The Importance of Deep Conditioning

As I mentioned in the last post, lately my hair had been a mission to take care of. Therefore, last night I decided to try overnight deep conditioning. The real reason I did it is because its really cold and I couldn’t imagine myself washing my hair then staying with cold hair for an hour while I deep condition. I thought it would be better if I just put conditioner on dry hair then slept with it (with a plastic cap and stocking on) and then washed my hair in the morning.

I used my conditioner and oil mix on my hair before going to bed (on dry hair as its cold) and then wore a plastic cap and stocking (to avoid getting the product on my pillowcase). In the morning, I woke up and the first thing I did was rinse my hair. After rinsing the conditioner out, I used my sulfate free shampoo only on my scalp. I then rinsed it out, then used a small amount of moisturising conditioner (very small) and rinsed it out too; this time I did not leave the conditioner in my hair for long at all.

I then dried my hair in a towel and when it was 60% dry I used my hair placenta, leave in conditioner and moisturiser, combed it with a wide toothed comb, tied it in a bun and wore my silk scarf. OMG…you do not understand what a difference doing an overnight DC and only applying shampoo on my scalp made. My hair is baby soft.

I just moisturised it now and before going to bed, I will wear my silk scarf and see what the results will be like in the morning. I oiled my scalp using olive oil and coconut oil and now I fear that they may wear my hair down, to be honest I don’t know why I didn’t use my carrot oil from ORG, its more like hair food than oil. Oh well, I won’t make that mistake next time.

If your hair is dry and looks unhealthy, try doing a overnight DC or DC for about 3 hours, you will LOVE the results.

Hair maintenance could/SHOULD be a second job

Okay, so I haven’t update my blog in a really long time, however, it’s not noticeable because a while back I typed a few things (on MS Word) and I am uploading everything at the same time.

My one and only follower/supporter (my boyfriend) noticed the other day and asked me why I hadn’t been blogging. LOL!! (isn’t that sweet of him?) So so CUTE!!!!

Okay, so a few weeks back I decided to relax my hair with the little relaxer that I had left and it came out looking nice. I then decided to roller set but that didn’t come out looking good. I can never get a good roller set. I am going to try and roller set a week after a fresh (salon) relaxer and see how that works. Anyways, 2 weeks later my hair looked terrible and I decided to braid it…that also didn’t turn out great…YES I guess hair styling is not a talent of mine.

I took the braids out 2 days ago but I still haven’t washed my hair or done anything to it. To be honest I have been lazy! I was starting to give up on the hair growth thing, but today something snapped and I decided to get back on track.

Tomorrow I will be doing a deep condition (on dry hair) my first time ever and then shampooing and drying. I am doing the process backwards because its winter and sitting with wet hair (while waiting for the DC to work itself into my hair will not be such a great idea). Will see how that works. I’ll be using my sulphate free shampoo. Then I am going to air dry it and when its 80% dry, I will do 2 braids so that I can rock a braid out on Thursday. Hoping to have a nice shiny braid out.

My hair is starting to frustrate me

I have to admit that trying to come up with solutions to keep my hair looking pretty fabulous is starting to become somewhat of a chore. I think this is why as black women we end up either keeping it short, in braids or wear wigs and weaves. Honestly, keeping black hair looking pretty fabulous is a job. The only thing that’s keeping me going is this blog and the fact that I would like to challenge the notion that black hair is “bad hair”.

I know that I shouldn’t be looking at it as a job however at times it’s pretty hard not to. Anyways, I have decided to start relaxing my hair every 8-10 weeks. I was originally gonna go for 12 weeks and I have done so, however, with my hair texture I think its best to stick to 8-10. I have also decided not to hold it in a pony tail for the first 4 weeks after relaxing. In this way I can avoid my current hair line situation permanently. I will then resort to corn rows and ponytails between week 5 and 10. This should work perfectly (fingers crossed). I also want to start going to the salon for each and every relaxer. This will save me the stress of dealing with hair that becomes fra a week after self relaxing. I will see how this works and will document the changes on the blog. Do you have any secrets on keeping your relaxer looking fresh for longer?

Using conditioner as a moisturiser

While researching hair maintenance I came across a number of ladies who use conditioner as moisturiser. Now I don’t know how great an idea that is, however, yesterday I tried it. I must admit, I was pretty desperate. I had no clue as to what I was going to do to my hair and it just looked dry and lifeless. I thus decided to use my moisturising conditioner as moisturiser. Guess what, it did the job. My hair looked lovely afterwards, but I don’t think its something that I will be doing very often. I think that I would try it about once a week if it was a leave in conditioner, but it wasn’t, so I am afraid that it may make my hair fall out if used too often. I'll do it again some time (when I have a camera) and post the pictures.

