Now Forming an Army of SUPER-LONG HAIR 4B (or mostly 4b) NATURALS!! Come on in!

bride91501 said:
:welcome3: to all of the new folks who've introduced yourselves in the last couple of days!

I just did a quick read-over of the thread from the first post, and there are already lots of great tips and inspiration here for 4b newbies. I myself have found my staple moisturizers and DC based on recommendations from the 4b vets in this thread....hopefully you guys are finding lots of good advice too.
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Hey bride91501, which new products have you tried and liked?
 
Hey VeePickni! I've been fokti & past-thread stalking of some of the vets, and here are the things I've added to my reggie in the last couple of months:

-Taliah Waajid Mist Bodifier- MsLaLa always talks about this product, so I picked it up on a whim from my local BSS. The bonus is that it contains ceramides, so I was sold from the ingredients list. Makes my hair feel SO strong and soft!!! Definitely a staple.

-ACV rinses- Nonie always raves about ACV rinses, so I decided to try it again. My moisture retention has been GREAT since I started doing this after my washes and DCs. I use 16oz of water with 1 tablespoon of ACV.

Aloe Vera Gel- I can't remember whose fokti or reggie I saw this in, but I've started including a bit of it in my DCs and I can tell a huge difference in my moisture retention.

When I first started this thread I was losing the moisture battle this winter. Not anymore lol. It's good to finally find things that work.
 
^^ Cool. Can I ask for more details on your ACV rinse? I've always wondered about this but not tried so far. Do you wash in sections? If so, when rinsing are you rinsing your DC out and then rinsing each loose section with the ACV before sectioning off again?
 
Most of the time my hair is in cornrows b/c my PS for the winter is wigs. So after I rinse out my DC or co-wash, I fill a container with 16oz of cool/cold water and add 1 tablespoon of ACV. Then I shake the container really well, and (and this is the awkward part lol) turn my back to the sink, tilt my head back, then pour the ACV-water all over my hair so that the water drips into the sink. I make sure to fully saturate my hair.

The reason I end of doing this acrobatic move over the sink (lol) is because I wanna make sure my cuticles close "down" instead of "up", which is the opposite of what would happen if rinsed facing the sink. Afterwards, I lightly towel blot, apply my leave-in and seal as usual.

Hope this makes sense lol.
 
bride91501 said:
The reason I end of doing this acrobatic move over the sink (lol) is because I wanna make sure my cuticles close "down" instead of "up", which is the opposite of what would happen if rinsed facing the sink. Afterwards, I lightly towel blot, apply my leave-in and seal as usual.

Hope this makes sense lol.
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Your cuticles lie towards the end of your hair so it doesn't matter if your hair is hanging forward or hanging backwards, as water drips down the length of the strands it would be dripping down in the direction of the cuticles.

What's more, it's not the motion of the water that closes the cuticles. Just the acidity of the solution is enough. I usually just dunk my head in a basin of the solution and keep my fingers busy massaging my scalp while my hair just gets a good soak. I then just lift my head out of the basin and drape a towel around it to soak up the water. Or I squeeze my twists a bit then let them drip down on a towel draped across my shoulders.

So there's no need for acrobatics. (Ignore the arrows in the diagram as they have nothing to do with what I'm sharing. I borrowed the image from Google images just to help demo a hair growing out of the head and the direction of cuticles.)
 

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Thanks, Nonie lol. I think sometimes, in my zest to avoid a setback, I make things more complicated than they need be lol.
 
Hmm, I haven't chimed in on this thread yet but that's just b/c I was discouraged around the time it started. I was having detangling and moisture issues overall (I think i have taken care of those and will share soon)...

Anyhoo, I am 4b and have some years of trial and error under my belt. One of the biggest identifiable problems came early last year-- I had breakage -mostly in my crown. I'm trying to pinpoint the reason behind it-- so I am in the process of revamping everything I was doing around the time the breakage appeared. One of those things being ACV rinses.

I had just started doing ACV rinses for the first time-- at that time, trying to tweak my routine and upon recommendation of other Lhcfers. In my 4 1/2 years of being natural, I never had a problem w/breakage b4 adding acv to my regimen.

I did some more research and found a few members here who suffered from breakage from ACV rinses. I initially responded well and thought it tightened my cuticles right up. I adjusted my concentration to dilute it more. I was being careful. However, My crown is my problem area b/c its hard, dry and more coarse than the rest of my hair. I started noticing the hair in that area disappear little by little; until late March, when it was all but gone. It appears like something violently disintigrated my hair. No more ACV rinses for me; not until I can rule it out as the source of my problem, and thus far I haven't been able to.

Now off to read the rest of the thread.
 
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Just wanted to share a detangling breakthrough I've made in the last couple of days lol.

I know alot of type 4s detangle in braided or twisted sections, but because my hair was shorter I thought I could detangle quicker in loose sections. Now that my hair is getting a bit longer, I've noticed that I could do a better job detangling so I started doing it while my hair is in 15 or so twists. I just saturate my hair with conditioner, undo a twist, and detangle with a wide tooth comb from tip to root. Then I re-twist that section and move on to the next.

I'm not sure why this method seems to work alot better than the detangling in small, loose, sections like I was doing before, but the difference is like night and day. My fingers can literally glide right through each detangled section uninterrupted.

I know this is old news for most of you lol, but I wanted to share my new technique with anyone it may help.

HHG ladies!
 
I was JUST about to bump this thread! LOL

I had a great experience with some brown sugar exfoliant last night - my scalp is cleaner than it's been in a loooooooong time.
 
Brown Sugar Exfoliating Scalp Scrub

Ingredients (adapted & expanded from several website examples):

brown sugar
Yes to Cucumbers conditioner
2 tbsp EVCO
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp AO Green Tea Clarifying poo

Mixed, then scrubbed my scalp, it was oily but scalp did feel like it was getting cleansed. I then used my applicator bottle to apply some warm water with a squirt more shampoo. Then I used the buffering method and applied my condish before rinsing, then applied my DC mix as usual. My hair was in braided sections as usual. My scalp was ridiculously clean.

ETA: Oh and it's Pooks now dahhling, lol
 
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Pooks said:
Brown Sugar Exfoliating Scalp Scrub

Ingredients (adapted & expanded from several website examples):

brown sugar
Yes to Cucumbers conditioner
2 tbsp EVCO
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp AO Green Tea Clarifying poo

Mixed, then scrubbed my scalp, it was oily but scalp did feel like it was getting cleansed. I then used my applicator bottle to apply some warm water with a squirt more shampoo. Then I used the buffering method and applied my condish before rinsing, then applied my DC mix as usual. My hair was in braided sections as usual. My scalp was ridiculously clean.

ETA: Oh and it's Pooks now dahhling, lol
Click to expand...

Ha! I didn't even notice the name change lol. Girl, you're like the 3rd or 4th sis I've noticed who's changed her name.....I'm trying to keep up! lol

The recipe sounds yummy. My scalp tends to stay mysteriously clean and itch free, but I'm gonna try it on my oldest DD whose scalp I can't seem to get clean enough.

Thanks girlie!
 
:curtain:

I haven't checked in a while. I'm in braids but I'm taking them out this weekend. I've only had them for a week but I'm having some discomfort. I usually go to an African Braid Shop in my area when I'm home but I tried to save $$$ by getting someone else to braid. Next time, I'll just pay the extra money and go to the shop.:wallbash: My usual braider never complained about the thickness or texture of my hair and does a better job in less time.

I also want to mention that I tried the Tangle Teezer before I got my braids done. The TT is amazing!:yep: I can detangle my hair within minutes instead of a couple of hours without pain and breakage.

How is everyone doing?
 
I'm not super long yet (and prob never will be as my end goal is only APL for now), but I have made excellent progress and think I've semi-nailed down a regimen that I will be following. i'm 4b/a and I have fine porous strands. I only wear my hair straight a few times a year for now. I wash my hair every other week.

Wash day
-Wet my hair and drench it in EVOO. Sit with a conditioning cap on for a couple of hours or so. My hair is still in plaits from prior week during this.
-Take down plaits a few at a time and carefully detangle my hair using Kimmaytubes method. Work through it with my fingers first removing shed hair. Then a wide tooth comb. Then my wide denman brush ( not the d3, can't remember the number of it), and finally the classic D3 denman. Keep a water spray bottle with me to re wet as needed.
-As I go thru I twist and section off my hair using those plastic clamps Kimmaytube uses
-Rinse with water again. Shampoo in 4 sections, in front of the mirror so I can see what Im doing, and try not to let the hair retangle. I only use sulfate free moisturizing shampoos unless I'm wearing straight hair. Right now I really like Keracare Hydrating Detangling sulfate free. Bee mine shampoos are Ok too.
-Rinse and add conditioner. Haven't found a conditioner I am in love with by itself so I usually just do a mix of different conditioners. Some of the ones I like are- Giovanni Smooth as Silk, Curl Junkie Banana Hibiscus, Bee Mine Bee u ti ful, AO Island naturals. I do not use products w/cones unless I am wearing my hair straight. I twist my hair up in sections so that i doesn't retangle while I sit under the steamer for a bout 30 minutes.
-Rinse conditioner out. apply modified Kimmaytube leave in mix and maybe a little oil. Plait it up. either air dry or sit under dryer under low/med heat. Roller set and/or lightly blow dry the front to blend better w/my halfwig.

