How to grow long Afro hair in 6 months - regimen of the winner of 6 month protective style challenge

In November I got into a six-month protective style challenge with afromoriri. This has been quite a ride. I had a problem with my nape hair. It just never grew! I even thought that is just how it is. Actually, I took it as very thick baby neck hair! Lol. One of my goals was to grow that hair. Few things that I got for the challenge are:

• Silk bonnet –which I made myself
• Natural products:Aloe Vera juice, Rose water (Home made), Peppermint oil, Rosemary oil, Coconut oil, Olive oil, Jamaican black castor oil, Castor oil, Shea butter, Honey, Yoghurt, Apple cider vinegar

           What I did:

• Prepped my hands for hard work and got on it!
  In the first month, I braided myself -thick ugly (gorgeous) and not full braids 

• Second month I made twists on my own again. Similar to the braids. 

• Third month mom plaited me with yarn –very nice hairstyle

• Fourth month I cut my hair ---when the aim was to trim it. Nevertheless, I do not regret it. I cut it to almost the size of my nape hair. That’s very short. As illustrated in the pics you can see the difference 

• Fifth month again my sister made thick braids for me, very nice yet thick and too full (ten packets). They were pulling my neck I think even my posture changed. I loved them although I do not like how heavy they were. As seen on the pic, I think I have gained a lot of hair length in the previous month from the braids. I forgot to check length after removing the cornrows

Notice Trend: No salon visits. I don’t like hair salons because of how harshly they handle my hair and always want to recommend that I just blow dry or relax my hair a little so that they can be able to plait me. I nearly fainted two years ago when I wanted to do a hairstyle and the hairdresser put relaxer on without my consent. So I always run from those people, either I DIY or someone who knows me and knows how I love my hair is willing to do me. 

Okay, in between my major styles I used to plait just cornrows and use the wig I made myself to style         my head. It was too hot though so I didn’t use it much. I also used to just use yarn to make twist looking-like hair. I did that a lot and it used to last me just a week or two while I’m still resting my head. I also did moisture and protein treatments to help strengthen and moisturise my hair. Protein treatment also which helps my hair have strength. It makes my hair hard though, but I still have to experience it a bit more. In my protein treatments I used eggs, mayonnaise and yoghurt mixture. Moisture deep conditioning consisted of yoghurt, coconut milk, aloe Vera juice and oils mixture. I always did the DC overnight because I wanted to get maximum hydrated. Hair would feel very soft before drying out. I have made myself a spray with ALL the oils mentioned above, and I spray my hair daily. What I like about the rosemary and peppermint oils is not only their fresh smell but also how I feel them on my scalp, which makes me believe (faith at work) they encourage hair growth. To moisturise hair daily I used Aloe Vera juice, rose water and also plain water. Then I would put leave-in conditioner and top with my oils spray and shea butter. Shea butter feels a bit more like it’s working than coconut oil on my hair since shea butter is a bit thick and I think my hair is highly porous. At night (many nights) I covered hair in shower cap to trap in moisture, when I had the huge braids I used a plastic bag. Some nights I used my silk bonnet to cover hair when going to sleep. Every two weeks I would wash my hair with conditioner, detangle with fingers (after detangling lecture) and twist or do maphondo with yarn. I used shampoo very little times; maybe once in 6 weeks or so. And every time after shampooing a moisture DC continued. I always use air to dry my hair and If I want to stretch it out I use yarn or make twists for a curly look. Okay when I removed the braids I realised that there’s a lot of dead hair. When I was finger detangling there was a lot of hair (not being dug from scalp and not breaking away either) that was remaining on my hands. It was just too messy I couldn’t take pictures until after washing and deep conditioning. I won! I received my prize on my Birthday!!! Yay!! 

This post was written by the winner, Wiwi, her Instagram handle is @wiwizer. Love - AfroMoriri

How to achieve healthy relaxed hair

Most of you who follow me do so mainly because of the interest in my natural hair journey. But did you know that this doesn't mean I'm anti relaxing hair? Let me provide clarity, people often jump to the conclusion that as an advocate of natural hair one is some sort of hair activist who's trying to convert everyone from relaxing hair. Some go the extent of thinking it means there's this deep hatred and contempt towards anything sleek in texture, like a weave or wig. See me wearing a Brazilian weave then immediately start nailing me to the cross, "hao wena/ eseng wena" (translated gosh you/ no ways?), "have you finally give up on this treacherous and unachievable bushy hair stunt?". Or even say "I knew you were just going through a phase, you are now back to your senses". Really funny in my opinion, as long as you know who you are sticks and stones baby! I've once had a work colleague accuse me of having low self esteem, saying girls with natural hair have no confidence, read about that intriguing chat here under point number ten.

Now back to the topic, I do not hate relaxed hair. Even during my relaxed hair days I enjoyed my hair and had beautiful hair. Looking back though, I wish I knew what I now know because I would have grown my hair using much healthier hair practices. This healthier version of relaxed hair is called texlaxing.

