Happy International Women’s Day!

There are a series of YouTube videos called #Dearme. It’s a campaign that honors and celebrates, International Women’s Day, which is today. The campaign asks women, what advice they’d give to their younger selves. I like the idea, even though I don’t have a YouTube channel. So in true blogger style, I present to you, my advice to my younger self.

Dear Younger Me,

Love yourself and don’t change yourself to make others love you. If a friend or partner can’t accept you as you are, they’re not worth your time.

 

Girl, you better strut it and stop being so insecure about your body image. Your body will later go through the blender of life that is pregnancy and childbirth and you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about earlier.

 

Follow your dreams, it’s never too  late. Don’t put a timeline on pursuit of happiness and knowledge. Life is for living and learning. It’s not a series of steps (highschool, college, etc.), it’s not linear. It’s an experimental process and you can and should do what you’d like with it, because YOLO.

 

Take care of yourself from the inside out. Sure hair isn’t everything, but don’t dye it, chemically straighten it, jump in a pool of chlorine then sit out in the sun all day without a hat, each and every day of your summer vacation. Your 30-year-old self called and wants some of that hair that you killed back, especially on my edges.

 

Sharing is good for yourself and the world. So share a part of yourself in everything you do. Share your ups, downs, your losses, your wins, your wisdom, your lack of understanding, your love, your time, your money, your food and your heart will thank you for it.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Leave-Out: Week 3

A few weeks back, I posted on experimenting with my regimen, specifically, skipping my leave-in. I like a minimalist approach so if I can edit my routine and drop some unnecessary steps that’s a win my book. Here’s a picture from week 3 leave-out experiment. I simply sealed with coconut oil.

About three days post wash, I usually moisturize my hair with a small amount of leave-in or just oil and a little water.

What I’ve noticed over the past few weeks:

• Softer, shinier, bouncier next day hair.
• When, reapplying moisture to completely dry hair (as needed basis) my hair seems to drink up the product. It never does this when it’s damp or wet.
• Less frizz. My theory, fewer products to interact with dew point levels…. just a wild guess.
• Faster styling and drying times.

I’ll continue with my leave-out experiment this entire month to monitor my results. Have any of you tried skipping your leave-in or experimenting with your regimen?

 

Lo-Po Shampoo Dos

Shampoo has a bad rep in the natural hair world. There’s a huge no-poo / curly girl following, who skip this step of their routine. While I don’t think shampoo is the essential ingredient for moisturized, healthy hair, I do think it’s a necessary and beneficial product. I typically use rhassoul clay as a cleanser and conditioner. However, I have a full plate and often don’t have time to mix up my batch of rhassoul clay every week. To make my life a little easier, I shampoo when I’m low on time. For my low-porosity hair, this is a less moisturizing, yet still nice alternative to my rhassoul treatment. It opens up my cuticles and helps my hair absorb the moisturizing conditioner that follows. It’s taken me a lot of trial and error to figure out what works best when shampooing my hair, but I thought I’d share my Lo-Po Shampoo Dos:

1. Shampoo your hair from root to tip. I used to always think I could just shampoo my scalp and then suds would trickle down and remove any grime. I used the scalp technique for years and never understood why I battled build-up. Low porosity hair is very susceptible to build-up and needs a good cleaning to remove product and grime. I’ve noticed by applying shampoo all over, my clean hair is ready to absorb moisture after. You don’t have to apply a ton of shampoo a little goes a long way.
2. Creamy, rich, moisturizing. When I use shampoo, I try to find one that is conditioning. I do try to avoid sulfates, when possible, but a cream based conditioner usually doesn’t leave my hair feeling stripped and dry.
3. Do not detangle your hair with shampoo in it and do not tangle it too much in the process of shampooing, be gentle.
4. Follow-up with a rich, deep conditioner. Whether it’s doctoring up your own blend or using a purchased deep conditioner, it’s essential to apply conditioner from root to tips and let it sit on your hair for a little (e.g. at least 15 minutes).

That’s it. What are some of your Lo-Po Shampoo Dos? Or do you follow a no-poo regimen?

Interesting link: http://www.blackhairinformation.com/growth/shampooing/co-washing-everyone/

Keep calm, put down that flexirod and carry on

How often does this happen to you? It’s a normal Sunday evening. You’ve decided to relax and go to bed on time. You look in the mirror and just feel like changing your look, cutting your hair, dying your hair, just something different. You pick up the scissors, contemplating cutting, when suddenly you decide, a new style is probably just what you need. Your eyes scan your hair styling tools and suddenly before you know it, you’re on YouTube searching for “flexirod set on natural stretched hair”. Naptural85’s video pops up in your results as the number 1 video and you love her videos, so somehow feel it’s meant to be. You watch the video and are motivated at how simple it all seems, gel, brush, set, sleep and voila hair commercial results. So that’s where I am now, getting ready for a night of uncomfortable “pretty” sleep and wake up and wonder, WHY???

I guess I was blinded by Naptural’s awesome results.

 

 

Operation Save My Edges

My edges suffered so much after my pregnancy. I’m finally starting to see the light, as they’ve started to grow back, granted slowly. I still have to use my comb-over technique from time to time. Pulling my hair back completely, is not an option, as I don’t want to put too much pressure on my edges and I don’t want expose my barely-there edges. So, I wear my hair down a lot and if I do pull my hair back, it’s always in a very loose low pony or bun.

Yesterday, I did a braid out and I loved the look, but my edges killed it and made my hair look flat and lifeless. I used a headband to hide my thinning hair and give the illusion of volume by fluffing. This is a nice quick fix that’s gentle on my edges. In addition, to being gentle with my edges, I’ve tried massaging them lightly with a light oil (e.g. jojoba) and mixing in some essential oils like lavender and tea tree. I’ll have to pick up some rosemary essential oil as I’ve heard this is really good for hair growth.

Are you team thin edges? What are some tricks that have worked for you? Even if your edges are normal to thick, what are some tricks you use to keep them that way??

Happy Sunday!

And the winner is….

I’m two days late for my giveaway announcement, my apologies, but no time like the present, right….

I wrote down all the names of people who commented on Leave-Out: Naked Hair (and one other post), on a piece of paper, put them in a hat and pulled one out. The winner of a lovely bag of organic rhassoul clay is….*drum roll*:

 

DERIKA

Congratulations! Please email me @ therootproblemblog@gmail.com with your address so I can send the rhassoul clay your way. Thanks to everyone who participated!