Egg on My Face...

Hey Doll's
So as you know from my Updates post I plan to relax next week. I will be exactly 16 weeks post. I am really proud of myself for stretching to 16 weeks, but I am also disappointed in myself forgiving up, because this stretch was such a breeze I know I could have gone longer, and I probably wont be as lucky nexy go round.

Anyway enough rambling. Since I am relaxing next week this wash day is my pre-relaxer wash day so that means it's heavy protein time! My protein treatment is simple, and many other lasies use the same method so I won't go into to much detail, but I will show you what I did.

First I started out buy bagging for most of the day. My hair isn't very protein friendly so I try to balance it out as much as possible.

In the actually treatmeant I only use 1 large egg and enough of Kitchen Sink to cover my enitre head and mixed it all together.


After it was all mixed up I set my timer for 25 minutes. Once again since I a leery of protein I don't let it stay in my hair very long at all. I settled on 25 minutes because it usually takes be about 10-12 minutes to apply it then I like to let it sit in my hair for another 13-15 minutes to let it do it's magic.

*When applying you might want to put an old towel on the floor because it can get really messy*

Once the timer went off I jumped in the shower and rinsed the Egg out with COOL WATER (hot water will cook the egg).

Once that was all out I Clairified and Deep Conditioned for about 2-3 hours and I did a AVC as my final rinse.(here is a list of my staple products)

Now I am basically gonna leave my hair alone until next Friday.

Peace
So Much Love
Erika

We don't Quit, I don't Quit...

No this isn't about last nights state of the union address, although I still don't have health care, Its about my recent bout with extreme dryness. Last night I baggied for a little over 2 hours,I sprayed my hair liberally with my Aloe mix, then I applied about a dime sized amount of some ORS Hair lotion that I found in my stash of unused products, and lastly I sealed with coconut oil. One episode of Bad Girls Club, and one episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians later I took off my plastic cap and my hair was better. Not great, not even really good, but better, which is all I can ask for.

This morning when I woke up I pulled out my Sally's GVP Conditioning Balm. and applied it to my hair from tip to root section by section. After applying it throughout my entire head I finger combed it through making sure each and every strand was covered. I am off today and I have a lot of house work to do so I plan to keep this in my hair until my shower tonight. I will update again tmrw.

Extreme Dryness...

I think that i am going throw a bout of protein overload. Yesterday was wash day and my hair just didn't respond. It felt dry even though it was soaking wet. I didn't lose a lot of hair so I hope I caught it before it turned into set back city. I am not even sure if it is protein overload, but something is definitely off. I did a clarifying wash last week, and I use my sample bottle of porosity control with this wash as a final rinse so i can rule out porosity and build-up as possible culprits,so for now I am going to treat this problem like too much protein and blast my hair with moisture. allow me to introduce you to the calvary...




from left to right
Spray Bottle, Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Juice, Glycerin(from Wal Mart), Dabur Rose water, from my local Indian store.

Now I have been using an aloe spritz for my scalp and its working well so i decided to re vamp my recipie to add more rose water and more glycerin and use it on my enitre head every night until my problem is solved. Mu plan is to Spray this and seal with coconut oil, and baggy for 30 mintues every night before bed. I am hoping i will see results in the next few days, if not, back to the drawing board...



Oh and I'm not sure if the honey pre poo helped or hurt the situation. I will have to try it again on balanced healthy hair...


UPDATE(Jan. 28)

Ok so i think my problem is from an over usage of sillicones. I wrote a post about it today, but I just wanted to amend this to say that even if i had been suffering from protein overload I would have taken the same measures, so I'm leaving the moisture/protien tag...

Bag it

As you know keeping your hair moisturized is a key component in having long healthy hair. A quick and easy way to add moisture back into the hair is to baggy. There several different ways to baggy you hair depending on the length and degree of dryness. For a short haired Doll like myself I would recommend trying this Simple 3 step Method.

1. Moisturize
2. Seal
3. Apply plastic conditioning cap

This method allows the moisturizer to penetrate the hair, leaving it feeling soft and moisturized. Try leaving the cap on for 30 minutes at a time; once the first 30 minutes are up then check to see if your hair has reached your desired moisture. If not, leave it on for another 30 minutes, just be careful because leaving it on too long may cause your hair to become over moisturized and mushy feeling. Here’s a visual…

Why Protein is important

We already know about moisture and why it is important to our hair, but now it’s time to learn why protein is so important. Hair is made up of about 70% of keratin. This means that every time we relax color or even curl our hair we are damaging the natural proteins that exist in our hair. Without protein our hair would be weak and mushy and very very damaged. That is why it is so important for us to put the proteins back in. We can get some of what we need from food, but we still need a boost from products such as shampoos and conditioners, and moisturizers.

