Three Styles For That Awkward Length Of Natural Hair

Hey guys, we all know that when you get to that awkward length you feel as if there's not much you can do with it. But I'm here to help! Here are three easy styles to do for short/medium length hair. The first two are especially nice for transitioning hair.

Zee xx

Mariama's Draw My Natural Journey!

In case you haven't seen it, here's a quick overview of my natural hair journey (there are actual pictures too at the end):

Maz xx

(Late) Winter Haul

Asos 

Duffle Coat: http://www.asos.com/ASOS/ASOS-Bonded-Check-Duffle-Coat/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=2954961&SearchQuery=duffle%20coat&sh=0&pge=0&pgesize=-1&sort=-1&clr=Camel

Vintage Kilo Sale Info

http://www.judysvintagefair.co.uk/kilo/

Forever 21 stuff 

Basic Tee: http://www.forever21.com/UK/Product/Product.aspx?BR=f21&Category=top_basic&ProductID=2000065387&VariantID=

Quilted Faux-Leather Mini Skirt: http://www.forever21.com/UK/Product/Product.aspx?br=F21&Category=bottom_skirt&ProductID=2000109837

Joy jumpers 

Pink: http://www.joythestore.com/lou-curve-hem-fluffy-jumper

Black: http://www.joythestore.com/louche-daira-fluffy-jumper?nosto=nosto-page-product1

The other stuff was all gone!! :(

Twist-Out Tutorial for Type 4 Hair

Looks like I forgot to put this up on the blog. Enjoy my twist out tutorial!

Mariama xx

How I Shampoo & Deep Condition my Type 4 Natural Hair

Hi guys! Here's part 2 of the video about washing my hair. You are now members of the small group of people who have seen me first thing in the morning. Gah!!! Anyways, watch away :D

Our first YouTube video!

Hi guys! Finally after months of promising we've finally done our first Youtube video. Sorry for the lack of voiceover but I started doing one and realised my voice is booooring (I'm so used to peppy American voices, so my South London voice sounds dry in comparison). This video is about detangling my hair, enjoy!

  

Curl Class 7: The LOIS Hair Typing System

The LOIS system is simpler than the Andre Walker system. I personally prefer this system just because it causes fewer arguments (yes, people actually argue about hair types! Who cares that much?!) as it is based on the individual strand which is pretty much set and easily visible.

It uses several properties to work out your hair type (or whose hair ‘daughter’ you are):

• The pattern of your strands 
• The thickness of your strands 
• Hair texture 
• Sheen or shine.

Hair Pattern

The LOIS system R-L: L-type (the L is in purple), O type is coily, I is straight, S is wavy

Take a couple of shed hairs (rather than just pulling a hair out of your head) after washing and place them on a surface where they’re visible and just compare it to the chart. Your hair can be a mixture of any of these shapes - my hair is mainly O with some L and a teeny bit of S in the front. So I am daughter LOS.

Hair Thickness

The best way to determine your hair thickness is to compare the strands of hair of your head to other parts of your body that have coarse, medullated hair. Unfortunately the main places include down… there (I’m talking about your fanny, just in case you don’t get hints!) or your armpits. If it’s as thick as the strands down there, you have coarse hair. You can also compare it to your arm hair, as they’re very thin, if the strand is about the same size you have thin hair. If it’s in between both of these it’s normal. Once again you can have a mixture of various thicknesses on your head.

Sheen/Shine

The difference between shine (L) and sheen (R)

There are other properties that also may be helpful in your hair journey:

• Hair should be shiny when it is pulled straight (or straightened with heat or a relaxer) as it reflects light along the length of the strand. This is what all those hair adverts show when they have the models swishing around their locks. All healthy hair should have a shine, whether low or high; if it doesn’t your hair is dry.
• Sheen is the sparkly effect hair produces in the light.

Texture

• Thready hair has low sheen but high shine when straight and doesn’t really frizz. Thready hair quickly gets wet and dry.
• Wiry hair has high sheen, low shine and low frizz. Wiry hair reflects water so never seems to be fully wet when washing.
• Cottony hair has low sheen but high shine when straight and easily gets frizzy. It absorbs water quickly but because the water goes into the strand it doesn’t seem to get wet quickly.
• Spongy hair has a high sheen but low shine and frizzes in parts (so when you twist it over the week it will frizz but stay in sections). The strands absorb water before becoming thoroughly wet.
• Silky hair has low sheen and very high shine. The frizz varies from high to low and it easily gets wet.

Next time, I’ll be talking about porosity and density and then the Curl Classes will be finished. Wahey!

Maz xx

Curl Class 6: The Andre Walker Hair Typing System

So, in our early blog posts, Zainab and I described our hair in terms of numbers and letters. I said I had a mix of all the 4s (and a little 3) whilst Zainab said she was 4c. I’m sure a number of you thought '-_- what does that mean?’ Well, to answer your question, it’s our hair type! (Well this post is called hair typing, lol.)

Instead of just saying straight, wavy, curly or kinky or dividing hair according to race, hair stylists have come up with their own way of categorizing hair. At the moment the most popular way is using the Andre Walker system, which the team over at Naturally Curly have expanded to create a much more extensive system. The second way is using the LOIS system (additionally Mizani have their own system too).

Hair types are supposed to help you when choosing products and styles but personally I don’t find hair typing very useful, as every head of hair is different (I only use it to find YouTube gurus). What may work for someone else may cause your hair to split and break. On top of that, my hair pattern changes from the back of my head to the front of it, and has also changed over time (as I’ve learnt to properly moisturize it and also as it’s grown). So you may think your hair is one texture now, but in the future you might change your mind.

When hair typing, it’s important to know that any race can have any hair type. Just because you’re black it doesn’t mean your hair can’t be naturally straight/wavy, and just because you’re white it doesn’t mean you can’t have naturally coily/kinky hair - if you don’t believe me click here and here. (I used to think that because the front part of my hair was wavy it was heat damaged, so kept cutting it down thinking that it would grow coily like the rest of my hair – it never did and now the front of hair is shorter then the rest :P)

Andre Walker

Not everyone likes this system. Firstly some people don’t like it because straight hair is number 1 and afro hair is number 4, secondly Andre Walker has said some pretty controversial things about type 4 hair (he suggested Type 4 hair needed a relaxer to be managed - read it here). This typing system divides hair into 4 types:

• Type 1 is straight hair
• Type 2 is wavy
• Type 3 is curly
• Type 4 is kinky-coily

Then within hair types 2, 3 and 4 are classes a,b and c. 

Type 2

L-R: 2A, B and C

Type 2a-b hair is made predominately of loose s-shaped waves and usually lacks bounce. Because it is wavy and fine, it easily becomes greasy as sebum can travel down the shaft. Type 2c has a bit more of a curl on the top half of the head.

Type 3

L-R: 3A, B & C

Type 3 hair ranges from predominately big loose curls (about the size of a finger) to small pencil-size curls. It frizzes up very easily when exposed to humidity (thanks to the British weather the front portion of my hair can never maintain a twist out :P) and ranges from being very fine to very coarse.

Type 4

L-R: 4A, B & C

All hair types lose moisture to the surrounding environment over time; sebum from the scalp is supposed to combat this by traveling down the hair strand. However the kinks and tight coils in type 4 hair make it more difficult for the sebum to travel down the strand, and the sebum takes longer to get to the end of the strand. (Think of it like two cars traveling to the same place: one car travels down a straight road whereas another has to take constant twists and turns. The second car will take much longer to reach its destination). The longer type 4 hair is, the drier the ends of the hair (in comparison to another hair type). If not moisturized regularly, the dry ends break off resulting in what seems like little to no growth.

  

My hair texture (this is a week old twist out)

4a hair is made from small coils, 4b hair kinky zig-zags and 4c hair very tight coils. 4c hair doesn’t clump together naturally like 4a and 4b hair as the individual strands twist and turn according to their own pattern, additionally the coils are so small it makes it hard for the strands to unite as one.

Next time I will tell you guys about the LOIS system!

Maz xx