So You Want To Be Natural Pt. 6 – The Regimen

Now that you have all these products and tools to grow your healthy natural hair you must decide when and how often you will apply them, this is called your regimen. Most curlie naturals (there are naturals who wear their hair straight…yes it’s natural because there is no chemical being added… we’ll save my thoughts on this for a separate post) use a regimen to make sure their hair is on a schedule of health. How you put together your regimen will depend on the needs of your hair. The needs of your hair will be determined by trial and error and things you already know about your hair.  For example if you already know your hair is dry and brittle, you may need a protein treatment to be done monthly. If you know you have type 4c hair, you know your hair is tightly coiled and if you want it longer you may want to add a stretching technique to your regimen on wash day.

A simple regimen: cleanse weekly if cowashing and shampoo monthly, deep condition weekly, protein treatment monthly, moisturize and seal daily. Again this is very basic for a more detailed realistic regimen click here.

Previous: Pt. 5

 

Disclaimer: Everything listed here is basic and is meant to be a starting point. The links I’ve including will take you to some of the products I use for the various steps of maintaining my natural hair. I am no expert on hair care, I do not have my cosmetology license, nor am I a chemist, biologist, or scientist. I am a natural women who’s been researching natural hair care since 2012. I am however an expert in my own hair story and that’s what being natural is all about…developing a relationship with the hairs on your own head. I share what has worked for me in hopes that it may work for you as well. 

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So You Want To Be Natural Pt. 3 – Bedtime Protection

You’re now either sporting your beautiful TWA or you’re  ready to start rocking gorgeous transitional styles (or protective style). Next you’ve got to keep that hair of yours protected when you go to sleep your first night and each and every night for the rest of your natural journey. Our natural tresses are easily damaged by our cotton bed sheets. The cotton robs our hair of moisture causing it to break and it also snags our hair again causing it to break. The tool to stop this…satin! Satin is a type of threading which is smooth without loose threads. It can either be silk, polyester, or nylon  satin or other types if satin. These mentioned are the popular ones. The silk type is more expensive and it feels very sleek on your skin and hair.  You can either invest in satin sheets,  satin pillow case(s), or satin hair bonnet, or all of these products. Either of these satin products are needed to protect your hair from the elements of sleep. I don’t sleep with pillows at all, I just cant…lol so I utilize satin bonnets and silk and polyester scarves.

Previous: Pt 2 Big Chop Or Not
Next: Pt. 4

Disclaimer: Everything listed here is basic and is meant to be a starting point. The links I’ve including will take you to some of the products I use for the various steps of maintaining my natural hair. I am no expert on hair care, I do not have my cosmetology license, nor am I a chemist, biologist, or scientist. I am a natural women who’s been researching natural hair care since 2012. I am however an expert in my own hair story and that’s what being natural is all about…developing a relationship with the hairs on your own head. I share what has worked for me in hopes that it may work for you as well. 

My Buttercup’s Regimen

After much thought and analysis I have decided on a refreshing regimen for my 4 year old. It’s very simple but I feel it will be the most effective thus far.  As I tried something similar in the past and I did see growth when I used this method for her. The Burts Bees, Nature’s Baby, and Goin Natural Rare Moisture Butter are all new products.

Week 1
Apply 4 sections using butterfly clips
Shampoo twice  using Burts Bees Baby Shampoo

Deep  condition using  my DC mix minus all the essential oils and vitamins

Rinse

Apply leave in conditioner, kinky curly not today

Apply Goin Natural Rare Moisture Butter ( started using this for her because of its all natural ingredients on Sunday January 11, 2015); prior to that I was using my homemade moisturizer.
Seal with coconut oil
Style

Weeks 2,3 and 4
Cowash using nature’s baby organics

Deep condition with coconut oil

Apply leave in conditioner, Kinky Curly Knot Today
Apply moisturizer
Seal with coconut oil
Style

I plan to give this routin some time to see if it works if it does not I am going to try what I did with my oldest daughter: not wash her hair as much. I washed my oldest daughters hair maybe once every 2-3 months and it was very healthy and long. I’m not sure if this is because “dirty hair grows” or because you are not removing the naturals oils that is produced on our scalp. I’m even struggling with the idea of greasing her scalp with some good old fashion hair greese… either Blue Magic or Burgamont.  Time will tell. I will give it two months to see if I notice any progress.

