Seems Like Your Ready...to BC...

Over the past few weeks, I have been working hard on a paper for a moot court competition at school.  During this time, I had to put a lot of things on the back burner, including washing my hair. Yes, I went two weeks without washing my hair instead of the usual once a week washday. The result was a huge curly fro which I absolutely loved!

The day after I turned in my paper, I finally had the free time to wash my hair. I followed my usual washday steps, but that day something was just different. For one, I realized how thick my hair was getting. And for another, I realized that maybe I’m more ready to BC than I originally thought.

After I DC’d and began to style, for some unexplained reason I decided to clip the relaxed ends off of random pieces of hair around my head. There aren’t gaping areas where I did this, but just a few strands here and a few strands there. In my snip happy frenzy, I had the urge to completely cut off all of my relaxed ends. And to be honest, if I didn’t have a prior engagement later in the day, I probably would have BC’d right there in my bathroom. I was actually rationalizing with myself that I couldn’t do it at that moment like I wanted to.

To say the least, I was kind of surprised by my reaction. The pieces that I did cut were relatively short (at 9 months post I only have on average 4.5 inches of new growth). As a person who has never had hair shorter than neck length, going into this journey I thought that this would be a huge shock to me. It was part of the reason why I chose to transition for at least a year. But now that I know I would be ok with shorter hair for a bit, I’m starting to reconsider my original May BC date. I would still like it to be warm consistently so I can wear my twa in wash and go’s without fear that the cold will make my hair hard and brittle (I live on east coast so winters can be harsh).

For now, I’ve upped my BC date to mid-March during my school’s spring break. That should give me plenty of time to play in my hair some more and see if I continue to feel like I want to BC sooner rather than later. Regardless of the date that I actually do it, I'm excited to see the natural me.

Hair Therapy Wrap Product Review

One of the things that I heard a lot about on natural hair blogs and YouTube channels was the Hair Therapy Wrap. A while back, I decided to snag one and give it a try.

Price: This will run you about $24.95 from Amazon.com.

Product Claims: “The Hair Therapy Wrap applies gentle heat for up to 30 minutes, encouraging conditioner to penetrate the hair follicles. Helps activate treatments, hot oils or reconstructors and can also help control dry, flaky scalp. You can use the Hair Therapy Wrap while bathing, relaxing, or around the house.”

Process: There is very little assembly required to use this product. It comes with 3 large gel packs and a cotton cap with three pockets on the inside of it. Simply place one gel pack in each of the pouches and you are practically ready to go! 

Once the gel packs are placed within the pouches, place the entire wrap in the microwave and heat for a total of 90 seconds in 10-second intervals. After the gel packs are heated up, wrap is ready for use! Fit the cap on your head (with the loose end in the back), twist the extra cloth until it’s tight against your head, and then secure the cloth to the front of the hair wrap.

My Experience: This product gives great heat, just as much as you would get from using a bonnet dryer or any other electric deep conditioning cap. What I love the most about it is that it’s cordless. This allows you to walk around and do whatever it is you need to do. Great for multi-taskers like me! The only downside is that there isn’t a lot of heat to be given for the nape area. The heated gel packs reach all other areas of my head except for this area.

Final Thoughts: After using this product for a while, I can definitely say that I’m a fan! Although I would like the gel packs to extend to the back portion of my head to ensure that my entire head is being heated evenly, I think that it is definitely a keeper! Well worth the money too!

Protein Overload?

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Lately I've been noticing that my deep conditioner (Giovanni Smooth As Silk Deeper Moisture Conditioner) hasn't been making my new growth as soft as it once did. I didn't understand what would make my hair react so differently to the same product, so I decided to do some research. After scouring the internet for a few minutes, I found a potential cause: protein overload.

