How far would you go for long hair?

How far would you go for long hair?

That's the question that came to my mind yesterday as I felt the side effect of one of the products I was using. The product was MN, and my head was ACHING. Let me just say, never ever again. A lot of ladies who are trying to grow out their hair will do some crazy things to try to speed up their growth process. I have heard of everything from placenta to whale sperm. Let me reiterate. Whale sperm. It just amazes me, and though I'd usually say, don't knock it till you try, there are exceptions to every rule! Lol.

I just can't see myself trying some of these things. I wish my hair grew to my butt in 2 days, but I can't see myself rubbing stuff like whale sperm in my hair. Lol. Not hating on the ladies who do it, but just, they're willing to go further than I am for the sake of their hair. I was talking to my friend Marisa about this (Yes, we're both named Maris(s)a. Lol.) and she was just baffled. Her hair type 2 and grows out pretty fast, so I'm sure she's never felt compelled to buy into the hair care extremes. However, that's not the point. She was just stunned. I also mentioned this to my boyfriend, who had similar sentiments.

I just wonder what it takes for someone to push so much for their hair to grow. I mean, your hair will grow regardless, so why do you need placenta bits to help it out? Maybe one day I'll meet one of the ladies who use these products and talk to them about it, but until then I'm thoroughly confused. On another note, I haven't written in the blog for a month because of pure laziness and writers block. I promised two blogs and they will come with time and inspiration. One blog is down, and another to go.

Greatest news EVER!

Okay guys, guess what?! My laptop is fixed! Which is great because now I can write way more blogs and add way more images that I want because my laptop has an SD card reader. I'm really happy. I'll have those two blogs I promised you guys up asap. I just have lots of projects due soon.

By the way, I saw Alice in Wonderland last night, and it was absolutely spectacular. The imagery was gorgeous, and I found it very entertaining.

Speaking of imagery, I was playing around and doing a photomanipulation and this is what I came up with.
(The image surrounded by the text. See the full version here) If you didn't know I love art and graphics, and may go to school for them one day. (That or cosmetology.) Anyway, I gotta get back to working on those projects, but keep on the look out for updates really soon!

I'm still alive!

Okay, so I definitely have been letting life get in the way of blogging lately. Sorry guys! I've been having some pretty bad writer's block lately. I wasn't sure what to write about to be honest, but I promise by the end of this week there will be two new blogs waiting for you to read. -insert applause here-

But now that I'm actually blogging, let me just say that sometimes I don't understand who designs the curriculum for my school. They should be slapped. I was taking the NJ PASS today, which is basically a standardized to assess our proficiency in math and English, and I swear a nice chunk of the stuff on there in the math section I did not learn. The things didn't even ring a bell. And I know you might be thinking, 'well she might not be good at math!' Wrong. I'm an A math student in a high honors course, so that just made me go wow. I was amazed.

I mean, how did the people in lower classes feel? Probably awful, because if I don't know stuff on a math test, people are usually doomed. (I love math.) It's stuff like that make me question my schooling sometimes, know what I mean?

I digress. I tried out pin curling for the first time Sunday night, the results on Monday were adorable. I had perfect ringlets all day. I just re-pin curled after moisturizing and sealing last night too. I got tons of compliments which made me happy. I love it when I find cute styles that are quick and easy.


Love it!

Anyway, catch you guys later,
Marissa

Review: Maybelline Eyestudio Mad for Mauve Quad

Yay! My first cosmetics review. My blog posts thus far have been primarily about hair, and so I decided I wanted to switch it up a bit. Because not only do I love hair, but I love love love make up too.

Now, I'm a girl on a budget, so Maybelline is right up my alley. For me though Maybelline can be a pretty hit or miss affair. Some eyeshadows I've purchased by them were chalky horrors with no pigmentation and others were velvety, smooth, and pigmented. Yeah, I know, it's wierd and inconsistent. I digress. Thus when choosing to buy Maybelline eyeshadow I'm a very conflicted lady. Luckily the Mad for Mauve quad from the eye studio series was anything but a disappointment.

Price: As I mentioned before, Maybelline cosmetics are very affordable. I picked up this palette for about $6 at Target when shopping for a rug to go in my room. I had heard about this new Maybelline collection and figured a quad was the more economical choice over their baked eyeshadow duos.

