Heat Protectant Ideas

Since I love being natural and not adding any chemicals to my hair – okay except color hehe – I have been researching ways to protect my hair from heat since I will be straightening my hair periodically.  I need great results unlike what I just experienced when I first added heat. My ends were terrible and while I honestly don’t know what  caused it….heat protectant, tension method blow drying or whatever…I know I’m going to try a new approach to my heat protectant 🙂

So my research has found the following things to be great natural heat protectants:

• EVOO
• Coconut Oil
• Argon Oil
• Grapeseed Oil
• Shea Butter

I have never used Argon oil or Grapeseed oil for anything and I hear great things about them both so I will try them, starting with Grapeseed Oil.

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To Much Hair not enough Scalp

My hair itself is not severely dry. It’s dry in the sense that if not properly cared for it can get dry but I don’t have to do extra things to keep it moisturized. Weekly, I do the normal hair care maintenance such as cowash, deep condition, moisturize, hot oil treatment, and seal. My dilemma is my scalp. And it ain’t nothing new. When I was relaxed I had a prescription from my dermatologist to help me combat my dry, itchy, flakey  scalp. Once I did my BC and started cowashing daily then weekly once winter hit, ureka my problem had been solved. Or so I thought! Once I loc’ed and was unable to wash my hair for three weeks at a time my problem resurfaced. 😦  now here I am days after taking my locs out and my scalp is still a problem. So much so that my intention of staying straight for as long as possible is over! My hair looks and feels great but my scalp is flaking and itching. I’m about to go on my research kick so I can find out how I can cure my scalp condition naturally. I don’t want to go back to the prescription for two reasons, one I’m on this natural kick and that formula was  NOT and two, I’m sure the grease  prescription will clog my pores and hinder growth. If you guys know of anything I’d be very appreciative if you shared. 🙂

Dandruff Made Me Do It

Thursday was the end of the line for my dandruff free scalp. It’s like clockwork; first my scalp starts itching – Wednesday then the flakes appear Thursday thus Friday I must wash and relieve my itchy flakey scalp (Oh my hair is still on point tho, very well moisturized). Good news in this: my scalp gets the attention it deserves 🙂 Bad news: my straight hair is OVER for this month 😦 …well idk yet I may flat iron it for x-mas.  I know I should have waited til then but I was just so excited to see what my hair was going to look like straight.

Anywho, here’s what I did:
– Put 4 sections in my head using butterfly clips ( totally new for me, prior to locking I never sectioned as I didn’t feel I had enough hair. Now I notice my hair tangles more assuming because there is more length)
Deep conditioned on dry hair with Le Kair Cholesterol Plus because I had just “damaged” my hair by using heat I wanted to treat it with protien to fill in the damaged areas. Used plastic  cap and thick hat over conditioned hair for 45 mins
– Shampooed  DC out using Elaata QP with warm water to open my cuticles for the DC
– Deep conditioned using my DC mix to moisturize my hair as protien can be very drying. Used plastic cap and thick hat over conditioned hair for 45 mins
– Rinsed with cool water to close cuticles back.
– Did LCO method, which is liquid, cream and oil, my products of choice for this method were: water, Miss Jessies Baby Butter Cream, and coconut oil respectively.
– Installed two strand twist in the back and flat twist in the front

The dandruff that started moving in on my otherwise healthy scalp

Applying the Le Kair Conditioner to my dry hair

Shower cap to contain heat

Thick hat to add heat to assist in opening hair cuticles

Finished results front view

Finished results somewhat rear view..lol

2012 Thru Now

A lot of us keep journals or diaries for the purpose of looking back and seeing how much we’ve grown or the changes we’ve made. I’ve been trying to do that with my hair journey. There was nothing wrong with my relaxed hair, it had a nice length (but it did not grow past that lenghth..lol), no split ends, no damage at all. My hair was pretty healthy. What did bother me was relaxers ! Whenever I relaxed my hair I would get sick. Like literally feel bad. I would get light headed and then eventually start to feel faint.  I’ve never really fainted due to the relaxer but the feeling is terrible just the same.  At any rate I left the creamy crack alone and never looked back

During my natural hair journey I’ve been both loc’ed and with free natural tresses. I loc’ed in January of this year and I decided to unlock this month. Two reasons led me to the decision to unlock: I couldn’t deal with the rough look anymore…I know that’s terrible but everything ain’t for eveeybody. And a more important decision was based on my HAIR’S needs. And this hair needed water every week! My scalp was so dry it appeared that I has cradle cape most of the time. It would be okay for the first week after a new retwist but after that it was a dreadful  dry mess. And yes I tried moisturizers but nothing worked.

So below are some captured moments of my hair then -relaxed, Big chop, TWA, – and today.

Relaxed hair couple of weeks before my big chop in 2012

Couple of days after my BC

8 months natural length check

January 2014, The day I started my locs…my hair was 9 inches long I know because stylist asked my so she could give me an estimate over the phone.

My birthday September, I was fully locked no amount of untwisting or washing could mess up my locs.

A week ago 2 days before I flat ironed

A few days ago with flat ironed / bantu knot do

Several years relaxed vs two and a half natural

Twisted Out with Miss Jessies

Right after taking my locs out I wanted to give my hair a break before adding heat which I knew I was going to do, so I did a twist out using Miss Jessies Baby butter. I fell in love with it! It really defined my twist out with a little of product. I do want to try other things to see if my results are as nice and because it’s rather pricy. I plan on trying Shea  Moisture Curl enhancing smoothie again, my first attempt was not worthy to mention.

What I did
Washed my hair with Naturalicious Moroccan Rhassoul Clay 5-in-1
Detangled while conditioning  using Herbal Essence Hello Hydration Conditioner
Twisted using Miss Jessies Baby Butter Cream

Day 2 …I forgot to capture day 1 lol

Day 3

Day 4

At the end of day 4 I had to wash my hair in preps of coloring the next day.  So below is a braid out prep and results