Hair tips for September

I'm cutting my hair

I've been on a natural hair journey since September 2011 however since then until April 2014 I would typically let my hair stay in braids for 2 to 3 months at a time. Once a took the braids down I would make sure that within a day after take down I have braided my hair again. My braided hairstyles rotated between very thin twists (Masaai twists) or soft dread. That was my easy regimen, I was convinced natural hair was hard work and tucking it away in braids was an easy way of 'maintaining' it.

For some of you who may not know why I decided to go natural, you may go ahead and read my interesting story here. In summary, I had an experience where my hair just literally fell off as I tried combing or even holding it with my fingers. Very scary experience trust me!

Recently, I have found myself curious, wanting to know how my hair would look if I had always been healthy in my natural regimen. Both from a volume and length perspective. Of the 4 years I have been natural, I have only had a healthy hair journey for a year and four months (thus far). And I have seen an amazing response from my hair. So curiosity has the better of me and I'm in a phase where I feel like 'I am planning to cut my hair' and start afresh. Yes people I'm wondering if any of you has felt that way? Should I decide that I'm cutting my hair?

Remember to check my instagram page on @afromoriri and let me know what you think I should do.

Love - AfroMoriri

Don't know how to build a hair regime - a guide for natural or relaxed hair

Food for thought

Let's start off with your night time routine. Do you wear a doek? If yes we need to change that. The material used for doeks and pillow cases sucks out all the moisture in our hair. So if you had moisturised that morning, all those efforts were to vain. Secondly we all toss and turn at night, thus causing some sort of friction which in turn aggravates this process of moisture loss. But it also exerts some friction that could make your hair break easily. Solution is to get a silk based duk or piece of material or pillow case. I have both, mostly sleep without the doek as I have silk pillow cases. Mind you it isn't necessary to have both. I'm just O.D.D. For example when I'm relaxing watching tv,  I always lay the satin cloth against my cushions on the couch so that my hair doesn't rub against the harsh material covering the cushions/couch. 

Everyday moisture routine

Fortunately for you, your hair is straight from relaxing it. So it doesn't need to be re-moisturised as much as mine. With natural hair I re-moisturise daily, But in your case it would be every other day or even every 3 days. Which means twice to thrice a week. When choosing your moisturiser, please stay away from lotions or creams or hair food that has parabens or mineral oil. Just check in the list of ingredients. The reason I say stay away is, these ingredients only coat your hair shaft and make it glossy/shiny and therefore give the misleading appearance that your hair is moisturised. They were a cheaper way (for the producers and in turn the consumer) of fooling us 'darkies' when marketing strategies for achieving the sleek look started. 

I recommend one of the following:

1. that you get yourself an empty spray bottle (Dischem sells them in their travel section) then add either distiller water (bottled) or cooled water that was boiled in a kettle to the spray bottle, some drops of pure glycerin, olive oil and some drops of aloe Vera juice. For example 2 thirds water, and the last third glycerin, olive oil. Then spritz your hair with this lightly, don't spray till hair is damp. 

2. buy a moisturiser that has water (aqua) as the first ingredient followed by glycerine and shea butter (no preferred order to the latter as long as they are part of the ingredients straight after water). For example, the olive miracle anti-breakage cream. Shea butter is the 5th ingredient in this cream but that's fine. Dischem and Clicks sell it. 

Fortnight haircare

If you had natural hair I would say do this every week but again, you are lucky your strands are straight and not coiled. 

I recommend that you do one of the following:

1. buy coconut oil, and apply it to slightly damp (not wet) hair. It comes hard (state) but as soon as you place it in your palms it melts from your body temperature. Cover your hair with a shopping plastic bag or shower cap for an hour to 4 hours. Personally I prefer doing this overnight while I sleep, the longer you do this the more benefits. You'll notice that your hair gets 'sweaty' when you take off the plastic cap, that's called the greenhouse effect and is a sign you left the bag on for a sufficient time. Coconut oil is the one oil that is the most closest to our hair sebum(oil that moisturises our hair and scalp naturally) so easily penetrates the hair shaft. Thus leaving your hair moisturised amazingly!!!!! Go to this link for the steps to follow when doing this treatment. 

2. do a hot oil treatment. You can do your own home made, instructions available on my blog too, at this link. Or buy the African Pride growth oil from Dischem. I love it. It has instructions on how to do a hot oil treatment.  Leave it on for 20-30 mins for more benefit. 15 mins is still good though. 

Monthly routine

You need a monthly routine, even if your hair is in braids or weave. Thou shall learn to care for your hair. Once a month, please please, do a hair mayonnaise treatment. It adds protein to your hair. If you only focus on moisture your hair will break. You need a balance of both moisture and protein. Buy hair mayonnaise at Dischem too. For your moisture routine you can do one of the fortnight recommendations. You could go get these treatments at the salon as well. 

Quarterly routine

Please make sure every 3 to 4 months you check split ends. They are a BAD for your hair's health. They are even so ill mannered they can progress by extending further down your hair strand. Once they do, you will have much more damaged hair which won't be able to hold moisture and will certainly break. So you won't retain as much length then end up thinking your hair doesn't grow.

Routine while in braids or weaves

Get a water based moisturiser or use your daily spritz explained in the beginning of this mail. 

Other related (GYM)

Don't forget that hair thrives better in clean conditions. If you gym, your scalp needs more cleaning than an inactive person due to the sweat that builds up. Plus in Joburg there's too much air pollution, so our hair needs a good clean. Please try shampoo your hair once a week, especially if you have an active lifestyle. If you sweat a lot, you might consider washing your hair mid week with a conditioner. That means you get two washes per week. The lady who helped me in my hair journey actually has relaxed (texlaxed though) hair,  her haircare suggestions are worth a read on www.hairequest.blogspot.com as they are good for both natural and relaxed hair!

Love - AfroMoriri

Washday after taking down cornrows(protective style)

My second protective style this past winter was a set of cornrows accompanied by 2 strand twisted braids on the crown of my head. This style was kept for 4 weeks. I really liked this style because it allowed me to access my scalp so that my castor oil challenge didn't get a setback.

On the day I took down the style, I was impressed with how the hair had no knots nor tangles. This came as a surprise because I usually experience knotted hair when my hair is braided. The only possible explanation for this pleasant surprise is the water and castor oil mix which I used on a daily basis as well as oiling my scalp 3 times a week for the Castor oil challenge. I mean this was the only difference in my regime in comparison to other times when my hair is braided. So in future, I will ensure to use this method of hair maintenance. In case you are wondering, I didn't wash my hair in this 4 week period.

The following is the procedure I followed in taking down the braids and cornrows:
1. I undid the cornrows in small sections of 4 rows at a time. Took down the braids in small sections too.
2. Used coconut oil to finger detangle (dry detangling) each small section of the cornrows or braids.
3. Proceeded to further and gently detangle each section using a wide tooth comb. In this process also remove shed hairs.
4. Twist the small section of the 4 rows (or braids) then proceed to undo the next 4 rows and repeat steps 1 to 4.
5. Once all my hair was in small twisted sections, I went twist by twist(the small sections I just twisted), unravelling the twist and applying a generous amount of  my prepoo mix. My prepoo mix had extra virgin olive oil, honey, pure glycerine, peppermint oil and castor oil. I ended up with 4 big sections. The reason for this specific prepoo was:

• Olive oil is a light oil that penetrates the hair and helps give moisture. It also prevents dandruff& conditions hair.
• Honey also conditions hair, giving that soft smooth feel to hair. It also helps retain moisture. 
• Glycerine also helps retain moisture. It not only helps retain moisture but also draws ('sucks') moisture from its surroundings.
• Peppermint oil prevents dandruff and promotes hair growth by stimulating blood circulation in the hair follicles (that ticklish burning like sensation).
• Castor oil benefits are explained here

6. I left the pre-poo on my head, with a plastic cap on for 4hours. In the last hour I added heat to ensure maximum penetration and benefit as my hair needed pampering.
7. Washed my hair with a sulfate free shampoo. Then proceeded to do an apple cider vinegar rinse to clarify the hair and remove product build up that would have taken place over the 4 weeks. This rinse also restores the scalp's pH level.
8. Deep conditioned with a protein treatment
9. Deep conditioned with a hydrating treatment
10. Moisturised and sealed-in moisture
11. Blow dried my hair using the tension method, and having applied a heat protector.
The following pictures illustrate the process explained above: