Introducing 'DERM CORNER'

........ YOUR HAIR!!!!!!!!

So I've been wanting to get my 'geek' on but have been procrastinating for a while now. I figured that since I'm 2 years old, I should grow up and talk about hair more in-depth.

I must confess though, there were 3 trains of thought holding me back.
1. There are a gazillion blogs that talk about hair, its science, products to use etc; so I was thinking, why bother and do whats already been done? After all I could always refer people to those blogs!!
2. I also realize that I'm one who likes to get the general gist of things as opposed to being bogged down with nitty-gritty details; Co-incidentally, I happen to be a perfectionist and know that if I started blogging on certain hair topics, I'd have to source out the in-depth information that I tend to scan through.
3. I personally like to look at pictures rather than texts when I look at a blog so I thought it would be boring having all this information.

But then I realized....
1. Teaching people what you've learnt not only solidifies your knowledge but also helps you learn more, as people are bound to ask questions.
2. There is such a huge lack of scientific knowledge about hair in our society; people often go on 'she said' 'he said'; and so I hope that people may be more willing to listen especially since it's coming from one of their own.
3. People like my sis who are so not into hair would be able to get info from my blog which they'd otherwise not seek out (and hopefully with that info I can sway them into becoming natural...mwahahahahaha!!!!)
 4. Also, giving that I have a science background, I may be in a good position to give factual information with the resources at my disposal. (I'm gonna have to put my research hat on....boy, this is gonna be hard work...lol). But you know what how cool would it be to be able to use the information gathered in both a professional and social setting??

My goal for this 'corner' is to talk about hair from both a dermatological and cosmetic view point.
For those who don't like to read so much text, I'll have a 'Did you know that...." section with short and sweet bullet points.
I'd also like to make this section as picture heavy as possible to make reading and understanding easier. (I don't know about you but I'm a visual learner).

Hope ye all enjoy it and learn loads....I'd be doing some learning too for y'all ;)

I'll be posting soon so watch this space !!!!!!.

XoXo
Miss Jay

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My 2 year transiversary

Nappy birthday to me, nappy birthday to me :)

Wooohooo!!!! i'm 2 years old today. It's been a long but awesome journey...

A few Things I've learnt:
- Everyone's hair grows. I've grown about 2/3 of my relaxed hair length in 2 years.
- I retain the most length when my hair is least manipulated- e.g. braids.
- My hair texture is very fine and density quite low.
- Natural hair can look very neat.
- I LOVE my hair!!!!!!!!

Frustrations:
Ah yes its not always all that and a bag of chips.
- Detangling can take hours but it's always worth it.
- Straightening my hair myself is still something I prefer not to do cos of the time and EFFORT it takes.
- Ah yes and good ol shrinkage.

Birthday wish list ;)
- Tripod
- Microscope
- Heutiful hair steamer
- The Shea Moisture family

Updates on the BC:

I'm still not ready to BC :(  I was watching a YT video of a long term transitioner who bc'd and I was shocked at the shrinkage. Now her hair is pretty much the same length as mine and so I imagine i'll have the same amount of shrinkage and I know I'm being wimpy right now, but I just can't. Not now.

I also fear that I'd have to spend an awful lot of time on my hair doing twist outs and what not, and right now spending my time wisely is more of a priority.

So ya, I think I may just go another year and if the going get's tough, to braid it up and have some peace of mind.

So with that I say hair goal for BC- BSL

Right now i'm on APL when stretched out- relaxed bits inclusive.

That's all for now.

XOXO
Miss Jay

My hair straightening experience

As some of y'all may know I set out to get my hair straightened yesterday for two reasons:
1. My two year transiversary was coming up and so I wanted to see how much length I had retained
2. Also, I just wanted to give me a break from the daily styling.

Now I always get my hair straightened at a brazilian salon, but this time around I decided to try out a Nigerian salon after getting a great review from a friend. I was also a bit cost conscious and decided to go with the later cos it was cheaper.

Now the salon was very neat and the stylist was lovely. We had a good chat about hair, Nigeria and other issues. However, when it came to the styling process, a few sins were committed, e.g. combing natural hair when dry, of which I had to advice kindly against and secondly, combing wet/damp hair without the tension method. Now I really can't blame the stylist cos she doesn't deal with natural hair much but neither do the brazilians.

When it came to the blowdrying, she parted the hair into huge sections such that even though the ends were straight, the roots were exactly as before.
Now what's funny is that I told her that blowdrying and straightening my hair usually takes about 2 hours, but it took her about 30 mins if not less as she didn't do it the proper way- using tiny-small sections aka a brazilian/dominican blow-out; and I don't think she realized.
As she was the only stylist and had a few people waiting on her, I didn't try to teach her. I quietly got up, paid my money and called up the brazilian salon to get it re-done. Unfortunately they didn't have any more appointment places for the rest of the day and so I went home and re-did it myself wasting precious time that I could have spent on other things.

I realized that just because you use a round brush and a hand dryer doesn't mean you know how to do a proper blow-out. Needless to say, I wouldn't be returning there again, at least not to get my hair done.

Below are a few pictures to chronicle the experience. (used my phone camera for all but the last pic so sorry for the not so brilliant quality).

I immediately braided my hair to hide the mess

looking stringy and dull as hell

a brazilian blowout March 2011 to compare

To get it professionally re-done or not; that's the question.

That's all for now folks.

xoxo,
Miss Jay

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus II Spoken Word

Wowwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!! that's all I can say. Just check it out.

xoxo
Miss J

Revised hair care regimen

So I read an article on curly nikki yesterday which inspired me to make some adjustments to my current regimen.

As I mentioned I DC'd yesterday after a long while and given the hiatus, I promised myself that I'd be disciplined and stick to doing it every week.

In the past, I almost always DC'd on dry hair as I felt it saved me getting into the shower twice but having read this article, I gather that it's important to shampoo before DCing because 'old product residue blocks the deep conditioner, as such more of the product (the protein and the conditioning ingredients) will end up going down the drain if you don't shampoo first'.  
Look at it this way-  shampoos help to lift the hair cuticles to help remove product buildup from the hair. In doing this, they also enable the keratin/proteins in the DC bind to your hair's keratin strand.


One other thing I  learnt was that even though 'it's super common to DC for an hour to overnight, there is usually no benefit in leaving the product on longer than it says on the bottle. The maximum time recommended will get you the maximum possible results'.

As a result I've tweaked my regimen a bit to include the following:
1. Pre-poo the night before with coconut or other oil or do a hot oil treatment on the morning of wash day (which will now probably be on the weekend, as I can't afford to be late during the week).
2. Shampoo once a week
3. Follow with a DC
4. Moisturize and seal after wash and whenever hair feels dry.

+/- co-wash mid week if hair utterly dry or in need of style change.

My staple products are as before, however, I did add a new product for my edges T444Z, which I got from a hair show.


That's all for now folks.


xoxo,
Miss Jay