Protect Your Hair for Harmattan

Happy New Year, Mane Divas!

I hope your holidays have been fun, relaxing--simply, amazing. I wish you all a bright, prosperous 2017!

For those of us in Lagos, harmattan is now in full force, along with its winds, dust, haze, and dry air. For those of us in New York or many other parts of the US, winter is here!

How are you protecting your hair?

Source: Black Girl Long Hair

You may be thinking, protecting my hair? As in, how?

My sistah, as in hide yo ends, hide yo edges, hide as much of your hair as you can. Harsh weather is no joke. It'll rough-up your mane so much you can lose months of good hair growth.

Protective styling (hairstyles where your ends are braided, wrapped, or tucked away) helps to retain length and saves you time and energy when growing your hair. 

My primary tips when it comes to protective styling for this harsh season: 

1. Choose 3 cute, go-to styles for the entire season
This reduces the stress of trying to figure out what to do with your hair. I notice that when I stress about how to style my hair at the last minute, I usually end up over-combing and over-manipulating my mane. Doing this causes me more breakage; so please plan ahead.

2. Don't wear a style for more than 6 weeks
without releasing your hair to wash, deep condition, and de-tangle, to minimize matting. I usually aim for 4-6 weeks. 

Source

3. Make sure you can still reach your scalp 
So for my ladies who like to sew nets on their anchor braids for weave-on (sew-ins), be sure to have a spray bottle or needle-point bottle to use to oil your scalp regularly

4. Don't sacrifice the health of your hair for a cute hairstyle
If this means you need to wash your bone straight, Naomi Campbell weave every week/every two weeks because it gets greasy from all the moisturize and oils you squeeze into your anchor braids... Then guess what, boo? That's what you gotta do. 

5. Moisturize your hair every day

6. If you can, wear a wig.
With wigs you can wear the perfect hairstyle during the day and enjoy freedom or full access to your own hair and scalp at night to massage your scalp, moisturize your own hair, and sleep comfortably. 

Ya'll know I love convenience and simplicity, and wigs as a protective style give me just that. I've been exploring new styles this time around though. 

What things are you doing to protect your hair this season?


All the best,

Mane Taboo: I Don't Grease My Scalp

Hey there, fabulous! 

Let's start this week with a BANG, shall we? 

I'm introducing a new series here on MAG called "Mane Taboo" for one major reason: 

the biggest (and most difficult) aspect of growing my hair was letting go of old (bad) habits and a set mindset I had prior to starting my hair journey.

Concepts like "My hair grows when it's dirty!" and "Where's the Blue Magic? Grease that scalp, girl!" are now a big no-no for me. But these hair "rules" were things we African women (heck, black women everywhere) were raised by, abi? There just comes a time when a gal's gotta spread her wings and evolve to grow longer, stronger, lengths! And guess what? Some of these past "taboos" gotta go! With each Mane Taboo, I'll tackle an old school topic and share my opinion on why I've dumped or remixed the old school rule.

Today's hair taboo: I don't grease my scalp.

Source: Her Given Hair

Some of us liked DAX (Lanolin), others of us were loyal to the good 'ol Blue Magic or Ultra Sheen. As little girls, anytime our hair itched, Mama would sit us between her knees and lovingly part our hair, one small section at a time, and lay that grease on nice and thick. My scalp LOVED it (or so I thought). The grease was cool, comforting, and relieved the itchiness. I also really enjoyed being physically close to Mom in those moments, when she would gist me about life or we would watch TV shows together, all while she rescued my scalp. 

Source: Amazon

...but my hair didn't grow, and my battle with dandruff, dry scalp, and skin lesions was never-ending. Wahala!

Grease usually contain mineral oil or petroleum jelly as their main ingredients, but the molecules of these ingredients are too big to penetrate the scalp. So the grease ends up sitting on top the scalp instead of being fully absorbed into the scalp. 

Mineral oil and petroleum jelly also have the tendency to clog our scalps' pores really quickly! And guess what happens with clogged pores? 

Think about what happens when your face's pores get clogged: irritation, pimples, rash, skin lesions, and the list goes on. The same may (or may not) happen with your scalp. 

But by greasing your scalp you will definitely slow down your hair growth. 

So, what's the alternative?

I suggest castor oil. I use castor oil exclusively on my scalp. In my post about how I grow my edges, I talk about how I use castor oil to grow my hair. I've seen excellent results.

What do you use to oil your scalp?

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,

My Secret to Growing My Hair!

Hey, beautiful people! How has your weekend been?

Mine sure has been marvelous. I spent part of my day yesterday whipping up a batch of my favorite moisturizer. I LOVE taking care of my tresses, but I don't have all the time in the world to spend on my hair. 

In comes my all-in-one moisturizer! It's one of my biggest secrets to growing my hair. It keeps my tresses soft for dayyys and makes my hair smell amazing.  

It smells like floral-minty-lemony goodness! I use it on both my hair and my scalp. 

If you've read the post where I discuss how dry and rough my hair is, then you know the struggle ain't easy, mehn. But I moisturize my hair with this stuff on wash day, style it, and get on with my week! A little bit of product goes a long way. I may moisturize my hair (or just my ends) once or twice again that week, but that's it, boo. 

