Naturally Me! Red Lippy!

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Natural Hair ||Why is Protective Styling Important?

Its Summertime so the kids are home for the summer. We go swimming, to spraygrounds, sprinklers, and anything else we can play in to stay cool. During the week we keep our hair twisted/braided up and tucked away..then I take it down to style on the weekends. My daughters and I have alot of hair and its mandatory that we wear protective styles to prevent breakage and excessive shedding. Protective styles also help retain moisture and increases growth. I have added a video below on protective styles that has some good info. Check it Out!!

Getting Henna-fied!

Henna for African Hair

This was my first time trying the Henna for African Hair, I usually use the Jamila Henna...

Day 1: First ,I added some EVOO. I never measure anything, I just "eye ball" the ingredients... I have henna'd so many times I just add a little this and that. Here is the very first time I used henna on my old BLOG. I doubt I measured anything that time either.

My hair LOVES honey, so I added quite a bit of honey...

You can use any conditioner...  I bought this conditioner AGES ago, I didn't care for the smell so I squeezed most of the bottle into my mixture.

Stir...and stir...

I added water...

If it looks gross, you are doing it right. I didn't have lemon juice so I used some Orange Juice. FAIL!!!...it didn't have enough acidity to lift the color. I learned my lesson. DON'T FORGET LEMON JUICE!! 

I put the lid on it and let the ingredients "marinate" over night. 

Don't forget the gloves. I usually use disposable gloves but I ran out... 

Day 2... Time to get my HENNA on!! Here goes...

I have my henna mixture, towel, and gloves. It can get messy so lay newspaper on the floor for the inevitable mess.

Apply from Root to Tip.

My hair used every drop..

Work the mixture in every strand... I saturated each section and put it in clips.

This was how it looked before I put the shower cap on...

Day 3...I rinsed out all of the mixture but it still seemed like it wasn't fully washed out so I used some AS I AM Co-Wash to fully clean out all the left over henna. I'm glad I did because the water was still muddy looking.

I used this Keratin Replenish Masque (2 pks) and put on a NEW disposable shower cap... I left the conditioner on for a few hours.

The RESULTS ARE IN::: The henna didn't add color to my hair. My gray hairs turned an auburn color but thats about it. My hair color remained the same. 

I am happy with the turn out... My kinks stretched out. Major ELONGATION!!! I have only conditioner in my hair and I have curls and coils. My hair felt soft, detangled and strong. I didn't get the color I wanted but I loved the results. My hair is alot more manageable and it hangs alot longer on my shoulders/back. I prefer the Jamila henna for color but my hair responded really well to this type of henna. I love the results!!

Leave any questions in the comments and I will try to answers them. 

Happy Henna'ng!!!

Cobalt Coilz!

Hey Glitzies!

Testing for Porosity... Know your Hair!!

Testing for Porosity

In order to find out what your hair porosity is, take a piece of shed hair from your comb or brush. It’s important that you get a shed and not broken hair to test. In order to determine if the hair was broken or shed naturally, examine the ends. If you see a little white ball on one of the ends, it means that it was shed. Take the hair and drop it in a glass of water. If the hair immediately sinks it means that it readily absorbed the water and has high porosity. If the hair remains at the top, floating, it means that it is unable to absorb the water and has low porosity. If it floats to the bottom slowly then it has normal porosity. Source: Naturally Curly

My hair QUICKLY floated to the bottom..

My hair has High Porosity...

Knowing your hair porosity is far more important than knowing your curl pattern since it will greatly affect your ability to have moisturized healthy looking hair.

For those with low hair porosity, it is imperative that you use lighter more liquid based products that will not just sit on top of your hair making it oily or greasy. Also, you will be able to get away with fewer moisturizing sessions to avoid build up.

However, with high hair porosity that easily loses moisture, layering on products to retain moisture is a necessity. Many high porosity naturals, after washing their hair, apply a leave-in conditioner, then a thick water based moisturizer followed by a heavy butter. By layering your products, you are providing your hair with the moisture it needs from the leave-in and moisturizer, and ensuring that the moisture remains near the hair shaft by using a heavy butter or oil to act as a protective layer to prevent the moisture from being lost to the atmosphere. High porosity naturals may also find it necessary to moisturize often and some high porosity naturals moisturize once or twice daily.

If you have normal porosity hair then count your blessings, listen to your hair’s needs and moisturize accordingly.

Source: Naturally Curly Dot Com