Hairstyle of the day

I want to start taking photos of my hairstyle of the day. I think that it will motivate me to take better care of my hair and be more creative with my hair. On Sunday I took my braids out and used an old belt as a hair band. Okay, just in case you are thinking “a belt, has she lost her mind” it wasn’t a leather belt…Okay I can’t explain it, but you’ll see a picture in another post. I wrapped it around my head 3 times and made it look like I had used 3 hair bands. I thought it looked very nice and it’s a style that I can wear out and to work (only when I don’t have meetings though – I prefer to “power dress” when I have meetings i.e. hold my hair back)

Eyebrows and hair

Believe it or not, there is something that I obsess about more than my hair, and it’s my eyebrows. I recently noticed that as fra as my hair may be, I always look a bit better when my eyebrows are groomed. Then while I was looking for hairstyles that can be done on fra hair, I found one picture of a lady with fra hair and groomed eyebrows. Her brows made her look better. Look, yes there was no way that one could miss the hair, but the eyebrows “opened” her face. She didn’t look as bad as she would have if her eyebrows were all over the place. Therefore ladies if you have never considered grooming your eyebrows, you may want to give it a try. If it doesn’t work for you then at least you would have tried it…but I have a feeling that you’ll be as hooked as I am.

My most embarrassing hair moment EVER

I just finished writing an entry about wearing hair buns (maphondo) that match your hair, and it reminded me of my most embarrassing hair moment EVER. Trust me nothing will ever top that (touchwood).

About 2 years back I went out for dinner with a few friends to Metro in Benmore Gardens. I had recently bought one of those long ponytails and it had become my new hair obsession, so naturally I wore it for the girls night out. I started feeling it slip a little while we were waiting for our food to arrive but I thought "No ways" I guess I was in denial...bad idea.

Instead of just adjusting the thing, I decided to let my friends know that my hair was about to fall off. To be honest, I still don't know why I didn't just fix it instead of announcing it. Just as one of them was saying, "Don't embarrass us" (It was more like "Don't embarra" coz she didn't even finish) the stupid thing slid right off my head and fell down. Yip...I have never wanted the earth to part and swallow me as much as I did at that moment. Anyways, I quickly duck underneath the table, pulled "my hair" from behind my chair (imagine), put it back on and got back onto my chair as gracefully as I could.

I didn't even look behind me to see if the other patrons had seen the whole ordeal (I'm sure someone did). Naturally, the girls burst our laughing who wouldn't? However, it taught me a lesson that I'll never forget. Always make sure that any clip on hair extensions that you use are as tight as possible. Remember though, you don't want them to be too tight or they'll rip your hair out, juts tight enough so that they don't fall off. If your hair is very processed (relaxer wise) make sure you use a bobby pin or two to hold the extension in place.

I'm sure I'm not the only person with a story like that though. Share yours if you have one.

Hairstylists and relaxers

Am I the only one who has ever gone to the salon and then had the stylist apply the relaxer from the roots to the ends of my hair?

Well, I used to think that this was the best thing for my hair; in fact one hairstylist who I thought was pretty knowledgeable when it came to hair once said that because I have so much hair its best for the product to be applied from root to end. She said that this was the only way that my hair would ever get that "fresh relaxer" look. It worked; I would walk out of there with hair so relaxed that if it got wet I would look like a wet cat. The only problem was that I did not know that this person was actually doing some major injustice to my hair.

One is NEVER EVER supposed to apply relaxer from the root to the tip of the hair. Only the growth should be relaxed because hair that has been relaxed before becomes weak when relaxed over and over and over and...well you get it. Unfortunately when like me you have really thick hair, its difficult to always get the salon perfect look with each and every relaxer, yes the hair may be well relaxed but it won't look the same as that of my friends with not so rich hair.

The aim with relaxers is to straighten the growth, that's it. It should therefore not be applied on hair that does not have growth. Do you have some relaxer horror stories?

Hair styles for "Fra" hair

Now I know that some or maybe even most of you would never be caught dead with "fra" hair, GOOD FOR YOU!!! However, unfortunately some of us sometimes find ourselves with fra hair. Besides, we should ideally only relax our hair every 8 - 12 weeks. If you can't handle 12 then 8 - 10 weeks. This gives your hair enough time to grow between relaxers so when you get a fresh relaxer, the product is hopefully only applied on the growth.

