Rehairducation

Why Relaxed Hair Needs More Care (part 1)

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of ladies who have returned to relaxing after being natural for some time.  A reason many ladies give for making this change with their hair is that they want “easier” hair care and more manageable hair.
Thinking relaxed hair is easier to care for or requires less care than natural hair  is a mistake that is made too often.
This error or misunderstanding of what chemically altered hair needs has led to so many ladies having hair that is in terrible condition.

In this post I will discuss,
– The science of what happens to hair when it is relaxed
– What happens to hair when it is relaxed; in plain English

In Part 2, I will share some essential tips, many of which are not known but are crucial for relaxed hair health.

 

 

What happens to Hair when it Is Relaxed; The Science

There are two key things that occur when hair is relaxed:

1) Lanthionization of Hair
Hair is made up of different types of amino acids.  The main amino acid in hair that is affected by relaxers is called Cystine.
Cystine is the most prevalent amino acid in hair and is where a good amount of hair strands strength and stability of structure comes from.

Cystine contains a bond called the disulphide bond.  The process of relaxing breaks and rearranges the disulphide bond.
During neutralizing ( usually done via a neutralizing shampoo) the disulphide bonds are reformed.  Contrary to popular belief the disulphide bonds don’t stay broken, they are reformed and keep or hold the hair strands in their now altered structure (its straightened structure) permanently.
The disulphide bonds are reformed but the structure of the hair is no longer as stable as it was before relaxing.

This is because the process of relaxing hair changes or converts approximately 33% of Cystine to Lanthionine (a non-proteinogenic natural amino acid).  This process or conversion of cystine to lanthionine is called  lanthionization  and it weakens hair and causes it to have less tensile strength.

 

 

 

2) Changes to the Surface Properties of Hair (hydrophobicity and surface friction change)
The cuticle layer of the hair has some fatty cells bound to it.
A function of the fatty cells (such as 18- MEA) is to create a hydrophobic layer that prevents excess water from entering into hair strands.
Another very important function of the fatty cells is to act as a boundary lubricant that reduces friction between hair strands.

Alkaline solutions such as relaxers, hair colours, perms, etc remove fatty acids from the cuticle layer of hair strands.  This changes their surface characteristics making hair more hydrophilic and causing surface friction to increase.

A recent study showed that hair strands that have 18 MEA have better hair strand alignment whilst hair strands that had had their 18-MEA fatty cells removed had a disorderly hair strand alignment. The process of relaxing hair causes degradation of the hair surface occurs. This makes hair more susceptible to static electricity, frizzing, tangles and matting..

What happens to Hair when it Is Relaxed; In Plain English

  • Relaxers targets or affects the links or bonds that gives hair stability and strength. This makes hair weaker and less able to resist breakage.
  • Relaxers cause degradation of the hairs surface by removing fatty acids from the outer layer of the hair strands.  This makes hair more porous and more prone to frizzing especially in humid environments. The more damaged hair is, the more porous it tends to be.
  • The removal of the fatty cells influences the appearance and feel of the hair ie makes hair look less bright, increases the feeling of dryness and reduces its manageability. It makes hair have a higher likelihood of becoming tangled.

Bearing the above in mind, I hope you are able to see HOW the structure of hair becomes compromised when it has been relaxed and why this makes hair care more important.
Because relaxed hair has sustained damage, it becomes even more crucial to preserve the strength and structural integrity that the hair strands have left.    Failure to do so will take you from having healthy relaxed hair (hair that has a moderate amount of damage) to unhealthy relaxed hair ( hair that has severe amount of damage from chemical processes, wear and tear and neglect)

Some additional interesting facts:
Natural hair that is coloured has the same amino acid (cystine) and bond (disulphide bond) affected by the colouring process.
The disulphide bond is also broken and reformed just like relaxers, the hair will have become weakened.  Approximately 20% of cystine in hair is oxidized to become cysteic acid when hair is coloured.

 

Come back for part two in a few days’ time.  In Part 2, I will share some essential tips, many of which are not known but are crucial for relaxed hair health.
If you are relaxed, texlaxed or even natural with permanent color you will definitely learn a few things that will make a big impact on your hair.

