Protective Styling: A Beginner's Guide

Hello guys :D

I’ve been using “Protective Styling” for a very long time now but to some people it’s still a bit of a mystery. To be honest, it’s pretty straightforward and is often used (as the name suggests) to protect your hair from things such as the weather, styling tools - like combs and pins - and also your little mitts! (I can never stop touching my hair. ‘Hand in Hair Syndrome’ is alive and kicking!) Protective styling is incredibly important when trying to retain length and moisture as afro hair doesn’t retain moisture as well as other hair types. Not protecting afro hair from damaging actions such as those mentioned above can cause the strands to become brittle and snap off – more commonly known as breakage. 

Like many women (and men) with afro hair types, my edges are my main concern! After a Jheri-curl that went horribly wrong back in 1996, the hair at my temples has always been incredibly fine. It’s sparse, drier and breaks off more easily than the hair on the rest of my head. It’s a problem that I’ve seen far too much here in the UK and within the black community as a whole. Regardless of whether hair is natural or relaxed, it seems that edges are always the first to bounce. This is usually down to overuse of gel on the hairline, pulling from tight hairstyles (such as braids and weaves) and sometimes... it just happens! :’( My loss was a mixture of pulling my hair in all sorts of directions (ah primary school days. I had lots of gel and NO CLUE what I was doing majority of the time), overuse of chemicals (the Jheri curl was the first straw, frequent and subsequent relaxers just took away the few sparse hairs I had left!), and also just lack of knowledge. In this sense, going natural and including protective styling in my regimen was the best option for me. 

So, spill the beans! What is Protective Styling?!

Put simply, all you have to do is make sure your ends are covered in some way. That’s it! The ends of your hair (as I’m sure you’ve heard many times) are the oldest parts of your hair, and for this reason they can dry out easily preventing you from getting the long, luscious and healthy locks you’ve always desired. Here are some tips on how you can use protective styling and still enjoy your hair: 

Oooh yeah, looking good :P

1. You can try twisting your hair in sections and pinning these into an up-do. This helps your ends stay covered and still allows you to leave the house without looking like a rag doll. I aim to do this once or twice a month. It also means I can put my deep conditioner in and run errands. Yay for multi-tasking!
2. Using extensions are my all-time favourite! Braids, micro-braids, Senegalese twists, kinky twists, Havana/Marley twists… You name it. There are so many styles to try and with the extensions in, you can achieve a completely different look. I recently just discovered that 6 weeks is the perfect length of time to leave my braids in. No breakage occurred and there were no tangles, plus it was just the right time before I started missing my own hair lol. (I leave the braids in for 6 weeks and leave my own hair out for 6-8 weeks. I can review my new growth, try some new styles and then protect it again before the windy weather comes back to attack.)
3. My favourite of all... The turban! The silk scarf is a woman’s best friend. The silk has anti-ageing properties for the skin, keeps hair moisturised and prevents tangling. My turban is used on days where my hair is getting on my wick or days when I haven’t got much to do but still want to look after the fro. 
4. Other extensions such as wigs, weaves and tracks. Although I haven’t worn a weave for a while, they were very good to me for a long time. My hair underneath always managed to stay moisturised because the weave creates such a warm environment (That sentence makes me sound a bit like David Attenborough). Again, I wouldn’t exceed 6-8 weeks with a kinky hair texture like mine. I’d be inviting back the breakage!
5. General styling can also be protective. For example, high buns/topknots, and roll tuck and pins protect the ends of the hair. My hair isn’t quite long enough to do a bun, but I’m getting there! All I’d say is, if gel is used, keep it minimal or be prepared to wash it out. (Remember, excessive gel products can lead to hardening and breakage of the hair shaft.)

So, there are loads of ways to style in a protective way. Mine is the roll, tuck and pin as well as my beloved braids and the turban. Mariama loves her top-knot (especially with all her new found length.) Find your favourite way and protect those ends! You can thank us later ;P 

Zee xx

Afro Hair & Beauty Show 2013!

The Afro Hair & Beauty show is an annual show celebrating afro hair. Regardless of whether you;re natural, relaxed or wear weaves there's something for everyone! Zainab and I went this year, had a blast and got loads of freebies. If you're around London next year at the end of May definitely check it out (although take a Berroca or something before you go, you'll need the energy to get you through the day lol).

