RELAXED HAIR STYLE ICON - FATIMA

Introduce yourself:

 I am Fatima, a young Zambian blogger getting into healthy living through eating right and working out. I am into african fashion but my number one obsession is hair care.

How long have you been growing your hair????

my hair 2011

 I had shoulder length hair with no effort but bad hair decisions which include tight braids, bad experiences with hair stylists and hair coloring damaged my hair so bad within a short period of time. That was my turning point. I promised myself that I would learn to take care of my own hair and I never turned back. I have been on my hair journey for 3yrs now filled with 10,000 setbacks but so far so great.

What is your weekly/monthly hair care routine?

 I am big on low manipulation. It has been one of the major factors that have helped me progress. So protective styles 95% of the time.

I pre-poo once a week, another vital part of my regimen, using a mixture of conditioner, oils and

my hair 2012

honey. I shampoo after that using a sulfate free shampoo then deep condition with a similar mixture to my pre-poo.  I usually blow dry on very low heat after air drying till my hair is almost completely dry. I moisturize and seal every day. I clarify my hair every 6 weeks or so.

 How often do you relax your hair? What is your staple relaxer?

 I texlax rather than relax my hair to maintain texture and thickness. I do this every 10-12wks. No staple relaxer yet, but been using organic root stimulator olive oil of late.

 Any advice to the people that want to grow long healthy relaxed hair?

 well, am all about healthy hair regardless of whether ones natural or relaxed. The difference only comes in when it comes to styling as relaxed hair doesn’t shrink. But I’d advice people to be open to making hair care a part of their routine. Often I get people telling me they have tried everything but their hair 'won’t grow'. Whenever I ask if they have a regimen, the answer is no. So firstly one has to put up a regimen. Not a complex one but one that could be easy to comply to and very important; be consistent. The rest will fall into place. Also to read blogs (both natural can relaxed). Learn a lot from other people’s experiences.

Where can we find you?????

Facebook page: Zed Hair Request.

Blog: www.hairequest.blogspot.com

Instagram: Zedhairequest.

Protective styling- bun

Thanks Fatima for sharing your story.

RELAXED HAIR STYLE ICON - GRACE

Introduce yourself.

I am a Zambian female who is obsessed with growing long healthy hair. But, I’m even crazier about music and dancing.

How long have you been growing your hair?????

big chop may 2012

I have been growing my hair for almost two years now, had a big chop in late may 2012. But I only started taking good care of my hair mid 2013.

What is your weekly/monthly hair care routine?

 My routine is simple. When my hair is loose (unplaited), I shampoo and deep condition weekly. I switch between organic root stimulator mayonnaise and olive oil moisturing conditioner. To seal in the moisture, I use a mixture of olive oil and rosemary oil then I air dry in bendy rollers.

I have recently added co-washing to my regimen.

my hair dec 2013

My hair is in protective styles about 90% of the time i.e weaves and braids. I usually go for about 4-5 months in protective styles. However I wash and deep condition in between the styles , balancing between moisture and protein.

my hair jan 2014

How often do you relax your hair?

I relax my hair twice a year with olive oil relaxer.

What is your advice to people that want to grow healthy relaxed hair?

Relaxed hair is extremely difficult to handle coz its fragile, relaxers weaken the protein bonds in the hair. As a result our hair needs a good moisture/protein balance to maintain good elasticity and strength respectively. Keep your hair clean, wash and condition weekly. Do a protein treatment atleast once every 4 weeks, these can be drying to your hair, make sure you follow up with a moisturising conditioner. Moisturise and seal your hair to keep it in good shape day to day.

Always do a protein treatment at least a week before you retouch to strengthen the hair. use headbands for protective styling and keeping the hair in place.

The following are photos of my protective styles:

protective style,a week b4 retouch

Thanks Grace for sharing your hair story.

LOCS HAIR STYLE ICON- BARBARA MWEZI

Barbara

Introduce yourself?

 My name is Barbara Mwezi from  livingstone.

2009

When did you loc your hair?

Well, I first loc’d my  hair in 2005 but only for 3months. Then in 2008 I loc’d my hair again and I have had the locs since then.

What inspired you to do locs?

I decided to loc my hair because I felt that my kinky hair was not growing any longer and whenever I tried to relax my hair, I experienced breakage.

Weekly/ monthly hair routine?

My hair routine is simple. Am currently using bees wax, moulding  gel for hold,  and I use olive oil and bhrungamalaka hair oil to maintain and moisturise my locs. 

 

2009

 
  

 THANK YOU BARBARA FOR SHARING YOUR STORY.

STAY BLESSED.

MY REGIMEN - 2013

2013 was dedicated to learning more about my hair.
i was focused on nursing my hair back to health.

When i started my hair journey i was in 4th year med school, school was very busy at times but i tried to find time to care for my hair. so my wash days were either saturdays or sundays.

WASH DAY:

1. Spritz hair with plain water.
2. apply my deep conditioner (DC), and detangle.
3. put on plastic cap, wrap hair, stay with the DC for about an 30min to 1hr.
4. rinse off DC/ Shampoo, depending on what my hair needed.
5. dry with t-shirt
6. apply my leave in.
7. seal with shea butter.
8. twist hair to air dry.

 

The DC i would use were:

• V05 moisture milk + olive 0il + coconut oil.
• egg + mayonaise + olive oil.
• oils only (hot oil treatment)
• coconut milk + oils + V05 moisture milk.

The DC i would use did not depend on anything, just how i was feeling that day.

Shampoo: ApHogee deep moisture shampoo.
did not shampoo every week, just when i used natural DC, dint want to go about with hair smelling of eggs.lol. or when i needed to get rid of product build up.

i never found a leave-in conditioner that i liked, so i used to make my own with V05, aloe vera juice and coconut oil.




DURING THE WEEK:
During the week, i would spritz and oil my hair every other day or whenever my hair felt dry.

if you have any questions, leave them in the comments below.
thanx. 
 
 

11 MONTHS OF PROPER HAIR CARE LOOKS LIKE THIS....

BEFORE...........

 

AFTER..................

chunky braid out

chunky braid out

twist out

hair styled from a chunky braid out