Don’t Let This Happen To You…….

Posted on July 17, 2014 by ChaRey111: The Lifestylet under My Hair Story, Rants

Ladies please PLEASE get those trims and get them on time! I can’t stress it enough. I hate seeing women going months and months without getting a trim to hold on to length unknowingly losing more hair in the process.

I’ll admit it, I was guilty of this in my perm days. You couldn’t tell me nothing when my hair went past my shoulders but as soon as it did, the ends would snap like a twig. Frustrated and dissatisfied, I decided to take matters into my own hands and stopped getting trims. This campaign went on for several months and was proud of the little length I had gained. Prom was around the corner and I had enough length for the up-do I wanted without the use of weave. Or so I thought.

I’ll never forget the day going into the salon. I readily showed my hairstylist the up-do I wanted and she agreed that it was a great style choice. Her mind quickly changed once she examined my hair strands. She tapped me on shoulder ever so gently and asked, “When was the last time you got a trim?! The back of your hair is broken off really bad..The only way this will work with that hairstyle is to get some extensions in the back to fill it out and your hair will need to be cut soon.”

My heart sank. I was actually trying to avoid weave (for shallow bragging purposes) and Lord behold it was my savior for prom. I couldn’t believe I went so long without noticing how bad the back had broken off. I mean I noticed the breakage but I guess I was so blinded by the lust of long hair that I shrugged it off. Long story short, I got the weave, prom was a success and the following week, instead of having a trim, I had a full blown CUT. My hair went from shoulder length to Bob at the snip of the sheers :(. It was cute and most importantly it was in good shape.

Moral of the story is get those trims. They suck but they are so worth it 🙂

Hair Shrinkage…First I Hate You, Than I Love You…Now I HATE You Again

Posted on June 30, 2014 by ChaRey111: The Lifestylet under Natural Hair, Rants

Hair Shrinkage...First I Hate You, Than I Love You...Now I HATE You Again

*Post was inspired by the recent “pleasant” affects of the humidity in good ol’ Georgia*

*Few curse words used, just so you know*

Hair shrinkage. For those who don’t know, shrinkage is the difference between what your hair looks like when it’s wet and gently stretched to its maximum length and what it looks like when it’s dry. It happens to all curls but it is more noticeable in kinky, coily hair because that hair type has tighter curls.

Shrinkage isn’t all bad since it does indicate that your hair is in good condition, meaning that the hair follicles can “spring” back to the scalp without breaking.

Why do I have a love-hate relationship with my shrinkage?

In the beginning of my natural hair journey, disliked shrinkage for superficial reasons. It didn’t display my hair’s true length and I didn’t know how to do my natural hair. I was not fond of my natural hair’s curl pattern and the teenie-weenie fro look (which was amplified by shrinkage). To avoid giving up and going back to the perm box I made it my mission to fight shrinkage. I’ve tried it all from a variety of weaves, wigs, and braids over a period of 6-8 months. After receiving terrible headaches and some hair loss from all those sew-ins and tight ass braids, I decided to bite the bullet and figure out how to maintain my natural hair.

When I began to love my shrinkage:

I began to love shrinkage once I embraced my hair for what it is. I sucked at twists outs in the beginning so I often did wash-n-gos using Miss Jessie’s Baby Butter Cream and Curly Pudding. Once that got too expensive, I began to use Shea Moisture’s Curl Enhancing Smoothie in conjunction with the Olive Oil Eco Styler Gel. My curls looked amazing!!

When I began to hate my shrinkage…again:

How so? After explaining how much I love and embraced my hair. Well lets just say once my hair began to grow out I began to notice some things.

First, I discovered I have two hair textures. The front, some parts of the middle and back hair pattern is a loose curl (3b-c) and both sides of my head are kinky (4a). I initially thought the looser pattern was heat damage due to dealing with inexperienced hair stylists but realized that its just growing out of my head like that (lol). To avoid looking a hot mess in public with two textures doing what they wanted to do, I stopped doing wash-n-gos and mastered twists, twist outs, ponytails and buns.

Now that my hair is bra-strap length with 80% shrinkage, the length will appear shoulder length (or shorter) if my hair gets wet or it’s humid outside and that’s on a good day . To make matters worse, once it shrinks, my hair begins to matte up. Matted hair equals tangles, fairly nots and all sorts of fuckery if I do not twist it up promptly. I pineapple my hair at night at times, but often during the summer months I’m twisting it more unless its in a high or low bun.

I truly find shrinkage annoying but instead of combating shrinkage with weaves and extensions, I use styling products that reduces shrinkage (which I will post soon) and incorporate high buns and twists in my regimen. Some days I just give up and just go with the flow. I understand that shrinkage is apart of the going au natural and it is inevitable so to “fight it” would be a losing battle.

How do you feel about shrinkage?

Check out Miss Curly Nikki’s blog post Easy, Practical Ways To Combat Natural Hair Shrinkage here for more tips!

Restoring My Hair To Its Former Glory!