So, in order to help you ladies, I decided to post a few hairstyles that we can rock when our hair is a little on the fra side. I am going to try all of them and post the results...this should be interesting ha ha ha.

 I would only recommend the above hairstyle for those really bad hair days. Maar please let’s not let our hair get to this point (look who's talking). I know that it sometimes happens that for some reason we aren't able to make it to the salon on the day we want to. Perhaps you suddenly have an emergency to attend to, or a business trip pops up from nowhere. This is when an interesting hair band comes in handy. As you can see from the above picture, it takes some of the focus away from your hair as the eye will be attracted to the interesting detail and hopefully not your frustrated hair.

 What I like about this hairstyle is that you can rock it with fra or relaxed hair. It’s really up to you. I wouldn't recommend it for someone who works in an ultra conservative environment though, well, I would recommend that you tone it down a little. I am most definitely going to try this one out, with both my relaxed and fra hair. If like me you are into DYI you can try it with some hair fiber. Just buy one that closely matches your hair. I think I have an idea as to how you would do it, but I am not entirely sure so I will try it out and post the "how to" on it in a later blog.

I recently did something that was somewhat similar to this, but I'll admit that this one looks better than mine. This is very interesting because I normally only see it on ladies with dreadlocks. I think its a pretty simple style to do (perhaps I'll eat my words later though) and what I like about it is that you can wear it for a few days if you make the rows tight. I'm sure you can see that the person in the photo is a bit young though so I'll try it and post it. Then we can judge whether it would work in the corporate world.

Hail to the "push back" and lephondo (pony tail/bun). One can never go wrong with this style, no matter how old or fresh your relaxer is. The only thing I would advice is that you use an afro bun if your relaxer is not fresh. I don't know about you ladies but I think it's a bit tacky when one wears a bun that's clearly meant to be worn with freshly relaxed hair on fra hair? What do you think? Do you have any "go-to" hairstyles? Send me your photos on justfab13@gmail.com and I will post them. You can crop them or ask me to crop them if you don't want to show your face.

This is how my hair currently looks - 07 May 2010

In my earlier posts, I spoke a lot about the fact that my hair is currently a bit on the "fra" side.

Well, as I said, I am trying to keep it looking shiny and healthy even though it is "fra". I am doing this by moisturising it with a curl activator and using moisturising spray on the really fra parts twice a day and making sure that I wear my stocking (I should really be wearing my silk scarf) to bed every night. I also keep it in pigtails so that it doesn't get tangled while I toss and turn during the night, and if I don't go out during the day I just take them off to moisturise and then do them again.

This is how my hair currently looks:

This is the growth

SA Celebs whose hair I admire

There are a few ladies (SA celebs)  who make me want go to the salon or change my hair style completely every time they appear in magazines or on TV. As this blog is about celebrating wonderful hair care brands, I thought I would mention them. LOL, yes they are not hair care brands, but they are brands in their own right and they are brands with what I call "Good Hair".

Normally the term "good hair" is not used to describe our black hair, and its really sad, and some of these ladies have weaves and not natural hair, but because their hair/weaves is/are always impeccable I have added them to the list. I hope that one day I can interview them about their hair on the blog:

Bonang Matheba

This young lady always has a weave, or at least I have never seen her real hair, however, her weave always looks good. What I like is that she doesn't go for the blonde or funky colours or highlights. Her weave is always fresh and classy but young and fun at the same time.

Lira

Yes, she can make you want to cut your hair and go natural. I like that her hair always looks soft but you can see that she does not relax it. I like the way it always shines. I know that it may seem strange for me to talk about Lira when this blog is about relaxed hair (mostly), but I find that when my relaxer is not fresh anymore (like now that I am trying to go relaxer free for 3 months) I tend to think about her for inspiration in keeping my hair shiny and healthy looking.

Penny Lebyane

What I love about Penny's hair is that it looks very rich (LOL..this so says the girl who used to hate her thick locks). She looks like she has good hair. What I have also noticed is that even though she wears weaves relatively often, her hairline still exists. This shows that she understands that she needs to keep her hair healthy underneath the weave. I have seen her with "fra" hair once, but I must say that it was still rich. I mean yes we all have our bad hair days so I won't use that against her.

Noni Gasa

This woman is probably known more for her baldhead than for her hair. The reason she is on this list is that firstly, she looks good with her baldhead. I have seen a lot of people in the limelight and those not in the lime light who have tried to rock the look but were unsuccessful. She ROCKS it. It seems like these days she is trying to grow her hair and I must commend her for making an effort with it. She has managed to keep it looking good even when its at that awkward length where its too long to call it short hair, but still too short to refer to it as long hair.

**Please note that I have not used any images here because I do not have any, and I did not want to take pictures from Google as they may be subject to copyright, You may Google the ladies if you are not too familiar with them**

Essential Hair Care Tips

I know that sometimes reading an entire blog to get various hair care tips can be time consuming, so I thought I would provide a list of hair care tips:

• Rather use a mild shampoo with a low PH level to wash your hair. An SLS or SLES free shampoo is also best to use on your hair (find out more on the post on Sulfates).
• 2-in-1 Shampoos are not good for our hair; they can actually dry the hair out. That’s why you should use a shampoo and then a conditioner.
• Deep condition as often as you can.
• I know that most of us don't wash our hair everyday, but if you do, try washing every 4 - 7 days instead. Washing too often (especially with SLS/SLES shampoos) will dry out your hair.
• Add essential oils to your conditioner, as our hair loses these during the shampoo process.
• When washing your hair, rub only in 1 direction to avoid tangling - also, comb your hair after its 80-90% dry as hair is weak and more prone to breakage when wet.
• Instead of rubbing your hair with a towel to dry it, rather leave the towel on your head for about 15 - 30 minutes to let it absorb the water, or rub in 1 direction if you are in a hurry.
• Wash your hair with warm water as hot water can dry it
• A healthy lifestyle will do wonders for your hair
• Leave-in conditioners are here for a reason ladies, lets use them, they will help hydrate our hair.
• Avoid heat as much as possible - air dry instead of blow drying, do a roller set instead of a tong and only limit our use of straighteners to once a month or so (see why I am trying to find hairstyles that will look good with my "fra" hair LOL)
• Use a wide toothed comb - also try to limit your use of combs to a few times a week. I actually only ever use a comb on washdays, or at least 2 times a week in winter because I must admit it gets harder to wash my hair often for fear of the cold, finger comb your hair.
• When detangling your hair, start at the ends and work your way down, in that way by the time you get the tangles, you have already created a smooth path for removal, which will prevent hair breakage.
• Satin/Silk pillowcases and scarves are the way to go. They will not dry your hair out as with most materials as they slide easier when you move your head at night. Okay, I am still struggling with this one because the scarves slip off at night, I wear stockings (not good).
• Moisturise your hair twice a day. This will help give it extra moisture. DON'T use too much product though it make your hear too weak and it will break.
• Avoid products that contain alcohol
• In winter, try and get a weave, as this will protect your hair from the dry winter air, however, wash it and spray it regularly to keep your hair moisturised and your scalp clean. If you aren't one for weaves, a wig is a good alternative, or a wool hat/cap, just try and wear a satin/silk scarf underneath.
• Wear hats/caps in summer to protect your hair from the hot sun (wear a silk/satin scarf underneath or get one that's lined)
• Always wash your hair after swimming - you want to get the chlorine out as soon as possible.
• Add oils to your hair regimen. You can either get a hot oil treatment once a month, add oils to your conditioner after washing, use oils to massage your scalp (this will also help the scalp generate natural oils), Pre-poo (this is when you oil your hair an hour or the night before shampooing) it will protect the hair from the chemicals in shampoos. Some of the oils to use are: Lavender oil, jojoba oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, grape seed oil, castor oil (although the smell can be intolerable for some), macadamia nut oil...most of these oils can be found in grocery stores (try Pick 'n Pay and Woolies food if you can't find them in your regular grocery store)

Where I shop for hair products

The most difficult part of my hair journey has been finding the hair products that I read about on most hair blogs. That’s because the bloggers are US based and being from South Africa, I would have to shop online to get some of the things that they write about. This is one of the reasons I started the blog, to help fellow SA ladies with finding products and accessories.

Clicks and Clicks pharmacy

My search started at Clicks. I love buying hair products at clicks because they really have a wide variety. Clicks pharmacies also tend to have a lot of products too and at times when I don't find something that I want at Clicks I normally find it at the pharmacy. Clicks is also cool because I get points when I use my club card so essentially I get some of my money back YAY!!! However, I have to use the points to purchase at Clicks again.

By the way ladies, the Clicks website has an Ethnic hair care section, how cool is that?

