Who doesn't love a bun!?

How old were you when you fell in love with the Ballerina bun? It's quite possible that the woman who delivered me was wearing a bun when I was pulled out of the womb, because I cant remember a time when I didn't love a bun.

The bun is so versatile. High, low, centered, tight, loose, messy-from the gym to the ballroom, a bun always works.

The bun for growth challenge on LHCF is very popular but for me it's not practical. I would have to brush the hell out of my thick wet hair to get a somewhat decent natural bun. If I do it on fresh, sleek flat ironed hair I would achieve great styles. But, who flat-irons their natural hair to put it in a bun? Nobody-not immediately at least. When I try a bun on week 2 flat ironed hair, it comes out okay, but I can feel the stress on my hairline from having to pull it back tight. By then, my hair would already be a little fuller. Also, when taking down the band I notice a few strands of broken hair. I think that's where some people run into problems with buns and ponytails.

Rock that gorgeous bun, but if you notice your hairline receding and strands without the bulb coming out when you take your hair down, you should let that bun go:(

Lisa Akbari on Hair Texture.

In her book, The Black Woman's Guide to Beautiful Hair, Lisa Akbari states the need to set aside discussing "grades" of hair and instead be attentive to "real information that will empower your hair."
This focus is the hair strand, which tells us the texture and type of hair. She notes that textures come in fine, medium and coarse. As texture relates to heat damage she writes:

"Fine strands cannot tolerate excessive pressing or heat from a curling iron, blow-dryer, flat iron, pressing comb or heat rollers. Fine hair will damage easily because it has fewer protective layers than medium and coarse hair strands. The smaller strands requires the least amount of maintenance products in order to manage.
Medium hair strands are of average size, have a medium quantity of layers and can tolerate heat and chemicals better than fine hair. Although this is true, all hair strands burn if the temperature of a heated tool is greater than 150 degrees. So you must be careful not to overuse heated styling tools or chemicals. I recommend that you avoid pressured heat, instead try a lower more indirect heat.
Coarse hair strands are the largest of the three are thicker and are difficult to damage...."

You can listen to Lisa's radio show on this site: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lisa-Akbari

Unavoidable Damage

Heat-Styling wash day drama.

Before learning how to properly care for my hair, I would say a lot of the damage was accumulated from manipulation and unhealthy practices between wash cycles and when wash day came around, I just expected fists of hair to come out.

Now, I've virtually eliminated damage throughout the days that precede wash day and I've drastically cut down on the amount of hair loss after washing and detangling. With heat-styling though, dry combing (the real devil for kinky hair) can't be avoided.

I detangle, while damp, before blowdrying with the concentrator on cool. When I'm combing out each small section with a rattail comb, there's bound to be some breakage. When I look at those bulb-less pieces of broken hair that could have been , I cant help but think about length being taken off. Right now I don't want anything to come between me and BSL, especially when my mother just told me hair stops growing at 18. (Pray for her). I have doubters to prove wrong!

It may be time for me to start thinking of other methods.

The "My Dominican Salon" Blow-Out.

I've been to a Dominican salon when I lived in Brooklyn. I saw how a blow-out was done on natural hair and decided against getting the service. This salon is in my neighborhood in Lawrenceville GA.

Someone commented on their youtube channel about the amount of smoke coming out of the dryer. This was their response:

"the smoke you are seeing is actually the moisture from the creams evaporating, this process does not damage the hair, infact it grows the hair and keeps it healthy , remember with natural hair always request "deep conditioning""

((???)) I know some relaxed girls rave about these salon services, but I would not want this process done to my hair. Regardless of how it looked at the end, that's far too much heat and manipulation for me.

I don't think I'll ever go to a hairdresser again.

Patience is key

Last night was definitely a test of my patience. I went to bed after 5 in the morning doing my hair-granted I started after 1.

When I wear a half wig I keep the back of my head in braids, the braids usually stay in for 4-6 weeks. Sometimes 2 weeks if I feel like playing with my hair or doing something different but for the most part it's around 1 month. I'll wash and condition as usual and I normally don't have any issues when I want to take my hair down. This is a low maniupulation method.

