest and recover, especially if you are adding oils and water to it daily.

Twist on natural hair

Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse

2011-11-22T17:18:00.000-08:00

Apple cider vinegar rinse is good for cleansing your scalp from every day product build up. However, it smells really bad and when using this as a rinse it is best not to get it into your eyes because it will BURN! By the way it doesn't taste that good either lol Apple cider vinegar is on the low side of pH scale being only 2.9.

What you want to do and need to know:

You want to dilute the apple cider vinegar a lot!

About half a teaspoon of vinegar to two cups of water.

Bring out your AUBURN tones!

The more vinegar you use the lighter your hair will become naturally. This vinegar will accent the highlights that are already in your hair making the brown lighter in some areas.

Add essential oils (if you want)

Essential oils will change the sent of your vinegar as well as add extra color agents to your hair depending on what herb you do use.
For example: rosemary and parsley is good for dark hair, to get rid of gray hairs you may want to use sage, lavender will add that lavender scent, amongst other herbs and oils.

Add Shine Maybe?!

It is said that this rinse add shine to your hair. However, when I used it my hair it did not enhance the shine, the shine was my natural shine. However, adding oils could purpose help the shining factor.

Kills Germs!

Because of its acidity it kills germs! Good to know huh many usages.

BOUNCE!

One thing for sure is that after using this rinse your hair will be softer and bouncer than before. Your curls will be more enhance with each usage.

CAUTION!

Before usage on the entire head, I would suggest testing it out on a small section. Some individuals maybe sensitive to apple cider vinegar. So would you rather break out on a small part of your head or the WHOLE thing? I would go with the small part. However, when I used this rinse I did not experience any break outs

Here is a list (from http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/natural-hair-care-product.html) that shows what herbs and oils are good to add with your apple cider vinegar rinse:

For dark hair:......Parsley, Rosemary, Sage
For light hair:.....Chamomile, Flannel Mullein, Marigold
For red hair:.......Henna
For oily hair:......Lavender, Thyme, Witch Hazel, Yarrow
For dry hair:.......Marigold
For brittle hair:...Horsetai

Eco Styling Gel with olive oil

2011-11-12T17:01:00.000-08:00

Eco styling gel is a gel. It’s a gel with a hold of 10 (which is the max). This gel is alcohol free which means it is not supposed to dry out your hair. However, when using this product I recommend that you apply some type of oil underneath or your conditioner. That way your hair is protected from the gel and its being moisturized as your hair becomes harden. The suggested use for this gel for a wash-n-go is to wash your hair and apply this product on your hair while it is wet. However, my experience with this product left my hair feeling and looking like a jerry curl…you know the jerry curls from back in the day.

What worked for me was using the gel half way. For example, pulling my hair back with a band and then applying the gel to the back of my hair. It gave my hair a more polished and nice look. Eco styling gel is good for slicking back those stubborn edges and it holds it down. To slick back your hair with this product I suggest using an old (or new) toothbrush or you can even use a soft bristle brush.

On the plus side, washing this gel out was very easy. It was not hard to get out and it did not leave anything on my scalp afterward. You can even co-wash this gel out; you don’t need a heavy duty shampoo to get this out.

My Review:

This is a 32 oz. of Eco Styling gel and it cost me about 3 to 4 bucks at my local beauty store on sell, originally the price range from 5 to 6 dollars here in California. They have different brands and those brands come in different colors. I do not know if I would get the same results with another brand but with the olive oil kind it left me feeling a little jerry curlish. However, I did use this product right after a big chop and I still had some relaxed ends which could have played a part in my overall look.

Just remember when using Eco styling gel. Make sure that you put some oil or conditioner on your hair first before using it.

Disclaimer: this product was bought with my own money and I am not getting paid to mention, use, or review this product.

My BIG CHOP experiences

2011-11-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

Doing that BC or "big chop" can be life changing for some. It's embracing a part of you that has been neglected, mistreated, and forgotten. Perms (aka straighter), wigs, braids, and CHEMICALS, have been covering up what you have been born with (however, wigs and braids are not terrible but worn for a long period of time and too tight can cause damage). Doing the “big chop” is like getting to know your hair and yourself all over again. You have to re-learn how to style and maintain a new texture. It will not be easy at first but with practice and time it will only get better.

It is time for African Americans to embrace their true essences and rock that fro. We don’t have to assimilate so much that it causes us damage. Perms breaks off your hair, it’s a chemical. In the long run it does more damage than good. It makes your hair weak and at some point your hair will stop growing really long. This is me speaking from YEARS of experience. Don’t get me wrong your hair is still going, but because it is weak it will appear as if it’s not as long as you desire.

My "BIG CHOP"

Working with your natural hair is a beautiful thing. Other ethnicities do it; it’s time that we do it too. We are beautiful women (and beautiful African American men, they too were perms sometimes), who need to love everything about ourselves, from the color of our skin to the wave and thickness of our hair. Because, WE ARE BEAUTIFUL!

Deep Conditioning on a BUDGET!

2011-11-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

Deep conditioning is very important. It allows your hair to get moisture as well as be really soft and eventually (if not right away) your curls will become more enhanced because they are now moisturized.

Using a deep conditioner actually strengths your hair and makes it easier to detangle. Deep conditioning your hair allows it to repair itself from any kind of damage. You would want to deep condition more often if your hair is really damage to try and replenish it. Now you don't need to go out and buy expensive products for the process. You could use products from your household such as eggs, mayonnaise, honey, coconut oil, amongst other things. Also, you could even visit your local dollar tree or dollar general and gets some products from there.

What I did for my deep conditioner was mixed all my products (hair mayonnaise from dollar tree, my oils, conditioner, and coconut oil) into a bowl and applied it to my hair. However, you may want to work on freshly washed hair that why the detangling process will be easier but you dont have to. What I did was sectioned my hair in parts before applying my mixture. Once that was finished I put my conditioning cap on (if you don't have one you could always use a plastic bag you got at the store) and let it sit for about an hour (you could always let it sit on there for longer. Once the desired time is up wash it out. Apply your leave in conditioner and oils and then your good to go.

For the best results I would suggest deep conditioning weekly, especially if you have time.

First Steps: Going Natural

2011-10-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

The first thing you want to do before going natural is:

1) Thinking about why your going natural The reason could be anything but you have to know why you're doing it. If your going natural just because someone else is doing it, it may not be enough motivation to help you though the journey.

(here's a video on why I went natural):

2) Find products that work best for your relaxed ends as well as your natural hair. This may be a difficult task because there are products that work best for your relaxed ends but not your natural hair. What I used was oils. You don't have to buy expensive oils, you can use your household products like your olive oil or coconut oil.

3) Stay away from heat! The last thing you want to do is constantly be straightening your hair especially with heat. The part where your natural hair meets your relaxed hair is really fragile so you want to be careful when maintaining your hair. Heat can cause breakage, especially to that area.

4) Apply Moisture! Which means spray your hair with water every night and morning. This may disagree with your relaxed ends because they may frizz up but your natural hair will love it and benefit greatly from the water.

5) Protective styles! Protective styles allow your hair to rest with out being stressed out by the constant combing and pulling. Protective styles that could be used are breads, twist or twist out, cornrows, etc., But make sure that when you do use protective styles that your edges are not pulled too tight, you don't want your edges to break off.

6) Educate yourself! You want to look around, either on youtube or the web, and find things that others are doing. Find products that may work best for you, as well as looking at the many tips that are out there. Education is something that a must for transitioning because this experience will be new for you so you need to educate yourself to get the best results

I hope your natural hair journey is a breeze! And I hope you come to love your natural hair as much as I do :)