Although our hair needs protein, too much can cause dry brittle and broken hair. Protein overload occurs when there is not enough moisture present. Protein and moisture work together to keep hair healthy, and when there is too much protein present your hair will definitely let you know. The hair will become dry and brittle and break with little to no force at all. Protein overload is reversible, but unlike moisture over load it is not a one or two step process, and even once you do restore balance the damage is already done. When using protein there are a few simple rules to live by:

1. Always start with a light protein and work your way up to heavier ones. You never know how your hair will react in the beginning so take baby steps and you’ll be fine. (HERE’s a list of protein conditioners and their strength)

2. Always follow a mild to heavy protein with a moisturizing deep conditioner. No Excuses

3. Read the directions on the bottle, some may say safe to use everyday , while others may say only use once a week, and still others can say use until you see results then use on an as needed basis.

4. Alternate, moisture with protein. If you have a great light protein that you love, that’s fine use it, but don’t neglect your moisture. Maybe use a protein conditioner with a moisturizing leave-in. Just be careful not to use protein on top of protein. (HERE’s the list again)

5. If you are not sure if it’s a protein or moisturizer read the bottle, if it has works like strengthening or reconstructing or keratin, then you know it’s a protein. Even though it may be light, it’s still got some protein to it, and you should be aware of that fact before adding it to your regiment. Make adjustments if needed and you’ll stay balanced.

I don’t want to scare you away from protein, because you do need it, just as much as you need moisture, but I want you to be careful when adding it into your regiment, not to overdo it. Balance is the key. Stay balanced!

Peace
So much love
Erika

Healthy Hair pt 3 Moisture

My original hope for this post was to make one condense lesson on the importance of moisture and protein balance, but as I sat down to write I realized that there was just too much information that I didn’t want to leave out. Therefore I decided to write it in two parts, a part for moisture and a part for protein.

First I want to address why moisture is important, and how to recognize overly moisturized hair. The reason being is that if there is one thing I can stress to you, it would be always always always lean towards the moisture side of the scale. It is easier to come back from a moisture overload than it is to come back from a protein overload. Also black hair is very porous by nature so it is harder for us to retain moisture. If you have a lot of breakage and shedding going on it is probably because you are lacking moisture. Once again I will repeat I DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT HEALTHLY HAIR! I never claimed to be an expert, I’m just learning and sharing my information as I do so. To me once you’ve got your regiment, products and a protective style down then next step is learning about the delicate balance between moisture and protein.

Our hair is basically made up of water, lipids and keratin. Keratin is a strong, fibrous and insoluble protein that is also a major component on our nails. It is important for all women to maintain an equal balance of both protein and moisture, in order to maintain healthy hair.

Moisture alone isn’t enough for our pours hair, we also need to lock in the moisture with oil, or else the moisture will leave just as soon as you put it in. Oil DOES NOT MOISTUIZE HAIR. It simply helps seal in the moisture from your daily moisturizer. A key to a good moisturizer is water. Water based moisturizers are the only ones you should be using. This means water must be at the top of the ingredient list, and remember NO MINERAL OIL and NO PETROLERUM.

If you have been going along with my steps to starting a healthy hair journey, then you should already have a great moisturizer and sealing oil in your regiment. The next step is learning to listen to your hair. If your hair has too much protein then it will result in it being dry and brittle and it will break like crazy. Similarly, if your hair is over moisturized it will feel soft and mushy and it will stretch and stretch and stretch until it reaches its breaking point!

The best way to diagnose over moisturized hair is to do the wet test. After a wash or a deep condition examine your hair, gently comb thru it starting at the bottom and working your way up. If it breaks off just during normal combing then you know you’ve got a problem. The next step is figuring out if it’s a moisture problem or a protein problem.

Over moisturized hair as I said before is mushy and gummy feeling. Hair naturally has a certain amount of elasticity to it. Healthy hair will stretch to a certain point and then go back to its normal state. Over moisturized hair will stretch until it breaks off. To remedy this you must simply do a hard protein treatment. Usually one will work just fine, the key is know what proteins do what for your hair. My hair is slightly protein sensitive so all I do is a quick ORS mayo treatment, where as some ladies have to do a full on Aphogee two step treatment. Knowing what proteins work in you hair and which ones don’t takes time, but listen to your hair, because it will tell you what it wants. I tried to keep it as short and concise as possible, but incase you need some more info HERE is a great article to learn more about the moisture protein balance, I hope this helps! Stay tuned for my protein talk.

Peace
So much love
Erika