The Body Shop

There is also the body shop for conditioners. I decided to try their products because I figured that they would have less chemicals as The Body Shop is known for considering the environment when developing products. I read somewhere that their products may have more chemicals than they say they do though, but it hasn't stopped me from using their Banana Conditioner as it helps make my hair softer after washes.

Various Pharmacies

Pharmacies are great for finding those rare brands. Although they may be more pricey than the average shops, you can find some hidden gems in there. I will make a list of the brands that I have bought at pharmacies and post it in one of my future blogs.

• For those ladies who live in Midrand/Kyalami/Sandridge, there is a shop at the Boulders shopping center that sells hair products (its close to Shoprite). The wonderful thing about the shop is that it also sells combs, plastic caps, shower caps, hair fiber as well as various other things. I really love buying my plastic hair caps and rollers there as they are reasonably priced. LOVE IT.
• Randburg shopping centre - I think that almost everyone who lives in Johannesburg knows that Randburg shopping centre is great for those with not-so-deep pockets LOL. They have various shops that sell hair products and hair accessories for reasonable prices. So go there and check them out. I don't know any of the shop names LOL!! I don't think anyone does, but if you are ever in the Randburg area and have time you may want to check it out.
• Metro - I went to metro once with my man and I discovered that they sell hair accessories for ridiculously low prices. Yes I admit, some of the stuff that I bought weren't worth it because they would break apart after being used once or twice, but their hair bands are worth it. I got a pack of twelve hair bands for like R15. That’s a steal.

Legit

Okay I went into legit recently to pay my Edgar’s account and the line was a bit long so I decided to look at their hair bands. They are actually not bad at all and they had some nice things too. It seemed like some of them were on sale though so I am not sure if those were their usual prices.

Accessories

Need I say more? Yes of course the prices aren't as cheap as those of the above stores but you can get some pretty nice hair clips and hair bands there, especially us working ladies who need to have hair accessories that look good but still have a mature look to them.

Hillbrow (I think)

Okay I am not really a weave girl, but I have friends who love their weaves and some who have a wig or two and I have been told that there is a place in Hillbrow that sells good hair fiber. To be honest I don't think I would be too comfortable going to Hillbrow on my own, but I know that its probably just because I haven't been there before.

Discom

Discom is also another shop that you can look for hair products and hair fiber at (like Yakki bulk and the likes). Their prices are reasonable but I find that they normally have brands that I can find in most grocery stores.

Okay these are the stores that I can think of now. Most of them can be found nationwide YAY!!! If you know of any shop in any of the provinces, please send me an email justfab13@gmail.com and I will update this post, or simply leave your comments. Ladies lets make our hair PRETTY FABULOUS!!!

Biotin, Placenta, Sulfates, Alcohol, mineral oil

During the past year I have read a lot of articles about the effects of Biotin, Placenta and Sulfates on hair. I have also mentioned them in previous posts and thought that perhaps I should write a bit more about them so that you may understand why I say what I said about them and make your own decision:

Biotin

Biotin is said to be a major component in the natural hair manufacturing process -- it is essential to not only grow new hair, but it also plays a major role in the overall health of skin and nails. I used to take Biotin supplements from the Clicks range, but I have never been good at taking supplements so I never even finished the course. However, I found a placenta with Biotin so I just use that instead. I also read that biotin is not absorbed well by the hair and skin, so perhaps my placenta and supplements are not really of much use anyways. I keep using the placenta because it makes my hair really soft (in previous post). Its said that a biotin deficiency is a rare disorder so I guess most of us are safe. However, if you start experiencing hair loss, perhaps it would be wise to consider adding Biotin to your hair regimen or diet (if you can swallow raw eggs)...however please remember to first check with your doctor to see if your hair loss isn't linked to something more serious.

Placenta

When I first heard that placenta is good for hair I was not very keen on trying it. The thought of using placenta on my hair was a bit gross. However, I warmed up to it when I found it and saw that the product was in a spray bottle that looked like a normal hair spray. Placenta is good for hair because it helps build the protein that is lost as a result of processing our hair using chemicals (relaxers, perms etc) or the excessive heat caused by blow drying, tongs etc. I find that it helps make my hair more manageable, I use the nu-Hair brand, but I am sure there could be other brands out there I just haven't found them yet. If you know of another brand and have tried it, please email me (justfab13@gmail.com) or leave a comment and let me know. I am always open to trying new brands and will post the results on the blog.

