How to Know If Your Hair Care Regimen Is Really Right for You

Start 2014 Off With the Right Hair Care Regimen!!

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Are you doing all the right things for your hair to thrive? Do you have the right products, tools and proper techniques?

Below, I have listed a few clues to look out for that will let you know that you’re on the right track when it comes to taking care of your natural hair.

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1. Your “wash day” routine takes less time each time you do it. If it took you an hour to detangle your hair during last week’s wash, this week it might only take 45 minutes. In addition, your hair should retain more moisture than it did last week. What I’m saying is that a regimen that truly works will give you continued improvement each time.

2. You start to use less and less of your products. This includes shampoos, conditioners and stylers. The more your hair improves, the less product you’ll need to make it “look right” or “feel right.”

3. You won’t have to moisturize as often. Hair in good condition retains moisture. This limits the need to use ‘moisturizers’ between washes. Of course, in order to know if your hair is retaining moisture, you need to know the difference between moisturized hair and oily hair. They are not the same.

4. You notice fewer and fewer tangles, splits and single-strand knots each wash day. Hair that’s in good condition doesn’t tangle and knot easily. I have found this to be the case regardless of hair texture. Many have been lead to believe that because their hair is tightly curled, tangles and knots are just something you have to accept. And it’s true that these strands are more prone to wrap around each other. However, if you have proper moisture levels and minimal damage, the strands (even the tightly coiled ones) will slide past each other during combing.

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Of course, these are only a few ways to recognize a good regimen, but I think they are the most important. If you’ve been doing your routine for a while and you don’t really see an improvement, you should consider re-evaluating your products and technique. Maybe leave one step (or product) out of your regimen at a time until you find the culprit. Once you do, you can replace that item or that step with something that works.

Hair Myth: “Natural Hair MUST HAVE Oils to Grow and Thrive”

“If you want great looking natural hair, you must use natural oils to keep it moisturized.”

This is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE!

If you’re a person who hates the feel of an oily, greasy head, it might interest you to know that oil application is not necessary for the maintenance of your hair. In fact, they can hinder hair growth and cause dryness in some people.

When I decided to start taking better care of my hair, I did lots of research on proper maintenance for natural hair. Almost every website, blog and video that I saw relied heavily on the use of oils for styling and maintenance. So, wanting to do things the right way, I bought and tried all kinds of oils and used products that contained oils (shampoos, conditioners and stylers). I used them religiously, hoping for great hair days. I did this for months, all the while wondering why my hair never felt as soft or maintained as much length as it had when I was using a simpler routine with little to no oils. Also, it seemed to break easily when it never had before, and detangling (which used to take me five minutes on thick hair that was around bra strap length at the time) became a LONG, tedious chore.

Then one day I washed with a shampoo that was oil-free and followed up with an oil-free conditioner. Afterwards, I was surprised at how much easier my hair was to comb, even after I’d rinsed the conditioner. I decided to then skip my usual olive oil after-wash application. I just twisted it and let it dry. The next day, I untwisted soft, moisturized hair that wasn’t hard for the first time in months. I did the same the next time I washed, and my hair only seemed to improve.

Needless to say, with the exception of Jojoba and Vitamin E oils (which are not technically oils at all), I have not used straight oils in my hair since then. Now, a couple of years (and several haircuts) later, my hair is thick and soft, and very manageable. It currently reaches my armpit when straight and is not prone to breakage or split ends. Most of all, it’s not hard, greasy and tangly. And as another side benefit, I have been able to use less of my hair products because I no longer have to compensate for the dryness caused by the oils. A 16 oz. bottle of conditioner can now last months for me. Sulfate shampoos, though still drying, no longer leave my hair feeling like straw. I can use hair gel on its own and not get crunchy hair. I don’t know that I will ever go back to using oils in my hair again.

So, if you ever wondered if your hair can get along with all the oil rinsing, LOC methods, and oil-based products, I say GIVE AN OIL-FREE ROUTINE A TRY! You might be pleasantly surprised with the results!

Characteristics of Properly Moisturized Hair

There has been a long standing belief that black hair can and should take longer to style and maintain than other hair types. We firmly believe that this is NOT TRUE!

