Hello Ladies

Let me start by saying a big thank you to everyone who voted for me in the Nigerian Blog awards. We just have to seat tight and wait for the results now. Either way it made me so happy to be nominated that I feel like a winner already.

This is a very short and sweet post about whats happening with my hair at the moment. I am currently 16 weeks post and my stretch has been going well. I am following my wig regimen and so far so good. I plan to texlax in 4 weeks time and I am looking forward to it because it means I will be wearing my hair out for a while after I texlax.

When I am following my wig regimen and have a wash day, I sometimes leave my hair out for a few days before putting the wigs back on. I do this when I’ve really missed my hair or haven’t had time to prep my hair for the wigs. I’ve been wearing my hair out for about a week now and decided to re-create a retro style I had seen online.

As soon as I finish typing this and have my dinner, I am going to settle down to create approximately 22 – 24 box braids so I can wear my wig for the next 3 weeks. What is happening with your hair ladies? Do share your updates.

The next blog post will be about how to merge a hair care journey with an exercise/fitness journey. I have written a blog post a while ago about the benefits of exercise for overall health and for hair growth. The next blog post will be about the challenges women who exercise regularly phase and how to deal with the challenges.

Please stop by soon.

x

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow

Throwback pictures of me in wigs on my hair journey

Hello ladies

Its no secret that I used wigs to grow my hair from shoulder length to bra strap length. Even though I have reached my hair length goals, I still wear wigs as a part of my healthy hair regimen. In this blog post I intend to discuss why wigs work for hair growth and then I will explain the various elements of my wig regimen.

Why Wigs Work for Hair Growth

1) Low Manipulation

Combing, styling, washing, conditioning, detangling etc are all examples of manipulation.
Our hair, whether natural, texlaxed or relaxed thrives when manipulation is kept to a minimum.  This is why a lot of ladies notice hair retention after wearing long term protective styles like braids, weaves and wigs. When wearing these sorts of styles we are not manipulating our hair as much which means we experience less breakage and have an increase in length.

A problem with weaves and braids however is that there is a lot of manipulation required to create these styles( ie there is usually a lot of sectioning, combing and tension required to create the styles especially if you want the style to look very neat).  Also these styles can lead to hair breakage if they are not installed or removed correctly.

There is a lesser degree of manipulation required to wear a wig in comparison to weaves and braids. With a wig all you have to do is cornrow or put your hair in box braids under your wig. There is no need to add extensions. Also the cornrows under the wig do not have to be too tight for neatness because you are only going to cover it with a wig.

Wigs are long term protective styles that allow you to greatly minimize how often you manipulate your hair. Using my hair as an example, when I have my hair out I wash it weekly, when I am wearing wigs however I wash my hair every three weeks and my hair is not being manipulated daily. As a result of this I experience less breakage because i am leaving my hair alone.

2) Stretching Aid

For ladies who are relaxed or texlaxed, extending the periods between your relaxer to more than 8 weeks is known as stretching.
For example, rather than texlaxing my hair every 8 weeks, I texlax every 20 weeks. I have written a post about stretching and its benefits which you can read here.
Although stretching has a multitude of benefits, it certainly has an equal amount of challenges. Managing different textures, increased risk of tangling and matting, styling challenges, breakage at the line of demarcation etc. To reduce the stress of challenges that come with stretching, wearing a long term protective style is advisable.
This is because any manipulation when you are deep into your stretch can be very difficult and time consuming.  You have to be very gentle to avoid breakage at the line of demarcation.  You also have to keep your new growth moisturised  regularly to minimise breakage and dryness.

Wearing a wig is a great way to reduce daily and weekly manipulation when on a stretch.  If you have your hair in cornrows or box braids under the wig it can make access to your scalp and moisturising and sealing easier.

My Wig Regimen Explained

. Currently, I follow this regimen from week 9 to week 20 post relaxer.  My wig regimen is written in pink text.

• Hair kept in 20 box braids under Hair by Type 4 wigs.

If your hair is long enough to cornrow or put into box braids it is advisable to do this before wearing your wig. It will make your wig sit better on your head and more importantly it will reduce daily manipulation of your own hair. Ie . There will be no need for daily detangling or combing.  I choose to wear my hair in box braids because I find it easier to create myself than cornrows.

