Friday Humor

I got this photo and couldn't help but share.
Omg! This is hilarious!!

My hair escapade this weekend

Anyone that knows me knows that i take all the time to nuture my hair but i am extremely lazy at styling and accessorizing it.

So on Friday i saw a colleague with her nicely curled "Brazillian Hair" and it hit me that i could style my natural hair into "Aunty Funmi hair" without applying heat.

After a bout of loving conditioning on saturday, i made a mix of hair serum and Argan Morocean Oil and applied to the body of my hair on sunday.

I then cut my hair into four sections and used a flexible bending roller to roll the hair.

This morning i removed the rollers, shook out my hair and behold i had my very own "Aunty Funmi Hair"★

Shampooing Tips

Your hair like other parts of your body needs to be kept clean.
Precaution(s) have to be taken while shampooing to reduce tangling, pain and hair loss.

I'd like to share some shampooing tips:

1. Shampoo once every two weeks, this ensures that your hair is clean and not manipulated too often.

2. Replace your shampoo with conditioners. Shampoos zap moisture from your hair leaving it clean but weak and brittle.
Conditioners on the other hand clean your hair and retains moisture.

3. Use anti dandruff scalp creams as dandruff shampoos contain sulphur that strip the hair of moisture.

4. Swap your towel with an old cotton tee-shirt. Tee shirts are smooth, super absorbent and not as rough as towels.They help reduce hair tangling, snags and breakage.

5. Comb your hair properly before shampooing, start combing from your ends to the scalp and do not comb your hair again till you finish conditioning.
These singular procedure drastically reduces shampooing hair breakage.

6. Massage your scalp with your finger tips in a circular motion with your hair gliding through your fingers.

7. Always, always follow your shampooing with conditioning.

8. Place the shirt over your hair to blot out moisture. Do not wring your hair or towel briskly as it tangles your hair and makes combing painful.

9.  Apply leave in conditioners.

10. Dry your hair... Air drying with a fan or a low heat hair drier works (the lower the heat, the better for your hair).

11. Oil your hair and scalp.

I'd like to hear your shampooing regime. Let's get our hair growing girls♥

Building regime timelines

The secret to successfully managing your hair regime is building timelines.

First step is determining how often you want to retouch your hair and building your activities around that.

Textbooks tell us to touch up new growth every 6-8 weeks but i worry that the timing is too short for black hair for the following reasons:

1. Our hair is often times weak from braids & a lack of moisture making it unable to withstand frequent chemical contact.

2. Saloonists can be over zealous and have been known to reetouch the whole hair as against only new growth

Your best bet is to evaluate the strenght of your hair, amount of undergrowth and overall hair health before selecting touch up timelines.

I personally have grown from 8weeks between touch ups to 16 weeks and finally 24 weeks.

My hair regime is as follows:

Day 1: Relax hair

Day 3: Oil my scalp and apply a mixture of leave in conditioning cream and shea butter

Day 7: Deep condition with Profectiv Mega Growth Anti- Breakage Strenghtening Deep Conditioner, Shea Butter and Honey

Day 9: Heat Condition hair ends to avoid split ends and apply Profectiv Temple Defense Leave in Conditioner  to stimulate growth of my front hairline.

Day 12: Heat condition with a mixture of Profectiv Daily Leave In Strenghtner and my good old steaming cap

Day 14: Shampoo and Deep Condition

After Day 14 my hair is strong enough to weave, fix and do other protective styling till week 24 when i am due for another touch up.

Ps. It is very important to deep condition in between any protective styling done.
Eg. Plait hair- Deep Condition- Use a wig- Deep Condition- Fix weave- Deep condition.
This ensures that your hair is moisturized, nourished and strong.

What's your hair regime/ timing? Pls share, would love to hear from you.

Thanks Chioma Ukpere  for letting us feature a photo of your hair

Building your healthy hair regime

The next step to attaining beautiful hair is building a healthy hair regime.

This regime ensures that your hair is constantly nourished and in top shape.
My personal hair regime is as follows (I will share photos and indepth tips as we go on):

1. Relax/ touch up hair: It is important that you find a product that properly relaxes you hair to avoid the temptation of an impulsive quick fix touch up.

2. Deep condition a week after: This ensures that residual relaxer is properly washed off and your hair gets the nourishment and strenght it needs after a tough chemical procedure like relaxing.