Sulfates

Most shampoos that I have come across have a product called Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) or Sodium Laurenth Sulfate (SLES). Its used to give the shampoo a rich lather, and lets face it, most if not all of us tend to feel that our shampoo is working when we see the foam right? Well Sulfates are very good cleaning agents unfortunately they are too good. They actually strip the hair of moisture and various essential oils. Sulfate free shampoos are better to use BUT they do not clean the hair as well as the Sulfate shampoos do. So what's a girl to do???? Well I use a sulfate free shampoo at home. Its from the nu-Hair range. Its a bit more pricey than most shampoos so I am still looking for another brand. What I noticed about it is that it doesn't lather as quickly as the SLS/SLES shampoos, but my hair doesn't get hard after washing.

I figured that although it may not wash my hair as well as SLS/SLES shampoos do, its not a problem at all because I still visit the salon for washes anyways and I have a feeling that they use SLS/SLES shampoos. So my hair still gets the good "scrubbing" that the SLES/SLS provide (unfortunately it also gets the damage). If however, you are one of those ladies who prefer to do your hair at home 90% of the time, you may then buy a deep cleansing shampoo to use once a month.

Alcohol

If you want long beautiful hair, avoid hair products with alcohol at all costs. Alcohol dries hair and dry hair gets damaged and breaks off. This means that alcohol prevents hair growth. I have often felt like I look strange while looking at the ingredients/chemicals in hair products in the shop, but trust me its worth it. You don't want alcohol anywhere near your hair.

Mineral Oil

Okay, from what I have read, mineral oil is said to be bad for our hair because although it helps it shine, it also coats it so that no moisture can get to the hair. Think about it this way, its like trying to wash a pan that had oil in it. What you will see is that the water does not reach the surface of the pan, the oil does not get washed out. That’s what mineral oil does to our hair. However, companies that manufacture hair products say that the mineral oil they use is not the same as the one used for industrial purposes. They say that its fine to use on our hair, so in that case I leave it up to you to decide whether to use products with mineral oil or not. I personally don't use them because I don't want to take the risk.

Relaxer - DIY or Salon?

Hmmm...for the longest time I found it difficult to relax my hair at home. It would never come out as I had desired, it still doesn't but at least these days its a bit soft afterwards.

In high school there was a time when I would go for a relaxer every 4 weeks (big mistake), that didn't last long anyways as I am a very low maintenance girl. When I got to tertiary I would either go to the salon or do it myself, (I guess it depended on how well I used my allowance).

I know that there are people who relax their hair themselves and then there are those who have it done at the salon all the time. I once read an interview with a hair stylist in which he recommended that we NEVER relax our hair ourselves. His argument was that relaxers have many chemicals that can not only damage our hair but harm the scalp too. I totally get where he was coming from, however, it left me thinking about a couple of things:

If relaxers are so harmful (yes they are), why are there all these ranges of DIY relaxers? Do they have less chemicals? (I seriously doubt that). Okay, have these companies made these products available just so that they can make more money? Also, was the stylist saying this so that he can get more people to go to salons, thus ensuring that he makes more money, I mean if you really think about it, if we all relaxed our hair at salons they'd be making more money.

I know people who relax their hair at home quite successfully. The results are always salon perfect, and then I know others (myself included) who have semi-decent results. I personally prefer to go to the salon, simply because the results are better, but perhaps if my hair came out perfectly with DIY relaxers I would have a different opinion. My advice to anyone who does DYI relaxers would be to make sure that you wash it out really well. Perhaps go to the salon for a wash the following week so that they can also wash it, or wash it with a neutralizing shampoo the following week so as to make sure that the chemicals are out. Also, don't leave the relaxer in your hair even when your scalp is really burning with the hope that those extra two minutes will work magic. Trust me, it doesn't. I have done that before and regretted it. It only harms your scalp and the relaxer damages your hair (even though it may not be visible to you).

Anyways, that's my take on it, What do you think? Email me on justfab13@gmail.com and tell me what your thoughts are and I will make sure to post them.

Dealing with my receding hairline

As I mentioned in a previous post, my hairline is receding and I have realised that I need to do something urgently. I have thus decided not to relax my hair for the next 3 months. I figured that if I give my hair a break from chemicals then it will grow back (hopefully).

My only problem is that the last time I decided to give my hair a 3-month break I got through it by braiding, and since my hairline is the problem this time, I reckon braiding wouldn't be the smartest thing to do. To be honest, I have never had to worry about my hairline, EVER. It only started being problematic when I decided to start taking care of my hair (go figure) how crazy is that?

