HEALTHY HAIR 101

Firstly, I need to state that I am by no means a professional when it comes to hair, and have not studied this topic. All my knowledge was researched and more importantly tried and tested on my own curly main. Secondly, this all represents my own personal opinions based off my experience. What works for me might not necessarily work for you…

That being said…

I know first hand the struggle of dealing with curly hair especially when going natural i.e. transitioning. For background, I was born with straight “white” hair that I could blow dry in the wind outside. I got a little older and my mother was naturally my idol. She had short hair that framed her face so perfectly. All I wanted was to look like her. My mom agreed to cutting my long hair short (although I don’t know how she got it right with my father) and unfortunately we didn’t go to a professional…

TIP NUMBER 1: Always seek out a professional hairdresser that understands hair and its properties

The lady my mom took us to had a little work station at her house. She cut my long hair from waste length to a bob as I had requested. However, what no one knew was that hair can in fact go into shock. A gradual shortening of the hair would have been the best approach but alas my hair’s structure and composition completely changed from being thin, smooth and “white” to being thick, coarse and unmanageable.

TIP NUMBER 2: Thick/coarse hair is not bad hair. Most of the time, it is curly. The coarse aspect is in relation to the tightness and type of curl pattern you have

At the time, my mother and myself did not understand this concept. I had “bad” hair. In an effort to try to manage it in my teen years, my mother would routinely send me for a relaxer or perm. It straightened my hair out and allowed my hair to be more manageable for my mom. Of course we had no idea how damaging this actually was to my hair in addition to blow drying my hair on the highest heat possible, pulling at my roots, and trying to get the coarseness out of my ends. Lets not even mention the constant straightening with the hair iron without any heat protection at all.

TIP NUMBER 3: Reduce the amount of chemicals and heat on your hair as much as possible

Curly hair is naturally dry. In fact the tighter the curl the more dry it tends too be because the natural oils cannot make it down the shaft of the hair. Constant heat and chemical processing strips what little moisture is already in the hair shaft. What’s left is dry, brittle., frizzy hair with a ton of breakage. I couldn’t understand why my hair didn’t grow evenly or even past a certain length.

TIP NUMBER 4: Moisturize your hair regularly

If you grew up like me you had aunts and family friends constantly providing home remedies for getting hair to be healthier. I tried all of them, from mayonnaise to eggs. And yes they worked but only temporarily. Why you may ask, I was only doing these treatments every three months maybe and still essentially burning my hair off. I wish I had someone to tell me that I needed to replace the moisture in my hair regularly. And by regularly I mean weekly. If you do not have curly hair, once every two/three weeks or even once a month works. The main point is to replenish your hair just like you replenish your skin after a shower with lotion. You have to be conscious about keeping your hair healthy. But health doesn’t just come from the outside…

TIP NUMBER 5: You are what you eat

I made huge lifestyle changes in my late teen years. My health was not great, my immune system was low and I was always sick. After changing some bad habits I realized that just like nails, hair grows from the inside out. How do you expect a tree to grow and produce fruit on unfertile ground??? What we put inside out bodies reflect externally. A healthy lifestyle not only impacts your skin, your body, your internal workings, it also impacts your hair. A healthy lifestyle is just all round beneficial. What a healthy lifestyle looks like is very much subjective but we all know the basics of eating right, drinking water, taking multivitamins and being active. I promise you nothing bad comes from this.

Last but not least, we cannot move forward if we are constantly holding onto the past. Steve Harvey has an incredible lesson that his mother taught him, and now I am sharing it with you. Let go of what’s dead to make way for new life. Holding on to dead hair is pointless. It doesn’t matter how much you look after it, it will never be restored…

TIP NUMBER 5: Cut of your dead and lifeless hair

A woman’s hair is her crown. I know It’s hard to cut it especially when you have been told all your life that “longer is better”. But long hair that isn’t healthy is just not worth it. I firmly believe that every woman should experience short hair just once in their life. To stop giving hair this power and notion that beauty society has perpetuated. I never felt more beautiful than I did when I cut all my hair off. And I’ve done this twice now.

Regardless of your reasons for wanting healthy hair, just remember that we are more than it. Our hair is part of our identity yes, but we are not defined by it.

I’ll have more posts going into detail about hair and its healthy journey

Thank you for reading

All my love

Darcy