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Friday, August 23, 2013

What is the L.O.C. method?? What’s the Curly Girl Method??? I joined a group on face book called Kinky, Curly, Coily, Me! I asked as many questions as I could think of. The ladies on the site were so helpful and knowledgeable. I kept hearing about the L.O.C. method. Then I kept hearing about the curly girl method. What are these things? Then I kept hearing about Castor oil growth Challenges. Don’t people know that genes control your hair’s growth! I never had Long Hair; it’s just not in my genes!! It’s not my thing! Yet, I was curious. I had to sit for a second. How was I going to seriously get my hair back to its pre dye job healthy state? It was time to start reading! Back to Google I went. Through the NaturallyCurly.com website I found the Curly girl method, by Lorraine Massey as illustrated by one of the featured vloggers. I knew about Lorraine Massey because of her Deva Curl products I had tried when the money was good. Her eye opening book helped me to give up some of the bad habits and practices.
In the trash went the hand held dryer and got myself a bonnet dryer and a Denman Brush. Luckily, I already had a big tooth comb! Yet, I stop combing my hair so much and began using my fingers more. I started to learn the terminology of the curly girl like pre- poo and started using some of the methods. The one thing that I was hesitant about was the Curly Girl method. That Friday, I decided to try this method for grooming curly hair. For an hour, I sat under a dryer with coconut oil on my head. Now for the test; I went in the shower and Co-washed with As I Am Coconut wash , rinsed and applied some Suave coconut conditioner to my hair and left the conditioner in my hair. I followed her directions to the letter! Afterwards, I waited for the magic to happen. Three hours later my hair was still white, and still wet. This method wasn’t for me. Nevertheless, I did like what she had to say about keeping the conditioner in your hair. Yet, there were all these techniques that require you put some kind of oil on your head. Where does that come in? I kept reading. On my Nook reader, I came across a book called the “Science of Black Hair” by Audrey Davis-Sivasothy. This book changed everything about how I saw our hair. I read and then re-read this book. Where was this woman 20 years ago when I first went natural? Ms. Davis Sivasothy breaks everything down! She thoroughly explains the growth cycle of black hair, how we plateau to shoulder length hair, and how to properly set up a hair regimen. She also proves Black hair DOES grow, and genes are only partially responsible for length. How we take care of our hair on a daily basis is most important!
Finally, I could possibly see shoulder length hair and beyond in my future. For years, I had it so wrong. For example, we have been conditioned to think water is terrible for our hair. Even as a natural, I dreaded getting my hair wet. I always thought oil or hair grease made your hair grow, and applying it to your hair that hadn’t been washed in days was the answer to preserving your hair. Then when I did wash my hair, I did this torturous thing of basically stripping it down dry hair and washing it with sulfates and harsh detergents. My hair had been screaming, “I AM DEHYDRATED!!” as it fell off of my head! In the “Science of Black Hair”, I read about the shoulder length plateau that has plagued many black women. The longest my hair had ever gotten to was to my mouth. Then I would cut it because it would begin to shed or break off or I got bored. I never even got to the shoulder length plateau. Who am I to think shoulder length was even an option for me let alone bra strap length. Yet I kept reading! In addition to reading Davis-Sivasothy’s book, I began reading the BGLH website in depth. For the longest time I thought these cycles happened at separate times. They actually happen at various times. I also thought that if you were biracial or had some significant mixture in your back ground you were bound to have long hair no matter what you did to it. This is how we had seen people for years, these were the stories that we were told. When I started reading the routines of the featured women it helped break this age old stereotype of Black hair growth. I was inspired to create a routine for myself. From this point on I will share with you how researching helped me get on the right path to healthy hair!

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