HOW TO GROW AND PROTECT YOUR EDGES (HAIR LINE): 5 EASY STEPS

Just take about three days and observe the hair line of any woman you see on the streets of any city you live in, my guess is that eight out of ten of them have damaged hair line. Now do the same for men, you'll find that the men who have damaged hair line are just going bald, lol. The obvious reason is that most women tend to put their hair in styles that put stress on the hair line thereby causing it to recede. I had this problem and I am still nursing my edges back to health. Here are five easy steps that you can follow to bring those edges back!

Step 1 Get The Jamaican Black Castor Oil (JBCO):

A lot of people feel that any castor oil will do but I highly recommend this brand of castor oil, I find it to be very effective. Apply this nightly on your edges, lightly massaging the problem areas in circular motion.

Step 2 Cover your hair with a satin scarf every night: 

Do this after applying the JBCO. For me, I tie my edges with a scarf after applying the JBCO and then I finally cover my entire head with a satin bonnet. Some people would add the use of a silk/satin pillowcase case.

Step 3 Avoid styles that put tension in that area: 

If you do step 1 and 2 and still continue to do styles that are too tight on your hair line, you will not see any significant change on your hair line. The tension on the scalp can damage the hair follicles in that area, preventing it from allowing hair to grow properly. So caution your braider or stylist to take it easy on those areas.

Step 4 Leave the edges alone:

Sometimes, you may need to let the hairs in that area be, just leave it alone. Don't braid it, don't weave it, don't brush it, just let it be. You may even need to take a break from applying the castor oil because too much attention might just be what it is, TOO MUCH ATTENTION. This might sound crazy but I think it is true, I am speaking from experience.

Step 5 Just give it time, it will grow back:

When I started taking care of my edges, I expected to see changes immediately, but I was disappointed when I did not notice any change in a month. I now decided to read a couple of articles and then I realized that it could take up to A WHOLE YEAR to recover damaged edges. It takes time, so just be patient and give it time. As long as you are doing what you need to do, you will gradually see changes.

So that's all folks, as always, put your reactions in the comment box below. Cheers!

HOW TO CREATE A SIMPLE REGIMEN FOR YOUR NATURAL HAIR

Trial and Error

From my own personal experience, I believe this is very important if you want to develop a healthy hair regimen that would be beneficial to your own type of hair. You might watch a ton of youtube videos and research all sorts of blogs, just to find that the products you have seen others use on these platforms do not work for you. You will need to invest time and money in finding out what works for your own hair considering your budget, schedule and availability. You may need to buy and try a lot of products (samples if possible) before you discover the ones that work for your hair. Additionally you need to consider how much time you are willing to spend on your hair. For me, I started out with washing and deep conditioning weekly during my transitioning period, this turned out to be tiring and cumbersome. Then when I big chopped I co washed every two days and styled every night, this I also found to be time consuming. Right now, I style once a week, deep condition bi weekly and co wash every alternate week. Its obvious my regimen has evolved over time and I am sure to make more changes as I go along. As for products, I have used all sorts, but this does not have to be you. You can start on a very conservative note, just buying the basics and then progress to bigger things. The main aim, if you have kinky hair, is to find products that are moisture rich and that help to soften your hair.

Determine how often your hair needs to be washed

Be it co washing or shampoo washing, you need to find out how long it takes for your hair to start feeling groggy or itchy. For me, if my hair is in a protective style like a flat twist-updo or mini twist, it takes about six days for my hair to start feeling dirty. Then I know it is time for a wash. If it is not in a protective style, I might need to do a co wash at least every three days. So because I work and live in a busy city like Lagos, I find it much better to put my hair in a protective style on Sundays and wash my hair every Friday night. So I wear my hair out only on weekends. I co wash every two weeks and shampoo wash every alternate week. This means that if I co washed this weekend, I would shampoo wash the next.

Determine how often you need to do a deep treatment or deep conditioning

This could go from doing it weekly, to bi weekly or even monthly. Whatever you decide, it should be based on what your hair needs. For me, I started out doing this once a week during the time I was transitioning, to once a month when I big chopped. However, as my hair grew longer, I noticed it was getting dryer and dryer, I also noticed that I had a lot of split ends and mid shaft breakage, so I decided to deep condition more frequently. Right now, I deep condition every two weeks.

