Newbie here, but natural for 11 years

ladybuddafly

New Member
I've been natural for 11 years, 8.5 of which were in locs. Now, that I don't have locs I am having the hardest time growing and caring for my hair. Of course, I'm realizing that it's a different routine. Anyway, my goal is to grow my hair and my daughter's hair to the middle of my back. So I need serious help. I tried to upload a picture, but it's not working. Not quite sure why. Let me know if you can enlighten me. Thanks so much.
 

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Congrats to coming aboard.

Yes I can see your picutre, your hair looks great.

What exactly do you need help with?
 
You are similar to me. It'll be 15 years for me in April, and I was locked for 8 years. I've been loose for about a year now and loving learning about my hair. NOw I'm buckling down and focusing on serious growth. I joined this forum recently as well.

Welcome!
 
Thank you guys for the compliments! My main focus is growing my hair and making sure it's as healthy as possible. I would like to know what to do to prevent breakage, how to reduce shrinkage, and what do I do to keep my hair moist. My hair seems to drink moisture. Is there something specific I can do to keep it constantly moisturized?
 
You are similar to me. It'll be 15 years for me in April, and I was locked for 8 years. I've been loose for about a year now and loving learning about my hair. NOw I'm buckling down and focusing on serious growth. I joined this forum recently as well.

Welcome!


Purplepeace we have the same focus. What does your current regimen consist of, if you don't mind sharing? And what products are you using? I'm trying to find a regimen currently and am slightly overwhelmed with all the products, recipes, and steps here on the boards. Don't get me wrong. I love the info! But I need to know where to begin.
 
Thank you guys for the compliments! My main focus is growing my hair and making sure it's as healthy as possible. I would like to know what to do to prevent breakage, how to reduce shrinkage, and what do I do to keep my hair moist. My hair seems to drink moisture. Is there something specific I can do to keep it constantly moisturized?

Welcome! You have a gorgeous head of hair. I bet if you straightened it (temporarily of course!) you would see that you are well on your way to having hair down your back.

To prevent breakage you need to be gentle with your hair. For some poeple that means only fingercombing to detangle or only detangling when hair is soaked with water, oil, and/or conditioner. Only using a wide tooth comb (seamless is best) or a deman brush.

Your ends are the oldest part of your hair so if you want long hair you need to give them special attention. Detangle from the bottom up, give extra moisture/oil to the ends, and keep them from brushing against your clothes as much as possible. Keeping your ends tucked away from the air is the ultimate way to protect them. Around here we call that protective styling.

Sleep with silk or satin on your hair to prevent dryness. Cotton is a :nono:.

I used to have hair that sucked up moisture when I joined hair boards and I turned that around by eliminating shampoo, washing with conditioner instead, and deep conditioning my hair several times a week. I would also sleep with conditioner mixes in my hair overnight before rinsing it out the next morning.

There is a lot more that can be said but I know that many other ladies will be chiming in.
 
Deep condition once a week and moisturize in between. I was so guilty of never moisturizing my hair. When you keep your hair moisturized it keeps the ends from breaking and you retain more length. Also shampoo can be very drying. I had to get over the notion of tons of suds to feel clean. It is not true and all those suds left me with dry hair.
 
Welcome to LHCF. I wish I could offer you some advice of substance, but that would be like the blind leading the blind, so to speak. Hey, it's a work in progress:grin:.

Your hair is beautiful by the way.
 
Welcome! You and your hair are beautiful! As for retaining moisture, I'll agree with vkb247 :yep: Protective Styling, covering hair with a silk or satin scarf / bonnet and mosturizing with products that don't contain huge amounts of mineral oil and / or petrolatum is what grew my hair from neck length to almost armpit length in just 2 years! HHG!
 
Purplepeace we have the same focus. What does your current regimen consist of, if you don't mind sharing? And what products are you using? I'm trying to find a regimen currently and am slightly overwhelmed with all the products, recipes, and steps here on the boards. Don't get me wrong. I love the info! But I need to know where to begin.

What's your reggie at the moment? What products are you using now? How often do you moisturise, and are you using an oil to seal?
 
Purplepeace we have the same focus. What does your current regimen consist of, if you don't mind sharing? And what products are you using? I'm trying to find a regimen currently and am slightly overwhelmed with all the products, recipes, and steps here on the boards. Don't get me wrong. I love the info! But I need to know where to begin.

No problem sharing at all!

My shampoo: Burt's Bees Super Shiny Grapefruit & Sugar or Real Solutions Moisture Therapy (both are organic and sulfate, paraben-free) . You want to reduce the frequency of using shampoo, especially commercial ones, because they contain "sulfates" that strip your hair of moisture. I only shampoo twice a month at most. I part my hair into about 4-9 section, braid each section, and wash like that to avoid tangle and knots.

My conditioners: Organix Tea Tree Mint or Renpure "My pretty hair is parched" moisturizing conditioner. Both are organic and free of a lot of the damaging chemicals. When my hair is "out', I conditioner wash 2-3 times a week. When its in a protected style (braids, twists, bun, etc), I do it less frequently.

Deep Conditioner: Garnier Fructisse Triple Nutrition 3 minute undo mask mixed with jojoba oil. I Deep condition once a week. I saturate my hair and put it in a shower cap, then wrap with a towel and leave it in for about 45 minutes. I do the same braiding technique listed above.

Moisturizers: I use Hollywood Beauty castor oil hairdress to moisturize my hair while I'm styling it (if I'm doing twists or braids). On the ends, I use Profective healthy ends. I have color treated hair so I have to take special care of my ends.

Oils: I have a spray bottle with a mix of aloe vera, shea butter, cocoa butter, and olive oils. After conditioning and rinsing my hair, I coat my hair with a few sprays of this mix.

http://fotki.com/purplepeace79 is my fotki and I have my products listed there.

Basically, I keep it simple. Saturday or Sunday, I cleanse (every other week), Deep condition, moisturize, and style. Keep that style for a week, do it all again. Once a month, I rinse my hair with Apple Cider Vinegar mixed with water to seal my hair folicles. It also cleanses product buildup and restores PH balance to my hair.

By protective styling, I am reducing the risk of breakage (caused by over-manipulation, knots, etc) and protecting my ends which will help me retain length. I also wear a lot of extension styles because I am lazy lol
 
As everyone already said - your hair is beautiful. I love the shape. :yep:

I'm a new natural, but I've found that natural products seem to do the best with keeping my hair moisturized. I do use commercial stuff (cheap conditioners esp) but Glycerine, Aloe Vera Juice/Gel, Rosewater, and Coconut/Olive Oil are my heavy hitters. I cannot live without them being part of my reggie.

There are tons of naturals here - I would advise taking a look at some fotkis until you find ladies with a texture similar to yours. That's what helped me a lot with finding products that would work for me. Good Luck!
 
Try pre pooing with heat. I love afroveda shea alma as it keeps the hair moist and kbb hair milk would be a great leave-in for you. I like Aubrey organics shampoo and condish especially the white camellia and honeysuckle rose. Hope this helps and HHG!
 
Hello and Welcome! :D Vkb's post was completely on point. I just wanted to clarify, in case you didn't know (and I apologize if you already did) the distinction between moisturizing and sealing. A moisturizer is typically water-based, since water is truly the master moisturizer, and contains other emollients and ingredients that coat (and, at times) penetrate the hair shaft. An example of a moisturizer would be a leave-in conditioner like Alba Botanical's detangler or Kinky Curly Knot today, as well as Qhemet Biologics Burdock Root Cream. A sealer is a product that is not water-based and helps to retard the evaporation of the moisturizer from the hair. Sealers include plant butters (such as shea, illipe, cocoa, etc.). You would moisturize first and then seal. Again, my apologies if this is redundant.

Have you already assessed your hair type? If not, the method most conventionally used can be found at http://www.naturallycurly.com/hair-types. I personally am a blend of 4A and 4B; I would even argue that I'm 4C in some parts (4A in the middle of my head, and 4B/C on the sides). The hair typing method is used to determine the extent of your curl pattern, that is, how loose it is vs. how tight the curl is. Once you've figured that out, I would also encourage you to check out threads that delineate coarse vs. fine hair. Briefly, you will know if your hair is coarse by looking at the individual strands and evaluating whether their diameter is comparable to a piece of thread, or if the strands are fine. I know that there are threads about this (I don't know where they are, but you can do a search to find them :yep:). I personally have fine strands. In fact, the majority of Afro-textured hair is actually fine, not coarse. :yep:

You have beautiful hair. :yep: I hope that this helps you. Feel free to send a personal message if you have any questions! :yep:
 
Welcome! You have a gorgeous head of hair. I bet if you straightened it (temporarily of course!) you would see that you are well on your way to having hair down your back.

To prevent breakage you need to be gentle with your hair. For some poeple that means only fingercombing to detangle or only detangling when hair is soaked with water, oil, and/or conditioner. Only using a wide tooth comb (seamless is best) or a deman brush.

Your ends are the oldest part of your hair so if you want long hair you need to give them special attention. Detangle from the bottom up, give extra moisture/oil to the ends, and keep them from brushing against your clothes as much as possible. Keeping your ends tucked away from the air is the ultimate way to protect them. Around here we call that protective styling.

Sleep with silk or satin on your hair to prevent dryness. Cotton is a :nono:.

I used to have hair that sucked up moisture when I joined hair boards and I turned that around by eliminating shampoo, washing with conditioner instead, and deep conditioning my hair several times a week. I would also sleep with conditioner mixes in my hair overnight before rinsing it out the next morning.

There is a lot more that can be said but I know that many other ladies will be chiming in.

VKB, you deep condition several times a week? What do you use? Thank you for all of your helpful tips. Good stuff!
 
What's your reggie at the moment? What products are you using now? How often do you moisturise, and are you using an oil to seal?

I'm going to be perfectly honest. I have no regimen currently. I'm still trying to discover one. Products - Olive oil, Jane Carter's leave-in, Miss Jessie's Stretch Silkening, Mizani's Serum something or other. But I don't use anything consistently and I don't moisturize nearly enough. Sealing? What's that? Lol...seriously...what's that?
 
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