Packaging: The packaging isn't really anything special. The top of the case is clear so you can easily view the colors in the quad. The bottom is black. One of the shadows is almost twice the size of all the others, which would be great if it was one of my favorable colors from the palette. In general though, the eyeshadows are quite small as is the quad itself. I wish the uad was bigger to be honest, but that's just me.Here's a picture of the packaging:


Product Quality: I really love the texture and the colors of these eyshadows. They glide on smoothly and are pigmented. They are easy to blend. They're basically everything you'd want in an eyeshadow, but I do have one gripe. This may just be my brushes, but I did have some issues with fallout, it wasn't severe so I wouldn't say don't purchase the quad, just saying a fair warning. Overall I really do love these shadows though. I want to try the other quads now.
Picture of the colors:


Summing it up.
Pros
+Smooth & Blendable
+Affordable
+Pigmented

Cons
+"Ehh" packaging.
+Some fall out

The Points
Price: 5/5
Packaging: 4/5
Product Quality 15/15

Final Grade: 96

I've been down and out for awhile.

It's been awhile since an update, and I'm usually good with blogging regularly, so I do apologize. Sometimes life just hits you harder then you were ready for it, and this week was just one of those times. There was a lot of drama, pain, and I lost a friend that I'll never forget. But shit happens, so I'm just going to have to lick my wounds, right? Right. Anyway, I got my relaxer as planned on monday. I wrote a blog post, so I'll post it now.

So, relaxer day was yesterday, and if I wasn’t sure I that I wanted to self relax, I am definitely sure I want to now. I went to my usual place, with my usual lady, and she is a bit rough, but this time it was just to a whole different freaking level. (Excuse my French, I have more choice words to use, but I’ll try to control them.) She was extremely rough on my hair, combed the relaxer through (Ugh.), and when I started to feel burning she wanted to keep the relaxer in for 3 more minutes because my hair was so tangled.

Now, first of all, my hair was anything but tangled. I spent the last 3 days making sure it was as detangled as possible so that she wouldn’t have much issue and that I would lose much hair. Second of all, it’s a relaxer not a detangled, what the French toast? Now, it honestly gets worse when for the first time ever she just threw some relaxer on my previously relaxed hair. (Luckily it wasn’t on there for long and I COATED my hair with oil and conditioner before going there.) I was practically fuming. ‘

When I get my hair rinsed out finally and what not, after sitting with a deep conditioner in, I go back to the wash lady and she roughly detangles my hair. She was literally ripping the comb through my hair. I was just so taken back by this, because I’ve been going to the same place for a year and this hasn’t ever happened! It’s ridiculous. I mean, my hair felt nice and looked beautiful when they were finished, but this isn’t a sexy hair care journey, it’s a healthy hair care journey!

Now, I’m gonna try to stop fuming and be positive. First of all, I’m like a millimeter from being APL. My hair grew A LOT while in the braids, so I KNOW this will be my go to low maintenance style for the summertime. My hair definitely bounced back from my setback in November, and for that I’m so grateful. But now, I need to take my haircare almost completely into my own hands, and I am going to learn to self relax. My only concern is that I’d rather use a lye relaxer. I know they process faster so my plan is to probably do it in sections. I heard adding an oil to the relaxer can make it process slower, so that’ll also be a part of my plan. I also want to master roller sets and flexi rods.

I want to learn so much this year, and now that I know my hair will definitely be able to make it if I don’t have any setbacks, I’m gonna push for bra strap length hair. I know I can do this. I’m gonna try to incorporate a good amount of protein because my hair thrives when I use protein a lot, plus it’ll need the protein after my disaster of a relaxer.

I'll try to update more often now, I've just been having a bad time lately.

Much love,
Marissa

Happy Valentines Day!

I just woke up and I just wanted to wish everyone a happy valentines day. I made my boyfriend a red velvet cake and am going to cook him linguini chicken broccoli alfredo for dinner. What are you guys gonna do?

Anyway, I'm getting my relaxer tomorrow. My scalp is so itchy, I swear this happens every time. I'm about to get a relaxer and boom my head feels like I dipped it in a bowl of mosquitoes! Madness. But anywho, I'll update you guys one my relaxer tomorrow and I just hope everyone has a nice valentines day.


Peace
Marissa

PS. sorry for the short blogs lately xD

I love my brother

Lol, this is gonna just be a short blog. Anywho, I was talking to my brother this morning and he had recently saw the Good Hair documentary (haven't seen it myself.). We were talking about hair and it was just so exciting to me that he'd actually listen and care about what I was saying. He seemed like he really learned a lot form Good Hair and was willing to learn more. I don't know, it just made me happy that he was interested that something I myself am interested in especially because hair care is just one of those girl things, y'know?

