Natural Hair In The Workplace

Natural Hair In The Workplace

Hey naturals! It's been a while. Okay, so this video was posted on Facebook by news anchor, Angela Green. The topic of hair in the workplace is still a hot topic for those of us with big kinky/coily or curly natural hair. Watch this video and weigh-in. Do you agree with Angela's advice to Madison? Why or why not? What if your boss prefers straight hair?

Now, if you wear your natural hair to work and need more options, here are some professional natural hairstyles in two different textures you can try:

Don't forget to comment below...

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Empowering Little Black Girls

Empowering Little Black Girls

Self love, confidence and seeing our natural beauty, despite our society's European standards of beauty, is not easy. Starting early is the key. Here is our Pinterest board with a list of recommended books to empower little black girls:




Follow Naturally Naturals's board Books To Empower Little Black Girls on Pinterest.


Watch this video. The pause was a little painful, but everything else was awesome! Just want to give her a hug and tell her she's beautiful. Enjoy.

Does Low Porosity Hair Hates Gel?

Does My Low Porosity Hair Hates Gel?

Okay, so you have low porosity hair and it seems like it laughs at gel (edge control, too). It will stay in your hair for a while, but then, depending on the amount of gel applied, it's like it either evaporates and/or leaves a mess. Therefore, your conclusion is "my hair hates gel" or "my hair laughs at gel" or "gel does not work on my hair". That's not true. It does work, but you have to take certain steps first.

Characteristics of Low Porosity Hair

Low porosity has hair cuticles that are tightly closed. Think of low porosity hair as the shingles on the roof of our house--rain falls and it slides down off the roof. Low porosity hair takes a long time to get wet and a long time to dry. Regardless, our hair still needs moisture for it to be healthy and in order to retain length. Without moisture, our low porosity hair will become dry, unhealthy and break. Low porosity hair requires heat like warm water or warm products to open the tightly closed cuticles. Click here for information on creating hair regimens for low porosity hair. Click here for product recommendations.

Incorporating Gel Into Low Porosity Regimen

Because we have low porosity hair, we have to take certain steps when applying gel in order for our hair to accept it (the difficulty/acceptance level is dependent on the season). When styling our hair with gel, allowing our hair to air dry is not going to work. You can attempt to tie it down until it is completely dry. Keep in mind, low porosity hair takes forever to dry and if the hair cuticles are not open, it will not accept moisture or products added to the hair. The best way is to use heat. Dry the hair with a hair dryer or a blow-dryer on low/warm heat. Think of heat as a means to activate your hair. That's it! Now, go put some gel in it!

Should I Use Henna On My Fine Hair Strands?

Is Henna Good For Fine Natural Hair Strands?

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What is henna?

Henna (Lawsonia Inermis) is a plant. The leaves of the henna plant contains a natural coloring pigment. Lawsonia bonds to protein, which is what our hair is made of. Henna does not penetrate our hair; it coats our hair cuticles. Each time henna is applied, it adds another coat of color to our hair. It naturally, but permanently, colors our hair. The color results depends on the hair color it was applied to. Henna does not lighten your hair. If we want to see the henna color on our dark hair, look at it in the sunlight. :)

Henna and Fine Hair:

Fine/fragile strands are prone to breakage. Coating our fine strands with henna overtime will result in thicker, denser, and stronger hair. Because henna coats our hair strands, our hair cuticles lay flat which gives us smoother, shinier, and less tangled hair. It is almost like a protein treatment because it makes the hair stronger and less prone to breakage. However, henna is not a protein treatment and should not be used as a replacement for a protein treatment if we need one. Henna may cause our hair to have less shrinkage and hang more (if used often) in contrast to sticking up.

Application and Ingredients:

Not all henna is made the same so make sure you have pure henna. If you experienced an allergic reaction to henna, it's probably because it's not pure henna. Henna application can be messy, so keep that in mind. Follow the directions on the container--one cup henna to one cup hot water (add more water as needed to make it creamy looking and not dry). Add other ingredients that your hair may benefit from.

