Jan 31, 2010

More Do's and Hair Routine

More Do's. These have been in for about 5 days. They're staying nicely. I feel like I'm getting more fluent at the cornrowing.






I thought I'd post a little bit about our hair routine this time as it seems to be working pretty well. The kids' hair is growing fast (so, no breakage,) and seems well hydrated. Our scalp issues are gone, as well.

when we first brought them home we were given an oral med to clear up ringworm, which showed up on MayMay's head in round, white patches where less/no hair was growing. IN addition to the med, I shampooed about once a week for a bit with Selsun Blue shampoo.
After it cleared up I just did a routine where I would shampoo with the selsun blue on both girls, making sure to rinse it out really, really well. Then I would take two palms-full of a conditioner recommended by this woman (right now we're using herbal essences, totally twisted) and use it as if it were a shampoo, scrubbing the scalp and doing my best to rinse it all out.

Then I either apply more of the same conditioner, or some of Taliah Waajid's herbal conditioner, again, two palms full, working it out to the tips especially. I rinse *lightly* (meaning, just run some water along the scalp for a few seconds) and leave that conditioner IN.

I do my styling (comb out, parting, braiding or twists or yarn extensions or whatever) as soon as I can after the bath, so the hair is wet. If, during my styling, it starts to dry out, I spray on some protective mist bodifier(also by Taliah waajid). For gel, I also use a taliah waajid product called lock it up. It's got a great consistency and it's got none of the troubling ingredients like mineral oil or petrolatum.

After a style is in, I spray the braids on the scalp all over with more protective mist bodifier before nap and before bedtime, on a daily basis. We put sleeping caps on our kids made of bathing suit material. The moisture and oils right before naptime, and the protection of the cap, keeps styles protected pretty well. You can order the caps from a lady who makes them herself and sells them. She charges 12 for a pair of caps (incl shipping from Canada.) Email her (nadiassleepcaps@yahoo.ca), if you're interested.

Using these methods, I can usually keep a style nice for several weeks (our longest run has been about 5).

When I take down, I spray more of the protective mist bodifier and some water, saturating the braids. I take the sharp end of the comb and unravel the braids that way. Then I do the wash routine.

I use a lot of the Taliah Waajid products because they are much less expensive than any other products I've found on the market that have only all-natural ingredients, and are made specially for black hair care. Black hair needs a different sort of product than other hair types, and these have worked really well for me. So if it seems like a big TW commercial I apologize :)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

btw the protective mist bodifier comes in a small spray bottle if you buy it in a smaller size... I bought that first, then bought the larger size and that's what I'm refilling with. Typically I dilute the PMB about 1/2 with water and that works great, and saves the budget, too.

Janell said...

Wow that's a lot of work! How long does it normally take you to do both the girls' hair? I'm glad you can get a few weeks out of all the work!

Unknown said...

from take-down to the end of whatever style, I'd say it takes half the day. Because I get interrupted. If I didn't get interrupted, I'd give myself 3-4 hours for a style from take down to finish. I don't usually do the two girls on the same day... that's a LOT of sitting.

Putz said...

work of art, put theat head into smithsonian for all time