For Coloured Girls

For Coloured Girls

Here’s to no more bad hair days starting today. 

You too can have 100% human hair weave quality hair like other girls do. Promise!

Right  this minute, regardless of the stage your hair is at, just stop doing whatever it is you’re doing! I’ve had a black hair breakthrough and would love to share it with you.If you are blessed with colour and have stubborn tresses that need relaxer touch-ups after every six weeks just like me, then this article is for you!

 I’ve been struggling to come up with a reliable hair regimen that allows my hair to grow, be healthy and feel silky.  I’ve received much advice from many that made no sense at all. “Pop dog tablets daily,” and that “black people’s hair doesn’t grow at all unless if it’s dreaded!” Hair myths are popular and a lot of people follow these tips religiously to no avail. I have a discovered a relaxed healthy hair regimen that works. So, keep reading.

At a session with my stylist (he's been doing a fabulous job over the last seven years that I have been with him), he revealed to me that there is no such thing as a miracle hair product that makes your hair grow like crazy within a few applications. I’d been satisfied with the job he was doing, my hair was healthy, it just wasn’t getting to the length I desired so that’s why I started interrogating him. I also didn’t understand why mixed race girls with a similar hair texture achieved great results which I never could. The answer to that is that their hair make-up is completely different to mine. Some enjoy a full head of curly hair, or soft locks that seem easy to work with.  Even though some mixed race girls’ hair looks coarse and similar to my nappy hair, how it reacts to product differs. For example, a blow out for a mixed race girl would relax the tresses, but now that mine has been processed I have to keep on keepin’ on and can’t afford to forget relaxers and expect my hair to behave. I have black on black DNA, and have to work with it. This difference can be seen in how Tracee Ellis Ross’s hair behaves differently from say Erykah Badu.

My hair is slowly trailing behind my mother's in terms of length, but it really is coming along nicely. For those of you who ask how I get my hair to behave the way it does, apart from adhering to the advice I'm giving you in this post myself, I just owe the rest to DNA. I got it from my momma!

My mama's hair.

The truth is, regardless of your race or hair type, a lot of work goes into maintaining Rapunzel- like locks and it’s something you just have to put up with. Any woman will tell you that if your hair is not done your outfit isn’t complete, so it really is worth the effort and confidence boost to work with your natural hair texture the best way you can.

Hair is meant to grow at least about 1 -2 inches every month. Some people experience more hair grown while others get to grow much less. Here’s where environmental factors and what you eat come into play. There isn’t much you can do to persuade your tresses to grow topsy, but you can nourish them constantly to prevent breakage and any other damage and real growth should result. At that point, your hair is left no other choice but to lengthen. Growing hair is much like farming. You need timing, fertilizers, soil and consistency  then before no time you’ll have a farm full of edibles or in this case a head full of hair. Read on for 'hair farming' advice. 

This post is not intended to help you transition back to natural hair. It’s to help you deal with the choice of processing hair smartly, even if the decision was made by your mother early on. For black beauties who wish to transition back to natural hair. Here’s a number of stylish dos to try.

            

The aim of this regimen is to extend the time between now and your need for a relaxer retouch far apart by making sure your hair is soft from root to tip all the way up to d day. My ideal time frame for needing a relaxer is at least every four months so that I only have to relax my hair 3 times a year.  My hair will be healthier and stronger for it.

Hair farming 101

The recommended period to go between relaxer touch –ups is around 6-8weeks, but starting now regardless of the stage your hair is at, put off relaxing your growth for a while. Just to see what happens and how long your hair can hold out for before transitioning all the way back to nappy. Try stretch that time frame to longer periods and keep monitoring how well your hair is doing weekly. Your tresses will get straightened out by washes and treatments instead of relaxer touch-ups. You’ll notice that as you  go to the hair salon weekly and use the products I’ve suggested below daily, that your hair seems to need less relaxer less frequently, and this helps you reach the every four month mark quicker. I go to Hair Images in Sandton city, where Peter, TT or  Mbesuma do my hair justice. These stylists do a great job with washes, treatments and retouches (relaxing your hair) too.

The time frame you can stretch it out to differs for everyone depending how long your hair is. Should you have short hair the growth point is close to the scalp and forms your entire head of hair, so this exercise would prove futile. You will have to have shoulder length hair you want to grow longer to take part in this exercise.  

