5 Tips for Protecting Your Hair This Winter

If the winter season brings cold weather where you live, then you'll want to prepare to give your hair a little extra TLC. Here are 5 steps to help you keep your strands healthy and growing through the winter months.

Deep Condition I'm not the best at this step, but it's important. You know how in the summer months you can get away with using a thin lotion to keep your skin moisturized and in the winter you need to switch over to a heavier, creamier moisturizer so your skin doesn't dry out? Well much like your skin moisturizer, deep conditioning gives your hair the extra boost of moisture that it needs. Let's face it - with the harsh, cold air, the winter months can wreak havoc on our curls, kinks and coils, making them dry and brittle. And what does dry, brittle hair lead to? Tangles and breakage. No thank you! Overwhelmed by all the products out there and not sure where to start? Check out my video on my easy, inexpensive deep conditioner. Also, if your hair has permanent color in it, then deep conditioning isn't optional for you at any time of the year - it's always a must.

Puuddy's tightly coiled hair

Moisturizer There's no way around it - having a good quality moisturizer in your product arsenal is imperative to the health of your hair. Now, the type of moisturizer will largely depend on your curl pattern. Moisturizers come in a range of formulas, because no two curl patterns are alike. The tighter the curls, the more difficult it is for the natural moisturizer our scalps make - sebum - to make its way down our strands. This type of curl pattern will benefit from a heavier, creamier moisturizer (I like SheaMoisture's Curl Enhancing Smoothie - beware: a little goes a loooong way). The looser the curls, the easier it is for sebum to moisturize the whole strand of hair, so this curl pattern only needs a light moisturizer, maybe one that comes in spray form. 

Seal Sealing is a step that is really important, especially for those of us with tighter, kinkier curls and coils. There are two ways you can seal: 1) with pH, and 2) with oils or butters. Back when I was setting my hair in a bijillion two-strand twists, I'd seal using the famous "Kimmaytube leave-in conditioner" (note that the original recipe calls for 2 tbsp of aloe vera leaf juice, not green tea). This conditioner acts as a sealant due to the pH of aloe vera leaf juice, one of its main ingredients. This juice is all natural and has a pH that is very close to the natural pH of the scalp and hair - between 4.5 and 5.5. Without getting too deep (let's face it, chemistry wasn't my best subject anyway) when a product falling into that pH range touches our hair, it closes the cuticles of the hair strand, locking in moisture and protecting the strand from tangling and mechanical (comb/brush) damage. So if you think about it, when you apply the Kimmaytube conditioner to your wet hair, you're sealing in the moisture from the water. The result? Soft, shiny, healthy and moisturized hair! The second way to seal is to use oil. Your curl pattern, moisture needs and personal preferences will dictate whether you use a light or heavy oil. My coils are looser than my oldest daughter's coils, so I can get away with using a lighter oil - such as jojoba - to seal. But her hair requires a heavier oil - such as extra virgin olive oil - to effectively lock in moisture, soften her hair and keep it tangle-free.

My curls in the front and back are
loose and wavy

Puuddy's hair with the yarn twist
extensions I installed this summer

Protective Styling This is a term that is talked about a lot in the natural hair community, but what does it actually mean? Protective styling is any style that requires as little manipulation as possible. Less manipulation = less opportunity to damage your strands. In my mind there are two categories of protective styles: with and without the addition of faux/human hair or yarn. But whether you're setting your hair in mini twists or Senegalese twists, you STILL need to SHAMPOO and MOISTURIZE regularly, especially if you're keeping the style in for weeks at a time. Protective styling doesn't mean set-it-and-forget-it. This is really important if you've added hair or yarn to your hair. If you don't keep your hair and scalp clean then lint and dirt will cause build-up that you'll be removing for DAYS maybe even WEEKS after you've taken down the style. Plus, dirt and product build-up on your scalp hinders growth. And if you don't moisturize, then the faux/human hair and yarn will draw all the moisture out of your hair, which can lead to breakage. 

Puuddy's hat that I lined two
winters ago

Lined Hats Lastly, if you're going to wear a hat then make sure it is lined with satin or a satin-like material such as a polyester blend. If your hat isn't lined then I wouldn't wear it at all. Seriously. You can find vendors on Etsy that sell handmade, good quality lined hats (if you need a hat for your baby then I'd recommend this Etsy shop). But it doesn't stop at hats. One winter I learned a hard lesson when I discovered that my wool coat and scarf were causing terrible tangles and matting at the nape of my neck. But should we really freeze for the sake of preserving a few strands? No worries - you don't have to choose. Here's what I do: I still wear my wool coat BUT I make sure I wear a silk/polyester scarf so that it acts as a buffer between my hair and coat. Voilà! You get to stay warm and protect your strands!