Anyways, I am now 6 weeks post relaxer and because I did my last relaxer myself my hair was not as relaxed as it would have been had I gone to the salon. Its therefore a bit on the "fra" side. This means that I am now dealing with hair that's between an afro and relaxed hair. I am nervous that I may not be able to take care of it and have Googled a few styles. Being a marketer, its going to be interesting to see if there is an inner stylist within me. I am hoping that I will manage to create pretty fierce hairstyles for the next 3 months. Hairstyles that I will be able to go to work in (hoping to get a full time job by then) and those that I can go out in. I am going to take pictures of all the good hairstyles that I come up with and hopefully it can inspire and help those ladies out there who may be in the same situation.

Below is a photo of my hairline

Moisturising my hair

One of the things that frustrate me about my hair texture is that it is extremely dry. I know that black people generally have dry hair, but I feel like mine is amongst the worst. The other problem is that when I put too much moisturiser on it, it falls out. Its crazy, my hair is schizo!!

Anyways, I think I have found something that works. I am saying "I think" because I know that there could be other things out there which could work even better.

Instead of using moisturiser for my hair, I use a curl activator. Its water based and has glycerin (which is good for hair) and I find that it does the job very well. What I also sometimes do when my hair is very dry is use a spray along with the curl activator. In order to make sure that my hair gets well moisturised, I moisturise it in sections, it may be anything from 4 to 8, depending on how dry it is. I do this morning and evening and its really made a difference in my hair. My hair doesn't break as much anymore and it isn't dry when i rub it together.

Below are the brands that have worked for me:

Special Feeling curl activator
Black Like me curl activator
Black like me moisturising spray
**The Black like me curl activator and moisturising spray combo were R16. Yes a real bargain...LOL..I am a big bargain hunter. I don't believe in buying cheap if something is not of good quality, however if something is a good bargain I will be all over it.


PICS below:

What has not worked for my hair

As with everyone who is on a hair journey like mine (or any other for that matter), I have tried a couple of things that I had read about but some have just not worked for me. I guess what works for one person will not automatically work for another (me). Below are some things that didn't work:

1. I read once that using distilled water and olive oil as a moisturiser could keep hair well moisturised. I tried it and all it did was make my hair very very hard.

2. Apple cider vinegar rinse - I am really not sure whether this worked or not, however, I stopped using it because I am currently not employed and so I use the money that I get when I have freelanced for the really important things. What I remember though is that I once used too much vinegar in my rinse and my hair turned to hay. That was not pretty at all.

3. Wrapping the hair while drying - I have read a lot about this and decided to try it one night after washing my hair. When I woke up the following morning, it was difficult to comb my hair back as it had dried while being in a totally different direction. I decided then that it was not for me.

4. Sleeping with a plastic cap on my head - I read that in order to keep my hair soft and grow it, it has to be kept well moisturised, which I agree with totally. However, this person suggested that one should sleep with a plastic cap on the head as when you wake up its nice and soft, then you just use olive oil to moisturise...No no no thank you. this was not for me. My hair always became dry ( I did it for 3 days) and it started breaking.

5. Keeping my hair tied in a ponytail - the aim of this is to keep the ends hidden so that they don't dry out. This makes sense as when they dry out the hair starts breaking. In addition, when hair is let loose all the time it tends to rub against clothes which could cause split ends (this is not the only thing that causes split ends). I have been doing this for the past few months, and although I saw a difference in my ends, I also unfortunately saw a difference in my hair line...It started receding. YIP...I am now trying to grow my hairline back. To be honest I also found this to be boring as it limited my hairstyles (simply because my hair is of medium length).

As I said at the beginning of this post, what works for one person may not work for another, the above did not work for me, but I tried them because they make sense.

Wash day essentials

Washing my hair - Problem solved

The hardest thing about maintaining my hair has always been washing it. It would always be soft when it was wet, then I swear it would just turn into hay after being blow-dried. I never understood why that happened, I mean I understood that it was the blow drier, but what really baffled me was that they blow dried it at the salon but it wouldn't be so dry.

