Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Hair Routine

So a few days ago I posted the picture below on Instagram and had someone ask me what my hair routine was, I'd never thought of doing a post on my hair but I've tried and tested so many products before landing on my magic set that I thought it might be helpful to someone somewhere.


I've always had pretty regular hair, not too long, not too short....just average. Generally I'm not a product junkie; skin, face, whatever; I find something I like and I stick to it and its worked for me so far. Therefore my attitude to hair was relax it maybe twice a year, in between stick it in weaves and pay no attention to it.

The real struggle began about 4 years ago when I cut my hair, like proper boy type short and everything just went to hell in a hand basket. I tried going natural for about a year which was a massive disaster, started relaxing my hair again and it just refused to grow right. My hairline went all LeBron on me and retreated significantly from my forehead, my ends were split to fudge, I had ridiculously uneven hair....it was a mess. sometime in 2010 up until September 2011, I locked my hair in weaves and the only time I saw my natural hair was when I was taking out one weave to put in another.

Then a miracle happened, I decided to leave my hair out for about a week last September and surprise surprise it had grown alarmingly and looked extremely presentable. Since I hadn't done a thing to it I figured protective styles was what had done it, so I started leaving my hair out at intervals to monitor the growth and noticed it grew rapidly but was very weak and broke off as fast as it was growing. I turned to Youtube, TWP and anyone I knew who had long relaxed hair for help and was literally bombarded with information, everybody had a sure-fire routine for growing their hair and keeping said growth.

Everything, from a girl who NEVER combed her hair, like just ran through it with her fingers, washed it every single day and relaxed the new growth every month and she had gorgeous hair, but I couldn't see myself putting my weakened hair through all that strain. I found someone else who moisturized and sealed her hair every day with Wave Nouveau Finishing Lotion and Hollywood Beauty Castor Oil, I tried that for a while but my hair started to rival Didier Drogba's in greasiness and was so disgusting I gave that up as a bad job.

After several trial runs I think I've finally arrived at a workable solution. My main problem was breakage and everybody with their 1001 solutions always came back to the same thing: a protein treatment, whether DIY or one that came in a bottle. I don't trust DIY, whether on outfits, facial or skin mixtures and least of all my hair so I decided to go with a tried and trusted brand.


Aphogee Two-Step Protein Treatment
 
This I do every four weeks, I've been using it for about three months now so thats three applications so far and I can definitely see an improvement. After you apply it your hair literally hardens, like you could break pieces off it in that state but that's just the magic getting to work. It has detailed instructions which should be adhered to strictly or you risk losing a healthy hank of hair. It should be used in tandem with the Balancing Moisturizer.
get it HERE


Aphogee Balancing Moisturizer
It is a must for use after the Two-Step Protein treatment because it softens the hair after the protein treatment dries it out.
get it HERE


Herbal Essences Beautiful Ends Range
 Implying that I use the range is a bit ambitious, I only use the conditioner and the hair mask. In the hair world the lingo is exhaustive and at first when everyone was telling me to co-wash it sounded like gibberish. With the help of my trusty friend Google I found out that co-washing meant to use only conditioner to wash your hair, this is because shampoo strips your hair of essential oils or something. I felt a little smug here because I'd co-washed a few times before I even knew it was a "thing" because I always felt shampoo was a bit harsh sometimes. So I co-wash once a week and only use shampoo when I'm relaxing my hair.


Wave Nouveau Moisturizing Finishing Lotion
This lotion is very greasy even though it is advertised as being non-greasy, no idea why. I only use it once a month when I do the protein treatments because I feel like I need all the moisture I can get on that day. I'm still a bit iffy on whether its absolutely necessary, maybe my hair just can't take it but someone else's might. If you have awfully dry hair this might be the product for you.
get it HERE


Moroccan Argan Oil
 Now this product I'm seriously in love with, I use it on my scalp and hair when I do my weekly wash, then because I have a really dry scalp, I use it everyday on that but I don't let it touch my hair. My hair retains moisture for a long time so after is has been moisturized and sealed really well I don't let anything touch it for a few days.
get it HERE




Hollywood Beauty Castor Oil
I got this after I saw a Youtube video where a girl used it to seal her hair and though Shea oil is preferred by most hair nazis I don't think it works for me ( I use virgin untreated shea butter on my skin though and it works beautifully there). Plus my hair tends to retain moisture so I only seal about once a week after washing it. I might use it lightly on my ends during the week but only very sparsely so I don't go aorund with a heavy, greasy hank of hair.
get it HERE


So there you have it, my tried and trusted hair products, it sounds like a lot of work and I thought it was before I started but its turned out to be not so stressful. Thing is my hair used to be in weaves 100% of the time before but when I decided to start caring for my hair its only about 60% of the time now. Protective styles work for me and I still feel my hair flourishes best when its plaited and tucked away under several grams of weave. So the above treatments are used only when my hair is out, I'm sure I'll see faster work if I went at it religiously for a year or so but honestly I break out in hives thinking of going through all this wahala constantly, I'd rather stick to feeding the hair all this richness for a few weeks or so then putting a weave back on so it can hibernate and grow in peace.

I'm still on the lookout for more tips, my obsessive personality has kicked into high gear and the unfortunate victim is my hair so if you have any more ideas that could help or if you see anything I'm doing wrong please do not hesitate to point it out so I can fix up.

