7 Principles to Grow Your Hair

1. Keep your scalp clean

The pores on your scalp need to be unclogged and free from harmful bacteria in order for healthy hair to sprout. Scalp health is the foundation of everything. It's just that simple. 

 

2. Your ends are fragile, baby them

This applies to when you moisturize the ends, when you're detangling (be extra gentle with your ends), and when you're styling your hair (keep your ends tucked away and shielded from  the environment to reduce dryness, tangling, and damage) 

3. Dust, not trim 

For those of us who are natural, texlaxed, relaxed ("permed"), and

who would like to see our hair growth this coming year, I'd suggest just dusting your ends every 3 months. Dusting means you're cutting off just a little bit of the hair tips (a maximum of 0.25 inches).

Transitioners who want to quickly get rid of relaxed ends or who want to big chop (which, by the way, is not a requirement for having having any form of healthy hair), may go ahead and trim, sha. 

Think about it like this: humans' hair (no matter what race nor ethnicity one is) grows about 0.25 inches to 0.50 inches each month. If you're trimming off 0.5 inches to 2 inches every month, abeg, how will d hair grow *in my Igbo voice*?

4. Deep condition your life away

Yes, girl. Deep condition like your hair depends on it, because it does. For real, for real. Didi of Afrocurlitan said it perfectly, that it's the step in your hair routine you simply cannot skip. She even explains how to deep condition in her post "Deep Conditioner 101." 

Source: Naturally Curly

5. Balance moisture with strength

This one can be a bit tricky. We can discuss this later in another post. For now, just remember that your hair needs to be strong enough to not break off yet soft enough to be malleable. Beware that not everything is about moisture, and there is a difference between strong hair and dry hair. 

6. Be consistent and patient  

This applies to when you're combing, learning new hairstyles, and waiting for the hair to grow. Just focus on being more gentle with your hair and building healthy hair habits, and you'll see improvements, I guarantee. For consistency, choose the days of the week/month you're going to have a wash day (the day that you'll wash and deep condition your hair), book them in your schedule, and stick to your routine! Don't

7. Keep it simple

Don't try to do too much, please. Many times, the fewer products you're using, the better (especially for hair growth newbies). The

more simple your hair care routine is, the better for you too. An overly complex routine will leave you tired and frustrated. I find that it's easier for me to tackle one hair problem at a time. For example, when I started my health hair journey in 2009, I focused on making my hair thicker. After about 6 months in, I then focused on making my hair longer. And shortly after that I moved on to focusing on growing my edges back. Focusing on one thing doesn't mean I ignored the others though. 

Source: Kinky Koiffures and Polished Pinkies

                                             
Haha, don't you just love that meme I put up there? I do! 

Ladies, have an amazing, positive, happy hair week. I welcome questions, comments, stories, and tidbits. 

Much love,

Raspberry Smoothie for Longer Hair

Happy hump day, ya'll! 

We're halfway through the week. Who wants a yummy pick-me-up? Alright, here it goes :

 While on vacay last week, I came up with a bomb 

raspberry smoothie, and my hair loves it!

It was so delicious, I drank 4 large glasses of it within 48 hours and felt incredibly hydrated. I didn't measure every ingredient this time around, though, because I was just doing trial and error and was in a rush.

I'm sharing anyway to give you all an idea of which types of fruits and veggies work well together for a delicious smoothie.

What I Used: 

• - Very ripe raspberries 
• - Apple
• - Very ripe watermelon
• - Cucumber
• - Lettuce 
• - Raw, organic honey
• - 1/4 handful of carrots (carrots should be the smallest portion compared to your other ingredients)

Benefits for Our Hair: 

• - Antioxidants & fiber (from raspberries, honey, and apples) stimulate new hair growth by renewing scalp   cells, regulating the digestive system and boosting the immune system

• - Vitamin B (from raspberries) adds shine/sheen to your tresses, minimizes gray hair, and prevents hair loss

• - Vitamin A (from carrots, watermelon, and lettuce) increases hair moisture by helping produce sebum, our scalps' natural oil

• - Citrulline (from watermelon) - increases blood circulation for faster hair growth

• - Vitamin K (from lettuce) prevents blood clots and maintains healthy hair

Bonus! Mane Tip: 

Looking for raspberries in Lagos? Try Abgoju Market in Amuwo Odofin LGA. Dobby of Dobby's Signature found two merchants there who sell foreign fruits (thanks, Dobby!). You may contact the sellers: Alhaji Sanni at 08023774890, and Alhaji Ibrahim at 08140377381.

Enjoy the rest of the week. And I'm out!

Nnaya

Tips for Transitioners

There’s no need for a lengthy introduction for this post. The title is pretty much self-explanatory.

Transitioners: Ladies who stop perming (chemically relaxing) their hair in order to rock their hair’s natural curl pattern. Shakin’ what their mamas gave them, au naturale!

If you’re transitioning and you need a little help, check out these tips:

1. If you want to cut it all off at once (doing the “big chop”), then go ahead. But you actually don’t have to go bald (or almost bald) in order to go natural. You can wear           your hair in a variety of styles while you grow out your relaxer, and just trim the              relaxed ends little by little over a period of time.