Work with your natural hair texture until you get to know it, and understand how often it really needs a relaxer. Far too often many women relax their hair when it doesn’t need to be retouched simply to adhere to the suggestion on the box that says relax every 6-8 weeks. No! Only relax your hair when you really have to! Do embrace the appearance of growth as makes it easier for your stylist to discern which part of the hair length he’s meant to relax up to and for how long.

♥ When getting your hair washed the first week, you may use shampoo and conditioner. From then on up until retouch day, simply co-wash. For some reason this makes hair stronger and thicker. Using leave-in conditioner after your wash seems to help too.

♥ In between your last relaxer retouch and your next touch up you need to find products that work for you. At first I used to relax my hair with Mizani, so I decided to use the entire product range because the relaxer worked so well. It never scorched my scalp and it made my hair healthy. The rest of the product range didn’t work so well for me because it left my already dry hair feeling even more dry and much like a sponge. The dryness resulted in split ends and a lot of damage was done to my hair. Moisturisers left my hair greasy and flat so I had to rule them out completely, except for one – the Organic root stimulator olive oil hair lotion. I use it sparingly overnight. It makes my hair feel newly relaxed in the morning, especially if I choose to wear protective headgear overnight as well (a beautiful silk scarf). This prevents tangling while I sleep, and makes styling and handling an easy as pie two step process the next day. I never used to like headscarves worn overnight. That’s the look you need in the morning if you’re trying to get single. Most fell off during the night as I tossed and turned so it was pointless, but now for the benefit of my hair I do sleep with one on. I just wear a beautiful silk scarf instead. No used stockings, t-shirts etc. 

I also use serums, hair oils, and sheens. The combination gives me the lustre I’ve been longing for. Isoplus’s revitalizing hair serum with argan oil is the best serum to detangle your hair and leave it feeling silky soft. Dark & Lovely’s amla scalp serum nourishes the scalp with a perfect application nozzle for precise applications/basing. It contains amla oil which is said to be responsible for Indian women’s gorgeous locks. Lastly, olive oil’s sheen spray adds that much needed lustre. Use each product minimally product to avoid greasy flat hair. You may want to consider the Virgo range as well, and perhaps use some placenta in your hair.

   

 

              

 

     

♥ Make sure that in between your relaxer and your next necessary relaxer touch-up, that you keep up with washing your hair every week, and treating it every two weeks.

♥ Use hair sunscreen to protect your hair from the rays of the sun.

♥ You can swim just don’t dunk your precious tresses in chlorine. Use a flattering swimming cap to protect your hair, channel Olivia Pope from The Fixer when she’s in the pool.

       

         

♥ Gently comb your hair. This prevents unnecessary breakage. A wide toothed comb does the best job.

♥ Purchase hair accessories for when your hair has lost its bounce and is just plain Jane ordinary. Cover up the simplicity with a wig. This serves better than a weave because it won’t damage your hair as badly. You can put it on and off as you please without any hassles. Many might be reluctant to follow the advice because wigs seem old fashioned and fake, but so are weaves but you continue to get them. I mean if it falls off, shamelessly pick it up, put it back on and keep walking. This happened to me once and I successfully avoided humiliation that way. I mean we all know it’s fake, so why the pretending?

  

♥ Use clip in hair extensions instead if you please. They come in and out like a wig but they cling onto your tresses giving more of a natural look. Or just use nice scarves, hair bands, clips, pins, coils to glam up your dos.

Speaking of dos, here are some a girl like you can pull off effortlessly.

     

  

♥ Whatever you do don’t use a band to tie up your hair. The division it forms doesn’t go away from our type of hair making styling it differently the next day difficult. It’s also damaging to the hair. Rather let your hair loose. Use pins and clips instead.

♥ Massage your scalp to promote hair growth.

♥ When you finally get to relaxing it, the growth will be obvious and easy to relax. Your stylist need only touch-up the part that looks like natural coarse hair and let alone the rest. Not doing so is usually what ruins perfectly healthy hair. You need a stylist that understands what they’re doing. Make sure they don’t over process your hair. Make sure that the slightest bit of relaxer is used to retouch and for the shortest amount of time possible. 

♥ Once you’re through with the retouch get your hair trimmed to promote growth and get rid of and prevent split ends . Otherwise they will run like stockings and allow your hair to break. Now do everything I suggested all over again. 

♥ Instead of dog tablet popping, take in vitamins intended for human consumption and watch what you eat.

Your healthy hair regimen should look like this;

 

Now go on and enjoy the black beauty you’ve always been!