Been a while since I reviewed a product. As a somewhat reformed product junkie, I don’t any more — not at first, second, or even eighth use. After almost 5 years as a natural curly and literally hundreds of products used, it takes a lot to impress me these days. Just Great Curls from Delineation Hair & Skin Essentials is doing it for me. I got a free bottle as thanks from an editorial contact, loved it at first use, said “okay” and continued to use.
Top 10 is so restricting. I had some great finds in 2010 that I share with you here as well as my long time favorites like Devacurl Set it Free, in use for 3 years. All products have been in constant use for at least 6 months:
New for 2010-
Perennial favorites:
I’ve developed a few strategies to keep my snappy dry ends moisturized. Extending my wash and gos to 6-7 days (or 4 if I’m sweating a workout) helps a lot. But to do that, my medium-high porous hair needs the right products:
Wet styling:
In my wet wash and go I layer either shea butter, castor oil, QB Olive Honey Hydrating balm or QB Burdock root butter cream over my leave in, before gelling.
Smoothing Curl Junkie Curls in a Bottle over Kinky Curly Curling custard over a leave in has helped my hair stay moisturized over 3 days of wearing it out.
Dry styling:
Night before day 4 I’ll dry twist, using a tiny spritz of water, a couple drops of Loma Pearatin Repairative Hair Serum for whole head, and Devacurl Set it Free for each twist. I re-moisturize and smooth ends with Afroveda Curl Define and Qhemet Biologics Olive & Honey Hydrating Balm before finishing the twist and setting ends on foam rollers.
After a day or two of wearing a dry twist out, the curl is gone. I may moisturize dry hair with either a Kimmaytube-type leave in, Karen’s Body Beautiful Ambrosia, Afroveda Moringa Leave in or Afro Detangler,plus a couple drops of Loma Pearatin Repairative Serum and Qhemet Olive & Honey Hydrating Balm. Then I will brush in sections with a Mason Pearson Junior boar bristle/nylon brush and bantu knot. Next day, I can bun it, or wash it.
What’s your winter routine?
A. Hi Zatubi. The Kinky Curly, Aubrey products, and oils/butters — all good for your hair. Kudos on your choice of healthy products. Gray strands may grow in coarser and be more dry than the rest of your hair. They may have a different curl or texture pattern. And those gray hairs may get a yellow tinge. The yellow tinge can be neutralized with periodic use of a conditioner or leave in made for blondes or gray haired women.
For dryness, use a butter or oil over your styler or leave in, and/or over your rinse out conditioner before rinsing out with cool water. Cool water helps seal the cuticle, enhance texture and minimize the frizz. For my wash and go, I layer products: conditioner then oil or butter, then rinse out. Leave-in conditioner (or styler), more oil or butter on ends, then gel. This is a very protective routine for loose styles.
And speaking of protection, my hair never hits my silk pillowcase without being tied loosely in a scrunci and protected by a scarf at the hairline. Each day I wear that same wash and go without re-wetting, I keep the hair soft with moisturizing products like Devacurl Set it Free and Qhemet Biologics Burdock Root Butter Cream. To soften up dry ends I use Qhemet Olive & Honey Hydrating Balm mixed with Loma Imply Molding Creme (more like a lotion).
To soften hair that’s 3 or more days from water, especially if I intend to put it into large twists or bantu knots, water spritz hair very lightly, smooth in a little Karen’s Body Beautiful Ambrosia (unscented), Afro Detangler or similar water based moisturizer, then rub a few drops of Loma Pearatin Fortifying Repairative Serum into ends. What I lose in curl definition, I gain with soft, manageable, detangled hair that I can actually brush before twisting into bantu knots.
To neutralize any yellow and brighten my natural silver/gray, I occasionally use Roux Fancifull Temporary Color Leave in Rinse in White Minx. L’Oreal makes a moisturizing conditioner that neutralizes yellow tones - L’Oreal Colorist Collection White Violet conditioner. I just purchased this and will do a review when I use it; it has very nice ingredients. I don’t recommend a neutralizing shampoo because most contain moisture-leeching sulfates.
To add shine on dry hair and smooth surface frizz, Aquage Illuminating Gellade or Devacurl Set Up and Above does the trick. Jojoba oil is also nice to induce shine.
