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.

Staple Products - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

STAYING
Giovanni Smooth as Silk Conditioner

Giovanni Direct Leave in Conditioner

Giovanni Triple Treat Conditioner

Afro Shampoo Bar - By Shea Butter Cottage (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE)

Twisted Mango Custard 9for twists and braids) - BeUNIQUE Hair Care

Moisture Lotion (daily moisturiser) - BeUNIQUE Hair Care

Sea Curls (curl defining gel) - BeUNIQUE Hair Care

Conditioning Cream (softens & conditions) - BeUNIQUE Hair Care

Natural oils (to many to mention but my hair loves Avocado Oil & Grapeseed Oil these to oils also have a high resistance to heat so good to use when blow drying the hair)

Shine moisture spritz - my own concoction (not perfected yet!)

Herbal decoctions and infusions

Bentonite Clay


NEW
Dr. Organics Vitamin E Conditioner - Really like, and nice to mix with Giovanni Smooth as Silk Conditioner

Biotin Conditioner - Mill Creek Botanicals - Still unsure, but still good enough to keep using and also try other products in the range (Bought from Sheel Pharmacy in Lewisham near the bus garage)

GOING
Aubrey Organics White Camellia Ultra-Smooth Conditioner

Garnier Fructis Repair and Shine Conditioner

Faith in Nature Conditioners

Dr Bronners Castile Soap

'Fro Hawk

While going through the early stages of my natural hair journey one of my goals was to get my hair long enough so that I could rock a 'fro hawk and yes, I've done it! I went out clubbing with a friend at the weekend and I decided that this was going to be the weekend that I would rock my dream style, I knew that to get the volume I wanted I would have to blow dry my hair, I used avocado and grapeseed oil as heat protectants. My results are pictured below, I include a picture of when I got home, sweat and heat in the club made my twist out expand! I also include a picture of day 3 hair achieved by just re-twisting. 

Not such a bad hair day

Last night it got to 6pm and I was like, damn, I haven't washed my hair, I hate washing my hair that late but I have to wash it once a week. I shampooed my hair with a Rhassoul Shampoo Bar by Shea Butter Cottage, it was a different experience from using the Afro Shampoo Bar , it didn't pop my curls like the Afro Shampoo bar, but my hair felt squeaky clean without feeling dry, which was good as I had quite a bit of gel in my hair. I then used the new conditioner that I had brought earlier in the week Dr. Organic Vitamin E conditioner, I think I like this conditioner although, as with any hair product you can not provide a fair assessment after just one week. What I can say is, that it's thick and foams up a treat, and I used it to detangle using my Denman D4 brush, it smells a little medicinal but I think it did moisturise my hair. I left it on for about 40mins with a plastic cap.

While the conditioner was in my hair I went to the kitchen to create two new products I made a leave-in conditioner and a hair styling lotion with added flax seed gel so that I could twist my hair. I rinsed my hair put in the leave-in and two strand twist my hair with the styling lotion, I did the twists larger than usual due to the time and put some flat twists in the front and went to bed with my hair wet (shock, horror).

This morning I used the hair dryer to dry my hair a little bit more with the intention of doing a twist out as I really didn't like the look of the twists as they were. I started to undo the twists and I really didn't like the look of it, it looked too chunky, I put some grapeseed oil on my hands and split them up some more, I ended up looking like I'd been electrocuted. So I smoothed the back of my hair with some moisturising lotion and also used some of the styling lotion and put my hair in a puff, and it looked really good.

But why did I give this post the title 'not such a bad hair day'? because my hair can tend to get dry when the ends are left out, but it feels moisturised, smooth and silky and not greasy. Now I don't know if it's the combination of products that had that effect or just one, but I will use Dr. Organics again and my leave-in.

See you next week!

Dr. Organic @ Holland & Barrett

Was out with my Mum the other day and she dragged me in to Holland & Barrett, and I ended up buying some hair conditioner, I'm not usually one to impulse buy, but the display looked so inviting, yeah I'm weak. Anyhow the display was of a new brand on the scene Dr. Organic, they make skin care and hair care products. The conditioners that I looked at were Aloe Vera, Manuka Honey, Lavender, Vitamin E and Pomegranate, they also do Green Tea. I chose to purchase the Vitamin E conditioner, because it said it was moisturising, it cost £5.25 for 250ml, which I think is a fair price, and at the moment Holland Barrett are offering buy one get one half price on anything in store. It has a slight fragrance to it and is a thick consistency, I haven't tried it yet, I just wanted to share, but I'll be sure to do a review when I do try it.

What the website says:

A nourishing conditioner suitable for all hair types formulated with Organic Vitamin E, Aloe Vera, Shea butter, Hydrolyzed milk protein, Panthenol and Sunflower oil. A deeply soothing and effective conditioner formulated to lock in moisture, which restores natural condition by penetrating and coating the hair’s external fibres and cellular keratin matrix, promoting rehydration and restoring the hair into beautiful and manageable condition. See picture below, he colour isn't right my conditioner is rich golden colour.