NAIJA HAIR CAN GROW

Hiya Ladies!!
Who still reads blogs?!!! They said!! Hopefully NHCG Blog readers still do?!! Hope you are fine people!! Can you believe its been a month since I big chopped!!! Time flies oh, I am just starting to embrace this fro of mine by leaving it out and attempting to style it especially on weekends.

I am also finally taking Youtube seriously, so expect a Youtube video from me every week (I hope this drive remains) but I find it more relatable to just chat than type these days, hence my MANE MONDAY INSTALIVE episodes I started this month, basically, every Monday I am on Instalive at around 5pm chatting with my instafam about a topic on hair/haircare/entrepreneurship and I have thoroughly enjoyed the interaction, join us this today!!
Anyways without much ado, here's a link to my ONE MONTH POST BIG CHOP UPDATE-

And just this past weekend, I decided to try onions in my hair for the first time...been hearing too much about onions and you know I could not resist a trial. Here's the video I recorded;

For those that could not watch, I blended half an onion with a little bit of water and mixed it in a spray bottle with honey- Onions is very high in sulfuric protein which is what our hair is made of. It's been proven to help strengthen the hair and with alopecia patients, it's been proven to greatly decrease hair loss!! Honey is a humectant and will attract moisture to the hair so I figured it will be a nice balance to the protein. After spritzing the mix, I went ahead and applied whipped shea butter to the length of my hair to seal in the treatment for the duration I had it in my hair which was about an hour, dont forget to cover your hair with a shower cap or nylon bag if not the treatment will be dripping all over your body and you will be smelling like you bath a pot of stew LOL!!

I shampooed my hair with black soap when I was done and I must say it left my hair feeling great...what I looked out for was shed hair or breakage and I saw nada!!! I was quite impressed!! I will make onion a regular at my weekend treat parties!! LOL

WHO HAS TRIED OUT ONIONS IN THEIR HAIR? How did you like it?

Hiya,
I just posted a video on Instagram that was meant to be on Youtube!!(Long tings :P) it's a hair mask I've wanted to do for ages because my hair ALWAYS feels great afterwards.

View pictures screen shot from the video.

I simply scooped out the avocado from its skin mashed it and mixed in two table spoons of pure honey and added a spritz of water/glycerin detangler until it became a paste.

Massaged the paste into my hair strands from root to tips, wrapped it and went under the steamer for 30 mins.

The results after washing my hair was nothing short of incredible!!! My hair which is 5 MONTHS POST RELAXER by the way felt sooooo amazing!!!!!

Now to the BENEFITS

1) Moisturizes Hair

Due to heat styling, chemical treatments, environmental pollution, and even exposure to wind and sun, many people struggle with hair that is dry, damaged and weak. Avocado is like a superhero for dry hair. Chock full of vitamins A, D, E and B6, avocado is also high in proteins, amino acids, magnesium, folic acid, copper and iron.

The oils in avocados are one of the few that can penetrate the cuticle and actually moisturize hair.

The monounsaturated fatty acid content in avocado oil is higher than extra virgin olive oil— one of the main reasons it is so good for your hair. When applied directly in a hair mask, monounsaturated fats can moisturize, nourish and strengthen hair strands. This protects your hair from damage and leaves it looking radiant and healthy.

The monounsaturated fatty acids, phytosterols, and high levels of antioxidants like vitamin E in avocados are well absorbed into our scalp and hair shafts. This not only has a highly moisturizing and protective effect against environmental stressors and damage, it may also stimulate new growth and help unclog blocked follicles.

2) Promotes Hair Growth

Though most of us would like our hair to grow faster, few of us actually know what causes slow hair growth. We think whatever rate our hair grows at must be what we’re stuck with. But this is not the case. Hair growth is a fragile metabolic process that we can assist or stall depending on a variety of factors.

Nutritional deficiency is one of the most common reasons for slow hair growth. If you’re not eating enough or not eating the right food, soon you will start to notice that your hair looks dull and lifeless and doesn’t grow as fast as it used to. Our bodies need the right fuel, in the right amounts, to work properly—including protein, vitamins, minerals.