Something was different this week. In the first pic my braid resembles a lock (lol). It was matted! I've never experienced that and I've been doing this for about 6 months on and off.
I had to bust out a squirt bottle with diluted conditioner, another spray bottle with water, Jojoba oil and S-curl . I tried my best to detangle with my hands, working section by section first, but it wasn't working out well so I heavily relied on the comb.

The only thing I changed in my regimen was the Blackstrap Molasses. Maybe it wasn't the smartest decision for me to do a sticky treatment in braids.
I had a little more breakage than I was prepared to cope with. You live, you learn.

Everyone has one: My hair horror story.

It was the Sunday before school and I was desperately in need of a fresh press. The hairdresser I normally go to was on vacation and the only other one that I knew of was closed. I called my friend. Let's just call her Britni. She assured me that she had been doing her cousins hair for years and that she was very skilled with a hot comb. I was too desperate to hesitate. Right before she came over, I washed my hair with a harsh Selsum blue anti-dandruff shampoo and used NO CONDITIONER. I know. This was during my hair care ignorant days. My thick, coiley, densely packed, type 4a/4b hair didn't yet know what it was in store for.

Britni came with her shoe box of tools: two hot combs one with small teeth and one with large teeth. My nervousness began to set in when I saw no electric hot comb oven. I put on a brave front as she set the comb into the fire on my stove.

 I remember that day being particularly hot. We were sitting in my small kitchen and I was beginning to sweat. We turned on the sealing fan- it did nothing. She decided to open the freezer. She stuck her head in there every now and then for temporary relief.

By now my hair was tangled and dry. She began with one of the plastic combs with the small and even smaller teeth that we frequently see in 99 cents stores. She was raking my hair with a vengeance after every application of DAX grease. Then came the hot comb. It didn't glide through my hair like at the hair dresser's. Britni might as well have been clearing out my hair with an over heated hot comb. I sat there section after section knowing that my hair was being tortured and abused. I was silent, pretending to care about whatever boy had tried to talk to her before she came to my house. After what felt like hours, she was done. And so was my long healthy full hair.

I turned around to what was the biggest bush of hair to have ever comb out of my head. There were broken pieces all over the counter. I broke. "Britni!!!" She looked at me as if to say she didn't do it and started to blame me for allowing her to do my hair after it had been freshly washed. I went upstairs and cried in my room. She came up after me silent. With every nerve in my body telling me otherwise, I handed her $15. Then I went into my bathroom and put my hair into the thinnest ponytail I had ever made and I cried again.

I walked Britni to the nail salon and sat there pretending to care about whatever she was saying about yet another boy. When she was finished, I walked her halfway home and as we were preparing to part ways, I said, "Thanks for pulling out all my hair". Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. She turned back to me and used her hands to make a scissor motion while mouthing "snip, snip, snip".

That was Junior High School. I'm now in college and I havent seen or heard from Britni since. The next visit to my hair dresser brought on more tears after she exclaimed, "what happened??!!!" and began telling me about everything that wasn't like it was before.
There's a lesson to be learned here.

Oil exacerbates heat damage

Many novice heat styled naturals ( myself included back in the day) have fallen prey to the end result of an oil-laden press. Here's the thing, that shiny bone straight look you were going for comes at a significant price. Using a high heat blow dryer or iron on oily hair is equivalent to cooking the hair. Also remember that a hot sunny day can affect your hair in the same way.

What's more damaging, relaxers or heat?

Chemical treatments, such as relaxers and coloring, thermal styling, and UV rays all lead to the softening of the keratin of hair. Any intentional process of altering your hair's natural texture is basically controlled damage to the protein structure of your hair.

Yes, relaxers permanently straighten the hair while thermal styling is meant to be temporary. Still, some naturals who've thermally straightened their hair had trouble getting their hair to revert and thus were left with straight sections of hair.

Yes, infrequent relaxers can be less damaging than frequent heat styling. Still "stretching" relaxers usually entails some method of heat styling which we know further weakens already soft protein bonds.

When I hear about a natural who has sworn off heat styling because of heat damage, many questions pop into my head: What was the temperature of the styling tool? Was it ceramic, tourmaline or neither? What was done to prep the hair? How often was she heat styling? etc.

Anyway, what's my answer? It depends! It depends on a number of factors ranging from hair type, to products, to frequency, to technique, the list goes on. What I do know, for sure, is BOTH can be abused and BOTH can be done safely. Everyone has to determine what works best for them. K?