Hair Tip – Apply Aloe Vera To Your Hair to Tame and Smooth the Cuticle Layer.

Add aloe vera juice to your hair for smooth tresses.

Hello Lovelies!

If there is one product that I’d have to credit for the length and health of my hair, it would have to be aloe vera juice. Hands down! From my porosity issues, to my dryness issues, to my annoying frizz, aloe vera juice has given me the long healthy hair and itch-free scalp I always thought just wasn’t for me.

You see, aloe vera juice is the same pH as human hair. Renee has written several articles here discussing the importance of pH in the role of hair growth. Getting your hair to the proper pH not only keeps the cuticle layer nice and flat, which is ideal for hair growth, but it also keeps your scalp healthy by keeping bacteria and fungi at bay.

To enjoy the numerous benefits of aloe vera juice, simply smooth a handful of pure, unrefined aloe vera juice (this one is my favorite brand of aloe vera juice) into your hair after each cleansing session and style as normal. It’s truly that simple!

4 Ingredients You Never Want To Find In Your Hair Products…Like Ever!

By Renee Price

Hello Lovelies!
Are you reading the ingredients list on your hair products? Well if you aren’t you should be. Reading the ingredients on a bottle of shampoo is just as important as reading the list of ingredients in your cheese (seriously, read the ingredients in a typical package of cheese; you might be surprised!). It’s just as important to know what you’re putting on your body, in this instance your hair and scalp, as it is to know what you’re putting inside of your body.

Similar to how food’s purpose is to nourish the body, hair care products are meant to nourish, strengthen, and protect the hair. Your hair care products should not cause you harm or even put you at risk of suffering a harmful reaction. However, as evidence continues to emerge that many of the foods we routinely consume contain a lot of scary ingredients, similar information is coming forth about the ingredients in hair care products.

The hair care industry has undergone this transformation where “natural,” “non-toxic” ingredients is all the rage, but there’s still some pretty scary stuff that’s making its way into the products we use on our hair. Unfortunately, the FDA does not regulate cosmetic or beauty products or the ingredients used to formulate them, so it’s up to us to evaluate the products we use on our hair and the ingredients in them. I’ve created a short list of the top four ingredients you never, ever want to find in your hair care products, and if you happen to come across a product that contains one or more of these ingredients, stay far, far away!

Placenta

This is perhaps the worst ingredient ever used to formulate hair products. If you have a hair product that lists placenta as one of its ingredients, throw it away now and contemplate filing a lawsuit.

Seriously though, I don’t understand how it’s not criminal to still include this ingredient in beauty products because several studies have shown that placental extracts cause cancer. Placental extract is just a fancy term for hormones like progesterone and estrogen, both of rich have been proven to alter DNA and increase the risk of reproductive cancers.

Placental-based ingredients are often included in hair products that are popular among African American women for their ability to accelerate hair growth and thicken the hair. In addition to elevating the instances of cancer in this demographic, placental extracts have been linked to early puberty, with some girls showing signs of puberty as early as 7 years old. SEVEN YEARS OLD! Placental extracts are often found in anti-aging creams for their ability to draw in moisture and plump the skin. This is primarily how the ingredient works in hair too. It simply draws in extra moisture, creating the illusion of thicker, fuller strands. There are other products, safer products, that do the same thing, perhaps even better, so it’s not worth risking your lifetime exposure to DNA-altering hormones like estrogen by using products that contain this absolutely terrifying ingredient.

Certain Alcohols

So there’s a common misconception that all alcohols are bad for your hair, and this couldn’t be further from the truth. Some alcohols are actually good for your hair because they draw in more moisture and add slip to certain hair products, such as conditioners, which makes it easier to detangle the hair while it’s wet. The beneficial types of alcohols are what’s known as fatty alcohols, and they’re usually derived from animal fats, oils, and plants. All other alcohols are pretty much bad for your hair, and any hair product containing the “bad alcohols” will turn your once lush and soft locks into a damaged, brillo pad crisp. So how do you tell the difference between the bad alcohols and the good alcohols, just look out for what’s known as “evaporating alcohols” in the following list, and if you spot any of them in a hair product’s listed ingredients, just put it back and walk away.

List of Bad, Evaporating Alcohols You Never Want to Find in Your Hair Products

Propanol
Propyl
SD Alcohol 40
SD Alcohol
Isopropyl
Propyl

DEA

Diethanolamine, more commonly known as DEA is an emulsifier and foaming agent found in many beauty products, including hair care products. DEA and its derivatives, momoethnanolamine (MEA) and triethanolamine (TEA), are responsible for giving shampoos, bubble bath, and cleansers their thick consistency and foaming abilities. Similar to placental extracts, DEA is also a DNA disrupting chemical. A study conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) found that residual levels of DEA, meaning portions that penetrate the skin over a period of extended use, can be linked to various types of cancer.

The scariest thing about DEA is the fact that it’s still heavily used in so many hair care and beauty products, even ones that claim to be natural or organic, which is why it’s important to read the label on all products. California has taken a stand against this known cancer-causing ingredient, and the state’s Center for Environmental Health (CEH) filed a big lawsuit in 2013 against over 100 companies that still sell products containing this harmful ingredient. The lawsuit includes big chain retailers like KMart, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Sephora, and Walmart just to name a few. So if you shop at any of these big chain stores for your hair products, please read the label, even on the organic or natural products, and look out for products that list DEA, MEA, or TEA among the ingredients.

