Preparing your hair for Winter

It's getting cold outside, you have your coat, hat, scarf, and gloves ready... What about your hair?
The cold winds and temperatures can effect the health of your hair. These simple practices can assist you in maintaining healthy beautiful hair.

1. Keep wool away from your hair.

Wool is great for keeping us warm, but it is HORRIBLE for the health of your hair. When your hair rubs against the wool, the friction can cause split ends, and even breakage. This means no wool hats of any kind.  If you must wear the peacoat, keep you hair pinned up, in a bun etc. Just make sure you hair is NEVER touching the wool.

2. Deep conditioning with every wash.

Deep conditioning is an absolute must whenever you shampoo you hair, especially in the winter. Our hair loses moisture and endures extreme weather conditions during the winter season, Deep conditioning gives hair the strength it needs to thrive. Always remember to use a moisturizing shampoo with every wash.

3. Cowashing
Shampoo can strip you hair of it's natural oils, making it dry. Harsh weather conditions can add to dryness, making it brittle. Cowashing (washing your hair with conditioner only) is especially important for those who wash their hair on an everyday basis. If you wash your hair more than once a week, cut down to shampooing to once a week, and cowash with every other wash. For tips on cowashing click here.

4. Add Oil to your hair routine

If you do not have oil in your hair routine, now is a great time to start! Adding oil to your hair routine not only give your hair great shine, but it also helps seal in moisture, detangle, and add much needed strength to your hair. If you need tips on adding oil to your hair click here. If you information on different oils and the benefits they offer, go here. When it comes to oils, I recommend; avocado oil, grape seed oil, and argan oil.

Note: During the colder months, it's probably best to steer away from leaving coconut oil in your hair without washing it out. This is because it tends to harden the hair of some people. If you choose to use coconut oil, use it as a hot oil treatment, or pre-poo ONLY.

5.  Keep your hair moisturized

It's important to never let your hair dry out, this will only lead to brittleness and breakage. This can be avoided by; deep conditioning, cowashing, moisturizing, and sealing. Its also best to apply a leave-in conditioner after washing your hair. Moisturizing and sealing is simply applying moisturizer in sections, and applying a thin layer of oil on top ( especially on the ends). For tips on moisturizing and sealing, click here and read steps 2 and 3.

6. Style your hair in a "protective" way.

We all like to wear our hair down and out, but doing it everyday during is not a great idea. Try wearing it in a braid, bun, or twists more often. This keeps moisture in, and dryness out!

The Back to School Basics of Hair

It's about that time again, back to school! everyone is anticipating the new school year. Most likely, you are going through a checklist of things that you or your little one might need in order to start the school year; pencils, pens, are paper are probably the first thing that comes to mind, and hair is probably placed much further down the list.
Having a good breakfast, having your homework done, and making to school on time are the main priorities when it comes to school. Doing your hair the night before can help reduce the morning rush drastically! Follow these simple steps and your hair can look freshly done in half the time! Instead of ripping through your hair and running out of the door follow this method.



1. Wash or cowash your hair the night before:

This way you will have an ample amount of time to care for your curls, when we are in a rush to do our hair, the hair tends to suffer from it; tearing through tangles, piling on excessive amounts of hair products, and tying up the hair way too tight causes unnecessary damage.

* Remember: If you're using shampoo, use it on the scalp ONLY! Don't forget to deep condition!



2. Part your hair in sections and apply leave-in conditioner and/or moisturizer from root to tip, then comb through.

 This will ensure that your hair will be moisturized and deter dryness and frizz. If you have a Denman brush now would be the perfect time time use it! If you don't have a Denman brush, a paddle brush should do the trick.

Remember: Only comb your hair is wet AND fully saturated with conditioner/leave-in/moisturizer

Optional: After applying leave in conditioner  I like to apply Aloe vera gel to each section for maximum style and curl definition!



3. Seal those ends!

    Applying oil to the ends of your hair will ensure that the moisture stays in your hair.

4. Part it & Braid or Twist it !

It doesn't need to be elaborate, any  regular braid or twist will do, just make sure you secure the ends!

                                                                      Click on picture to enlarge

5. Pin it up!

Pinning up the braids or twists help elongate your the curl/wave pattern. I use a crossing pattern by taking the left braid, and pinning it up behind my right ear, and pinning my right braid behind my left ear. I secure both braids in place with a bobby pin.

Optional: Wrapping the hair in a satin scarf helps keeps the hair in place while you sleep, some people cannot sleep well with anything on their head, but if you can it is highly recommended!

In the morning, simply unravel you braids/twists, lightly apply your styling products of choice and you're done!

If tackling your hair is on your morning checklist, you can now say mission: accomplished!