Hormones influence the rate at which your hair grows, as well. Pregnancy, menopause, hormone replacement procedure, thyroid issues, and even oral contraceptives can all alter your hair’s appearance, texture, and rate of growth.

Also on the list of slow hair growth culprits are stress, lack of sleep, smoking, and overindulging in coffee. (A little coffee can actually boost your health but too much interferes with the body’s ability to absorb minerals such as iron and magnesium).

Finally, with harsh or frequent chemical hair treatments—such as relaxing, bleaching or perming hair—we can be our own worst enemy. These styling processes can not only make your hair lifeless, damaged, and prone to breakage but can also seriously stunt hair growth.

Don’t panic! You don’t need to turn your life upside down to help your hair grow faster.

Avocados are high in vitamins B and E, which work at the cellular level to protect and strengthen hair. Vitamin E helps repair damage on the scalp, which may slow or prevent hair growing. Vitamin B is essential for hair growth. Avocado locks moisture into hair cells, nourishes hair cells, and strengthens hair roots, shaft and strands.

3) Prevents Dandruff

Men and women of all ages can experience dandruff. Dandruff is caused by massive flaking of dead skin tissues, when dead skin is shed from a dry, extremely oily or microbe-infected scalp. The result is redness, itching, flaking and irritation. In an attempt to restore moisture, the scalp produces excess sebum, which then blocks the hair follicles and leads to bacterial and fungal infections.

Not all causes of dandruff are medical but scalp psoriasis (a skin condition that causes rapid skin cell development), seborrheic dermatitis (similar to scalp psoriasis), and eczema (similar to scalp psoriasis but much more chronic), are common. As always, it’s important to talk to your doctor about any medical condition or sudden changes in scalp or hair health.

Stress and diet can trigger or contribute to dandruff, so you’ll want to make sure you’re caring for your whole body and not simply your head! Regular exercise such as yoga or Pilates can help keep both body and mind relaxed.

Washing your hair on a regular basis, sticking to one shampoo, and choosing a mild shampoo that is suitable for your hair type will help prevent dandruff. You also want to keep your scalp moist—dandruff loves a dry scalp!

When it comes to moisture, look no further than the avocado. This miracle fruit seems custom made to keep our bodies and hair buttery soft. Avocado oil helps rejuvenate and moisturize the scalp. A rich source of proteins, amino acids and vitamins, avocado helps soothe the scalp and promotes long, strong, healthy hair growth.

4) Revitalizes Hair

We’ve all been there. One day we look at our hair and realize it has lost its shine, bounce, and softness. Why? Where did it go? And, more importantly, how can we get it back?

An average person has about 100,000 hairs on their scalp. (Redheads have less, about 90,000, while blonds have more, about 140,000). Each hair shaft has three layers, two inner layers protected by the cuticle (outside layer), and each hair grows an average of nine inches a year. On average, we shed about fifty to one hundred hairs per day.

If our cuticle layers are in good health, the layers of the cuticle are so tightly bound together that the light is able to reflect off the cuticle. This is what makes your hair shine! But when the cuticle layers are not tight together, your hair will feel coarse and brittle. This makes hair absorb light and not reflect, which gives a surface appearance of dull and lifeless hair.

Along with regular trimming, use of mild shampoo, and resisting the urge to over-style, one of the ways we can put shine and life back into our hair is with a regular avocado hair mask.

Culled from HERE

Wishing you all a blessed week ahead!!

Xxx

Dabs

Hiya,
How's everyone doing? Please if you are one of the ladies that entered the 6 inches of growth challenge at the start of the year, please start sending in your pictures by Dec. 1st.

A winner will be announced at the PH Hair Rehabs with Dabs event on Sunday the 28th of Dec. The winner's before and after picture will enlarged and serve as inspiration to all the hairlistas present, the winner will also be called live and congratulated so please send a phone number to reach you by if you entered, you don't have to be resident in Nigeria...we will call you wherever you are if you are a winner, 2 other runner ups will be announced that day too, their pictures will be put up and they will be called and congratulated, as announced before, the winner gets $100 cash prize and a goody bag, the other two get goody bags filled with yummy hair goodies....now who is pumped!!! Again send me the entries from the 1st of Dec!! Thankssss

Now to my topic. You ladies know I love a good concoction, but there is nothing as unnecessary as a concoction without a purpose!! Some dear ladies just starting out email with mails like this, 'Dabs I do those your treats oh, I mix eggs, mayonnaise, henna, honey, ACV, tea, clay, all together and just put on my hair, yet it STILL BREAKS!*arghhhhh*sobbbingggggg*Dab's come and be my hair savior, save me from this mess I am in*wailingggg*'. Lol! While I do sympathize with them, I also tell them that they are passing through the desperately finding a quick fix for your hair phase. It's a phase every hairlista must pass through...