Zainab put her braids into a loose fishtail plait

My hair was a 3 day old twist out 

Excitement because of the freebies!!! 

And we both met the lovely Wunmi Akinlagun, the creator of  Woman In The Jungle

Zainab and I each bought a jumper (2 for £25), and Zee bought a Dr. Miracles pack for £10

Free stuff, and yes some were FULL SIZE items!

Mariama x

Creating a Styling Routine

After washing comes the fun part – styling:

How will you moisturise?

The most popular way to moisturise type 4 hair is the LOC method (which stands for Leave-in, Oil & Cream). This method requires you to layer a water-based leave-in then a light oil (like coconut or jojoba) and then a heavier butter/cream (like shea or mango) over one another to seal in the water. The water moisturises your hair, whilst the other products form a barrier outside the strand to stop the water diffusing out. Due to the LOC method my hair has began to retain moisture all by itself (I’m so proud!) so I no longer have to do all three steps. You will also need to moisturise your ends regularly by spraying a light mist of water and applying some oil to it.

Will you use heat?

I was a heat junkie, I used to straighten my hair every week (sometimes two or three times a week) causing it to break off and never grow past my shoulders. So when I decided to go full hog with this natural thing I stopped using direct heat for a year. To be honest I haven’t really missed it! I’ve straightened my hair once since then because I was excited to see how long my hair was, but my impatience resulted in this:

Excuse the poor quality and that I'm not wearing make-up!

It was New Year's Eve and I was going out so had to rush. I didn’t wait for my hair to dry - which you definitely should! If not, bubbles can form in the strand causing splitting and breakage) so it ended up looking like I just blowdried it. Because it wasn’t fully dry so it just poofed up once I straightened it. Anyway I’ve kind of diverted from the point. Give your hair a looooong break from heat at first, after about a year you can start to add it back into your regimen. Zainab bought me a Vidal Sassoon Hood Dryer for Christmas and I love it! No more overnight drying sessions for me! But I only use it rarely or for certain styles (like rollersets). Seeing as my hair has grown quickly without heat I don’t see a reason to use it so much anymore.

What will be your signature style?

My current favourite styles now are plain twist-outs (flat twist outs are too much effort) and big ol’ buns because they’re so easy for me. But when my hair was shorter I preferred puffs and up-dos. Braid-outs (same as a twist-out but with braids) stretch hair more than a twist-out so allow you to see more of your length, but require more time to put in and take-out. You can also do protective styles like extensions, weaves, wigs (although you should leave your hair out for at least two weeks in between weaves and extensions so your hair isn’t constantly being pulled out of the follicle), corn-rows, up-dos, buns... Just have to decide which one is for you!

Maz x

Product Review: Jane Carter Solution Hydrating Invigorating Shampoo

Hi guys! I wanted to write this post and share with you my experience of this product. In short, I hated it haha. But let’s go into more detail shall we?

Ooh pose for me baby, yeah!

I bought this Jane Carter Solution shampoo at the 2012 ‘Afro Hair and Beauty Show’ because I had heard so much about the brand. It was supposed to be an amazing product for naturals whether your hair type is kinky, curly or coily. I wanted to give it a fair chance, and following a previous blog post I thought I should give it three tries at least. Using my own rating system, this is how I scored this product. I’ll give each heading a score out of two so we get an overall rating out of ten. 0 being awful, 1 being ok and 2 being amazing! So here we go – lemme give ya the low down!

Ingredients: Aloe Barbadensis Gel, Purified Water (aqueous extracts of nettle, burdock and rosemary), Sodium Methyl Sulfolaurate, Disodium Sulfolaurate, Sodium Sulfoacetate, Sodium Cocoyl Glycinate, Sodium Lauroyl, Sarcosinate, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Cocoamidopropyl Betaine, Disodium Lauroamphodiacetate, Glycol Stearate, Sodium PCA, Polyquaternium-7, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Oil, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, PG-Propyl Silanetriol, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Extract Fragrance, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Citric Acid

Consistency – The consistency is actually quite nice. It’s thicker than most shampoos and because of this I really hoped it would clean my hair without the overly clean feeling. We’ll discuss that ‘squeaky clean’ feel in a moment but it is creamier than most shampoos. There’s not much I can use to describe the consistency but until you see the product, this is the best I can do! Sorry :S I give this a one out of two.