Synthetic Fragrances Listed Within the First Five Ingredients of a Hair Product

It’s rather difficult to find hair products that don’t contain some type of synthetic fragrance, and they’re responsible after all for the lovely scents and smells that linger in our hair. However, when a synthetic fragrance is listed within the first five ingredients of a hair product’s ingredient list, buyer beware. You see, when a synthetic fragrance is listed towards the top of a product’s ingredient list, it’s an indication that the fragrance was used to camouflage an ingredient that can be more damaging to the hair or harmful to the scalp and body.

On top of using fragrances and perfumes mask sketchy ingredients, hair product manufacturers can use literally thousands of questionable ingredients to make up a single scent! So that sweet, fruity smell from your favorite conditioner could be made up of thousands of synthetic chemicals, and you’d have not a single clue because no one regulates this practice.

The solution? Only use products where the fragrance is listed towards the bottom. This indicates that the fragrance makes up a relatively small portion of the product’s overall formulation, which simply means less fragrance was used to give the product it’s smell. Only using fragrance-free products and then adding in your own scents using oils is another solution to the fragrance problem, especially if you’re allergic to synthetic fragrances. This way, you’ll know exactly what’s going onto your hair and body.

4 Simple Steps to Stop Single Strand Knots for GOOD!

By Tiana Gaines

bye_bye_single_strand_knots

Hello lovelies,

In an effort to better serve my curly haired and highly textured readers, I’ve decided to bring on someone with unique, intimate, and first-hand knowledge of natural hair. This young lady is a fellow scientist and a good friend of mine with a lovely head of healthy, naturally curly hair of her own.

She’ll be blogging about the science of growing naturally curly hair and sharing tips to help our natural hair readers reach their long hair goals. So without further ado, take it away Tiana!

Hello again, lovelies!

As Renee said, my name is Tiana and I’m a long hair enthusiast who shares a unique love and passion for helping women with curly hair grow their beautiful tresses to healthier, longer lengths.

For my introductory article, I’d like to talk about something that has been the most significant and most annoying barrier to growing longer hair in my own hair growth journey — single strand knots.

Single strand knots, also known as fairy knots because they’re so small only a tiny fairy could have made them, are very small knots that occur at any point along the hair shaft when the hair strand wraps around itself forming a knot. These little knots have been my biggest source of frustration and many a setback in my long hair journey, and I know the same is true for other curly haired ladies–research tells me so. According to a study by the British Journal of Dermatology (Pages 169 – 173, 2006), if you have curly or tightly coiled hair, 10 to 15 percent of your entire head of hair contains knots at any given time. So this tells us two things. One, single strand knots are not a result of damage. So all of you ladies out there who thought you were doing something wrong, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Two, single strand knots are pretty much a natural, inherent feature of wearing our curly and tightly coiled hair in its natural state.

Now, while we may not be able to completely eliminate single strand knots, there are things we can do to greatly reduce them. We absolutely need to keep single strand knots to a minimum if we want to grow long, healthy hair, because these little knots can cause more damage, tangles, and lead to other knots.

Along my long hair journey, I went through a trial and error phase where I experimented with different styles and methods of caring for my hair to discover the best regimen to greatly reduce my single strand knots. Here are the methods I used to finally win the battle against single strand knots.

1. Don’t Big Chop!!!

Whaaat? What does the big chop have to do with single strand knots? In my case, it has plenty to do with it. Okay, so to be honest, I didn’t do the big chop. I had a very long (3 years), seamless, and quite simple transition from relaxed to natural hair. My transition was setback-free, and I was able to reached MBL before I cut off all of my relaxed ends.

Within weeks of celebrating my completely natural hair, I noticed the first of the natural hair gift that keeps on giving, single strand knots. I’d notice a couple one day, then a few days later I’d notice them all over my head. I’d cut them, and more would pop up, and within a few months, I went from MBL to bra strap length because I just couldn’t stand the feel of those little buggers in my hair. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong to be suddenly plagued with so many knots. Then I realized, I hadn’t experienced single strand knots because my ends were completely straight. Straight ends don’t curl back onto themselves, hence no fairy knots during my transition, which led me to another epiphany. I probably would’ve never reached MBL if I did the big chop and didn’t have such a long transition.

So if your goal is to grow long, natural hair, and not to simply have natural hair, try to prolong your transition for as long as you can to make getting closer to your long hair goal as simple and as hassle-free as possible. If you’ve already done the big chop and want to prevent or currently suffer from single strand knots, the following tips are for you.

2. Keep Your Hair Lubricated

Notice I didn’t say keep your hair moist. Moisture is always a good thing for natural hair because we all know that dry hair tangles, snaps, and breaks, but it’s not enough to keep the hair moist or hydrated. Hydration is primarily beneficial for the inner workings of the hair shaft, meaning beyond the cuticle. Keeping the hair moist will prevent wear and tear like split ends and breakage, but your hair can reach max hydration and still form single strand knots. In order to prevent single strand knots, it’s important to keep the ends of the hair lubricated, i.e. coated with a penetrating oil or thick substance. I learned this handy tip from a fellow natural hair blogger, Vee Mack of CoilyQueens.

Coating the ends of the hair with an oil or thick substance like shea butter does two things:

1. It adds weight to the ends of the hair to keep them from curling up and back onto each other.
2. It keeps the individual strands of the hair so lubricated that they’re too slippery to curl around each other and form knots.

