Sponge Curls for TWA Short Natural Hair

Sponge Curls for TWA Short Natural Hair 

I stumbled across this creative curly on my time line. Her type 4 curls are cropped in a cute twa. She moisturizes her hair, and reaches for her secrete weapon to coil her hair in under 3 minutes. A Sponge! That's right a sponge! Check out this video (Desktop).

Denman Dilemma

Avoid a Denman Dilemma

  When time is of the essence it can be tempting to take short cuts as you style your hair. Simple styles like a twa, the puff, and buns are easy styles that only require a few minutes.  These styles require minimal manipulation, and keep your  ends tucked away. Another shortcut that reaps positive benefits is the Green House Method to add moisture over night with out recking your style.   The Denman Brush is a very popular detangling tool among the curly community, but when used incorrectly it can have damaging results. 

Lazy Naturals Short Guide to More Moisture

Lazy Naturals Short Guide to Adding Moisture

Hello! I am a lazy natural. I avoid styles that take long to install, I avoid tedious techniques. I use short cuts, and simple tricks to streach the time in between wash days, and keep my tightly coiled curls happy. Here are just a few of my tricks for LAZY Naturals 

Shedding VS Breakage

Shedding VS Breakage

Each day, you are losing hair. As your hair goes through its cycle of growth, you will lose 50-100 strands of hair a day. With thick tightly coiled hair, it may be tricky to tell if the hair in the sink is normal shedding, or a sign of something more serious. There are a few things you can do to help you determine if your hair is shedding or breaking.

Detangle

TRUE LIFE: I kept an emergency relaxer for 2 years

TRUE LIFE: I kept an emergency relaxer for 2 years, then something changed

A year into my journey I was still stumbling towards healthy hair. Pressing my new growth in an effort to blend the textures, was starting to damage my strands. I was uneducated on kinky curl care, and I was making major mistakes as I transitioned. I used high heat frequently, I manipulated my hair daily, and when it was in protective styles, I would often forget to moisturize. For the 1^st full year, length retention was stunted by my bad practices, regardless, each day I would blame nature for giving me unmanageable HARD hair.

Understanding hair loss from medication

Understanding  hair loss from medication

There are many medications on the market that cause temporary, and permanent hair loss.  Some blood thinners, acne medications derived from vitamin A, some anti-depression drugs, and some high blood pressure medications can cause temporary hair loss. Often times busy doctors will not go over all the side effects of prescribed medications. Be sure to do your additional research on any prescribed medication. For some medications, the side effect of  hair loss is unavoidable.  The good news is

HOW LONG SHOULD YOU USE A PRODUCT BEFORE YOU REALIZE ITS GREAT OR BAD FOR YOUR HAIR

HOW LONG DO YOU USE A PRODUCT BEFORE YOU REALIZE ITS 

GREAT OR BAD 

FOR YOUR Natural HAIR

Countless times I have sworn off a hair product, only to revisit it later. This has happened so many times, I no longer toss the products I don't like. Because of this, I am saving money, and expanding my hair horizons. If a styling creme didn't hold my twistout, perhaps its good enough to perfect my puff?  Here are more tips &  Finding alternative uses, and easy fixes for a lack luster product.

Before You Toss it, Give it Another Try.  

 Before you give a thumbs down,  set aside 2 to 3 weeks of consistent use, making sure the application of the products are correct. 

Give it another try. So many things can have an effect on how a product acts in your hair. Weather, Your hair cut, other products, and your hairs health, can all have an effect on final results when using product. Some products do not mix well together. Are you getting flakes? Hair too gooey? Hair became sticky? If you used a product and your were unhappy with the results, give it another try, and layer it with an alternative product. If you are still unhappy revisit the product when the weather is different. Hated it in the summer? You may Love it in the winter!

Mix it with.... I cannot count how many times I have ran out to buy a conditioner that others have raved about,  only to be disappointed. Not enough slip, hated the smell, not heavy enough? When I am presented with theses problems, I mix until satisfied. If  more slip is needed, add Grapeseed oil. If the conditioner is not thick enough,  add JBCO to the bottle and enjoy. Some products do not mix well can can result in flakes, adding oil, water, or swapping for  an alternative product  may cut out any flakes.