And when I take my hairstyle down on another wash day 1-2 weeks later, the ends of my hair are still really soft. How? 

I make it myself, by hand; it's all natural, and loaded with lots of nutrients that are great for hair growth: mango butter, shea butter, Moroccan oil, tea tree, and lots more!

I was over here putting together mini packages for some of my friends and loyal MAG clients, but then I realized, why not share it with everyone?

So I have MAG Mango Moisturizer for ya'll! 

And my blog readers get first dibs on this fresh batch. 

To purchase, please email me at maneattractionblog@gmail.com with the subject "MAG CREAM" or call 08170308660 and I will reply with details on sizes, prices, delivery and shipping.*  

And, yes, I ship nationwide within Nigeria!

*WARNING: If you are pregnant, please consult your doctor about the use of essential oils before using this product, as some essential oils may not be suitable for pregnant women. 

As always, I'm open to questions, comments, and sharing of ideas. 

Enjoy your week! 

Work Fab: Funky Pompadour

Helloooo, beautiful people. I hope you all are having a marvelous day. I, for one, fully enjoyed this extra long holiday weekend in Lagos. And I spent my day today in the studio making new music!

I took the traditional pompadour (see the sketch below) and decided to spice up my life a little bit.

Ready? .... BAM!

 What y'all think? I'm feeling pretty fancy, if I do say so myself. This is an excellent let's-be-fashionable-yet-professional style anyone can rock to the office.

What I used:

- Cantu leave-in conditioner
- Raw Shea butter
- Bobby pins

What I did:

1. I moisturized my hair with Cantu and sealed in the moisture with a light layer of shea butter.

2. I plaited my hair into 7 big braids (3 braids on one side of my head, 4 braids on the other)

3. Starting from the back of my head, I took a small piece of hair at the nape of my neck on the right side of my head and crossed it over to the left side of my head, making sure to smooth the hair in the middle of my nape upwards towards the crown (top) of my head

4. I took a small piece of hair at my nape on the right side of left side of my head and crossed it over to the right side of my head, again smoothing down the hair in the middle of my nape to make sure it lays flat

3. I repeated step 3 then step 4 then step 3 again until I reached the crown (the top) of my head

4. I used 4 body pins to secure the place where I stopped at the crisscrossing at the crown of my head

5. What was remaining was a big puff of hair in the front of my head. Time for the pompadour! I started taking small to medium sections at a time from that puff, and and rolled, tucked, and pinned hair to my liking. Don't pin too tightly so that you can have volume in your pompadour. 

6. The rolled and pinned pompadour at this point was sitting directly at the middle of my forehead. Now here comes the funk! I smoothed my hair's right side down with my fingers, gently pushing the pompadour to towards the left side of my head. Secure it with a bobby pin.

Et voila! Funky pompadour. :-)

It took me 10 minutes.

Anyone tried this style yet?

Work Fab: Twisted Pin-Up

One of the secrets to my best twistouts and braidouts is that I leave the twists in for at least 2 days. 

The only exception is if I'm refreshing my twistout mid-week by re-twisting at night; in that case, I only keep the twists in overnight and unravel my hair in the morning to rock a refreshed twistout... I hope that makes sense? Lol

Anyway, here is how I like to wear my twists. I never actually wear them down because I want my hair to be as stretched as possible for the twistout. Here's an excellent way to stretch your twists and be effortlessly edgy at the same time!

I used a LOT of gel, which gave my hair magnificent shine and smoothed my tresses' cuticles

I was inspired by Rihanna's audacity to wear a doobie wrap with huge bobby pins out in public. 

I'm not sure what we call it in Nigeria, but the doobie is basically when we wrap our hair and pin it up after getting it washed and rolled or straightened at the salon, so that the hair can be bouncy and straight the next morning. 

Photo Source: Huffington Post

I was so shocked when I saw Rihanna on the red carpet at the 2013 American Music Awards. But of course, Rih Rih can do no wrong, because most fashion critics and fans loved it. I'm a big Rihanna fan, and the style eventually grew on me.

My scalp is shiiiiining, and it's super moisturized!

Notice how my parts aren't super straight? They don't have to be perfect. Just make sure your front part is straight (like my side part for example), make sure you twist neatly, and use gel to lay down your edges and your hair will be neat enough to wear in a professional setting. 

Team five-head with my layed egdes. Yep, I love that forehead. :-)

Mane Show: Ninja bun

Happy Thursday, beautiful people! I hope all of you are having a fabulous week.

Some weeks ago I had a chance to celebrate one of my girlies as she had a birthday bash + launch of her new store HOUSE OF OBAJI (HOO) in Lagos.

The House of Obaji Madam herself (rocking a HOO green dress & HOO powder pink patterned two piece)

Photos Courtesy of: House of Obaji

My boo arrived in style, of course, and we turned up!

Here's a peek of my look. It's a mega ninja bun I've been rocking for the past two weeks.

            

I achieved this hairstyle using aloe vera gel and shea butter and it took about 7 minutes to put together.

           

                                                

           

 What do you ladies think?

