Big sis available

Finals week is over and I have nothing to do this week besides come home! I have been natural since april 18, 2008, making me a 1 year and 8 month natural.

I transitioned for one year, but I ended up getting a Twa despite all that waiting.

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I use only organic products. I don't promote the use of chemicals in my hair and if you become my little sister, of course I will care what you put in your hair, but it is yours, afterall. I will only give recommendations and suggestions; I won't force you. The final decision is yours.

For the amount of length my hair has and being a new natural, I'm pretty okay with styling it.
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hey!! maybe you can help me out as well. I'm a long transitioner!! (started out with short hair anyway)
I need help as far as getting a regimen together, and keeping my hair moisturized.

TIA!!

Hi tamren, sure I'd be willing to help you out regimen-wise. would you like for me to post some basics here or message you privately?

Here on the board is fine.

My Opinion on hair Regimens:

1. Shampoo
2. Condition
3. Deep Condition (1x week or bi-weekly)
4. Moisturize (Every other day is fine for me, but you need to listen to your hair)
5. Seal.

--Clarify before you deep condition. By clarify I mean remove build up. Shampoo with cocobetaine or sls will do the trick, but it will strip your hair. If you want to naturally clarify your hair, I suggest Bentonite Clay or Baking soda + conditioner, or a natural shampoo.
---If your hair likes protein, I suggest doing a protein treatment once a month. My favorite is Aubrey Organic's Gpb.

Shampoo with SLS, coco-betaine or parabens or certain types of alcohol are very drying to the hair. If you do use one make sure you have a hydrating conditioner. If you do not use these shampoos, I assume you're using a natural shampoo, such as baking soda + some type of hair soap like castile or maybe a natural poo bar by kbb or chagrin valley. If you use a natural soap, you don't need to clarify as often as you do when using chemical products.

As for conditioner, it's totally up to you. Again, I suggest Aubrey organics, J/a/s/o/n, Avalon, Hairveda, Curls, Kbb, Oyin. A conditioner that has slip is key to detangling your hair, so choose one wisely. A chemical ingredient that provides slip are CONES. Anything with a cone at the end imparts shine and coats the hair shaft, making it easier for you to detangle. Marshmallow root in organic products provide slip also.

Deep conditioners you can use with heat or without, but if you use it without heat I'd suggest a plastic conditioning cap. A favorite of mine is KBB Lucious Locks hair mask. To add more moisture or deep conditioning to your DC you can add a few drops of honey, since it is a humectant and coconut oil, because coconut oil is one of the few oils that can actually penetrate your hair shaft.

A moisturizer can be a creamy leave in, watery leave in or even a butter. If you plan to wear your hair out, I wouldn't suggest using a water-based leave in unless you are OK with shrinkage. Water is the best natural moisture you can get, but your hair will shrivel. Some times of butters you can use are shea and coco. Also, puddings like whipped shea pudding or whipped cocoa pudding. Even a conditioner can be used as your moisturizer, if you leave it in.

A sealant requires an oil. Coconut, jojoba (which closely resembles the sebum that our skin and scalp naturally produce) extra virgin olive oil, rose hip oil, castor oil, etc. Once you have a moisturizer in your hair, it won't stay as long as it would if you had sealed the hair shaft with oil to keep the moisture in.


Just to go back to the regimen, different people have different regimens and I am not sure what works for you, but I will give you all the options possible.

Pre-poo: applying a product such as an oil or light conditioner on your head before you shampoo your hair.
Co-wash: Washing your hair with just conditioner to get it clean, instead of shampoo.

Those are other things you can include or exclude in your regimen.

Because you are transitioning, you'll have different texture for a while. To keep them looking almost similar and healthy, you need to find the right products. A cleansing and conditioning regimen will work for both textures, but the same products might not.

I have a question, do you have any good ideas for protective styling. My hair is not short, and it's not long. I live in Ohio, so it's pretty cold here and I want my hair to continue to grow and be protected. With my hair length i'm not sure what to do with it.

I've been natural for 9 months now, any advice you can give would be wonderful!

Thanks.

D-Lish?? Do u have room for another lil sister???

AllNaturalBeauty wrote:I have a question, do you have any good ideas for protective styling. My hair is not short, and it's not long. I live in Ohio, so it's pretty cold here and I want my hair to continue to grow and be protected. With my hair length i'm not sure what to do with it.

I've been natural for 9 months now, any advice you can give would be wonderful!

Thanks.

Yes I do. I think Bantu Knots are a perfect protective style for you. And if you ever tire of it, you can wear a bantu-knot out.

If you are using a product that contains any humectant, save it for the summer. Don't use it in the winter, it has the chance to dry your hair.
The best thing you can do to keep your hair staying moisturized in the winter is having a great hydrating product and sealing it with an oil or butter.


Low Humidity


In extremely low-humidity conditions, such as a cold, dry winter
air, there is no appreciable amount of water in the air for the
humectant to attract to the surface of the hair. In this particular
type of climate, the best one can hope for with most traditional
humectants is for them to prevent evaporation of water from the hair
into the environment. Also, under these circumstances, there is some
risk of the humectant actually removing moisture from the cortex of the
hair itself, creating the problem it was intended to prevent.

curly+kinky+fierce wrote:D-Lish?? Do u have room for another lil sister???

Yes. You are curly, kinky and fierce and you on my team would be bangin'.

awwww sis!!! ok its time for me to read up!!!

Thanks for the info. what would you recommend as a good leave in? I don't use any cones, recently i've been using a lot of shea butter, and I use coconut oil or jojoba oil.

As a leave in I really like Karen's Body Beautiful Super Silky. Your hair is soft instantly. I also liked the Amla Heavy Cream by Qhemet Biologics and Kinky Curly Knot Today. If you're tight on money, you can always make a Shealoe mixture, which was and still is really popular in Nappturality.

The ingredients are:
1/2 cup of unrefined white or yellow shea butter

1/4 cup of aloe vera gel

2 tbs of coconut oil and/or olive oil depending on your preference.

I add my own stuff to it when I make it. I add a few teaspoons of glycerin (Humectant, can possibly be bad for winter) and a few drops of rose water.

I love Qhemet Products...! what do u recommend for hold (like for twist) other than gel?

Butters have an OK hold for twists. The best hold I've gotten has been from a gel Aubrey Organics B5 gel and Miss Jessie's Curly Meringue creme holds the twists excellent. However, curly meringue has these ingredients:

Water, Paraffinum liquidum, glycerin, Triethanolamine, Fragrance,
Carbomer, Wheat Amino Acids Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract Avocado oil,
Coconut Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Jojoba Seed Oil Olive Fruit Oil,
Oleth-5, PEG-12 Dimethicone, Elthylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Disodium
EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin, Iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, Yellow 5

I've used the curly meringue twice now and my twist outs come out great. Though I have stopped using it and I now use aubrey organics gel.

You can also try oyin's shine and define. I did a twist out with this when my hair was still a TWA and I got fluffy shiney and defined hair. The hold was decent at best, but you could find better.

i dont really like miss jessie's ingredients but im ready to try oyin!! I have to go check out aubreys too!

Oyin shine & define results from april 09

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I used really big twists before bedtime when I had my twa,it took only a good 10-15 mins.

i love it!!! it has a nice sheen and the curls are defined!

NICE HAIR D-LISH [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Can you please tell me how you still ended up with a TWA after waiting 1 yr to BC? This is what I am trying to avoid.

D-Lish wrote:As a leave in I really like Karen's Body Beautiful Super Silky. Your hair is soft instantly. I also liked the Amla Heavy Cream by Qhemet Biologics and Kinky Curly Knot Today. If you're tight on money, you can always make a Shealoe mixture, which was and still is really popular in Nappturality.

The ingredients are:
1/2 cup of unrefined white or yellow shea butter

1/4 cup of aloe vera gel

2 tbs of coconut oil and/or olive oil depending on your preference.

I add my own stuff to it when I make it. I add a few teaspoons of glycerin (Humectant, can possibly be bad for winter) and a few drops of rose water.

Thanks for the all your help, i really appreciate it. I think i'm going to try the Amla Heavy Cream and see how it works on my hair.

so D-Lish what products do u find most moisturizing? (contioners and butters/leave ins/oil or whatever) is it on ur thread?

Your hair looks like mine. WOW. My twa feels thick and has s curls. How did you style it when you had the twa to show the curls?

Intelligentbeauty wrote:NICE HAIR D-LISH [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Can you please tell me how you still ended up with a TWA after waiting 1 yr to BC? This is what I am trying to avoid.

Somehow, my stylist didn't know what she was doing. I told her to cut my relaxed hair off and she ended up cutting off my natural hair too. I was shocked.

@ feelinme: When I had a twa I would style it with Aloe vera gel to make my curls pop. I would wear my hair mostly in bantu knots, bantu knot outs, twist outs or I would lay my hair flat by doing a caramel treatment and workin' a jada pinkett style lol. I would clip my hair in certain places pin some curls back, because I didn't really know how to style myself. I went to a stylist for the bantu knots, because minealways came out jacked up.

@ Curly Kinky Fierce: The most moisturizing amazing oil that works for me is coconut. Don't know why, but EVOO doesn't work like the coco does.

The most moisturizing butter I've found is close between shea and mango butter.

For leave ins, I'm going to stick with Qhemet's Amla heavy cream for when I'm wearing my hair styled and not out and free-form. When I am wearing free form, i don't like for my hair to feel so heavy so I got with a light leave in like Oyin's Honey Hemp. It doesn't have much hold, but it does define my curls and when I use it like to use the shine and define on top or Aubrey's B5 Gel.

For conditioners, i did recently try Nikki's trader joe tea tree tingle and I must say, the slip is gorgeous and it DOES tingle. I love it, and it isn't stripping at all, very moisturizing. The most moisture I've gotten so far was mixing honey with my Aubrey organics honeysuckle rose conditioner and rubbing it in with coconut oil. AOHR alone just doesnt cut it for me but adding this stuff makes it better.

I was sent a Curls Souffle recently by curls, and I can't wait to try it. it is a creamy leave in that claims to have a medium hold.