Anyways, I finally decided to let it dry naturally and changed a couple of things:

1. Firstly I changed my shampoo. I read that shampoo's with sulfates actually dry the hair, so I went in search of a sulfate free shampoo, and I found it YAY!!! It was in the form of the nu-Hair, Natril Shampoo. Its soap, chemical and colourant free, so its good for my hair. I found it to be a little pricey compared to the shampoos that i normally used, however, it was totally worth the price (just forgot how much it is).
2. Condition, condition, condition. Believe it or not (and I know that some of you also do it) I sometimes never used to bother with conditioning my hair after washes. At times I would just shampoo and dry. But then I read that conditioning hair is VITAL to hair maintenance and since starting my hair journey I have never done a wash without conditioning. I find The Body shop Banana shampoo to work pretty well on my hair, but the Organics deep conditioner has been AMAZING too. I normally mix the two with some oils: olive oil, macadamia nut oil, coconut oil, grape seed oil and avocado oil are just some of the oils that I have mixed my conditioner with and I found them to help make my hair soft, and the longer I leave the conditioner in my hair, the better it works.
3. I started using hair placenta - Its the nu-Hair placenta with conditioning agents and BIOTIN!!!! Hellooooo good hair!! I mean this is the stuff that hair dreams are made of. While researching hair maintenance and growth, I came across a lot of articles that stated that placenta and biotin were both good for hair, so you can imagine how excited I was when I found this two in one (well 3 in one considering it has conditioning agents).
4. I used the mpl hair oil on my scalp after my washes. Its got coconut oil too which is also said to be great for hair. The oil makes my hair nice and rich (as if my hair needed to get richer), and for some reason I find that my hair gets really soft when I use it together with the hair placenta. I have used both products on their own and they didn't work as well.
5. I decided to STOP using the blow drier after washes and just combed my hair back (with a wide toothed comb when it was 80% dry) and then let it dry naturally. I find that it doesn't get as hard as it does when I blow dry it after washes.

I am quite satisfied with these products so far, but because I am really into this healthy hair thing I will probably keep looking for more/different products, for instance, i would like to try a hair mask, just to see how it would work. Just hope that none of the products that I decide to try will ever make my hair fall! I would just die....

My love hate relationship with my hair

I have realised that I have a love-hate relationship with my hair....There, I said it. I am a young black woman from South Africa and ever since I can remember I have, at one time or another, had a problem with my hair. I have the kind of hair that people refer to as being hard to manage, stubborn, kinky etc, and I have loads of it (if only it was long too), I remember being younger and trying to hold it in a pony tail and it was always a huge mission especially when it was "fra" (when it needed an urgent relaxer - we tend to say its frustrated - fra).

I also remember how frustrated I used to get when I would go to a hair salon and come out looking as though I had gone for a wash and blow out when I had actually gone for a relaxer....yes, I have probably shed as many tears for my teenage crushes as I have for my hair. At some point I even considered shaving off patches of hair in the center of my head so that I could have less hair. I used to look at people with thin hair and envy them because their relaxers would always come out perfectly and they seemed to last longer. I figured that if I shaved parts of my hair off, then my problems would all go away...thankfully I never EVER went through with that bright idea.

Okay, I guess the above is the HATE part of my relationship with my hair...Now comes the part that I am trying to work on...the LOVE between me, myself and my hair. Isn't it funny how sometimes the one thing we hate about ourselves tends to be the one thing we get the most compliments on? For some reason when people talk about my hair (on my good hair days) they tell me how nice and thick it is. I never understood how something that I hated so much could be the one thing that people love about my hair until I met up with one fabulous hairstylist. That man worked magic on my hair, he relaxed it perfectly and then cut the split ends in a way that no other stylist had done before. My hair was AMAZING!!! When I turned my head, my wonderful crown of glory seemed to flow fabulously in the same direction. It felt as though someone was always following me with a fan like they do on photo shoots. That's when I realised why most people love thick hair. Unfortunately that only lasted for about 3 weeks, then, it was back to hating my hair. However, for some reason those 3 weeks have stayed with me until now (6 years later), and they are the reason why I decided to start this blog.

Last year I discovered a few blogs on hair and I decided to grow my hair really long, just to see how long it could grow. I must admit, it became a bit of an obsession for the first 2 weeks, then I stopped trying, then I started again...you get the love-hate thing I spoke about earlier? My siblings thought I was crazy but my boyfriend was supportive (but I think secretly he thought I was crazy too). I must admit, it has been harder than I thought, my hair has grown a little bit, but because I have spent a few months with my hair in corn rows or a pony tail most of the time, my hairline is beginning to disappear. So I decided to start a blog (not because my hairline is beginning to disappear) but because I thought it would be fun to share my personal hair journey.

So here goes....