All cultures have their own perception of beauty, and do different causes of enhancements to further exploit what they already have, but what if what you’re doing to continuously enhance yourself, is causing you physical damage? Would you stop? Or find another way to cover up what you’ve done? We vandalize our hair strands these days. Dying it, heating tools, perms, all the way to sleeping on COTTON PILLOWS!!! The only one true outstanding satisfaction in having hair is having a healthy head of it. Healthy hair care involves more than just physical hair growth, strength, or glossy shine. This voyage leads to self-awareness and self-confidence. Let it be known that So many people fail to understand that your hair and scalp is practically another body. You feed your stomach certain nutrition to get through each day, you feed your brain knowledge, well your hair needs "food". And it doesn’t just eat anything at any time. Person to person it varies what it’s parched for based on your own personal chemistry. I’d like to kick open the door and reveal a personal prospective that no one ever admits to. I started off my journey with insecurities as my hair was weak at the time. Maybe you have these fears too. Here’s what I think what holds us back.
WHAT
YOU THINK
Is a huge deal
and has a lot to do with where you gear yourself on this journey. If your hair
has full ties to your self-esteem (which isn’t the case for everyone) you may
want to reflect on your past decisions of why you have hair damage. Think about
what you want your hair to look like, and then look at what it truly looks
like. Is it in natural healthy conditions? Then reflect and think, what caused
this? Don’t freak out, just relax. we all do it and we all evolve once we gain
capacity. You’re innocent and didn’t know. But once you learn, it’s your
responsibility. Have in mind that you’re on the road of being in control
instead of being fixated on what’s become out of control.
WHAT
OTHERS WILL THINK
After someone does something different from what
they’ve been doing on the “norm,” it draws attention among friends and family. You
may even assume the whole world knows you’ve made this change and suddenly you
feel uncomfortable in your own skin. So maybe you aren’t ready for it. When I
first began my healthy hair journey, I felt that everyone who walked by knew I
made this change. I bought a $100 human hair, shoulder length, BOB to cover up
how unhealthy my hair was when I decided to stop using heating tools and sewing
in tracks (leaving them in for 4 months SO GUILTY!). MY FIRST VEGAS TRIP WAS IN
THAT HORRIBLE BOB! I didn’t feel quite like myself, it had not grown on me and
my hair was a fluffy padded mess underneath there. Ah, the bad old days. I have
a tip for all ladies struggling with this if you’re going to transition.
Tip: If you can blend your weave extensions, leaving out any clips to where it’s
just the tracks of hair. Braid it in your hair, maintain your natural clean
hair with product and without any heating tools. It can serve as a temporary Pocahontas
protective style. It’s what I did.
MAINTENANCE/MANAGEMENT:
A lot of woman
and Men aren’t so positive on how to manage and maintain their hair once they
decide to finally “go natural” Maintenance and management strongly depends on
what you’re ready to forego. You may not like certain hairstyles to try for
your hair type and length at times leading back to our first 2 fears. Upkeep
and management varies on your hair type. FIND OUT YOUR HAIR
TYPE. SO, I
recommend people of ALL hair types to find out the porosity of their own hair.
HAIR POROSITY has sort of been a secret no one talks about ever. Porosity is a
measurement of your hair’s absorbency to substances like moisturizers, protein
treatments, hair dyes even.
High: Where your
hair cuticles are completely raised (open). Absorbs moisture quickly, but loses
moisture fast as well.
Medium: Thank god
if you have Medium Porosity hair. It’s the balanced porosities of all porosities.
Your cuticles are raised to rapidly take in moisture, and since they’re raised
only enough it’s able to keep that moisture and shine. Moisture won’t have a
hard time staying in unlike high or low porosity.
Low: Where your
hair cuticles are tight and the shaft is closed. It’s difficult to get moisture
and products into the shaft, and appears to rest on top of your strands.
Note: Take the hair porosity test by placing one of your strands in a cup full of room temperature water.
Protective styling
secret to you all? BRAIDS. Doesn’t matter where you come from. Braid your hair,
leave it alone then you may retain the length due to low maintenance. BRAIDS
BRAIDS BRAIDS. Like Orpah, “You get braids, and You get braids and YOU!” Yes,
it’s a real shortcut to overcome our next fear, LENGTH if you give it time.
VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! YOUTUBE offers them. Based on your hair type, consider someone who have hair features like you to see which management is best. Or consider all hair gurus for they may have something vital to say pertaining to how to deal with YOU.
LENGTH
MANY people are
convinced their hair will never be at a good enough length to grow. Or too thin
perhaps. Length is a big distress. Because people value their hair it’s easy
for someone to want more. You buy more hair and you find yourself using your
heating tools to style and blend it with your own on high temperatures causing
breakage and heat damage. (And no one really talks about this among the general
haircare world I notice), but using a curling iron on a normal heat setting can
still induce damage. It doesn’t matter the texture either.
HAIR DOES NOT
GROW OVER NIGHT EVERYBODY. I tested it. No need to check on it every day. If
you watch it consistently and obsessively, THAT is also unhealthy and I am
doing my honest best to gear us away from these silly mistakes. No checking your hair all day every day. I
say this because when anyone one does a “length check” they pull the ends of
their strands from the bottom nearly tugging their scalps all the way to their
goals. That’s a no-no, because hair is very sensitive, we can’t obsess so hard,
it needs its space. BUT DO TAKE CARE OF IT. AND DON’T DO THE MONESTAT TEST
BECAUSE IT DOESN’T WORK. Way too good to be true to grow out an inch in 2
weeks unless it’s in your genetics. Have plenty of patience. NOTE: taking care
of your hair involves not touching it all the time. You wash it, absorb some products
relating to your porosity to your porosity then get out of there.
 |
| curl fest 2017 |
CHANGE.
Have you gone through extreme changes that may
be a long story? I’d like to relate that to a hair journey. People are
generally afraid of change if they can’t see to the other side. I hope this blog was useful to help changing a
few minds with my guidance. Stay tuned in for More on healthy hair care
soon! Please post your questions, tips or suggestions to me in the comments below. Remember to subscribe for my latest updates on healthy hair care.
- Curlfriend