How texlaxing works

• It is the act of intentionally under processing hair using a relaxer. So instead of letting the relaxer fully stretch the hair, you slightly change/relax your hair texture by loosening the curl a bit. Hence the name texlax! 

• There are many methods of texlaxing. Meaning, it all depends on your hair curls/shape and how tight they are. E.g. if you usually need a super relaxer and 40 mins of sitting with the relaxer cream on, plus combing while the relaxer is on, the texlax process might need you to change to a medium relaxer, cut the time to 20 and not comb. And if your hair usually does well with a mild relaxer you might have to dilute that relaxer to make it even milder, so perhaps add an oil and conditioner to the relaxer, then also apply vaseline to your edges and scalp. It's advisable to first test a sample of your hair, to determine what  will work for your hair.

Benefits of texlaxed hair 

• Hair is more 'manageable' compared to when it's natural. 
• You get more volume as your hair is straightened partially, and the strands are therefore thicker. 
• There's less damage to the hair, as the relaxer doesn't fully change the chemical make up of the hair. So your hair would thrive better, e.g. less breakage and seeing more length retention due to better elasticity. Be mindful though, you still have to care for the hair, especially when new growth comes out - same as in the case of fully relaxed hair you'll have two new textures to manage. 
• Moisture is better retained because the relaxer did not fully break all your hair bonds. In case you are wondering, hair is made up of protein bonds (keratin) and depending on how keratinised your hair fiber grows (genetically determined), you end up with a specific curl pattern, e.g. kinky Afro, curly or straight. In the case of kinky Afro hair, the fiber grows out tightly coiled, and when you apply a relaxer, you fully break the keratin bonds of the hair and therefore weaken the hair and make it less able to retain moisture. That's why with relaxed hair you can get to a point where you don't see growth anymore, you would experiencing breakage due to dry hair. From what I've observed, ladies converting from relaxed to texlaxed hair tend to get amazing longer hair that they never knew was possible. But the point is simple, if you take care of hair by balancing your protein to moisture ratio, hair will grow!

Cons of texlaxed hair

• You shouldn't assume an automatic pass to laziness and not caring for the hair. Yes there's less work compared to natural hair but you should still get hair treatments that add protein and moisture to your hair, e.g. hair mayonnaise and cholesterol. 
• Shrinkage! But not to the same extent as natural hair.

Happy healthy hair, whether you go the relaxed or natural route, let's just be healthy!!! 

Love - AfroMoriri

Updated winter hair regimen

My favourite opening line around this time of the year, "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 my hair survives the winter blues".

I'll start off by explaining my usual winter hair care routine then explain the added changes that make this an updated regimen. 

General winter regimen

• Wash and deep condition hair once every 2 weeks. I use both a protein and hydrating/moisturising deep conditioner. In winter I wash the hair every fortnight unlike once a week in summer because my scalp doesn't sweat as much as it does in summer, neither does it secrete lots of oils. 
• Moisturise and seal the moisture after deep conditioning, using the LCO method. This means, liquid (leave in conditioner), cream (shea butter) and oil (extra virgin olive oil). 
• Revive moisture daily, using a spray mixture of distilled water and oils (two thirds of the water plus a third comprising of castor oil, pure glycerine and extra virgin olive oil).

Additional steps this winter

• Co-wash in place of shampoo. Co-wash means washing the hair using a conditioner. This helps retain moisture and also softens hair, making it less brittle and breakable from being dry. 
• Change protective styling to either small twists using my own hair or plaiting medium sized cornrows. Recently I did a 6 month protective style challenge (in summer, details are available here ) and my hair responded well to protective styles that allowed direct access to the hair and scalp. Hoping this doesn't back fire in winter as I might need extra cover from braiding. But I can only know by first trying right?
• Wear a satin scarf at night while simultaneously using a satin pillow case. Since my hair won't have the extra cover of braids I'd like to prevent possible exposure of my own hair in case my scarf comes off. Trust me, sometimes it comes off during the night - blame nightmares maybe?  Lol! In summer I only ever use the satin pillow case.

Love - AfroMoriri

My hairstyles during the 6 month protective style challenge

During the 6 month protective style challenge we recently ran, I had my hair in the styles below. You will notice that my hair styles looked similar, this isn't because I am a monotonous boring person; but rather, I know what works for my hair in terms of long terms styling. What this means is:

• I need direct access to my scalp
• My hair tangles less in the styles below
• The amount of build up I get is less in these hairstyles
• They are durable and don't wear out quickly
• The protective style challenge was during the peak of summer (Nov-Apr), and I cannot handle hair extensions (long braids or weaves). They get way too hot for me and my scalp itches way more than if I had them in winter. The one photo where I have a curly weave is because I went to England in December and as you know, their winter is FREEZING for us Africans :-)

The hairstyles

Below are 12 hairstyles that I had during this period. Some of them were the long term protective styles that would last 4weeks or 6 weeks. And some were low manipulation styles that I wore during the 'breathing' period of my hair. If you are curious about what this breathing period is all about, feel free to refer to the post I wrote when this challenge started - explaining what the 6 month style challenge is about here . 

Love - AfroMoriri