Relaxer Health!

Some people need a relaxer to manage their tresses. That is fine if you really take care of it. I would say, only allow a professional to relax and touch up your hair, but, most of them just do what they have to do to get that money. Most professionals and people in general think that it is OK to get a touch up soon as they see new growth or when their edges start looking rough. If you get a touch up too soon the risk of your hair being over processed is higher. Over processed is when your touch up is being applied and not only does it get on your new growth but also on the part of the hair that has already been relaxed.

The hair on average without the help of vitamins grows about 1/2 inch a month. If you are receiving a touch up every 4-6 weeks there is a higher risk that your hair will be over processed. A relaxer breaks downs the proteins in the hair to make it straight. If your hair is over processed it is becoming more damaged than before and when your hair get to a certain length it breaks. No wonder why so many women of color have been ear length or shoulder length for years.







So how to help prevent over processing?

Stretch your relaxer. What's that? Do not get a tough up as soon as you see new growth. Wait at least 10-12 weeks before getting your next touch up. I know some women with hair down their backs who stretch longer only relaxing every 3-4 months. That means they only get touch ups 3-4 time a year. By doing this will help your hair will grow thicker and longer. Also by stretching it makes it easier for you or your stylist to see exactly where your new growth ends making it less likely to over process.

What to do with all that new growth while waiting for your next touch up?



      * First moisturize! While stretching for months it will be obvious to see the two textures. The point where the two textures meet is very weak. To prevent the hair from breaking at the point where the two meet keep the hair moisturized daily!


       * Styling. Some of us have thick new growth, and depending on how long you stretch it can grow really long as well. having a mini fro and straight hair can look pretty odd. You can flat iron the roots to match the rest of your hair. Or if you don't want to use heat you can do braid outs. A braid out is when you braid your hair at night using oils, wrap/setting foam ,and your fav hair lotion. In the morning you take it out and wear your hair wavy. This style will help the two texture blend together.

After your Stretch:
          After you  finally get a touch up wait about a week or two and give yourself a protein treatment. Click the April folder above then click on protein treatments I use for more information. HAPPY STRETCHING!!!!

Here are some youtube clips of some women that stretch and their advice.


http://youtu.be/48f9e0knEqQ


http://youtu.be/TZxWhw_a0eY


http://youtu.be/zCUAKmB3gVE


http://youtu.be/pUL3nKAeVls

Braid out tutorial link one of my favorites! http://youtu.be/sdJoMm-m8uI

African American Hair Myths

1. African American hair can not grow long, or past shoulder length. That is False. The cuticles in our hair does not lay flat like other races. That's why our hair naturally looks puffy. The twists, turns, and tight curls of our hair makes it hair for the natural oils from our scalp makes to  makes its way through the hair leaving our hair dry and unmanageable. This is the reason we have to manually add moisture to our hair.

2. Only "GOOD HAIR" or mixed hair can grow long. Not true! You can have to nappiest hair in the world and grow it long, you just have to be more careful with it and take good care of it.

                                           



3. Washing our hair too often will dry out the hair. This couldn't be more false. Water is the main source of moisture which our hair desperately needs! Certain shampoos can dry our hair because of the harsh sulfates. Using a sulfate free shampoo like shea moisture products found at target or walgrees will clean and add moisture back to your hair. I suggest wash your hair 1-2 a week. Don't have the time, to do that wash 1 every two weeks. I suggest not drying your hair with a towel they can be really rough on our hair try using an old t-shirt.

4. Trimming your hair will make your hair grow. WRONG! trimming you hair does not affect the way or how fast your hair grows out of your scalp! trimming your ends keeps your ends healthy so when your hair does grow you will see longer length because your ends are no longer damaged and breaking off.



                                             
5. Wearing breads makes your hair grow fast. Nope not true. Wearing braids is known as a protective style. So your ends are being protected and not breaking off for 1-2 months. wearing braids makes it easier for you to see you new growth, but, your does not grow any faster! your hair still grows at the same past as it always grows.