When I passed through that phase, everything and I mean EVERYTHING I heard that was a remedy for hair growth I was willing to try without finding out the reason why it was a remedy in the first place! Now I know better and while I am willing to try most things, I always take my time to put them in their appropriate class and for hair treatments these classes are; protein or conditioning/moisture.

This week I will share with you simple protein treatments that can be done and instantly your hair will feel stronger, this will be especially helpful to ladies who want straight to the point treats, no experimentation and also new hairlistas...They consist of one main protein component, a lighter moisture component to keep the balance and prevent protein overload and oils to seal in the treatment.

Protein treatment 1- An Egg + Conditioner(without hydrolized protein or keratin) + oils- ceramide or protein free oils (olive, castor, sweet almond etc)- This treatment is quite simple, the egg provides all the protein and lecithin which both help to strengthen and moisturize the hair, the yolk should be the main component used from the egg on your hair because it acts as a serum, helping the hair to reflect light for an appearance of shiny hair. Make sure to rinse the hair with cold to luke warm water to avoid the egg yolks cooking in your hair!!

Protein treatment two- Yoghurt + Aloe Vera juice/gel + oils-Yoghurt is packed with protein, it also contains lactic acid; an alpha hydroxy acid which strips the outer layer of the hairs’ keratin, helping to improve absorption of other nutritious products like the Aloe vera gel/juice which is a great hair conditioner and the oils which will help lock the nutrients in.

Protein treatment 3- Coconut milk + Conditioner + oil- Coconuts are packed with vitamins like vitamin E, Vitamins B and C, they also have healthy fats and have the ability to be absorbed by the hair strands building the strands from within, mix it with a protein free conditioner and some oils for a good strengthening hair treatment.

Protein treatment 4- Mayonnaise + Honey + Oils- Mayonnaise is pretty much eggs and vegetable oil so its a great alternative to using actual eggs if you dread the idea of an egg on your hair, mixing it with Honey will give it the moisture balance and the oils will seal everything in.

Protein treatment 5- Gelatin + A Banana +Henna+ Oils-Gelatin is a form of hydrolized protein which tend to be absorbed by the hair strands quicker and better, mix it up with a banana, banana's are packed with nutrients like potassuim, vitamins E, B and C. Henna powder is also a form of protein that can be used on its own or combined in this way, great for filling missing hair shaft gaps and strengthening strands, add the oils to once again seal the treatment in.

Once you have applied any of the treatments, cover your head with a steam cap and go under a steamer or rely on your body heat for about an hour plus then either rinse out or wash out once with a sulphate free shampoo preferably.

Finally, if you don't like to concoct at all, I like how they grouped different protein conditioners in this article into, light protein treatments, reconstructors, deep penetrating protein and protein packs: Check on it and see where your conditioner falls under.http://www.curlynikki.com/2012/11/the-right-protein-treatment-for-your.html

That's all for now ladies, will be updating you on the goodies I got from the recently concluded Naturals In the City Meet up in my next post...

Xxx
Dabs

Hiya,
Hope all is well at your ends! This post is all about my new found intrigue for wigs as a protective style. How can anyone not be intrigued with the beyond fabulous wigs everyone is wearing these days! Sometimes I have to do a double take...had to get in on the action and as I researched, I soon discovered that things have completely changed.

In 2010 when I last was into wigs, I bought them all! Half wigs that required the front part of the hair to be left out(not as protective as I'd liked) then lace wigs came along but most of them had the strongest scratchiest laces that barely made a parting, so after buying 3 or 4, I gave up! Then there was the hair quality to contend with! Those cheap and cheerful synthetic wigs shed like crazy! Even those that claimed to be human hair were questionable but like I said, things sure have changed...if you are like me just getting updated in the game, quality wigs now have super cool features that you need to be aware of...let me list them...

