Pinterest 1973 Dabney Street

Friday, August 23, 2013

Every four years, I seem to get inspired to create some magical hair potion. When I start reading about the latest hair trends, I start ordering, buying and collecting various oils and butters. My cabinets begin to fill with mystery concoctions that I have to eventually throw out. The product Junky in me begins to rear its evil head. I end up with a shopping cart of oils that I have no idea how to mix! Then I begin to slather these things on my hair not realizing what they are doing. I am just hoping for a miracle that shoots the hair from my scalp! The first thing I bought was a vile of lavender oil. I wanted to make that refreshing spray recipe Lorraine Massey wrote about. I loved it! Made countless spray bottles of it! Then I started reading about how Coconut oil was a miracle, helping the hair stave off Hydral Fatique(water overload) and penetrating the hair to the deepest level. So I bought some more Coconut oil. Quickly, I began accumulating bottles and bottles of oil! Yet, How was I to begin using them and reaping the benefits? The more I read and researched the more oils began to show up in my house. Avocado oil for hair growth, wheat germ oil for the amino acids, grape seed oil for low porosity hair treatments! All of these oils began to crowd my shelves. I started to accumulate recipe combinations; 1/3 avocado oil mixed with wheat germ and grape seed would pack a punch for your scalp! So many recipes! Then the little plastic bottles started to show up! Jees! I was an oily mess! My poor husband started to complain about the oily, greasy doorknobs! He wears glasses and every time he tried to hug me my oily hair would grease up his glasses! Once again, I was getting frustrated with the process. My hair was still very dry and it wasn’t curling at the ends! When I read about the L.O.C. method, it all became clear. L.O.C. stands for Liquid, Oil, and Cream. You see, I was under the impression that we moisturize our hair with oil. We have been doing this for years! For the longest time, we all thought oil equaled moisture. Who hasn’t had to hold the jar of Blue Magic Bergamot while our mothers put up our hair for the week! Our mothers put the oil on our hair to block the moisture from hitting our press and curls! Right? I had to get used to the idea of doing this in reverse! You literally have to LOCK in the Moisture with the oil then apply your styling cream to reinforce the whole process. I had to master this process.
Another book was suggested to me called “Curly like me” by Teri Leflesh. When I originally saw this book suggestion, I immediately thought, “nope, not for me”! Here she is a biracial/3b, with curls cascading down her back. Nope this would never be me! My hair just doesn’t do this! I went to Amazon one day and looked up the book and listened to her introducing the book. Her story of being shuttled between the two worlds of well intentioned parents systematically misunderstanding her hair was something I could relate to! Between the perms and the blow dryers, this poor girl never had a chance. The tip of the iceberg was how she permed her hair and it completely fell out in the sink. When she began to let it grow in, she figured if she left the conditioner in, it would help her hair to stay moisturized and in good condition. Sounds familiar. So I bought the book! After reading Ms. Leflesh’s method of caring for her hair, I was officially on the bandwagon! I stocked up on conditioner and took a Friday to try it out! I pre-pooed with my oils (since I had so many) and co-washed my hair. Afterwards, I had an epiphany; let’s try the L.O.C. method and the tightlycurly.com method all in one. This is how I did it! 1. Rinsed my hair and didn’t let a towel or a t-shirt touch it 2. Separated my hair in four sections and clipped it 3. I took my oil mixture and applied it to my hair in 4 sections 4. Then, I applied “Hello Hydration” conditioner in large dollops and brushed it through with a Denman Brush, I saw CURLS!!!! 5. Then I flat twisted my hair and let it air dry. This worked brilliantly! I was very happy with it! My hair dried clear, with NO white residue! I began to see actual curls and my ends were NOT crunchy! FINALLY! Some real progress! This was my new wash routine! However, how was I going to get this result every day? This is where he differences became apparent. She has very long hair that she braids up at night and unravels during the day. What was I going to do with my regular old 4a/b hair? This is what I did: 1. At night I mixed castor oil with VO5 strawberry Milk Protein conditioner and flat twisted my hair. 2. In the morning, I take down the flat twist and fluff out to mask the parts.
I did this for a month and my hair began to flourish. The texture of my hair was smooth and my ends were soft! This was all fine and dandy until stumbled upon the topic of Hair porosity!

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