Henna may be applied to shampooed hair or dry hair before being shampooed. Clean hair helps the henna bond more easily. The longer the henna is our hair, the richer the color. Cover the hair with a plastic cap and sit under the dryer for about 45 minutes. Or cling wrap the hair before bed and rinse out in the morning. You can use henna every 4-6 weeks.

Special Recipes (updated/added - March 4, 2015)

Add brewed, hot, black coffee in place of water to henna mix to tone down red tones, deepen brown-red tones, or cover gray. You can also deepen red tones by adding a darker shade of henna.

After allowing tea to steep for 20-30 minutes, bring to a boil, and add it to your henna mix in place of water. Black Tea prevents shedding. Ceylon or Black China Tea will add gold highlights to Light Brown Henna. Red Zinger Tea enriches red tones henna. Chamomile Tea brightens and adds highlights to neutral and blonde henna tones.

Add 2 tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar per mixture to help henna bond to gray hair.

Add 2 tbsp of lemon juice to henna mix to lighten blonde tones.

When applying henna to dry hair, add 1 egg, 2-4 tbsp of olive oil, or 2-4 tbsp plain yogurt to henna mix to condition the hair and to help with the application and rinse process.

Warning:

Do not use henna over chemical dyes or use those dyes right after you henna'd your hair. However, you can add semi-permanent color, which may or may not fix the color you're trying to correct.

Questions:

Do you dye your hair? If yes, have you tried pure henna? What were your results?

Benefits Of Castor Oil For Hair

The Benefits of Castor Oil For Hair

There are many hair benefits of castor oil: improves circulation, hair regrowth, hair darkening, hair shine, prevents hair loss, controls split ends, sealing moisture, moisturizes scalp (fights dandruff or dry scalp), and moisturizing and thickening the hair.

When you think of hair, don't forget about your eyelashes and eyebrows; castor oil is great for thickening and regrowing those as well.

Source:  Med-Health, Living Strong

2015 Castor Oil Challenge: May - June

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Creating Hair Regimens From Our Hair's Porosity

Creating Hair Regimens From Our Hair's Porosity

Porosity is our hair's ability, or inability, to absorb moisture/water. There are three categories: low, normal/medium, and high.

"Black hair tends to have low porosity naturally and is usually less porous than Caucasian or Asian hair types unless it has been chemically processed."

-- Audrey Davis-Sivasothy, The Science of Black Hair

Porosity Test

Do a porosity test on a clean strand of hair (no products). Place the strand into a glass of room temperature water and let it sit for about 3 minutes.

• High Porosity Hair -- hair sinks to the bottom. Normally, this hair soaks up moisture then becomes dry because hair cuticles are wide open and/or damaged. This category is due to damage from heat styling tools, chemical relaxers or color, the sun, and/or sulfate rich shampoo. Maybe genetics like some have suggested. Needs protein treatments to fill-in the holes/gaps.
• Low Porosity Hair -- hair floats at the top and takes a long time to sink. Normally, this hair takes forever to get wet and/or to dry. Products sit on the hair and won't penetrate. This category is due to genetics. Needs moisture and steam.
• Medium/Normal Porosity Hair -- hair is in the middle of the glass. Continue to do what you're doing. Your hair is normal porosity because of genetics or proper hair care.

Porosity Levels

There are different levels of each category--our hair strand sinking all the way to the bottom means we have extremely high porosity and our hair floating at the very top means we have extremely low porosity hair. The closer the strand is to the middle, the easier it will be to take care of it. Also, when we are transitioning or if we treat one section of our hair differently, we can have more than one porosity type on the same hair strand or in different sections of our head.