SILK TOPS;
I am not talking about clothing! After doing my research, I found that nowadays wigs now have what's called a "silk top"-

As you can see from the picture above, silk tops basically give the appearance that the hair is growing from the scalp, though the color of the silk top in this picture is way too light to be a black woman's scalp but I've seen really good silk tops that make the wigs look so realistic and the best bit is you don't have to leave any hair out!!

Bleached knots; If silk tops are not your thing, then maybe bleached knots will do!

Basically, the roots of the lace front wig are bleached a lighter color so it blends better with your hair line and parting!(Who thinks of all these things!lol)-Some people have tried to do this on their own but its risky business as the color might not come out right and look all orangey!!

Yaki texture;After countless You Tube videos on wigs, I got EDUCATED!! Well apparently, Yaki textured wigs are better for us women of color because they mimic our hair texture when its relaxed and straightened. So if you are getting a wig and there's an option between Yaki and silky textured, get the yaki texture.

Wash and Deep condition; Yup!Wigs these days are made from high quality actual human hair(which actually grosses me out and I don't like to ponder too much on that aspect), so when you get them, most people say its best wash and deep condition them especially if they have been dyed a lighter color. This is to take off any residue and stiffness from the processing of the wigs.

Full lace-French lace;There are lace front wigs and there are full lace wigs, after seeing all the reviews on You Tube, I think full lace wigs made from soft french lace are the way to go because you can part them how ever you like!

Glue less cap; From what I gathered,these are better than
caps requiring glue like the picture above...don't get me started on glued lace fronts from 2010!! Ladies were gluing these wigs to their foreheads and eyebrows!!LOL...well nowadays wigs simply come with combs and adjustable straps making them super comfortable and snug without the commitment;

Baby hairs; Let me talk like my African American sisters, 'Girl how you gonna get a wig without them baby hairs? you know that ain't right!!.'LOL!! Nowadays wigs have baby hair around the hairline but PLEASE don't lay them like back in 2010, they are best used to blend the little hairline hair you leave out if you so choose.

Like I said gone are the days ladies left the house in wigs like this;

link
Is this even a wig?!! LOL wetin person no go see!!

So you know that after all this wig research, I had to get one from the most talked about and hyped wig company on You Tube- RPGSHOW!!!Website. If you go on You tube and search for wig reviews, you will see that this company makes THE BEST lace wigs in the market, most of their wigs are celebrity inspired so you can have the Kim Kardashian wig or Beyonce and a host of others, after debating on which one to get, I settled for...the BEYONCE WIG *Wide grin*

Remember when Beyonce wore this hairstyle;

Well they created a wig that looks just like it;

Choose it because of the color and cut, cant wait till its here, I'll do an unboxing video on my youtube channel, I like those a lot :)

Well that's all for this post, for those that have been in the dark about wigs, hope you enjoyed getting updated!

For this weekend's treat, I whipped up a CHOCOCOCO Hair gloss basically made from pure cocoa powder and coconut oil, I personally added Hair trigger in mine to address shedding....It smells DIVINE!!!

Benefits include;

CHOCO-
Adding shine and smooths out the hair shaft. Cocoa has flavanoids, rich in magnesium, protein, riboflavin, vitamin A and thiamine; minerals that helps to combat hair loss. Contains one of the highest levels of antioxidants than many other sources on Earth, which is also really great for your skin.
Also, if used consistently over time, the cocoa powder can darken the hair strands
COCONUT OIL; Strengthening- bonds with protein bonds in the hair, moisturizes the hair and prevents it from being dry and brittle.

As usual this treat is available at the Hub this weekend- 34a Awolowo Rd, Ikoyi Lagos.

Thanks for stopping by!!

PS. Have you seen the changes I've made to the blog- well I edited the shop NHCG and turned into the NAVIGATE NHCG Page, I picked basic topics for hair journey beginners and posted the direct links to posts I have written over the four yearS span of this blog, check on it if you are new in the game or refer someone to it that's just starting out.

Xxx
Dabs