Find out how often you need to moisturize your hair 

Natural hair and moisture are BFFs and I mean it when I say it. Whether you are using the LOC method (Liquid-Oil-Cream) or LCO method (Liquid-Cream-Oil), you must keep your hair nice and moist to prevent breakage. For me, I moisturize every day, if my hair is not in a protective style and I use the LOC method. If my hair is in a protective style, I may not need to moisturize everyday, I just spritz my hair lightly with water or my daily spritz. My daily spritz is essentially a home made concoction of  50% water, 30% leave in conditioner and 20% oil, in a spray bottle. For some of us who work in strongly air conditioned offices, you might need to keep that spray bottle handy because the cool hair dries out the hair causing it to need light spritzes once in a while.

Discover the products that work for you

This is very important, like I said before, you need to find out what works for your hair. By this I mean, what makes your hair soft and keeps it moisturized for as long as possible. For all the steps that I have mentioned above, you need products that would help you achieve them. You need a good shampoo (sulphate or non sulphate ), a rince out conditioner, a leave in conditioner, a good deep conditioner, a styling conditioner/butter, light carrier oils, and at least one essential oil.

So peeps, I may not be a natural hair guru, but these a couple of things I know about developing a simple hair regimen for your self. Below I have listed my current regimen and the products I use

Acharacha's Current Regimen

1. Conditioner wash (Co Wash) every two weeks - Tresemme Natural Nourishing Moisture Conditioner

2. Shampoo Wash every two weeks (alternate with co washing) - Shea Moisture Yucca and Boa Boab                                                                                                           thickening shampoo

3. Protective Style once a week - Dark and Lovely Au Naturale Coil Moisturizing Souffle

4. Deep Condition every two weeks - Organic Root Simulator Hair Mayonaise

5. Moisturize weekly - Natural Nigerian Leave in Conditioner, Sweet Almond Oil or Coconut Oil

6. Hot oil treatment every two weeks - Mixture of Sweet Almond Oil, coconut oil, peppermint oil and tea                                                                 tree oil

KINKSPIRAION: MEET GRACE, SHE DID HER BIG CHOP, YAAY!!

Hello people! I have decided to start featuring new naturals in the city on this blog. I believe this will serve as an inspiration to those who are still thinking about going natural. I am really excited to be featuring someone that I inspired to go natural and who is enjoying her natural hair journey so far. For this feature, I asked her the very same tag questions I used on my big chop post and here are her answers:

How long did you transition for?  

For about 3 to 4months

Why did you decide to do the big chop?  

I just wanted to feel and look at my natural "unrelaxed" hair (new growth). Before I did the big chopped, I would always go through pictures of other natural sisters, then wet my own hair just to see how long my undergrowth was. However, I finally ran out of patience and big chopped on the 9th of August, 2013.

What products did you use?  

I use the Dudu Osun soap as my shampoo (as advised by Acharacha), coconut oil and Shea butter. I also did the the lemon tea hair rinse and I intend to try out other natural products as I am on my way to becoming a natural miXtress.

 

 

What was your initial reaction to your new do?  

First I was proud of myself, then when I took my first photo, I saw that looked like my brother, at that point I just said to myself "...you need make up and big earrings, lol".

What were other people’s reaction, spouse, office, family and friends?  

Mixed reactions, everyone had an opinion. I even made the mistake of asking and got some negative ones that almost made me buy a wig, thank God I realized on time that it was about me and not other people. My colleagues like it, my mum and all my sisters are naturals so the only big deal for them was that I should have waited a little before doing my big chop. My friends like it, in all I have gotten more positive reactions than the negative ones.


So that's all people, cheers!

SAVE THE DATE: DOMINION CITY WOMEN CONVENTION

Just thought I should come here and announce this program. This is literally the best program in Dominion City, no kidding. I have never regretted going for DC women convention, it is always a blast!! You get practical, deep and mature teachings on everything imaginable that a woman needs to hear. I love,love this program, and I am sure this year's version of the Women Convention will not fall short of my expectation. So if you believe you need to be there for this program, please make plans to attend, you will not regret it!!

MY Thoughts on the Dark & Lovely "AU NATURALE" Brand Name: “ANTI SHRINKAGE”

Like I said in my last post, I think it was a very good thing that Dark and Lovely came up with this New Range, AU Naturale. However, I have a problem with the connotation “ANTI SHRINKAGE”. I do not believe that there is any product out there that will reduce the level of shrinkage on any head of natural kinky hair. Shrinkage is almost synonymous with Natural Kinky Hair. Natural hair shrinks because it is naturally coily or curly and it coils/curls up once it comes in contact with moisture. I believe this is a way natural kinky hair preserves moisture on its own.  So anything that removes that ability of natural hair to shrink has altered its chemical state, thereby permanently making it straight. So I think it is a bit “gimmicky” for Dark and Lovely to add “Anti Shrinkage” as part of the brand name for this new range of products. I do not even want to go on and say whether or not it reduced shrinkage in my hair, I think we all know what my answer is. So ultimately, I would suggest the company takes off that connotation from the brand name. That’s it for me y’all.

DUCES!!!

My Review of the NEW Dark and Lovely Au Naturale Range

Hi there, how have you been? Hope you had a great weekend and are getting ready for the new week? Yeah me too, sometimes I feel that we should add more days to the weekend, Saturday and Sunday aren't just enough, lol!! Anyway, so in this post, we will look at the New Dark and Lovely Au Natural Range. If you have been following my hair updates, you would have noticed that I promised to do a review of these range of products in future and this is the future people, ha ha. I also mentioned in my NITC 6 experience post, that I was part of a focus group selected to try out this new range by Dark and Lovely. 

Source

I really appreciate Dark and Lovely for recognizing the ever increasing natural hair community and coming up with this new range specifically made for naturals, I think it is awesome!

For this review, I was given samples of the following products:

1.       The Hydrating Soak Shampoo

2.       The Knot Out Conditioner

3.       The Coil Moisturizing Soufflé

4.       The Curl Defining Cream

5.       Sheen Sealing Nectar

I have separated these products into two, The Good Stuff and Not So Good Stuff

The Good Stuff

1.     The Coil Moisturizing Soufflé

Let me just say that this is the BEST, styling product I have ever used for twisting my hair. If you know me, you must have realized that I have tried a lot of products for someone who is just three months natural. I LOVE THIS PRODUCT. I don’t know what they put in it, I think it has to do with the glycerin, but for my hair, Dark and Lovely got it right with this one. It makes my hair so soft and moisturized all day. This product is going to be a staple in my hair product collection. I love it! I give this product an eleven on a scale of one to ten, people! lol!

2.    The Knot Out Conditioner

This has most of the good stuff to look out for in a conditioner. It has water as its first ingredient, it also has glycerin which is a good humectant that draws moisture to that hair, then it has fatty alcohols like Cetearyl Alcohol which moisturizes the hair. This product also has natural oils like palm oil and mango seed oil, so that's some good stuff. I particularly like the name of this product, THE KNOT OUT conditioner. The name prompted me to use it, for the first time, to detangle my really knotty hair. It worked really well with my hair.  It has good slip and it was easy to work through my hair. I would defiantly purchase it again for detangling my hair. I give it a seven on a scale of one to ten.

The Not So Good Stuff

To be honest, I did not try to use these products at all. The ingredients in them are not so good for my hair. For example, The Sodium Laureth Sulfate in the Hydrating Soak Shampoo and the Curl Defining Cream discouraged me from using them. My hair does not like that ingredient at all. It dries out my hair and turns it into what looks like a local sponge for washing pots in the village, honestly. So Dark and Lovely, I am really sorry, I did not use these products, I didn’t even try. I also could not try the sheen sealing nectar for the same reason, I just felt it was going to be like the Oil Sheen Spray I used when I was relaxed. 

The Journey of Peace Indescribable

Inner peace was the most striking thing I experienced when I decided to walk closely with God. It is one of the biggest gifts God gives to His people and it cannot be bought in any market, trust me. It is deep, almost indescribable but when I got it, I knew, that I knew, that I knew, that there was something very different residing in my heart, it was God’s peace. Once I started sensing this peace, some scriptures began to make sense to me. You know, like the one that says “…..His peace passes all understanding”. I experienced it for myself, my very own self. 

One thing I just wanted to do when I sensed God’s peace was to run on the roof tops and tell the whole world what I was feeling. Of course, I told everyone who cared to listen. I preached about it, I testified about it and although some people wondered what I meant, I knew that what I had was genuine, it was tangible, and it was real. Some people close to me even noticed, some comments I got were like “You look so calm and collected”, “When I hugged you, I could tell there was something different”, “There’s just something different about you” and so on.

I honestly believe that God’s Peace is “somewhere” He takes us when we start our walk with Him. It’s like a reference point and a starting point to which one can gauge whether or not he or she is drifting away or still on track with Him. For me, God’s peace is a guiding compass. Such that no matter where I am, what I am doing or saying, once that peace is not there, I know there’s something wrong and I have to do something about the situation to get back to the place where God’s peace is real.

What about you, have you ever experienced this peace? Was your experience like mine or different from mine? Please I would love you to share in the comment box below. Thank you so much for reading till the end, lol!! The next post will be about Wisdom, how God empowered me with wisdom that has set me apart in so many ways, so stay tuned.

My Walk With Jesus

Source

Dear reader, in the next few weeks, I would like to share something that means a lot to me. This is something that has given my life true meaning ever since I started to pay close attention to it and nurture it. It is something that dramatically transformed my life and continues to refine me. This special thing is my personal walk with Jesus. As much as I enjoy sharing my hair journey here on my blog, I am also inspired to share this with you. I would also like you to know that the posts that I am going to write concerning this will not be filled with clichés but they will be my own story, my own journey with Jesus. My goal is for my story to be a blessing and a source of inspiration to you, my readers. So for this series, I will be starting with my next post titled The Journey of Peace Indescribable. Thanks for stopping by.

Love always,

Acharacha

ME, MYSELF AND MY FRO: PUTTING MY FRO OUT OF THE WAY

Hi there! So for the past two weeks, I have been wearing my fro in styles that keep it out of my way for at least five days. Chaiii!! It has been rewarding ohhh!! If you live in Lagos, you'll wonder how a natural girl survives in this busy city. In the evening, you get home exhausted because of traffic. In the morning, you're dashing out to work so you don't get caught up in the same traffic. So please people, tell me where I can squeeze in about one and half hour to twist my hair every night (perils of the TWA stage) and unravel in the morning, eeeh?!! My dear, e no easy, it is not easy. So since I have some length now, I decided to start protective styling my hair, so I can just wake up and go!!

MINI TWISTS by YOUR'S TRULY

So for the first week, I did mini twists. Ofcourse, a lot of people could not believe they were just twists, most people were convinced that I was dreading my hair, so I just stopped explaining (*shoulders high with my palms facing upwards, head tilted sideways*). This took me about three and half hours to do.

FLAT TWIST UP DO by YOUR'S TRULY

Second week, I pushed myself a little further and tried the FLAT TWIST UP DO with mini twists in the front. Boooooyyyyy was I proud of my self or what?! Compliments kept pilling to the roof, wow!! On the weekend, I just unraveled the twists in the middle, to get a twist out in front and  flat twist updo. Meeeeen, I was proud of myself,oh! It took me about three hours to complete. Please place a comment if you want me to do a tutorial on how to achieve this on my YouTube Channel

SIDE SWEPT UP DO by APPLES AND ORANGES SPAR

This week I am rocking A SIDE SWEPT FLAT TWIST UP DO that I did at the Apples and Oranges Event on Saturday. The salon gave free hair do for all the natural girls in the city of Lagos. I got the info late so I could not announce it here on this blog. I loved loved loved that salon, the hair dressers are trained and they were so gentle with my hair. I will do a full review in future about the salon. But my experience with them was awesome and I am a converted customer.