Ingredients Glossary

I've never tried Burt's Bee's products before (even though they do seem to sound great!). I'm just mentioning them because I cam across a rather useful glossary on their website CLICK HERE to check it out.

Another useful site with information on ingredients is LUSH 

New Year Hair Resolutions

I've been looking through pictures of my for the past year and I'm amazed at how much my hair has grown, I took advantage of this length and in the pat 2 months have blow dried my hair 5 times, my hair didn't like this at all and my ends are not in a good state. So my main priority this year is to retain length I want to see if I can grow more length than this year. Below are some of the things I'm going to do.

1. Not going to use a blow dryer any more - AIR DRY ONLY!!!
2. Dust ends on a regular basis
3. Pre-poo with oil every time I wash my hair (try to apply the night before, oils I'll use Olive oil, Avocado Oil and Coconut Oil)
4. More protective styling (starting with crochet braids in the New Year after I've taken off these bad ends)
5. Protein conditioner every 6-8 weeks (Giovanni Nutrafix or Aubrey Organics Glycogen Protein Conditioner)
6. Try to do natural protein treatments - using eggs and avocado
7. Deep moisture condition every week
8. Bentonite clay mask with Marshmallow once a month
9. Regularly moisturise
10. Wash once a week
11. Invest in a steamer

I came across this "Healthy Hair Challenge" after I finished writing this post - looks good!

Thirsty Roots

I have recently started to make more use of my profile at Natural Sunshine.com, and while surfing the web for new hairstyles I cam across another natural hair community site called Thirsty Roots.com, what attracted me at first was the downloadable hair style ebook, but there is lots of interesting thing on the site, including a Natural Hair Glossary . Use links to take a look at both community sites.

Protective Styling

What in my opinion is protective styling? Protective styling to me, allows your hair to have a rest from you playing with it and passing a comb, brush or your hands (naughty!) through it on a daily basis. Protective styling allows you to retain the length of your hair by protecting the ends, the oldest hair on your head. It also helps to avoid the hairs rubbing against each other which can cause tangles and knots. Protective styles can also help to retain moisture protecting your hair from the elements and avoiding it drying out.

There are some people who think that they need to wear protective styles all the time, I don't believe in this and at present I have had mini twists in for 2 weeks and I'm getting bored (see picture above). It's true that wearing protective styles would be best to retain the most length but why have natural hair if you can't show it off? I'll still get to my hair goals as long as I stick to low manipulation and low heat regimens. Low manipulation to me is, doing two strand twists and then wearing a twist out, I would only blow my hair out for a special occasion and as of yet I haven't used straight iron

Think of protective styles as Lucozade for your hair, metaphorically speaking that is. People drink Lucozade to give them energy, but they don't wait until their on their last legs to fuel up. Don't wait until your hair is breaking and dry and reached the point of no return before you fuel up (do a protective style).

My advice is don't become obsessive with protective styles, natural hair is a thing of beauty, to be enjoyed by you and seen in awe by others, don't hide is away. Only use protective styles to give your hair that bit of respite, give it time to fuel up and then show it off!

Below something I found from internet research (but was written for relaxed hair):

Types of Protective Styles


Protective styles fall into two categories: Complete and Low-manipulation protective styles. A good regimen will contain a healthy mixture of both types-for variety and for your sanity!

Complete Protective Styles are styles that have the ends out of sight and are 100% protective. These styles include: all varieties of buns, chignons (French rolls), tucked styles, phonytails (phony-ponies), wigs, and sew-in type weaves.

Low-Manipulation Styles are styles that do expose the ends to some degree, but are protective in that they drastically cut down on the manipulation (combing/handling) the hair experiences. These styles include: Rollersets, Braids, cornrows, some updo's or pinned up styles, braidouts and twistouts.

Facebook

I have now set up a Facebook page titled 4Nappiness4Eva, head on over and hit the 'Like' button

Natural Hair Care Recipes

All Natural Homemade Hair Care Recipes: Shampoo, Conditioner, Hair Serum, Hairspray, gel, hot oil treatments, natural hair serum recipes, hair loss recipes and more! Make your own natural hair care products with simple recipes. Learn about the ingredients you can put in your shampoos, conditioners and homemade styling products. Do it yourself, Homemade natural hair care recipes. Natural homemade anti-frizz serums, herbal shampoos, organic hot oil treatments, brown sugar scalp scrubs and more. Information on herbs, essential oils and ingredients you can add to your hair care recipes to suit all your hair care needs! Click post title to go to the website.