New Year’s Hair Resolution

I remember  thinking out my  New Years resolutions when I was younger then when I got a little older I started writing  it down.  The end result in both trials was that I never actually took those vows serious, so I stopped making them.  I instead make Goals (short and long term).  And I make them as I see fit not just at the beginning of the year.  But as to not cause confusion with my hair goals I have decided to call this goal my hair resolution and it is this: To retain the actual amount of hair that I grow.   So in a nutshell, since the hair is said to be able to grow .5 inches  per month, at the end of 2015 my hair should be 6 inches longer than it presently is.  My hair is currently 13 inches.  Just before loc’ing in January of 2014 my hair was 10 inches. So in  11 months I retained 3 inches… BUMMER!  I’m sure I know why: towards the end of my loc journey I stopped sleeping with my satin cap.  Its really amazing how something so small can contribute to the total downfall of your hair growth.  But ladies (and gents if your here) if you dont do anything else to retain growth, WEAR a protective head cap at night or sleep with satin sheets.

If you’ve been following me or you’ve read some of my previous post you know I’ve been natural since May 2012.  I did my big chop at that time and had about an inch of hair.   In months, I’ve been natural for 32 months TODAY 🙂 Had I retained all growth my hair would be 16 inches. SO I’M SHORT BY THREE 😦 😦 I can never get those lost inches back but moving forward I can say that come May 2016 my hair length will be 19 inches!

All Bonnets Are NOT Created Equal

One of the best things we can do for our hair is to protect it from harm. We need to protect it from extreme temperatures, cold or heat. We have to protect it from breakage. We have to protect it from other things such as our bed sheets. We get this protection by covering our head with scarves, bonnets, and other head wraps. I chose to utilize the bonnet…cause they fancy and scarves tend to leave me in the middle of the night. The first bonnet I allowed to touch my precious strands was purchased from Sally’s and it did my hair no justice. For a while tho I thought it was, cause all i wanted to do was not put my hair on my cotton bed sheets. Then one day I wanted to get another cap from Sally’s and purusing the isles I picked up a cut pink one, similar to the other one, and discovered that it wassssss COTTON! Oh granted there was some other fabric in there also but it was majority cotton! How this angered me but at no one but myself. I should have researched more before purchasing any old bonnet. So then I left the store went home got on my laptop and starting looking for the best quality bonnet. One that would not be drying to my hair, one that did not share the same fabrics as my bed sheets, one that would be silky in texture and one that would not snag!!! I evaluated my cotton bonnet when I got home also and low and behold there were snags on it. So if there are snags on it, that causes friction which in turn does what??? Right!!! Snags my strands and BREAKS my hair 😦 😦 I knew I had to do something immediately so I went to the thrift store and purchased a satin scarf and used that until I found a trust worthy bonnet. I still had to wear the bonnet cause without it the scarf wouldn’t be on my head in the morning. I was okay with this because the cotton bonnet would not be touching my hair.

Meanwhile, back to my internet search, I stumbled upon a lady who hand makes bonnets with Charmeuse Satin. This is a great quality fabric which is not drying to the hair and it will not snag. The bonnet is very large and has a drawstring which I like cause I can adjust the tightness. Her prices are also very economical due to the way she makes them; they are not double lined. This was fine for me and once I received it I fell in love. I inspected it a couple of times and it is still in pristine condition, and I wash it weekly. For my daughter I purchased her a cut little bonnet from another website. My daughter does not like to wear it because its too tight around her head but its adorable and it’s made of satin so I know once my daughter decides to wear it her hair will be protected as well.

Images of both and their websites are below.

When it comes to caring for your hair be sure to use quality products in all facets of your regimen. No two bonnets are alike. And all bonnets are not created equal 🙂

Naturalsis72

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