Happy New Year!
| Zatubi | |
| zatubi99@yahoo.com | |
| Comment | Hi SBB: Do you use any particular products for your grey hair? I am salt/pepper with more salt than pepper and wonder if I should use any products designed specificallly for grey hair. I use KC Come Clean Shampoo & Knot Today leave-in, the Aubrey line, and natural oils and butters. My hair is in pretty good condition, but I’m always looking for ways to improve. Thanks much. |
Qhemet Biologics Olive Honey Hydrating Balm
I remember opening my first jar of this product and wondering “WTF”? It looked slimy and shiny and greasy and I had no idea what to do with it or how to use it. A styler? Nope. Conditioner? Nope. Leave-in? Nope. On my dry hair at the time, I found it too greasy. In my first year or so of naturally curly hair, oil and I did not agree.
Fast forward to 2010 and wet hands. Wet hands and wet hair – light bulb moment! Olive & Honey Hydrating Balm is water-soluble, yet it clings! It is a moisture booster and hair softener par excellence. On my wet hair it works beautifully over conditioner or leave in, before I gel. And it mixes well with other leave in products.
Day 1: On freshly washed, wet, detangled hair, apply right over conditioner, before cool rinsing. Rub a 1/2 tsp. in palms, scrunch into hair and finger smooth your strands. Let sit for a few minutes, then bend over and cool water rinse, with emphasis on getting all conditioner off your scalp and roots. A cool water rinse leaves some OHHB on your ends. Read More…
I started a product detox right after Labor Day with some sister curlies on www.naturallycurly.com. The rules were no buying unless it was to replace something used up. I’m not calling it a challenge because that word for me is an invitation to fail.
Couple of things going against me – for one, new product releases: Curl Junkie, Curlisto’s new line for tight curls/kinks, and Jonathan Torch’s new incredible unshrinking leave in. For two, the Hairveda sale in mid-September. Read More…
Dora writes:
Q. I am completely natural and have been for about 7 years now. I have bra length, fine soft hair. My hair does not like to be twisted. When I did wear twists, I did not like them because you could see my scalp. When I wear a ponytail I have to make sure I brush my hair a certain way, so that my scalp won’t show. Is there anything that I can use or do to thicken my hair up. I henna once a month or every 3 weeks and sometimes it depends on how fast the grays decide to show up. I thought by being natural my hair would become thicker on its own.
A. As a natural for 7 years, your hair has gone through all the phases of growth, probably several times. Let’s just review:
Anagen – active growth – new hair is pushing out the old fiber and the follicle is growing deep for nourishment
Catagen – the transitional phase. Hair detaches from the blood supply and the hair follicle shrinks
Telogen – Resting. Hair fibre easily pulls out
And there is one more phase, mesanagen — a returning to growth.
A full cycle can last anywhere from 2 to 5 years per follicle. And sometimes hair or patches of hair can get stuck in the resting, or telogen phase.
Everything you put into your body eventually comes out in your hair, usually within three to six months. . Hair grows from living follicles in the skin of the scalp. At the shaft, or root of the hair, all of your major systems are at work, including your circulatory, endocrine and central nervous system.
Other factors for thin hair and ways to improve hair health:
Age – as women age our hormone levels decrease, and hormone levels affect almost every part of the body, including hair. My hair became thin during perimenopause and menopause when my hormonal levels hit the floor. I have been on prescribed bio-identical hormones (that don’t affect the liver) and this has helped hair, memory, alertness, sexual desire, and more.
Dry hair – Dry hair is simply dehydrated hair. Investing in more moisture in your hair and scalp is also a good way to stimulate growth and enhance the health of your existing strands. This is easy to correct both internally and externally. Check your water intake to make sure you are getting enough, a good guideline is 1 oz for half of your body weight. Example — a women weighing 150 lbs drinks 75 oz of water. That’s a lot more than the standard 8 glasses of day. Also water and condition your hair more frequently. If you shampoo every time you cleanse, try cleansing your hair with conditioner and shampoo less often. Get a good leave in conditioner and a natural butter or butter product. Both help lock in moisture.
Illness – Illness unbalances the body. If you are recovering from even a cold or the flu, make sure your food intake is really nutritious, take a vitamin supplement and a probiotic.
Genetics – Sometimes we have to thank our ancestors for that thin hair. If you have siblings with thick hair and yours is thin, there may be other factors at work. I’ve observed that overweight can also result in thinning hair. It’s as if the body is taking nourishment from areas it considers non-critical, like hair, to maintain the body..