Black hair is made the same way and of the same “material” as every other type of human hair in the world. So, our properly moisturized hair should exhibit some of the same characteristics as anyone else with well moisturized hair. Here are a few:

1. If you touch the hair, your hand should NOT be greasy or oily. Oil slicked hair is not the same as moisturized hair. Oils can only give the hair a certain appearance and feel. They cannot go into the strand, where real moisture lives. Moisturized hair should look and feel soft and smooth, not oily.

2. Moisturized hair is pliable, even when dry. Grab a few strands of your completely dried hair. Does is separate easily from the rest of the hair? Or do you need to wet it in order for it to be manipulated. If it comes away easily and your can manipulate it without water or conditioner, chances are your hair has a good moisture level.

3. Well moisturized hair doesn’t need to be “moisturized” every day. If your hair has the proper moisture levels, it should be able to maintain those levels for at least a couple of days after a wash. If your hair does not, consider changing to a better quality conditioner and shampoo.

4. Moisturized hair does not break or split easily. Some people think that only protein treatments give hair strength, and that is true, to a certain extent. But did you know that maintaining proper moisture can prevent the loss of protein in the first place? Proper moisture levels ensure that the hair is not left dried out and brittle, leading to the loss of protein and natural ceramides. This loss of protein, in turn, leads to breakages, tangles, single strand knots and dull looking, hard to manage hair.

5. Moisturized hair has shine. There is no need to add serums and shine enhancers to the hair. Proper moisture shines from the inside out.

6. Properly moisturized hair needs little to no oil. When the hair has moisture, the strands become smoother because the cuticles lay flatter. Because of this, natural sebum is more able to travel down the shaft. Many naturals labor under the misconception that sebum will not travel down our strands because of the coiled nature of our hair. This is simply not true. Imagine a coiled spring sitting in oil. If you lift the spring out of the oil, what happens? Gravity will cause the oil to run from the top of the spring to the bottom. Gravity cares little for the shape of the spring, just like it cares little for the shape of our hair. It will work the same if the hair is straight or coiled. The only difference will we allow the sebum to work or will we try to circumvent it by adding occlusive oils, further preventing it from getting to our hair shafts.

7. Moisturized hair can withstand being shampooed and not drying out. If your hair dries out completely after a single shampoo, you should consider getting a new conditioner. Moisture that lives within the hair shaft will stay there, even if the surface is shampooed.

We hope you’ve found this helpful. And if you’re in the market for a new conditioner, why not give our FlaxCare Moisture Treatment Conditioner a try!

A Hair Myth: “Black Hair is More Fragile Than Other Hair Types”

I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard or read this phrase. And another dollar for every person who actually believes it.

The truth is:

1. We are one of the few races of people who are born with full heads of hair. That means that our hair was strong enough to survive rolling around in the womb for months and not rubbing off. That doesn’t sound fragile to me.

2. As little girls, we endured frequent pressing of our hair with irons that reached extremely high temperatures. And instead of falling out or burning off, our hair grew long.

3. Then we straighten it with one of the most caustic chemicals known to man, lye. And even though that damages it beyond repair, our hair is tough enough to withstand the process over and over again, for many years. But this is weak hair, right?

Considering all of this, I wonder, who started this rumor that our hair is fragile? And why do we believe it?

Hair Tip #1: You Don’t Always Need a Handful of Conditioner

If after you apply your conditioner and detangle , you see white foam on your hands or your conditioner is still visible on your hair strands, chances are you’ve used too much.

It seems like we’ve been led to believe that we need to slather on handfuls of conditioner in order for it to work on our hair. If you find that you have to use 1/4 to 1/2 a bottle at each wash, you either have a non-penetrating conditioner or you cleansing process (or styling process) is WAY too drying to your hair. Your products could contain ingredients that block penetration (called occlusives) or the conditioner is not the correct formulation needed to moisturize your hair.

Take the time to reevaluate your regimen and your products. Whatever is drying your hair to that level is costing you money in the form of bottle after bottle of conditioner (even with the cheap conditioners, this adds up).

Even in the most extreme cases, I use a less than an ounce of conditioner, after shampooing with a sulfate shampoo. And I have thick, coarse, tightly curled, armpit length hair. So, figure out what’s blocking your moisture. There’s no reason you can’t save that conditioner money for something else.