Vitamins for Hair Growth

The hair Vitamins I recommend you to use if you want longer fuller hair is "Hairfinity". I have used these vitamins once last year and I noticed a great amount of growth in only 2 WEEKS! Real talk! And in a month I saw even more growth. I also noticed I had more energy. I stopped using hairfinity after a month because I thought I could find something cheaper at walmart that would give me the same results. Plus I didn't want to wait for shipping of the vitamins to my house ( you can only order these vitamins online). So I went and bought all the vitamins that were in the hairfinity muti vitamins separately at walmart. I spent a lot of money and didn't get the same results at all! So I started using Haifinity again and I'm seeing great growth! Its also helping with my skin and nails!

        



 Hairfnity vitamins claim to help hair grow up to 200%  faster and longer. That's twice as fast and longer than your hair will grow without using these vitamins. This will cause your hair to grow at least an inch a month. BUT if your hair is damaged while taking these vitamins you will not see the growth because your ends will be breaking off. SO I suggest if you purchase these vitmains give yourself a good trim if needed, lay back on heat styling, keep your hair in a protective style ( styles that hide and protect your ends, buns, braids, etc.) and wash and deep condition your hair regularly! Take care of your hair don't think that the vitamins will do it all. If you do these things you will see growth in no time! Here are some before and after pics on the Hairfinity website.

         These vitamins work. Just a warning of side affects that I personally have noticed! Fuller breast ( that's a plus lol) and Bright when I say bright I mean BRIGHT yellow urine. That is because these vitamins have a large dosage of b-vitamins and your body get rids of some vitamins you don't need its natural and normal. other than that, I haven't notice any bad side affects.


Here are the vitamins in Hairfinity:

Most these vitamins are normal in a multi-vitamin. What make Hairfinity different besides the high dosage? Hairfinity contain MSM. Here is what Haifinity.com has to say about MSM for hair growth.

(Your hair grows in three cycles: Growing, Resting, and Shedding. Each and every hair on your head (even body) is in one of these phases at all times. However, you may not notice significant shedding, because you have many other hairs in the other two phases at the same time.

So how will MSM make your hair grow longer? If your “Growing” phase lasts two years, and your hair normally grows one half inch per month, your hair will only grow 12 inches before entering the resting and shedding phases. (24 months times ½ inch per month).

On the other hand, if your “Growing” phase lasts 3 years, then it will grow 18 inches. (36 months times ½ inch per month).

Since your growth phase is genetically determined, there is no way this will change unless you use a supplement containing MSM. MSM is known to naturally increase the length of your hair’s growing phase.)

MSM is a natural Sulphur. It is not a magic potion that is synthetic. It is All natural and has many other benefits for the body besides hair. But in this case, we are talking about hair! If you are interested in the hairfinity vitamins go to the website hairfinity.com. and order one bottle for $30 I promise if your hair is not damaged you will see results in only 2 weeks! if your still not sure check out the website and do some research of your own. Also check out some youtube clips below.



Lolita's One Month Update using Haifinity http://youtu.be/sEbCzhCD-_0


Lolita's 7th month Update.http://youtu.be/WQAux7sgRe8

Some Celebs that use Hairfinity:  Jennifer Love Hewitt

And Sharon Leal from "Dream Girls" & "Why Did I Get Married" 1 &2

Weaves & Extensions

Wearing weaves and extensions is a great way to protect your real hair when done correctly. A lot of women think it is ok to wear weaves/extension and completely ignore their real hair. This is FALSE! Many people wear these protective styles to help their hair grow to longer lengths. But if you are ignoring your real hair for 2-3 months at a time your real hair will be dry, brittle and it will break off, making your "protective" style pointless. Here are a few tips I have to take care of your natural hair and weave/extensions to keep both looking right!

TIP 1:  WHATEVER YOU DO BEFORE GETTING EXTENSION PLEASE DO NOT RELAX YOUR HAIR RIGHT BEFORE INSTALLING WEAVE. A relaxer weakens the hair and adding the tension to the hair by adding braids right after WILL lead to breakage and bald edges! If you want a touch up wait at least two weeks before in stalling any extensions!   