Medications – Just like illness, the medications we take to bring us back to health and relieve symptoms can also unbalance our bodies. Not just hair but good bacterial in the digestive system gets kill by may antibiotics. A daily probiotic goes is effective to help your digestive tract get back in balance.
Diet – Nutritional deficiencies affect hair, especially Iron, Vitamin A and vitamin D, water, fruits and veggies, protein. Eat well!
Exercise – Heat up your body daily to increase your metabolism. Increase blood flow to the scalp with exercise, scalp massage, inverted yoga poses.
Stress - Sometimes this alone can help the hair’s condition. Get enough sleep! Examine your emotional health and how you express and process emotions. Healthy expression of anger and other “uncomfortable” emotions goes a long way to restoring emotional balance and relieving stress.
Chemical sensitivities – In general, as Black women who have straightened their hair most of their life, we tend to have a lower awareness of the effect of the chemicals we use. How else could we have used sodium hydroxide and high heat for years and years and smothered our fragile locks with mineral oil laden products? Get in the habit of examining ingredients. Check out cosmetic databases for toxicity levels of products. Use natural carrier oils, and non-volatile, non-irritating essential oils.
Styling – No matter how well we treat ourselves, some hair can be thin all around, especially the fine soft stuff like yours. My fine strands tends to thinness as well, and for that reason I do not twist my hair from wet because it does tend to emphasize my scalp rather than my hair. Instead, I wear a wash and go for a few days, then dry twist right over that. I will section my hair with my fingers and dry twist – about 11-14 twists. I water spritz just a little to soften, not even dampen the hair, and use a little product. In the morning I untwist and divide each twist. Both the wash and go and large dry twist outs maximize my volume. I get comments in my Fotki about how much hair I have, and I just snicker ’cause I know the truth.
If your hair is thin in certain places and not others, brushing it back and pulling it into a ponytail may not be the best thing for it. That may be part of why it’s thinning. The strain from this can thin it out in some places, and that is called traction alopecia.
Coloring with Henna – you’re using Body art quality Henna, right? If you are not please switch to it. Many products marketed as “henna” contain harmful chemicals. Body art quality henna is pure henna and is said to strengthen the hair as well as impart natural color.
Herbs – Many naturals swear by ayurvedic herbs. I don’t know much about them, but I’m a firm fan of neem, a plant that’s extremely high in anti-oxidants. Other herbs and substances said to decrease hair loss and/or enhance growth: algae extract, ginkgo biloba, green tea (camellia sinensis), nettle, garlic, hemp seed, wheat germ, burdock root, rosemary, horsetail, and aloe are some.
Oils and butters: Many women cannot say enough about natural oils such as castor, jojoba, coconut, extra virgin olive oil, baobab oil. An oil rinse after cleansing and before conditioning gives you an instant hydration boost. Just make sure to rinse it all out and thoroughly condition after, or you may be a greasy mess all day. Shea, avocado and other butters are wonderful for helping hair retain moisture.
Congratulations on your bra length natural tresses and I hope the next 7 years enhance your crowning glory.
I had a couple of questions dealing with natural hair clays and masks. I really want to go the all natural route without the big expense. I have been using amla and shikakai mixtures, henna and honey mixess, bentonite clay, ACV; honey and EVOO mixes; shea butter, coconut oil, evoo, jojoba oil mixtures.
But I have been hearing about the rhassoul clays, zisyphus spina christi, and marshmallow root. Where do you order these things from? What are the uses of these products? Can I use them now on my transitioning hair or should I wait until completely naturally? What recipes do you use with these products? Do you know of any other clays?
A.: Many of the herbs and plants we use for our hair are also used for herbal detoxification, elimination and removal of toxins from the the liver and digestive system. These include burdock root, fenugreek, ginger root, marshmallow root, as well as Bentonite clay (Monmorillonite).
I first used clay (Bentonite) as part of a digestive detox. Imagine downing 8 oz. of bentonite clay and water 3 times a day for 2 weeks! Luckily, for your hair to benefit from the “mud treatment” all you need is to slap it on your hair.
Rhassoul clay (Hectorite) comes from Morocco and is 100% naturally occurring. It is only for external use (unlike Bentonite) and is a very popular spa treatment. I get mine from Mountain Rose Herbs. Their Rhassoul is untreated, quarry mined and sun dried from naturally occurring lake-side deposits.