A Few Things About My Low Porosity Hair…

My hair has Low Porosity.

Instead of viewing it as a bad thing, I’ve actually come to like that about my hair. But it definitely made things more… interesting when I was a new natural.

First of all, there are a few who are of the opinion that the lower hair’s porosity, the ‘healthier’ it is. And I can see this point. Since damage and chemically altering the hair strand raises its cuticle layers permanently (high porosity), it’s easy to conclude that undamaged, unaltered, and therefore ‘healthier’, hair will have lower porosity.

The question is, with all these tightly closed cuticle layers, how do we get moisture inside the hair strand?

This is a bit of a misleading question. Since Moisture = Water, and water has a molecular weight of only 18 g/mol, its molecules are small enough to penetrate hair on its own. If they weren’t, your hair would never get wet, water would simply slide off. So, the real problem is how to keep the water in, and what keeps the water in. At rather, keep it in for as long as possible.

Many people like to use oils to ‘seal’ in the moisture. For me this is a waste of time. I learned quickly that oils cannot seal in water. Even some of the lightest oils I’ve used have a molecular weight of over 500 g/mol. So, water molecules are small enough to ‘get around’ those larger oil molecules and evaporate as usual. What’s left behind is the sticky oil coating on the strands. This is a nightmare for a person with low porosity. For us, things that coat the hair only make the hair hard and dry. Not Good!

So, I’ve listed a couple of things below that have helped me tremendously. Hope they help you too!

1. One solution is to combine a water-based conditioner with a low molecular weight conditioning agent which can also penetrate the hair. I won’t go into detail about those because I’ve included them in this post (see #2- Emulsifiers). The emulsifiers listed in that post are cationic (positively charged), and they adhere to the hair strand and resist wash off. So they can help ‘hold’ the water in longer. And because they are lightweight and not occlusive (moisture blocking), they won’t make hair hard or dry. In fact, they do the opposite. This is why they are already included in our FlaxCare products as opposed to a lot of other emulsifiers or heavy oils.

2. Another thing to consider is adding a humectant to your rinse off conditioner, if it doesn’t have one. Glycerin, in small amounts, is a good choice. It has been shown to lift the cuticle layers to allow conditioner to penetrate the strand. But be careful not to add a lot, as it can make the hair feel gummy or sticky. And I also don’t recommend it in leave in products, because it can keep the cuticle lifted and allow faster moisture evaporation.  But you don’t have to stick with glycerin. Honey, aloe, honeyquat, agave, etc. are all good humectants. Pick one that meets your needs.

Of course, there are many other tips for moisturizing low porosity hair,  but I feel that these two things have helped me the most. If you have more to add, please feel free to do so.

Do Heavy Oils Harm Hair More Than They Help

This post is for those of you, like me, who have tried regimen after regimen for your natural hair without success.

I stopped relaxing my hair in 2007 and immediately tried doing a ‘natural’ routine. I bought oils, butters, all natural conditioners (which were loaded with oils and butters), and I even tried co-washing. When nothing worked, I figured it was just because I hadn’t found my ‘staple’ products and I needed to keep looking and trying different products. Of course, this led to a bathroom cabinet full of barely-used products.

I’m a smart person, I told myself. I can figure this out. And because I love science, I decided to approach the problem scientifically. First, define the problem (dry, unmanageable hair), then determine the cause. Once you know what’s causing your dry hair, you’ll have a better chance of reversing it, by doing the opposite.

© m_bartosch/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It just happens that oils were the first thing that I looked into. First, I checked the components of the oils I’d been religiously applying to my hair– olive, coconut, castor, grapeseed, sesame, jojoba, vitamin e oil (and there were others). Then I compared those to natural sebum, since that’s what they were supposed to be replacing in our hair. Turns out, with the exception of Jojoba oil, sebum’s composition is not like any of those oils. Sebum is made up mostly of waxy esters, and jojoba, which is not an oil at all, is a liquid waxy ester.

