Hair Diary #11 Is Your Hair Experiencing Protein Overload??

Hello everyone! I'm back again and already I'm doing better than the past by keeping my blog updated. So today's hair diary is talking about Protein Sensitivity. I will start with my story first and add some information along the post.

Okay so last year around maybe October-ish or even September. I went on YouTube and watched a lady's video on how to tell if your hair is damaged or not. Now I haven't ever had a situation with damaged hair but I figured you know what I'll give this a try just to see, because I'm on a healthy hair care journey and I want to keep it that way. On her video she shows how you take a strand of your (clean) hair, either from your head or shed hair on your comb or whatever and place it into a (glass) cup almost filled to the top with water.

In the video she says if your hair sinks it is damaged. Later on I figured out she didn't give complete information, because after a while your hair may sink. I didn't think of that at the time though. So when I took a few strands of my hair (not all at once) and placed it in the water. By the time I returned back to the cup my hair was at the bottom. I really didn't know what to do when I saw this. She mentioned that it meant your hair could be weak or it's time for you to get a protein treatment.

So I thought to myself "Dang! I've been natural for 4 years now and I don't ever remember doing protein treatments like that." Maybe just a few times and I actually didn't know they were protein at the time. So I looked up homemade protein treatments and my cousin did avocado hair masks. So I was like okay I will start there. So I get everything I need and I literally did a protein treatment on my hair every week that I washed my hair. It was my deep conditioner for the week.

After about 4- 6 weeks I did the test all over again. This time around my hair didn't sink I left for about 5 mins and it didn't sink so I was like I'll wait for an hour. I came back and my baby was still floating lol. I was so excited I said I will keep doing my protein treatments from now on. I could feel that my hair became stronger so I continued. 2013 came around and I continued down the weekly protein treatment path.

Around March or April I noticed my hair was starting to feel hard. I didn't think anything of it I just figured it's getting stronger. Since it only felt hard after the protein treatment I just shunned it away because it became a little softer after my hair dried. I continued again, until May came around and my hair remained feeling hard even after it dried and just blah!! Felt like a big mess sitting on my head. I just wasn't feeling it so I kept it in twists or covered.

I did some research on protein overload and protein sensitivity. I went to websites like Curly Nikki http://www.curlynikki.com/search?q=protein+sensitive for "protein sensitivity" and http://blackgirllonghair.com/2012/01/10-reasons-your-hair-isnt-soft/ for "10 Reasons Your Hair isn't soft." I kept researching more sites but I can't remember right now. These sites have a good amount of information on them so I won't really go into detail unless you have some questions for me.

After going to these sites I came to the conclusion that my hair IS NOT protein sensitive but I did have protein overload. I realized that my hair produces a normal amount of protein already. My hair has Average porosity (Normal Hair). The protein overload was affecting my hair's porosity which made it High porosity (Overly Porous). This caused my hair not to hold on to moisture and become dry and brittle. Even though I moisturized my hair once a week because that's all it takes for my hair. I did not switch that up during the very frequent protein treatments. I should have been moisturizing a few more times just to combat the protein overload. Curly Nikki has a few good articles on hair porosity, here's the link: http://www.curlynikki.com/search?q=hair+porosity .

So I completely stopped everything protein to my hair for a little while and focused on moisturizing and sealing my hair. Just to be safe sometimes I will add a little extra moisture during the week. That's just a precaution though. As soon as I stopped the protein for a while my hair went back to its nice soft self :). Additionally moisturizing my hair with water and glycerin. I already had some conditioners that are protein free (I'm a conditioner junkie) so once I co-washed my hair, my hair fell in love. It grasped onto that conditioner and water like it was a long lost lover or something lol. It's funny because I just bought that conditioner maybe 2 weeks before. It's definitely going to be a staple of mine now. Pictures below (Herbal Escapes Pomegranate & Grapeseed Extract and Tea Therapy Vanilla Mint Tea

They're cheapies as well VO5 baby!! Now I'm already and fan and lover of the Tea therapy but I ran out and just haven't bought more but the newbie to the team is this Pomegranate. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Now back on the protein treatments. I still do them but now I know I'm good with just using it once every 6-8 weeks and I'm good. I hope this helps anybody that's hair is acting different and they don't know why. Life has now returned back to my hair and I'm all smiles :) Until next time...........

Hair Diary #9 Jamaican Black Castor Oil

I’m back you guys! This post won’t be that long though. I’m just coming through to tell you about a new product I bought. Now as you saw in the older posts I’ve been using castor oil. I mentioned how I wanted to try Jamaican black castor oil. Well I got it and I’ve been using that in my hair for about a month and a half now. I’m definitely starting to see the difference already. My roots have become a lot fuller in the front. For a little while the front of my hair was becoming a little scarce because of my BC especially in the temple area. My hair was breaking off in the front leaving a lot of short hairs in between my long hairs. I’m so glad it’s starting to grow longer for me so it can start matching my longer and the back of my hair again.