Basic Regimen Based On Hair Porosity While Using the LOC Method

When using the LOC Method to moisturize our hair, the product we use should depend on our hair's porosity. The LOC Method is the order in which we use products on our hair. We may have to use the LCO instead at certain periods of our hair journey/length or if our porosity prefers the switch, but that's another post/topic. LOC:

• L-liquid or leave-ins. High porosity should use cool/cold water or aloe vera juice, creamy leave-ins, anti-humectants products during heat or high humidity, etc. Low porosity should use warm water or liquid leave-ins, products with humectants (honey, glycerin , etc) products during heat or high humidity, etc.
• O-oil. High porosity hair should use heavy oils. Low porosity should use light oils.
• C-cream or butter. High porosity should use heavy cream or butter like shea butter. Low porosity should use light creams like hair milk.

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Is Keratin Good For Our Natural Hair?

A Keratin Hair Story

The other day I was at a friend's house helping her with her natural hair. Her husband is very supportive about her natural hair journey and wants to learn as much about it as she does. Right now, her hair is unhealthy and as a new friend and someone that knows a lot about natural hair, I wanted to help her. They have two daughters--one is transitioning from the relaxer and one is completely chemical free. The girls like their hair straight, so it is flat ironed straight every 3 weeks and wrapped and covered up at nights to keep it straight. My friend's husband ensures that they use a straightening keratin shampoo and conditioner as their only cleanser and conditioner.

A few days ago when my friend washed and conditioned her hair with their keratin straightening shampoo and conditioner set, she called me over to help her because she wasn't seeing any curls. Because she wasn't seeing any curls, she bought a hair jelly and it did nothing for her hair. I told her to stop using the straightening set and that curl jelly's are more for type 3 hair types, not her type 4 hair. I also explained to her that she has to look at ingredients before she buys her products from now on.

My friend's low porosity hair needs more moisture enriched products. She should do a protein treatment only when needed. The hair cuticles on low porosity hair is already tightly closed, which prevents moisture from getting in; therefore, adding too much protein, especially large proteins like animal protein for instance, will make it worse. (Click here to learn how to test your hair to see if it needs more moisture or protein.) In the case of her straightening shampoo and conditioner, it was ingredients that were preventing her from seeing her curl pattern. Please note, not all straightening treatments or products are made equal.

What is Keratin?

To simplify, it is the protein in which 90% of our hair is made up of. It is the main structural constituent of our hair, skin, and nails. Also, in feathers, hoofs, claws, horns, wool, etc. 

Functional vs. Hydrolyzed Keratin

The difference between functional and hydrolyzed keratin is the process by which it was extracted. Hydrolyzed keratin is extracted from animal horns and hooves using acid and extreme heat, which degrades the protein. Functional keratin is extracted from sheep's wool using techniques that do not use acid or heat. Therefore, making functional keratin more true to its original form. Most hair-care and skincare products use hydrolyzed keratin. Hydrolyzed keratin can easily absorb into the skin and penetrate low porosity hair, which makes it ideal for skincare products that requires absorption into the skin and naturals with low porosity hair. For naturals with high porosity hair and/or anyone with chemically treated hair, functional keratin is required to protect/repair your hair.

When shopping for keratin products, look at the ingredients on the back of the bottle or container to see which type is used in that product. Replicine Functional Keratin protein is the only functional keratin protein on the market. Products with Replicine Functional keratin will have the words, 'keratin', 'functional keratin' or 'oxidized keratin' on the ingredients label.

Is Keratin A Hair Straightener?

While keratin is a major component of keratin straightening treatment, it is not a hair straightener. As stated previously, it is a protein found in your hair, skin, and nails. It's only an ingredient in the hair straightening process and products. The word 'keratin' is popular, so a title of "Keratin Straightening Treatment" is better than "Formaldehyde Straightening Treatment". This also makes it difficult for some naturals to tell which keratin product is a straightening treatment and which is an actual a protein treatment. In any case, keratin plays a positive role in the treatment because it conditions and strengthens the hair after the actual treatment damages it to get it straight. If your goal is to keep your hair straight, then Keratin Straightening Treatments are for you. In addition, if you're going to the salon, ask to see the ingredients on their bottle/container. For the sake of your health, make sure the product is formaldehyde-free. 

Keep in mind that products with formaldehyde help keep the hair straighter for longer, so products without it won't have that long lasting effect. Which is it going to be? Also, if you stop doing keratin straightening treatments, it may leave your hair damaged because of the long term usage.

