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| These are from my 3rd ( and hopefully final) Big Chop in June of '09 |
In this blog I'm going to be sharing my secrets, answering questions, giving tutorials and giving product reviews. I'm going to eventually load videos and show how to do certain hairstyles. This is going to be fun :)
Now to the business of Natural Hair & the dun, dun, dunnnnnn... BIG CHOP!!!
First thing you'll enjoy about natural hair is how less expensive it will be to maintain. I mean, $60 bucks for a perm, wash and curl is WACK in a recession! lolol
It really doesn't take much to care for you hair at this length. If you look at my pictures above, you'll see that my hair looks really moisturized. I'll bet some of you are having a really hard time keeping the moisture in your hair. I want to encourage you that, the less you do during this time, the faster your hair will get through this stage of growth.
People assume that at this length they must wash it everyday and that's just not the case. I'm going to outline what you should do, when and what to you use. I'll outline them first, then I'll go into details.
My Secrets:
- Choose 2 times per week to wash your hair
- Don't use expensive shampoos or conditioners
- While hair is still damp, use NATURAL Shea butter to finger coil your hair
- DON'T part hair to coil
- Always let your hair airdry (Self Explanitory)
- Only detangle once a month
- Clip ends every 6 months, and never straighten to do it
Explanation:
The longer your hair gets the less often you'll need to wash and condition it. Your hair is a little more rigid at this stage so you'll need to pay just a LITTLE more attention to it now, then at any other time.
1) Choose to wash your hair twice a week.
It's best to wash it at the beginning of the week and at the end of the week. The second time you wash it will be more like a "refresher", so you can totally choose a "No Poo" session here. No Poo means no Shampoo, just wet the hair and use conditioner to cleanse it.
2) Don't use expensive shampoos and conditioners.
It's not necessary. The more you learn about natural hair, the less you'll spend... that is unless you become a "Product Junky" like me. "Hello, My name is Michelle, and I'm a Product Pusher"..lolol.. I admit it! Here is my all time favorite cheapo, yet affective Poo & Condi. It'll run you all of about $3 for both Poo & Conditioner.
3) While hair is still damp, use NATURAL Shea butter to finger coil your hair.
Your curl pattern becomes more dramatic when you coil/twist it while it's damp. If you're from Dayton, or you've been to some fair/convention where africans were there selling their soaps and whatnot, you've seen a humongous Shea Nut sitting on the table, them scooping out the meat of the nut and packaging it in a plastic container. This is what you want!!! This is what you use to condition your hair after you Poo & Condition. What you'll notice is, after you've used conditioner, the hair is still a little brittle (depending on your hair type). Using the natural butter to condition and coil, will soften the hair and cause it to stay moisturized for days. Please look at the second picture of me at the top. That pic was taken 3 days after i washed my hair and using the butter. Finger coiling the hair after you wash it will lock in moisture, where just picking it out will cause the hair to be brittle and unable to hold moisture at all. Here's what the Shea butter looks like:
4) DON'T part your hair when you finger coil
Just grab small to medium chunks of hair and twirl it around your fingers. (SIDENOTE) When you wake up in the morning, because of your short length, some of the hair and coils will be mashed. It's really ok, this is a part of your natural journey. Redefining what beautiful & beautiful hair is. Natural hair's charm is how it can get messy and frizzy and still look beautiful and ethnic! I love ALL types of natural hair, from the really coarse to the loose and fluffy. Keep images of natural hair in front of you, it will help you to stay focused and help you see how beautiful it is when the hair gets rebellious. WHEN this happens, take the tips of your fingers and simply refluff your hair. You can refluff by running the tips of your fingers through your hair like you're scratching your scalp. Massage your scalp in the process, stimulation to the scalp promotes growth. Some of the hair will be frizzy and straight so simply run your fingers through water and reform the coil by wrapping your finger around it to coil it. Because your hair is natural, it will curl up instantly. It's totally ok to keep your hair unwrapped in the shower to allow the condensation and steam from your shower add a lil moisture to your hair as well. If you do this, just reapply the Butter and finger coil while damp. Simple :)
5) Always air dry.
Plain and simple. HEAT IS THE DEVIL!!! My hair grows fast, which is common with natural hair. However, my hair grows even faster because of 4 main secrets: 1) I never put heat in my hair. I let my hair air dry 2) I don't fool around with my hair much, only washing & twisting it once a week. 3) I clip my ends every 6 months, and i never have to straighten my hair to do it. 4) I only detangle once a month.
6) Detangle once a month.
When you detangle your hair, you lose hair. It's natural, don't ever get caught up in the amount, never detangle dry hair because you'll snap it and pull it out. Detangle in the shower when you're using your Conditioner. Always use a wide tooth comb to detangle or my favorite= The Paddle Brush. See below:
7) Clip ends every 6 months and NEVER straighten to do it.
Again, HEAT IS THE DEVIL lolol. You don't need to press your hair to clip your ends. It's not going to matter anyways. When your hair is coiled and textured in it's natural state, you can't tell what's going on with the ends anyway. You're not going for straight ends, that's Creamy Crack (perm) mentality, you're going for moisturized ends. When your ends start to look like the broom you sweep with your hardwood floors with lol, it may be time to clip. When you clip (PAY ATTENTION)- Make a small part down the middle of your hair, double strand twist it, then take your hair scissors and clip the ends of your hair. I mean the very tip of your hair only! FYI: If you've just BC'd your hair and you haven't even reached 6 month old hair, you're not ready. I would advise you to wait until you've reached an even 12 months before clipping.
Well that's all for now folks!!! These are just my opinion, but I have evidence on my head that these methods work well!!! Please send me your questions and feedback on what my next topic should be. Can't wait to here from you all!
Here are some picture of where I am today after 6 years and 3 BC's under my belt:
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