Transition « Hair & Now

Exiting the TWA Stage.

Posted on March 27, 2014 Updated on April 1, 2014

This entry was posted in African-American Hair, hair, hair care, Hair Products, Natural Hair and tagged Advice, African American hair, African-American, bad hair day, Beauty, Black hair, braid out, BSS, cornrows, Curly hair, Cut Your Hair, flat twist, Hair, Hair care, Hairstyling product, kinky hair, natural hair, Protective Styles, Relaxer, Transition, Transitioning to natural, twist out, Types, United States, wash and go, Wash Day.

A year and a half natural.

Posted on March 7, 2014 Updated on March 28, 2014

I am so sorry… I did not realize that I haven’t submitted an entry in a year. I promised to have a post up soon explaining how my hair journey is going. Above you will find an array of pictures showing the stages of my hair journey.

This entry was posted in Natural Hair and tagged African American hair, Barber, Beauty, Black hair, Curly hair, Cut Your Hair, Hair, Hair care, Hair Growth, hair hair care, Hairstyle, Hairstyling product, Health, Human hair color, kinky hair, natural, natural hair, Transition, Types.

Weather Anchor Fired for Defending Her Hair

Posted on December 23, 2012 Updated on March 28, 2014

Weather Anchor Fired for Defending Her Hair.

This entry was posted in African-American Hair, hair, hair care, Hair Products, Natural Hair and tagged African American hair, African-American, Audrey Davis-Sivasothy, Beauty, Black hair, Career, Coconut oil, Curly hair, Cut Your Hair, Fired, Hair, Hair care, Hairstyling product, Health, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, Transition, Types, United States.

What’s a Girl to do?

Posted on August 19, 2012 Updated on March 28, 2014

With summer coming to an end and my hair beginning to grow out, I find myself asking this question lately. In my previous blog post “The Good Hair Day Remedy” I discussed why temperature, humidity and dew point is so important for curly or natural hair. Now I’m questioning what am I supposed to do with my hair in the winter months? In the summer were trying to protect our hair from all the moisture in the air, I find it comical that we have the opposite problem in the winter. In the winter, at least on the east coast, there isn’t any moisture in the air other than when snows.

I am anxious about my first winter with natural hair. In the past during the winter months my hair was miserable; I suffer from dry scalp during this time and believe me I have tried every dry scalp remedy. Hot oil treatment, hair streamer, oiling my scalp with ever and any natural oil but nothing seems to work. My hair also becomes extremely dry because of the lack of moisture in the air and when I apply a thick creamy leave in these types of products tends to weigh my hair down. So I walk around with white flakes and oil hair, so not attractive! I read an article that stated that newly naturals, who did the Big Chop, have to start detangling after their hair grew out three inches. Guess who’s going to have three inches just in time for winter? Me!

So here’s my plan I’m going to wait until October and then I’m going to start researching what types of products I need to use and start buying samples to try on my hair to help me during this dreadful season. I have to remind myself that this is part of my journey and once I figure out how to make my hair look and feel great during the winter months I have reached this goal. Am I the only one feeling anxious about the effects winter has on natural hair?

The Good Hair Day Remedy (mmaybury.wordpress.com)
7 Things That Deplete Moisture From Natural Hair (forallwomentoknow.blogspot.com)
Treat Dry Hair With This Easy DIY Mask (bellasugar.com)

This entry was posted in African-American Hair, hair, hair care, Hair Products, Natural Hair and tagged African American hair, African-American, Audrey Davis-Sivasothy, Beauty, Black hair, Curly hair, Cut Your Hair, Hair, Hair care, hair color, Hair Growth, Hairstyle, Hairstyling product, Health, kinky hair, Moisture, natural hair, Scalp, Transition, Types, Winter.

My Hair is Happy

Posted on July 15, 2012 Updated on July 28, 2012

Yesterday marked the one month anniversary of my “big chop”. You can read more about that in “Hair Today Gone Tomorrow”. After I did the big chop I was afraid that I was going to regret my decision. The decision I made to stop relaxing my hair, to transition to natural hair, to big chop so close to my birthday and to go to the barber shop and cut off the majority of my hair.