Meet This Curly Girl | Growing to Love Her TWA

Finding Confidence Rocking my TWA

My big chop liberated me! 

I always said that I would cut my hair when I was ready to make a change. 

And my change finally came.

I've always been a little wary of short hair. I thought I couldn't be beautiful without long, thick, and straight hair. The fact that I had a boyfriend who hated natural hair made me even more self conscious about myself. I was always worried that I looked bad with my hair in its natural curly state.

Pretty Curls from Cacti?

The Cactus And Your Hair

Most cacti live in habitats subject to at least some drought. Many live in extremely dry environments. Cacti show many adaptations to conserve water. The cactus, previously eaten as a fruit or used for animal feed, is creating a minor moisture miracle  thanks to the oil extracted from the plants seeds. Dealing with dry hair, Cactus Oil may be for you!

Moist Curls 101

Sealing Natural Hair 

The act of locking moisture in the hair, specifically the ends. For sealing to be effective, you must First use a water-based moisturizer. You can use plain water,  a leave in conditioner, or a cream that has water as its first ingredient. Sealing your hair is the 1# step to maintaining healthy hair in between wash days. 

Low Manipulation Hairstyles

 Low Manipulation Hairstyles

 These Cute styles allow you to limit manipulation damage to your curls. A good Low Manipulation hairstyles must do 3 things:

• These styles tuck your ends away, thus increasing length retention
• These simple styles can limit the amount of hand to hair contact, thus decreasing manipulation damage
• Limit Tangles because the hair is either stretched, or gathered together

 Let’s face it,  with super soft hair,  it can be  hard to keep your hands away. Each time you touch your hair, you can cause a little damage.  The daily rigors of detangling, and styling can leave your strands in need of a break. Check out our top Low Manipulation styles for type 4 curls! 

Adorable styles like a Bun:

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Moisture Boost

Top Ways to Moisturize Curly 4c Hair

An amazing moisturizer will provide you with a few things: 

Shine - The sun rays should bounce off of your curls

Nourishment - Vitamins, Minerals, the good stuff for your hair's health

Slip - To prevent tangles, knots, and make styling, and detangling a breeze

Moisture - If you moisturized, and moments later your hair is dry or brittle, you are missing something. That moisturizer may need to be paired with other products for the best effect.


Here Are A few Recommended Moisturizers

Water

The #1 Moisturizer for all hair types

Rose Water
is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals, a by-product of the production of rose oil for use in perfume. 

4 Oils To Re Grow Hair

5 Ways to incorporate JBCO in your regimine

5 ways to Use JBCO

Indigenous Curls Counts Down the Tops ways to use JBCO on curly hair

Green House Method

Banish Dry Hair with the Green House Method

Keeping curls soft with frizz free methods

My highly porous strands are always battling against dryness. When left untreated, my hair can easily become dry, hard, and brittle. If your strands have a hard time retaining moisture, or accepting moisture, the Green House method is one way to keep your kinky curls hydrated and soft, with minimal shrinkage. Looking to extend the life of your stretched styles? The green house method can help!

Trimming Natural Hair

When to trim?

When I relaxed my hair, I would trim my ends every 6-8 weeks, along with my relaxer touch ups. I was told that trimming often will keep my hair healthy, and promote growth. Since going natural, many ‘hair care rules’ I once lived by, have been revamped.

Why Did You go Natural -- Hairspiration

    

Weather you Big Chop or transition, going natural is quite a journey. Going natural 

can inspire a healthy lifestyle, A new spiritual connection, a new outlook on life, or simply a

new look. 

