Tips to Loosen Curly Hair?

Kimberly recently emailed me with a request for tips on how to naturally loosen curly hair.  Other women might give her the verbal side eye, wondering why she has issues with the tightness of her texture.  I have no such agenda.  My shrinkage is so extreme, I live for second and third day hair.  And my favorite days are when I sport a twist out and -- yay! -- my hair is shoulder length! One day I had a fresh dry wash and go after wearing a twist out the day before and a colleague asked me "Wasn't your hair shoulder length yesterday?"  So Kimberly, I sympathize.

Dry styled second and third day hair is one of the very few ways to loosen my hair.  Somehow the act of loosely pulling my hair into a scunci overnight stretches the curl a bit.  It also gives me a wicked case of bed head, but scrunching with Devacurl Set It Free and a dab of shea butter or a tiny bit of castor oil will fluff out the dents.  Adding water or using a spritz simply results in more shrinkage.

The only other way I know to loosen curly hair is twist outs, braid outs and bantu knot outs.  I like the dry twist and curl method as it imparts volume to my fine and fairly thin hair.  If your hair is thick, twisting on wet hair will likely work better for you. 

I do a dry twist out on second or third day hair that was air dried or diffused on wash day.  I do add product to my dry twists and usually do between 11 and 14 twists. The products I use are Devacurl Set It Free for the length.  For the ends I use Afroveda Curly Custard or a similar product (Curl Junkie Hibiscus & Banana Honeybutta leave in or Botanical Spirits Kinky Coils pudding). It is important to saturate the t wist ends with product.

I don't comb or brush so my texture is incorporated into the twist and subsequent twist out. The trick is to not get the hair wet or even damp really (except for the ends), just soft enough to finger separate. I aim for smooth, not necessarily detangled hair.

Dry Twist and Curl How to:

•  With plain water in a spritzer, lightly spritz the entire loose head of hair 3-5 times tops. This softens the ends since I'm not combing or brushing.

•  Isolate a section to twist, sectioning off the rest of the hair with duckbill clips. Spray two or three sprays of Set It Free in palm and smooth that down the length of the section to be twisted. Separate with fingers and twist.

• Towards the end of the twist, smooth some of the thicker product down each end to saturate and completely detangle, then finish twisting to the ends

• Optional: roll the ends with small foam rollers.

In the morning, I undo and gently finger separate each twist 3 or 4 times. That's it!   How do other curlies fight shrinkage and loosen texture?              
                                                                                                                                        

Clay-- Going the All Natural Route Without the Big Expense

Keisha writes:

Q.: I am a 9 month transitioner and loving the process. I will BC in 3 months on my one year anniversary.

I had a couple of questions dealing with natural hair clays and masks. I really want to go the all natural route without the big expense. I have been using amla and shikakai mixtures, henna and honey mixess, bentonite clay, ACV; honey and EVOO  mixes; shea butter, coconut oil, evoo, jojoba oil mixtures.


But I have been hearing about the rhassoul clays, zisyphus spina christi, and marshmallow root.  Where do you order these things from?  What are the uses of these products? Can I use them now on my transitioning hair or should I wait until completely naturally? What recipes do you use with these products? Do you know of any other clays?

A.: Many of the herbs and plants we use for our hair are also used for herbal detoxification, elimination and removal of toxins from the the liver and digestive system. These include burdock root, fenugreek, ginger root,  marshmallow root, as well as Bentonite clay (Monmorillonite).

I first used clay (Bentonite) as part of a  digestive detox.  Imagine downing 8 oz. of bentonite clay and water 3 times a day for 2 weeks! Luckily, for your hair to benefit from the "mud treatment" all you need is to slap it on your hair. 

Rhassoul clay (Hectorite) comes from Morocco and is 100% naturally occurring.  It is only for external use (unlike Bentonite) and is a very popular spa treatment.  I get mine from Mountain Rose Herbs. Their Rhassoul is untreated, quarry mined and sun dried from naturally occurring lake-side deposits.

10 Most Important Steps for Growing Healthy, Hypercurly, Natural Hair

Acceptance and Clarity - Take off the "mental wig." Once I accepted that I would never have Botticelli curls, I began to see that my hair could be even more beautiful. To actually see my hair, I need to look at photos. Mental distortion can occur when I look in the mirror, but the camera doesn't lie.

Understanding - Observe your hair under different circumstances, different climates. Learn to understand what your hair does, not what you want it to do and build on that. Look inward at your own hair, not outward at someone else's.

Look, listen and learn - It's a given that other naturals know more than I do, especially if their hair is thick and long and beautiful, right? I'm so teachable!

Protection: At night, protect the hairline with a silk head wrap, guard against friction with a silk pillowcase. Anchor the hair in a loose puff or large twists so it doesn't shift or rub against itself. During the day, I wear my hair out 95% of the time. Protection means the right products applied to each strand and a soft, aloe-vera based gel for hold. And no touching! (that one is hard.)

Hair Q &A: Hair in a cold, cold climate

Q: My daughter has a hair type EXACTLY like yours, and I am @ a loss for what to try in her hair. We live in a very cold climate so I am opposed to wetting her hair daily, but NO matter what I do her hair comes out looking like an oversized cotton ball. When wet it is eerily similar to your hair type but swells into frizz. HELP!! BTW you have a beautiful mind and beautiful hair! Thanks Sis!

A: Thanks so much for your kind words, I felt really good reading them.

Cold climates are usually dry and that's the challenge. I think I'll write a post on this topic (see previous post). If your daughter's hair is similar to mine, her hair could get puffy and frizzy for 2 possible reasons:

Fall 2009 Hair Routine: Guess summer is gone. At least that's what my hair is telling me.

A month into Fall and it snowed today, a light wet snow. Alrighty then!

Life was good in the summer once I figured out what my hair needed - Up to 3 days with one wash and go and high dewpoints to help my hair more easily fluff out and back down on day 2. I would do dry twist outs after 3 days and easily go 6 days before washing again.

Now I wake up to a stringy hard mess on day 2. But you know? It's all about making those seasonal changes:

• One of these is shea butter. Haven't touched it once since maybe May. Now it's my new best friend. The thickness of it works better for me in cold dry air to keep moisture in than a thinner product like Qhemet Olive Honey Hydrating Balm or even castor oil. Both of these work like a charm in the summer, hydrating and protecting the ends yet inviting that atmospheric moisture in.I emulsify about a 1/4 tsp of shea butter in my hands in the shower and scrunch right over conditioner after I've detangled. I make sure to cover every end. If I'm dry twisting, a little shea on my ends after moistening them with Afroveda Curly Custard or Curl Junkie Honeybutta leave in is protective and softening.I'm also adding a little shea butter to my Devacurl Set it Free for dry 2nd day hair. Shea butter works especially well to hydrate if the product I'm using contains large amounts of glycerin.
  

• Glycerin, that's another thing - I dial it down in the cool to cold dry weather, when there is much less moisture in the air to be captured. Glycerin heavy products like Qhemet Honeybush gel and CJ Aloe Fix will go into hibernation until what passes for the monsoon season up here.

• More water for the hair in the winter-- This may sound counter-intuitive because the last thing you want to do is walk around in the cold with wet hair -- and I'm not recommending that. But this time of year, my hair needs more frequent hydration -- more cowashings and shampoos to get it wet more. To avoid the wet cold head, I will use my diffuser more often or even my hard bonnet dryer, and wash more frequently at the end of the day. I'll try more roller sets to bun for 3 days or so, followed by dry twist outs. Adding a light scrunch of moisturizing product daily, of course.

• More moisturizing deep treatments - did I say more? I did not do one moisturizing DT the entire summer. Not one. With the moisture-attracting and enhancing products I used and the high dewpoint, there was no need.
  

My hair's key to summer/hot/humid vs. winter/cold/dry? In the summer, I want my hair and the atmosphere to be equalized. That means I'm going to load on the humectants and attract moisture to my hair. If it's equalized I don't get frizz. If my hair is less hydrated than the atmospheric moisture, it's going to frizz. Badly (See my Summer 2009 journal).

In the winter, none of that equality with the air crap. I will do everything I can to keep moisture in my hair from being leeched by the dry air. That means more moisturizing (water, conditioners) a heavier butter like shea, more frequent co-washing/cleansing, more deep treatments, and more frequent moisturizing of my dry hair.

Hair questions: Help me with my daughter's hair please?