So what did I do with this new information? I ditched the oils from my regimen immediately. I washed my hair and conditioned with something oil-free, twisted it up and let it dry. That was it. The next day, I was surprised that my hair was not as dry as before. And gone was the hard hair that wasn’t pliable unless it was wet. I could actually manipulate my hair… and i didn’t need a spray bottle of water to do it! I was in awe of this amazing discovery. I decided to try this oil-free regimen a few more times, just to be sure. Well, that was a couple of years ago, and aside from Jojoba and Vitamin E (these are esters, not oils), I have not purchased any oil for my hair. My hair is stronger, curls are more defined, detangling is easier and I have no breakage or split ends.

I have my opinion on why my hair is better without the oil. If you’ve ever put oil on any surface and left it for a day of two at room temperature, generally, when you return you will find that the oils is not in the same state as you left it in. If you try to wipe it away, you will see that it is now stuck to that surface, and you need the help of a cleansing agent to remove it. I think that the same thing happens when oil is placed on the hair’s surface and left for days or weeks. It becomes sticky and acts like glue for neighboring strands. They all clump together and are help in place until washing. Because they strands can’t slide easily past one another, detangling after a wash is more difficult. And the sticky oil coating has, in effect, blocked moisture from getting into the strands. So hair doesn’t get easier to do or more moisturized over time as it should. Of course, we then accept that this is the best our hair can be. AND IT ISN’T!!

Anyway, I just wanted to share that experience. This is one of the main reasons FlaxCare products do not contain heavy oils, that only coat the surface and strangle the hair. We use penetrating and moisturizing ingredients that improve hair with each use.  And while ditching heavy oils wasn’t the only thing I changed in my regimen since that discovery, it has had a huge impact on the state of my hair. So, I wonder:  Could previous generations have been wrong about caring for our hair? Are oils actually bad for our hair? Is black hair the most unmanageable hair type because we’re the only ones who use oils the way we do?

What do you think? All thoughts are welcome!

Cleanliness is next to…

One of the most basic, and most common, mistakes I see naturals make is not properly cleaning the hair and scalp. This usually means one of two things:  they either (1) don’t use an effective cleansing product or (2) wait too long to cleanse the hair. And many times, it’s a combination of both.

Dirt, sebum, skin cells, and oils can cover the hair and scalp and prevent good hydration from getting to where it’s needed. Left on too long, they eventually ‘starve’ the hair, making it brittle and dry. Over time, the hair breaks or get splits ends and nasty tangles. This leads many naturals to conclude that their hair just won’t grow. Or worse, they go on a quest for products that ‘grow hair fast’, spending tons of money, when all they need to do is change the method and frequency that they shampoo.

This was something I learned after I tried co-washing. After a day or two of itchy scalp and excessive shedding, I went running back to my shampoo. I’ve found that when I wait longer than a few days to wash my hair, it’s more fragile and looks dull.

The natural sebum, or any oil that had been added to the hair, starts to act like glue and stick the strands together, creating knots and tangles. Effectively cleaning the hair gets rid of the ‘glue’ and allows those strands to slide past each other, making detangling and styling easier.

Another benefit of regular shampooing is that follicles are no longer clogged. Sebum is not really an oil, but a wax, and left on the scalp too long, it can actually plug the follicles. Then you get itchy, inflamed scalp (tenderheadedness), poor hair growth, and higher incidence of scalp issues, like dandruff.

So, if you want the quality of your hair to improve, start with a clean slate. Clean your hair and scalp effectively, and clean them often. You’ll be rewarded with shinier, stronger hair.

Who Decided…

I wonder who decided that natural hair had to be hard. Who said that I had to have a literal ‘wash day’ where no one saw me for the rest of the day once I went into the bathroom? Why should it take so long to maintain and style? If ‘God is no respecter of persons’, then why were we chosen to have the ‘difficult hair’

As for me, I don’t  think that we’re meant to have any harder of a time with our hair than anyone else. So, I can only conclude that we do things that make our hair unnecessarily hard to manage. We get in our own way, so to speak.

After being natural for about six years now, I think I’ve figured out what some of those things are that we do to make our own hair difficult.  I’m going to try to share those things on this blog and my other social media. In the meantime, I hope that anyone reading will share their thoughts on this. Do you think that we make natural hair care harder than it should be? How so?