Donut

After two weeks of having her braids in I took them out and gave her a breather. Instead of re-braiding her hair, I did another quick and simple protective style that lasted her for the school week. A bun is one of my favorite protective style because it is so simple, and is truly quick to do, especially if your an on-the-go working mom like me. To create this look all you need is a hair donut (you can purchase or make your own), a few hair ties, hair accessories, a hair brush, and hair gel (optional) but if you do use gel I would recommend Olive Oil Eco Styler Gel.


For those who don't know, here is a quick tutorial on how to make a donut. You need a old sock or a pair of stocking and a scissors. Cut the toe portion off the sock or stocking, then you take the top part of the sock and fold it downward and continue to role it until it starts to form a donut. Also to make your donut nice and neat you want to tug on the extra sock at the bottom to tighten it before your next role.

My home made donut 

The on the go bun 

This style is a  mini twist with braids in the front and a crown
with a sprinkle of flower

Products review

I just wanted to take a moment to do a quick review on “Organic Coconut Oil.” Coconut Oil has been originally known for cooking and baking, but, studies have shown that it is also good for the treatment of hair, and I totally agree. It’s now been four months since I started Niah’s pre-poo hair regiment. It’s been a major success! What a difference this product makes in the management of her hair. Organic Coconut Oil detangles, adds moisture, and improves the overall health of Niah’s Hair. If you want to give the hair an added kick, every now and you can add eggs, jojoba oil, 2 tbsp honey, Jamaican black coconut castor oil, and deep conditioner. You can purchase organic coconut oil at Whole Foods or any local grocery store.   

This treatment consist of 2 eggs, organic coconut oil, honey, jojoba oil, j.b.c.c oil  and  deep conditioner

Janelle Monae

I did a quick and simple protective style on my daughter's hair, I call this the Janelle Monae. All you need to create this style is a few bobby pins or those little clips with the teeth(the one that looks like a mini comb), a hair brush, and any accessory of your choice. Start from the back of the hair and twist the hair upward toward the front of your head, insert the bobby pin or the clip to hold the twist in place. Stop about a third of the way up to create the puff in the front, and remember the pin down the excess hair.

Curlformers vs Flex rods

So since I took that vow to never apply heat to my baby girl's hair a few months back, I was on a mission as to how one could achieve beautiful curls without heat. This brought me to the discovery of curlformers. Depending on the results that your looking for curlformers and flex rods can produce two different style of curls. Flex rod curls to me tend to be a bit tighter and controlled while curlformers tend to be more lose and free. If installed properly both heatless curling mechanism can create beautiful volumizing curls. How do you use them?, well its very simple. With the rods you can wet the hair with water, wrap lotion, hair smoothie or etc, then just take the rod and carefully wrap your hair around the rod and bend the rod to hold the hair in place( hair can be wrap horizontal, vertical, or diagonal ). The curlformers are as easy as 1 2 3, just take the hair damp or dry and place it into the hook needle and pull though the curler.  For my wedding I curled my daughter's and my niece's hair with flex rods and needless to say I was pleased with the results. Whichever you choose it is a personal preference, so have fun creating fun and stylish curls.

I curled the girls hair with flex rods and a bun in the back 

FLEX RODS

CURLFORMERS

Protective styles and new products

My goal is to attain more volume and thickness for Niah's hair 

I've added some new products to my daughter's hair regiment, which are Cantu shea butter no dip hair and scalp oil, Shea Moisture yucca and baobab thickening shampoo and volumizing conditioner. What I love about these products are they make her hair very soft and moisturize. You can find any of these hair products at your local beauty supply stores, Walmart, Target, or Walgreens. Lately I've been doing a lot of protective styles and extra tlc, because I want to simulate rapid growth. My goal for her hair is for it to double in length by this time next year and most importantly for it to be healthy. What I've notice about her hair is the back growths a lot faster than the front so,every now and then I trim the back so it can be some what even with the rest.  

Mini twists and length test

One of my favorite protective style is mini twist. I like these because there fun and very easy to do, plus this style can last for awhile with care You can keep protective styles in for awhile just remember to co-wash in between, she had her twists in for three weeks. Below are pictures of a few other protective styles.

Twist out and bun  (always add accessories for a finishing touch) 

Bigger twists which  I eventually twisted out  and accentuated with a bedazzled headband

Heart front beaded mohawk with twisted ends 

                                                                                 

Don' t forget to moisturize your scalp and massage your scalp for 30 minutes at lease twice a week  :)

                                               HAPPY SCALP= HEALTHY HAIR 

Mo/Fohawk

This is a quick and simple on the go Mohawk... every now and then I give her hair a breather from the protective styles. 

Mohawk 

Pre- Pooing 101

               After doing some  researching , I learned that pre -pooing is a very vital step in the natural care hair community. Below is a brief paragraph that I found on  http://www.curlynikki.com/2012/06/why-you-should-add-pre-pooing-to-your.html about why and what is pre- poo.  Every time we shampoo and condition our hair or even add significant amounts of water to our hair the hair shaft needs to expand in order to accommodate the extra water. When our hair dries the opposite occurs – the hair contracts. Repeating this process over and over again can create damage to the hair cuticle initially because it can be chipped off. Subsequent damage can be caused to the hair fiber leading to split ends and breakage. Textured hair tends to absorb more water during this process than other hair types and is therefore more susceptible to damage. This contraction and expansion of the hair fiber is known as hygral fatigue. How does this work? When coconut oil is applied to the hair as a pre-shampoo or pre-wetting treatment a small amount of the oil can be absorbed into the hair and can penetrate under the cuticle when the hair fiber swells. Coconut oil has a strong affinity for hair proteins and can protect the hair by binding to these proteins. This reduces the protein’s ability to bind to water molecules resulting in less swelling, less contracting and less trauma. 
         This site was very informative and I now know why this needs to be apart of me and my daughter's hair regiment. 

Organic Coconut oil  is one of the top recommended oil for pre- pooing so I went out and purchased it from my local Pathmark for $9.99. I also purchased Jamaican  coconut
black castor oil,  which I plan on adding with the coconut oil , along with Jojoba oil as my pre-poo regiment. 

Two strand twist & out

I did the usual wash, deep conditioner treatment, and moisturizing of  her scalp.
Then I did a two strand twist set, which I did while her hair was damp. I find it
better to add the olive oil to her hair while its wet.

Two strand twist out...there are so many different styles you can do with this twist out.

After math

I love Bantu knots because its fun & very simple to do. You can wear your knots on the go, or untwist them for a more fun and playful look.

This is what her hair looks like after I took out the Bantu knots... I applied a little bit of water
& olive oil to her edges, brushed it and then finish with a headband. Niah loves her accessories. 

Bantu knots

Long hair care don't care #teamnaturalhair, before her hair got washed

Deep conditioner, I left it in for 30 minutes

Her hair grew 1/2 inch longer on the side and 1 inch in the back

Her first time with Bantu knots. Great way to stretch your hair without heat

This is another way I stretch her hair...

I washed and deep condition Niah's hair, I applied olive oil to her hair while its wet and then put the Bantu  knots in. This is a different form of stretching her hair without applying heat. Finally I moisturized her scalp with olive oil.

Natural Oils

two of my favorite
Jojoba and olive oil

Okay so this is a brief post about the natural oils I use in both my daughter and my hair.  It is very important to keep your hair moisturize if you want to increase growth or to maintain a healthy head of hair. Jojoba oil, olive oil, sweet almond oil, coconut oil, castor oil, avocado oil, and rosemary oil are few of the natural oils that is good for our hair. These oil provide a great deal of moisture, vitamins, strength, thickening and growth for our hair plus they smell amazing.  : )  Another one of my all time favorite oil  is cinnamon oil, which was referred to me by my old hair stylish. This oil is use for hair growth in tinning areas of your head, like your edges, nape, and etc. My problem was the right side of my hair was a lot shorter than the left side because this was the side I slept on the most which caused my hair to break drastically on that side (added stress on your hair will cause breakages). Once I started using the cinnamon oil twice daily, I noticed growth within three to four weeks. The smell is a bit overbearing and it tend to get a bit greasy (especially when its hot) but the end result is really worth it.

 it really worked for me

Niah's hair regiment

                                 

     I finally took Niah's braids out after two weeks, wash and deep condition her hair with Shea Moisture Shampoo and Shea butter leave in conditioner (I also wash her hair in between the two weeks with the braids in and grease her scalp with coconut oil). I then apply the Shea Moisture coconut and hibiscus curl enhancing smoothie to her wet hair and twisted it. You can apply as much or as little twists as you like. 24 hours later this was the end result.

not as curly as I wanted it to be but...