Scent – Okay, this is completely down to a matter of opinion but I really hated the smell! It’s extremely minty and overpowering - the type of scent that would be lovely to clean a bathroom but other than that, doesn’t quite work. So yeah, not so great when the wind goes through your scalp but it does wash out. It just leaves a milder version of a not-so-nice smell. I give this a zero out of two. 

Moisturisationess – OMG. I was proper disappointed when I used this! My afro felt so dry afterwards. I could literally hear the crumpling noise when I put my fingers through my hair lol! This is where I get into the ‘SLS-free’ notion.  The product claims to have no sulphates but after further inspection contains a fair few. They are milder sulphates which aren’t supposed to damage or dry out natural hair, but I’ll let my hair do the talking - literally in this case. :/ I give this a zero out of two. Without a doubt! 

Slip – I don’t think slip is really worth mentioning with a shampoo product so in this case I won’t make a comment. Instead I’ll talk about…

Packaging - I think the packaging of the shampoo was quite nice. It’s a simple squeezy bottle that is easy to use and gives you the right amount of product. I like that the bottle is clear around the label so you can really see the consistency of the shampoo which was an important factor when I decided to try the product.  I give this two out of two.

Price – This is an American product so would generally be much more expensive, but it was £5 as I bought this at the hair show. The cheapest online price is on Amazon.co.uk which is £8.59 + £2.25 P+P!  It’s a 237ml bottle of shampoo, and you do only need a small amount to get a lather but tbh, any product I don’t like will never be worth the price I paid for it, even if it was a few pennies. Realistically, £5 is okay considering that there are others that are extremely expensive (Miss Jessie’s - which isn’t so great!). But for the online price, I give it a zero out of two. 

So overall, I wasn’t very fond of the product, and have given it:

Sometimes I find that when you look at the models on the packaging, you can usually (emphasis on SOMETIMES and USUALLY guys) find out whether it works for you. Jane Carter products would most probably have been made for someone with a similar hair type to hers which seems to be a 3a/3b curl pattern. 

You do have to route around sometimes in order to find what works for you as no two naturals are the same. It’s bloody tiring though and isn’t really helping my pocket too much! But alas, I do it for you guys, and I shall continue to review the products I come across as often as poss. 

BTW, contrary to what Mariama said, I’m not lazy (grr) I’m a student midwife and it’s difficult to find the time for these blog posts. But I swear they’ll be coming thick and fast if I don’t collapse from exhaustion! Until next time y’all.

Zee xx

Creating a Wash Day Routine

Washing afro hair can take a loooong time, so long that some naturals can dedicate a whole day (even a weekend) to just washing their hair. Personally I don’t have the time or stamina to spend a whole day washing my hair, so when creating a wash-day routine I decided to keep it simple and you should too! 

Unfortunately, I never look this good washing my hair :P

How often will I wash?

When I say wash here I mean with shampoo. Shampoo cleanses the hair and scalp by removing the sebum coating the strands. This leaves the hair dry as it allows water to escape from the strand. This is why after you wash you have to condition your hair also (conditioners contain substances which coat the strands like oil but do not get washed away as easily as oil does). As it is more difficult for sebum to travel down Afro hair then straight hair, Afro hair does not become greasier the longer it is left between washes (in fact it gets drier as the sebum builds up on the scalp) so it does not need to be shampooed as often. Because of this I would advise when washing your hair you start off doing the least, so start off shampooing once a month and if you find your scalp becomes dirty quickly between washes add another wash day.

But won’t my hair become super smelly?

No, because you can co-wash! Co-washing is using conditioner to cleanse your hair. Shampoo strips afro hair of moisture so washing too often with it can cause kinks and curls to look and feel lackluster. Conditioners on the other hand have enough surfactants in them to remove product build-up from creams and oils (hence why they bubble slightly when you wash them out) but don’t remove all of the moisture. So your hair will feel clean, smell nice and be moisturised. I co-wash when I feel my hair is becoming pretty dry (or if my hair smells a bit frowzy :S). 