Is Keratin Good For Our Natural Hair?

Keratin protein is great protein treatment (not talking about straightening treatment). The problem with Keratin straightening treatments are the harsh ingredients that are added, not the keratin protein in the products. Functional keratin is more true to its original form; whereas, hydrolyzed keratin is a lighter/broken version. Light proteins, like silk protein, are good for low porosity hair. Heavier proteins, like vegetable protein, are better for high porosity hair.


If you have any questions or comments about this article, please post a comment below. Have a great day!

Benefits of Lavender Oil For Hair

Benefits of Lavender Oil

Not only is lavender good for the mind, but its also beneficial for a healthy scalp and hair growth. Because lavender oil is a natural anti-inflammatory, it is helpful for maintaining a health scalp. It can be used to treat dandruff and psoriasis of the scalp. By keeping these scalp conditions at bay, your scalp is able to be rejuvenated. Lavender oil also enhances blood circulation, which will definitely improve the health of your scalp.

High stress levels can lead to many common hair and scalp issues, especially hair loss and alopecia areata. Because lavender oil is naturally helpful in reducing stress, it can be used along with other stress relievers to reduce the risk of hair loss or alopecia arreata. A relaxing scalp massage with lavender oil can help cure insomnia and improve sleep quality, and it relaxes you and helps you get rid of anxiety. This in turn helps control hair loss, as insomnia, stress, depression are among the common and probable causes of this problem. When we get enough sleep and have mental peace, this ensures that hair loss stays in control.

How to incorporate it into your regiment:
Add 10-15 drops of lavender essential oil per 1 oz. of your favorite carrier oil. Massage into the scalp and let it set for 15-60 minutes for shampooing for a great pre-poo treatment that helps with dandruff or itchy scalp. If you keep using it regularly, you will start noticing its benefits within a few weeks or months.

Source: kinkycurlycoilyme.com
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Hair Challenges -- Forms

Hair Challenges

Forms

Looking for forms to track your hair challenging participation this year? Check out our Pinterest list (more will be added)...

Follow Naturally Naturals's board Hair Challenge Forms on Pinterest.

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Benefits of Peppermint Oil For Hair

Benefits of Peppermint Oil For Hair

Scalp Health

Peppermint oil is a natural astringent and helps to balance our scalps acid mantle. It can also normalize sebum production and protect against oily skin. In addition, because it balances the pH levels, it neutralizes dry scalp and takes away the itchy sensation.

Moisturizer

Paired with carrier oils and/or other essential oils, we reap the benefits of richly moisturized hair.

Hair Growth

Because of its ability to relax blood vessels and stimulate blood flow to hair follicles, peppermint oil has also been used to stimulate hair growth.

Warning:

Because of its potency by itself, always dilute peppermint oil before adding it to your scalp. Add it to a carrier oil. If you do not want to add it to a hair product or carrier oil, then use four drops to one cup of water. Also, DO NOT apply this oil on open wounds or cuts--you will experience a burning sensation if you do.


Source: curlynikki.com and eHow.com
Link to Peppermint Oils

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How To Get Rid of Scab Hair

How To Get Rid of Scab Hair!

What Is Scab Hair?

Scab hair is newly grown hair that is dry, wiry and crinkly. The hair follicle may have been damaged previously from using the relaxer. Scab hair can also be caused by mineral buildup from hard water. Scab hair does not represent the actual texture of our natural hair. It can take from 6 months to 2 years after our last relaxer for non scab hair to grow in.

How To Prevent Scab Hair!

To prevent scab hair from hard-water, buy a water filter for the shower-head or the whole house. A filter will prevent hard-water buildup on the hair cuticles and scalp. Another option is to wash hair with distilled bottled water.

How To Get Rid of Scab Hair!

It is recommended to try a clarifying shampoo first to clean the surface of the hair cuticles; however, if that doesn't fix the problem, then use a chelating shampoo followed by a moisturizing deep conditioner.