He also told me that if his wife tried to relax his kid's hair while they were still a child he'd DIVORCE HER! Lmfao. That made me laugh a lot, and I totally respect him for that. I don't really like it when young children get relaxers because they don't get a chance to learn to love their natural hair. Hell, I got a relaxer as a young child so I still struggle with the concept of natural beauty myself.

Anyway, that was just a day brightener. I've also taken out my braids last night. It took me 9 freaking hours of agony, excuse my french. I put some V05 passion fruit moisture milks, Mane 'n Tail, and olive oil on my hair to soften it to make detangling easier, put on a cap, tied up my satin scarf, then was off to bed. Detangling went well, I only had one nasty tangle and I have BUTTLOADS (Yes, I went there.) of new growth. Lol, it's crazy. My stylist is gonna be mad at me for not relaxing in so long, but I don't really care. I want to start self-relaxing after this relaxer. I'm gonna look up a lot of info on it, and possibly write an article on self-relaxing myself once I actually go through the process.

I've got a couple of make up blogs on the way, a haul and several reviews. So stay tuned, guys. Anywho, that's it for today so far.

Much love,
Marissa.

Some Updates and an Answer

So, for all/any of you who actually regularly check up on this blog,you might of noticed today it looked absolutely nuts. Lmfao. I was in the middle of changing/making a new layout for the blog. Do you like it? I wanted more color, even though I loved the purple and gray combo. Plus now you can see lil' cartoon me sittin' on a tub of Lustrasilk Shea Butter Deep Conditioner. Lol.

Hopefully you guys like this layout, I'm gonna be keeping it for awhile. But I digress. Today after school I went to attend a meeting at our NOW club at my high school and to make t-shirts for a Day of Silence to raise awareness for domestic violence against women. We made stencils then used them to spray paint old t-shirts. Now you might be wondering what my stencil said. It said:

A woman is battered every 15 seconds

Are you shocked? I'm not. Domestic violence is a HUGE problem in the US, and to be more particular, in my high school. I know of tons of guys who've hit their girlfriends, female friends, "wifeys", etc. It's sickening. Good men in my area are a dwindling race to say the least, lol. But I have my boyfriend, so it's whatever.

Anyway, the point of me mentioning the day of silence is to help raise awareness in everyone. Things like domestic violence can't always be seen by the naked eye, so look closely, choose your partners wisely, and if you ever are in an abusive relationship: Get help. Immediately. The longer you stay in the relationship the worse off you are.

But on a totally different note, a couple of ladies requested that I talk about a proper braids regimen. Now personally, when in braids, I believe less is more when it comes to keeping up with your haircare and having them.
I actually have braids right now.


See? That's actually a picture of me and my friend in December, but I still have the braids in and am actually taking them out this weekend. The way I take care of my braids is that I still moisturize and seal, though not daily. I do it bidaily, and about twice a week I oil my scalp with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. On saturday or sunday I wash my scalp (ONLY) with Creme of Nature shampoo, and then condition with my love Aussie Moist. So basically that breaks down to:
Moisturize and Seal: Daily-Bidaily
Oil Scalp: 1-3 Weekly
Wash/Condition:Weekly

I've also heard that to get rid of a chemical that drys out the hair found on synthetic braiding hair, soaking it in Apple Cider Vinegar and rinsing before braiding your hair up can really be helpful.

Hope that helps the ladies who asked! Anywho, that's all for today. Tomorrow's a snow day for me, so maybe I'll work on another blog.

Hope that helped,
Marissa

PS. Please send me more questions via my hairlista account or my email (which is listed in my about me.)

Black hair Care Basics: Hair Texture and the Protein-Moisture Balance

Well, it’s been a minute. School and stuff, you know the deal. But now I’m back with more info for hair care beginners who are looking up their knowledge game when it comes to hair. Today’s subject will be the 4 different basic textures of hair care and the protein moisture balance. Now, if you’re not blind, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now hair comes in different textures, colors, lengths, etc. All of this and your genes plays a huge role in how you should take care of your hair. There are four basic hair textures: type one: straight hair, type two: wavy/slightly curled hair, type three: tightly curled hair, and type 4: kinky/coily hair. All hair has different needs, but knowing your hair type can help you assess those needs better and to help guide you to get good products to use on your hair.

