Preparing my hair for braids part 2

Why did I use those particular oils?

Coconut oil:

• Helps retain moisture by sealing it into the strands. The oil isn't heavy, rather it is light (molecular weight) and therefore penetrates the hair shaft to help seal moisture, so goes all the way into the hair shaft and penetrates outwards into the full strand. Certain oils can be heavy, and weigh the hair down instead of help with moisture. 
• Helps prevent dandruff
• Prevents loss of the natural protein (keratin) in your hair. Protein keeps hair bonds strong and prevents breakage
• Good as a deep conditioner to revive dry hair that has lost moisture. Once the hair is moisturised, coconut oil retains the moisture as it isn't easily evaporated. 

Castor oil:

• Improves blood circulation in the scalp
• Promotes hair growth (trust me it growssssss hair!)
• Thickens hair strands
• Prevents split ends through its moisture sealing abilities as well

Jojoba oil:

• It is the oil that is the most similar to the oils produced by the scalp(sebum glands). So good for  the scalp
• Moisturises the scalp and hair
• Has antibacterial properties that prevent dandruff
• Minimises hair frizz
• Removes build up on the hair strands 

Grapeseed oil:

• Also moisturises hair
• Adds shine to the hair
• Softens the hair thus acting like a conditioner

Preparing my hair for braids - protective style

Due to winter having arrived this side of the world, I will be plaiting my hair into braids as a protective hairstyle. A protective hairstyle is one that ensures your hair ends are covered and not exposed to the harshness of  winds/air, cold temperature/hot temperature and friction against clothes (e.g collars). Basically a style that 'hides' away your hair strands.

To prepare my hair for the braiding I deep conditioned my hair last week using hair mayonnaise in order to strengthen my hair through the protein (keratin) found in the hair mayonnaise. This week, I am performing another deep conditioning treatment but this time it is a hydrating/moisturising treatment, i.e. Hot oil treatment.

My home made hot oil treatment contained:
15ml coconut oil
10ml castor oil
5ml grapeseed oil
10ml jojoba oil

I created a water bath to heat the oils, in other words brought 1 cup of  hot water to boil then placed the oils (in a small container) on the boiled water. The idea is to make the oils warm (not hot as you do not want to burn your scalp).

The next step was to apply the oils to my scalp and strands then cover my hair with a plastic cap and sit under heat for 40 mins. My source of heat was a thermal heat wrap. Below are the pictures:

Here is my thermal cap:

My Co-Wash - saving hair moisture

This week'a washday involved the following:

Prepoo'd with Avocado oil

• Applied the oil from the roots of my hair to the end of the strands
• Sat for 30 mins before washing

Co-washed with a Loreal  conditioner

The reason I used a conditioner to wash my hair was because I had been to Lajawi hair salon the week before and had used a clarifying shampoo to clean my hair. Clarifying shampoos remove product build up and in a way 'over clean' the scalp & hair. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, one just has to space out the amount of such type of shampooing in order to preserve moisture in the hair and save sebum oils secreted on the scalp. Sebum oils are nature's way of moisturising our hair & scalp.

Detangled using my fingers 

Moisturised using the following:

While my hair was damp I applied a leave in conditioner, then air dried and applied castor oil afterwards followed by then shea butter.

Stretched and dried my hair fully using the African Threading method.

Products used:

Changing gears - different hair care for winter

South African winter has finally come, mornings and evenings are the coldest, the sun sets earlier and rises later than usual and my hair is responding to the temperature change. Due to the change in weather conditions I am changing my regime until winter is over so that my hair survives the winter blues.

When I listen to my hair and scalp the following are clear differences between seasons. By the way, I am only referring to summer and winter because this side of the world our autumn and spring are fairly similar to summer, so in essence 'two' main seasonal changes.

• In winter my hair gets brittle and easily breaks
• In winter my scalp takes longer to itch than in summer
• My hair doesn't retain moisture in winter as much as it does in summer

This means I must adjust my regime to the following

•  My hair gets brittle in winter because of the dry winds we get and the cold temperature that dries out my hair. So to prevent breakage I increase the amount of moisture in my hair as follows:

                     * Moisturise my hair every morning and evening. In summer I moisturise once only.

                     * Carry a water based spritz and moisturise twice in the day.  

                     * Wear a satin scarf to bed to preserve moisture.In summer I don't cover my hair at night

•  Deep condition with protein bi-weekly instead of weekly. Protein strengthens the hair bonds in our hair but when hair loses moisture easily, the imbalance of protein and moisture can cause breakage. I also use a light protein instead of a strong one for the protein (keratin) deep conditioning treatments. 

• Stay in protective styles by plaiting my hair in cornrows or braids. Since my healthy hair journey I don't plait my hair at all in summer (8-9 months of the year) because I've realised my hair doesn't enjoy it. Especially my edges, they get thicker and grow better when I keep my hair in low manipulative styles instead of plaiting. 

• Wash and deep condition then moisturise my hair and braids/cornrows. I am adding this point to this topic because before my healthy hair journey I would stay in braids and not care for the hair underneath. This isn't good and leads to considerable damage, hair should still be cared for even when it is plaited. 

• Elongate the number of days between wash days.  In summer, after 7 days my scalp starts itching when I don't wash my hair. If I tried extending the period to 2 weeks by the 9th day I would be in dire punishment of a super itchy and annoying scalp. However in winter my scalp can go up to 2 weeks without itching, probably because the skin(scalp) doesn't sweat as much as it does in summer and it also doesn't secrete lots of sebum (oily scalp can cause itchiness). The main reason for extending my wash days is to prevent over cleaning my scalp & hair which could lead to losing moisture & the good oils from the sebum. 

Team Natural Hair! Team Healthy African Afro! Team Healthy Hair! Love your hair!