I Dyed My Hair!

If you follow me on Instagram then you know that I highlighted my hair June last year. 

After toiling with the idea for years I decided to take the plunge. And I love it! In fact, I've already decided that I will add more color at some point. 

I've taken a while to write about my experience because I wanted time to watch for the usual hair-dye side effects, including increased breakage, excessively dry hair, change in curl pattern/texture, fading color, brassy color, and scalp irritations. 

MY REACTION:

Guess what? I haven't experienced ANY of those negative side effects. 

My hair has grown beautifully since I got I dyed, following its normal growth-and-shed cycles. And it has stayed true to its curl pattern and texture. 

Have you colored your hair before? What was your experience like?

Mane Comeback: Grow Your Edges! (*UPDATED*)

Note: Updates have been made on this post. Scroll down for the new tip and picture I share (Tip #3)! 

In August 2011, I suffered from the infamous receding hairline. I was wearing lace wigs most of the time and I wasn't taking care of my hair underneath (bad move).

And, girl, my hairline started to disappear! I already have a big forehead, so the forehead transformed to a five-head and it was NOT a good look.

My hairline started receding again in 2015 when I started neglecting my edges

Anyway, I recovered from it, and pretty quickly too. Within about 3 months, my hairline was back in action! My curlies in the front and not-so-curlies (lol) on the sides of my head were sprouting again. And whenever I wore my hair out, I did so without feeling self-conscious.

There are three major things I did that helped me regrow my hairline:

1. I left those wigs alone during the first 3 months of my recovery (I was fully recovered within 6-7 months)

2. I used a castor oil mix I made to massage my scalp 1-2 times a day

3. I always wore a satin headband (throughout the day and at night). In the first 3 months (the time when I did not wear any wigs) I would wear the headband and put the rest of my hair into a bun or updo. During the final 3 months of recovery (I started wearing wigs again by this time), I wore the headband underneath my wig. I also wore only curly wigs or wigs with big hair that way the big hair would conceal the fact that the front part of my wigs were not completely flat on my head. 

A castor oil mix I made with castor oil, mink oil, coconut oil

Source: Amazon

WARNING: Castor oil contains surfactants (these are chemical compounds that, because of their molecular structure, are good cleansing agents because they attach themselves to dirt and loosen the dirt to be easily washed off). If you have a sensitive scalp, these surfactants can cause itchiness, dryness, burning sensations, or headaches. But what you can do is to mix castor oil with other oils and you should be fine.  Alright, you've been warned. Sensitive scalp ladies, if you try to use pure castor oil itself all over your head, you're on your own oh! I no go rescue you! Haha, just kidding (well, not really).

I'll definitely go back to my castor oil regimen soon

Whatever cream or oil mixture you decide to use is up to you. But the key in growing your hairline is massaging it and using a castor-oil-based anything. 

Massaging the affected areas (a.k.a the bald spots) will help the blood circulate better at that spot you're massaging. And the better the blood circulation, the better your hair will grow.

Drink Your Way to Healthier Hair

It's important that I mention this: you cannot have healthy hair if you don't have a healthy diet.

Photo credit: Photo Pin

No matter how many times you moisturize, deep condition, or wash your hair, you won't see much progress unless you also clean up your diet (i.e. watch what you eat on a daily basis) 

It's like when you're trying to lose weight; you can do all the sit-ups and jumping jacks you want, but you won't shed much weight until you change your eating habits.

Here's the first step to a healthier you: mind what you drink. 

Mane DOs: 

- Water
- 100% fruit juice from concentrate (Be careful, though; if the product is true to its word it'll have only 2 ingredients on its ingredients list: [insert your favorite fruit here] concentrate & water. No additives, no artificial sweeteners. Heck, no sweeteners at all. 

- Fresh fruit juices (these don't come in a box; buy fruits from the market & put your blender to use!)

- Blended vegetable juice (these also don't come in a box; grab that blender!)

Mane DON'Ts:

- Fruit drinks (yes, there's a difference; fruit drinks are like Kool-Aid, bitter lemon, Snapple, 5-Alive, etc.) 

- Soda/Pop/Mineral (different parts of the world call them different things; but these are basically Coke, Sprite, etc.)

- Malt drink 

Mane Tip: Add slices of fruit to your water. I like to use lemon. It's cheap, easy to find, flavors the water, and speeds up digestion (which is awesome for weight loss or weight maintenance!) 

Before I started my healthy hair journey, I used to drink orange juice ALL the time. My cousins used to tease me about this, by the way; they never understood how someone could drink o.j. 'round the clock. "O.j. is for breakfast! Try something new!" they'd always say. I only drank water occasionally, when I was really, really thirsty (usually after dance rehearsals or workout sessions). 

But when I started drinking 3-4 bottles each day, I noticed that my hair was able to retain more length in a shorter amount of time (in short, it seemed like my hair was growing "faster").

So try it out. Next time you sit to eat, go for water instead of soda. And when you're working at your computer, take a 5-minute water break and grab a glass to drink. Gradually increase your water intake each week, and in 3 months time you'll see that you'll even crave water before it's time for you to drink!

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?