ellaei.

 There are 10 more days until 2015 ends! Wow. I have worn my natural hair out for the longest period in my natural hair journey: 3 months! 

My hair regime thus far is still a work in progress but here are the details. 

I try to wash my hair on a Saturday and co-wash on a Tuesday. In between, I moisturise with my water-mix and whipped shea butter. 

I like to work in 4 sections.

I pre-poo to remove tangles from my twist-out. I find that pre-poos with coconut oil provide enough slip and after my shampoo, my hair is extra soft and shiny.

I don't use shampoo every week. I alternate between ACV rinses and a sulfate-free shampoo. The idea behind my wash day is to cleanse my scalp thoroughly. I also want to keep my hair's natural oils so I reduce the amount of shampoo I use on my strands.  I have found that my hair does not have a straw-like feeling but is soft and tangles less often.  

This week I tried a sample of BabyBliss Sulfate and Paraben-free Argan Oil shampoo. Love it!

I used the HydraSource Biolage Mask and mixed this with Avocado and Coconut Oils for a nourishing deep condition.

Once my scalp is cleansed I deep-condition for 30 minutes - 1 hour. I then rinse my hair, detangle with a wide-tooth comb  and apply a generous amount of shea butter and natural oils to prep my hair for stretching. I mostly stretch using twists but I have tried African Threading and banding method too. 

Look at the kinks and coils :)

To co-wash, I currently use the Organix Vitamin E conditioner. I also use this day to do any protein treatment, hot-oil treatment, or any other treatments that I want to do. Of course, I detangle my hair during this process too. I tend to leave my hair in twists throughout the week or until I'm ready to wear my Afro Puff :)

I prep my hair for twists with Carol's Daughter Alcohol-Free Gel, Castor Oil and my Shea-Butter mix.

So far so good :) My hair is doing well despite this dry summer heat. 

I can not wait for the rest of this journey. I am still learning new detangling and stretching techniques too.

Sometimes I want to put my hair in box braids and leave it in for 3 months, call it a day. But healthy hair needs work and I can not use protective hairstyling as an excuse to neglect my strands. 

Have you modified your hair regime lately or do you plan to in the coming year? 

Happy hairdays,

Emmanuella x

I find that the only disadvantage with an afro puff is that it can dry out our type 4 hair if we wear it too often. I find that my hair looses more moisture when my ends are combed out and my ends are more stretched. My theory, is that there is more surface area on the hair strand for moisture to escape into the atmosphere. It could be why these puffs tend to be more drying to our ends than puffs with more texture.

A combed out puff like this looses more moisture than the one with texture below.

To combat dryness, I make sure to apply generous amount of leave-in and creams to lock in the moisture on my hair strands.

Here's a quick tutorial about how I go about doing this:

I wear the puff twice a week using this method. My hair is always soft and fluffy when I loosen the hair band.

Next time you wear a puff, try reducing the amount of times you seperate your twist out and/or avoid combing out the ends of your hair. I hope you give it a try and tell me what you think about it :)

Happy hairdays,

Emmanuella x

EVO Hair products are an Australian brand, so it is not necessarily a 'natural hair' brand/products. They target (presumably) Caucasian/straighter hair.  As I live in Australia, I like finding products intended for straighter hair that work well with my hair texture too. My mum, sister and I used to have the assumption that products not intended/marketed towards black hair is not meant to be used at all. We mostly stuck with Dark&Lovely or ORS hair products. 

Since going natural, I have not been scared to experiment with these products as well. I figured some of the ingredients are similar to that in black hair products so, why not give them a chance?  

I initially received their Mane Attention Protein Treatment as a sample and of course had my views and biases. I had never tried an actual protein treatment product so I gave it a shot. 

I washed my hair and applied about 3/4 of the sample I received onto my wet hair. I left it on for 5 minutes whilst in the shower.  I then followed with my regular conditioner. 

I was impressed. I had less breakage and knots after the protein treatment (which probably meant my hair was crying out for one too). 

The EVO protein treatment is the first Aussie product to make it's way into my staples basket.  It is not such a harsh protein treatment as I initially thought it was. I liked to use it after I removed a set of braids to reduce the breakage that would follow during the next braiding session.  

I decided to buy the whole product. I ordered the protein treatment online, along with the EVO moisture mask.

The EVO moisture mask was not as great as the protein treatment in my opinion. I used it alone after a wash. It was an awesome detangler and gave my hair great slip. But I have not repurchased it since. 

Now that I do not intend to wear long-term protective hairstyles anymore, I use the Mane Attention twice a month due to my current hair regime.

As naturals we tend to dismiss hair treatments not aimed specifically for natural hair or ones that are not as popular within the natural hair community but it's good to be open sometimes. Especially if you live in a country that does not really have much black hair care products floating around. 

Some of these products are gems that no one knows about and I want to share them with you too. 

For as long as I remember I hardly wore my hair out growing up (the benefits of having a mum with excellent braiding skills). My sister and I always wore our hair in yarn braids or cornrow up-dos when we were little. These styles were similar to those pictured below.




 As I got older I wore more box braids and senegalese twists with extensions. But my mum got busier and I wanted to do these hairstyles more often. So, I learnt how to do my own hair before I big chopped. 

I big chopped in February 2014. As I spent 2014 away from home, at an overseas university, my hair LIVED in box braids/senegalese twists. My friends never saw my natural hair out. I used the braids to grow out my TWA.

I wore the braids 2-3 months at a time and would neaten up my edges every 2-3 weeks. I moisturised with water and a light oil occasionally. No not regularly, occasionally. As in when I felt like it *smh* (more about this in a later post). Anyway, these hairstyles complemented my busy school timetable and lifestyle at the time.




In 2015, I moved back home and thought maybe I could ease up on the braids and try something different.

Enter, the weave.  I had my first weave installed in April. It was super tight and painful the very first day. When I went home, I rubbed coconut oil on my scalp, took Panadol and went to bed to sleep off the headache I had. I wore it for a good ~8 weeks though. 

I wore another weave in September (straight weave) but in between I wore Senegalese twists and box braids. Again, I never let my hair out during this period. I did not give myself at least a week's break in between these styles. The straight weave was the last 'intricate' protective hairstyle I have worn this year.  

I straightened the leave out I had very often so I was not surprised by the change in hair texture that followed. Also the middle of my hair was starting to thin out a bit when I took it out in October. 

I am glad to say that from mid-October til now I have not worn any braids or weaves and my natural hair sees sunlight all week round. I have given my hair the care it needs to thrive and have tried deep conditioning, protein and hot oil treatments for the first time in my natural hair journey. Yes it's unbelievable, I know, but sadly it is true. 



My definition of a protective hairstyle has changed! I had an 'awakening' and realised that most naturals who have long, healthy hair hardly wore their hair in these styles (braids, twist with extension and weaves). They embraced their hair in it's natural state with no or minimal use of heat. 

My observation of the following natural hair journeys inspired me to just let my hair be. No extensions, no heat, just natural hair.