All hair is made of protein. Since the hair no longer receives nutrients from our bodies once it leaves the hair follicle (essentially becoming the hair that we see above the skin), our hair can lose some of its protein over time, especially more so with heat styling and chemical treatments. For this reason, many hair care products contain proteins to replenish the hair with the nutrients that it has lost. These proteins take form in the following ingredients: silk protein, soy protein, silk amino acids, hydrolyzed collagen protein, wheat protein, wheat amino acids, and other similar ingredients. Like so many other things in life, too much of a good thing can do more harm than good. Hair that has too much protein becomes hard, brittle, and difficult to moisturize. 

Reading these symptoms of protein overload certainly caught my attention. My hair seems to be doing the exact same thing. It's difficult to retain and restore moisture, and it is hard instead of soft after applying a DC treatment. I knew that Giovanni Smooth As Silk contains some protein, but I just didn't anticipate that it would effect my hair like this after some time. Hoping that this isn't an irreparable problem, I then began to look for a solution.

My research offered something simple: remove products that contain protein from your weekly or daily regimen. As it turns out, for hair that isn't chemically processed or heat treated, a light protein treatment will be enough to restore essential nutrients to the hair if done once a month. That definitely answered my question of why my hair so suddenly began to act differently. For the majority of my transition, I dried my hair using a bonnet dryer on medium heat. Although this is nowhere near the amount of heat that I used to place on my hair, I guess it was enough to take away some of the protein, making the proteins contained in my Giovanni conditioner to be effective but not overburdensome.  Over the past two months, however, I have been purely air drying my hair, which is around the same time that I began to notice a difference.

In light of all this information, I decided to make a change to my regimen. My beloved Giovanni conditioner will have to be shelved until it is time for a clarifying shampoo. Since I clarify my hair about once a month, this will be a good time to put that conditioner to use. I was already intending to try out the Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque, so I will be using this as my deep conditioner. I currently also use a Pro-Vitamin treatment and a leave-in conditioner also from Giovanni, both of which contain protein. I'd hate to have to throw away these products, so I'm going to stop using the Pro-vitamin leave-in treatment and continue to use the leave-in to see if just using one product with protein in it will still make my hair feel hard. If after a few weeks my hair still feels stiff, I'm going to remove proteins altogether from my regimen. Updates most definitely to come soon!

Quick Tip: Scalp Massages for Hair Growth

While are many things that you can put on your hair in an effort to maintain length, the true secret to encouraging growth starts beneath the skin. One way to assist your internal bodily functions in growing you gorgeous locks is to give yourself regular scalp massages. Scalp massages increase the flow of blood to your scalp, providing your hair follicles with more of the nutrients they need to optimally grow your hair.

As a person with dry skin (resulting in a dry scalp), it is pertinent for me to keep my scalp moisturized by oiling it regularly. Recently, I began incorporating scalp massages in my scalp oiling routine. I start by distributing oil on my scalp using a small tipped applicator bottle (the kind used to apply hair color). I use just enough oil to cover my scalp (when it comes to oiling your scalp, a little goes a long way; you don't want the oil dripping all over the place).  Once distributed, I take the pads of my fingers and massage the oil into my scalp in small, circular motions using varying pressure. This ensures that the oil is not only reaching all parts of my scalp, but also encourages blood to flow to my scalp which allows the additional nutrients in the oil to absorb into my skin to work in conjunction with the nutrients supplied by my blood.

In the past, I have done scalp massages just on wash day as part of my pre-poo treatment, but I have since increased scalp massages to about 2 - 3 times a week, coinciding with the days I re-moisturize my hair (I figured that the washing process could serve as an additional scalp massage so no need to waste oil on that day lol). Since having too much stuff on the scalp will suffocate hair follicles, I opt for a light oil that absorbs into my skin easily.

Creating a Transitioning Hair Care Regimen

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When beginning to transition to natural hair, one of the first things that you should do is to create a transitioning hair care regimen. What products you choose to use during each step depends on what you personally prefer to use and what your hair needs. (Check out this post to see the type of things to consider when choosing your hair care products during your transition.) In my opinion, there are 5 essential steps to a transitioning hair care regimen.