      2. Please do NOT fry your natural hair with a flat iron (hair straightener) or blow                   dryer, in efforts to get it straight and blend it with your relaxed ends. That would            cause major breakage…and when irrevocable breakage occurs, you might as well cut          it all off. (Refer to #1)

      3. Beware of the line of demarcation! This is basically the point where your natural               roots meet your straight ends.

Source: A Hair Story

      4. Don’t dye your hair during your transitioning process. Chemical dyes cause our hair             to be drier than usual, which may increase chances of having breakage. And during           your transition, your hair is already fragile, especially at the “line of demarcation”             (See #3)

      5. Find a nice balance between giving your hair enough protein vs. moisture. Use                  protein conditioners once or twice a month, and deep condition your hair with a              moisturizing deep conditioner once a week (or once every two weeks). But pay                attention to how your hair reacts to the way you treat it: if it’s dry and breaks                  easily, then you need moisture; if it’s too mushy and weak, then you need protein            to strengthen it.

       6. Use hairstyles such as bantu knots, roller sets, wigs & sew-in weaves to disguise the           difference in textures on your head so that you can still look cute as you go through           this ugly duckling phase (Hey, I’m just keeping it real).

       7. Find a good detangler. Conditioners that have bihentrium menthosulfate are really            useful, because this ingredient serves as a detangling agent. So check the label of              that conditioner you’re looking to buy and see if bihentrium menthosulfate is                    there. The closer to the top of the ingredient list it is, the larger the amount of it            that’s present in the conditioner, and the better it is for you.

        8. Deep conditioning is your friend, girl! It’ll help you manage the two textures more             easily by making your hair feel soft and prevent breakage. Get to know it!

Hero Hero Bonus: Living in Nigeria (or in hot, humid climate)? Try to limit your hair's exposure to the sun during this transitioning phase, because excessive heat exposure will cause more dryness that you bargained for. If you go for protective styles that hide your hair during most of the transition, it'll make the process a lot easier. So opt for braids (but DON'T make them too small, too tight, nor keep them in too long, abeg!) or weave-ons (again, not too tight, and don't wear them too for too long). 

Congrats if you have decided to go natural; it takes courage and patience to do so. If you’re still debating whether or not to go natural, be sure you do your research, and make sure to keep an open mind.

Until next time!

Black Hair Can't Grow

Black hair can’t grow. For simplicity, let’s assume that “black” equals tightly coiled,“wooly,” afro-like hair. This is by far one of the biggest myths out there. My hair at its longest was 16in. (41 cm.), & it reached passed my back bra strap. Oh, and I’m Black. African. Nigerian, to be precise. I'm 100% Black, Nigerian with tightly coiled, “wooly,” afro-like hair (that’s clarification for those who want to claim that some Nigerians are mixed with other races, which may be true, but I'm not. I'm all Black, baby!)   During my university years, my close friends dubbed me with the nickname Many Hair because of my long and thick afro halo that I used to wear around campus. Picture a Boondocks character with tall, skinny legs; that was me. My hair attracted so much attention that on one occasion, I nearly felt like slouching in my seat to allow the poor girl behind me to see the board during Chemistry class. People often stared as I strolled passed, wondering silently—and in the case of some bold individuals, aloud—what would possess me to wear my natural hair out, and whether it was all mine.  "How did you get your hair so long?" I’d often get asked. I used to shrug my shoulders, because quite frankly, I didn't know--my mama did my hair! Most of the time growing up I wore my hair in box braids (with hair extensions--"Bob Marley" as my sister and I used to call it). In my final years of university the “natural hair movement” was reborn, which encourages Black women to embrace their natural texture (chemical-relaxer-free), to nurture it and learn how to style it. Now we’ve gotten used to seeing Black women rocking all kinds of curls and coils. And though my hair’s “afro-ness” is still quite shocking to some, most people are more intrigued by its length than anything else. Let’s quickly get back to that “Black hair can’t grow” myth. It’s not only myth, it’s a gimmick. Millions of companies around the world play on (and make mega bucks from) the notion that Black hair cannot grow passed shoulder length; that Black hair's "wooly" nature needs to be relaxed into straight silkiness, and that Black hair is simply unmanageable. As a result we, Black women, buy hundreds of ounces of hair extensions, chemical relaxers, wigs, and "magic" products to add length, volume, and bounce (sadly, in vain sometimes) to our hair, rather than truly discovering the beauty of our own our crown and glory (our hair). Growing up, I wasn’t that interested in how or what was being done to my tresses. Granted, I had always been proud of it, but I never actually took time to take care of it by myself. It wasn't until I entered university that I really took ownership of my hair and discovered its true beauty and potential for growth. Black hair CAN grow. In 2009 I began my healthy hair journey, shortly after a horrific session at the beauty salon where a scissors-happy stylist cut off way more hair than I had requested for what was supposed to be a trim. My ultimate goal on this journey is to learn how to love my hair, even on its bad days, and how to achieve thick, healthy waist-length hair. Yes, I said it! I was able to grow my hair from chin-length to bra strap length; why stop now?