Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Stretching Out Natural Afro Hair


When you have natural kinky type afro hair, trying to achieve certain styles can be a bit difficult at times. After I wash my hair it shrinks way down and I look like I have about two or three inches of hair, even though it's much longer than that after I braid it and it dries. Just the other day I was in a rush to style my hair after washing it and I braided it & used a hood type dryer to dry it quickly, but my hair didn't dry all the way & it was shrunken when I slicked it back. Maybe had it dried thoroughly, it would have been more stretched. I do not apply any type of heat to my hair and usually like to stretch my hair by braiding or twisting it up. Usually after the second day of braiding and re-braiding my hair it's usually sufficiently stretched so that I can pull it back. There are many "straightening" type products on the market, but I have only tried one of them by Smooth & Shine, a straightening balm, with minimal results. The product I tried recently escapes my memory, but I will post a photo & name of the product as soon as I am able to. I've posted a photo of the relaxing balm, which I tried on my hair many years ago when I was trying to go natural and wanted something to stretch out my new growth hair and it worked okay, but nothing spectacular. Some people like to use a hair dryer to stretch out their natural hair, but I have not done this myself, since I don't like to use heat on my hair. If I were in a pinch I might use a hair dryer though. Another good way to stretch out natural kinky hair is to use some type of roller after washing the hair, making sure the hair is sufficiently damp and rolling the roller tightly on the hair and either letting the hair air dry or by using a hair dryer. Here is a helpful link to a page on follica.com with reviews for the Straight Out product: href="http://">href="http://www.folica.com/Smooth__N_Shine_r1510_1.html Check out one of my Youtube videos below. Please watch, comment, rate & subscribe!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Getting Some "Shine" on Kinky Type Afro Hair



Throughout the years, even when I was regularly relaxing my hair, I was always trying to get my hair to look shiny. My hair always seemed to look dull most of the time. The only time I did have shiny hair was when I went to the beauty salon and let the professionals work their magic. They have knowledge of what products works best with your type of hair, and the expertise to have your hair looking good. Too bad I didn't take some courses in beauty school because I believe that would have helped me out some. Some of the products that I have used on my hair in the past and currently, mostly contain some type of silicone in the product. I believe silicone is supposed to reflect light off of your hair if applied properly. And even though a lot of web pages/sites do not think using silicone on kinky afro type hair, I use it sometimes and don't have a problem with it.

Here is a recipe for a shine type concoction. I have not tried this, but am anxious to try it out. I know that my afro type kinky hair doesn't really have a shine to it per se, but you can always increase the sheen on your hair, so try this out and post a comment if if works.

Liquid Brilliantine recipe

3 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons castor oil
4 teaspoons mink oil
3 teaspoons liquid lecithin
3/4 cup mineral oil
Few drops of essential oil

Mix all the ingredients together. When you shampoo your hair, this mixture floats away very easily. The castor oil helps to hold the hair in place after combing. You may also use this mixture under a hot cap.