Thursday, April 29, 2010

What is your Hair Type?

To be quite honest, one cannot know their hair type unless they are natural, have been natural before (relaxing/texlaxing), or if transitioning, and have a substantial amount of growth, at least six months. I am no expert at typing hair, just sharing stuff I have learned during my transition.

There are many sites which help let us know what types there are. A lot of people, use the 1-4 hair typing system, which has A,B,C subcategories. Now I feel that density, can vary within these hair types, but that is just me.

Type 1- is bone straight hair, with no curl pattern. All hair (scalp) produces its own oils, but it distributes easily through straight hair, as opposed to someone with 3 or 4 (subcategory) hair. There is no subcategory for type 1 hair, as I have said before, it has no curl pattern. Think Jennifer Aniston.

Type 2- is wavy hair. To me it resembles hair that has a loose s curl pattern, which is the bridge between curly and straight hair.
A- C. From Loose S Curl Pattern to a tighter S Curl pattern, closer to resembling curls.

Type 3- is a curly hair. Which has defined S Curl Pattern.You can tell this because the hair is loopy.
A-C. this type of hair is curlier the deeper the pattern. For example, type 3a can start of straight, and then begin it's loopy patter, whereas type 3c hair can be curly from the root.

Type 4- is curly hair as well but this type hair can resemble an s or z curl. The Z curl looks  like a zig zag. This type hair is tightly coiled, but is the most fragile of them all, because the hair is packed more densely. 
A-C. This type can be tightly curled, all the way to 4c which does not have a defined curl pattern.


A website that truly helped me me make sense of this whole hair typing this is NaturallyCurly.Com Their hair typing gives an in depth detail of what hair types are, and what products is best used for each type, although in my opinion, you really won't know what works for you unless you do trial, and error. 
Another Hair typing system brought to my attention, was posted on my Home hair care forum, Forum.BlackHairPlanet.Com by one of our best contributers, V, she really knows her stuff. Is Mizani's Natural Curl Key. Their typing is a bit different, as it does not follow the 1-4 a/b/c categories, but has eight categories, from type I being Straight Hair, to type VIII Zig Zag Coiled Hair.


I knew my hair type by the time I found the Mizani Natural Curl Key, but it helped me narrow it down a bit more, and is also specific in how each type hair grows, and what have you.


Anyway, those two typing systems really helped me during my transition, and even when I was newly natural, and still trying to figure out what my hair type was, and what worked best for it. Again, I stand by the good ol' trail and error. Remember, what works for one person, may not work for the next. I am no expert, but I hope this information helps!


Until Next time, HHG to All! Naomi <3

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Update

I usually try to post at least once a week, but I haven't been doing that lately and I apologize! Life has been kind of hectic for me for the past couple of weeks, and I have not been able to give my hair the baby treatment as I usually do! Lol, but in the past weeks I have flat ironed, which lasted for about a week and a half, and then I did two strand twists again last Sunday. I might take them out tomorrow, even though I'm sure they could probably last for the whole week, we'll see. Anyway, I don't have my camera, so I won't be able to post any pics! Which I know sucks majorly, but I will be purchasing a new camera soon, so all my pics will be nice and crisp.

I am going to start posting tutorials, in which I do my styling so any of you naturals, or transitioners, or even relaxed ladies (depending on the style), can see the steps in which I do particular styles, and do them for yourselves, or just use it an idea to form your own styles.

I will also try to keep updates on how my growth is going with the use of my cayenne pepper treatments. 

Thanks for the support, and keep following, or start if you are not already! Please post any comments, ideas, or questions!

Until Next Time, HHG to All! Naomi <3

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Uneven Hair Growth

As you all know I have been natural for the past six months, and everything has been going well. My bald spots are growing hair, thanks to my cayenne pepper treatments, my hair is healthier than it's ever been, I experience little to no shedding or breakage, I have no heat damage, no split ends that I know of, but yet my hair decided it wanted to grow unevenly.

I BCed at home, and I believe my hair was EL (Ear Length) or close to NL (Neck Length) since then the back has grown to be about SL (Shoulder Length), but yet the front only reaches about CL (Chin Length) /EL, I know this because I decided to flat iron my hair, since I am not home, and cannot style it everyday because I do not have my beloved products! 

I am sure this is pretty common, but I am frustrated! I am hoping my hair becomes even by the end of this year, I refuse to claim SL until then! I also have a piece of hair that broken off while I was relaxed due to hair care ignorance lol. To help influence growth, I will keep up with my reggie, I have not been trimming/dusting (dusting means to trim a tiny amount of hair, small enough to resemble dust, hence the name), because I really haven't felt a need to, my ends are not not split, they are uneven in places, but I want to give it a chance to catch up, especially because it has been so long since I have retained length.

