Does Barber Know Best?

"It's so nice to see a sista with natural hair.  So beautiful!"  My Ghanaian barber was a fan.  I had gone in to my local barber shop for a short trim.  Now that I no longer need to go to the salon for $125 touch ups, I love going to the barber shop for $15 trims every other month.  We chatted while he chopped.  At the end of our exchange and my trim he said, "your hair needs grease."

"Grease!?!?" I replied, my face scrunched with frustration and confusion.  My blogs, my beloved blogs, have been warning me to stay away from grease and petroleum and mineral oil.  I didn't believe that the small tub of old school grease in a shade of florescent snot was the answer.  I nodded politely as I pretended to carefully examine the product before paying my bill and leaving in crispy haired shame.

I must confess that my hair was quite dry on the February afternoon.  Despite an effort to increase the frequency of my deep conditions and spending an evening lining my winter hats, my kinks were visibly thirsty.

A few days later I headed to CVS to investigate some new products.  I bent down to the products on the bottom shelf - the old school products that take you back to the 80s, gathering dust in the heyday of organic, natural and green products (ecological green not snot green).  One whiff of generic perfumed fragrance and you can hear the theme music to Solid Gold.  I bought a pink - not the pink brand - but pink in color cream moisturizer and a Fro So Soft moisturizing sheen spritz.  Both of these products did exactly what I had been warned about - they seemed to dry my hair even more.

Back to square one, I recalled a time after a previous big chop when I felt that shea butter worked really well in my hair.  I had stopped using it in favor of the curl defining hold of the Kinky Curly Curling Custard.  This winter, I was desperate.  I made a mix of 3 parts shea butter, 2 parts coconut oil and 1 part Shea Moisture Curl Smoothie (mostly for the fragrance and to use it up).  This combo has worked very well on my hair.  I gently massage it in on damp hair and call it a day.  I'm currently having mixed results putting the KCCC on top of this.

So I didn't need grease, but I needed a heavy moisturizer.  My barber may not known best, but he advised the best he could - I certainly don't remember seeing shea butter on the shelves next to Gheri Curl Activator, back in the day.

--lix
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Deep Conditioning = Deep Conspiracy?

Probably not, however I've been skeptical of the benefits of deep conditioning for a while.  After carefully mixing various concoctions of conditioners, oils, butters, honey and other kitchen items; slapping a healthy coating on my hair; and sitting under a hood dryer for multiple episodes of Breaking Bad - I'm not sure that I'm seeing miracle results.

When I had relaxed hair, I found that a mix of Dove conditioner, honey, olive oil and mayonnaise, worked wonders.  My hair felt strong but super soft and (dare I say) lustrous after a blow dry.  I've been hoping for the naptural equivalent of that feeling.

My current recipe (Dove conditioner, honey, and olive oil) seems to serve me well but I'll continue to experiment, perhaps trying the mayonnaise again, or leaving out the honey (which I understand to be a humectant like the glycerin my hair doesn't seem to like in DC).

Perhaps deep conditioning natural hair provides more maintenance than it does improvements.  It is just part of the process rather than a bonus.  I will return my Conair Hood Dryer that broke after 2 uses. I will go through the motions of pampering my hair.  I will persevere.

--lix

Growout Challenge Blog

Future Posts:

• Hair Performance in DC vs. FL
• El Cheapo Hat Winterization

Grapeseed Oil = Greasy Mess

Who knew something as dry as a grapeseed could product oil so thick and greasy?!  I can't remember what led me to purchase grapeseed oil, though I likely stumbled upon some listserv comment from 2001 about how great it was. 

My hair seemed very dry last night (I suspect the glycerin I added to my spritz is not working for me.) Too lazy to deep condition, I decided to put a mix of oils on my hair and let it sit overnight like a mask.  I mixed coconut oil with a little olive oil (about 4 to 1), added a few drops of lavender and sweet orange essential oils, then applied liberally to my barely-damp hair.  Then I smoothed a little of the grease-seed oil over the top, let it dry before putting on my satin bonnet and heading to bed.

In the morning, my hair was still a greasy mess.  I had to shampoo it out.  I reverted to my normal post-shower regimen of aloe vera juice spritz, shea butter, and Kinky Curly Curling Custard.

Lessons learned: 

• stay away from grapeseed oil for your hair (or my hair, at least)
• take a break from glycerin - I don't think its helping

Pics to follow soon!

--lix

http://www.naturallycurly.com/blog_contests/view_blog/kimcolesgrowout/1125

You Can Do Whatcha Wanna Do...

Kim Coles is challenging me to grow out my natural hair and I accept.  I did my second big chop (more of a slow chop than a big chop) in October and my natural experience has been much better than the first two natural go-rounds.

In Dying Color

After my previous big chop my stylist added permanent color to my hair.  It was super cute, but months later I found my hair very dry and suffering from breakage. The breakage was out-pacing the growth.  This time, I've had much more growth in 4 months than I seemed to have in the 8 months after my previous BC+color. 

Tight Like Glue

At a very tight 4a (coils about the size of coffee stirrers), I've learned to be patient with growth. I don't know that my hair will ever get to be "long", nor am I sure that I want to deal with the extra maintenance, but I would like to have a couple of good inches to rock twist outs, afro puffs, and chunky fros. 

I'll attempt to blog-ument:

• My natural transitions (successes and fails)
• My ever-changing hair care regimen
• Product experiments, including henna
• Feedback I get from friends, family and strangers
• Diet and exercise improvements

--lix

also posted to: http://www.naturallycurly.com/blog_contests/view_blog/kimcolesgrowout/1125

Coming Soon

I will be co-blogging between this page and my naturallycurly.com blog: http://www.naturallycurly.com/blog_contests/view_blog/kimcolesgrowout/1125