3. Give your hair a two weeks holiday after relaxing and deep conditioning: This is because your hair is at its weakest and its most brittle after relaxing; consequently braiding or fixing your hair will snap it and breed weak tips.

4. Protect your hair: Flaunt your hair but also ensure that you do protective weaves, wigs and braids to cover your hair from harsh atmospheric conditions

5. Conditioning and washing are a girls best friend: There is no such thing as too much conditioning so feel free to condition as much as you want.

6. Love your scalp: Oil your scalp with creams once a weak as dry scalp leads to dandruff.

Growing your hair takes dedication but I guarantee you that the rewards outweighs the effort. Lets go girls!!
Do share your hair regime, i would love to hear them.

The joys of moisturizing♥♥

The human hair is a network of systems that primarily lives on moisture and vitamins. Our hair is constantly thirsty and in need of moisture.
Amount/type of moisture to apply has been the most widely debated hair topic.
The below is a general guide on moisture requirements for different hair types.

Type 1 hair is fine and relatively easy to manage. Light oil based hair products like coconut oil and hair serums (not weave serums) are great to keep your hair silky and moisturized. I personally love Profectiv Mega growth oils & extra virgin olive oil.

Type 2 hair is wavy and needs more moisture. Heavier oils and a bi-monthly dose of sealants is required (a sealant is a heavy form of hair products that locks moisture in your hair for a long period of time and deeply conditions it)
Recommended sealants are Kuza beewax cream, African Gold Coconut Oil Hair conditioner, Kuza Indian hemp hair cream and shea butter amongst others.

Type 3 curly hair is often patched and needs long tall glasses of moisture. This consists of oils, bi-weekly sealants and monthly loving deep conditioning sessions. Leave in hair conditioners and strengthners are great for this hair type.

Type 4 hair is a diva and needs the most moisture application, sealants, washing and frequent deep conditioning treatments.

Deep conditioning for type 4 hair is very important. My personal favourites are Profectiv Mega Growth Anti Breakage Strenghtening Deep conditioner and hair mayonnaise. Adding shea butter and honey to your conditioner is an extra plus as it increases hair moisture and shine. I will discuss deep conditioning in detail soonest.

What are your hair moisture/conditioning regime? Feel free to share....

First step to fabulous hair: Understanding your hair type.

Over the years people have come up with several quick fix hair care remedies, some effective and others not so effective. The major keys to attaining great hair are dedication, healthy hair regimes and good products.

I will start off with part one of the hair care series which is "Understanding your hair type"

Hair is broadly cartegorized into four types:

Type 1: Straight hair which is not very common among black women
Type 2: Wavy hair majorly found amongst women in the Northern and nomadic parts of Africa
Type 3: Curly hair which is common amongst black womenfold
Type 4: Coily/kinky hair which is the trademark of black sisters.
Take a minute to look closely at your mane and cartegorize, what class do you belong to?

Managing hair setbacks

I have had an interesting and some what checkered hair story. I had my hair in a low tomboy cut and ventured into my first hair plaiting venture in Senior Secondary school.

I had two major hair mishaps that had me cut my hair to a punk twice in 6 years (i will share these experiences as we progress).

Setbacks can be painful and emotional. Here are useful tips for managing them.

1. Remain calm: Our feminine reaction is to get angry and irrational. First step is to calm down.

2. Evaluate the damage: How bad is the damage? What do you need to do to remedy it? How long is the expected recovery period? How does this change your hair regime?

4. Have a clear cut plan and find logical answers to problems: Do you need to patch your hair for the next few weeks? If yes get a wig.
Do you have to cut your hair? If yes what do you need to do to tide through your "punk period".
The trick is keep the end in mind and look at the big picture.

3. Do not be afraid to make the change: Change is difficult however we need to "man up" and make changes.
Keep your emotions at bay and do what's best for your hair.

This takes me to my next question- what's your worst salon experience? Do share.

Myths and beliefs.

I was talking to a couple of friends at a training and they swore by all things under the sky that black hair cannot grow past a certain lenght
Argument being that i am just blessed with great genes!!
All my life i have heard this argument and i think we have it all wrong, with the right amount of TLC black hair will thrive beautifully. Our climate is all nice and warm which is great for hair, skin and nails as against the frosty, cold and dry weather in the rest of the world that promotes dryness and split ends. The springy nature of black hair allows for optimal moisture retention and promotes strenght. Take a walk with me as i teach you how to achieve a beautiful, shiny, yummilicious mane ♥
What other hair myths have you heard??