The Four Textures


Type One – Straight Hair
Type one hair is straight hair. It is sleek, lack any curl pattern, and is very hard to damage. Sebum (and oil the body produces to naturally protect the hair and skin) can be transported down the hair shaft very easily on this type of hair, which helps protect the hair, but can also make it easy for people with this hair type to get greasy hair. People with type one hair tend to have to wash their hair more often than people of other types, and their hair reflects shine easier because of it’s straight and sleek texture.

Type Two – Wavy Hair
Type two is caught between having curly hair, and having straight hair. It can be from fine to thick, and is also harder to damage than curly types of hair. Sebum can travel down the shaft of type two hair, but not as easily as it can on type one. Type two hair has subcategories 2a, 2b, and 2c depending on the curl pattern. A being the loosest waves, and c being the tightest.

Type Three – Tightly Curled Hair

Type three hair is definitely curly hair. It’s not as shiny as type one or two because light doesn’t reflect off it with ease. When wet, the hair curls up tightly which can produce shrinkage, which basically means the actual length of the hair isn’t seen once it’s dry because the hair is curled so much. It’s a lot more fragile than type two or type one, so beware. It has subcategories 3a, 3b, and 3c.

Type 4 – Kinky/Coily Hair

Type 4 hair has the most tightly curled/coiled hair texture. It is very fragile and should be treated with a lot of care and tenderness. It has fewer cuticle layers than the other types of hair, and sebum has trouble getting down the hair shaft, therefore it needs a lot of moisture to thrive. If you have type 4 hair you should definitely baby it. There’s a stigma in society that says type 4 hair is ugly and doesn’t grow, but contrary to that it grows at the same rate as other hair and is beautiful. Type four hair is commonly misunderstood and abused and that’s why it’s said it doesn’t grow

More info on hair textures:
Hair Type Guide

Now that you know about the different hair textures, you’re probably wondering what is a Protein-Moisture balance and why do I care? Well, you care because the protein moisture balance is vital to how your hair needs to be taken care of to thrive. The name of it is very self-explanatory, to be honest. The protein-moisture balance of hair is the delicate balance between protein and moisture within a person’s hair. Hair needs both protein and moisture to grow, and depending on how your hair is processed and what texture it is you’ll need to use to use products with differing amounts of protein and moisture. Generally, the 1-2 need less moisture because of how the sebum is distributed while 3-4 needs a lot of moisture. Hair is made up of protein, so protein should really be only used when some force damages hair or on chemically processed to upkeep healthy hair.

To achieve the correct protein-moisture balance for your hair you’re going to have to experiment. Do not go crazy with either protein or moisture at first. Only use what keeps your hair moisturized and strong. Find water based moisturizers for adding moisture in your hair and for adding protein look for conditioners and moisturizers with the ingredients keratin, wheat germ, silk, pearl extract, cholesterol, amino acid, and soy protein etc. (Thanks to Martha on Hairlista for telling me this!) If you use too much moisture your hair willy get mushy, limp, and break. If you use too much protein your hair will get hard, straw-like, and then break. It truly is a delicate balance, so with the knowledge of your hair texture and how your hair is processed in mind, go out there and find products that will work right for you.

Hope this helps,
Marissa.

Self-Confidence.

This is coming straight off the top of my head, so I'm not sure if it's going to make sense. I'll probably babble a lot, but hopefully you'll get the point.

I'm very happy with myself. I think I'm pretty and I think I'm cute. I know there are some things that some people wouldn’t find attractive in me, but I also know those same things would be attractive to other people. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, every feature, every detail, every hair color, eye color, body type, and skin color is a toss up when it comes to what will be found attractive by certain people. I’m okay with that. I understand that, but I have to admit it took me awhile to get to this point.

Now, if you haven’t read my about me, I’m only fifteen. That’s young, that’s really young to come to the point where I have settled. I’d view my self image as reasonably healthy. Extraordinarily healthy for my age. Women my age just don’t like how they look. It’s a generally factual statement about my generation. So many things bring us down as women for so long and as time changes the idea of perfect gets more extreme. The hyperbole of the human body the media markets to us is placed on a pedestal, one that no other woman can be on. The weapons of choice? Cosmetics, lighting equipment, photoshop, etc.

