5 WAYS TO PROPERLY CARE FOR YOUR LOCS

Locs, also called dreadlocks, dreads, or “dada” (by our Nigerian people) is a great way to carry your natural hair. When done right, they are beautiful, versatile, and unique. You will be able to rock your natural hair in so many different ways and also, nurture them to attain an impressive length. Locs are not your easy-way-out to treating your natural hair. If you don’t take care of your locs, they end up looking unhealthy, unattractive, and most importantly, like the dreaded local dada. You don’t want that. 

Locs need as much TLC as your normal natural hair, maybe even more. Following a regular regimen for caring for your locs will leave you with healthy, beautiful, and enviable locs. Below are some tips to help you on your journey to locs that people want to copy!

7 Healthy Natural Hair Habits You Should Indulge

We all want beautiful, lustrous, healthy hair. The rave of the natural hair woman is back and here to stay. We keep saying we want long hair that is full and able to bend into different magazine-worthy styles. You claim you are doing right by your hair, but you constantly struggle with hair that is dry, dull, and not at all what you see in natural hair magazines. You can swear you follow the natural hair product manufacturer’s instructions. You even saw a trichologist in Nigeria to help you at some point. Still, your hair is running away from you. So, what are you not doing right?

Having healthy hair is underrated. A lot of people erroneously think that by using just natural hair products, you will miraculously grow healthy, lustrous natural hair. Some even focus on length only and ignore everything else. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. The health of your natural hair should be a top priority and it doesn’t take a lot to change small unhealthy hair habits. Here are 7 small natural hair habits you should indulge in to give you and maintain healthy natural hair.

Help. My Hair is not growing [Webinar with Trichologist Atilola Moronfolu]

There are several factors that cause us not to see progress in our hair growth. Some of these are obvious, while some are not so obvious.

This is why I have decided to host a webinar to open your eyes to mysteries behind hair growth and hair breakage. We will be teaching you what to do, in order to get the length you desire. You don’t want to miss it.

This webinar is free, and will be happening on May 27, by 8pm, so register now, using the link below, and also forward this link to everyone you know that needs this teaching to achieve their goal of healthy hair.

Click here to register. 

How to Do Scalp Massages for Hair Growth

Scalp massages are touted by hair gurus and enthusiasts everywhere to aid and promote hair growth. We've written about it ourselves - throwback to Bee's post on How to Get that Salon-Style Scalp Massage at Home. Some people are more visual though, so today I'm sharing a video from Discovering Natural that shows you how to do a scalp massage properly.

How often do you do your scalp massages?

Berry Dakara.

When your long natural hair stops growing

It is very common for us to slip into our comfort zone in the journery of hair growth, especially if you have successfully grown our hair long.

We become guru in our own eyes, and stop putting effort into our hair care routines. The same lady who would carefull detangle her hair and spend 7 hours every week pampering her hair would now hardly find 1 hour in 3 weeks to do anything. We get away with this habit for sometime, and then it hits you. Your hair is no more growing… in fact, it might be a little bit shorter than it was last year.

This is the bane of hair care for many long time naturalistas, and I have experienced this myself.

So what do you do when your long hair refuse to grow longer.

1. Know that things have changed.
The things you used to do when you just started your natural hair journey might not work for you anymore. This is because your hair is longer, and its needs have differed. This should not be surprising, seeing that the only constant thing in life is change. That leads me to my second point.

2. Try switching up your regimen.
Since we are not statues, we have the power to move away from things that are no more working. If your regimen is no more effective, change it. You can change from LOC to LCO, change from oil prepoo to deep conditioning before wash, change, change, change. Just listen to your hair’s needs, and respond to it.

3. Incorporate a protein treatment.
Your hair is longer now, so your hair is weaker, and more prone to breakage that when your hair was shorter. It is at this point that you need to do a protein treatment once to make your weak ends stronger, making sure you are not overloading your hair with protein, which might cause them to be very hard.

4. Don’t manipulate
Avoid styles that require you touching and retouching your hair every day. You can also start taking advantages of props like hats, turbans, etc. Not every bad hair day have to end up in bad consequences for your hair.

5. Hide those ends
The ends of your hair are older, and not as strong, so incorporate a lot of protective styles in your practices. Styles such as bantu knots, twists, braids, updos, etc will do you well. Just make sure you keep those ends from being exposed too much. They reduce the risk of wearing out, and them snagging on other things

Other things you can do include: avoid playing with your hair, eat a healthy diet (or incorporate supplements in case of illness), reduce heat drastically or completely eliminate it, avoid harsh hair tools, simplify your hair regimen.

If you are having this issue, try these tips above, and see how it turns out for you. Let us also hear other suggestions from you or the description of your issue in the comment section

How To Get That Salon-Style Scalp Massage At Home

Hey ladies,  happy Friday.

Don't you just love when you go to the salon and they wash your hair, and you get that lovely relaxing massage that just makes u want to float? I certainly do.

Now scalp massages are great for blood circulation, growth and scalp health. The bonus relaxation is the cherry on top. You don't have to part with your money to give yourself that relaxing massage that is oh-so-heavenly.

These few tips will take your odinary scalp massage to another level.

1. Schedule 20 minutes to give yourself this treat. Remember the aim here is to maximise growth and pamper yourself at the same time.

2. Heat your oil till it is  warm. Add one or two drops of an essential oil such as peppermint, lavender or ylang ylang.  These are specifically known to be calming and relaxing. They also increase blood circulation.

3. Using the pads of your fingers;  move in circular motion , applying light pressure. Work slowly but evenly around the circumference of your head. Start at the nape, then move forward to the hairline, and lastly do the centre.

It is every important to avoid using your nails. They can scratch and bruise your scalp.

4. Pay particular attention to the back of your head where the neck meets the back of your skull. This area has a lot of tension. Relieve it by applying light pressure whilst moving in circular motion and gently pulling on the skin. 

By the time your 20 minutes are up you will feel rejuvenated and have boosted circulation to encourage growth. I believe the secret to such an enjoyable and effective massage is the warmed scented oil and time taken to do it.  We tend to rush over our scalp massages which although yield results, don't work as effectively as when we had taken our time to really encourage circulation.

Happy growing and massaging