• Undo box braids, detangle, shampoo and condition every 3 weeks
• Deep condition with heat for 30 minutes  after washing (moisture and protein conditioners used)
• Use leave in conditioners after deep conditioning (moisture and protein leave-ins used)
• Air dry after every wash

I do not  wash my hair weekly whilst it is under my wig.  After a three week period however, my box braids will begin to matt especially at the base. At this point I have to undo the box braids to prevent my hair from locing. This gives me a chance to thoroughly detangle my hair, clean and condition my hair to boost its strength and moisture levels.

• Put my hair back in 20 box braids ( which I keep for 3 weeks)

After my hair is fully dry on my wash day, I put it back into the box braids and put my wig back on.
With braids and weaves, it is advisable to give your hair a minimum of one week break before re-installing another braid or weave style. This is to give your scalp a chance to recuperate from the weight and stress of the extensions. With wigs however you do can simply carry on wearing your wig because your scalp wouldn’t have been stressed in the first place.

During the 3 weeks when my hair is in box braids under my wig I do the following:

• Moisturise and seal the box braids 2 times a week
• Mist the box braids and my wig cap  lightly every morning ( if I think my hair needs it)

When I have my own hair out, I have to moisturize and seal about 4 times a week to keep my hair feeling soft.
With my wig regimen, I only have to moisturise and seal twice a week.  Because my hair is under my wig for most of the week, the moisture is not evaporated from my hair as quickly as when my hair is out. This saves me so much time and cuts manipulation by at least 90%.
When I have my hair out, moisturising and sealing takes me about 30 minutes because I have to section my hair then detangle and apply the product. When my hair is in box braids I simply rub the products on my palms and apply it to the box braids or spray on my hair mist followed by a little amount of oil. It takes me 5 minutes max.

• Oil scalp once a week

Having my hair in box braids gives me access to my scalp and makes applying oil to it for scalp massages easier and less time consuming.

• Remove wig and sleep with hair covered with a satin or silk scarf every night
•  I keep my scalp clean by wiping it gently with baby wipes and very warm  water once a week.

A clean scalp is important for healthy hair growth.   I avoid washing my hair weekly whilst on my wig regimen because I am trying to decrease manipulation as much as possible . However, I have to find other means to clean my scalp. By wiping the exposed part of my scalp I can remove some of the dirt, debris and shed skin. Being able to remove my wig makes this task much easier.

I hope this blog has helped to provide more details on my wig regimen and why it works.
I do not want to give braids and weaves a bad reputation. They can be protective if installed and removed correctly and you take care of your hair whilst wearing them. However I believe that wigs are a better option because they are less invasive, requires a lot less manipulation to wear and remove and give you complete access to your hair.  Combined with some good hair care practices, wearing wigs can be a route to longer and healthier hair.

I haven’t decided what my next blog post will be yet but I am sure I’ll think of something to share and as always I hope you’ll stop by soon.

Happy hair journey

x

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow

Hello ladies

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend.  This pictorial post is short and sweet.  It is a very simple but cute style which unfortunately didn’t photograph as well as it actually looks in person.   I wish my hair was not as weighed down from all the olive oil I’ve been sealing with.  As a minimum I hope the pictorial gives you the gist on how to create the style.

           THE PICTORIAL: Faux Bob with a Love on Top, Literally

 The back section does not have to be worn as a faux bob.  You can leave it down but I wanted to show the style in its most protective form.

Not that I have a Beyoncé theme or anything, but I was going to create some form of halo with the front braids but ran out of time.  I am sure so many of you will be able to come up with more creative versions of the style.  Please share your ideas.

My next blog post will be about oils, oils, oils…… and hair butters.  I will be sharing why and how oils and butters are so beneficial on a hair journey and can make a real difference to the look and feel of your hair. From texlaxing   to wash days ,every step of my hair regimen includes some sort of oil and I will be sharing some of my personal oil combos I use on my hair.

Come back soon ladies.

x

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow

Prior to my hair journey, my heir ends always seemed to become damaged when I tried to grow it beyond shoulder length.

I am glad I have finally created time to write this post. When it comes to Hairducation I love writing educative posts the most because I believe that it such posts that truly helps ladies with their hair journey.

This post is inspired by all the ladies who have said these famous words ….” my hair gets to a shoulder length and stops growing”.
I assure you I said the same about my hair pre my hair journey.
At shoulder length my hair would have loads of split ends and would become thin from breakage. This resulted in me doing mini-chops on my ends and being back to neck length. This was a cycle for me and I believed that my hair was not designed to grow beyond shoulder length and that if I tried it would somehow become damaged by itself and need to be cut.