Posted on May 16, 2014 by ChaRey111: The Lifestylet under Natural Hair, Rants

The reason why I haven’t posted much as of lately is because I have been going THROUGH it. This past month in half I’ve had dealt with drama from loved ones, financial issues due to unexpected expenses and last but not least health issues. But there is light at the end of the tunnel… everything happening is temporary (praise Jesus) and the troubles will melt away shortly. Things are looking up and I am slowly getting a handle on the craziness around me.

Now that things are getting back to normal, there is one thing that isn’t quite there yet…my hair

My hair has taken quite a beating due to stress and pure neglect. When I was feeling down I didn’t want to do anything to it and now I am paying the price. My fine hair has ALWAYS been prone to those lovely “fairy knots” but they have definitely taken over my life it seems especially now since my hair is almost bra strap length. Even after a trim, single strand knots still emerge! And lets not forget, the shed hairs that gets caught in hair strands. So frustrating! My detangling sessions seems to be getting longer and longer and the idea of finger detangling makes my hair laugh. I’ve tried new tricks and techniques in my regimen and nothing worked in my favor thus far.

Then yesterday, while scrolling down my subscriptions section on YouTube I noticed one of my favorite Vloggers, Taren Guy had finally posted her salon series! I was excited to see what techniques and tricks the hair stylist will use on her natural hair clients and how I can apply this knowledge to my hair routine. One particular technique that caught my attention is when the stylist used a paddle brush to remove shed hair on the client’s dry hair before shampooing. Yes I said it DRY HAIR. But the technique seems to be effective. The client had the same hair issues I have and it was a pleasure to watch the client’s face as the stylist was detangling her hair at such a fast pace!

Now that I have learned a few new tips from the Salon Series, here are some things I will do to restore my hair back to its former glory. First, I will stick to my old regimen that I posted here. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Not buying new products for a while, UNLESS given to me for review. Also, I will incorporate the paddle brush in my routine and see what happens. I will use the paddle brush before washing my hair and after the conditioning process for detangling. I typically only used my paddle brush when I flat iron my hair because I was concerned that it would rip my hair out; but on the war on fairly knots, desperate times calls for desperate measures. & if I do rip it, its just hair it will grow back.

If you haven’t watched Taren Guy’s Salon Series you need to get on it! There are three episodes thus far with more videos and different hair textures to come!

What Are Relaxers REALLY Doing To Your Hair & Health?!

Posted on March 23, 2014 by ChaRey111: The Lifestylet under Health, Natural Hair

As I was surfing through my favorite pastime YouTube, I stumbled upon this video entitled “What A Relaxer Is Really Doing To Your Hair” by The Green Beauty Channel. Even though I (I’m sure you all have as well) seen shows, discussions, Chris Rock’s “Good Hair,” etc.. on the topic, I was quite intrigued and impressed by the way she presented this topic and explained scientifically how the creamy crack can cause damaging effects to the hair and scalp.

Random Disclaimer: Just like the creator of this video, I am not discouraging anyone from using Perms, at the end of the day it is Your Hair and do what you please to it because it is so. This video is just to inform and educate. The Beauty Green Channel has more great videos here https://www.youtube.com/user/GreenBeautyChannel

My Mom Goes Au Natural!!!

Posted on March 15, 2014 by ChaRey111: The Lifestylet under Natural Hair

After years of her addiction to perm a.k.a the creamy crack, she finally decides to go natural . NOT without being a little difficult 🙂 . I’ve been trying to convince her to go natural for some time for health benefits and on top of that she has a beautiful head of hair that she refused to embrace at the time.

Like all women (including myself) who’ve used perm for several years and decide to go natural have NO idea how their hair is going to look. And this TERRIFIED her. She’d had been transition for about 4-5 months and hated the two textures fighting for control. She wanted her natural hair to be same texture like her Mother (Grandma was half Indian/African American) and knowing her if it didn’t come out that way she’d made plans to straighten it. She even began to chicken out more by stating “Maybe I will get it pressed, cut into a bob, then gradually get it trimmed until all the perm is out.” I was supportive of whatever decision she made regardless but I definitely wanted her to embrace her hair texture.

After a few moments of debate she decides to do a big chop. That’s done now to pick out a salon. I didn’t recommend her to the Salon I’m used to going due to the long ass waiting list PLUS they had a tendency to overbook their hair stylists so you will wait awhile to be serviced. I knew of a young women named Aliah, who owns her own hair salon called 2 S.W.A.G (sister with a gift) and I knew she is excellent with natural hair at hair so I encouraged Mom give her a try.

Here is Mom’s hair before the appointment!!! 🙂

Her at the salon!!

The hair cut included shampoo, conditioner, steam hydration, and shape up. When Aliah began cutting I realized me and Mother had the same texture! I know DUH that’s your Mom!! (lol) But you will be surprised that many Mothers, Daughters, Siblings, etc… do not share the exact hair type. Moving forward. Like me she has 0% shrinkage in the front with loose curl at the top but has 80% shrinkage on the back with a kinkier texture.

The End Result!! & She likes it! She really likes it!! She could not stop looking at herself in the mirror lol. Aliah did a great job and I was more than happy she embraced her natural texture. She told me she will more than likely keep it short. Its much easier for her to maintain it plus she has carpool tunnel in her hands so twisting hair is definitely out of the question. I think I may have found a new hair stylist to go to…..

~ChaRey