We Asked a natural community of over 50 thousand curlygirls

 WHY They Went Natural

Here's what a few had to say:  

      Sensitive scalp. didn't want to relax anymore. Nothing deep or spiritual.

      via mobile · 

 Got burned in the back of my head with a perm one good time. That was enough for me lol.

via mobile · 

 My scalp was hurting from the perms. So one day I just stopped perming my hair.

 via mobile · 

My hair was thinning n shedding. .no one else could tell because it’s so thick but I could....& now it’s healthy!!...9 months later 

 via mobile · 

My perms were not lasting...plus I think my hyperthyroidism was making the perms worst...

 via mobile · 

 Money was tight for a couple of months so I kept delaying my perm. Then I realized that my hair was amazing!

 via mobile · 

The relaxers were damaging my hair. It was dry, brittle and kept breaking. I went natural and all of that stopped 

 via mobile · 

Pretty much hated that relaxer...the process you go threw  all the money you spend. The breakage, the chemicals on my skin (your skin is an organ and absorbs those chemicals)

 via mobile · 

I thought my hair would fall out while on A prescription if I relaxed it since I already had a thin spot on my crown due to burns so I quit. Thought about going back after I got off the medicine 6 months later but I just kept going with the encouragement I received. I have been transitioning for a long time. Almost done. Wish I had big chopped but whatever. Lesson learned

via mobile · 

I have always hated perms, but was not allowed to make the decision to stop until i went to college and started taking care of my own hair. After that, i ditched the relaxers and started learning to care for my own hair

via mobile · 

 Sudden allergy to perms

via mobile 

I honestly don't remember exactly...it was 19 years ago, but I know I was sick of perms, wanted the freedom, but I think it was mostly because I wanted to loc my hair.

 via mobile 

I started to exercise to lose weight and better my health. Along w/ that came the struggle of trying to revive and maintain my daily sweated out relaxed hair. I decided that my health was more important and that it was time to do away w/ some things that I no longer needed.. I bc'd..my weight went down and my confidence went !UP! I'm loving my journey.

 via mobile

For my daughters. They are watching our every move. 

 via mobile

SOUND OFF! Why did you grow out your curls?

Natural & Blonde -- How to Maintain Healthy Colored Curls

IndigenousCurls 

Shares Neosha's Routine

Neosha- is a Lover of all things fashion, beauty, natural hair, creative, and vibrant.  You can find more from her here!

Heres What Neosha Has to say about her new Blonde Do, revamped routine, and products that keep her curls amazing! 

To get you all up to date on my latest hair craze, my better half decided that I should give hair color a try. At first I didn't want to alter my previous natural hair regimen to make due with the much longer process of caring for color-treated natural hair but at the same time there was a little part of me that wanted those vibrant colored tresses I had been spotting all over the city this past summer. 

Leave it to the men in our lives to be bad influences lol. After being a little wussy about it while strolling around my local Sally's Beauty Supply store, my "hubby" decided to point out the blondest of blondes. I was like "HELLLLL NO sir...". He was so serious too about the color.


 I have the training in hair color from when I attended cosmetology school and all and I already knew the possible damage my hair could endure if I decided to go more than 3 shades lighter on my strands even though my hair was already at it's strongest point prior to coloring. This is where it all gets interesting. I was in the middle of mid-life crisis. Okay, maybe not that but I needed a second opinion so he decided to give his mother a call who happens to be a licensed cosmologist. Hallelujah! She recommended I try a few things just to be on the safer side so we left Sally's and hopped over to Wal-Mart. 

After searching and comparing products, we ended up purchasing the L'Oreal 

Paris Feria Absolute Platinum Advanced Lightening System. Don't get me wrong I was definitely NOT lifting my entire head all the way to absolute platinum, OH NO! Now the first option was to go for  Dark & Lovely product but nothing caught my eye. I ended up getting a few other products and we went home to color my hair. --July 25, 2013

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you may know that previously my hair was a deep brown. My natural hair color. Thanks to my babe for being such a sport and actually being the one who colored my hair for me lol. I'm upset I can't find the video footage but I have photos! Always! 


My natural hair regimen changed drastically because I knew to expect the need for more moisture. NOTE: If you plan to dye your hair from dark to pretty light, have TONS of moisture, hot oil, and deep conditioning products on hand. If you have NO knowledge of how hair color works, please go to a professional. 

