Ladies Matters HAIRising!

Ladies, how do you take care of your hair? If you are a typical Kenyan woman, chances are this is what you do:

• Oil you hair every fortnight (or once per month)
• Get your treatment done once or twice at most, in a month, at the salon
• Shampoo and condition your hair with whatever products your salonist has, never mind his/her clients have different hair needs.
• Blow dry your hair every single time you get your hair washed.
• etc

If You are the lady i have described above please raise you hand up. Ok, now sit down and listen to what i have to say.

Chances are your hair has never grown past shoulder length. When i was looking up info about the castor oil hair challenge, i learnt a lot on-line. I came to realize that i owe my hair a sincere apology, what with all the care that i saw ladies taking and pampering their hair.

I didn't know what BSL was, what pre-poo and co-wash were, i didn't know that when washing your hair you are advised to first apply some coconut oil (or your preferred/favourite oil) to avoid drying and subjecting your hair to breakage in the process.

I never knew the benefits of a hair mask or hot oil treatment, what about sealing and moisturising your hair?
Heee. I always thought waist length hair was meant for those Somalis and Indians with long silky hair until i came across Africans (Americans) with hair that can wipe a wet toddler dry (no need to buy towels) lol. And whoever knew that you were supposed to take care of your ends as much as you do your scalp?  i always thought oiling while blow drying was more than enough!

One of my favourite so far is Naptural85 on YouTube. You can subscribe to her channel.

Or check this one out, who had shaved her hair, and this video is one year later, she has longer hair than what i had after 5 years hehe yawa!

What about this lady Yolanda Renee? she takes such care of her kids hair, i can even hear my own hair cry for justice

And here you are, thinking of chopping your hair (cos imefika mwisho- like i did!) please don't.
Finally if you have relaxed hair that has been battered from here to  Kosovo and back, don't stress, you can start showing your hair some love.

Also if you want to transition from relaxed to natural, here are some ladies who did exactly that. Remember nothing worthwhile happens overnight, ...... except maybe making babies.

So there you go, and you thought you had healthy hair :)
And if you still have your hand raised up, please put it down, Am done now :)

As always Adhis ♥

6 Month Castor Oil Hair Challenge

Am sure you have read or heard of the Castor oil hair challenge. If not, honey open a new tab and google it, you might like what you read. My hair has gone through a lot in the past few months.

Genesis of my woes
I shaved my hair in late 2008, mainly because i had relaxed it and wasn't taking good care as is required of relaxed hair, result serious hair breakage! After that weaves became my best friend and believe or not i weaved my hair for three straight years with NO break.

I used to have thick strong black hair, maybe the thickest you can imagine on an african head :). My hair also used to be really strong, like really really strong. I had the type of hair that was resistant to some type of relaxers, like i had specific brands that literally had no effect on straightening my hair!

Fast forward November 2013.
My hair had thinned out terribly, especially at the front, you could literally see through. I think i had lost at least 60% of my hair as a result of tagging and pulling in the weaving process.
I even became conscious and started checking out women who have weaves on, and i could see at least 95% or so of them were losing their hairlines due to weaving. I decided it was time i took a break from weaves.
So i started braiding Ghanian lines, drop lines and braids. I also bought this hair oil called Vatika from Tuskys Supermarket. Two months down the line, my hair was much better and a thick new growth has started to fill in.

Early this year, i decide to trim my hair which i think had menapaused prematurely due to the weaving situation. One week later, i decided to dye it. I started with INECTO, cant clearly remember the exact color. This was even after my hair dresser told me that it (INECTO) doesnt stay. True to her words, the color all went down as i was rinsing my hair. Never mind the package says its permanent. And by the way, i never knew most dyes had ammonia, which irritated my scalp that has now become super sensitive.

Two days later, i Purchased Dark n Lovely (plum colour). Heeee, the ammonia in that dye! Good thing is the colour stuck after rinsing and it was a soft plum that glittered, especially in sunlight.

Later on that week, i noticed my bedroom floor has an unusual amount of hair. Turned out that every time i combed my hair, i would lose a great amount in very short pieces. Three or so days later, i noticed a huge patch on my right temple, the size of a coin. The next day i noticed another patch, and another!
In the end i had like six or so patches as smooth as a baby's bottom PANIC MODE.

After minutes of googling (am sure i'm not the only one who googles before seeking anyone's opinion :P) i discovered that the ammonia in permanent hair dyes causes hair breakage. How was i supposed to know that????!!!!.

And that Ladies and gentlemen is how i stumbled across the castor oil hair challenge

Castor Oil Hair Challenge

This is a challenge that requires you to oil your hair in castor oil frequently (or even daily) and note the change after a period of time. You take a before picture and after the challenge you also post an after pic then compare the two and determine if it worked.

Most people online talked of the Jamaican Black Castor oil, but they say simple castor oil is also as good. The castor oil is a bit thick so you may want to mix it with Olive oil or Coconut oil. For me i will mix with both Olive and coconut. You can google more options (rosemary oil etc)

In a nutshell what castor oil does:

• Combats hair loss
• Stimulates hair growth
• Treats scalp infection
• Reduces Split ends and hair
• Conditions and moisturises hair
• Helps get rid of dry scalp
• Makes hair dark and shiny
• Provides thickness to hair

You can actually google before and after pics and see the differences.

Here are the products i will be using. Cant clearly remember the exact costs. For the castor oil, i think it was around 180 shillings, The Olive oil i think went for 260, and for the vatika i bought a while back, between 200 and 350.

Castor Oil

Olive Oil

Vatika Oil

There you go. I dont have a current photo of my hair as it is weaved :(  , But i will add one soonest, then six months from now, mid August we see if the "castor Oil Hair Challenge" actually works.

Later
Adhis ♥