1.    Pre-Poo

Pre-Pooing is the process of preparing your hair for the shampoo process. This step is essential to transitioning hair because it gives you a chance to remove a lot of your shed hair before getting your hair wet. Removing shed hair prior to shampooing will help prevent excessive knotting. To remove the shed hair, lightly coat your hair with oil or a conditioner, finger comb gently, and you should be able to easily slip the shed hair out. 

2.    Shampoo

There’s nothing really different about shampooing transitioning hair than fully natural or fully relaxed hair. As more new growth came in, I found that shampooing in sections was extremely helpful. Shampooing in sections, similar to pre-pooing, is an additional way to prevent knotting. I section my hair in four (straight down the middle from forehead to neck and from ear to ear) and shampoo each section separately. I keep these sections until its time for styling my hair. At this point, some choose to use a rinse out conditioner and detangle prior to the next step. This is something that I have chosen not to do (I detangle later), but it’s purely personal preference.

3.    Deep Condition

Transitioning hair NEEDS moisture, so weekly moisturizing deep conditioning treatments is a must in order to keep moisture levels high. Liberally coat your hair with a conditioner and ensure that each strand is coated. Put on plastic cap and apply moderate heat for at least 30 minutes before rinsing out. Heat is an important factor for DC. Heat opens the cuticles to the hair, allowing the conditioner to get deep in the hair shaft and work its magic. There is a new trend in the natural hair community of using a steamer to DC. It is claimed that your DC will be more effective with a steamer because the steamer provides both heat and moisture, allowing the conditioner to work better. I personally haven't used a steamer, so I don't have an opinion either way about it. 

4.    Style

Once you have rinsed out your DC, you are ready to style your hair. Since the name of the game is moisture, its good to use a leave in conditioner before styling your hair. (This is the time that I choose to detangle my hair.  No real logic behind it other than I don't want to detangle multiple times lol. When I used a rinse-out conditioner to detangle prior to DC, I found that I still had to detangle again.) Seal the moisture in with Shea butter or oil (whichever you prefer) and style as desired. The leave-in conditioner will leave your hair really soft, so if you do low-manipulation styling (such as a twist-rod set), I suggest using a gel or setting lotion to make sure you get a good hold on your set.  At this point, a lot of people use a bonnet dryer or a blow dryer to dry their hair, I prefer to let my hair airdry overnight. Again, drying methods are all personal preference.

5.    Moisturize

To retain moisture in your hair, ideally you should moisturize it every 2 – 3 days between washing, assuming you intend to wash your hair once a week. Using a penetrating oil as a moisturizer has been beneficial for me. (Using any water based product on my twist-rod set was just the ultimate fail. The relaxed ends went limp and my new growth curled and expanded. Definitely not a good day to day look lol.)  Some use Shea butter, others use a moisturizing lotion and seal with oil, and still others prefer to co-wash every 2 – 3 days instead of applying a moisturizer. Again, this is personal preference as to the method you use to restore moisture to your hair. 

Choosing Products for Your Regimen

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You have decided to go natural, so you scour the internet looking for any and every piece of advice possible. You find TONS of product reviews, many of which a lot of people agree to be the best product out there. Immediately, you run to the nearest BSS in search of these products. You purchase every one that you've seen raved about on the net. When you get home, you can't wait to try out your new treasures, so you prepare to wash and style your hair. Everything seems to be going well. You rinse out the product expecting your hair to feel EXTRA soft (after all, that's what everyone who was natural said it would do right?)...yet you find that your hair is the complete opposite. Hard. Brittle. Dry. And now you're stuck with a bottle of something that you absolutely HATE.

This is the trap that many who have just chosen to go natural fall into. Myself included. Everyone with advice to give says that you need a transitioning hair care regimen, so you assume that the products that they love must be what you need to transition. WRONG-O! Each head of hair is different, and therefore needs different types of products to take care of it. So while you can follow how another handles her hair, you don't necessarily need to use the exact same products. So then, what products should you use? 

