My Current Hair Regimen (with products)

Hola!

Happy Sunday!

I am popping in to share with you what I've been doing to my hair these days.

The further I get into my hair care journey, the simpler my regimen gets. I compiled a video telling you what I do, how often I do it and what products I typically use to get it done. Take a look-see:

 

What does your hair regimen look like these days?

 

 

 

The A - Z of a HHJ

There are so many acronyms and initialisms in this healthy hair world: HHJ, BC, SSKs, EVOO, the list goes on an on... and on! So I decided to get in on the action by compiling my ABC's of this hair journey thing and also paying homage to some of my favorite blogs.

Accepting your hair for what it is and working with it to make it the best it can be.

Balancing hair's moisture and protein is one of the best things you can do to achieve strong and healthy.

Cover hair with a satin cap while sleeping to prevent dryness and breakage.

Deep condition often! and with heat.



Black Hair Information



Relaxed Hair Health

Exercise!



Saving Our Strands

Figure out what products work well for your hair and stick with them.

Growth retention should be your focus when aspiring to long hair.

Hair care = Hair growth. Proper hair care, that is!

Inversion method may or may not work lol. You'll have to try it for yourself.

Journey. It may be long and treacherous or short and sweet, but it's yours and you've just got to keep going.

Kinky, Kurly, Koily - the texture of my new growth and hopefully, eventually, my entire length.



Just Grow Already

Learn from others.

Moisture is your best bud.

Oblige your curiosity by experimenting, but don't Overdo it.

Prepoo, protective styles and pH balancing!



Longing for Length



Fresh Lengths

Quit. Sike! Quite the opposite. Don't ever quit your hair journey because you are not seeing results, the time will pass anyway.

Relaxer stretching will do you a world of good if it is that you are relaxed.



Rachie to Waist Length

Sulfate-free Shampoos!

Take pictures to track progress.

Understand that growth comes naturally when your hair is healthy.

Veg out! and maintain a clean diet to get all the vitamins & minerals your body needs.

Wide tooth combs!

X-citing, X-crutiating, X-hillarating - all part of the process. My vocab is void of words beginning with X lol.

Yolks, yogurt, and even yams can be incorporated into your hair regimen. Be creative.

Zeal - what you need to reach your goal.

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

Flashback Friday - How to Grow Long, Healthy Hair

Hey everyone!
Happy Friday!!!

This was one of the very first posts I did here on the blog.

I made a video recently with very similar information for my youtube channel (shameless plug! lol), and decided to include it here as it can serve as a reminder for my lovely long-time readers and new information for the newbies.

The elements included in the video were, and still are of paramount importance in my hair journey, helping me to grow long, healthy hair.

What is the most important tip you have for growing healthy hair?

 

 

5 Mistakes Made on Wash Day

Wash days are perhaps the cornerstone of any healthy hair journey.

We use one day of the week to reset our hair; to strengthen, soften, condition and caress.

But what if your are negating all your efforts by executing some of the most paramount steps erroneously?

You could very well be, since what I'm about to tell you, are blunders made by many a sojourner at one point or another.

 

1. Not pre-pooing - this step is certainly one of the most pivotal in the whole wash day process. It prepares the hair for what it is about to undergo, and protects it from the negative effects that can result from issues such as hydral fatigue or harsh shampoos. (Read up on the pre-poo here.)
2. Speaking of harsh shampoos... this is another crucial mistake. Some shampoos can be very drying to your hair, particularly those containing sulfates. Protect against these harmful effects by a) shampooing less often, b) opting for a sulfate-free shampoo, c) choose a more natural cleanser such as ACV or clay or d) skip the cleansers altogether, opting instead to co-wash (washing with conditioner only).
3. Bundling your hair on top of your head -  This is not a Herbal Essences commercial!! Your hair will tangle, matte and/ or break. Instead of bundling, be sure to have your strands hanging down and raking your fingers through your tresses as you go to detangle and remove any shed hair.
   

   
   

   

    
4. Not deep conditioning - You wrong for this boo! Do not skip the deep conditioning process. Sure, it may slap an extra 30 minutes or so onto your wash day but it's worth it. Deep conditioning is a key way to put back some of the moisture lost during the week and also during shampooing, it is vital for adding protein to your strands for stronger, more resilient hair, and it can give your hair much-needed elasticity, allowing it to make it through the week ahead. You can DIY or use store-bought conditioners that meet the needs of your hair, but please, deep condition.
5. (Bath) Towel drying - the T-shirt has become one of the most popular ways of drying ethnic hair, and rightly so. The bath towel is much too rough on our tresses and can lead to damage and breakage. The soft cotton composition of the t-shirt is much gentler on our hair. It removes excess water in a jiffy and leaves the hair soft, moisturized and manageable. An up-sell to the t-shirt is the twisty-turby (it goes by many other names as well), which is made of a microfiber material and pretty much does the same job as the t-shirt. The choice is yours.

 

If you are newbie to this hair journey thing, don't beat yourself up too bad. It's OK, we all made these mistakes at some point the important thing is that you learn and grow. However, if you are a veteran and still possess these bad habits... shame on you! lol. I kid, but you know what to do now... kick 'em straight to da curb!

 

Talk to you soon,

Ciao!

 

 

Abbi, what's up wit'cho hair?

Heyyy!

I am stopping by with a quick little hair update.

I realize that I haven't talked much about my hair in a little while.

And that's because there really isn't much to speak of.

I have been wearing my hair in one of three ways:

• Some kind of top bun

 

 

 

• Pigtails, or

 

 

• a Braidout, which is a by-product of the aforementioned pigtails.

 

 

I still deep condition weekly, incorporating oils and humectants, along with the deep conditioner I choose on the day. On wash day, I always execute the LOC method, which keeps my hair feeling soft and supple for days. I am running and working out in the gym a lot, so I usually keep my hair in either the bun or the pigtails for the better part of the week, moisturizing & sealing as needed, while letting it loose during the weekends. That's pretty much it, right now I'm in the basic zone.

 

What's up wit yo hair??

Ciao!

 

 

Hair Journey Video - Pixie Cut to Waist Length

Hey there!

 

I had some time on my hands and decided to put together a video of my progress from pre-hair journey to the present. Some of you may already know the story, so this one is for those who are in oblivion or if you are a visual person and want to take a look-see.

 

 

6 Reasons We Don't Have the Hair We Want

Last week I wrote an article about the basics of growing long, healthy hair which was geared towards those ladies who are fairly new to the hair journey world and don't quite have their footing. This article runs in the same vein but is directed at us ladies who have been doing this for a little while, but overlook some of the small things that could really make a difference in our hair lives. I came up with six small things that we may not comply with all the time that could potentially make or break our HHJs. Here we go:
 
 

 

The Basics of Growing your Hair to Great Lengths

I recently started investing some time in the blog's Facebook page (go like if you haven't already ;-)), and I have a few new readers, one of whom asked:

    

Now, for those who dabble in the hair care realm we know that what she really means is "How do I retain enough growth so as to reach this length?" We know this because hair grows as long as we are alive and healthy (If you want to speed up growth though, here's how). However, retaining length is the real trick. Here is an outline of the basics:

Top 7 Ways to Speed up Hair Growth

Many, if not most, articles are focused on length retention rather than hair growth and rightly so, since hair grows as long as you are healthy. Hair typically grows at a rate of 1/2 inch per month, but that's just an average. So if your rate is much lower and you want to speed it up, listen up!

 

 

 

Fitness Friday - The Effect of Sweat on your Healthy Hair Journey

As you may know by now, I'm pretty big on fitness and I workout 5-6 days a week (sometimes more than that). And these sessions are pretty intense. Now, that's a lot of sweat. I found myself washing (rinsing, co-washing, shampooing etc) my hair every other day and sometimes every day, for fear of my hair producing an unpleasant odor. But do I have an even bigger problem on my hands than dread smelling locks? Perhaps...

Just Not There Yet...

Today's post is a little different. Hair is still the topic, just not my hair. I am about to share with you my sister's recent hair story. And NO it's not one of those features where I ask her some cliché questions and listen to her typical answers. I'm about to give you the real, from my perspective.

 

mostly natural

I've Been a Bad Girl

Recently it hit me that my current hair woes (dry hair), may be due, not to the change in climate or to the new (and not-so-new) products I have been experimenting with, but to my actions, or lack thereof. You see, ever since I came back home to Jamaica, I have been just plain lazy keeping it simple with my hair. 

Curly vs. Straight - Not Another Relaxed Debate!

We've seen it time and time again, the natural versus relaxed hair debate. I love both forms. As most people may know, I am chemically treated but love natural hair and intend to go (back) natural at some point. This post is actually geared towards my texlaxed girls in an effort to share my experience, and to hear about yours, regarding people's reaction to how you style your hair.

Reactions to my HHJ Progress

Having been on my journey for 2 years, I have achieved lengths that I hadn't before. I started the journey while living in Japan, and while my family members and few close friends knew what I was up to, most others wouldn't and didn't.

My First Time - Salon Visit

Guess who went to a salon for the first time since my hair journey!

Starting Over?! - Hair Chat

Having changed weather an climatic conditions, my hair has not been behaving the way it used to. It is definitely more prone to frizzing. I tried a few hairstyles that, by the end of the day, end up in a big ball of frizz. I may need to look into anti-humidity and anti-frizz products.

Haulin'!

One just does not leave their country of abode for travel and not pick up a few hair products, especially when you're on a hair journey. So this post is dedicated to the items I copped recently. 

shopping for hair products in Walmart

Relaxer Update Time - 2 Year HHJ Anniversary

I have been gone from the blogosphere for quite a while due to my move from Japan back to Jamaica. I think I am fairly settled now and can pick up where I left off, so I'll do just that. Thanks for bearing with me!

relaxer update 04/'14

So four days after relaxing, I rewashed and styled my hair.

I started off by prepooing/ deep conditioning with a mix of Aubrey's Honeysuckle rose, Queen Helene cholesterol cream, and my oil mix. This sat for about an hour. 

Then I shampooed with ORS creamy aloe and conditioned with HEHH and a bit of Tresseme moisture rich.

I T-shirt dried for 15 minutes, then applied my heat protectant - Nioxin Thermal Bliss and proceeded to blow-dry.

After that, I applied more heat protectant in the form of ORS Thermal protect and shine and the flat-ironing got underway. 

Relaxer Day - 3/27

Hey guys, Happy Friday!

Please forgive the erratic posts. Life is hectic right now. I move on Tuesday and I have to get my entire apartment packed up. I'm really excited to be heading to Jamaica soon, so I made time to relax my hair in the midst of all the rush.

Are Scalp Massages Overrated?

Ever since I started my hair journey, I've heard that scalp massages will speed up hair growth. The explanation they give is that it stimulates the scalp, encouraging blood-flow and increased nutrients to that area.