July 2008 Feature of the Month - Brownsugarflyygirl

(1) What is your hair care regimen?

I’m natural so I try to keep the manipulation to a minimum and use mostly natural or organic hair products. On average, I wash and comb my hair every 2 weeks. As I’m heavy handed with my styling products, I clarify with every wash. On my wash day, I clarify with a mix of baking soda and Elucence Moisture Acidifying Shampoo. I do my final lather with Elucence Moisture Benefits Shampoo. I follow with a deep conditioning mix of Aubreys GPB for light protein mixed with Giovanni 50/50 for moisture. I also add olive oil, castor oil, and honey to the conditioner mix and sit under the dryer with a plastic cap for about 20-30 minutes. For my leave in, I use heavily diluted Giovanni Direct Leave-In spiked with peppermint and rosemary essential oils. I also use this as my moisture spray in between poos. With my hair very saturated with my leave in mix, I use a conditioner comb and my beloved Denman to detangle.

I use Carol’s Daughter Healthy Hair Butter mixed with Mimosa Hair Honey for sealing and styling and then I’m finished. Besides putting my satin cap on at night and an occasional spritz for moisture, I don’t do anything to my hair until its time for the next poo. Don’t let the size of this paragraph fool you though; sometimes this can be a 5-6 hour process depending on how my hair is acting or the size of the twists. Occasionally, if I feel like my hair needs a burst of moisture, I may conditioner wash using Suave Humectant or Victoria Secret So Sexy but that is rare. A few times a year I get my hair pressed and for straight hair maintenance, I will use sweet almond oil or a little Mimosa Hair Honey. Otherwise, I wear my hair in two strand twists, twist-outs, or under my phony afro pony. Due to the fact that I’m mostly in protective styles, I only get my ends very lightly dusted every 6 months.

(2) Do you take any supplements? If so, what are they?

Yes, I take Source of Life liquid multivitamin for overall health and Distil Pure MSM to help keep my skin clear. I’m sure that my hair benefits from both.

(3) Currently, how long is your hair and what is your hair type?

My hair is predominantly 4a with some 4b strands. I also have a mix of coarse and fine strands. It is definitely an interesting mix. My hair is shoulder length natural and armpit length when stretched or straightened.

(4) What are the things that you feel have helped you the most in achieving and maintaining your hair length?

I honestly owe everything to this site. There is not a single product that I currently use for my hair that I did not learn about here. Over the past couple of years, LHCF has changed the way I think about my hair and is the only reason that I have been successful as a natural.

As far as maintaining my length, I believe that using heat very sparingly, protective styling, constantly deep conditioning, and leaving my hair alone in general has allowed me to retain the length that I have gained. I think that putting all those stipulations into LHCF Bootcamp gave me the structure I needed to really solidify those practices as regimen.