Rhassoul Specifications: (from Mountain Rose Herbs)
Color- Light Gray with a hue of oxidized pink
Odor- Flat
Mesh Size- US #70-80 Mesh
Mineral Content
Silica- 58%
Aluminum- 2.47%
Iron- 0.64%
Sodium- 2.3%
Magnesium- 25.2%
Calcium- 2.34%
Moisture- <8%
Interestingly, Bentonite has way more aluminum and a higher pH.
A Rhassoul Clay hair Detox treatment is one of the easiest kitchen mixes to whip up. And if you want to avoid the kitchen, you’ll find some excellent ommercial preparations further on.
Homemade Rhassoul Hair Mask
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup of Rhassoul Clay
- Hot water
Optional add-ins make the mixture smoother and more slippery
- 1-2 tbs. of your favorite (I like grapeseed or EVOO)
- Plain Greek-style yogurt (2-4 oz)
- Honey (couple of tsp.)
- small container of banana baby food
In a bowl or Pyrex measuring cup (2 cup size) mix the water with the clay little by little until the mix is the consistency you want. Clay swells and absorbs a lot of liquid. Your final preparation should be a creamy lotion-like consistency. Add any other ingredients. For an extra kicker, I add a few drops fenugreek, Burdock and Marshmallow root extract. Mix or blend until smooth.
To apply: Clay is messy. A salon cape and latex gloves will help control any spills. I usually apply a clay mask to dry dirty hair, starting from the nape of the neck. No need to detangle first. Apply in small sections, smoothing it in from ends of hair and working up to root. Cover every strand and the hairline. Do not comb or brush. Cover with a plastic cap and wear a heat cap for half and hour to 45 minutes.
Thorough rinsing is vital with dirt-based treatments. Fill your kitchen sink to the brim with warm water and dunk your head in it to let the mix float away. Then rinse your hair thoroughly in the shower. Follow up with a moisturizing, detangling conditioner and enjoy your soft, beautiful hair!
Don’t feel like mixing your own? Anita Grant is the queen of the Rhassoul Clay treatment. Her product does one better and adds unrefined Black Cocoa Butter & natural Soya based Vitamin E.
Botanical Spirits makes a Peppermint Mud Hair Softening Mask with some amazing and healthy ingredients in addition to the Rhassoul. The owner is based in my home town and offers generous samples on her website for the cost of shipping!
Baka Natural-laxer is one of the oldest clay hair treatments. It’s not a rhassoul based mixture but contains Sahara Clay, myrtle, rose petals, fenugreek, nettle, sage. This is not a relaxer and is not to be confused with the chemically based product with a similar name.
Zizyphus Spina Christi
From the Henna heads over at www.naturallycurly.com I learned of a desert plant called Zizyphus Spina Christi (ZSC for short) ZSC is also an excellent cleansing and conditioning treatment. It’s good for people who want the conditoning benefits of henna without any color deposit, so it’s great for my gray/silver hair. It’s also a good alternative to shampoo or detergent based cleansers, and enhances hair thickness and texture. ZSC is not cassia obovata. ZSC is available from Mehandi.com
Marshmallow Root:
I don’t know as much about this root except that it is full of plant mucilage which gives it a slippery consistency. It’s good for hair as well as for internal use as an expectorant. Kitathena over at NewlyNatural has a wonderful write up on this and other herbs and a hair spritzer recipe – check it out!
Great products with marshmallow as an ingredient:
More information about marshmallow:
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/marshmallow_root.php
http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mallow07.html
Where to buy:
Anita Grant
Marshmallow Root Powder at Mountain Rose Herbs
Acceptance and Clarity – Take off the “mental wig.” Once I accepted that I would never have Botticelli curls, I began to see that my hair could be even more beautiful. To actually see my hair, I need to look at photos. Mental distortion can occur when I look in the mirror, but the camera doesn’t lie.
Understanding – Observe your hair under different circumstances, different climates. Learn to understand what your hair does, not what you want it to do and build on that. Look inward at your own hair, not outward at someone else’s.
Look, listen and learn – It’s a given that other naturals know more than I do, especially if their hair is thick and long and beautiful, right? I’m so teachable!
Protection: At night, protect the hairline with a silk head wrap, guard against friction with a silk pillowcase. Anchor the hair in a loose puff or large twists so it doesn’t shift or rub against itself. During the day, I wear my hair out 95% of the time. Protection means the right products applied to each strand and a soft, aloe-vera based gel for hold. And no touching! (that one is hard.)