I’d recommend lubricating the ends of the hair with a just a teaspoon of oil (olive or coconut oil is fine) or shea butter every day to prevent single strand knots. Incorporate this technique into your hair care regimen and you should notice a significant difference in the amount of single strand knots that form in your hair within as little as seven days!

3. Keep Your Ends Stretched, Clumped, or Tucked Away

The ends of the hair are the oldest portion of your hair, so they tend to be the driest part of the hair shaft and most susceptible to damage in the form of single strand knots. Additionally, curly hair tends to get single strand knots because the ends tend to draw up, shrink, and curl around themselves because there’s not enough weight at the end of the hair strand to elongate the curls. It’s simply the nature of curly, highly textured hair.

The best way to prevent single strand knots from forming is to not even give the ends of your hair the opportunity to curl around themselves. Keeping your ends tucked away via protective hairstyles is the ideal way to keep your ends from tangling and forming single strand knots. Tucking away the ends protects them from too much physical manipulation and ensures that they don’t come in contact with other elements, such as blowing in the wind or rubbing up against a coat, that can make them prone to single strand knots.

Now keeping natural hair tucked away at all times to prevent single strand knots is not only impracticable, but it’s also unnecessary. The beauty of having natural hair is the endless number of ways we can style our hair, and single strand knots shouldn’t get in the way of us natural hair girls experimenting with our curls (You like that rhyme don’t cha!). If you want to wear your natural hair out more but still prevent single strand knots, keeping your ends stretched or keeping your hair clumped is the way to go.

When I say keep the ends stretched, I don’t mean straightening them with direct heat, but I do mean curling or stretching them with something like a roller or via specific hairstyle. Remember ladies, we want to style our natural locks in a heat-free manner. The main reason my hair never got single strand knots while I was transitioning was because my ends were completely straight or stretched. Stretching the ends via twist outs, braid outs, and twist and curl or braid and curl styles will allow naturals to switch up their look in between protective styles and keep single strand knots from forming.

If you don’t want to tuck away or stretch the ends of your hair, simply keep them clumped. A clump is essentially a finger coil or a loose spiral curl, which doesn’t provide the space individual strands of the hair need to form a single strand knot. Clumping creates a protective cocoon for the ends of the hair, which makes them stronger and less prone to matting and tangles. Clumping is often inherent in looser curly hair textures, such as a 3b, but naturals with tighter curls can force or enhance the amount of clumping in their hair with certain styling products and manual styling techniques. An additional benefit to clumping is the additional length or stretch the weight of the clumps add to the hair, which can further prevent tangles and single strand knots.

4. Keep your hands out of your hair

So if I’m going to keep it , the single strand knots I experienced didn’t just happen out of nowhere once I cut off my relaxed ends. To be truthful, I developed a nasty little habit that’s fairly common in the natural hair community. In fact, it’s so common, there’s a name for it: ‘Hand In Hair Syndrome.’ Fascinated and awestruck by the springiness and intricate shape of my curls, I would twirl, and twirl, and twirl the ends of my hair while reading, listening to music, or just drifting off into a daydream; the point is, I did it pretty often.

What I didn’t realize was all of that twirling did three things:

1. Everytime you touch your hair, you’re taking much needed moisture away from your strands. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but a twirl here, a tug there, it adds up to drier hair over time.
2. Drier hair and more manipulation equals frizz. My hair is naturally prone to frizz; just thinking about frizz makes my hair tangle, so you can imagine how tangled and knotted my hair becomes when I twirl it and play in it endlessly. Yes, I’m a glutton for punishment.
3. Tugging and twirling curly hair actually makes the hair shrink and the ends of the hair strands curl tighter and tighter around each other.

All three of these things combined provide the perfect condition for single strand knots to form. Similar to how you shouldn’t style your hair when you’re mad or in a rush, unconsciously playing in your hair is a big no-no for us natural hair ladies who suffer setbacks thanks to single strand knots. It not only leads to knots on knots on knots, it’s simply too much handling of the hair, which violates virtually every rule of growing long, healthy, natural hair.

So after I realized that constantly touching and twirling my hair was caused the majority of my single strand knots, I simply made peace with not being able to fondle my curls whenever I pleased and stopped twirling, right? WRONG! Why? Well we all know that habits are hard to break, and this one was particularly hard because who doesn’t love touching their hair? Especially when your hair is bouncy and springy, and just all around fun. And I was just getting to know my little curls, the contours and definition of each one, and suddenly I couldn’t explore them anymore? Oh well, good things always come to an end, but letting go can be tough.

It still took me a few months to accept that I was at the center of my single strand knot problem, and I finally I made a pledge to deal with my ‘Hand in Hair Syndrome’ head on. Every time I began to caress my curls, I’d simply lower my hand, breathe through it (yes, it was really that serious), and go find something else to do (I’d often take a walk or browse Facebook) until the urge to touch my hair faded away. After doing this a number of times, I made noticeable improvements with my ‘Hand in Hair Syndrome.’ Although I’m still recovering to be honest, I’m proud to say that I’m doing much better, and my hair is thanking me by forming fewer and fewer single strand knots.

I hope these tips help you ladies out there who’re struggling with single strand knots. If you’ve found a unique solution to your own single strand knot problem, please share it with us in the comments section below!

