I Ran Away From The Salon

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Well okay, not really...but I might as well have.

My mum was talking to my sis and I about getting our hair done. She wanted a two for one deal meaning my sis and I would both get our hair done by the same lady over the weekend (May 25 th). She wanted her to come over and do our hair at home.

Olive Oil's Miracle..

Hello lovelies, I trust we're good. This post is brought to you courtesy of my long lost love, olive oil.

Moisturising Hair

Keeping hair moisturised has been every woman's epic battle I believe and winter seems to make it that much harder. I found that starting with a good moisturising regimen and method means my work is half done when it comes to retaining moisture.

Proper moisturising has been abbreviated to the L.O.C, L.C.O, L.O  to represent the method of applying products in a particular order.

L - Liquid : water (the best to use), moisturising spray, aloe vera juice

O - Oil: castor oil, olive oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil, hemp seed oil, grapeseed oil, the list is endless. The trick with using oils is to use their pure undiluted form. Meaning if the ingredient list says 'petrolatum, castor oil, mineral oil"..or " Olive oil, paraffinum liquidum (mineral oil), xyz" you are not dealing with pure oil. Oils in their pure form have more benefits as they nourish the strand and do not clog your pores.

Wiggin' it!

Hi Guys, it's been a minute and this wig post is looong overdue..

So on to the main business. Initially I got a synthetic wig. It was too shiny so I used some baby powder to reduce the shine. I simply sprinkled on a little, then brushed through. This did the magic and  everyone thought it was human hair. LOL.

Original synthetic wig

With attachable hair you pay for what you get and within a week that hair was looking raggedy as hell. I had to keep trimming and powdering each day to keep it looking smart. Luckily my plan was to buy some human hair and replace the synthetic hair with it.

Bad Hair Practices I Stopped!

They say one must treat hair like fine silk..and that is so true. When I started my hair journey, my hair was not that thick, was dull and honestly not in very good shape.That was due to lack of hair care knowledge, bad hair practices and honestly not bothering that much.

Growing healthy long hair comes down to how you manipulate (handle) your hair, good products, consistency and patience. These are some of the things I realised I had to STOP doing if I wanted to keep the hair I grew each month.

1. Combing with a fine toothed comb.

This comb is the devil himself on any head of  hair!! The teeth have such small gaps between them that they pull out a lot of hair and cause breakage. The sooner I stopped, the less breakage I saw. I then started using a wide toothed comb only. Whether hair is natural or relaxed, a fine toothed comb is not your friend.

My long retired fine toothed comb

BLACK /AFRO HAIR IS BEAUTIFUL!!

I get soooo worked up, pissed, annoyed when someone tells me that afro textured hair whether relaxed or natural is ugly!!! This is a matter very close to my heart cause I wish people would just realise that afro hair is amazing.

I get so worked up when im told that african hair is nicer if it is mixed with caucasian or asian hair. "Ohh it curls and grows so long." or "Oh how I wish I had white or indian people's hair, its so long and I don't have to struggle with it." Let me just say, if it's long hair you want, a healthy hair journey will get you there. Afro textured hair has a different strand shape, which makes it curl and kink instead of grow straight or wavy. Therefore  the sebum from the scalp does not reach the rest of the strand after the first one to two inches. Resultanty our hair is dry and brittle, prone to breakage and will not grow long and healthy if not cared for properly.  And it doesnt help that a lot of people are ignorant to proper hair care, resulting in over fried relaxed hair or dull, lifeless natural hair. And this is the image people see and come to accept of african hair.

My Staple Products

Good products which benefit your hair's health are essential when on a hair journey. As time passes you find what products your hair loves and which it hates. Simple trial and error get you there. So as promised, these are the products  I LOVE for my hair.

OILS

Left to right: Castor oil, Grapeseed oil, Vatika oil

Castor Oil: I use this to oil my scal and seal my hair after moisturising. Best oil ever

Grapessed oil :This fairly new to my regimen. Mostly use it in my deep conditioners and oil mix 

Vatika oil: Used to deep condition, for oil rinsing and my oil mix

Olive oil: I use this to preshampoo my hair and add to my deep conditioners

Coconut oil: Used in my oil mix and when undoing my hair for a braid out or twist out

Rosemary oil: For my oil mix

Oil it up! Oil rinsing

 From my last post, i got quite a number of questions about what exactly oil rinsing is. So i'll talk about that in this post.

Oil rinsing is when you apply an oil to your hair during the washing process to lock in the moisture. Basically you gently use the pads of your fingers to apply the oil to your hair from root to tip.

 It can be done in three ways:
1. After you shampoo but before you condition, you apply the oil to the hair. cover with a plastic cap for 5 to 20 mins, then rinse out and condition
2.Apply the oil over your conditioner, cover with a plastic cap and proceed to condition as normal
3. After you rinse out the conditioner, apply the oil, leave in a shower cap for 5 to 20 mins. Rinse then proceed with the rest of your wash day routine.

Winter survival

 Gosh it's beginning to get quite chilly here in the southern hemisphere and that means dry hair. But for me, winter just means its time to kick my hair care regimen to the next level. Now there are quite a number of pitfalls this winter. The main thing im aiming at stopping is dryness and breakage. 

See when i was in high school, i left my hair out the whole of june, boy...breakage city. My then relaxed hair just thinned and broke off. I vowed never to let my hair out during the colder months. And surprisingly, even with the little hair knowledge i had then, i ALWAYS made sure my hair was in braids during the winter to prevent breakage. And it worked. My hair  never broke off or thinned during that time.

Welcome to Glamlushhair!!

Im Bee, a final year student. Im Zambian but currently residing in Namibia. Iv'e been on a healthy hair jouney since 2012..but now i want to share my hair experience with everyone. Cause every african woman can grow long healthy hair.

Kinda new to the blogging experience so i hope to learn as we go along.  Watch me share hair successes and failures. And i hope to learn a few tips from you too. So let's go and get this hair thing on the road shall we? :-)