Love and light xx
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25 comments

  1. A lot of naturals use Aphogee but I haven't tried it yet. You look nice

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    Replies
    1. Its really good, there's a whole range of products and I'm thinking of just sticking to Aphogee instead of using different brands. Thanks babe.

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  2. Thanks Thanks for this info. Your hair looks great and healthy. Luckily my mom has always taken care of our hair since we were young, so i followed those steps and watched my hair grow long and healthy. But recently, since i moved to Nigeria my hair has been experimented on by different salons and their rubbish products. Decided to go back to doing my hair myself and got my regular products. I use Pantene shampoo and conditioner and Indian hemp cream and its been working excellently well for me. I'm going to try Argan oil soon.


    Great Post!

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    1. Thank you! yeah Argan oil is fantastic. Salon products are dreadful, even their shampoo is practically 3 parts water and 1 part shampoo. I never use their stuff if I can help it.

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  3. Daks you should try natures gentle touch. their salon is at 209 Muri okunola street off Ajose Adeogun (when and if you ever get back). They handle only natural hair there and you gotta use their products but their products are amazing and they know how to handle hair. I've always said the biggest killer of hair is improper handling as opposed to wrong products. Most salons cant treat hair properly, they are miserly when it comes to products and water but i have no complaints with this place. Discovered them 2 years ago and i've been going steady with them ever since. I wash and condition every week and relax every 3 months and rarely ever put in weaves or braid. My hair's about 16 inches so you know i aint playing with it.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I know right, your hair is gorge! Thanks for the info because I was wondering how I'd have to coach whoever's going to be doing my hair back in Lagos on how to handle it.

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  4. Meanwhile you go start to dey collect money for these posts oh! do the producers know they are getting free promo here? And @LaizaLounge Pantene is really good too, used it for 9 years and change and still do when i'm out of Gentle touch products.

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  5. Nice post! Your hair looks good. I'm not a big fan of hair products. I use natural shea butter for my hair and it works perfectly.

    If you're looking for a natural hair salon in Lagos, I recommend Krasiva on Irewole Street, off Opebi Link Road Ikeja (Call 08052412203 to book an appointment). They're the best thing that ever happened to my hair. I've done my hair there for three years and I always get stopped on the street - literally - by strangers exclaiming in disbelief, "Is that your real hair?" All my friends and co-workers now go there thanks to me, the Krasiva walking billboard. Dry. Haha.

    On a serious note, give them a call. You'll see what I mean.
    Ciao.

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    1. Heard of them, and from what i've seen they're good. The stress of leaving the island to ikeja is the wall of separation between me and a well treated hair.

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    2. Ah Ikeja is more like it, my stomping ground. I'll definitely try them. Thanks.

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  6. thanks a lot. i decided to carry ma natural hair too but mehn the breaking is scary. i hope i get this products in nigeria i would love to try them.

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    1. I'm not sure where you can get them all in Nigeria but A2 Hair & Beauty Store in Abuja has a great natural hair care range so I'm pretty sure they'll have some if not all the products listed.

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    2. Hi, you can get the Aphogee at http://thesizzlingmommy.com/store/products-page/hair
      they have other wonderful hair products there and they deliver too!

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  7. I've been wanting to try aphogee, does the treatment require heat from a hooded dryer or it's something you can do at home. I just colored my hair (waste of time color didnt take) and I know it will be needing a good protein treatment soon.

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    Replies
    1. For the Two-Step Protein Treatment a hand-dryer will do, its the Keratin Two-Minute Reconstructor that needs a hooded dryer.

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    2. oh? i use mine without a hooded dryer, hope all my efforts have not been for nothing! :"( i put a shower cap on and leave it for like 5 mins..... i dont have a hooded dryer, would i need to leave it for a longer time to get the hooded dryer effect?

      Delete
  8. Oh I totally forgot about Aphogee. In high school, long story but i lost my hair and it was in patches. My aunt had me do the aphogee treatment and it worked like a charm. Will definitely try the moroccan kinikan for dry scalp. Thanks for sharing.

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  9. U should go for drug store castor oil .its unrefined nd works better(100 times) than the Hollywood.I grew over 4 inches of hair from January to July.def,everyone's different but all natural oils work way better than the processed stuff

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  10. I LOVED this POST, had to link it to my Blog! I've never tried this brand of Castor Oil, but I love Jamaican Black Castor Oil, works for me!!

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  11. Yay! I love when women pay attention to their hair. Nice product line-up! I used to use aphogee in my undergrad days...I remember the experience more than the results. Lol! Crazy product.
    Only suggestion I have is with the Castor oil...it's always much better (and easy) to use natural, pure, unadulterated oils. The hollywood beauty contains parrafin/petrolatum and parabens. I use Jamaica Black Castor oil, my best oil.

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  12. I see you have discovered the miracle that is Aphogee! When I had relaxed hair, I used d entire line of Aphogee products to amazing results!

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  13. I love your blog so much! Plus you are so beautiful and i love your style and wit. please can u also do a skin care routine.
    hugs.

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  14. I wanted to ask where do you buy or get your virgin untreated shea butter? I need some for my daughter she have some skin issues.

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  15. please where can I buy argan oil? The link you posted tells me its not valid. Thanks

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