"Clarifying and chelating (pronounced kee-lating) shampoos are two types of cleansers that are often confused.

...Although many clarifying shampoo are quite stripping, remember that they are surface-acting and simply remove oil and product buildup that is superficially covering the cuticle.

...Chelators bind to dulling mineral deposits on the hair shaft and remove them in the lather. The ingredient EDTA (ethylenediaminetetra acetic acid) is a common chelating ingredient that latches on to minerals and removes them as the hair is rinsed. Sodium citrate and trisodium phosphate are other common ingredients in chelating shampoo formulas."

--Audrey Davis-Sivasothy, The Science of Black Hair

When Should I Chelate? And How Do I Use It?

Scab hair is caused by previous relaxing and hard-water. One of the signs of hard-water problem is uncontrollable breakage--no matter what you do, your hair just keeps breaking. Also, your hair does not respond to anything, but it needs everything. It's dull, limp, coarse, and lifeless. Because chelating shampoos are extremely drying, use it in moderation. Follow-up with a moisturizing deep conditioner.

Common Chelating Ingredients

Disodium EDTA, EDTA, HEDTA, Oxalic acid, Potassium Citrate, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Oxalate, TEA-EDTA, Tetrasodium EDTA, Trisodium EDTA, and Trisodium HEDTA (Source: The Science of Black Hair)

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Benefits of Rosemary Oil For Hair

Benefits of Rosemary Oil For Hair Care

Rosemary oil and rosemary teas are widely used for hair care in shampoos and lotions. Regular use of rosemary oil helps to stimulate follicles, making hair grow longer and stronger. It is also believed that rosemary oil slows down premature hair loss and graying of the hair. Therefore, it is an excellent tonic for those who are bald or who are beginning to show signs of male pattern baldness.

Source: OrganicFacts.net
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(Try Rosemary Water)

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What Hair Products Should I Use For The LOC Method?

What Products To Use For The LOC Method

What is the LOC Method?

The LOC Method is the order in which you use products on your hair to retain moisture. The L stands for liquid, O stands for oil, and C stands for cream. Some naturals have had better results with switching the method around to form LCO at different stages of their hair growth and/or because of their hair's porosity.

What hair products should I use for the LOC Method?

The products you use depends on your hair's porosity--low, normal/medium, or high porosity hair. If your hair is normal porosity, continue to balance it with protein and moisture without overdoing it. Let's breakdown the process for low and high porosity hair:

• Low porosity hair
• L -- warm water or a warm water mix to open the closed hair cuticles, liquid leave-ins to penetrate the closed cuticles, products with humectants such as glycerin and honey during humid months to draw moisture into the hair strands.
• O -- light oils (do not use heavy oils)
• C -- products such as hair milk
• Helpful tips about low porosity hair: 
• 
• Product Recommendation:
• 

• High porosity hair
• L -- cool/cold water or water mix to shock the cuticles close, creamy leave-ins to weigh down the cuticles to close. Cool/cold aloe vera juice.
• O -- heavy oils (need to weight the cuticles down)
• C -- heavy creams or butter like shea butter to weight the cuticles down
• Product Recommendation:
• 
• For more information about high porosity hair, visit http://naturallynaturals.blogspot.com/2014/12/high-porosity-hair.html.

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Protective Styling On Natural Hair

Protective Styling On Natural Hair

What is protective styling?

The definition of a protective style can vary. My definition is any hairstyle that protects your ends from the elements and allows low daily manipulation to relieve the hair from stress of constant manipulation, while enabling you to keep your hair moisturized. That, in turn, promotes healthy, strong, long natural hair.

What are the benefits of protective styling?

Rough clothing, constant hair manipulation, hair tools, harsh weather, and bad products are hard on our hair strands. We need to protect our hair, especially our hair ends, in order to retain our hair length. Healthy hair is more important than just having long hair--having long unhealthy stringy hair is unattractive. Protective styling promotes healthy hair with the end results of long hair. Therefore, the benefits of protective styling on natural hair include healthy, stronger, longer natural hair.

