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!

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!

It was my honest intention to talk about my Hair journey when beginning this blog. But I wanted to share with you my experience in Salzburg for a very important reason. I am going to get to this reason. I will not go on about the festival I attended because it was Crap! The festival was indeed a sham. The best part of the whole business was the 15 people I met.

I now have a place to stay whenever I decide to go back to Salzburg, or to Vienna, Malaysia, Spain, Germany, and England! However, I want to finally get to the real reason why Salzburg is so important to my Hair journey. Are you ready for it? It was the weather.

When I last reported on my hair I shared that it had barely survive 16 hours of airplane air, sweat and gel plastered down by a sweaty scarf attempting to give it some sort of style! Each day in Salzburg brought something new weather wise. Initially, I walked out to chilly temps in the 70’s filled with gently breezes and misty atmospheres! Just my type of weather. I began the day with a shower, wetting my hair and applying some Organic Root Stimulator olive oil hair cream. This had proven t be somewhat useful in the states. I wouldn’t bother with wash and go curl definition. For some reason, my whole perspective on hair and Curl definition went completely out the window. Accepting what was real and authentic was more important. I couldn’t’ hide underneath braids. This is me and I had to look the best I could with what I had on my head. Like the gas station hottie said, the weather in Salzburg changes quite often in the summer. Some days it could be very cold, but the next day it could get quite hot and humid. The longer I stayed in Salzburg the more it began to fluctuate. We had competing storms that would volley back and forth between mountains.

Yet all of this moisture was proving very beneficial for me. My skin looked amazing, and sense we all had to walk a lot, I began to lose weight. Sticking with my simple regime of wetting and applying curl cream to my hair was also proving beneficial. My curls began to come back. The humidity, good clean food, daily walking, and the working helped my hair tremendously. By the time I left Salzburg for home, I was 10 pounds lighter and impoverished, but I got that one and half inches on my hair!