Hair Styles – Page 4 – Rehairducation

Lade October 1, 2015

Caring For Your Wig

Hello ladies

This is a very short impromptu post about wig care.
The majority of the time I tend to emphasise caring for our own hair when wearing wigs but the fact is our wigs need love too. I was washing my Nazuri Curls wig and thought it would be a good time to share how I care for my wigs.

Wash and Conditioning

Wigs should be cleaned and conditioned regularly to help preserve the hair fibres and to keep the wig looking good for longer. No one wants a brittle and dry looking wig. A sulfate free shampoo should be used to wash the wig and this can be followed by a light weight instant conditioner. If I am wearing a wig regularly I wash it every 2 to 3 weeks.

How I Wash and Condition My Wigs

Detangle thoroughly
Saturate the wig with room temperature water. Keep the wig hanging straight down as seen in the pictures above or lay it flat in a tub of water.
Apply shampoo to the wig and gently squeeze the lather through the length of the wig. Avoid twisting or scrunching the wig
Rinse thoroughly and apply light weight moisture conditioner
Leave the conditioner on for a few minutes and then rinse thoroughly without twisting or roughing up the wig
A very light leave in conditioner can be applied depending on the hair type and your own preferences. I only apply leave in conditioners to wigs that have a tendency to become frizzy and I make sure the products I use are non greasy or sticky.
Air dry, blow dry or roller set. If styling with heat ensure you use a heat protectant.

My wig made with Nazuri Curls hair extensions. After washing, I used 9 bendy rollers, let it dry and voilà….hello lushness 🙂

And there it is. A quick and straight to the point post about wig care.

I am having such a hectic week and I am struggling to find time to wash my hair so I can come back to you with my hair update post. Fingers crossed it I’ll do it tomorrow (I am trying to stop procrastinating….honest)

Come back soon and happy independence day to my fellow Nigerians.

Lade
Learn | Change | Grow

Lade September 9, 2015

HOW I CARE FOR MY LEAVE-OUT HAIR

Hello Ladies
I hope you are well. I’ve been looking forward to writing this post and it has been in high demand for a while. From the title, you will know it is all about the leave out hair.
Prior to my hair journey I loved my weaves. I never installed the full ones though; I always had some hair left out to hide the tracks at the front. When I moved on to wearing wigs I wore (and still only wear) u-part wigs. Basically I always have hair left out to blend with my extensions.

Majority of us will have experienced or seen ladies whose leave out hair seems to be suffering and breaking drastically whilst the rest of their hair hidden under the tracks or wig gets longer and longer. I have even seen ladies whose leave out hair has become so thin you can actually see the tracks or the hair is so short from breakage that it is struggling to hide the tracks.
It doesn’t have to be this way ladies. My leave out hair is growing fine now or should I say I am retaining a lot more length now. I have a super easy way of caring for it.

How My Leave out Hair Used To Be

My own leave out hair was short and remained short for a while when I initially started wearing u-part wigs because I didn’t have a plan for caring for my leave out hair. I used heat on the leave out hair regularly and brushed and combed it daily to blend with the wigs. My leave out hair would become damaged and I would need to trim it very often.
I did not mind because at the time my favourite wig had a half fringe/bang and I was hooked on that style so I didn’t mind cutting my leave out hair regularly so that it would be the same length as the bang/fringe of my wig.
When I got over that particular wig style I realised that unless I changed my habits my leave out hair was not going to thrive and I couldn’t have that.
I looked at the hair and noticed the two biggest issues with my leave out hair was chronic dryness and damage from a lot of combing and brushing.

How I Care For My Leave Out Hair

I decided about two years ago to take a few steps to care for my leave out hair properly and hoped to see an improvement in how it felt and its length. The questions I get asked about my leave out hair are answered below.

How Much Hair Do I Leave Out?
My leave out hair is always on the left side. This is where I always part my hair. The hair left out is 3 inches deep and 1 inch wide.
The length of my leave out hair is 15 inches long currently. It was about 6 inches 2 years ago when I decided to start taking care of it properly.

What Do I Do to My Leave Out Hair?

On weekends I wash it with shampoo and condition it.
I use a sulfate free shampoo and I do not deep condition the leave out hair as it is such a small area. I simply apply the conditioner, leave it on for 10 to 15 minutes then rinse out. I apply my leave-ins and air dry.
I co-wash it in the middle of the week.
This literally takes me 5 or 10 minutes at the most. I detangle the leave out hair and massage some moisturising conditioner on it. Leave it on for a few minutes then rinse out . I believe that this co-wash is what really helps to keep breakage at bay. Because the leave out hair is spread out over the tracks of the wigs that I wear, it exposed to the elements (sun and wind) and it dries out very quickly even though it is moisturised and sealed daily.

I have conditioner in my leave out hair in this picture
I moisturise and seal it daily
I use my mixture of cantu shea butter and s-curl to moisturise. I seal with a few drops of olive oil or coconut oil.

Thats it. Nothing fancy at all. Nothing complicated. I just boosted the moisture levels and it seems to be working well.

What I Stopped Doing To My Leave Out Hair – Tips To Prevent Breakage

As I mentioned above the key issues that were causing the damage to my leave out hair was extreme dryness….I am talking about crunchy dry and a lot of physical damage from combing and brushing.

I was able to reduce the breakage and damage by doing the following:

Cut Out Heat and Being Smart About Blending
I stopped pressing my leave out hair (unless it is a extra special occasion)

I focused on using hair extensions which blended with my texlaxed texture without the use of heat. So I either wear yaki hair extensions, textured hair extension like my Nazuri Curls wig or curly/wavy textured wigs.

My hair blends really well with the wig I made using the Nazuri Curls “straight” texture

I can blend my hair with curly or wavy textured wigs by simply wetting the leave out hair and putting a roller in it over night.
This cuts out the need for heat straightners. Direct heat evaporates our hairs internal moisture and with regular use makes our hair chronically dry and brittle…and you can say hello to hair which will split and break and need trimming very often.
Rather than trying to make my hair blend with the extensions i make sure the extensions works with my own hair.
If you happen to like a kind of extensions that does not blend easily with you own hair you can always wear a closure wig which my wig company Hair By Type 4 also make.

Reduce Manipulation
I try to avoid combing or brushing the leave out hair excessively. Usually I comb it with a small sized comb in the mornings before heading out and that is it. I no longer use fine tooth combs or brushes on my leave out hair.

I hope this post has answered questions you might have had about my leave out hair. What do you do to take care of your leave out hair? I am sure some of you will have great methods which may be different from mine but works well for you. If yes, please do share.

My next blog post will be the final in the How To Buy Hair Products series. I will be sharing tips on how to choose the best sealants and styling products like gels and edge smoothening products. I hope you’ll be back soon.
Ps I am trying to catch up with replying all my emails and comments left here on Hairducation. I promise I am not just ignoring them.

Happy hair journey

Lade
Learn | Change | Grow

Lade August 25, 2015

MY NEW TEXLAXED WIG: My first impression of textured hair extensions by Nazuri Curls

Hello ladies,

It’s no secret that I love wigs. I have owned many wigs over the course of my hair journey and I am so excited about a new addition to my collection: a texlaxed textured wig.

With the rise in the number of ladies with afro and texlaxed hair, it’s great that there are now hair extensions created specifically to match our hair texture. Over the last year or so I have been noticing a type of textured hair extensions which I thought would blend very well with texlaxed hair. I decided to get my hand on some from a company called Nazuri Curls and I have made a u-part wig with it. I can sum up my first impression in one word: love!!!!

ABOUT NAZURI CURLS

Nazuri Curls is a hair extensions brand which produces textured hair extensions and closure pieces. They are based in the UK and have a distributor in Nigeria however their wefts can be shipped worldwide. There are four types textures created by Nazuri which are Afro, Kinky, curly and Straight.

I first noticed the brand at a few hair related events last year. I attended a small hair care gathering a few months ago and noticed the organiser had some beautiful textured hair extensions. I asked her what brand it was and when she said Nazuri I was sold.

I was about to place my order when I received an email from Nazuri asking if I would be interested in reviewing their extensions and off course I jumped at the opportunity. I was given a discount on my purchase and one of the main reasons why I accepted the offer is because Hairducation readers get a discount too.

THE HAIR
I chose to buy two bundles of the straight texture in 18” and 20”. Nazuri Curls advise that the hair is low maintenance and sent me a very detailed care guide. As a wig lover and more importantly as a wig maker I have come across many types of hair extensions over the years so I recognise great hair extensions when I get my hands on it.

Some of the things I love about the straight texture include it’s:

Softness
For some reason I expected the hair to feel dry and a little scratchy. I was pleasantly surprised by how soft the hair felt.

Density/fullness
Normally when making wigs with long hair extensions you are advised to buy 3 bundles. I decided to buy just two and as you can see from the pictures the wig is so full. At some point I was even concerned it would be too full.

Weight of the wefts
Now this point is really important from a hair care perspective. Wigs and weaves can be great protective styles but if they are too heavy, they will do more harm than good. The Nazuri Curls Straight wefts are light……super super light weight. When I wear a wig I don’t like to feel the weight or tightness of it on my head. Having worn the wig for the first time it certainly scores 10 out of 10 on this point.

Smell
Yes, you read right….. smell. I have come across hair extensions from some brands that smell unpleasant and this can be a little off putting. The Nazuri hair smells sooooo lovely. On the day I received the wefts, I was playing around with my mum and had the wefts in my hands, I covered my mum’s face with them and waited for her to say something like “get it off”…but she said was “oh that smells nice”

Texture
Its crazy how much the kinky straight hair matches my texlaxed hair texture. It looks so much like how my own hair does on my wash days. The extensions are however more lush looking, fuller and certainly feels softer than my own hair. It is also thicker at the ends than my own hair.

The pictures on the right are of my own hair on at the end of my wash day. The picture on the left is the texlaxed wig made with the Nazuri Curls straight hair extensions. Don’t they look so similar???

I have was seen the hair on a natural haired lady (her hair was blow dried), it blends well with my texlaxed hair and if the extensions are straightened, will blend well with relaxed hair. Talk about killing three birds with one stone.

