Na Ishe

Well it’s no news that most people are turning natural which l am absolutely thrilled about but your girl here is slowly learning that rocking a fro for some people is no big deal. How you choose to rock your hair it’s a choice.

I often get a lot of questions if l will ever relax my hair, to which l politely say no no. To some people, that might sound rude but its a hair choice that we all make. I have been guilty of hair shaming where l feel like, aah girl just join team natties, stop with the chemicals and the response l get is “Never” or someone just decides to relax their hair after having a fro for sometime.. Hair shaming comes in different forms from texture, natural vs relaxed or even how a twist-out turned out.

l am coming to terms with that natural hair isn’t for everybody. By that l mean not everybody likes to rock their hair in a fro. And that’s perfectly ok. Rocking natural hair is a choice and not all of us have to be natural. Just because it’s deep for me that doesn’t mean it’s deep for someone else. Why I went natural is totally different from someone else’s reasons. For some people, it might really be a movement or trend they might want to have a feel of and see how it goes. A few months later they might just realise that hmmm this ain’t working. Then boom they can relax their hair, life goes on.

At the end of the day we shouldn’t impose our expectations but rather embrace, educate and celebrate one another. However, the society feels about haircare those expectations should not be imposed on naturals nor shouldn’t we do it to other people either. It’s her choice, it’s her crown it’s her hair. That’s what we should be fighting for rather than having this pre-prescribed idea that everyone should be natural (though it would be nice lol). If I want to wear my natural hair in the workplace, at school or in the streets, there shouldn’t be an opposition to it and there shouldn’t be an expectation of me to relax my hair. If I don’t, the same rules should apply. Let’s be mindful of all hair textures, not compare but rather celebrate and learn from each other.

l hope you enjoyed this post, let me know in the comment section what your thoughts are on hair shaming or if you have been hair shamed?

Love

Tarie

Most of the times we buy and bag on hair oils that we use incorrectly and don’t see results. In our hair journey we need to know the difference between sealing oils and moisturising oils for the oils to work in our favour. Take a look at one of my previous posts on various oils. On today’s post l will primarily focus on how to work with different types of oils.

Firstly, we have moisturising/penetrating oils that predominantly work well with water to boost the moisture levels then we have the sealing oils that lock in the moisture. How this works, you may ask? There’s a two-stage process of moisturising and sealing that helps to hydrate hair. Yass we all love well moisturised and soft hair!!! A moisturising butter or liquid based spray is applied to the entire length of the hair focusing on the ends. This allows the butter or spray to penetrate into the hair strands. A small amount of oil is then applied to the hair, again ensuring that the ends are well covered.  The oil is applied over the moisturizer to lock or seal the moisture into the hair strands.  This keeps hair hydrated for longer.

A question could be ‘ Can you moisturise and not seal?’ answer is NO, well if you don’t seal(lock) in the moisture, evaporation of the moisture will occur quickly. Moisture levels of our hair needs to be replenished on a daily basis because:

• Our hair fibres are damaged by general wear and tear, use of heat etc
• Moisturising our hair once a week alone will not adequately meet the hydration needs of our hair which is prone to being dry.
• Due to the high temperature of our climate, evaporation of the moisture in our hair occurs very quickly.

Ethnic hair has to be moisturised several times during the week to keep it hydrated and avoid breakage. If you are just starting your hair journey, it is likely that your hair will need to be moisturised and sealed twice a day, in the morning and at night. However, if you are unable to moisturise and seal your hair twice a day, try to do it at least once a day, preferably at night.
Water is the best moisturiser and a good quality moisturiser will have aqua/water listed as the first ingredient. I would therefore suggest using pure and natural oils such as the following to mix with water:

• Avocado oil
• Almond oil
• Cold pressed olive oil
• Argan oil
• Jojoba oil

At times you can just apply sealing oils just to massage your scalp to rejuvenate blood vessels and also to provide strength and elasticity. Hence its important to select oils that are natural and cold pressed. Natural oils contain all the beneficial properties in comparison to synthetic hair greases.  Some hair oils are labelled as Shea butter or castor oil etc, when you inspect the ingredients, the product may contain mainly mineral oil and petrolatum with very little of the actual coconut oil or Shea butter in it. This is why it is important that you use natural sealing oils and moisturising oils than a product which is full of synthetic oils such an mineral oil, lanolin oil and petrolatum which actually block moisture. I recommend the following oils as great sealants:

• Shea butter
• Cold pressed coconut oil.
• Castor oil
• Mafura butter

I hope this post was helpful and brought about clarity. For effective results, let’s use the oils the right way. For any questions, let me know in the comment section.

With Love

Tarie

I recently learnt about hair density and then l was like l need to share this info with my people too *smiles* Density is a not a commonly used word in the natural hair community but to a certain extent, it’s low-key used. Ever seen your Insta hair faves with voluminous hair or ever heard someone say, ”You have thick hair or you have sparse hair”? well technically they’re alluding to density because density refers to the number of hair strands on your head *light bulb moment*. Hair density gives you more information about the strength and health of your hair and how to take care of it, so let’s dive more into what density is all about!

Hair density attributes to various factors such as hair texture, porosity and width. Knowing your hair density also helps with knowing what hairstyles to rock as well as which products to apply to your hair. There are various ways on how to test hair density, well that’s a topic for another day. Hair density is categorized between, low (sparse hair) , medium and high density hair (thick hair). With low-density hair, it is best to use lightweight products to avoid weighing down your hair which can lead to more shedding. Persistent shedding leads to a lower density which can lead to thinning or even balding.

Applying the wrong product on low-density hair will cause the hair to look dull and greasy and that’s not lekker. People with medium density are those who don’t have low density but not quite high. We could say they have “combination hair” in terms of density. The best products to use for this density type is to use leave-ins which do wonders for the hair as it helps to retain moisture. Lastly, with highly dense hair, thicker products are best to use as the hair strands truly benefit.

When you become aware of your hair density you become responsible on how to take care of your hair. Although hair density and hair thickness are not the same, they act upon each another. This then means, the thickness of hair is usually dependent on the density of your hair and vice versa. It’s important to know and to learn about this as you care for your hair, since density is a major key when it comes to hair health and overall hair styling.

For example, my hair is medium density and l have low porous hair which means that I have to find a good balance between my products and I also need to use the correct washing products that penetrate my hair. As previously mentioned, if you have low hair density, you should use lighter products because your hair can’t handle heavier products. Your hair can’t handle high heat tools either.

Remember, when you know better, you do better. Knowing about your hair density will make or break you because your hair density determines what products and tools you use for your hair. That’s a wrap on today’s post, l hope this was helpful. For my next post, l will explain the dense test..

Let me know in the comment section below on your thoughts of hair density..

With love

Tarie♡♡