Before braiding your hair up for a sew in or if your just getting braids give your real hair a protein treatment (For more information about protein treatments CLICK on the April folder above then click on   " The essentials to having long beautiful tresses" and  on "Protein treatments I use")! Giving your real hair a protein treatment will add strength to the hair, and insure that your is strong enough to be braided up for a long period of time. Doing this will help your hair to not break off when taking down your weave, or taking out braids. REMEMBER to deep condition after the protein treatment to add moisture back into the hair and to reap the benefits of the protein treatment.

TIP 2A: After installing the extensions you have to still take care of your real hair! You must wash your hair once a week or once every two weeks. If you are wearing synthetic hair use a sulfate free shampoo. If you are wearing human hair I would say use a sulfate free shampoo as well. These shampoos are gentle and will not damage the weave. Focus the shampoo in your scalp. If you have a sew in with a net you can not do this. Gently massage the shampoo into the scalp and rinse out. There is really no need for you to add shampoo to the extension (unless you've added product to your human hair extensions), when you rinse the shampoo out the shampoo will run down the extensions picking up any dirt. REMEMBER never wash your hair or extensions by adding shampoo and balling up the hair on top of your head. All this does is make the hair matted and tangled.

TIP 2B: Add a deep conditioner! This will add moisture back into your hair after shampooing. Apply deep conditioner to scalp and braids let it sit for up to an hour with a plastic cap the rinse out. Your hair will thank you for it!

TIP 3: Add oils to your scalp every other day. CLICK on April folder above the click on" promote hair growth with oils." You can use any oil of your choice. Apply oil with an applicator bottle so that the oil only gets on your scalp and not your weave. If you are wearing braids you can add the oils through out the braids. This will keep your hair moist preventing breakage and promote hair growth.



                              Applicator Bottle




TIP 4: To keep your sew in looking on point it is important to detangle it regularly this goes for synthetic and human hair. When your weave is past shoulder length the ends tend to rub against your clothing throughout the day causing matting. To keep this from happening us a paddle brush start brushing at the ends of the hair. Once the ends are completely tangle free move up the hair and carefully brush the tangles out. If you brush too hard or too rough it can make the fibers in your weave frizz up. So for that sleek look REMEMBER to brush the hair gently and with care. Detangle the hair a few times a day. Or you can just clip the hair up so that the ends are not rubbing against anything to prevent matting.

paddle brush

TIP 5: Wrap it up! Wearing a sew in or braids it doesn't matter wrap the hair with a silk or satin scarf! Cotton scarves suck moisture out of the hair that's a huge NO NO! If you have braids, gather the braids in one direction, secure it in a ponytail, tie the scarf around the head and that's it! If you have a sew in and your natural hair is braided in a circular direction under the you can wrap you hair in a circulation direction. Help the weave stay in the wrap by using bobby pens, then tie your scarf. If your hair is braided straight back under the weave you can do a cross wrap. It is hard for me to explain it in words, so you can check out youtube clip below.  There is NO EXCUSE for you not wrapping your weave or real hair at night! If you wrap your weave/extension every night it will look nice and neat for weeks! Click on this link to see how to do a cross wrap. http://youtu.be/XPzJk--fHuQ

Want to know how to do a sew in click these links:http://youtu.be/kw2S2RWdBO0
                                                                            http://youtu.be/N9DqropVdw4
                                                                             http://youtu.be/yYezwKg45OQ


Want to know how to do a full sew in click this link:http://youtu.be/NIl2ar8DwS0



Want to know how to do a sew in with an invisible part click this linkhttp://youtu.be/mhcuWep74oI

Want to know how to braid hair click these links:http://youtu.be/jztzFjO-moM
                                                                        http://youtu.be/vz_LiYjIGD4




If you have any question leave a comment below and I will try my best to answer ASAP!