8 Steps to Properly Start Your Journey to Long, Healthy Hair – Part 2

By Renee Price

Hello Lovelies,

In Part I of this series, I recommended the first four steps every gal should take to properly start her journey to long, healthy hair. With the remaining four steps, which I will discuss below, I hope to round out the fundamentals you need to kick off your long hair journey without a hitch and prevent any and all hair growth setbacks in the future.

Find Your Hair’s Protein/Moisture Balance

The flexibility, strength, manageability, and overall quality of your hair relies heavily upon the proper protein/moisture balance. Human hair needs moisture to remain flexible and soft. Human hair also needs protein for strength and repair. Protein and moisture are interdependent when it comes to hair, and too much or too little of either can lead to breakage. Our hair is naturally imbalanced in terms of protein and moisture, so we have to use a combination of moisturizing and protein strengthening products to balance our strands.

As with all things hair, there are no hard and fast rules, so what is too little moisture or protein for one person’s head of hair, may be too much moisture or protein for someone else’s hair. The point is, you need to find the proper protein/moisture balance for your head of hair.

So how do you figure out how much protein/moisture your hair needs? It takes trial and error and experimentation, but figuring it out sooner than later will bode well for the health and condition of your hair.

grow long, healthy hair

Incorporate Protective and Low Manipulation Hairstyles

In Part I, I stressed the importance of getting rid of thin, worn, and split ends to give your hair a fresh start. Well, protective and low manipulation hairstyles will protect the ends of your hair and keep split ends from combing back. For those of you who don’t know, a protective hairstyle protects the most vulnerable parts of the hair, the ends of the hair, by tucking them away and keeping them safe from things that could cause damage and breakage. A low-manipulation hairstyle is one that can be installed and worn for several days or weeks without the need to take down your hair and restyle. The less often you touch or manipulate your hair, the fewer chances you have to cause any damage to your tresses. By incorporating protective and low manipulation hairstyles from the start of your long hair journey, you can drastically reduce any chances of your hair sustaining damage and realize noticeable hair grow in a very short length of time.

Build a Custom and Solid Hair Care Regimen

When it comes to growing long hair, goals aren’t enough. As with any goal in life, you need a plan, and a hair care regimen is the best plan to help you achieve your dreams of having long and healthy hair. A hair care regimen is nothing more than a schedule of hair care practices you’ll adopt and products you’ll use to get the longer and healthier hair you desire. All the previous steps I mentioned will assist you in building a solid hair care regimen that specifically suits your hair’s needs. For most ladies, the beginning of your long hair journey will mostly be filled with tons of trial and error, and that is to be expected. I recommend trying to address one thing at a time or trying one new product at a time, this way you know exactly what is working and what isn’t. For example, you may suffer from shedding and dryness, but focus on combating the shedding first, then move on to tackling the dryness, or vice versa.

At the bare minimum, everyone should have a hair regimen that includes, cleansing, conditioning/deep conditioning, moisturizing, protection, and strengthening. The hair care products you use to achieve those steps depends totally on your hair’s needs. For instance, your hair may be extremely dry, so you need to only use moisturizing cleansers and deep condition several times a month as opposed to once a month or biweekly. Now depending on your lifestyle and your hair’s needs, your hair care regimen may stop there. However, for other ladies, your hair care regimen may require a few additional steps or even fewer steps. In the end, once you’ve gotten the trial and error of finding your hair’s protein/moisture balance, porosity level and other hair care needs out of the way, and you know the steps you need to take to get your hair to behave in the manner that you want, you can relax, simply follow the the regimen you’ve created and let it carry you all the way to your long hair goals.

Be Patient and Persistent

As I mentioned in this post, there is nothing that will make your hair grow faster. Absolutely nothing. All we can do on the quest for long hair is preserve our strands by giving them tender love and care and wait. Yes, wait. Your hair is going to grow no matter what, but sticking to your hair care regimen and persistently taking the utmost care of your hair will ensure that you retain whatever hair you ultimately grow. Now as your hair grows longer, you will have to re-access your hair’s needs and possibly add/remove hair care practices and products from your regimen as your hair’s needs changes, but the point is to stay the course. Continue to do the things that are obviously beneficial for your hair, and you’ll see progress and realize your long hair goals in no time.

photo credit: stockimages

8 Steps to Properly Start Your Journey to Long, Healthy Hair – Part 1

By Renee Price

Hello Lovelies,

Once you’ve made the decision to not only grow your hair long, but to take a healthy and wiser approach to growing long hair, the journey can be exciting, frustrating and at times overwhelming. When I first started my journey to long hair, it involved tons of trial and error and quite a few setbacks. Your hair journey will require trial and error too, which is to be expected because everyone’s hair and hair care needs are not the same. However, with this two-part guide, I hope to help you: avoid any and all setbacks on your journey to long hair, give you the tools you need to make a smooth transition from bad hair care habits to healthy hair care practices, and quickly develop a hair care regimen that enables you to reach your long hair goals.

1. Cut Your Hair

Yes lovelies, cut your hair. If you’re like most women, chemically treating, coloring, and excessively heat styling your hair, chances are you have split ends. The truth about split ends is that they are irreversible, so there is no such thing as mending a split end and making it whole again. A split end is damaged beyond repair, ladies. It’s done, so let it go! Hanging on to split ends only increases the likelihood of the split traveling up the hair strand and eventually causing severe breakage that leads to your hair never realizing any meaningful length retention.