Know your hair’s width and porosity – More important than knowing if your curl type is 3c, 4a or 4b is knowing whether your strands are fine, medium or coarse and how porous they are. Fine and coarse refers to the diameter of your hair strand, not the feel of your hair. Porous refers to how open or smoothed (closed) the surface (cuticle) of your hair is. Fine, porous hair reacts differently to products and the environment than does coarse, non-porous hair. It also needs to be handled differently. Each hair type has its own issues. Fine, porous hair tends to need more moisturizing and strengthening products. Coarse, smooth hair can be subject to quicker product build up.
Layers of moisture – This means water. Moisturizing shampoos like shampoo bars or cleansing creams or a gentle castile soap (they aren’t all equal). And liberal doses of conditioners with great slip, moisture and a little of the right protein for my hair. A little butter or oil. More conditioner. And those aloe-vera based gels. Dirt-based deep treatments (Rhassoul clay, sisyphus spina christi) year round, moisturizing deep treatments in the winter.
Gentle detangling – if my cleanser is cleansing without stripping and my conditioner is loaded with slip and moisture, then I can finger detangle easily. A little KBB Hair Milk added to conditioner boosts its detangling ability. I do this at most twice a week.
Regular trims - I get ends trimmed and shape adjusted 3 times a year. My hair is easiest to style a month after a cut.
Low manipulation – After I style my hair wet, I leave it alone for up to 3 days, except to gather it into a pony puff at night, let it down in the morning and scrunch a little Set it Free and butter into it. No combing or brushing. When I dry twist at night, I use my fingers only to separate, and a little more product to smooth.
Forget about growth, learn how to retain length –
If you’re healthy, growth is a given. Retaining length is the hard part. Transitioning to gray showed me just how fast my hair grows — and how fast the ends break. By babying my ends and boosting moisture to keep them hydrated, smooth and soft, I help my fragile ends stay put instead of snapping off like dry twigs. If I’m doing dry twists, a moisturizing custard or lotion gets smoothed on the ends of those twists. If I’m bunning, the ends get moisturized with a lotion and a little baobab oil. On the second and third day of my wash and go I scrunch a moisture lock lotion and a little butter onto my ends. When my ends stay soft, my hair retains length.
Celebrate each success, and learn from the challenges.
Q: My daughter has a hair type EXACTLY like yours, and I am @ a loss for what to try in her hair. We live in a very cold climate so I am opposed to wetting her hair daily, but NO matter what I do her hair comes out looking like an oversized cotton ball. When wet it is eerily similar to your hair type but swells into frizz. HELP!! BTW you have a beautiful mind and beautiful hair! Thanks Sis!
A: Thanks so much for your kind words, I felt really good reading them.
Cold climates are usually dry and that’s the challenge. I think I’ll write a post on this topic (see previous post). If your daughter’s hair is similar to mine, her hair could get puffy and frizzy for 2 possible reasons:
1) The hair itself doesn’t contain enough moisture so when it draws atmospheric moisture it swells. If you’re in a cold climate this means the hair is very dry. In a warm, humid climate it doesn’t mean your hair is dry, only that it’s dryer than the air.
2) Using the wrong conditioning and/or styling products or not enough product, or not applying them correctly.
To correct #1, co-wash and condition your daughter’s hair frequently, at least 2 times a week, and use deep conditioners every other week. In the cold weather, shea butter is very effective on my hair. I rub some in my palms and scrunch it right over my wet hair that has conditioner or a leave in conditioner. I also use a soft gel to hold my texture and help keep the moisture in. And by moisture I don’t mean keep the hair wet, just hydrated when it’s dry.
For #2, click on the links below for some very helpful information on styling and hair care. And if your daughter’s hair is truly like mine, put down the brush and comb when distributing products. Fingers only! Use a large toothed comb only for conditioner detangling.
My seasonal product routines are in my hair journal. Important to note too, is that my hair when worn down goes hardly anywhere without gel. I use “soft” gels. Excellent all year round gels: Kinky-Curly Curling Custard (not a custard, a gel); Theraneem Leaf & Aloe Vera Gel (marketed as a body lotion); and Giovanni LA Naturals gel.
www.Naturallycurly.com has some excellent threads for 4a hair and transitioners:
Transitioners support thread
4b/4a Guide to Basic hair care
Curlisto Styling your Hair Video – Tight to Kinky Curls
This is essentially my styling method, except of course, no comb or brush or clips. I just section with my fingers and hope for the best. I am lucky to get it.