If you think your hair has stopped growing at a certain length, it is likely that what is actually happening is that your hair damage and breakage has increased (especially at your ends).
Basically your hair growth has remained the same but you are experiencing breakage at your ends which makes it appear as though your hair has stopped growing and is stuck at shoulder length.

What I hope to do in this post is show how our hair care and hair styling habits at shoulder length causes so many of us to experience breakage which we what we think is stagnant hair growth. The aim is that making readers aware of the points below will help them move past this length.

Common Causes of The Shoulder Length Hump

A) Styling Habit 1 – Increased use of heat on the ends alone (heat damage at ends)

Throwback picture from many many years ago. My hair was fully relaxed shoulder length. I always wore my hair down with the ends curled with a hot iron/curling tong. Sorry about the picture quality its a scan of the actual picture

A lot of ladies are really happy to show off their hair when it has reached shoulder length. I might be speaking for myself but I believe that for many ladies shoulder length used to be seen as long hair “for a black lady”.
Whenever my hair crept to shoulder length I would be eager to wear it down and show it off at every opportunity but I didn’t want the ends to just hang down. I would want the ends to be a little curled so every morning I would comb my hair down, apply a little grease to my ends and use the curling iron on my ends alone. I know so many other ladies who have this habit.
I have discussed the cons of using direct heat on our hair in some of my older posts.
Regular use of direct heat on your ends will cause the ends of your hair to become drier, very brittle and more susceptible to breakage than the roots or middle parts of your hair (ie the parts that you are not heat styling every day). The heat damage will also cause an increase in split ends which means even more breakage and need to trim/cut the ends. This in turn leads to many of us thinking our hair just isn’t meant to grow past this length.

B) Styling Habit 2 – Hair worn down more or exclusively (physical & environmental damage at ends)

Nowadays my hair ends are usually hidden and protected from environmental and physical damage. I do wear it down sometimes….

This is really just a follow on from point 1 above. Protective styling has helped me and so many other ladies move past the shoulder length hump.
When our hair is shorter than shoulder length, the ends are in some ways protected from the friction and rubbing on clothes and scarves or chair backs that occurs with shoulder length.

 
By the time we reach shoulder length, keeping our ends up becomes necessary to avoid or reduce physical damage.
Also ladies who wear their hair down tend to comb and brush their ends often during the day to keep it looking neat. This further increases the physical damage suffered by our ends.

 
By keeping our hair in protective styles we reduce the frequency of physical damage our ends will experience.
Another factor that is to be considered is that the sun, wind, harmattan (this is one my Nigerian ladies will understand) and winter cold can really make our hair, especially at the ends feel super dry. Moisturising and sealing and hiding our ends in protective styles helps to keep them better hydrated, elastic and better equipped to fight breakage.
I am not saying we can never leave our hair down; we simply need to wear it in protective styles more often than we leave it down.

C) Not Updating Your Regimen

One of the many things I was not taught but had to find out from experience on my hair journey was the importance or reviewing and updating my hair regimen. Practices, techniques and products which may have worked for you at one length may not work for you at another length.
as your hair gets longer if you start experiencing more tangles, or maybe your hair seems to be breaking more or just isn’t holding on to moisture as well you should probably switch things up a little.
For example maybe you need to change the type of comb you are using to a bigger one, maybe you need to work in smaller sections, maybe you need to use a heavier moisturising product, maybe wrapping your hair every night isn’t working for you anymore because your hair is longer, maybe you should start shampooing inn sections, maybe you need to review your protein ,moisture balance etc
Simply think of what hair challenges you are facing at this longer length and possible ways of overcoming them. So if your hair seems to not be moving past the shoulder length hump, maybe its time to review your hair regimen.

 
As always I hope this post has been helpful to someone out there. Are you stuck at shoulder length? What do you think may be the culprit? Have you recently moved past shoulder length after years of being stuck there? Please share tips on how you did it.

 
The next post will be about the benefits of pre-pooing (a pre shampoo treatment). I know some ladies do not see the point of it but I NEVER ever shampoo my hair without doing a pre-poo because it has does so much good for my hair. Please come back soon to find out how.
X
Lade

 
Learn | Change | Grow