February '16 Hair Check

NOT a Length Check

I took out my vacation crochet braids recently and felt now would be the right time for a hair check. It's not a length check, but a check to see how my hair now compares to my hair before the two sets of crochet braids.

4 Years Strong

4 Year Naturalversary

I celebrated being 4 years natural on this past weekend (January 30th). I can remember making the decision not to get any more relaxers like it was yesterday! It's been a very long journey.There have been many ups and downs, but and I believe that I am just not making my greatest strides. I'm proud of myself for that and I'm proud of everything I've learned up to this point.

For this year's celebration, let's recap my year in hair.

2016 Ambitions

New Beginnings

Of course we all come into new years wanting better things for ourselves. This just so happens to come at the perfect time for me. I'm not a fan of resolutions. I feel like any time is a great time for new beginnings, why wait for the new year? So, first, let's review my goals from 2015.

DMV Natural Salon Experience

Trying My First Natural Hair Salon in the DMV

I recently wrote a post about Finding The Right Salon. I put that system to work when I first decided to find a salon in DC and I've recently done it again when I determined it was time for me to find a natural hair salon.

Referrals & Research

I'm a natural hair blogger, so I talk about my hair chronicles often. Along my journey, I recently began researching natural hair salons in the DMV area. I was going to a salon in DC to get trims, but the stylist I was seeing wasn't natural hair focused.

I Googled and found a few salons in the area but none of them seemed to fit what I was looking for. One of my DMV readers hit me up on Twitter and suggested two salons in the area. She gave me their websites and IG names, so for the next couple of weeks, I watched like a hawk!

How To Determine Hair Porosity

The Hair Porosity Test

Along with figuring out what kind of hair type I have, I decided to see what hair porosity was all about. I wanted to see if finding my porosity would provide me with information I could use towards getting my hair healthy and keeping it there.

What Is Porosity?

Just like hair typing, porosity has been something I've run across quite often during my natural hair journey. Before moving forward, let's understand what hair porosity is:

Porosity refers to your hair's ability to absorb moisture and is broken down into three categories: low, normal, and high. Low porosity means your hair has difficulty retaining moisture; high porosity means your hair easily retains moisture; and normal porosity means your hair holds moisture for an extended period of time with no problem. ~Source

How Do You Determine Hair Porosity?

There are two simple tests you can do at home to determine what type of hair porosity you have.

FLOATING HAIR TEST
There are three simple steps:

1. Grab a glass and fill it with room temperature water.
2. Take a strand or two of clean hair and put it into the glass of water.
3. Watch the hair for 2-4 minutes.

If your hair continues to float, that means you have low porosity. If your hair sinks, you have high porosity. If your hair slowly sinks and remains floating somewhere in the middle, it has normal porosity.

It turns out that I have low porosity. When I did the test, my hair floated on top of the water for all 4 minutes.

THE SLIDE TEST

I hadn't heard about this test until writing this post, however, the steps for this test are just as easy!

1. Take a strand of hair (still connected to your head)
2. Starting from the end of the strand, slide your fingers up the strand of hair

When you slide your fingers up the strand of hair, you will either have a smooth ride or a bumpy one. If you have a bumpy ride, you're feeling the lifted cuticles on your hair shaft meaning you have high porosity. If you can move up the hair strand smoothly, your cuticles lay flat and you have low porosity.

My results from this test matched my results from the floating hair test. I had a smooth ride, so that means low porosity (x2).

How Can You Use This Information?

Knowing the porosity of your hair can provide you with good information to aid in caring for your hair just like knowing your hair type can.

Here are some traits of low porosity hair:

1.) Cuticles are closed, so moisture does not enter easily / hair is resistant to moisture.
2.) Products sit on your hair.
3.) Water beads up on hair.
4.) Hair takes a long time to dry.
~Source  

AND here are some ways to care for low porosity hair:

1.) Use heat to open the cuticles to let the moisture in. Use warm water to wash and condition hair and also utilize heated deep conditioning.
2.) Use lighter products with humectants and lighter oils such as Argan Oil.
3.) Reduce build up on your hair.
~Source 1 & Source 2

The information I gathered from determining my hair porosity has actually been helpful. I've already started using this information and plan to put more to use soon. I've gone through a lot of different things with my hair since my last post, so I'll be working diligently to get this information out to you within the next couple of weeks!