I hope you have gained some insight from this post.

x

Lade
Learn | Change | Grow

 

ph Balance and your child’s hair and scalp

The pH of a healthy adult’s scalp is between the range 4.5 to 5.5.  At this level or range the microorganisms [bacteria and fungi] that live on our scalps are regulated or under control and our scalp has a good balance.

A scalp that is not balanced or not within the ideal 4.5 to 5.5 range will be more prone to developing conditions that cause flaking, itching and infections, etc.
The pH balance or levels of our scalp is set or created by both sweat and sebum. When either sweat or sebum production is abnormal [too high or too low] the scalp pH is thrown off balance.

From age 3 to 6 months, the sebum production of a child slows significantly and stays low until the child hits puberty. This low sebum production is why babies are less prone to cradle cap after 6 months. It is believed that cradle cap is caused by the overproduction of sebum on the scalp.

Although less risk of cradle cap is a pro for lower scalp sebum production, there are also cons to it.                                                            Low sebum production causes the hair and scalp of children to be HIGHER than the ideal range. This means the microorganisms on their scalp are not as well regulated as they are on an adult’s scalp. Because of this, children are more susceptible to scalp infections and conditions like ring worm.

The increased risk of scalp infections makes having a healthy hair care regimen and practicing healthy scalp hygiene very important for children. Ideally a child’s hair should be washed once a week. For many female black children however, washing every single week is not practical especially because often, their hair is kept in twists, cornrows, single braids or other woven styles created to last for two or sometimes even three weeks. Washing their hair in those styles often results in the style becoming very rough or even unraveling partially.

These challenges do not have to prevent your child’s scalp health and hygiene from being possible.
A practical and quick way to help keep your child’s scalp clean and fight the heightened risk of infection is to use a cleansing and scalp care product such as the Infusions by Hairducation No Rinse Scalp Cleanser + Toner kids formula. The formulation of this product is non stripping so it will not deplete the little sebum that your child does have. It cleans your child’s scalp and influences its pH level so that is better regulated and less prone to scalp infection.

It is easy and convenient to put a child’s hair in braids and abandon all hair care for several weeks, the out of sight out of mind approach. An approach which has caused so many of us to have varying degrees of hair loss and hair follicle scaring from childhood.    It will be so much more difficult for our daughters to have a healthy positive relationship with their hair and see regular hair care as a normal hygiene requirement rather than a chore if this approach is adopted.


There really should be a middle ground between practicality and healthy hair care practices for black girls.

Creating a practical hair care routine, choosing styles that can be worn for a couple of weeks and combining that with innovative child friendly hair and scalp care products that make is possible for your child’s scalp to be kept clean and healthy between wash days is the much better approach.

I hope you have found this post helpful.

Lade

 

The Truth About Genetics and Hair Lenght

 

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Ladies!!!

How are you all doing?

I get asked time and time and time again about genetics and hair length.  So many ladies are insistent that long healthy hair is a product of genetics alone.  These ladies also believe that nothing you do in terms of hair care can have any significant effect on the length and thickness of your hair because “this hair thing is only genes” apparently.
The truth is this – Genes are only one of the factors that determines your actual length and thickness.
If you do not take good care of your hair, you will NEVER know what your hairs genetic potential is.  How will you know what your hair is genetically capable of if due to lack of care, your hair in a damaged state permanently.  I use myself as an example just to drive home this point.  Look at the pictures below.

 

No one ever looked at my hair and thought “oh this girl’s hair can grow” . I myself never realised that I had the genetics to grow hair longer than shoulder length UNTIL I cared for it correctly. My clients and so many other ladies on social media have shared their healthy hair transformations from damaged and very short to healthy, long and lush.  This should prove that there is more to actual hair length than genes alone.

Yes, there are some ladies who don’t take care of their hair and still have amazing hair.  Those ladies hair would be even more amazing IF they took care of it There are three factors that determine how long, healthy and thick each lady’s hair is. These are: 1) Genetic factors 2) Internal factors 3) External factors.

ALL three play a SIGNIFICANT part in determining what your hair is actually like.

 

Genetic Factors

Genetic factors we are born with will determine –

  • The colour of our hair,
  • The texture and thickness of our hair strands
  • Density (number of strands)
  • How long our hair can grow and the speed of our hair growth

You can have hair that is capable of growing to your bum but only have shoulder length hair in real life. How long your hair is capable of growing is determined by the length of your anagen phase and how fast your hair grows (eg half an inch a month or one inch a month). The anagen phase is the growing phase of hair before and sheds.    The anagen phase on average varies from as short as 2 years to as long as 6 years.
On average, humans of all races grow approximately half an inch a month.  So, if you have two women who both grow the average half an inch a month, the woman whose anagen phase is 6 years  will be capable of growing hair longer than the one whose anagen phase is only 2 years long.   In reality though, both of these women can have hair the same length depending on some other internal and external factors explained below.
There isn’t anything you can do to change the genetics you were born with.  Genetics are factors you cant control.  But please note that based on genetics, on average everyone should be able to grow a minimum of 12 inches.  EVERYONE!!!!  This is because the minimum anagen phase is believed to be approximately 2 years.

 

Same girl. same genes, same health and fitness level, same type of diet. The only thing I changed was how I cared for my hair.

Internal Factors
 There are internal factors which can affect our hair’s genetic capabilities.  Some of these factors include

  • Hormonal imbalances
  • Some medical conditions
  • Medications
  • Diet and water intake
  • Stress levels

These factors can affect hair growth and/or thickness by either halting or slowing down hair growth and/or cause excessive shedding and thinning.  Some of these factors are within your control and some are not.  For example you can try to have a good diet and healthy lifestyle.  Having a medical condition or hormonal imbalances are clearly not things you control.

As an example, a woman may have the genetics to grow 20 inches of medium density hair but a hormonal imbalance can mean that in reality she has 10 inches of sparse hair. With internal factors, some of them can be worked on and improved and some may need some treatment or therapy to overcome.

 

 

External Factors
External factors that can influence the state of your hair includes

  • Our hair care and hair styling practices (having a hair regimen, using good products correctly, avoiding excessive manipulation, avoiding aggressive manipulation, wearing styles that are safe for your hair type, etc)
  • Environmental damage – such as damage from UV rays, hard and salt water, cold or humid weather conditions
  • Chemical damage – chemical straightening and colouring processes.

These factors are within your control and this is where having a healthy hair regimen comes into play!!!!  With the right regimen for your hair type, hair needs and lifestyle, you can control the amount of damage your hair sustains. For instance, a woman with natural textured hair can have it chemically coloured but if she does not give it the level of care that her process hair needs or follow correct colouring procedures, she will likely sustain damage and breakage.  This will prevent her hair from reaching its genetic potential.

Another example is of a lady who does not protect her hair correctly in the winter months or one that uses a lot of flat irons which damage hair.  The lady may have genes that make it capable for her to have 22 inches of hair, but her hair care practices will cause damage and breakage which may mean in reality she only has 6 inches of hair.  She would be growing hair capable of getting long but damage and breakage keeps it at a shorter length.

 

A client's progress

A client’s progress

I hope this post helps you understand the balance between genetics and the other factors which determine the hair we have in reality.

Going back to the example of the two ladies above, where one woman has an anagen phase is that is 6 years  and the other has an anagen phase of 2 years.  If both are genetically capable of growing half an inch a month, both of them would grow 6 inches in a year. The woman with the 6 year anagen phase will be capable of growing 36 inches hair and the woman with the 2 year anagen phase will be able to grow 12 inches of hair.  This is described as their terminal length (the maximum length their hair can grow to). Imagine both these ladies currently have hair that is 4 inches long and the one capable of growing 12 inches begins to care for her hair and grows it to 10 inches.  The lady capable of growing 36 inches may begin to admire those 10 inches not realising that her own hair is capable of growing 36 inches IF she took care of hers.  The moral of the story is take care of yourself internally and have a good hair care regimen that works for your hair type and meets your hairs needs.  This will go a long way to helping you maximise your hair growth potential

😊

Happy hair journey

X

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow

 

The Hairducation Consultation Service: How It Works

 

Picture on the left : the amount of hair a client used to loose on her wash day. Picture on the right: the amount of hair the client lost on her very first wash day following the regimen I created for her. And her hair continued to get better and better.

Hello ladies,

I get so many emails from ladies enquiring about the services I offer or how I can help them with their hair.

Over the years I have updated how the service works and I thought I should share a summary about the packages currently offered within the Hairducation Consultation service. I will provide a much more detailed breakdown of how the service works for ladies who having read the information below, are interested in booking the service.

 

 

Hairducation Consultation Packages

Consultation clients have three packages to choose from.  The summary of the packages is set out in table below.

 

Consultation Table 1

 

When the consultation service is completed, the clients file can be closed however having consulted with clients for 4 years plus, I have had a lot of requests from clients who would like more long term support with their hair journey.
In addition to this, some clients after a few years make significant decisions like transitioning and want guidance from me with their new journey. For these reasons, I have recently began offering the follow up options in the table below to my clients

 

Consultation table 2

 

I hope this post gives you some insight about how the consultation service works.  The consultation service is an online service and is available worldwide through Whats App video calls or Skype.
Please send an email to rehairducation@gmail.com  for further information, prices of the packages and follow up service and to make a booking.

If you scroll up to the Menu Bar you will notice that I have added a  “Services Tab” where  I will list all Hairducation’s Professional services going forward.

My next post will be an educative one about some common protective styling mistakes which may prevent you from retaining length.  Sounds like a good post dosent it?  Come back soon to read it 🙂

x

Lade
Learn| Change | Grow

 

 

Highlights of 2016

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I wore my hair in a faux bob over most the holidays

Happy New Year ladies

I do realise that we are in the middle of January already but even if I didn’t get this post out till June I would still start by wish you all the very best of life, good health, peace and happiness in 2017. Thank you all so much for your continued support, feedback and encouragement. To all the new readers…I see you!!
In 2016 so many of my long term dreams and ambitions for Hairducation actually materialised and this I know has been the grace of God…without a doubt. The year began with me speaking about hair care on Moments ( a popular talk show in Nigeria).

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I also began writing hair care articles for BellaNaija, updated the look of Hairducation and worked super hard on improving the quality of the pictures on the site by learning photography which is been a hobby I’ve wanted to get into for so long.  The following pictures are not hair related but they show progress and growth  in my photography so I guess they fit in with the theme of the blog.

The very first photo I took with a DSLR camera

.                               …after a few weeks of learning and practice, I got a lot better.

 

Hairducation grew in so many ways and through all the wonderful experiences and interactions with so many of you; I’d like to believe I’ve grown too.

What took me by surprise was how the consultation service I offer really took off in 2016, especially with international clients. I have had clients from Canada, Ghana, Tanzania, Australia, London, New York, Ohio, Washington, Boston and many more states across America. It’s also been an honour and so much fun to meet and coach so many amazing ladies.   My youngest client is 8 weeks old and the most mature is in her 80’s. So you can just begin to imagine the huge variety of ladies I’ve had the pleasure of working with.
I have also had so many readers send me emails or tag me in their pictures to let me know how well their hair is doing from what they have learnt on Hairducation. All the above continues to make blogging about hair care worth it.

I think it is very important to give a balanced perspective of things, especially because we live in an age where social media can create the impression that other people have perfect lives. I assure you that in some ways I too felt the wrath of 2016, there were many disappointments and some things just fell apart. When things fall apart, we just have to find the strength and courage to put ourselves back together with the hope that everything will work out for the best.
I have big plans to improve Hairducation even more in 2017.  As always, my aim is to do more to help you with your hair journey and to do my bit in dispelling the lie that black hair is bad hair.   Again I thank God and all of you for making it possible for me to live out this dream.

What are your plans and hair goals for 2017??  Mine is to try to be consistent through the whole year.

My next post will be about penetrating and non-penetrating oils and how best to use both on your wash day and through the week. I’ll also have a hair update post up soon.

Happy hair journey

X

Lade