Daily
-Right now my hair is in plaits under a kinky straight textured half wig pretty much 100% of the time
-For moisture I spray with water and Bee Mine Luscious moisturizer-this is the only moisturizer so far that instantly sinks into and moisturizes my hair.
-I seal w/whatever oil I have laying around. my hair loves almost all oils
-I use Bee Mine serum and/or Afroveda shikaikai oil on my scalp every other day and massage
-I take a multi vit, biotin, and folic acid
-sleep in a silk or satin scarf daily.

Yes, its time consuming and boring but its working REALLY well for me. You will notice the main thing is that I rarely ever have my hair just loose at any point, it is always detangled/stretched out in some way.
 
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:newbie:
hello ladies! Lurker here....been following all of you inspiring hair divas for the past year or so. loving this thread so much - this is my first time posting! :grin:


So I am a 4a/4b; my last relaxer was in August of 2009. My hair is currently a couple of inches past my shoulders but is not as thick as I would like it in the front due to years of wearing weaves for no other reason than convenience and unfortunately demonstrated little concern for real hair care and maintenance:perplexed (hindsight is soooo 20/20)! Since frequently visiting this wonderful website, reading cathy howse's book; and visiting countless naturalista blogspots - not to mention trying countless products (got the product graveyard in the spare bathroom to prove it:yep:) over the past year and a half, i have finally learned that my hair absolutely must have natural products. The regimen that I have finally found (hallelujah!) and which has been phenomenol in terms of keeping my typically very dry hair moisturized is:
  • wash weekly with a homemade shampoo using black african soap and a bunch of pure oils - this is an extremely moisturizing shampoo - so wonderful
  • pre-poo (leave in for at least an hour) with a homemade condish using pure shea butter or mango butter base, veg glycerin, rose water, other oil faves (typical oil faves include JBCO, shea butter oil, almond, coconut, grapeseed)
  • deep condish at least every other week with variation of above condish (just using different mixers)
  • braid as PS and wear lace front daily
  • moisturize daily with coconut oil and vatika - seal ends w/JBCO couple times a week
  • sulfur 3-5 times weekly (2tsp mix w/8oz JBCO) - i don't usually worry about washing out - but BEWARE ! the sulfur can tarnish real gold jewelry (I learned the hard way:nono: )
  • co wash as needed (translation - when i feel like it :yep:)
  • i wash my hair in sections to mitigate tangling - this has made a world of difference re: ease of the hair washing experience) - i apply a bit of Giovanni hair condish while in the shower just for purposes of detangling/combing)
  • as a side, i just did my first henna after months of researching and love it! all that it was cracked up to be - loosened curl pattern just a tad bit which was perfect - made it feel and look slightly thicker (hoping this will increase with use) - mixed it with the homemade condish and used aloe vera juice instead of distilled water - made a nice paste so that i was able to just scoop it up and apply - rinsed easily, but is time consuming to rinse all the way out - will be doing this monthly
Wheh! :spinning: sorry for the long post - so excited to finally be contributing (I hope!). HHG
 
^^^We have the same last relaxer months! lol. My last relaxer was mid August 2009. I just trimmed off the last of my relaxed ends yesterday. I think detangling will be much easier now.

eta: you regimen sounds good, glad u found something that works. I use a lot of natural products too. i am however too lazy to try and make my own. I just experiment with all the natural lines that are out there. There are so many of them now and I've managed to find a few products from some of them that my hair likes.
 
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Ms Lala said:
Girl that's a major cut, not a trim. That's more hair than I grow in a year.
Click to expand...

Yes, you're right about that, but that was the only way to even it out. :yep:

I went to my stylist yesterday, and he said my hair is in better shape than what he thought it would be. That's encouraging because I know I'm on the right track. :superbanana:
 
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coyacoy said:
:newbie:
hello ladies! Lurker here....been following all of you inspiring hair divas for the past year or so. loving this thread so much - this is my first time posting! :grin:


So I am a 4a/4b; my last relaxer was in August of 2009. My hair is currently a couple of inches past my shoulders but is not as thick as I would like it in the front due to years of wearing weaves for no other reason than convenience and unfortunately demonstrated little concern for real hair care and maintenance:perplexed (hindsight is soooo 20/20)! Since frequently visiting this wonderful website, reading cathy howse's book; and visiting countless naturalista blogspots - not to mention trying countless products (got the product graveyard in the spare bathroom to prove it:yep:) over the past year and a half, i have finally learned that my hair absolutely must have natural products. The regimen that I have finally found (hallelujah!) and which has been phenomenol in terms of keeping my typically very dry hair moisturized is:
  • wash weekly with a homemade shampoo using black african soap and a bunch of pure oils - this is an extremely moisturizing shampoo - so wonderful
  • pre-poo (leave in for at least an hour) with a homemade condish using pure shea butter or mango butter base, veg glycerin, rose water, other oil faves (typical oil faves include JBCO, shea butter oil, almond, coconut, grapeseed)
  • deep condish at least every other week with variation of above condish (just using different mixers)
  • braid as PS and wear lace front daily
  • moisturize daily with coconut oil and vatika - seal ends w/JBCO couple times a week
  • sulfur 3-5 times weekly (2tsp mix w/8oz JBCO) - i don't usually worry about washing out - but BEWARE ! the sulfur can tarnish real gold jewelry (I learned the hard way:nono: )
  • co wash as needed (translation - when i feel like it :yep:)
  • i wash my hair in sections to mitigate tangling - this has made a world of difference re: ease of the hair washing experience) - i apply a bit of Giovanni hair condish while in the shower just for purposes of detangling/combing)
  • as a side, i just did my first henna after months of researching and love it! all that it was cracked up to be - loosened curl pattern just a tad bit which was perfect - made it feel and look slightly thicker (hoping this will increase with use) - mixed it with the homemade condish and used aloe vera juice instead of distilled water - made a nice paste so that i was able to just scoop it up and apply - rinsed easily, but is time consuming to rinse all the way out - will be doing this monthly
Wheh! :spinning: sorry for the long post - so excited to finally be contributing (I hope!). HHG
Click to expand...

:welcome4::newbie:
 
Welcome newbies!

Co-signing on the Tangle Teezer thumbs up - I did a review of it in comparison with my Denman brush on my YT channel if anyone's interested (vid no. 22)
 
Damn y'all! Now I gotta go out and get the TT to see what the hype is about LOL

So I'm sorta just coasting now with my reggie....planned to keep PSing in wigs until the warmer months. But I've been going out a little more lately, and I keep seeing these GORGEOUS heads of 4b natural hair in the FLYEST styles! It's all too much for me......has me thinking about taking a month's break from the wigs and experimenting on my own hair (I'm currently only doing this for 1 week per month).

Where are you ladies getting inspiration for styling fly 4b hair??
 
Has anyone tried Chicoro’s “shampoo softening “recipe? I usually use diluted Dr. Bronners on DDs 4b hair and it works well but was wondering about this recipe.

Here are the ingredients if I remember correctly:
1/8 cup shampoo
½ cup hot water
¼ cup AVG
1 tbsp of oil

I tried this on my hair and it was a little too weak. I think I need to tweak the Dr. Bronners portion and add a little more. My hair felt good though. I’m going to try it on DDs hair the end of this week.

ETA: The TT has made detangling much more manageable. That....and Crisco. :look:
 
Honi said:
Has anyone tried Chicoro’s “shampoo softening “recipe? I usually use diluted Dr. Bronners on DDs 4b hair and it works well but was wondering about this recipe.

Here are the ingredients if I remember correctly:
1/8 cup shampoo
½ cup hot water
¼ cup AVG
1 tbsp of oil

I tried this on my hair and it was a little too weak. I think I need to tweak the Dr. Bronners portion and add a little more. My hair felt good though. I’m going to try it on DDs hair the end of this week.

ETA: The TT has made detangling much more manageable. That....and Crisco. :look:
Click to expand...

I haven't tried Crisco. How do you use it on your hair?
 
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Platinum said:
I haven't tried Crisco. How do you do it on your hair?
Click to expand...

I use a very small amount on her towel dried hair. I don't think it works well on sopping wet hair. I really like the consistency of it and tried so many butters already. When I rub this into the sections and use the TT it makes detangling so much easier. :yep:

ETA: I think this would be a nice base for incorporating other oils, butters, etc if you don't want to use it alone.
 
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I'm noticing a lot of mid shaft splits and split ends. I'm usually diligent about moisturizing daily. I slacked off on protein for a while (when I was in braids) but I started back to using Mane and Tail condish. This is seems to help.

Anyone else having issues with mid-shaft splits? How do you get them? Is there anything I can do to prevent them? Where's Nonie?
 
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Platinum said:
I'm noticing a lot of mid shaft splits and split ends. I'm usually diligent about moisturizing daily. I slacked off on protein for a while (when I was in braids) but I started back to using Mane and Tail condish. This is seems to help.

Anyone else having issues with mid-shaft splits? How do you get them? Is there anything I can do to prevent them? Where's @Nonie?
Click to expand...


I read in an earlier post that you use the tangle teaser? Curly Nikki just did a post on this not too long ago. Basically some people say TT causes major breakage.

If you hadn't been experiencing breakage before and TT is the only knew thing you've added to your regimen, it might be the culprit.

Keep us posted.
 
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