10 Tips For Healthy Natural Hair, Yirssi - Guest Blogger

These are my healthy hair tips:

1.       Moisturize. Yup, I say that a lot. It's THAT important. Once you figure out how thirsty your hair is, make or buy a deep conditioner and apply it weekly or twice a week. Put some moisturizer at night before you go to bed. Put some on after you step out of the shower. Before you style your hair. Before you apply heat. Whenever you feel your hair needs it. But learn your hair and learn how often it needs moisture, and it will thank you for it by not breaking or shedding as much. NOTE: One of the ways I do this when I'm very lazy is by spraying my hair with a pre-made mixture of olive oil and coconut oil. Takes seconds to do, and helps my hair.

2.       Put on a satin hair bonnet or hair scarf at night. If one of them feels uncomfortable to sleep in, try the other one. I've learned that some women prefer one to the other one.

3.       If you want neither, or want even more protection, buy some satin pillow cases. I bought some almost 3 years ago, and I love them.

4.       Handle as little as possible. I know this tip may not be a favorite for a lot of people, but the less you handle it, the less breakage you will incur.

5.       If you decide to do a style on your hair like bantu knot-outs, twists, curlformers, (more on styles later) or anything else you do to your hair once it's wet, let it dry. I've had to re-do whole hair styles because I didn't let my hair dry before I finished off the style, and my hair just looked frizzy.

6.       Learn your ingredients. This one is a pain for me, but think about it, what you put on hair really matters and affects its health. Just like what you eat will affect your body, or what you put on your skin will affect your skin.

7.       Personally, I suggest you detangle when your hair is wet, and you have put plenty of conditioner on. This will help your hair not break as much. A technique I use is separating my hair and detangling it by sections, and in the rough parts, I can put it under the stream of water as I'm detangling it.

8.       If you DO decide to transition, be extremely careful with the demarcation line, which is where the relaxed hair meets the newly natural hair.  This area is extremely fragile, and will need the most care. Especially when you detangle.

9.       I never ever ever towel dry my hair. Towel drying hair makes it frizzy. If you don't want to air dry (which is what I often do) you can dry it with a T-shirt, or with a microfiber towel.

10.   Lead an all around healthy lifestyle. If you do something as simple as drink enough water daily then this will make every part of your body feel and look better, from your skin to your hair.

So what are YOUR healthy hair tips?

You can find Yirssi on her blog by clicking here, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Product Review TIGI Catwalk Curls Rock Curl Amplifier, Yirssi - Guest Blogger

Well, for its price, I wish I wasn't about to say the following but, I have very mixed feelings about this product. A 4 oz. bottle runs at around $14, but to me this product is no more than a gel, which makes the prize absolutely ridiculous.

When I first used this product I had extremely short hair, maybe half an inch to an inch long, and it worked wonders. It defined my short curls, and looked simply amazing. However, as my hair grew longer the product stopped its wonder work, and as I used it I began realizing some of its not sot-so-good qualities.

Let me define the pros and the cons:

Pros:

1.It has a very neutral smell, which I think is a good thing because I dislike when hair products have an overpowering smell.

2.It defines the curls when the hair is short.

3.The ingredients are decent.

Cons:

1.The price for the size.

2.As hair gets longer, the product works less and less. As a matter of fact, the hair on the back of my head is longer (bad haircut), and even though I put more product back there than in the front, the longer the hair, the lesser the hold.

3.The product is very sticky on the hands, and once you put it on the hair just ends up crunchy, just like with gel.

Below are the ingredients, and bolded are the damaging ones:

Ingredients

Water, VP/DMAPA Acrylates Copolymer, Cyclomethicone, Polyquaternium 11, Polyquaternium 37, Styrene/Butadiene Copolymer, Perfume, Polysorbate 60, Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil (Jojoba), Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, Cetearyl Alcohol, PPG 1 Trideceth 6, C12 15 Alkyl Benzoate, Helianthus Annuus Oil (Hybrid Sunflower), Panthenol (ProVitamin B5), Bacopa Leaf (Bacopa Monnieri ) Extract, PVP/Dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate Copolymer, Cinnamidopropyl Trimethyl Ammonium Chloride, Chitosan,

Butylene Glycol, Helianthus Annuus Seed Acid (Sunflower), Methylisothiazolinone, Methylchloroisothiazolinone

So, have you tried it? What do you think of it?

You can find Yirssi on her blog by clicking here, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

My Wash and Go, Yirssi - Guest Blogger

When I was looking through Curly Nikki I got into a comment thread about Wash and Go. A commenter asked me how I did it, and I decided to create this video. Please comment if you'd like so that other people know how YOU do your wash and go!

You can find Yirssi on her blog by clicking here, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

My New Year Resolutions - For My Hair, Yirssi - Guest Blogger

Want to see how damaged your hair can get? Get outrageously busy for two months, and don't care for it in any way besides putting a cap on your hair at night. Add to that living in an area with hard water... and voila! You have dry, damaged hair.

Frankly, it is pretty frustrating and sad how damaged my hair has gotten. So even though I've never done New Year's Resolutions for my hair, this is the year to make it happen. So here they go:

1. Make sure I braid or plait my hair at least 5 nights a week with EVOO or Shea Butter.
2. Put on my satin cap every night before going to bed.
3. Pre-poo for at least 30 minutes before detangling my hair.
4. Rinse with Apple Cider Vinegar.
5. Seal in moisture with Coconut Oil after washing/detangling my hair.
6. Deep condition my hair twice a month.
7. Do a protein treatment twice a month.
8. Trim the ends every 4 months.
9. Take my daily vitamins.
10. Drink plenty of water.

How about you? Do you have any New Year Resolution's for caring for your hair? How do you plan on treating your hair on 2012?

You can find Yirssi on her blog by clicking here, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

My Natural Hair Rules,Yirssi - Guest Blogger

I want to share with you my two most important healthy hair rules:

Rule Number One

This is THE most important rule when it comes to being natural, or simply developing healthy hair:

§  Your hair is UNIQUE.

Regardless of what the most experienced people in hair may swear by (a product, or method, or whatever) your hair may not react the same way. Different factors affect your hair, including but not limited to your biology, and even the weather. For this reason, you have to learn your hair.

Experiment with it. Have fun with it. But keep in mind that at the end of the day, your hair is unique.

Rule number Two

Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize.

This is important regardless of how you chose to wear your hair, but especially if you treat it chemically (whether it's with relaxers or coloring, or anything else). We need to make sure we apply the right products to avoid dryness. Remember, you have to learn your hair, and learn every how often you should moisturize.

As a side note, these products DO NOT have to be expensive. You can buy Olive Oil in any grocery store. You can buy 16 ounces of Coconut Oil for $8. Depending on the length of your hair you can moisturize it for months with only $8. But make sure you do it!


How about you? Do you have any healthy hair rules?

You can find Yirssi on her blog by clicking here, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.