MY UPDATED NATURAL HAIR CARE REGIMEN 

1. Since coloring natural hair tends to be tricky, the need for more moisture in my regimen increased. I wash my hair once every two weeks. Each time I was, I deep condition. When I'm deep conditioning, I apply a shower cap over my hair and let it sit for 1-2 hours max if I have nothing better to do with my time.  I co-wash a few times a month. No set number of times, only when I feel my hair needs it most. I don't want to over do it. 
2. My secret weapon... ACV, which is a monthly Apple Cider Vinegar rinse. This really gets rid of the majority of impurities trapped in my hair from product build up over time. Absolutely LIVE by this stuff! I recently discovered they sold the AVC I had been searching for at GNC. Got it! 
3. Depending on how I feel, I'll wash/co-wash in the shower or sink. If in the shower, I part my hair in four sections making sure that I finger detangle each section before cleansing to get rid of any knots or tangles. 
4. Protein treatments have also become even more apart of my natural hair.  Since the hair is made up of 91% protein it would only make sense to treat your hair with protein. Many times I'd add a treatment to each time I co-wash. 
5. After cleansing my hair thoroughly  I apply a leave-in conditioner or moisturizing product of choice to my hair and style. I'm a big poster child for twist-outs so I do tend to just twist my hair after cleansing. I love to see my curls pop while I'm washing and after when I'm applying product. They're just so sexy!! lol. 

Here are the products I use currently in my updated natural hair regimen. I use them according to how my hair feels and which bottle is usually closest to me to grab at the moment (lol). The struggle, I tell ya. Apart of my natural hair regimen, I do still take my Biotin supplements* which have helped me since the beginning:

For Washing:

• Terressentials Pure Earth Hair Wash (currently using scent Left Coast Lemon)*
• Curls Creamy Curl Cleanser
• Suave Professionals Aloe Vera+Ginseng Shampoo/Conditioner*

For Conditioning:

• Oyin Handmade Honey Hemp Conditioner*
• Healing Herbs by Rene Tropical Hemp Conditioner*
• Suave Professionals Almond & Shea Butter Conditioner*
• Nexxus Humectress Ultimate Moisture Conditioner
• Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Leave-In Conditioning Cream

For Deep Conditioning:

• Dr. Miracles Deep Conditioner*
• Africa's Best Organics Hair Mayonnaise
• Jessicurl Deep Conditioning Treatment*
• African Pride Shea Butter Miracle Leave-In Conditioner*

For Oil Treatments/Hot Oil

• Softn'free GroHealthy Milk & Protein Olive Oil (Three Layer Growth Oil)*
• Organic Root Stimulator Hair Repair Vital Oils For Hair & Scalp*
• Dr.Miracle's Intensive Healing Oil hair & Scalp Treatment*
• Africa's Best Herbal Oil

For Protein Treatments:
Palmers Coconut Oil Formula Deep Conditioning Protein Pack*


For Styling:

• La Bella Lots of Curls Styling Gel
• Fruit of The Earth Aloe Vera Gel*
• African Pride Shea Butter Miracle Bouncy Curls Pudding*
• Softn'Free GroHealthy Nothing But Curl Sealer
• Softn'free GroHealthy Nothing But Mold & Hold Wax
• Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie

Okay, so yes, I may be a slight product junky. Just a tad bit. Don't judge. I just enjoy trying new things and experimenting with products on my hair. I haven't experienced any problems with fading hair color or anything with use of these products. The products I use in my natural hair regimen marked with asterisks(*) are usually my go-to staple products. 

Talk about a mane of fluff! This is my hair on my last wash day taken from the front with my head down. My curls have gotten so fierce! I Love it! My hair goal is to get past my current stage 3 hair and make it to stage 4 and beyond to reach lioness status! Oh yeah! 

IndigenousCurls Thanks Neosha! 

How do you prep, and maintain your hair color? What brands do you reach for?

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