Saturday, October 4, 2014

My HHJ Reflection Two Years In (Part 2)

Hey, beautiful people! After I posted my top 5 things that I learned last week, I thought of five more:

6. A little protein is my friend. A lot is not. Low porosity hair usually doesn't need a lot of protein, but my hair is also fine. Fine hair usually needs protein, so the result is that my hair really likes moisturizing deep conditioners with a little protein in them. It gets really hard with any protein that is on the stronger side.

7. What I thought was a lot of conditioner or gel is not. While my hair is fine, it is also super thick, so I need a lot of product to get through my strands. When I condition, I usually use gobs of conditioner. If I split my hair into 4 sections, I usually use a 2 palm-fulls of conditioner per section. It is the same with gel. I used to wonder why I could not slick down my edges with gel, and then I realized that I simply wasn’t using enough. I need about a palm-full for the front, and two palm-fulls for the back. For me, a palm-full is about a half cup or a golf ball-sized amount. As a result, I have opted for cheaper conditioners, like Herbal Essence, and gels, like Eco Styler.

8. My low porosity hair doesn't need to be moisturized daily. One of the benefits and drawbacks of low porosity hair is that it takes forever to dry. As I’m typing this, my hair has been airdrying for about 10 hours, and it is still wet. As a result, I also don’t need to moisturize everyday. Sometimes, when I put my hair in a bun, the inside of the bun will stay wet all week and I just need to moisturize the outer edges every couple days.

9. I am a “lazy natural”. I liked wigs because it was easy to do my hair at the beginning of the week and just put a wig on it every day. On the weekends, I would wash and go because that was also easy. Once I could do a puff, I did that. Now that my hair is longer, I put it in a bun and keep the same bun until it starts to look a little rough. I am not the type of natural that loves to do intricate styles, though I am going to push myself to do more styling in this next year. If you are a lazy natural like me, Tribe Called Curl has a great Youtube series for lazy naturals.

10. Cowash is nice, but shampoo/soap is necessary. Low porosity hair is prone to buildup. Also, now that I’m using cheaper conditioners, it is good to do a good cleansing periodically. I’ve found that I can’t just use conditioners to cleanse my hair. I need to use something with actual cleansing agents on occasion.