Ways To Maintain My Flatironed Hair...

Relaxer days are the only days I take the dust off my flatiron and use it on my hair.  That happens 3-4 times per year.  I try very hard to minimize the amount of direct heat I place on my hair. 

How I Dye My Relaxed Hair…

I remember the days, I loved dyeing my hair black because I thought black hair ‘looked healthy’ and now black is the furthest color on my mind. Also the color black doesn’t mean your hair is healthy. Knowledge is power.

The #1 Tip That Reduced My Breakage While Detangling…

They don’t call this a hair journey for nothing and I need to emphasize on the journey aspect. I’m in my 3^rd year of my healthy hair journey and I learn new tips either on my own or from suggestions from you everyday.

Favorite Ways To Style My Relaxed Hair …

As much as I love touching and playing with my new growth I’m not ready to throw in the towel with the creamy crack. Pre-hair journey, I used to relax my hair every 6-8 weeks and now I can’t believe how little new growth I had at that stage and why I couldn't manage my hair back then. Knowledge is power!

5 Fruits for Glowing Skin & Hair…

Let me be the first to admit fruits wasn’t my favorite item to eat growing up or even if I had the option I would opt out of it.  Fast forward to today and its one of the first things I reach to eat to get my day started. I usually stick to the basic of an apple a day keeps the doctor away but of recently I started incorporating other fruits.

The Truth About Dying Relaxed Hair…

Hair dye’s can be found in semi-permanent and permanent. Semi-permanent has been my choice since it isn't that harsh on our hair. It’s mainly referred to as a ‘rinse’. Hair dye’s come in variations of colors, from Jet black to reds, pinks, you name it.  Before dying your hair I suggest doing some research on the brand. For example I usually help my mom dye her hair and we use Bigen hair dye. On one occasion Bigen wasn't available and she bought Clairol in the color black. My mom hair was jet black on application but while rinsing out her hair it turned green. Honestly I cackled in disbelief, let’s just say we never bought that brand again. I’m not saying the brand may not work for since the hair on our heads are all different but it certainly didn't work for my mom’s.

Hair Dye I Have Used In The Past

How to | What is Baggying…

Happy Mother's day to ALL of the wonderful mother's who help shape us into who we are today. Their sacrifices has been endless and the love and support has been overwhelming. I hope i can be as awesome as my mom someday. Cheers to ALL moms.

Are you frustrated and tired of dry ends, look no further of how we can curb this.

What is Baggying?

Baggying is simply to cover your hair with a bag of some sort to help lock in moisture. Baggying can save your ends to help prevent it from breakage due to dryness.

How I Baggy My Ends To Retain Moisture

Am I Texlaxed???…

My first self relaxer in December 2012 left me with severe under-processed hair that I opted to get a relaxer by my hairdresser 6 weeks later on February 2013. In 2014, I mastered the courage to attempt self relaxing again and haven't looked back since. I knew for sure I didn't want bone straight hair but not texlaxed hair either because that almost looks natural.  Then I realized there are various types of texlaxed texture, which are tightly coiled or loosen pattern. I chose the loosen pattern. I don’t comb through my relaxer, but smooth it out with my fingers and I also add natural oils to buy me some more time during processing time.

My hair texture after relaxing it

Hair Regimen Building: Importance of Deep Conditioner’s - Moisturizing…

What are Deep Conditioner’s?

Deep Conditioner’s are a must have product in any girl’s arsenal.  These are products that add moisture back into your hair to make it more manageable and soft.  Deep conditioner’s help penetrate our strands to encourage elasticity and strength.

  

What are the benefits of using a Deep Conditioner’s?

Deep Conditioning will improve the overall health of your hair hands down.  It helps to infuse nutrients into our strands to keep it healthy and strong. Even though our hair is made up of proteins we still need proteins to replenish our strands from the everyday wear and tear from combing and brushing. Regular deep conditioning keeps our hair soft, smooth and it also adds shine.  Everyone’s hair needs deep conditioning and for us relaxed girls who use heat styling tools or using hair dyes. By deep conditioning, our hair will be hydrated, soft and replenish the moisture lost.  Deep conditioning helps improves our hair elasticity. It also helps with retaining moisture in our hair and reduces breakage.

How to use Deep Conditioner’s?

You can deep condition on dry hair or after shampooing.  For best results,  add heat to the deep conditioner before placing it on your hair for further penetration. For example, placing the product container in a bowl of warm water to heat it up or in the microwave for 30seconds.  Also cover your hair with a plastic cap to keep the heat locked in. Sit under a heat cap or dryer to maintain the heat level applied to your hair. Rinse with cool water to close the hair cuticles which would help to seal in the moisture from the deep conditioning treatment.  You can boost your Deep Conditioner's effectiveness by adding natural oils or honey to the product before placing it on your hair. Mix the combination thoroughly. Apply the Deep Conditioner from root to the tip, making sure the product is on every strand of hair as pictured.

Using my heat cap or hooded dryer for deep conditioning

Black Hair Myths…

I have lurked around shoulder length all my adult life and just settled for it because black women with hair pass shoulder length, are regarded as being mixed therefore being able to gain longer lengths.  With knowledge from google, vloggers and bloggers there is no need to think that black hair growth is stunt at shoulder.  Here are some of the reasons people think black hair can’t grow long.

Black Hair CAN'T Grow Long

In all honesty I partially believed this because I knew a young lady whose hair was referred to as “pickey” (very short) and remained that length for years. With knowledge I have acquired while being on my healthy hair journey, I now know that anything is possible with a good hair regimen - your hair can grow as long as you desire.  Our hair can grow but we need to protect and take care of our ends, which are the oldest part of our hair which can be prone to breakage if not given the proper care. If our ends are breaking off at the same rate as our hair is growing out of our scalp, our hair will appear like its not growing.

Technique Thursday | How To Keep Your New Growth Moisturized…

Since I stretch my relaxer from 14weeks to 18weeks, at about 10weeks post relaxer my new growth starting popping up and keeping my new growth moisturized is important, to avoid breakage at the line of demarcation (where new growth meets relaxed hair).  There are several ways and I’ll share with you the ways I keep my new growth moisturized and happy.

How to keep your New Growth Moisturized

How to keep your New Growth Moisturized

Hair Regimen Building: Types & Use's of Shampoo’s…

If you’re not on a healthy hair journey you may probably see the title and say “ Shampoo’s, what’s the big deal? I just need a product to cleanse my scalp”. There are different Shampoo’s that serve different purposes for our hair, let me break it down.

Types of Shampoo’s for Healthy Hair Care:

[1]   Clarifying Shampoo

[2]   Moisturizing Shampoo

[3]   Chelating Shampoo

Clarifying Shampoo's

Types of Clarifying Shampoo's

Technique Thursday | Taking down Braids To Minimize Breakage..

Images not mine & found on Pinterest

A friend of mine installed box braids and wore it for 4 weeks and wanted to remove and relax her hair the following week. She unraveled, didn’t detangle and jumped into the shower to shampoo, while rinsing out her hair she realized her roots were matted and detangling was too difficult.  She applied her deep conditioner for 30mins and rinsed. After getting out the shower her entire head was matted and she called me panicking. It’s a good thing she knows I’m on a hair journey and take really good care of my hair if not she would have ended up with a pixie hair cut after having shoulder length hair. She said "Tomi my hair is matted and I don’t know what to do, I’m coming by you now”. I wasn't busy so I helped out my friend. Take a look at how much hair was lost during the un-matting session. Majority of it was shedded hair but there was some breakage.

The Story: How I Started My Healthy Hair Journey…

I just realized I never formally shared my hair story with you guys to let you know how my healthy hair journey began.

I have always had thick hair as a child and my mom relaxed my hair for my 10th Birthday party [no pics sorry] and I can't remember the length, I just knew it was long but I don't think as long as APL but I could be wrong. I changed my hairdresser because it was convenient for me, but eventually it was detrimental to my hair as I spent my early teenage years with her. My hairdresser always hot curled my hair and always gave me a cut instead of a trim, but what has me upset is how she used to trim/ cut my hair after every relaxer. She would just part a piece of my hair, clip another piece, and then clip so in effect none of my hair was the same length and couldn't fit into a ponytail anymore. I remember one year I was travelling to Trinidad with the cadets for a camp and I got my hair relaxed just before I left to avoid stress with my hair. Boy was that a bad decision, I literally had to put water in my hair to drag it into one .

My mom then became my hairdresser and since she didn't know much about hair my hair was always over-process, dry and damaged [thank goodness for knowledge now] At the age of 18, I decided it’s time to find a real hairdresser to take care of my hair so I went to this hairdresser and I loved how my hair looked.  I went back in two weeks to get a treatment done and all she wanted to do was a treatment, blow dry, and put my hair in one. That didn't go down very well with me because I wanted her to re-invent the previous hairstyle she did on me and she said to me "that would take up too much time and plus I have other clients to do," like seriously am I not a paying customer, let’s just say I never went back to her ever again. Here are some pictures to show my damaged hair over the years.

My hair prior to my Healthy Hair Journey

How & What You Need To Start A Healthy Hair Journey...

I have been getting a lot of questions about how to care for relaxed hair, I don’t claim to be a specialist nor am I a license stylist, however I can share with you what I have learned so far and what has worked and not worked for me. The word ‘journey’ could be intimidating to some people as they may believe it will take FOREVER to reach to their goals. Therefore some of you may not want to be on a hardcore hair journey and thus, just want to practice healthy hair practices for many reasons such as: Bra Strap Length hair may be overwhelming to take care of and you may love rocking your hair in a bob but prefer your hair to be thick and luxurious so you don’t need to include weave tracks to add volume to your hair. Therefore you prefer healthy hair over length and that’s fine. For those of you who want to start a healthy hair journey, let’s go on this journey together to grow our hair to its healthiest state whilst gaining lengths beyond our imaginations.

The basic things you will need to purchase to start a healthy hair journey are:

Here a few things I suggest before you start a Healthy Hair Journey: