Monday, June 27, 2011

Honey and Olive Oil

So I've been noticing whenever I touch my hair, there seems to be hair left behind somewhere. When I co-wash...there's hair on the shower floor.  When I moisturize...there's hair on my hands and sink.  When I comb through it ever-so-gently with conditioner or sopping wet...there's hair in the comb.  So I wonder, what the heck is going on?

I also can't help but notice, my hair growth seems rather stunted.  Now mind you, to say my hair was extremely damaged when I first cut it all off in the first place would be a MAJOR understatement.  My tresses were so fried, so abused, so mis-used, I really thought it would not recover.  The bald patches were abundant and the ends just felt fragile, weak, crispy.  However, my hair IS recovering with not one bald patch in sight 5 months later.  In fact, it is now much thicker, smoother, softer and the ends no longer snap off like a dead tree branch caught in the wind.

Saying all that, I still feel like my hair growth is rather stunted.  Why?  Because it's been 5 months and at the longest hair (at my crown) is about 2 1/2 inches the rest of my hair fluctuates between less than an inch to 1.5 inches.  WTH????  So whenever I start freaking out about the fact that it's been 5 months and I can't even so much as put a headband on my head without looking ridiculous, I look at my pics of when I first cut everything off and realize I've come a ways but personally I think I should be further along.

Then I finally used my noggin and but 2 and 2 together.  Could it be all the hairs all over the place is acutally connected to my stunted hair growth?  Now, I know that we all shed hairs every day, however, the hairs I saw aren't shed hairs with the little white tip but rather pieces of hairs which indicates breakage.  A problem I'd been plagued with since my relaxer days.  So why is it, now that I'm natural is my hair still breaking?  Then if I really do have a breakage problem, that means I also have a length retention problem.  So what to do?  I thought back to the inital months after my big chop and realized I stopped doing something that really worked for my hair...the honey/olive oil prepoo!

The honey/olive oil prepoo is a recipe I found on the web while browsing for natural products which heal and strengthen hair.  The recipe and process is quite simple and the results for me was softer hair.  Honey is a humectant which means it attracts and retains moisture.  Olive oil has essential fatty acids which benefits the hair leaving it soft and manageable.  However, I had stopped doing this rather simple but clearly beneficial treatment for my hair.  The reason I stopped was because it was messy with oil dripping everywhere.  The constant "drip-drip" just got on my nerves but clearly my hair loved it and responded well to it because I didn't have any breakage issues back then.  In fact, my hair flourished!

So for the last 2 Saturdays, I have done this rather simple hair treatment and the results?  Signficantly LESS BREAKAGE!  I now have less hair on my shower floor, in my comb, on the sink, everywhere.  Just goes to show, I hadn't been listening to my hair.  So moving forward every Saturday morning shall be Honey/Olive Oil Saturday morning and hopefully my hair will respond with additional growth as well.  So here's my adjusted recipe:

Honey/Olive Oil recipe
1/3 cup EVOO
4.5 tbs of honey

Warm the mixture in the microwave, then apply to hair and scalp as a hot oil treatment.  Cover with shower cap.  I leave mine on for at least one hour.  Shampoo hair as usual.  Style.

Apparently I was using too much oil in my previous applications as I always had a runny mess which is why I quit doing it.  However, now I simply added more honey and there is a lot less dripping/staining.  I also kept the shower cap on while doing errands around the house.  This past Saturday I left it on for 1.5 hours as I lost track of time but my hair was absolutely fine.  Then again, my hair LOVES honey.    I noticed the reduction in breakage last week when I resumed this procedure and even less this week so far.  In fact, there was absolutely NO hair in my comb and five strands on the bathroom sink this morning, yes I counted the hairs on my sink this morning...please don't judge me.

If you haven't already tried this, give it a try and let me know your thoughts.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

I henna'ed...again

So yesterday I used some more Henna on my hair.  I had tried it a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it even though everyone can see the color in my hair except me.  Henna is a permanent color deposit meaning, it will leave color in your hair but will NOT lift the color in your hair; that means the change will be subtle unless you are completely gray or blonde. 

While waiting for my hair to grow more than 2 inches, I'm becoming a bit bored with it...that's just the way I am.  Once I get used to something, I crave the excitement of discovering something else.  Thus, I wanted to color my hair, of course that's an absurd idea since my hair is still recovering from the years of chemical abuse I subjected it to resulting in the need for a big chop in the first place.  So, I started researching Henna.  Body Art Quality Henna is 100% natural thereby making it the perfect choice for me as I needed something, anything new to try with my hair.  I spent a couple days doing a bit of research and placed an order for 1 box of henna online from Mehandi.com.  The order came within a few days and I tried it and liked it so much I decided to order a couple more boxes (each has 100g of product) and tried it again last night. 


The trick I've learned with Henna from my online research is making sure to deep condition after the Henna is washed out as it acts like a protein treatment and can be drying.  This will ensure your hair does not feel and look like straw, also I tweaked my recipe a bit for the second Henna application and the result was super-soft hair.  

Here is my Henna recipe (I only used 50g of Henna since I only have 2 inches of hair on a rather small head):

50g BAQ Henna
3/4 cup cooled green tea (you need an acidic liquid to aid in dye deposit; you can also use any acidic juice like lemon juice.  I also brewed 3 green tea bags)
Small squeeze of moisturizing conditioner
2 tbs of extra virgin coconut oil

I mixed the contents to the consistency of pudding, covered and left it overnight so the dye could release.


The next day I co-washed then just before I applied the Henna to my hair, I added 2 tbs of honey to the mixture.  I applied using gloves and covered my hair with saran wrap and a plastic cap for 4 hours.


To rinse I let the spray from my shower do the work and used an ultra moisturizing conditioner to wash out all traces of the Henna from hair (this can take up to 4 washes, more if your hair is longer than mine).  Once the water runs clear, then you MUST deep condition preferably with heat.  Here is what I used to deep condition:

Oyin Honey-Hemp Conditioner
2 tbs EVCO
1 1/2 tbs EVOO
1 teaspoon Avocado Oil

This mixture was applied to my hair and because I don't currently own a hood dryer, I wrapped my hair in sara wrap and covered with 3 plastic caps then drank a cup of hot tea to get the heat going.  I left this on for 45 minutes then rinsed.  My hair felt like a newborn baby's....S-O-F-T!!!

I've read Henna can make your hair stronger and thicker.  I'm all for thick,strong hair so I think I'll keep doing this until there's a reason to stop.  The color I get can only be seen outside or indoors under bright lights, I've gotten pretty good responses from my friends, family and even a few admirers on the public transportation to work.  I think Henna and I will be friends for a good long time.