Will you pre-poo?

As a type 4 natural with very coarse strands, a pre poo (applying oils and/or conditioner before washing with a shampoo) dramatically changed the state of my hair. Applying oil and conditioner before you shampoo means that your strands aren’t completely stripped clean once you wash them, retaining moisture. One of the things that helped my dry hair retain moisture was applying a pre-poo to it the night before my wash day. If you have oils in your pre-poo, you’re better off sleeping with it in your hair as it can take 14 hours for an oil to penetrate the strand. Conditioners fully saturate the hair in about 30 mins so you don’t have to keep them on as long.

Wash loose or in twists/braids?

If your hair is quite short you can get away with washing your hair loose, but the longer your hair gets the more likely it is to start tangling up (especially if it very kinky-coily). Once again do the least - start off washing your hair loose and if it knots up too much for your liking wash your hair in twists.

Detangle before or after?

I would advise detangling your hair with just a wide tooth comb at first. Don’t worry about buying Denmans or Tangle Teezers. If you are choosing to wash your hair in twists, detangle before hand so each twist stays detangled during the wash process. If you are washing your hair free, detangling it after shampooing when you have a deep conditioner in your hair. If you have just taken out braid/twist extensions or a weave detangle before washing! Otherwise after you wash you will be tearing out chunks of matted hair (believe me it’s happened to me before).

Don’t worry about washing your hair under a running shower…

Personally I don’t like standing under the shower to wash my hair, it can get very slippery with all that conditioner plus it’s a huge waste of water! I just bend over the edge of the bath. Some people even wash their hair in the sink so you don’t have to stand under a running shower if you don’t want to. Nothing bad will happen!

Other stuff…

Apple cider vinegar: A cold ACV rinse after conditioning is a nice way to reestablish the pH of your scalp. The scalp (and skin) is acidic so even pouring water on your scalp causes the pH to change causing the cuticle to open up. To close the cuticle pour cold diluted ACV (about 2 tbsps in a cup of water) after you’ve totally finished washing your hair. This will make your hair more shiny, soft and thoroughly clean. Also clean your scalp with the pads of your fingers, don’t scratch with your nails!

Maz xx

(BTW sorry we haven't written anything in a while. I've been pretty busy with exams and my dissertation, I've finally finished my intercalated year, wahey! So back to medicine! But for the mean time I'm on my summer holiday so I should be posting more often... Zainab though... she's just lazy)

The high puff: A naturals’ bessie mate!!

Hey guys! I dunno about you, but for every “hair landmark” I reach, I seem to find only ONE hairstyle I can stick with. And right now my high puff is my best friend. 

It all began 2 weeks ago when I realised my head was the size of a split pea. I resorted to wrapping a head band around my old twist out and pinning it into place as I had seen on YouTube. It had never occurred to me that I could just pin the bands in place… My head just seems to be too small and the band always ends up around my neck two seconds later. Grr. 

But I digress. The past two weeks have consisted of my puff and I travelling the world! (Well, London to Bristol :/ ) It’s so easy to do and keeps my hair moisturised. Something I realised when I pulled my hair into a puff was that it’s grown so much! I was literally gobsmacked by my length retention. I avoid doing length checks regularly but because I have very shrunken and coily 4c hair, the growth isn’t always that obvious. My hair has literally never been this long, and whilst it may not look like it from the image, its past my jaw. Oh yeah! 

It just goes to show, when you stop paying attention, things really do happen. As they say, a watched kettle never boils and a watched afro never grows. Okay, I made that up, but it should be a saying in the natural hair community! Its lame but one of my milestones was to reach the high puff status. Now I’ve made it, I’m excited to see what happens next. I think my next goal should be a high bun. A very high bun. Like Cipriana from Urban Bush Babes.*DROOL* I don’t plan on straightening my hair for quite a while because I’m really enjoying my curl pattern and texture at the moment. I don’t even have the urge to straighten it… yet anyway. But this is honestly one step of many! 

Puff, puff puff it up!