Well, it depends on what your hair likes and needs. Learning your hair requires some experimentation, but before you go on a product buying binge, start with the products you already own and see how your hair reacts to them over time. In learning your hair, consider the following:

·      How does you hair feel when wet? When dry? When thirsty?

o   This is beneficial for you to know what your hair needs when

·      How quickly does your hair dry?

o   If it dries quickly, you need to use a product that is able to nourish your hair long after the water is gone. Water based moisturizes may not be the best for you unless there are packed with some serious conditioning ingredients. Try some oil-based moisturizers instead.

o   If your hair dries slowly, water based moisturizers may be ideal to you.

·      How does your hair react to the products you are currently using?

o   If you like how you hair reacts to it, look at the ingredients and try to use products with similar ingredients.

·      How does your hair react to protein?

o   If your hair is hard when you rinse out a product with protein in it, you are likely protein sensitive. Try to use minimal amounts of protein in your regimen

o   If your hair is soft, your hair likes protein. Be careful not to overdo it with the protein though. Too much protein can be drying

Low-Manipulation Styling v. Protective Styling v. Flat Ironing

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One of the first decisions that anyone has to make when beginning to go natural is the type of styling you want to use throughout the transitioning period. There are generally three different categories in which you can choose to style your hair. The type of styling that you choose to use is purely up to you, and you don’t have to stick to just one category the whole time. Below is a compilation of what I perceive about each of the three categories. Hope it helps!

1.    Low Manipulation Styles

Low manipulation styles are those styles that don’t require you to handle your hair too much after washday.  It is a type of styling that attempts to make your relaxed ends curl so that they blend with your new growth.This can be very helpful in keeping the amount of breakage you get during transition to an absolute minimum. You will need to make sure that you at least lightly detangle your hair before shampooing to prevent excessive knotting once you wet your hair. Low-manipulation styles will also assist in preserving the integrity of your natural curl pattern (assuming that you don’t use high heat when drying). This is beneficial if you intend on wearing your hair curly once fully natural. This type of styling is very flexible, allowing for a lot of different looks. Common low-manipulation styles include, twist outs, braid outs, straw sets, rod sets, twist-rod sets, and roller sets. 

2.    Protective styles

Protective styles are those styles that don’t require you to handle your hair at all for an extended period of time, and protect the ends of your hair. Much like low-manipulation styling, this is extremely helpful in preventing breakage at the line of demarcation. Additionally, this type of styling is also good for ensuring that you maintain the integrity of your natural curl pattern, which is beneficial, if you want to wear your hair curly once fully natural. You will need to be sure that you 1) keep your hair moisturized, 2) take your hair down periodically to remove out shed hair and to give your hair a good deep conditioning. Protective styles include braids, full head weaves (with your hair braided underneath), wigs, kinky twists, twists, and buns. Be sure to not pull your hair too tightly when doing this styling otherwise you will run the risk of pulling your hair out from the root. (and we all know how sensitive the edges can be to that sort of thing.)

3.    Flat Ironing

Rather than curling your relaxed ends to make them blend with your new growth, you can straighten your new growth to make it match your relaxed ends. This will allow you to style your hair as you normally would if you were still relaxing. Because of the amount of heat that you will need to apply to your hair to make sure that the textures remain blended (you will probably be flat ironing multiple times a week, even more so if you live in a humid area), be sure to take extra care by moisturizing and sealing your hair daily, doing both a light protein treatment using a deep conditioner that contains proteins(to rebuild the nutrients that leave your hair due to the heat) and a moisturizing deep conditioning (to return moisture into your hair), and using heat protectant. All of the heat that you will be applying to your hair has the ability to permanently alter your curl patter by loosening it to the point of being straight. (Naturals usually call this heat damage). This is not 100% guaranteed to happen but it is quite possible and does happen often. If you intend on primarily wearing your hair straight once fully natural, then this really won’t be a problem for you. But if you intend to your wear hair curly sometimes and straight others, this may affect your ability to do that.