Too many of us ladies, myself included at one time, want so badly to hold on to whatever length we have, but in the end, holding on to hair that’s severely split is what leads to us never achieving our long hair goals. I know it’s painful to hear ladies, but cutting off all of those split ends and taking care of your hair in a manner from this point forward that prevents split ends will help your hair grow longer and healthier (healthy hair is key) than you’ve ever imagined. I promise you!

2. Detox Your Hair

From the products we use on our hair, to the medications we put in our body, to the environment we live and function in everyday, most things we come into contact with have a profound affect on the condition of our hair. These contaminants, as I like to call them, affect how our behaves and can lead to extreme dryness, breakage, and all out damage. The best way to counteract these contaminants is something I like to call a hair detox. A hair detox is simply the stripping of the layers upon layers of chemicals and contaminants on our hair strands to right the wrong of hair damage. Now there are a few of reasons why you absolutely want to start your journey to healthy hair with a good hair detox.

The first reason you want to detox your hair is the fact that you need a clean slate to build a hair care regimen. If you have all types of gunk and build-up on your hair, you won’t truly know what hair products really work for you. Would you try out a new face cream on dirty skin? No, you would cleanse your skin to get a true sense of a new product’s effectiveness. Your journey to long healthy hair should be no different. When your hair has a clean slate, oils and moisturizing agents (the good stuff) has a chance to work more efficiently with results that last longer.

The second reasons is that a hair detox will restore your hair’s natural pH, reviving it to a clean slate and giving it fighting chance to grow longer.

Lastly, the clean slate your hair will get from a hair detox is absolutely necessary to accurately determine your hair type and your hair’s porosity level.

3. Determine Your Hair Type

Some people say hair type isn’t important when it comes to growing longer hair, but I beg to differ. When you know your hair type, you know what to expect from your hair. When you know what to expect from your hair and truly embrace it, you don’t force your hair to do things it’s not meant to do. When you don’t force your hair to do things it’s not naturally meant to do, then you know you’re on the path to longer, healthier hair. This is why it’s important to know your hair type.

Sometimes we see another gal’s hair and wonder, how can I make mine do that, but we never consider that ours wasn’t designed to do what another lady’s hair can do. Your hair may be fine and unable to hold a head full of curls, or your hair may be frizzy and excessive heat styling may make frizz even worse. It’s important to know the limitations of your hair so that you don’t fall victim to damaging hair care practices all because you’re trying to achieve a certain look or hairstyle. I actually think hair typing is self-assuring and freeing, and it can give you the peace of mind, confidence, and positive outlook you need to take better care of your hair.

4. Discover Your Hair’s Porosity Level

Perhaps even more important than knowing your hair type, knowing your hair’s porosity level will help you streamline the trial and error of moisturizing your strands and keep them hydrated. Hair porosity, not hair type, plays the most significant role in your hair’s hydration. I like to say that hair type will mostly determine how we should physically treat our hair and hair porosity will determine how we should chemically treat our hair. That is, your hair’s porosity level will most likely determine the hair products that are best for helping your hair thrive.

All hair types need moisture. However, depending on your hair’s porosity level, you may need more moisture than others. Additionally, the ways that we apply moisture to our hair and the products we use will vary greatly according to how our hair takes up moisture. Just because you and a friend have very similar types of hair, your hair and a friends hair can behave in drastically different ways in response to the same hair product.

When you know your hair’s porosity level, you know exactly what you need to do to prevent excessive dryness, and you know the products that work best for your hair and the products you should absolutely avoid. Knowing your hair’s porosity level will help you gain better control over your hair and make it easier to manage and ultimately grow longer.

Stay Tuned for Part II

In part II of this series, I’ll discuss four more steps to help you build the hair care fundamentals you need to kick of your journey to long hair in no time! Click here for part II.

8 Signs You’re On the Path to Long, Healthy Hair

By Renee Price

8 signs you're on the path to longer hair

Hello Lovelies!

So you’ve perfected your hair care regimen, you’ve nixed most of your bad hair care habits, and you’re on the path to long, healthy hair. Or are you? Sometimes in the beginning of your hair journey, it may be difficult to tell if you’re on the right path or wandering in the dark. You’re bound to make a mistake or two and possibly experience a setback on your journey to long hair, but these eight steps are surefire signs that your hair is thriving and will serve as a guidepost to your progress.

1. Fewer to No Split Ends

If you’re having a hard time finding split ends in your hair these days, congratulations are in order. Split ends are an instant sign of damaging hair care practices, so when you eliminate bad hair care practices, it’s only natural to experience fewer to no split ends. If you’re keeping your hair moist and keeping manipulation of your strands to an absolute minimum, split ends should be a thing of your hair care past.

2. No Broken Hairs on the Floor

It’s natural to see shed hairs in your comb or brush when you groom your hair, but broken hairs all over the floor or on your shirt is cause for concern. When hair goes through the normal shedding process, the shed hair is usually the length of your hair, and the root of the hair strand, a white bulb, is typically attached to the end. This indicates that the hair strand shedded from your scalp and did not break off. When hair breaks, the broken hair is usually shorter than your hair’s entire length and the root is missing from the hair strand. It’s normal to shed up to 100 strands of hair each day, but seeing little hairs all over the floor when you groom your hair is a sign of breakage and split ends. As you start to take better care of your hair, it’ll sustain less damage and hopefully breakage will come to a complete halt.