This is a real question from Answers.yahoo.com, and here is my actual answer to it, and what I didn't say below it. I had to bite my tongue--

Q.
I have two mixed daughters. One is three the other is two and for the life of me I cannot seem to get their hair to look shiny or decent. I have tried greasing it, I have tried baby oil, Pink lotion. The oldest daughters hair is very rough and brittle while the youngest has very soft hair. It won't grow and it won't stay in place; the curls are out of whack. Mind you I have curly hair as well as their father. My mother tries to brush it and gets annoyed when the curls dry out right away. I see all tons of little girls with beautiful locks of curls hanging past their shoulders, but unfortunately my girls have a little fro. My son on the other hand has beautiful hair that doesn't stop growing. I use the same items on his hair, any advice will be greatly appreciated thanks in advance.:)

A.

Not sure what effect you are going for, but if your daughters' hair is kinky or coily, it will sheen when healthy but won't shine like straight hair. It refracts light much differently.

Baby oil, Pink lotion and other products containing mineral oil are not good for hair. To help add moisture to their hair, try cleansing with a light conditioner, like Suave Naturals, or a light shampoo like Dr. Woods Castile Soap, then conditioning with a heavier more moisturizing conditioner such as Clairol Herbal Essences or Garnier Fructis. You may choose to leave the conditioner in, or rinse hair and add a little more conditioner back. Then try smoothing/scrunching in some castor oil on their ends, then letting dry naturally. This method helps hydrate the hair and emphasize the natural texture.

Retire the mineral oil laced products and try using natural oils like castor oil, avocado, coconut or jojoba oil. Natural fruit butters are also very beneficial to the hair (avocado, mango). But remember that any oil alone will not soften or moisturize the hair. Conditioning is key.

There are so many different textures to natural hair, especially in multi-racial children. All of them are beautiful, not just the locks of curls that hang past the shoulders. I hope you can help your girls learn to appreciate their hair. I've included some helpful links

Additional Resources:

www.naturallycurly.com
http://biracialhair.org/Welcome.aspx
http://motowngirl.com/content/
http://www.curlynikki.com/
http://suburbanbushbabe.blogspot.com/2009/06/hair-q-castor-oil.html


Here is what I didn't say:

Your negative attitudes about hair that doesn't meet your unrealistic standards of curly are potentially harmful to the self-esteem of your baby girls. They are still toddlers, yet toddlers can pick up dislike as well as an adult. You are setting them up for failure, mom. Please get a grip, and educate yourself -- for the sake of your girls.

Milk & Honey Hair Smoothie - Pre/Post Swim Conditioner

Here's a great hair smoothie/deep treatment recipe from Curls. I don't swim in chlorinated pools because chlorine is to me what sunlight is to a vampire. But this would make a great DT for any parched hair. I would apply pre- or post-cleanse on dry or wet hair, and use with my Micro Hair cap.

• 1 can of pure coconut milk (rich moisturize - hydrates, conditions and de-frizzes hair)
• 1 ripe avocado (natural source of protein - chlorine robs the hair of protein)
• 2 tablespoons of pure honey (conditions and adds sheen)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil (hydrophobic oil that acts as a barrier to chlorine and salt water)

Directions:
Add ingredients to blender. Mix at high speed until your concoction reaches a smoothie consistency.

Store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. You can warm up your hair smoothie in the microwave before next application...just enough do de-chill.

Hair Q&A - Castor Oil

Got a PM from pulchri2dinous (is that a cool name or what?) --

Q-- I remember you commenting on a thread saying that castor oil should be avoided in the winter (I've heard others say this too). I am wondering if it would not be a good idea to use a creamy moisturizer containing castor oil (like Qhemet's AOHC) during winter?

Thank you

A--You know? I don't recall writing that. If I did I was talking about my hair a few years ago perhaps. Hair changes over time and the products I used in my first natural year are not moisturizing enough on their own for my hair today. It's like someone who has been fasting or is very, very thirsty and dehydrated. You can only give them a bite of food and a sip of water at first. Then as their system gets accustomed to nourishment again, you can feed them more. So in my third year as a natural my hair is soaking up butters and oils, whereas it could not tolerate them in my first natural year.

Many women use castor oil year round. The way I use it is to apply it right over my conditioner (after detangling) before cold water rinsing. I prefer Jamaican Black Castor Oil for its down-home nutty goodness. However the lower-priced American cold-pressed castor oil is just as good albeit a tad thicker, and has no smell.

Qhemet Biologic Amla & Olive Heavy Cream (AOHC) was a bit heavy for me back then, but on my hair today it probably work for me the way Hairveda Almond Glaze works - on wet hair, again over conditioner.

Experiment and see what your hair likes. It will tell you pretty quickly.