Water-free Hair Upkeep

Hi all,

2 weeks after the passage of Hurricane Tomas and I still have no pipe-borne water. I've been relying on my tank, and so have had to implement some serious water conservation measures. What does this mean for my hair? NO WASHING, NO DETANGLING!

That's right - my hair hasn't been washed for the past 14 days or so. Surprisingly, it's holding up quite well! It's not stinky, itchy, and my scalp isn't covered in buildup. I attribute that to my decision to switch to natural products as much as possible.

Since my detangling sessions always occur in the shower, with my hair loaded up with conditioner and each section detangled under the shower stream, my two weeks of bucket baths have meant that my hair hasn't seen a wide toothed comb in a loooong time. I haven't even combed out the twistout I was sporting last weekend. So am I a tangled mess?

Embracing The Natural

No, I don't mean my hair. My hair hasn't had a chemical service since February 2008. In the years since, I've been slowly figuring out the natural hair landscape, in terms of my hair care products. First I banned petroleum products from my moisturisers, stylers and gels. Then, I banned 'cones (although I do love me some amodimethicone from time to time now, Herbal Essence Hello Hydration, yeah!!). I'm now taking a hard look at all unpronounceable ingredients in my hair care products.

The Calm After the Storm

I don't even know how to resume my attempts at posting in the face of such an enormous rupture in the little cocoon I've built around my life. October 30th 2010 saw the passage of Hurricane Tomas across my little island in the sun. The death and destruction it's left in its path is unimaginable to my unashamedly sheltered self. It leaves me trembling to imagine the horror of those were consumed by mountains liquefying under their feet. Things hit so much harder when they're closer to, or rather, AT home - for sure.

Weekend Update & The Ressurection of Glycerin

I took down my twists for a twist-out on Friday, feeling quite guilty about leaving in the protective style for only 3 days. My hair felt awesomely soft, albeit a bit dry. I feel like I should have moisturised better when I did them on Tuesday - I'm still looking for the perfect moisturiser. I think I feel a mixing session coming on ... I just thought of the perfect ingredient!

Travels and Flax-Aloe Gel

I have been MIA for the past two weeks due to to a hastily scheduled business trip to the UK. While there, my schedule was hectic, and I didn't have the mental space to post. I had a good time, the weather (mostly) co-operated, and I got a great insight on how my hair functions in its stretched state.

Since I did not want to put my hair in twists, I spent the two weeks in various types of messy buns. I would moisturise and braid my hair at night, and in the morning just put it all up into a medium-sized satin scrunchie, making sure to tuck all my ends underneath. It really worked for me, especially since I ensured that I varied the placement of the buns so as not to stress my hair too much: low bun, high bun, side bun, rinse and repeat.

Self-esteem: A work in progress.

I had a thought-provoking experience today.

I met our representative for the Miss World pageant at the airport today. She was leaving for Beijing and I was dropping off some product she had ordered. I spotted her immediately - tall (the 4-inch platforms certainly contributed), lean, gorgeous, pale, with hair and legs for days. I was really struck by her beauty, and felt proud to know that we'd definitely be able to hold our own in the looks department of that competition.

Then it hit me - I was shocked! It had been so long since I had compared myself to another that at first I didn't realise what was happening. As I walked back to the car I felt short, dumpy, and unattractive. I thought my hair looked extra frizzy (my bad hair day wasn't helping the situation either) and I admit that I spent a moment or two wondering why I missed out on receiving the kind of genetic lottery jackpout payout that our beauty queen enjoyed.

When it all goes horribly wrong.

So guys,

I know I just wrote this morning about how I love my hair and it's so awesome, etc. Well, I lied. It's terrible. I'm exasperated.

Bad hair days happen to naturals too. When my hair was straight, a quick fix for a hair disaster was never more than a scrunchie away. Now that my hair is free to do its thing, however, without careful supervision it can run wild.

Hair

One of the main things I'll be talking about on this blog is my hair. I've had an extremely tumultuous relationship with my hair over the years, as I think many black girls have. We are conditioned to believe that natural hair is unruly, unmanageable, unkempt. We focus on the 'un', and try to 'correct' our hair using various processes. I've worn my hair in almost every conceivable way; straight, jheri-curl (let your SOUL GLOW!), braids, texturized. The only reason I have never installed a weave is because I just couldn't bring myself to spend so much money on mere hair.

Hello World!

I often find myself awake at odd hours of the night browsing natural hair blogs, contemplating new shades of eyeshadow, or combining the contents of my wardrobe in new, sometimes shocking ways. I figured I might as well make this time a bit more fruitful and explore my obsessions in productive ways.