3. Your Hair is Always Manageable

Harsh shampoos and hair styling aids with all types of weird ingredients can leave your hair frazzled and hard to manage. This all a part of the cyclical plan many hair care companies have for our hair with the ultimate goal of keeping us dependent on their hair products to manage our hair, but that’s for another post. When you use hair products with a pH that is suitable for our hair’s needs, managing your hair will instantly become a breeze. Manageable hair is much easier to style, breaks less frequently, and ultimately retains length faster than hair that is unruly and hard to control.

4. You No Longer Suffer From Chronically Dry Hair

From a lack of deep conditioning to excessive heat styling, chronically dry hair has a variety of causes. Dry hair is the result of bad hair care practices but it’s also the culprit of many negative hair care setbacks. Although split ends have several causes, dry hair is one of the top culprits. Dry hair also makes your tresses harder to manage and style and just creates a cycle of negative hair growth outcomes. It takes time to fix dry hair problems, but if you work to figure out the cause of your dry hair and replace those practices with dry hair remedies, eventually you’ll notice your hair becoming softer and easier to manage.

5. You Handle Your Hair with a Patient and Gentle Touch

When you style your hair in a hurry or even while you’re angry, you tend to shred through your hair without a care for how this can affect your hair’s health and condition. This is the perfect makings of broken and damaged hair. Our hair’s condition is ultimately dependent on the things that we do to our hair, how we handle it mechanically. I like to think of our hair as a precious cashmere sweater. Cashmere, no matter how expensive, is ultimately a fiber. The gentler you handle cashmere, the longer it’ll last and the longer it’ll retain it’s like new appearance. We should strive to handle our hair in the same manner. The gentler you handle your hair strands, the longer you’ll preserve them, and the longer they’ll grow. Everytime you touch your hair there is an opportunity to create damage, but if you always handle your hair like a fine, precious cashmere sweater, you’ll submit your hair to much less stress and tension, and your hair will sustain much less damage.

6. You Have Noticeable Gains in Hair Length

Noticeable gains in length is the most obvious sign of being on the path to reaching your long hair goals, and it’s the sign that most of us look for. If you’re submitting your hair to so much damage that it breaks just as fast as it grows, your hair won’t gain very much length. When you’re treating your hair like the precious mane that it is, you’ll notice gains in length as soon as 4 weeks to a couple of months.

7. You Accept Your Hair’s Limits

This sign isn’t really measurable in outwardly apparent terms, but it’s still significant. When you really start to accept what your hair can and can’t do, you’ve really reached the pinnacle of doing only what works for your hair. Some people may be able to wear their hair down everyday, while others have to practically live in protective hairstyles to gain noticeable length, but that isn’t your concern. Your focus should only be on what your hair can withstand. On the journey to long hair, when you stop focusing on what someone else’s hair can and can’t do and only focus on your hair’s limits, you free yourself to the possibility of finally growing the long, healthy tresses you’ve always desired.

8. You Feel Good and Confident About Your Hair

When our hair doesn’t grow or is hard to manage, confidence in our hair tends to wane and neglect of our hair isn’t far behind. When you finally find out what your hair needs to thrive, something magical happens. You start to feel good about your hair. You’re confident that no matter what comes your way, you can always make your hair look its best and behave as it should. When you feel good and confident about your hair, you don’t neglect it and you make the proper care and handling of your hair a top priority.

pH Balancing – The Key to Manageable and Healthy Long Hair

By Renee Price

Hello Lovelies,

As you all know, I believe that the science behind hair and its structure is the key to understanding your hair and how to make it grow longer. The most important piece of science that helped me master my hair and gave me the ability to manage my hair no matter its condition was pH. yes, pH, lovelies.

Now I know you’re thinking, what does pH have to do with hair care and growing long hair, and I’m here to tell you that it has everything to do with it and more. You see, hair, similar to skin, naturally has a slightly acidic pH level, and hair needs an acidic pH level to thrive. Before we move along, let’s review the pH scale just in case you’ve forgotten it.

ph scale of hair

The pH scale is a scale that is used to measure how acidic or alkaline/basic a substance is. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14. Substances with a pH level of 7 (the middle range of the pH scale) are considered neutral, substances that have a pH less than 7 are considered acidic, and substances with a pH reading greater than 7 are considered basic. Got it? Good (see, high school science would come in handy some day).

Human hair is happiest at a pH of 4 to 5.5, which is slightly acidic. Naturally you’d think that human hair would prefer to be neutral, but that isn’t the case. I thought this too, and I was shocked to find out that even water, with a pH of 7, is too alkaline for human hair (this is why hard water wreaks havoc on our hair).

When human hair comes into contact with alkaline substances, substances with a pH greater than 7, the cuticles of our hair responds by swelling and rising or opening up. If you’ve been reading up on hair structure, you know that raised cuticles are a bad thing. Raised cuticles equals porous hair, which is sort of like a revolving door. The hair will suck up moisture, but it’ll also have a hard time keeping moisture in, so that means your hair will be drier than usual, rough to the touch, tangle frequently, and be much more susceptible to damage and breakage.

chemical hair processes Many chemical processes like hair color and relaxers are alkaline in nature, meaning they have a high pH and will cause the hair shaft to swell. This is why people who color and relax their hair have to use special shampoos and other hair care products to counteract the high pH of the chemical processes they use; it’s to keep the cuticle closed and prevent the hair from becoming porous. The number one way to do this is via pH balancing, which is also known as sealing the cuticle.

