Surviving Winter After the Big Chop

I thought about writing this post a while back, but never did. Just recently, one of my friends started a thread on Facebook about maintaining during the winter season as a newbie to the natural world. I have a few tips below.

1. Don't be afraid to rock your tweeny weeny fro. Especially if you did the big chop and don't have much hair, now is the perfect time to wear your fro. It's not a lot of hair to manage and it's shape won't be as heavily affected by everyone wanting to touch it. Pick your hair out and go with it.
At night time, moisturize and sleep with a satin scarf. If your hair is long enough, put a few twists in it. This will help keep it soft. If your hair isn't long enough to twist, no worries; just use a water bottle and spray a light mist to get rid of bed head. Don't drench your hair; you don't want pneumonia! Add moisturizer and go. I recommend Carol's Daughter Hair Milk or Organic Root Stimulator's moisturizer.

2.
If you like your curl pattern, you could wash and moisturize, but don't use a pick. Sit under a dryer or use a blow dryer. Your hair may be a little hard, but you can use a water mist and moisturizer to help soften it. At night, sleep with a satin cap, and use the mist and moisturizer in the morning to revive your curl pattern.

3. Try Kinky Twists with extensions or without, depending on your hair length and what you feel comfortable with. I caution that you go to a professional for kinky twists if you want extensions. They tend to break the hair off around the edges, so be careful with them.

4. Get another protective hair style, in addition to the kinky twist. This will keep you from having to do your hair everyday. You can look through a natural hair magazine or find pics online of styles you'd be interested in trying. Or you could just steal a style from someone that you see. I posted the pics below earlier, but I thought I would do it again. I saw this woman at a wedding and thought her hair was very cute.

Sorry . . .

Sorry followers. I know it's been a minute. Since I started this blog, I found out I was pregnant and then the school year began (I teach). With the combination of the two, I just haven't taken the time to update my blog. I'm only up here now because we have a snow day. More posts to come. I promise.

Curly Nikki

I really like this website, Curly Nikki.

Something I Did That You Shouldn't Do: #2

The Bible says that wise people learn from others' mistakes. So I'm going to do a series of posts about hair mistakes I've made, and hopefully you'll learn from them and not do the same.

#2-If You Get a Headache From Your Hairstyle, Take It Down

In January of 2006, I had to do a 2nd big chop (see earlier post). I was devastated that I had to start from scratch with growing my hair back. Around August or so of the same year, I started to notice that my hair was getting longer. I did a blow out and was so pleased with what I saw.

Finally, after all this time, I had an afro puff. I even did a mini-photo shoot. To keep my hair pulled back, I started wearing these stretchy bands around my hair. Every once in a while,though, I'd get a headache. My hair felt like it was a little too tight. I'd try to loosen the band, but my head would still hurt. I just started popping in an Advil pill or two and kept it moving.

A few months later, I noticed that the hair on one side of my head was shorter than the hair around it. I looked to the same spot on the opposite side of my head and noticed the same breakage. I also noticed that my scalp was sore in those areas.

I immediately knew that my hair had broken off from wearing those bands. I guess I ignored those warning signs of pain because I was so happy to see that my hair was finally growing and plus I had an afro puff! Crazy I know. But nonetheless, lesson learned!

Nowadays if I want to pull my hair back, I'll use a scarf or a knee high stocking.

Something I Did That You Shouldn't Do: #1

The Bible says that wise people learn from others' mistakes. So I'm going to do a series of posts about hair mistakes I've made, and hopefully you'll learn from them and not do the same.

#1-Do Not Use Excessive Heat

Back in 2005 when I was preparing to get married, I had only been natural for a little less than a year. I had no idea how to style my own hair, and I didn't know of anyone who did natural hair. Most of the people I talked to would say, "I know how to straighten it," but I didn't want to wear it straight.

At any rate, I had tried several natural styles, which I didn't like. So I decided to let this lady who had tried the natural styles with me, straighten it with a hot comb. She styled it, and it looked very nice (my hair was way longer than I had thought!). I didn't have a lot of time to be picky. It was the middle of September, I didn't have a hairstyle, and I was getting married on October 1st.

I let the straightened style stay for about a week. Roughly two weeks later was my wedding and I had my hair straightened again. I liked it and was very pleased, until I got back from my honeymoon.

I washed my hair and noticed that over half of my head was still straight. I figured that it might take a few washes to get all of my hair to revert back. Here comes December and the back of my head was nappy and the front half was bone straight. I went back to the hair dresser and she was dumbfounded. She said laughingly, "I've never seen anything like this before!" First of all, I needed her to not be laughing because I was extremely mad, but I didn't carry out any of those violent thoughts I was having in my head.

Well January rolled around and my hair was still a mess. It was depressing. I already didn't know how to do natural hair, and I really didn't know how to do this half straight half natural stuff. My hair looked like it was having an external conflict, and I was the one losing.

I slowly came to the realization that I had to cut all of my hair off again! I had only had one hair cut in my entire life, and it was the big chop. Now, a year and a half later, I was going to have to do it all over again. I washed my hair, and went to the bathroom and just started cutting it off myself. I didn't trust anybody else to touch my hair. Once it was all over, I looked in the mirror and felt a lot better. There are worse things in life than having to cut off your hair. So I got over myself, but I learned a very important lesson: Ronda's hair + excessive heat= a hot mess.

Now, I'm not sure if it was the hot comb, the heat, the oil, or a combo of all of them that damaged my hair; I just know that till this day, I have never used a hot comb nor a flat iron, and I probably never will.

I Went to a Wedding This Weekend . . .

. . . And These Were the Only Pics I Took
See, I forgot I had my camera. But when I saw this lady's hair (I didn't
even get her name), I had to take a pic of it so that I could show my hair stylist. I looked in my purse for my camera phone and found my actual camera. At any rate, love this look and will be trying it soon. Enjoy!

My Hair Regimen

I don't care where I go, people are always stopping me to ask, "Who does your hair?" "What products do you use?" or "How do you take care of your hair?" So I decided to post my hair regimen. This is rather detailed but worth the read.

I normally keep my hair in a protective style for the most part of the year. Protective means that I'm not causing damage to the hair by combing, picking, applying heat, etc. Most of the time I wear two strand twists, using just my hair. Normally I do it myself, but about 2-3 times a year I go to Schatzi's Day Spa. There I get my ends clipped once every 4-6 months, in addition to trying a new style (pics of mohawk coming soon).

I usually keep my two stands in for about a month. During this time I don't wash my hair, but I do keep my scalp moistured using Wild Hair Growth. After about 4 weeks, I'll untwist my two stands and wear a twist-out style for about 3-4 days. After that, it's about time to shampoo my hair.

I just started a new shampoo routine. I use a hot oil treatment as a pre-poo (pre-shampoo). You can use almost any hot oil treatment, but I use virgin coconut oil mixed with olive oil. I mix the two and warm it up in the microcrave (be sure to test the temperature before you apply it to your hair). I wet my hair as if I'm washing it, and then apply the hot oil. I sit under a processing cap for about 10-15 minutes and then I rinse it out.

Next I use my regular shampoo, Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Aloe Shampoo. I shampoo once and rinse.

I recently added a step after my regular shampoo, shampooing with Apple Cider Vinegar. I have a medium sized water bottle where I mix have water with half ACV. I drench my hair with the mix and massage my scalp as if I'm using a regular shampoo. The ACV smell is stiffling, but once your hair dries, the smell leaves. ACV is acidic and it's supposed to restore shine and repair damaged hair. Some people leave in the ACV, but I wash it out.

Lastly, I alternate each month between Organic Root Stimulator's Hair Mayonaise, as a protein treatment, and their Replenishing Pack (which is now sold by the bottle) as a deep conditioner. Either way, I use a processing cap for about 20 minutes.

Once I remove the processing cap, I detangle my hair with the conditioner still in. I normally pick through my hair using a metal pick and then I use a rat-tail comb to comb through and divide my hair in sections. I two strand twist about 8-10 sections. Then I rinse my hair with the twists in tact. This helps to prevent the retangling of my hair.

Wow, this process is seeming very long. I like doing my own hair, but I see why so many others let someone else do theirs. Normally it wouldn't take me long, but once I added the pre-poo and ACV rinse, my regimen time increased.

Ok, almost done. The last step is I towel dry my two strand twists and then one at a time, I untwist, apply Carol's Daughter's Healthy Hair Butter and comb through that section again. I retwist it and then move to the next one. Then I let my hair air dry either over night or for the rest of the day.
I rarely use a blowdryer.


Once all of this is done, (yes it is truly a process) I will pick my hair out for a few days, using Carol's Daughter's Hair Milk as a moisturizer. Picking it out helps to elongate the hair before I go back to my twists. If I wear my hair picked out, I always try to twist it up at night to prevent bed head and knots. And I always sleep with a satin cap.

After about 3 days of the fro, I go back to twisting my hair up. Thus begins where I started. It's hard to believe, but my hair is only shampooed about 12 times a year, roughly 10 by me and about 2 at the hair salon. So even though I have a thorough routine, I'm only doing it a few times a year.

I hope this has been helpful!