 I’ve been applying it all over my scalp and when I remember I massage it into my scalp as well. I would like to massage it into my scalp at least 3-5 times a week. The only thing is this stuff doesn’t smell too good lol. Like it smells like burnt wood or something. How I’m able to counteract this smell a little is the peppermint oil that I have in my daily spritzer. Overall I really like this product; I’m even using it as a sealant mixed with jojoba oil for my hair after I apply my KCKT. Afterwards I apply a little bit of my macadamia nut butter and my hair is in business.  Have you ever tried Jamaican Black Castor oil? If so what is your thoughts on this product?

                                          

Hair Diary #8 Hair after flat iron

Hello, hello, hello!  Okay before you say anything I know I should be ashamed of myself for being away for so long. I really am too. I’ve planned on coming back a few times but then I got distracted with more things. I will try to do better this time around. So on the last post I talked about how I straightened my hair for the first time. Well I let that style stay in my hair for 2 weeks. A few months before I saw some videos talking about beer rinses and how to wash your hair with a beer rinse once you’re ready to wash your straight hair. I got the non alcoholic kind the cheapest one in Walmart. I don’t really remember the name but I was feeling kind of lazy that day and sarcastically asked my boyfriend could he wash my hair lol. To my surprise he said yes and was willing to wash it for me.  I thought this was a good way he could see all I go through to wash my hair. He knows it takes me hours to my hair on wash days. So he did everything for me but put my DC in (I chose to do this one myself).  After that he washed the DC out for me, I’m so thankful for him helping me out so much wheew!! I wasn’t feeling like dealing with my hair that day.

Results: NO HEAT DAMAGE, YAY!!!  I wasn’t feeling it that day and forgot to take pictures of my hair lol. So after my hair was completely washed and was clean I applied my KCKT(Kinky Curly Knot Today) leave in conditioner to my hair and literally put in like 8 twists in my hair. Two twists in each of the four sections. That was it no moisturizer or oil, I told you guys I was feeling lazy that day lol. I wrapped my hair up and went to sleep, with good intentions to put a better style in the next day. I didn't they stayed in for a few days and I wore a beret  to cover the big parts and look stylish at the same time. After a few days I took those twists out spritz my hair a little just slightly damp and applied my Macadamia nut butter and put my hair in mini twists.

lazy big twists 

my mini twists 

I wore those twists for 2 weeks and co- washed them after the first week trying something new. I don’t normally wash my hair while it’s in mini twists but I didn’t hurt anything. Co washing them did make them look really refreshed. I didn’t have my macadamia nut butter on me so I used some of a friends beautiful textures moisture butter. Ummm…. I didn’t really care for it much, but then again I don’t know if it was completely bad for my hair because I just applied it on top of my twists. I think I still should have had better results but needless to say it didn’t keep my hair moisturized long. So I don’t think I will waste my money on that product. Good to know because I was considering buying it lol. I applied my Macadamia nut butter again and my hair was finally happy and moisturized again. Have you guys ever tried the Beautiful Textures moisture butter before? What was your take on it? Well this is all folks…. Until next time! J

Hair Diary #6 Hair Consultation

So it's been about a week and a half since my last post so I thought I would come check in with you guys and tell you what's been going on lately. So this week I set up an appointment for a consultation with a natural hair stylist.  I went to my appointment and the lady was so nice. I was still wearing my bun from the last post and she takes it out and is like "WHOA!!! you have a lot of hair" lol. I thought she was going to just stop or barely look at my hair because of that, but nope. She felt my hair, looked at my ends, looked for build up etc. Then she tells me that my hair is in great shape. I was glad to hear that as I was hoping their wasn't something I was missing. Then she starts asking me questions about what I use in my hair and what I use as a DC because my hair felt very moisturized as she takes the little bit of it from off her hands and starts to rub on her arms like lotion lol.


From their we talked more about my regimen and she told me a little bit of hers. She said she was suprised how healthy my hair was from only doing it myself with no help and that I gained a lot of length in such a little bit of time. I then told her a little of my natural hair story and how I'm pushing for even longer hair. Is it just me or during the first year or two of your natural hair journey did your hair grow crazy fast? Mine did and even though it's still growing it has slowed down a little. I'm starting to think it was because of my Mirena but I don't know. I still will retain my goal of having WL (Waist length) hair.

Anyways now back to the story so during the rest of my consultation we started talking and it seemed as though we had been friends for a long time that's funny how something just as simple as hair can do that. So to all of you out there that are having problems with your hair or are just curious to know how your hair is doing try setting up a consultation appointment with a natural hair stylist. There really is nothing you can lose from this experience because it's free but you can gain a lot about the state your hair is in or if you're on the right track with your hair. So try it out and see how you like it, I would advise it to be a natural hair stylist as some others may have a biased opinion.

P.S. Before I forget their is also something else I forgot to mention I'm going to straighten my hair for the FIRST time ever......I paid somebody to do it for me when I was relaxed just because I knew nothing about hair whatsoever at the time. So this is a warning so PLEASE DON'T JUDGE ME (Chris Brown) If it comes out looking a horrible mess because i'm trying. I don't really get practice at this because I hardly ever use heat, but i'm sitting under the dryer now as I type. So stay tuned for my next post which will be in the next few days to see the results. Until next time.......

Hair Diary #5

Okay you guys so this post is like a week late BUT it’s always better late than never lol. Okay so last week Dec. 13^th was my wash day. I’ve decided on going back to weekly washes and will only do every 2 week washes if I’m like very very busy. I just realized hey I can’t do that because my black tea rinses need to be weekly for a while to help with the shedding. So yea I ended up going back to my weekly wash days.

So last week I made another homemade DC just trying new things I guess you could say. I mixed in a bowl some yogurt, honey, VO5 strawberry & cream moisture milk conditioner, small amount of smoothing mangosteen yogurt vitamin conditioner (finishing it up), olive oil cholesterol, amla powder, avocado oil, almond oil and castor oil and applied it on dry hair. Once the DC was completely saturated on my hair I held my head over the tub and poured the black tea rinse on my hair concentrating mostly on my scalp then to the rest of my hair.

This is what it looked like :  

After this process I put the shower cap over my head and a regular grocery bag. I watched a movie, got on YouTube, facebook etc and fell asleep lol. I no intentions on falling asleep this time but it happened oh well EXTRA moisture for me ha-ha. So in the morning I washed my hair out. It left my hair feeling really silky and strong at the same time. While it was still pretty much dripping wet I applied my leave in conditioner to my hair KCKT (Kinky Curly Knot Today) which I need to buy more because I’m very low. Then added a small amount of my favorite butter which is Macadamia nut butter to my hair and put it in twists. After I finished the twists I got some castor oil out applied it to my scalp and every twist.

Later on that day when I took my twist-out  out it was so pretty and very moisturized and my curls were seriously popping like so crazy. I have a few things in mind to do with the castor oil. In the upcoming months I’ll be trying a few things with it. Today is my wash day again and my curls are still intact and haven’t started to frizz yet I’m so loving it. If you haven’t already tried out some castor oil on your hair and let me know how it does for your hair. I used Home Health but any will work if its natural/organic ex: Jamaican Black Castor Oil. Until next time..!! J 

Hair Diary #3 Black Tea Rinse

Hey you guys!!! How’s everything? I know it’s been a long time and sorry to keep you hanging, but now I’m back. On my previous hair diary post I told you guys I twisted my hair up and besides my Knot Today leave in conditioner the only other product I had in my hair was Coconut Oil. Below I will post a video I did the next day of my Coconut Oil only twist out results.

So the twist out lasted longer than expected. There was a death in the family and the funeral fell around my hair washing day so it didn’t happen lol. I actually wore the twist out for a full two weeks. That’s long for me because I’m the wash my hair every week type of girl. Believe it or not though I liked it, it gave me more time of a style and a break from a whole day or half a day of washing my hair every week. So lately I’ve been washing it every 2 weeks instead of weekly. I think this may only last during the colder months.

Besides that I continued to DC (regular homemade) on dry hair and still LOVING it. I’m actually quite mad I stopped to do it on wet hair. Uggh!! It is such a breeze.  I finger detangle a little bit before I apply the DC to my hair. After it is fully applied to my hair I add my black tea rinse. This by the way is making a tremendous difference to my hair shedding. I will post pictures below showing you how much shed hair I got detangling while my hair was dry and also detangling in the shower every 2 weeks.

I keep the black tea in two of these bottles so it's easy to pour out without the mess

This was the 2nd go around after the trimmed ends and this is my shed hair of  the week (L-R) Dry, In the shower

This is the 3rd go around the hair in the hair stopper is shed hair of 2wks in the shower and on the side is dry

Shed hair from the hair stopper taken out and the dry detangling

I also added another new thing into my regimen. I did it on my last wash it is called the hair smoothie. It consists of Avocado, Banana, Coconut Milk, Egg and Honey. I will be using this hair smoothie probably once a month so I will use it again when I wash my hair next week. It is like a medium protein treatment so if your hair loves and needs protein give it a go, If not this may not be for you. I will post her video where she shows how to make the smoothie and the benefits of each item included in the smoothie.