Swimming Lessons

No Not really, but its hot out and many of you will be taking that dive in your nearest pool.  I will give you a few tips on how to save your locs, dreads, weaves and natural hair from being dried and damaged by chlorine. Chlorine is very damaging; it zaps the hair of moisture and fades color quickly.  Hair must be shampooed after taking a swim, if not you will notice hair will begin to break off and feel like straw. Moisture is the key when swimming.

Tip #1

Invest in a swim cap.  Traditional swim caps are made for bald to short fine hair and are meant for sleekness to increase speed, not to prevent hair from getting wet. Some of you may have a lot of hair, very thick and long so traditional swim caps may not work for you. I have the answer to that and will provide you with a solution. Larger swim caps come in 2 different materials; Lycra and the typical silicone. Lycra is softer on the hair and not as tight so your locs, dreads, natural hair & weaves WILL get soaking wet. Silicone is a rubber like material that is tighter, which will prevent your tresses from getting soaking wet but some strands will be a little damp. Make sure to pull cap down over ears, on forehead (beyond hairline) and below hairline on neck. Caps range in size and costs: from Large – Extra Extra Large and from $25 - $85.  This is a great investment especially if you swim a lot, because it helps to prevent much of the chlorine from penetrating your hair.

Tip #2

Apply a conditioner on your hair prior to putting on swim cap. (If you have color in your hair utilize a color conditioner) This will also prevent the chlorine from penetrating the your hair. Dampen the hair with a spray bottle of water then apply any kind of conditioner. I recommend a cheap kind as to this is not being used to soften hair or to moisturize it, but merely just acting as a barrier to prevent chlorine from entering the hair shaft.

Tip #3

After swimming shampoo out with a clarifying shampoo (clear in color) rinse clear, then follow up by conditioning with professional line of conditioner and let sit for 5-10 minutes and rinse clear.  This will assist in removing the cheap conditioner and the small amount of chlorine out of the hair.  Afterwards apply natural oil: apricot, almond, avocado, coconut or olive oil and dry hair with dryer or you can proceed with wet set.

Just following these three tips will keep your natural hair, locs, dreads, or weaves soft supple and moisturized. Don’t be a slave to your hair. Get out and enjoy the summer and get in your local pool. Its really easy to S.imply K.eep Y.our H.air H.ealthy!!!

OMG I’m a product junkie

So you have decided to make that transition and wear your hair natural. Now the daunting task of finding products that works well on your hair has set in. It’s extremely overwhelming when you walk into your local grocer, beauty supply or drug store and see so many products aimed at natural hair. All of the products on the shelf all claim to do the same and some will do something slightly different.  It’s quite an intimidating task.  You pick up product after product, comparing them and choose the one that looks pretty and says it will do all of these wonderful things to your hair. You purchase that product and you walk out of the store feeling quite confident that your natural tresses will look amazing and feel soft and moist.

You get home all excited about this product and you prepare to use it as the label implies, you style and dry and then it sets in…Defeat, disappointment and anguish. This product did nothing it said it would do. So you chuck it in the cabinet to become a dust collector and you head off to the store to purchase another product and another product and more products. Then you watch a YouTube video, read some natural hair blogs, ask some other natural hair friends, family and co-workers… back to the store you go purchasing all these products, and now the cycle has begun. Congratulations you have officially become a product junkie.

Well ladies I am here to save you time, money, frustration, and cabinet space.

First of all, know that everyone’s hair is different. People have multiple textures; curl patterns, density, porosity and elasticity on their head. Also your diet dictates how healthy your hair will be. So you can start by consuming a diet rich with fresh fruits and vegetables and drinking plenty of water. What you put in your body comes out through your hair, skin and nails; as they are waste products of the body. If you are not healthy from with in then you will see it in your hair, skin and nails.

Second there is a reason that professional stylists don’t use these products on the grocer, drug and beauty supply store shelves.  These products are geared towards the cost conscious consumer so they use low quality ingredients that causes build up.  Seek your professional stylist to recommend a product regimen designed specifically for your texture & curl pattern.  These products are more costly but the benefits will outweigh price.  By going to your professional stylist you also eliminate the frustration of purchasing products that don’t work.

Third know that some of these bloggers  & vloggers are paid to promote products so they are giving you a biased opinion.  It is actually against the law for bloggers and vloggers to not state that the product that they are promoting is a sponsored ad. Once they are caught with giving these “helpful tips” on products to use without informing their readers or viewers, they can face very hefty fines or risk their site or videos being removed.  (Scary I know) It’s becoming more and more difficult to believe what you see and read online.  If a person is not a professional stylist with license they are NOT qualified to give you hair care advice or tips. (Ooops did I just ruffle some feathers, Shrugs shoulders, sips water and continues typing…Oh well)

Don’t become a product junkie; stop wasting money, time and cabinet space. The solution is as simple as seeking advice from your professional stylist to maintain luxurious hair. They will be able to keep your natural hair looking and feeling as fabulous as you are.  Unless you are a twin, triplet or etc you do not look exactly like someone else, it goes the same for your hair as well. Don’t expect to have hair like Jada Pinkett Smith when your hair is more like Solange Knowles or hair like Chrisette Michele when your hair is like Tracee Ellis Ross. Your professional stylist will be able to show you similar textures to yours, so when you are selecting styles that you can choose ones that are similar to your texture.  Natural hair shouldn’t be such a daunting task. It’s really easy to S.imply K.eep Y.our H.air H.ealthy.

