Althea Joseph from Curly Canadians™ contacted me recently and
asked me to do a review on their new product Hair Love. I was ecstatic, since I
knew my hair agrees with ingredients in the product.
Hair Love has the consistency of a firm to creamy shea
butter and has a mild sweet citrus scent. I’m a huge fan of shea butter and I’ve
come to the conclusion that it absolutely has to be a part of my natural hair’s
existence, so it will not surprise most of you that I love this product. Not to
mention it also contains my hair’s other best friend coconut oil. Matches made
in heaven – plain and simple!
I used Hair Love as a sealer and styler, so much so that I’m
almost out of my supply. It was the main styler for my Curlformers set that I
did a few weeks ago and for my twists and twist-outs over the last couple
weeks. It easily became my go to product to seal and freshen up my hair in the
mornings after spritzing it with water. I
found that it helped my hair retain moisture when used as a sealer and styler
and imparted lots of shine to my 4A/B combination hair.
I would definitely recommend this product for those who are
interested in an all-in-one product that can be counted on.
If you like your own jar of Hair Love and a few
other goodies from Curly Canadians™ you can enter my FIRST GIVEAWAY, sponsored
by Curly Canadians™. THE GIVEAWAY ENDS MAY 26TH!
I’ve received a few requests from readers asking where to
buy natural hair products in Canada, not only Toronto.
I want to create a list of where Curlies and Naturals are
purchasing their products across the country and abroad. For some having access
to products, know-how and perhaps stylists, may be the reason they may or may not go natural. Well, I
think as a community we should help each other and share ideas and hot spots
for product junkies and for those who want to be pampered in a salon…LOL
My plan is to create a page that provides the following: business
names, their website, their email address, their phone number and location. So
please submit your favourites in the comment box below and I’ll take it from
there.
Thanks for your help … I can’t wait to add your resources.
A while back I mentioned that I have dermatitis, since I was a child really. At the time my mom and I didn’t have a clue
what it was. To put it in a nutshell, it’s when you have over active oil
glands. The glands release too much oil and creates the perfect environment to
develop blockages, build-up, flakes and inflammation. Not PRETTY or FUN!
I recently had a flair-up, my scalp was giving me a hard
time. There were a couple weeks where it didn’t matter what I put on my scalp,
it just didn’t want anything to do with me. It was so itchy and driving me
insane.
I finally broke down and went to Shoppers Drug Mart for some
scalp meds. In the past I’ve used Nizoral or Nioxin, I’ve experienced OK
results with both, but I thought I needed to try something new or at least new
to me. Head & Shoulders of all shampoos caught my eye. It’s full of sulfates and
other chemicals and not natural at all, but I was really at my breaking point.
So I picked up Head & Shoulders Clinical Strength (active ingredient: 1%
selenium sulfide) and since I was in the risk taking mood I also grabbed
Scalpicin (active ingredient: 3% salicylic acid) an after shampoo or daily
treatment for dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis as well.
When treating my scalp, I change my hair washing
technique in order to maximize success. Here are the steps I take. Matter of fact, it
would not hurt you to use this technique end for a regular wash.
Technique:
-I put a little bit of shampoo in a shallow
container
-Grab my old perm brush
-Section my hair in four or in the affected areas
-Spray the section of hair with water, so that
it’s damp not soaking wet
-Part the section my hair into tiny sections
-I then use the brush and apply the shampoo
directly to my scalp. I repeat until I run out of hair in the section and then
move on to the next.
-Once complete, I cover my head with a plastic
cap and let it rest for a minimum of 30 minutes.
-When time is up, I wash my hair as usual
My results were
amazing! I was not sure about the Head & Shoulders since it didn’t tingle
as other medicated shampoos often do. For me the tingle makes me think
something is working, but Head and Shoulders, just smelled good.
The shampoo didn’t leave any residue on my scalp or hair. It
looked and felt great. It did make my hair a little dry, but nothing a good
conditioner, leave-in conditioner and sealer can’t fix. My scalp was really the
star here. Let me tell you, it was in
heaven, extremely clean with no signs of dermatitis. I applied the Scalpicin
right after shampooing and that sealed the deal. Now that really tingled my
scalp, but it subsided after a few moments. Then I styled my hair as usual.
I’m amazed, since I have now gone four days without the need
to scratch or even re-apply the meds. I will probably do so tonight just to
keep it on the run though, but so far so good.
Weigh in … have you had any experiences with scalp issues?
Before moving into this post I just want to apologize for not posting the entire history series in February, as I had originally planned. I was under the weather during the end of the month and therefore the reason why my posts were scarce. I will still finish this series though and I hope you all enjoy learning about our hair history as I am....
Beautiful tribal women
When
the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade started it was incredibly traumatic to the
African people. So much so that it is still affecting us as descendants, to
this day. They were wrenched from their homeland and in most cases their family
as well and put in chains and loaded on to slave ships to work in the foreign
western world. Their language, way of life and traditional costumes and
everything they loved was taken away from them. The grooming practices that
they were used to was not a priority anymore, survival was the main concern,
not to mention as the slaves got younger, they had limited knowledge of how to
manage their crown as the skill was only passed down to certain women in the
tribe.
Axle grease
The
slaves often wore their hair covered to protect hair from the harmful hot sun,
wind and dirt. When they found time to do their hair, it was done to emulate
the straight hair of their captors. Many
slaves started to hate the natural texture of their hair and could no longer
see the beauty in it.They used a medley
of toxins to achieve the straight look. A couple early straightening agents
were axle grease (also used as a dye) and hot butter knives. Lard and cooking grease were used as pomades
and to moisturize the hair. They used sheep fleece carding tools to
detangle, but this spread scalp diseases such as lice and dandruff.
Fleece carding tool
As you can see it was quite a struggle back in those days on EVERY level, but what can be said is that our people never stopped being creative through all of their hardships. They found ways to exist.
Since starting my blog, I have been developing and
nurturing relationships with Curlies and Naturals, and I have been really
enjoying it.
Well I’m happy to say that this has blossomed into something
new. In addition to posting my anecdotes, experiences and feelings on my blog I
will also be a regular contributor to the iHeartMyHair.com website, as a Curly
Ambassador. Añya Grant founded the site in 2009 and foundation is to
Love the Hair You're In.
I also featured her on Canadian Curlies last
October. Check out the POST if you want to know more about her story. Needless
to say it was not a difficult decision to get on board, as I continue to get to
know my hair, not to mention I also believe it’s important for everyone to love
and appreciate the beauty that their hair has, whether it’s curly, kinky or
wavy.
Añya approached me to
be a part of her site late last year and it has been wonderful to join her and her team in
this venture and most importantly to meet and network with other Curlies and
Naturals. We are learning from each other and helping one another on this
exciting journey of being natural.
There are great things to come this year and beyond, so keep
checking in with me. I love getting your feedback and comments.
So yesterday February 19th, was one year since I cut off the remaining relaxed ends off. I can't tell you how liberating and scary that was - all at the same time. I don't regret one minute of my transition or the actual moment I cut my hair.
Over the last year, I've met some amazing like-minded people and have gained respect from others that I didn't expect - all through my journey with my hair. I'm happy to say that I would not have done anything differently and I'm looking forward to next year and I'm very excited about the curlie years to come!
Since it was my hair anniversary, I thought I would kick it old school with a style I did often in my transitioning days - CURLFORMERS. I washed my hair as usual, applied my prep products and a little Lottabody setting lotion. I have to say I love the results and the curls are super cute. Tell me what you think:
Now
that I’m a curly, I often wonder why it took so long and I want to get to the
bottom of the history of the perception of our coils. As the old adage says, “you won’t know you are going, until you
know where you came from.” I will be doing a series of posts throughout
February as my way of celebrating Black History Month. So here I go:
Before
slavery our hair was something that was always pampered and taken care of.
Usually, the person who washed, moisturized and styled your hair took great
pride in the task and was someone close to you. You trusted them. Often your
hair told a story, depending on the tribe wearing a different hair style was a
way of letting the tribe now at what stage of your life, ie: marital status,
social rank or mourning a loss to name a few.
Argan oil
Hand-carved comb
Black
soap was used widely as a shampoo and shea butter, palm oil and argan oil were
commonly used to moisture and style. There was also great pride in hand-carving
combs.
The combs are literary works of art and to me this says that they loved
their hair with all its kinks and coils. It was important to take proper care
of it.