Now don’t get me wrong, because photoshop is my one true love. I want to be a graphics artist, and I’ll whip you up a website layout in photoshop in no time. I can edit pictures, change a woman who’s fat to thin, erase every imperfection you can imagine, I can weave a web of lies right before your eyes. With photoshop, the media is god, and they sculpt their coveted angels out of pictures of women who are just like us. They change their appearance. In a fatal swoop they change a talented model to a demigoddess. Whether you realize it or not, you can’t look away. The media creates these images that seem so harmless, but these images are the same pictures that are the phantoms that haunt our minds. The demons prodding us at the back of heads whispering the words, “You’ll never be good enough.”, “You’ll never be skinny enough”, “You’ll never be curvy enough.”, “You’ll never be enough.”, “Never.”

These images are the things that make off-hand comments that aren’t meant to mean anything turn into confidence crushing blows. Want to know what I used to hate about myself? That I was too skinny. That’s right, it seems hard to believe that in a country whose media is obsessed about the thinness of a woman, a girl could think she was too skinny. That a girl could feel a lack of self worth because she wasn’t “womanly enough”. According to many magazines who recognized “real women with curves” it was women who were sticks like me who had “the body of 12 year old boy and gave the wrong idea to women”. May I say… Lol wut? What is the right idea to give to women? No matter what a magazine says about one body type, other body types lose. There’s no such thing as a “real woman”. We’re all real women. We all struggle with the same general problems when it comes to body image. We’re either too much of this or too little of that, we don’t have this, and we have too much of that. But in the end all of those struggles and all of those fears…simply aren’t true.

You are who you are. Changing that for anyone but yourself is a shame. Losing that weight and getting those breast implants are only a band aid to the real problem if you haven’t learned to truly love yourself first. Because even if you don’t love yourself, there’s always going to be that one person who sees you for how wonderful you actually are. Look at yourself through their eyes one day, and see how your weight is fine, your breasts aren’t too small, your hips aren’t too wide, and just give yourself a chance.

Women are beautiful.
You are beautiful.
I am beautiful.

I wish everyone could see this the way I did, but I’m sure that would only happen in a perfect world.

This has kind of been a rant, so I think I’m just gonna stop short here.

Thanks for reading,
Marissa.

Black Hair Care Basics: Haters!

If you want to grow your hair out and you are a black female, well…chances are you’re gonna catch some heat from people. For some reason, when a black women announces she has educated herself and changed her ideas on hair care shit just hits the fan. My theory is that there’s a chemical in the brain called hatetamine, which controls how the body processes haterade. When a black woman decides to empower herself, the hatetamine production in the brain decreases by 10,000%. Thus whenever a black girl utters the words “I’m gonna grow my hair out” the body of the person she is speaking to is consumed haterade and they become a hater. Sounds logical, right? Lol. Moving on…

So you’re gonna get haters. How do you deal with it? Well first, you might want to understand why it really happens. (I promise I have no more medical theories) People who shoot you down for wanting to grow your hair out are usually ignorant. They just do not know the same information as you. Unfortunately, people like that don’t stop hating until they see progress. Then they are all over you asking you for advice. xD

Ignoring haters and having the last laugh is usually the easier way to deal with them, but if you truly want a hater to support you or at least shut up, you’re going to have to go about things differently. Calmly confront the hater whether it be a family member or a friend and express how this is a serious goal of yours. Tell them how their comments are hurtful, how you would not react to a personal goal of theirs similarly, and how you wish to have their support. Finally, you should express how if you cannot have their support, you wish to have their silence. No one deserves a parade of negativity when they are serious about a goal.

Now if this hater truly cares about you and values your feelings this should be enough to stop them. I would not suggest trying this with people who aren’t really good friends/loyal family. People who at the end of the day won’t make a difference in your life are the haters you definitely should ignore.

In the off chance that the people you actually have a talk with about their behaviour decide something like “Well, screw your emotions! I’m a jerk! :D” you should know how to move forward sans their support. It can be hard, but if you are truly dedicated you won’t be discouraged. In the beginning I had as much support from my family and friends as a collapsed bridge. So I sought out support online from hair forums. That really helped me personally. There is many positive people who want to help you improve in black hair care communities, so joining one is definitely helpful.

As my hair started showing results/progress I began to gain the support from people in my life who weren’t really with me at first. However, I also began to see a different type of hatred: jealousy. Honestly, there’s not a thing you can do about a jealous person. Envy is something you can’t talk out of someone, so it’s best to just ignore it. People who make rude and jealous comments are your biggest fans; you should remember that.

Whether people are envious, ignorant, or just plain mean you’re gonna have haters. My final advice is to do it like me and send those hating stranger bitches to the left when they run their mouthes too much. Lmfao! I kid, I kid. But seriously, don’t let what people say get to you because in the end it’s just you and your hair.

Review: Aussie Moist

Today I’ll be reviewing Aussie Moist, which is my HG (Holy Grail) cowash/wash conditioner. I was kind of skeptical at first at because of I this conditioner was all hype. Well, I have to say, for me it definitely lives up to the hype.

Quick Note: I’m a fine-normal haired relaxed 4a/b.

Price: This conditioner was about $6 for 1 liter of product when I bought it in walmart. I bought this in June and I’m STILL using it. It’s definitely is a bargain, especially for someone who is dead broke like me. (Ah, the fun of being a high school student whose parents are unemployed.)

Packaging: It has the signature Aussie packaging. A bight and highly saturated purple, blue, and white are the color scheme of the bottle. It’s a very attractive bottle in my opinion, but I didn’t enjoy how difficult it was to get the nozzle/pump dispenser to work the first time. Remember the most difficult test you ever took in school? The one even though you studied for, it still stumped you? Well, that’s what trying to get the nozzle to work was for me. I asked basically all my family for help and to no avail. I wanted to cry myself to sleep, contemplating my place in this world and why I was such a failure for not being able to open a nozzle. Then the god of all conditioners shined his light upon the bottle, and the nozzle suddenly popped up with ease. Wtf? I was glad it opened, but that annoyed me.

Either way, although it wasn’t user friendly in the beginning, the nozzle gave just enough conditioner in one to two presses for a cowash on my hair when it was APL. That factor didn’t quite make up for how it was hard to open, but I did enjoy it quite a bit.

Product Quality: I’m about to gush, so if you don’t want to read too much…It’s an A+ conditioner for relaxed hair. Okay, so, first things first. These are the ingredients: Water, Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Glutamic Acid, Fragrance, BIS Aminopropyl Dimethicone, Benzyl Alcohol, EDTA, Ecklonia Radiata Extract (Australian Sea Kelp), Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil (Jojoba), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Extract, Butylene Glycol, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone

If you’re a lady opposed to cones, this is not the conditioner for you. However, it is the conditioner for me and I’ll tell you why. My first cowash with it left me speechless, and by speechless, I mean exclaiming things like “Holy moly!” and “I can’t believe it’s not butter nexxus!” Aussie Moist makes my hair feel like absolute silk upon rinsing, and helps me detangle and gives me slip like a dream. I don’t think it’s quite as effective at moisturizing on natural hair, because my newgrowth doesn’t take to it as well as my relaxed hair does. That’s no surprise to me, the ingredients to me from the beginning seemed to be more beneficial to relaxed ladies anyway. Just a warning though.

Summing it up.
Pros
+Great for relaxed hair
+Excellent cowash/wash day conditioner
+Extremely affordable, it lasts forever.

Cons
-If you’re bad with opening things, prepare to cry yourself to sleep at night after the first day with aussie moist.
-Not great on natural hair.
-If you’re a cone hater, this ain’t for you.

The Points
Price: 5/5
Packaging: 3/5
Product Quality 14/15

Final Grade: 88

Black Hair Care Basics: So you want to grow long hair?

Many black women through their lifetime have been told a laundry list of lies about their hair. That it’s not beautiful, it can never be long, only mixed sistas got dat gewd hayuh, that it only grows when it’s dirty, that you should hate your naps and coils, and the list goes on. Well to be quite blunt, screw all of that. All of that is just a the tiniest portions of the lies I’ve heard in my lifetime, and lord knows I’m gonna be hearing more until the day I die. But what makes me different from the girls who just eat up those lies, savoring and soaking in the self-hatred and ignorance?

I’m enlightened. I know not to believe all of that hot mess, and I want to spread the knowledge I’ve gained over the past year, since I began to truly take my hair care seriously. Now, if you’re reading this, your main goal is probably to grow long beautiful healthy hair. Let me start out by saying that you can do this, but it takes time, a serious commitment, a regimen, and support. A way to track your progress can’t hurt when you’re trying to grow your hair either because when you’re so anxious to grow it out sometimes because of the rate that hair grows at it feels like there’s no progress when there is.

