moisturizing and sealing.

well..I haven't been moisturizing and sealing nightly. I felt like it was too much product for my hair, but now my hair has been extremely dry so I think I might have to do it every night again..I don't mind M&S everynight,  just have to find the right product balance.

Herbal essences Ingrdients... :(

So..after I told you about the Herbal essences (apparently they prefer to spell it with a upper case 'H' and lowercase 'e') shampoo and conditioner and how much I LOVED them, I read the ingredients. I wrote a blog about it a while back..long story short-- THE INGREDIENTS ARE TERRIBLE! Ughh.. I thought I got over that but nowthe idea of silicone's and parabens in my hair bother me so much. Honestly I'm not completely sure what they are but I know they're bad and should be avoided. (I'll look it up later). What bothers me is that theres pretty much hundreds of them in that one small bottle! (exxageration, I know.) I was thinking of getting the Kenra Moisturizing Shampoo, but the reviews for that were so mixed I'm scared to use it. What I really want to use is Shea Moistures Moisture Retention Shampoo. BUTTTT my local Target is out of it so I'll have to wait. BUTTTT...Target has been out of it for a while so I'm not sure if they'll be getting it back. HOWEVVVEEERRRR...its inventory time at Target so I'm sure they'll be getting some more soon. If not, I'm going to have to find something else. My rule of thumb is going to be if it has more than 4 parabens and/or silicones then I'm not going to use it.

Yesterdays Wash Day

Yesterday was an interesting wash day for me for two reasons:

• it was the first time I had to wash my hair before going to work
• I didn't mix anything into my DC (as requested)

On saturday, I put a lot of Africa's Best Herbal Oil into my hair before going to bed. Then in the morning I pre-pooed with ORS replinishing pak and it went great. (click here for more details) After I rinsed my hair out, I washed with HE Reconditioning Shampoo/Conditioner- it went well as usual. Then I tried something different. I was requested to use the Kenra Moisturizing Conditioner with out any added oils into it just to see how it went. It was good! I liked it! My hair was soft after using it. A lot softer compared to the first time, but not as soft as last time. (which was expected because I didn't add any oils)

Then I used Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Anti-Humidity Smoothing Milk. I think I'm going to stop using that. My hair feels less soft after using it, on top of that I don't think my hair is that frizzy with out it, so it's not adding any benefits to my hair. If I notice an increase in frizz, I'll continue to use it. Until then, its OUT the regimen. I also added Fantasia frizz buster and aphogee green tea and keratin mist. I think I'm going to get a relaxer this week so I keep using small doses of protein.

Wasn't Expecting This...

I DC'd again today with the Kenra moisturizing Conditioner. I noticed such a big difference from the first time I used it compared to now. My hair feels so soft and is manageable. My New growth is softer than it was before and I'm loving it! I hope it keeps improving this way! This time I mixed it with Castor oil, eucalyptus oil and rosemary oil. Next time (Sunday) I'll use it by it self and see how it does with out any added oil.

S-Curl No Drip Acitiviator and Moisturizer

Today I bought what many people call their staple product. It's called 'S-Curl No Drip Activator and Moisturizer'. I think it was originally made to be used to 'activate' a jheri curl, but a lot of women now use it to moisturize and seal their hair. I bought it because I wanted to try a wash-n-go with it. BUT THEN I came home and watched a video you youtube and the lady said she didn't like to use it on wet hair because it made her hair feel funny and weird. I know that everyone's hair is different so I'll continue  to consider using it to activate my curls. Until then I'll keep using my Garnier and Africa's Best for moisturizing.



Michael Jackson's Jheri Curl
RIP

 But just as a very first impression: I like that I can pump it right on to my new growth. I've been noticing that I don't really moisturize my new growth very well and this is a spray that I can use directly on it. When I came home I sprayed my hair with it and I automatically felt it on my scalp so I was excited about that.

Petroleum and Mineral Oil for hair

Petroleum (aka petrolatum, petroleum jelly, soft paraffin, white paraffin, and mineral oil) is a common ingredient for black hair care. I bet if you check the ingredients on your tub of blue magic, petroleum is the first ingredient- meaning it is the number one ingredient. For many years (centuries even) its been used as a hair moisturizer. When in fact, it only coats the hair instead of penetrating it. Mineral oil basically coats the hair not allowing the moisture to penetrate. Hair that has no moisture is more likely to frizz (which is not cute!).
Also, these products clog the pores of the hair shaft. So whether you spend $3.99 on a hair product with soft paraffin, or a $59.99 product with petrolatum in it, you're most likely wasting your money.

The reason these products and their AKA's are so widely used in black hair care products is:
a) they are cheap
b) they give our hair an artificial shine

This is why on your hair journey it is important to check the ingredients to make sure they do not contain these products.

Other ingredients to avoid:
Propylene Glycol (PG): not exactly sure, I just know its bad :)
Isopropyl Alcohol: drying
Polyethylene Glycol (PEG): strips of moisture
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)/ Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES), TEA lauryl : cheap, stripping, irritating
Diethanolamine (DEA), Momoethnanolamine (MEA): can cause cancer (then again, what doesn't cause cancer in this world?)
Silicones: builds up, other bad stuff..

Personally, i just make sure it doesn't have any petroleum or mineral oil in it.

hmm... is aphogee too much protein for my hair? Protein-Moisture education

So earlier i wrote a blog entry about how much i LOVED aphogee. that was about two days after i used it and before i unwrapped my hair this morning. I unwrapped my and was about to moisturize and seal my hair and for the first time today i felt it. My hair was super hard. :( It doesn't feel good at all so right now I have DC in my hair with a plastic cap on. i don't know how to describe it. My hair didn't have that flow and was hard to bend and when i put moisturizer in it it didn't do ANYTHING! So I decided to do a late night DC before I go to bed. I want to leave it in for a LONG time to make sure my hair feels better by the time i go to bed. So the next time i use aphogee, I'll use the Silk Elements shampoo and the 2 minute recon. or I'll use the aphogee shampoo and silk elements conditioner to hopefully balance out the protein-moisture to make sure this tragedy doesn't happen again. (when i run out of SE, I got my eye on elasta qp stuff!)

Protein:
Protein is used to give structure, build strength and give structure to hair. If protein is used correctly, it will leave hair soft, full, smooth and healthy. Because I have relaxed hair, i need more protein than people with natural hair. (also, people with color-treated hair need more protein as well) When your hair has too much protein, it can cause problems. your hair will start to:
feel dry
look frizzy
feel like straw
easily tangles
breaks easily with little tension or stress
stiff
lacks elasticity

Moisture:
Moisture and black hair just go together. Like spaghetti and meat sauce, Bert and Ernie, french fries and ketchup. Because black hair is likely to be porous,  moisture easily passes through the cuticle layer of the hair this loss of moisture causes black hair to be dry which means we need to moisturize it a lot more often compared to people of European decent. This is why it is important to moisturize and seal every night if you want to grow your hair. If used correctly, moisture will make your hair soft and increase elasticity. However, if you use too much your hair:
will become 'mushy' or 'soggy' (especially when wet)
weak
limp

This is why a strong moisture-protein balance is needed to make sure your hair is growing and healthy.