I added two twist in the front and a pink flower. Feel free to add hair accessories 

This was the first time she wore her hair out all day and she was not too pleased about it. She called this hair style the crazy hair because she said her friends at school are not going to like her hair. Mind you these are 3 and 4 years old I am talking about... lol

This hair style didn't last too long cause later that night I braided her hair into a mohawk.

To be or Not to be?

So a friend of my mine asked  me a very interesting question the other day. She asked me why do black people have short hair, how come our hair isn't as long as other ethnicities. She has never seen a black person with long hair, she thought that we had to be mixed with another ethnic background to have long hair. Like her niece who is black and Serbian. This was a great question and made me think back to when I was little and wondered the same thing. Why do we have short hair and how come it doesn't grow as long as our sisters from another mother were questions I use to ask myself growing up. Why if we want length and body, we have to resort to weaves? So I told my non sista friend that there are lots of black women with long and healthy hair, our hairs just requires different maintenance and care. I told her that a little bit of TLC goes a long way. I then explained to her that my hair is not in its natural state, so I showed her some pictures from the internet on what natural hair looks like. Some of the women had hair all the way down their lower backs which amazed her. After informing her about what I know and from what I've learned, she too had a better understanding about natural and permed hair. Knowing what I now know about our hair, the question I ask myself is to be or not to be natural.  My permed hair is at its healthiest due to TLC and all the extra steps I take. I've done a lot of research on how to transition from a perm or cream crack as some call it, back to my natural hair but to be quite honest I am bit nervous. However it is a goal that I have in mind and told myself that by October I want to make my transition. : )

Hair Growth Tips 101

The top two pics is when she was younger, as you can see her hair was shorter.

Here are some great SULFATE FREE products, two of which was recommended to me
that is really good for natural hair.
from left to right: Shea butter grow strong strengthening treatment, Shea butter leave in
conditioning repair cream, Shea Moisture coconut & hibiscus curl enhancing smoothie
and Shea Moisture  moisture retention shampoo.
CANT WAIT to try them in her hair.

Okay so the secret to Niah's hair growth or growth in general is tlc, a little bit of tender love and care goes along way. For most part of her life, Dhaniah's hair has been in braids, which is the key to her hair growth. I find it that when her hair is in braids there is less manipulation and stress on her hair i.e combing it, blowing drying it and etc. F.y.i ponytail holders, if placed too tight can cause added stress on your hair and cause breakage.This is why I alternate between braids and ponytails.  I usual keep her braids in for two week depending on how well she keeps it and  wash and grease her scalp with the braids in. It is very important to keep the scalp moisturize, her scalp tend to get dry often so I grease it frequently. The more moisture the less breakage you will have. Its normal for the hair to shed during combing (dead hair), but not excessively.   

Hair vows

I vow to never put a perm in Niah's
I vow to never apply heat to her hair again unless it's absolutely necessary.
Below are pictures of Niah's hair blow dried... NEVER AGAIN, however her hair is growing rapidly. I didn't really know how to curl natural hair so I used a curling iron...NEVER AGAIN, so I did my home work and found many ways to curl her hair or to enhance her natural curls.

Since I started her hair care challenge I have switched the grease I use in her hair to organic root simulator coconut oil. On my journey for caring for natural hair I found that natural oils like coconut, olive, and jojoba oil is very good for our hair. I use this hair moisturizer and grease her scalp at lease twist a week and wash her hair once a week. Now I use an organic root simulator shampoo which as sulfate in it, which can dry out the hair and  eventual cause breakage so this is why I'm considering switching to one that is sulfate free. In the past I use to blow dry and oil Niah's hair before styling it, its been a month and a blow dryer as not touch her hair. My friend who is an advocate for natural hair gave me some helpful tips on how to stretch and dry natural hair. So now whenever I wash Niah's hair I towel dry her hair partial and apply coconut oil to her damped hair. I then put a few big braids in her hair and let it sit until I am ready to style it. For maximum stretching I remove the braids after 24 hours and re-braid. Because the back of her hair grow so rapidly and faster than the rest of her hair I trim her ends once every few months for even growth.  I also started a leave in conditioner/deep conditioner treatment, which I do three to four time a month.  Next week will be her first hot oil treatment... can't wait. On a path to a healthier and long hair.