I’m Natural So I don’t need a Professional…WROOOONG

This is the most common misconception in this natural hair movement.

Ladies, Ladies, Ladies… I cannot stress enough how important it is to continue to seek a professional for your hair care and maintenance when natural. The most important things you will need from a professional stylist are... Da Da Daaaah... TRIMS. Yes ladies you do need a trained/licensed stylist to perform trims to keep your natural hair healthy.

What are the risks of keeping split ends? Why trims are so vital to healthy hair?

1)   Trims removes split ends – which split ends are the bane of your natural hair existence. Why? Broken ends causes slip knots that aide in tangles. As many of you know detangling is no fun. So why keep wasting your time on detangling day after day after day? Getting a trim will alleviate this. I know I know many of you are like… “But I don’t want to loose my length." Well, guess what you are going to loose it any way if you fail to get a trim. And Nope YOU CAN NOT do it yourself.  This is not a task for the novice or untrained hand. You can’t see the back of your head so stop fooling yourself and save your coins for that professional stylist. It will only make your natural hair journey that much more smoother, literally!

2)   Split ends travel up the shaft of each hair strand and eventually causing the hair to break. So now you are saying, well my hair is not growing. That’s because your hair is falling out and breaking off. These dead ends have no life and does nothing keep your hair looking healthy.

3)   It also causes hair to be extremely dry, lacking of any moisture.  Split ends eats up moisture products because the hair becomes very porous. The cuticle layer (protective layer of hair strand) is lifted and hair becomes rough.  You can tell if your hair is porous by taking a single strand of your hair and clasping it with two fingers, now run those two fingers up the shaft starting from the end and stopping at the scalp. If your hair feels bumpy then your hair is porous and is in serious need of moisture. If it feels smooth then your hair is healthy.  Also you can check the elasticity of your hair by taking that same strand and pulling it with both hands. If your hair breaks it has low elasticity and is weak and damaged.  If your hair retracts back then your hair is healthy.

4)   Split ends causes frizz. Well hellloooo fuzzy hair. So now you are wondering why is my hair so frizzy and doesn’t hold a style? The broken ends will never hold curls. Its pretty much dead hair. So when you hold to your “length” by not trimming those ends you are aiding on the side of team fuzzy hair.

Another reason to seek a professional is for color. So many of you kill your natural hair by purchasing box color kits off the beauty supply and retail store shelves. I don’t care how nice it sounds with all the “oils and moisture” the box “says” it has or how cute and pretty the chic on the box hair looks. Believe this, those models on the box 9 times out of 10 has a weave or hair was colored by a professional not utilizing the product they are advertising. Trust me I know, I’ve worked on sets for product advertising.  It’s a shame, (shaking my head).

The perils of box color or plant based dyes.

1)   Box colors are metallic dyes, they contain salts of lead, metallic salts, silver and bismuth. Once you go to a professional for color services these dyes are hard and almost impossible to lift or correct with out damaging the hair. These dyes can make your hair, dull, stiff, and brittle. Most of the time the color result after applying is not the desired color that you wanted.

2)   Plant based dyes such as henna can have an adverse reaction if you use other chemicals in your hair like color or perms (to make hair curly). The repeated use of them has a permanent effect.  Which means your hair will forever be that color unless you cut it off.

3)   Temporary and Semi Permanent dyes can have lasting permanent effects. Blacks and Reds are notorious for this. Blacks and Reds no matter what level: Temporary, Semi, or Demi are permanent colors that cannot be lifted safely out of the hair. Yes, there are products on the market that state they can lift blacks or reds but honestly your hair will be so fried that you’d be best going bald.  (Sorry to burst your bubble ladies) In order to achieve a black, w/o the permanent effects, would be to choose a very dark brown. Which to the untrained eye looks black. Reds are about the same with continued usage. Especially if using the store bought colors and dyes.

4)   Coloring hair is a science and takes a trained/licensed professional to know how to gradually get you to the color you want. If you don’t understand the color wheel please do not apply color on your own.

Professional colors use low level of ammonia combined with silk and keratin amino acids.  These ingredients may sound harsh, but they much less invasive than the metallic dyes. Professional color will fade with time, that is a good thing. This allows you to either go lighter or darker on the color scale. Usually most colors will fade to a natural/neutral brown.

Color takes time, do not expect to go to a stylist and get blonde on first visit when your natural color is dark brown. Your stylist will take you in steps; most of the time within two visits maybe three depending on how light of a blonde. This is the SAFEST and HEALTHIEST way to achieve desired color results. Again ladies save your money so you can get your hair colored the proper way, which leaves your hair in a healthy and lustrous state.

So as you see you are doing more damage than good by not seeking a professional to maintain or guide you on your natural hair journey. You will spend a lot more money than you think by opting to do your hair on your own. It is in your best interest to go to a professional stylist at least on a quarterly basis. Do this, Look in your cabinets, look at all those hair products that you have purchased to achieve certain looks. Now ask yourself, “How much money have I wasted on these products?” that are now doing a great job of collecting dust. It is your choice, now make the right decision and save yourself the time, effort, and money and schedule your appointment with your local professional natural hair stylist today! It’s really easy to S.imply K.eep Y.our H.air H.ealthy