It's OK - Hair Edition

No one is perfect and everyone is different. On hair journeys, we will have similarities but the differences will also abound. Sometimes we are made to feel that what we are doing isn't right or that there is a better way to skin the cat. I'm here to reassure you that there is no right way to eat spaghetti and that it's OK...

Exploring Your Options - Ways to Achieve Straight Hair

I mentioned in this post that I used quite a bit of heat during my vacay to keep my hair straight for the sake of manageability and ease. By 'quite a bit' I mean 3 times! That may or may not seem like a lot to some, but for me it is. This is so because I rarely use heat during the course of a regular month. As a matter of fact I usually go 3 or 4 months without it.

Needless to say, I was very cautious during the process of creating straight hair. That is, I did a protein, used heat protectants, and used low heat with few passes, but that's a whole 'notha post. The point of this one, is to discuss ways to get your hair straight and keep it that way (at least for a while) while using heat.

Back for More - with a few new things

I'm baaackk! lol

Initially, I only planned to refrain from blogging for the week that I was in the Philippines, but then I was so caught up when I came back to Japan that no blogging was done. Anyway I'm here now and I thoroughly enjoyed my winter vacay! The weather, the food, the people and spending time with my boo thang lol but one of my favorite things was the shopping. I was really pleased to find that they have a wider array of western products including hair goodies and I took advantage.

I had just stocked up on a few of my must-haves in December, but who can resist trying out some new stuff?!

7 Deadly Sins - Hair Care Edition

It's Sunday! And while I'm not heading to church today ;-( I'm taking you there! Today's message is centered around the cardinal vices of hair care. Let's take a look at them, shall we?!

Asian Persuasion - Black vs Japanese hair (care)

I ride the train to work every morning. This morning I took note of a young lady who at about a year or so ago had neck length hair. However, today her hair is just about BSL heading to MBL. Now, I live in Japan so of course this lady is not black but Japanese. So it got me thinking...what are the differences between our hair. I know (or atleast I think I know lol) that she doesn't spend her Friday nights pre-pooing so she can wash, deep condition, tea rinse, towel/ air dry and then protective style.

We already know that the shape of the follicles has a lot to do with the structure and appearance of our hair and that in turn affects the strength and hence length retention. Asians tend to have round follicles producing straight hair which is easily lubricated by sebum, while African descendants have flat follicles which result in kinky, curly/ coily hair. There are two major issues here 

1. sebum doesn't travel as freely, causing dryness and 
2. the kinks which form at the turn of each curl or coil represent a point of weakness, making black people's hair vulnerable to breakage.
   
   But that's not what this post is about. We can't change nature and biology, but there are some things we can do.

What can we learn from our Asian (Japanese) counterparts?

Trying Something New - Wash Day

I am not one to do wash day posts every week, but since I tried something new, I thought I'd go ahead and do one this week. I had cornrows for two weeks as a protective style. This is how it went down:

On Friday Night...

13 weeks post wash day

Straddling the Fence - Texlaxing

Braid-out on texlaxed hair

When I started my hair journey I weighed the positives and drawbacks of processing my hair vs wearing it in a natural state. Since I was already relaxed, I looked deep into relaxing bone straight, texlaxing, and returning to my roots (pardon the pun). I made little jottings in my hair journey, these are they:

The Peak - Hair Goals

Initially, at the start of my journey I wanted MBL hair, but that has changed and I now find myself lusting after, you guessed it - BELOW THE WAIST length hair. That is my ultimate goal length. Also, I am not a fan of the blunt, straight across cut, but neither do I like thinning and uneven ends, so I'm aiming for a nice full rounded, or "V" cut look. I also want soft, strong, shiny hair that I know well and am a pro at. I want to be able to enjoy my hair without suffering breakage. I want it to be manageable and easy. I want it to be gorgeous.

The Thirst is Real!! - Dry Hair

I've had dry hair since the start of my hair journey and perhaps even before. I didn't worry much about it as I have never suffered any setbacks because of it. My hair has grown and I have retained a lot of length. I just figured constant M&S was part of the game. I'd moisturize and seal in the morning and in the evening my hair would still be dry!!! So I'd M&S again at night, and still wake up with dry hair. Last summer, I used vegetable glycerin for the first time, it helped, but it's effectiveness waned with time. What's a girl to do?

Recently I started becoming annoyed and discontent with this persistent dryness and got to thinking. Could I be that I'm suffering from too much protein in my hair??

Doing the Splits - a Look at Split-ends

Trichoptilosis is longitudinal splits of the hair fiber, commonly called split ends. No one likes them! They come in all shapes and sizes and despite their name, can occur anywhere along the shaft.

Check them out below

So what causes these little rascals? There are a myriad of reasons such as:

Wrap it up - Protect your hair while you sleep

I recently posted about protective styling, but what I didn't mention is that it doesn't stop there. Nope, we should protect our hair as much as we possibly can. How, you ask? By wrapping it up every chance we get! 

Successful Stretching - 10 Tips

We've already discussed the effects of stretching, and decided that the benefits won ;-). So... now you have decided to embark on a stretch. Good for you! But you want to know how to keep the drawbacks at bay. You're in luck. This post is geared towards just that. 

10 weeks post, wet hair

Below are some tips for having an incident and accident-free stretch. 

Stretching It out (Your relaxers that is) - benefits vs. drawbacks

I'm a big fan of relaxer stretching! There are a few drawbacks, but the positives far outweigh them. We'll compare them in a minute, but first of all... 

What is Stretching? 

20 weeks post relaxer 

This is the act of extending the time one waits between getting relaxers. That is, if you are accustomed to retouching your hair at 6 weeks posts, then going a 7th week without it is considered stretching. Many stretch for anywhere from 10 weeks to 12 months and some go even longer. Prior to my hair journey, I never stretched my relaxers. I retouched at the first hint of new growth to keep my hair looking 'fresh'. These days however, I stretch to 7 and 8 months at a time with the help of my long-term protective styles. When I get closer to my goal of "below the waist" length though, I intend to stretch to 12-16 weeks. In my experience with stretching, I have encountered the following drawbacks:

Let's Go Deep...into the past - My Hair Journey in Pics

It started 16 months ago when I met this wonderful gem. 'Twas love at first sight browse. Sure we've had some rough patches and I even started having second thoughts a few months down the road. But I stuck it out and thank God I did. Here's how it went down:

Pre Hair Journey

fried, dyed and blow-dried hair  - '08