My hair may change sometime soon though! I’m thinking Marley twists or something along that line. I’ll keep you posted but have you got any suggestions? Let me know :)

Zee xx

Creating a hair routine (Part One)

Creating a regimen is one of the hardest things to do when going natural. It isn’t easy and doesn’t happen overnight, but making a structured routine for your hair is one of the best ways you can take care of it. For the first year of my accidental transition to natural hair, I didn’t do any extra stuff to my hair that I wasn’t already doing when it was straightened - and it didn’t break off. So don’t worry about devising a regimen as soon as you start going natural. You’ll need to try a few things out before you can definitely decide that’s what you want to be doing. Also remember that your regimen doesn’t have to be rigid, it will change when you cut off your straight ends, as the length of your hair increases and according to the season. I recommend when going from relaxed to natural just stick to what you’re already doing, see if it’s beneficial or not and tweak it.

Ask yourself these preliminary questions:

How much time do I want to spend on my hair? (AKA How lazy am I?)

This is very important, I quite like doing my hair (It’s quite relaxing, plus I can catch up on Scandal and Love & Hip Hop while I detangle), but some people find it incredibly infuriating/boring. If you’re one of the latter then you’ll want to do things as quick as possible and limit the wash-day process to one to two times a month.

Dammit! It's wash day again! NOOOOOO!!!!!

The same thing applies to styling too. Because I accidently transitioned I didn’t take too much notice of styling or taking care of my hair. I would pretty much put conditioner in my hair in the morning, have a bath, wash it out and then tie my satin headscarf around my head and go to uni. It still grew (and pretty fast!) so I guess that proves that you don’t have to spend hours on your hair everyday for it to grow.

How much money do I want to spend on my hair? (or How much of a cheapskate am I?)

I won’t spend more then £10 on any hair product (I say that whilst coveting the Macadamia Natural Oil products). That being said you do get what you pay for, you need to use more of cheaper hair products and they tend not to be as amazing quality (like the Superdrug Naturals line. It’s awful! You can’t even use it to shave your legs because there’s NO slip) as more expensive ones. The products I don’t mind paying a little more for are deep and leave-in conditioners. 

How kinky/curly is my hair?

If your hair is comprised of very tight coils or kinks, you’ll also want to limit wash-days and styling sessions. The more you handle your hair the more it may break potentially limiting length retention. This also will determine if you want to wash your hair loose or in twists to avoid tangles, and how long you can keep your hair in various styles.

When will I trim?

Just choose a time period and stick with it. I trim my hair every six months and only cut a teeny bit off (like 5mm). But it depends on how often you get split ends.

Do I want to use heat?

You can still straighten your hair, just decide how often you will do it. For a heat junkie like me I decided not to straighten my hair for a year once I decided to go properly natural (I broke that rule btw, but I didn’t straighten it properly so I don’t count it :P). I still use blowdryers and I have a hood dryer for days when I need to dry my hair quickly and go!

What products will I use?

At first, just stick to what you know. If you shampoo your hair or use a particular brand of conditioner just continue, don’t worry about things like sulphates and silicones just yet (I still don’t worry about ingredients and stuff, I just use what works for me). As your natural hair begins to grow, try and take note of how it reacts to the products. If it seems dry or weak then make a change (but give it a couple of tries first).

Secondly a lot of people jump on the natural bandwagon once they go natural as in ‘I only use totally natural products that were handcrafted by Buddhist monks and given Al Gore’s environmentally friendly blessing!’ – maybe not that extreme, but you get what I’m trying to say. Some people disregard a product just by looking at the ingredient list rather than trying it. Just because something has natural or organic on the bottle, it doesn’t mean that it will be fantastic for your hair. Once you know your hair doesn’t like certain ingredients then you can avoid them, but when starting out just try stuff and see how your hair likes it.

'We don't have hair... but buy our products anyway! I need a new watch!'

Lastly, do you have the time and patience to make your own products? I make my own hair butter and oils, but stopped short of things like gel (I tried to make my own flaxseed gel but t came out looking like phlegm and I tossed it out in disgust!) and deep conditioner (eggs and mayonnaise are only for eating in my book). I also made my own clay wash once, but decided the hassle wasn’t worth it. If you’re not a mixtress, don’t lie to yourself! 

In the next post I will discuss more about creating a wash-day routine :D.

Mariama xx