While I was relaxed, my hair never surpassed EL, which was really upsetting, because of how badly broken off it was, I cut my hair short back in 2007 so my hair would look decent. What I did not know, was cutting my hair was not going to solve the problem if I still had the same bad habits, you know, relaxing every 4 weeks, not sealing, not deep conditioning,washing/cowashing, basically not doing anything, and relying only on my visits to the salon, and the "advisory" of the beautician.

Anyway, I am entering myself in my own challenge! The retaining length for even hair challenge! Lol, my goal, like I stated before is to get my hair close or the same length all around without trimming or dusting. I hope it works, I am giving myself until the end of this year to complete this challenge! You all are welcome to join me, or set your own personal challenge, and share your experiences!


Until Next Time, HHG TO ALL! Naomi <3

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Do You Prepoo?

For those of you who are not familiar with what to prepoo means, I will explain. Prepooing is a method of providing moisture for your hair before you shampoo. Shampoo tends to strip the hair of it's moisture, leaving it dry, but prepooing before hand aide's in helping hair retain moisture.

You can prepoo with as little or many products you like. You can prepoo with things like honey, which helps give hair shine, or castor oil, which helps aid in thickening hair (or at least makes hair appear thicker), or your cowashing conditioner, pretty much anything you prefer.

It is something you have to try at least once, just to see if you like it! I mean why wouldn't you, moisturizing, and strengthening hair, who doesn't want that?!

Just wanted to share a process I incorporated into my regimen.



Until Next Time, HHG to All!

Rod Setting Natural Hair

                                         (Ignore the date)

I had a wedding to attend, and I already had my dress and shoes together, my accessories, but I still needed to do my hair. I don't go to salon's nor do I know of any good one's. I also don't like spending money on something I can do myself! The problem was, I was having a hard time deciding whether to flat iron, or do a roller/rod set. My boyfriend said it didn't matter, but he never really has an opinion when it comes to my hair.

I then turned to my sisters on BHP and asked what they thought would be the better choice. As it turned out, a lot of them, including those who were relaxed suggest that I do the roller/rod set instead. Another thing that factored in my decision was that I am part of a no heat challenge, and I want to try my best to stay away from using direct heat on my hair.

I use perm rods and Motions Foaming Wrap Lotion for my rod sets. If you ever wanted to try this rods out, my only suggestion is that if you prefer a looser curl, go for the bigger sized rollers, the smaller the roller, the tighter the curl will be. I like small curls but I plan on purchasing more of the gray colored rods for when I want a looser curl.

I only mixed them because I ran out of yellow/blue rods lol.

I prepooed the night before, then I did my cayenne pepper treatment, washed with diluted V05 Moisturizing Milks Strawberries & Cream Shampoo, cowashed with matching conditioner, and then deep conditioned with a cap, without heat, for two hours with, Organic Root Stimulator Replenishing Conditioner. (In the bottle, same formula, make sure to buy see through bottle, the solid colored one has a different formula)

I sealed with my mixture of oils, and then did my hair in four sections, put Motions Foam Wrapping Lotion in the section I  was doing, and did that for all four sections, and put the rollers in downward, and made sure the roller was close to my root,( do not bunch the hair in one section of the roller, actually make sure it wraps around the length of it) and got the results of the picture above.

I left the rollers in overnight, so it would be fresh for the wedding which was the following day, and I split the curls, and it was done! The style can last a whole week, but I usually keep it for 3 days or so.



(The left side is where I split the curls, the right is how it looks when it comes out of the roller)




Try rod/roller setting at home, the results are rewarding!



Until Next Time, HHG to All! <3 Naomi

Friday, April 2, 2010

Cayenne Pepper Challenge



As you all know, I use Cayenne Pepper for hair restoration/growth, and since I started using it, my hairline is coming back, and I have hair where I never did before, but I was the only one using it regularly in my regimen, so I decided to enlighten my sisters on Black Hair Planet Forum about the benefits of using cayenne to help with hair growth, and made a challenge.

Well really it is the second part, but since people were not too sure about using cayenne, I made it a mini challenge of 3 months, starting from January 1st, 2010- March 1st 2010. I did not get the immediate response I wanted, but it was requested for the challenge to be restored!  So I gave everyone and newcomers a month break to get their mixtures together!

The challenge calls for Ground Cayenne Pepper (Must be used) to be made into a paste, using water, or water and an oil, or pretty much anything you prefer. The cayenne paste must be applied 2-3 times a week, and left on for a minimum of 30 minutes. There is no direct measurements but I will say that the mix should contain more cayenne than oil or water, otherwise you will end up with a liquid instead of paste, which can run, and cayenne stings eyes!( I do not suggest heating it up. If using water, it does not matter whether you use cold or warm water)


The second part of the challenge Begins April 1st, 2010 and will end July 1st. Everyone is to check in 1st of the month until July. If everything is going well I plan on extending to the end of the year.

This challenge is open to everyone! So if you would like to join, just subscribe and comment!

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