Growing your hair is a very exciting thing when you’ve been told all your life it just can’t happen, but I must reiterate your hair takes TIME to grow. Hair roughly grows at about a ½ inch a month, now some of you may already be doubting me going. “Oh gurl, not my hair.” Well, yes gurl, your hair. Your hair is constantly growing, but if you see no progress it’s breaking off at the same rate that it’s growing. That’s pretty bad, so how do you fix it?

You need to be committed and have a regimen. I’m so freaking serious when I say if you’re not going to be committed, just press Ctrl + W right now. You’re not going to get ANYWHERE if you don’t stick to it. Growing hair isn’t easy for women with extremely curly or kinky hair, you can’t just do whatever the hell you want have it grow, which is an unfortunate but true fact. You need to be dedicated to keeping your hair healthy, and for that you’re going to need the right tools, products, and most importantly: a good regimen.

Now what are the right tools, products, and good regimen? Well to be quite honest… I can’t tell you that. Everyone’s hair is different, even if they have similar textures. Hair react differently to different practices and products, however there are some general things I think most newbies should have and use.

The Newbie’s Shopping List
A Wide Toothed Comb.
Raking a brush or a rat tail comb through your hair when it’s wet or dry will without fail cause breakage. Your hair need to be taken care of delicately, and to stop from matting and tangles you’re still going to need to detangle. So what do you need? A nice wide tooth comb. You should detangle in sections comb from your ends to your roots instead of raking through your roots down to your ends.
A Satin or Silk Scarf or Bonnet
Most people have cotton pillowcases. Cotton, like a sponge, will absorb the moisture you have in your hair and dry it out. Dryness leads to breakage, which we all know is the anti-christ of healthy hair. Wearing a scarf/bonnet made of satin or silk will keep in the moisture you put in to your hair, which will keep your hair healthier.

A Conditioning Shampoo
Some women don’t even use shampoo due to how sometimes they can strip the natural oils and moisture of hair, but if you don’t want to give up shampoo and find an alternative cleansing method (Hell, I don’t want to give it up, Lol.) you’re gonna want a conditioning shampoo that leave’s your hair soft instead of stripped and tangled. To find a shampoo like this, your best bet is to find a sulfate-free conditioner or a shampoo with GREAT conditioning ingredients. My fave is definitely Crème Of Nature ( The Extra Body Formula), but there are tons of other great shampoos. When shampooing remember to focus on the scalp and use the remainders on the hair, shampoo is actually just like body wash for the scalp, and a clean scalp promotes good hair growth.

Conditioner
Okay, curly hair needs moisture to thrive, so you’re gonna need to find a great conditioner for your hair to be good to go. Conditioners are VITAL to detangling with minimal breakage. (Please only detangle on wet hair saturated in conditioner!) Women with relaxed hair may like conditioners that have silicones (dimethicone, cyclomethicone, etc) which are an ingredient in conditioners to smooth hair and add slip so it’s easier to detangle. On the flip side, natural ladies, from what I’ve seen, usually benefit from more natural ingredients in their conditioner. I’m relaxed and my favorite conditioner is Aussie Moist, which retails for about 6 dollars. I’ve heard a lot of natural women say good things about Aubrey organics.

Deep Conditioner
Deep conditioning weekly can greatly improve the health of your hair. Deep conditioners can be extremely moisturizing or strengthening depending on their formula. I think good deep conditioners should be thick and creamy, but that’s just me. You should apply a DC to the entire length of your hair and put a cap on and leave it on for an extended amount of time as opposed to a normal conditioner where you’d just rinse

Leave-in Conditioner
Depending on your hair, you will need to moisturize every other day, every day, etc. To truly moisturize your hair you need a water-based moisturizer. I can not preach enough about how grease and oil do not I repeat do NOT moisturize the hair! They coat the hair, locking moisture in. That being said, you need a moisturizer to apply daily or bidaily to keep your hair from getting dry. I actually use a cheapie conditioner to moisturize my hair (V05 Moisture Milks), but that’s not the right route for everyone. Some people need a lighter moisturizer, some may even need a heavier one. This is something you’re gonna have to experiment with. Protip: For best results, moisturize in sections.

A Natural Oil
To lock in the moisture from your daily moisturizing, using a natural oil is the way to go. Oils can be light or heavy, and can be used for many things, thus being very economical. I use olive oil and I like the Africa’s Best Herbal Oil, which is a mix of several different oils.


In my opinion, these are the building blocks of a good regimen. There just are little to no women I’ve seen with great progress in their hair who don’t use all of these items in their regimen. I think a great basic regimen that can be tweaked to how the person’s needs is:

Wash, Deep Condition, Condition x1 A Week
Cowash (Rinsing your hair with just conditioner) x1 a Week
Moisturize then seal with Oil Daily or Bidaily
Wear scarf/bonnet to bed every night.

Using a regimen similar to this that is tweaked to your needs, and sticking to your hair care will definitely produce results. A good way to stay motivated is to join a haircare community like Hairlista, KISS, or LHCF. In there you find tons of women working towards the same goal who you can befriend and will help you and always drop some new knowledge and tips you’ve never heard before to help further your mission to grow healthy hair. When you join a forum or community, you’ll notice almost all the women will have pictures of their hair progress and what not. I highly recommend that you take photos of your hair monthly or after a relaxer (if you’re relaxed) to record your progress. It will keep you motivated and show you that your hair IS growing.

I tried to condense a world’s worth of knowledge into the first article in a series here, but hopefully you learned something from it. You can learn so much more by joining hair websites and reading blogs similar to mine. Here are links to a few hair care communities:
Long Hair Care Forum
Hairlista
KISS (Keep It Simple Sista)


Well that’s it for this subject for now,
Marissa

The Review Formula

How it works:
Alright, for my reviews, everything in the end gets a letter grade. It is kind of like school (except you don’t hate it!), and three things determine this grade. These things do not change depending on the type of product, either. What determines the grade are: price, packaging, and product quality. The three P's! I'm so catchy.

Each category gets an amount of points awarded to it upon careful review. For every con I find with that particular category I’ll subtract 1-3 points depending on how irksome that particular con is. The maximum points each category can get are as following: Price: 5 points, Packaging: 5 points, Product Quality: 15 points.

If you’re wondering, there’s a reason why I decided to distribute the points like that. To me, although price and packaging are important, they certainly aren’t nearly as important as the overall quality of the product. Not only that, but all of you math wizs out there must have notice those points all add up to 25 at their maximum amounts. Multiplied by four, that equals 100. The amount of points I get after multiplying the overall score (the points added up) determines the ultimate letter grade.

Hopefully that wasn’t too long winded or confusing, I just wanted you guys to see HOW I review things and what not so you can have a full understanding of the process and the reviews when you read them. Many hair and beauty websites I see on the internet seem like they just pull numbers out of their hats, Lol. I didn’t want to do that too.

All is fair in beauty and hair,
Marissa.

The Beginning

I should be in bed, not writing a blog, but hey, I'm a rebel, okay? NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME. IM DIFFERENT. I DONT WANT TO FIT IN.

Ahem.

That's what I would say if I were still 12, thank god I'm not. Lol. Anyway, this is the awkward first blog post. The beginning. The post that explains why I'm here, and why you should read a blog like this. Well, I have a couple of good reasons why you should read my blog and this post.

Reason #1: If you love ethnic hair care, this is the place for you.

In this blog, I will definitely be discussing ethnic hair care and several different techniques, products, etc. I will be doing reviews that are thorough and hopefully informative and helpful. I will research to give the utmost accurate information. I won't just post some silly mess. (Example of silly mess: "GURL YO HAYUH NEEDZ 2 BE DIRTAY 2 GROWUH!) By the way, if you ever heard that and still believe it.... You need to be here. I can help you drink from the well of healthy haircare knowledge. Moving on.

Reason #2: Cosmetics, make up, that rainbow crap you put on your face...
I will be doing several reviews on products, possibly some tutorials on looks that all have to do with make up. Fair warning, I'm an eyes and lips girls as opposed to facial cosmetics. I can do facial stuff, but I just don't quite enjoy it, so you shant see much of that here.

Reason #3: I'm just so darn interesting.
If you still have been reading this blog entry, then of course you should check back here once and awhile and see what I have in store! I mean, you sat and read through all of my gibberish thus far, and maybe even enjoyed it. That's impressive. I surprise myself with how interesting I am sometimes. People come up to me on the streets to tell me about how I am the most captivating and original person they've laid their eyes upon.

Okay, that last part to reason #3 is a lie. But hey, in my mind that happens. Anyway, I have a poll up already, for those of you who will be my visitors you should vote in it.

All is fair in beauty and hair,
Marissa.