Now on the other end of the spectrum, when human hair comes into contact with lower pH substances, the cuticle reacts by contracting and laying flat. This is precisely what we want because a compact cuticle holds in moisture and is less likely to sustain damage. Additionally, when the cuticle is intact and flat, your hair just looks healthy, but back to pH.

So how do we pH balance the hair, simple? Use hair products that are within the range of 4 to 5.5 pH level. Well how do you know the pH level of your hair products? Well some hair product makers and manufacturers are getting savior with their labeling and they’re printing the pH of their product right on the packaging. However, if your products don’t have the pH on the label, you can find out the pH level via pH strips. You remember those from high school science classes, right? Those little strips where you swipe a little sample of the substance you’re testing across it and wait for the strip to change in color. Simply match the color to the pH indicator chart, which is usually printed on the package the pH strips comes in, and find out the pH.

Test the pH Level of Your Hair Products

Once you purchase or receive your pH strips in the mail, get every hair product you’ve ever used on your hair and test it. You may want to have a notebook handy so you can jot down the product’s name and its pH level. Once you’ve tested all of the products, organize them into two categories, one category for products with a pH higher than 7, and another category for products with a pH lower than 7.

If the products on the acidic side fall within the happy hair pH range of 4 to 5.5, these products are safe and perfect to use as is. If the products are above the happy hair pH level, you can still use them, but they need some “formulating” before they’re safe for use.

Alkaline products need an acidifying agent to bring their pH down to the happy hair pH range. Some of the acidifying agents I like to use are:

Aloe Vera Juice (pH level of 3.0)
Apple Cider Vinegar (pH level of 3.0)
Juice of a lime or lemon (pH level of 2.0)

Now I recommend separating out your favorite moisturizers and hair products that are too alkaline from their original container and mixing them with acidifying agents in a separate bowl. Making your alkaline hair products will take a bit of trial and error because when it comes to pH, a little bit can equal a big change. I would only add an acidifying agent by the teaspoon, mix it into the alkaline product, then test it to see what the new pH is. If it’s falls within the happy hair range, perfect! If the new concoction is still too alkaline, add an additional teaspoon of your acidifying agent, mix the concoction, and test again. Keep doing this until the pH falls within the 4 to 5.5 range.

Now this may seem like too much to you, but if you want to turn your stubborn and unruly hair around and reach your long hair goals, it really isn’t. pH matters! It wasn’t until I practiced consistent pH balancing after every washing session with a special leave-in conditioner and with my other hair products that I experienced hair that was never dry, brittle to the touch, or dull, and for the first time, my hair actually grew past my bra strap.

Some Hair Types Need pH Balancing More than Others

curly hair needs pH balancing If your hair is curly or highly textured, you need pH balancing more than any other hair type. Sebum, the oil that our scalps produce, has a pH that falls within the happy range of 4 to 5.5. As you know, the curls and kinks found in certain hair textures makes it difficult for sebum to reach the full length of the hair, unlike straighter hair types where sebum reaches the ends of the hair with no problem. This is precisely why curlier hair textures tend to be drier, more susceptible to damage, and less likely to retain as much length in comparison straighter hair types. It’s due to the fact that the sebum is not coating the entire length of the hair so curlier hair textures aren’t pH balanced within the happy hair ranged. So where nature is lacking, science can pick up the slack.

If you have curlier hair, especially if you have a relaxer, hair color, or any other type of chemical treatment, pH balancing is your friend. If your hair falls within the curly range, pH balancing will be the most important step to getting your hair healthy and under control.

Example Hair Care Regimen For Relaxed Hair

By Renee Price

Hello Lovelies!

This hair care regimen example is just for my relaxed hair ladies. As you know, I think relaxed hair deserves a hair type of its own because the texture and structure of the hair is permanently altered from its original state. Now with any hair type, hair care regimens differ from person to person, but I find that with relaxed hair, there are certain practices that most ladies must adhere to protect their hair and ensure that it remains strong. Nonetheless, always experiment with what works best for your hair and stick with that.

Monthly Hair Care Regimen

What Are My Hair Challenges This Month: Dryness and breakage

How Do I Plan to Combat Hair Challenges: Experiment with proper protein/moisture balance, moisturize daily and maintain low-manipulation protective styles

What Will I Use to Clarify and Cleanse My Hair: Nexus Aloe Rid to chalate/clarify and Giovanni Smooth as Silk Shampoo for weekly cleansing

What Will I Use to Detangle My Hair: A wide tooth comb and diluted Queen Helene Cholesterol Plus

What Will I Use to Condition My Hair: Mane N Tail Conditioner

What Will I Use to Deep Condition My Hair: Mizani Moisturfuse Conditioner, and I will deep condition two times each month

What Will I Use to Strengthen My Hair and How Often Will I Do Strengthening Treatments: Aphoghee 2-step Protein Treatment, and I will strengthen my hair once each month

What Products Will I Use to Style My Hair: Elasta QP Mango Butter each day to maintain moisture

What Will I Use to Seal in Moisture: Coconut Oil

How Often Will I Protective Style and What Kind of Protective Styles Will I Wear: Protective style four days a week with a simple bun

What Hair Tools Will I Use to Style: A wide-tooth comb

If I Use Heat Tools, How Often Will I Use Them: I will not use heat to maintain moisture/protein balance

Yearly Hair Care Regimen

relaxed hair regimen January: Continue with regular hair regimen

February: Continue with regular hair regimen

March: Continue with regular hair regimen

April: Trim the ends of my hair and continue with regular hair care regimen

May: Continue with regular hair regimen

June: Continue with regular hair regimen

July: Continue with regular hair care regimen

August: Trim the ends of my hair this month and continue with regular hair care regimen

September: Continue with regular hair regimen

October: Continue with regular hair care regimen

November: Continue with regular hair care regimen

December: Trim the ends of my hair this month and continue with regular hair care regimen

Example Hair Care Regimen For Type 4 Hair

By Renee Price

Hello Lovelies

For my curly and highly textured, type 4 ladies, here is a great hair care regimen you can use as a guide to build your own. This example regimen is just a starting place for those of you who are just building your regimen, or it can serve as simply an example, it’s all up to you. Now since highly textured ladies can get away with cleansing their hair on a less frequent basis, I’ll only include a monthly and yearly hair care regimen. However, just remember to always take the time to figure out what works best for your hair and only use the hair care products and adopt the hair care practices that helps your hair thrive.

Monthly Hair Care Regimen

example hair care regimen for type 4 hair What Are My Hair Challenges This Month: Matting and tangles

How Do I Plan to Combat Hair Challenges: Keep hair moist via daily moisturizing, deep conditioning and protective styling

What Will I Use to Clarify and Cleanse My Hair: Kinky Curly Come Clean and clarify twice a month

What Will I Use to Detangle My Hair: A wide tooth comb and diluted Lekair Cholesterol Plus

What Will I Use to Condition My Hair: I will only deep condition

What Will I Use to Deep Condition My Hair: Yes To Cucumbers Conditioner, and I will deep condition twice a month during each cleansing session

What Will I Use to Strengthen My Hair and How Often Will I Do Strengthening Treatments: Lekair Cholesterol Plus will double as my detangler and protein treatment, twice a month

What Products Will I Use to Style My Hair: S-Curl No Drip Activator Moisturizer and also spritz hair each day with product to maintain moisture

What Will I Use to Seal in Moisture: Shea Butter

How Often Will I Protective Style and What Kind of Protective Styles Will I Wear: Protective style every day of the week with two strand twists. Re-do twists every other Sunday.

What Hair Tools Will I Use to Style: A wide-tooth comb

If I Use Heat Tools, How Often Will I Use Them: I will not use heat to maintain moisture/protein balance

Yearly Hair Care Regimen

January: Continue with regular hair regimen

February: Continue with regular hair regimen

March: Continue with regular hair regimen

April: Trim the ends of my hair and continue with regular hair care regimen

May: Continue with regular hair regimen

June: Continue with regular hair regimen

July: Continue with regular hair care regimen

August: Trim the ends of my hair this month and continue with regular hair care regimen

September: Continue with regular hair regimen

October: Continue with regular hair care regimen

November: Continue with regular hair care regimen

December: Trim the ends of my hair this month and continue with regular hair care regimen

Example Hair Care Regimen For Type 3 Hair

By Renee Price

Hello Lovelies

If you have curly hair, this sample hair care regimen is just for you. If you want to tailor this regimen to your hair’s specific needs, be my guest. As I always state with any other sample hair care regimen, this regimen certainly isn‘t for everyone, especially you type 3s. Type three hair is the one hair category that I think varies the most, so your hair care plan may look nothing like this example, but always do what is best for your hair.

Weekly Hair Care Regimen

Sunday: Gently detangle hair with water and conditioner mix using fingers. Co-wash hair, deep condition, and place hair in single strand twist protective style.

Monday: Continue to wear protective style

Tuesday: Continue to wear protective style and spritz hair with moisturizer

Wednesday: Continue to wear protective style

Thursday: Continue to wear protective style and spritz hair with moisturizer

Friday: Remove protective style and wear a twist-out

Saturday: Continue to wear twist-out

Monthly Hair Care Regimen

type 3 hair care regimen What Are My Hair Challenges This Month: Single strand knots

What Will I Use to Cleanse My Hair: Co-wash with As I Am Co-wash

What Will I Use to Clarify My Hair: Kenra Clarifying Shampoo

What Will I Use to Detangle My Hair: 50/50 Suave Professionals Almond + Shea Butter Conditioner and Water

What Will I Use to Condition My Hair: Sheamoisture Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner

What Will I Use to Deep Condition My Hair: SheaMoisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque, and I will deep condition once each week

What Will I Use to Detangle My Hair: Fingers

What Products Will I Use to Style My Hair: Carol’s Daughter Loc Butter

What Will I Use to Seal in Moisture: Coconut Oil

How Often Will I Protective Style and What Kind of Protective Styles Will I Wear: Protective style 5 days each week with two strand twists

What Hair Tools Will I Use to Style: Just my fingers

If I Use Heat Tools, How Often Will I Use Them: I will not use heat to prevent single strand knots

Yearly Hair Care Regimen

January: Clarify hair once and do a heavy protein treatment this month

February: Continue with regular hair regimen

March: Do a heavy protein treatment this month

April: Trim the ends of my hair

May: Clarify hair once and do a heavy protein treatment

June: Continue with regular hair regimen

July: Do a heavy protein treatment

August: Continue with regular hair care regimen

September: Clarify hair once and do a heavy protein treatment

October: Trim the ends of my hair

November: Do a heavy protein treatment

December: Continue with regular hair care regimen