Hair Yoga: Stretching & Twisting for Healthy Hair!

Hello Beauties!

My hair has been stressed and tense lately, and I needed to find a solution. I was fed up with the tangles, knots and uneven growth. When my body is tense, I can rely on yoga to loosen me up and make me less stressed. I thought that if yoga can do such good things for the body, why can't there be yoga for the hair? Then I realized - there definitely is such a thing as hair yoga! It's basically what most naturals in a blogosphere and on youtube have been talking about, but I thought a comparison to yoga works to remind me that I need to "destress" my hair.

Let me explain exactly what I mean. There are only two moves in hair yoga

1. Stretching: This basically means keeping you hair detangled as much as possible. This limits shrinkage and KNOTS. Knots have to by clipped, which limits growth retention!
2. Twisting: Putting your hair in two strand twists or braids as much as possible keeps your hair in a stretched state. Twists and braids also retain moisture (in my experience at least). If you leave your twists or braids in for a week or more, then you will lessen the amount of "handling" (brushing, combing, playing with) that your hair goes through, which then limits opportunities for breakage. 

This is all I mean by twists:

This "hair yoga" analogy is kinda corny, but helps me remember that I don't want my hair to be all tense and tangled. Also, I think it pretty much explains why everyone is so hype over protective styling. Protective styling really does help. Now that I have 5+ inches of hair on my head, I really gotten to know my hair type. Its EXTREMELY curly, and the curls are small, which means endless knots. To be honest, I think this 5-6 inch average height is awkward. I'm struggling with coming up with cute styles, and sometimes I just don't have time. Furthermore, I'm getting tired of knots, so over the passed couple weeks I've rarely been seen out and about in just a wash-and-go afro. I keep my hair in twists. I don't LOVE the twists aesthetically, but I've found ways to make them work for me:

• Tiny Twists: smaller twists tend to "adopt" to my curl pattern, while larger twists just hang.

Larger twists 

I didn't really like how these twists came out, they remind me of spider legs lol

Smaller twists

These took longer (way longer) to do, but I like them better

• Curling my twists: Using Eco Styler Gel and perm rods I simply curl and set my twists. Here's how it looks:

At the end of the week, usually a day or two before I shampoo my hair, I'll probably untwist and wear a twist-out. This works well because the twist-out lasts through Friday and Saturday - the days I might want to go out, socialize etc. 

I really hope this "hair yoga" plan works to retain my growth. I plan to take it on as a hair-lifestyle, instead than just a thing I'll do until I have x amount of new growth. Although... I actually would like to have about 5 new inches of growth by this time in December. *crosses fingers*

While I've been protective styling for a while, this particular blog post was inspired by Kimmaytube's video: "AFRO - Why I won't wear my hair in one!" WATCH it - its very informative.

Be beautiful :)

xoxo

Estelle. so unique and fly!

Relaxed or Natural?

Hello Lovelies!

I know its been a while, but I had to settle into the swing of things, starting off a new semester, etc. Now I'm back, and hopefully I'll be able to post somewhat regularly. Today I wanted to add my 2 cents to the debate that has been going on for a while now - Relaxed or Natural? Which is better?

I wanted to start out by saying that my blog is mainly to provide haircare tips. Hopefully when you all, my readers, take good care of your mind, body and soul, you will feel and look beautiful. With that being said, I think the most important thing is that you all feel that you are attractive and special. Think about this, if relaxers were no longer available, how much of a crisis would that be for you? Would you no longer think you are attractive, would it be the end of the world? If the answer is yes, then there are a couple more things to think about. Why would it be such a trauma if there were no more relaxers? What is so wrong with the way that you were naturally made?  I'm not at all saying everyone should go natural, but what I am saying is that you should be appreciative of your beauty, with or without relaxers. The same applies to those of you who wear make up, those of you who would like to get an enhancement surgery or sort of beauty enhancement. Can you survive without it?

Most of the hang-ups people have about natural hair or anything else that has to do with a beauty routine comes from society. A lot of you have probably heard these:

• Guys like girls with long hair; they don't go for girls with shorter hair
• Natural hair looks nappy, unkept or unprofessional 
• You'll look like a slave with hair like that (yes people say this)
• Natural hair is for those radical girls
• No famous people rock natural hair, so why should I?

Don't let these statements, or anything else that people say about natural or relaxed hair stop you from doing what you want to do with your hair. Some people simply like relaxing their hair, and some like it better natural. That's cool, as long as you're being persuaded by your own beliefs and desires. I've been saying it and I'll say it again - whatever you choose to do is great as long as you love yourself with or without the enhancements. 

I'm going to do a list of pros for natural hair, then a list of pros for relaxed hair, so that you can decide what you'd like to do with your hair.

Natural Hair Pros:

1. It is not effected by the strong chemicals in relaxer, so it tends to break less easily
2. You don't have to worry about water, whether from rain or swimming (although you MUST condition your hair after swimming!)
3. Less heat damage, no flat-ironing or blow drying necessary
4. There are tons of cute styles, from the twist out to the afro-puff
5. Hair grows faster because it breaks less
6. Natural hair products (in my opinion) smell better and tend to have more natural, and healthy products
7. No more paying for the hair dresser!

Relaxed Hair Pros

1. Growth is more noticeable, because relaxer stretches natural curls
2. Tends to be easier to comb than natural hair if the correct products are used
3. There are many possible hair styles
4. There are more hair dressers who know how to work with relaxed hair
5. When managed well, hair can be very long and flowing 
6. Other than the long days at the hair dresser, relaxed hair can be a little less time consuming than natural hair (depending on your regimen)

If you read My Natural Hair/Transition Story, you will get to understand why I switched from natural to relaxed hair.

I hope this helps!

Be Big and beautiful!

xoxo

Angela Bassett! So beautiful, and a great actress