Work these tips into your regimen and wardrobe and you'll enjoy healthy, moisturized strands this winter!

~ How do you keep your hair healthy in the wintertime? ~

Detangling Debacle

In the beginning of February I had Senegalese twists installed for the first time. I'd been eyeballing this style for a while so I was really excited to get it done. I only ended up keeping them in for just over a week (they were installed loosely and after a spray bottle wash and condition, my roots were pretty messy), but I enjoyed them while they were in. 

Taking down the Senegalese twists wasn't bad. I didn't have a ton so it didn't take long at all. I actually really liked how my hair looked after I took out the extension hair, so I wore it like that for a day or two before I washed it. 

      

What got me was the detangling process that followed! Now, I'd grown accustomed to finger detangling and hadn't used my wide-toothed comb or Denman brush in a while. So I didn't even think to whip them out when I hopped in the shower to wash and detangle my hair... 

Big mistake! 

And getting my hair wet only seemed to make matters worse. But as a wife and mom, I didn't have time  - or anymore hot water - to get back in the shower to attempt further detangling. I didn't even bother to braid my hair for a braid-out because it would've been too frustrating. I think I ended up bunning my hair or just pulling it up for the next week. I knew that after that detangling debacle, I'd have to use my comb and Denman to make things right again. After all, since I only wash my hair once a week and I have a TON of hair - I mean, my hair is really dense - every wash day I joke with my hubby that I shed a small animal, LOL! I'm serious, y'all!! Sorry, that may have been TMI, but it's true! lol. 

This is how tightly twisted my hair was
prior to finger detangling

Attempting finger detangling on partially
pre-pooed hair.

The next wash day I used my wide-toothed comb and the Denman (on conditioner-laden hair, of course) and I was able to remove lingering tangles and tons of shed hairs that were desperate to escape. I was so relieved to have my hair back to normal! I braided it up and took it down before it dried for a nice, fluffy braid-out that grew as the evening progressed - my fave! :)

Take-away lesson from this experience: for my thick, dense curls I must use a wide-toothed comb and Denman brush to detangle and remove shed hairs after taking down a protective style. 

Senegalese Twists: Tips for Keeping Your Hair Healthy

I always say that your natural hair journey will take you to places within yourself that you never knew existed. 


Today marks a new level of growth in my hair journey - not physical growth, but spiritual. For the past couple weeks I'd found myself admiring (drooling over, really) Senegalese twists. Up until that point this was not a style that I was comfortable wearing. I'd been kind of skeptical of protective hairstyles with extensions because I wasn't convinced that they were effective at protecting the hair while also keeping it healthy. And to be completely transparent, I didn't think it was "me," just like before I started wearing my hair curly I didn't think twists were for me. But what I came to learn through my research on Senegalese twists over the past two weeks (and I'm still learning) is that this style, microbraids and similar styles are okay for your hair as long as you follow a few simple guidelines. I'll go into detail on these guidelines and probably add to them in upcoming posts, but in brief, here they are:

1. Tightness Make sure your hair isn't braided/twisted too tightly, especially around the hairline ("edges"). That is where your hair is the weakest and the most prone to breakage from braids/twists that are installed too tightly.
2. Keep it clean This is key for maintaining and growing a healthy head of hair whether your hair is in a protective style or not. Listen to your scalp. If it is itching constantly then it's time to wash. Many women like to co-wash their twists/braids.
3. Moisturize I've heard of many women who moisturize their hair twice a day when it's in Senegalese twists or microbraids. I think this is sound advice as the synthetic hair and cold weather (if winters are cold where you live) can drain the moisture out of your hair. 

I'm sure there are more tips for keeping your hair healthy while in Senegalese twists, but as I said this is my first time with them and I'm still learning. If you have any tips you'd like to add, please do so in the comment box at the bottom. I can't wait to hear from you. :)

Unlike the pictures indicate, I am THRILLED with how they turned out and I absolutely love them! I'm making those faces because I was dog TIRED after getting them in! LOL! We literally stayed up through the night into the following afternoon to finish them!

I have a lot of styling ideas in the works for my Senegalese twists, so stay tuned! ;)