ROCKING IT

I have only begun wearing the wig this week and I can’t wait to style it in a multitude of ways. I am glad its low maintenance because I don’t want to spend too long looking after the wig, after all it is supposed to be a mini break from hair care responsibilities.

There are only two little cons I have noticed at this point. One is that the top part of the weft has a slightly different texture to the rest of the length. I think the top part looks like a braid out whilst rest of the hair looks like texlaxed hair. When I actually put the wig on it wasn’t an issue at all.

I am not quite sure if this next point is a con…the hair is full. I am a slim woman so I was a bit concerned that the hair would be so big it would wear me rather than the other way around. However now that I’ve actually worn it, I don’t think it’s too big….and its fullness is growing on me more and more.

I will write another post soon to show how well my own hair blends with the wig and how the hair is holding up. Don’t forget you can get 10% off Nazuri Curls hair extensions by using the Hairducation discount code.

You can see their other curl types by clicking here.

My next post will be about how I care for the hair I leave out when wearing u-part wigs. I have learnt how to prevent my leave out hair breaking and thinning out and will share my secrets in the next post. Come back soon ladies.

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow

Lade July 12, 2015

COMBING AS A TEST FOR HEALTHY HAIR?

As much as I loved the result of my first and only roller set on my hair journey, my hair doesn’t like combs so I won’t be making a habit of this style.

I used to believe that being able to “glide” a comb through your hair with minimal breakage was a sign of healthy hair.

WHAT I USED TO BELIEVE & WHY

I thought that if hair had been thoroughly finger detangled and an appropriate sized comb was being used, the comb should simply slide through the hair without difficulty. I think I formed this opinion because over the years I have seen many YouTube healthy hair gurus (both natural and relaxed) comb or brush through their hair with ease.

Through my own hair journey, the only way I can comb my hair is if I do it in small sections after detangling.
Even after finger detangling, I cannot slide the comb through the length of my hair, I have to comb gently in small strokes. If I attempt to comb my hair any other way it leads to breakage. Although I consider my hair to be healthy, I always felt that if my hair was healthier (i.e not texlaxed or relaxed) that perhaps I would be able to slide a denman brush through it after finger detangling.

WHAT I NOW REALISE

However at the recent Naija Hair Can Grow Event, one of the speakers, who had really gorgeous, well cared for and healthy natural hair, noted that she hadn’t used a comb in years. She explained that she experienced a lot of breakage whenever she tried to comb her hair so stopped using them altogether. This made me realise that some of us have hair that just isn’t compatible with combing and that I was wrong to think my issues with combing meant my hair had some sort of defect.

On the flip side, I have also come across ladies who experience matting and tangling when they finger detangle and have to comb their hair every other day to prevent matting.
The moral of this blog post is that when it comes to combing or finger detangling, neither should be seen as a test of healthy hair (especially if you follow a healthy hair regimen and take care of your hair).
When I comb in sections on wash days, I don’t lose much hair so I am happy to carry on combing my hair once a week.

What works for your hair, combing, finger detangling or a combination of both? Have you learnt something new about your hair recently?

Over the years I have learnt to style my hair without combing. The styles above were created on hair that had not been combed for days.

My next blog post will be a new series called How To Buy Hair Products.
I decided to start this series because whenever I am buying hair products, either in Lagos or London I always notice one thing……….a confused lady staring at all the products and not knowing what exactly to buy.
I usually try to help and thought it would be great if I could do the same on Hairducation. The blog posts will be short and straight to the point to avoid confusion, they will set out what types of product you need and what you need to look out for when buying these products at the stores.

I know so many of you will benefit from the series and I hope you’ll come back soon.

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow

Lade April 21, 2015

MY MARLEY HAIR CROTCHET WIG EXPERIMENT

Hello ladies

Let me start by saying a big thank you to all of you who voted for Hairducation in the Nigerian Blog Awards. Unfortunately the blog did not win but I don’t feel deflated at all. I am still happy to have been nominated and will continue to work hard on the blog.

I am putting together the second part of the exercise and hair care but in the interim I thought I would share the results of a Marley Hair crotchet wig experiment I completed a couple of weeks ago. So if you are a keen hair extension or wig wearer you would have heard of Marley Hair and crotchet braids.

I was on YouTube and saw many videos of crotchet wigs. I decided to have a go at it. The salon I complete my hair consultation in (Oreola Hair Studios) are great at creating crotchet braids. I so happy when I realised that the Marley Hair they stock is the brand that was highly recommended on YouTube, Freetress Equal Cuban Twist. I purchased 3 packs.

Unfortunately I did not take pictures of the process because I honestly had not planned to blog about it but I was very pleased with the outcome. I decided that sharing the pictures might encourage some of you to get your crotchet on.

The Crotchet Wig

I am loving the look of the wig so far and how well it blends with my texlaxed and 4 months post hair. Its a new look for me and I am still getting used to it. What protective style are you wearing at the moment? Have you tried a new style recently?
The exercise and hair care (part 2) post will be up soon.

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow