Curl talk: Interview with Caitlynn

 Hi guys, today's post is a little bit different. I did an interview with my friend Caitlynn, we have really different types of hair and do different things things to maintain it so I thought it would be interesting for you all to hear her perspective. She had some really great ideas like using baby shampoo if regular shampoos are too harsh for your hair.
Side note: we laughed a lot in this video, its been a long week and everything was hilarious.

Protective styling? Necessary or not?

Fair warning: this is a bit of a long read

I’m sure many of you all have read on other natural hair blogs or vlogs about the importance of protective styling. It’s pretty widely believed that protective styling is the only way to maintain length over time. For those of you who don’t know, protective styles are any sort of style that tucks away the end of your hair. Since the ends are the weakest point of your hair because they are oldest and usually the driest – it’s super important to protect them and make sure that they don’t break off. The examples of protective styles that people usually use include weaves, wigs, and braids. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve never actually worn any type of weaves or extensions, and the only wig I had was a Five Below Morticia Addams Halloween number that I wore for the 3 years I celebrated Halloween. So basically that doesn’t count – at all. Anyway, because I haven’t done these things I have no idea the effect they will have on maintaining my hair length personally.

However, what I do know personally is how I maintained my length over the years. When I was younger I wore my hair in puffs, plaits, and two-strand twists; my hair never got past shoulder length. I was not particularly concerned about length retention then; I was more concerned about going to playgrounds and my millions of crushes or whatever else it is elementary schoolers stress about. When I was in 8^th grade I started flat ironing my hair more often, and when I was in high school I flat ironed it every two weeks during the school year and two-strand twisted it during the summer. I was more concerned about my length then because I was self-conscious about most of my friends having weaves and extensions while I had mid-back length natural hair. Still I didn’t know anything about length retention, to be honest. I had satin scarves, but I only wore them when I wanted to look extra cute or when my hair was freshly done. I regularly slept on cotton pillowcases with my hair in a ponytail or bun or just loose. My hair was almost always down on my shoulders and my back and rubbing against my clothes. Still my hair went from shoulder length to mid back length without me trying at all. And this was with my hair thinning, shedding, and breaking off after becoming brittle from my medication.

THE POINT OF ALL THIS IS: Protective styling is not the only way to retain length. I wouldn’t recommend doing absolutely nothing like I did for four years, however low manipulation styles where your ends aren’t completely tucked away but don’t require daily manipulation, are a good alternative. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m a huge fan of low manipulation styles like twistouts and braidouts.

This is a twistout from 2 years ago before I cut off the last of my heat damage.

This is technically a protective style, two flat twists that are pinned together in the back. Excuse my face, the sun was in my eyes and I was at a Black Lives Matter March so I wasn't sure what facial expression to go with. (Cause it's wrong to smile when we're fighting for justice...right?? I don't know)

Wet flexirod set tutorial

One of the styles I'm working on perfecting is the wet flexirod set, I really like that I'm able to get my hair cute without stretching it first (although I do miss the length) and that it doesn't get tangled if I pick and fluff it out correctly.

This is a slideshow/video I created showing the products I use to do my flexirod set and the outcome of it. I've only done this about 3 or 4 times so I'm still perfecting how to make it last for longer than 3 days. At the 3 day mark I usually turn it into a twistout since it already stretched. In the future I will probably separate and fluff the curls less and allow it to expand on its own throughout the week. You'll notice that I used two oils in this tutorial, that probably wasn't necessary my hair was just extra dry and I felt like doing it. I'm extra, I know.

Slay those edges girl!

Lately in the comment sections of some of my favorite bloggers and vloggers, I’ve seen a lot of hate toward slicking baby hairs and edges. Side note: never read the comment sections people. Some feel that having your edges lay flat means that you are not truly embracing the natural texture of your hair. Respectfully, I disagree.

 1. Laying your edges, just like flat ironing your hair or wearing a weave or using a relaxer, is a personal choice. It’s your hair, do with it what you will. 

2. How the edges of your hair look does not determine how “woke” or in-tune you are to your heritage. Also it does not negate or enhance said heritage. It’s literally just hair. JUST. HAIR. Spamming people’s comments, criticizing them for how they wear their hair is very unlikely to get them to change – it’s much more likely, however, to get you blocked.

Personally, I love laying my edges. I feel it gives a finished and polished look to my styles and gives me a degree of creativity. Sometimes I just smooth them down with my fingers and if I’m feeling fancy I get my fine tooth comb and my toothbrush and get to work (I don’t do this too often - too much manipulation of your edges can cause them to break). I used to use ORS’s Olive Oil Edge Control, but my hair didn’t like it. Now I use Crème of Nature with Argan Oil Perfect Edges and Eco Styler Argan Oil gel, both of these products are inexpensive and widely available. The Crème of Nature edge control is very good because not only is it long-lasting, it also contains keratin which helps strengthen my edges.

Check out this post on Curly Nikki for other edge control products for natural hair: Top 10 edge tamers for natural hair 

 

The End of the Road

Does anyone else feel personally victimized by scissors? Does a trim in your eyes seem to equal a foot and a half of hair to every beautician?

Haircuts are possibly the worst thing in the world to me. I feel like I have an almost spiritual connection to my hair and the thought of sharp instruments coming near it is truly enough to make me hyperventilate. When I was a little girl my father lined up my kitchen (the back of my neck) and I almost lost it. So end maintenance has always been a problem for me. I used to keep my straightened hair curled at all times so my raggedy ends were less visible (I hoped). Although I would’ve dared somebody to say anything to me. My mother actually chased me with scissors on one that more occasion, threatening to “take care of that raggedy mess” I had going on.

I digress, we all know that healthy ends are the key to length retention; usually hair is growing we are just losing it through damaged ends breaking off due to tension, dryness, or heat or color damage or splitting. Now that I have cut off the last of my heat damage, my ends split more when I haven’t been moisturizing like I should or when I get lazy and blow dry my hair too often. My medication also contributes to making my hair dry and brittle so I have to be very conscious of how moisturized I’m keeping my hair.

Here are a few of the things that I have found have helped reduce my breakage:

Water

-          I spritz my hair with water at least once a day. I don’t saturate the hair which keeps the style nice but it’s enough to keep my hair moisturized. Drinking enough water also helps with keeping hair moisturized – I’m still working on this one.

Products

-          It’s super important to find products that moisturize and agree with your hair. My absolute favorite line is SheaMoisture’s Jamaican Black Castor Oil products. I also use their Coconut & Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie and Cleansing Co-Wash Conditioner. Also I use Giovanni Direct Leave-in Conditioner for my leave-in.

-          I use olive oil as a moisturizing oil after spritzing with water or after my leave in conditioner. I know a lot of naturals use coconut oil – personally I cannot stand coconut oil, I’ll talk about that on a later post.

Handling

-          Remember to be super gentle with your ends. When I wore my hair straight most of the time I had a bad habit of pulling on my ends while I was thinking (I’m full of bad habits, I know).

-          Also, be very careful while detangling. I detangle with a wide tooth comb with conditioner in my hair. I’ve read that finger detangling is even better on ends – however, I’m way too impatient for that.

                                         

This is flexi-rod set I did courtesy of SheaMoisture's JBCO line and Jane Carter Wrap and Roll solution. This style kept my ends out of my reach and kept them from getting too tangled.

How do you take care of your ends?

Blowout waves tutorial

One of the styles I love to do on my hair is blown out waves. It's a low-manipulation style that you can easily put up in a bun or updo if you don't want it out. It keeps my hair from getting tangled which also prevents me having to put too much stress on it when I detangle in the shower. I usually stretch my hair for this style with a blowdryer (you can stretch it whichever way you choose).

 I curled my hair with Caruso Steam rollers the day before this tutorial and I slept in 11 flexi-rods to preserve them overnight.

Product list for this tutorial:

• Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen, Grow, and Restore Shampoo
• Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen, Grow, and Restore Treatment Masque
• Aphogee Keratin & Green Tea Restructurizer
• Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen, Grow, and Restore Hair Serum
• CHI Shine Infusion

"Natural Hair Journey?"

I’ve been in high school and college since the most recent so-called natural hair movement took off. Before that I had never even thought of my hair as natural or not; but as the popularity grew I noticed people complimenting me on my hair and asking me about my “journey”. They were disappointed because basically, I don’t have one. I’ve never had a relaxer or texturizer, never wore a weave or extensions (not that that makes you any less natural). All I’ve done is gotten highlights twice. However unlike a lot of vloggers and bloggers I’ve seen, I struggled with shedding and breaking due to illness and medication. I’ve been on medication that has affected my hair growth and caused shedding and thinning since I was thirteen years old. Trust me, high school is not the stage of life you want to have thinning hair in. To combat it, I took biotin pills from my local health food store as well as a multivitamin. When I was 18, I was diagnosed with iron deficient anemia which further affected my hair. Now my hair was falling out in college- again not cool. The thinning and breaking caused me to go from almost mid-back length hair to a bob. A BOB. My heart broke. Now I take Hairfinity pills and drink water, which seems to have helped. Also I avoid styles that cause a lot of tension on my scalp and strands.

 Braidouts have been one of my go to styles for years. This is one from 4-5 years ago. My hair was heat damaged because I flat ironed it every 2 weeks without heat protectants. The second picture is a braid and curl from 3 weeks ago, my hair is a little shorter but much healthier.