What I can say is that I don’t regret a thing! I was tired of the scalp burns from the relaxer and the dissatisfaction from hair stylists. I transitioned and fell in love with my hair texture and when I big chop I was happy that one, I listened to my mother and went to the barber shop and two, that I stop trying the control the situation (Hello, My Name is Melinda and I’m a former control freak) and allowed the barber to not only cut off my relaxed hair but most of my natural hair as well.

I’ve learned this past month what products and techniques make my hair happy. I can tell that my hair is happy when my hair naturally curls up. The leave in conditioner my hair seems to be in love with, right now, is Darcy’s Botanicals Pumpkin Seed Moisturizing Conditioner. I use this product as a direct leave in after I deep conditioner, as a daily leave in and when I do my version of The Curly Girl Method (CGM). My version of the CGM is when I co-wash my hair and I apply a conditioner and do not wash it out. Darcy’s Botanicals Pumpkin Seed Moisturizing Conditioner is the only leave in product I really need for my hair at this stage. My hair is naturally curly so I have learned that I can tell if my hair likes a product or not if my hair curls up; I have tried different products in my hair and if my hair doesn’t like a product my hair will looked like wool. Not to say that there is anything wrong with a hair texture that doesn’t have a curl pattern. But Every time I apply this product to my hair, my hair can’t help but curl up it makes my hair happy.

Given that it has been a month since my big chop I was contemplating if I wanted to show any progress pictures, I decided that it wasn’t the right choice for me. I would rather do progress pictures every three months. My reasoning being that I don’t think you want to see a picture of myself with a ½ inch more of hair every month. I would rather show you progress pictures of myself with hair that is 1 ½ inch longer, especially when you consider hair shrinkage. People have told me that their starting to notice that my hair is growing and filling out and I can tell when I wash my hair because I can feel that it’s a little longer. But after I wash my hair and it dries I’m not able to tell because of the shrinkage; so I’ll show you in September when my hair has grown another inch.

Big Chop (mmaybury.wordpress.com)
The Big Chop: Fast Or Slow? (theraysofsunshine.wordpress.com)

This entry was posted in African-American Hair, hair, hair care, Hair Products, Natural Hair and tagged African American hair, African-American, Barber, Beauty, Cut Your Hair, Hair, Hair care, Hairdresser, Hairstyling product, Health, Shopping, Transition.

Design Essentials Strengthening Therapy System

Posted on June 30, 2012 Updated on July 1, 2012

Design Essentials created a line of salon-only treatments designed to improve manageability, shine, curl definition and reduce frizz and swelling for up to 12 weeks. The video above is a step by step guide for controlling and taming frizz for natural hair. A series of videos are available on the Design Essentials youtube channel and http://www.designessentials.com.

This entry was posted in African-American Hair, hair, hair care, Natural Hair and tagged African American hair, Beauty, design essentials, Hair, Hair care, Hairstyle, Hairstyling product, Transition.

Another Year…

Posted on June 25, 2012 Updated on July 16, 2012

God has allowed me to celebrate living another year on this earth. This past weekend I celebrated my 28^th Birthday. One of the best reasons to live in New York is celebrating special occasions. I had a wonderful birthday I had dinner at a fine dining restaurant and I went to see a Broadway show. But enough about that…

What I wanted to talk about was what I noticed this weekend. I noticed that a large number of African-American women were wearing their natural hair. It was very refreshing to see that I am not the only one on this natural hair journey. I know that people all over the world are going natural thanks to the power of the internet. But it was nice to see that there are women outside in my community wearing their natural hair.

I happened to stop in at the beauty supply store because I am contemplating putting a rinse in my hair and I noticed that they were starting to carry natural hair products. The store didn’t carry any hair products that I use so I will continue to shop online. Oh! I almost forgot I listed my current hair regimen so make sure to check it out.

This entry was posted in Natural Hair and tagged African-American, Beauty, Hair, Hair care, Hairstyling product, New York, Transition, United States.

10 Tips on Transitioning

Video Posted on June 19, 2012 Updated on June 20, 2012

This is Naptural85 on youtube. She has awesome tips on how to style and care for natural hair. The video above has 10 Tips for transitioning from relaxed to natural hair. Make sure to go check her out!