Naturals with type 4 (kinky) hair will benefit from protective styling because the kinkier your hair, the drier it can be. Along with protective styling, we need a proper hair regimen and/or hair care practices. By tucking away or protecting our ends, we are protecting it from the damage of constant manipulation and weathering from the elements. When we protect our ends, we retain hair and will see the hair growth process. Trust me, your hair is growing--it might not be as fast as you would want it to grow, or it might be breaking off at the ends faster than it's growing at the root--but in any case, doing protective styling will give our hair a break from constant manipulation so it can thrive and produce healthy hair strands.

Protective styling is also beneficial to type 3 (curly) hair that are having the same difficulties with retaining length and moisture. Some curlies have stated that protective styling does not work for their hair type. We know our hair better than anyone else, so our regimen should be based on our hair needs. So basically, naturals with kinky hair are highly recommended to do protective styling to retain length and promote healthy, strong hair. Both curly and kinky hair will benefit if struggling with dry hair, breakage, and/or length retention.

What styles are considered protective styles?

There're tons of different protective styles for any hair length and occasion. Remember, natural hair is very versatile. As far as what's considered a "protective style", there's actually a debate about that... Here are the three main viewpoints:

• There are some naturals who believe the only protective styles are the ones that have hair added. Examples include weaves, wigs, box braids, crochet braids, twists (Marley, Senegalese, Havana, etc), etc. As long as the hair is cornrowed underneath or braided/twisted into the hair. (There are some naturals that believe it's wrong to add any type of hair to your head. To each his own.).
• Another set of naturals believe that protective styles are any styles with your ends tucked away whether with your own hair or not. Examples include buns, up-dos, twisted with the end style hiding the ends of the hair, braided with the end style hiding the ends of the hair, etc.
• The last group of naturals believe that protective styles are any low manipulation styles whether ends are tucked or not and regardless of hair added or not. Examples include twists, braids, finger coils, Bantu knots, etc.

My Opinion: It depends on the length of our hair, so the third option is fine if our hair is not touching our shoulders or clothing. To protect our hair from the elements, when using just low manipulation styles as our protective style, we should cover our heads with a stylist hat (either cover it with a satin bonnet first before adding the hat or make sure the inner layer of the hat has a satin liner). Once our hair reaches shoulder length, adding hair (as long as the style is not pulling tight on our own hair) or tucking away our ends are both protective styling. As long as the styles are low manipulation as well. Those styles also protect our ends from weathering and excessive hair manipulation. I don't consider finger coils, free hanging twists/braids, etc. to be protective styling for shoulder length and longer unless hair is added and our ends are covered within the added hair. However...shorter hair with younger hair strands requires different care, so we could get away with just low manipulation styles as long as we keep in mind that our hair is still expose to the elements. That's just my opinion...

Protective Styling Challenge:

It's 2015! A new year, a new start, and a whole new set of challenges whether hair related or not. So, our Facebook hair page, Naturally Naturals, is doing its part with challenging you to be a better you this year. Are you up for the challenges?! Protective Styling Challenge Dates: February - March 2015 and August - September 2015.

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Glycerin During Winter Months

Is it okay to use glycerin during winter months?

Glycerin is a humectant, which means that it attracts moisture to itself. In a humid environment it helps your hair to attract and retain moisture.

All of your products that contain glycerin, also contain water. So there is water within the product available to the glycerin, and all of it helps your hair to remain hydrated. If you are using other glycerin-containing products or making your own, one thing to watch would be to ensure that they contain water as well.

During winter months or in desert areas, one idea is to use the product before a shower. The mist and steam of the shower will be attracted to the glycerin in the products, and the heat will help it absorb into your cuticle. Then you can use an oil-based sealer to keep that moisture in when you go out into the harsh weather.

The key is the humidity, not the temperature. Don't assume that you can't use it or that it will dry your hair out during winter months or while in desert areas. It all depends on how you use it.

Source: blackgirllonghair
Team Naturally Naturals

Many Options: Vegetable Glycerin/Glycerine

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