I'm sure hearing about hair porosity isn't a new concept to most of you reading this. I want to hear from you!! Have you tried either of these tests? What were your results? Have you used hair porosity to help with hair care? Has knowing your porosity helped?

Let's talk!!

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How To Find The Right Hair Salon

3 Tips For Picking Your Next Salon

My hair is important to me...I'm a natural hair blogger, why wouldn't it be?! There are different kinds of women out there; those who can do their hair on their own at home, those that have to go to the salon to get their hair done, and those in between. I'm an in between kind of woman leaning more towards the have-to-go-to-the-salon side! Knowing this, I've had to perfect the best way to find the right salon for me. I used this method to find the best cosmetologist in the world when I was in NC and I'm hoping for the same results here.

Nothing is foolproof, but this method has worked before, so I have no choice but to put it to work again. Here are the three tips that lead me in the right direction when looking for an awesome salon.

Wash and Go Success

Perfecting A Technique

I've been battling with the wash and go ever since becoming natural. I've never really been a fan of shrinkage so when my hair was in its earlier stages, I couldn't take the reduction in length. Now that I'm being more cognizant of my hair and the styles I choose, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the style.

Relearning Old Styles

Protective Style

We all know by now that I’m on a healthy hair trip! There are many things I’m learning and trying so I can do what’s best for my hair. I’ve set a few hair goals and I’m determined to get this thing right. I mean, I have to if I want my hair to flourish!

One of the ways I plan to achieve this goal is with protective styling. Here’s one style I haven’t been able to accomplish since I was transitioning, so I’m very excited to share!

French Braids

When I was transitioning, the easiest style for me to do was a braid out. I would cornrow my hair nightly and wear crinkled hair each day. I was excited then because I was never able to cornrow my relaxed hair. I guess my naturally curly roots allowed my fingers to grab the hair better and those roots laid together better.

Since being natural, I’ve had this style done once in the salon. My cosmetologist French braided my naturally curly hair. The only product I remember her using is gel, but I'm sure there was a moisturizer and oil in the mix. The style looked great and I loved it!! I also loved not having to do my hair every night! Unfortunately, the style didn't last long. Like I've explained so many times before, my hair is super soft and doesn't respond to gel the way other hair types do.

Defining My Hair

Hair Type

I've been natural for three and a half years. During that time, I've read a lot of information and I must admit it's a bit overwhelming! I've skimmed over some good information that I had difficulty retaining for several reasons; with most prevalent being if it's not information I can use right at the moment, I'll forget it!

One thing I've seen most often in natural hair communities is hair typing. I've seen chart after chart about what each hair type is, what it looks like, and what celebrity has that type of hair.

The First CoWash Experiment

Head and Shoulders Product Review

Now that I've laid out my hair goals and what hair products I've already tried, we can talk about some of the things I've been doing with my hair.

One of the styles I decided to master as a protective style is the wash and go. I've tried this style several times throughout my journey and each time the shrinkage has steered me away from rocking the style.

There was never anything wrong with this style but I've never been a fan of shrinkage. Now with my new hair goals in tow, I knew it was time for a revisit. I had two sew-ins back to back so I had a little free time on my hands to do something evaluating. With this time, I decided to look into products to try for wash and go's. I must admit...my biggest influences were a conversation I had a few naturalistas in one my favorite FB groups and my friend's blog post.

So, with that, I went on a journey to find this Head & Shoulders Moisture Care Co-Wash (affiliate link)!

A Hard Reset

Setting Hair Goals

I've spent the majority of this year trying to do a better job of caring for my hair. Let's just start there.

I spent about five months with my hair under 2 different sew-ins. I needed to hide my hair from myself, protect it, and give it a chance to grow after a major cut. I was successful at doing that and happy with the progress and growth. While my hair was under wraps, I had a heart to heart with myself about how I would approach my hair once it was out. I set some goals. Even thought I haven't been here in a minute, I've started this process already. I needed to lay out the plan here, and do a better job of documenting what's going on, so let's take a look: