Stop breakage and shedding: Moisturizing and Protein conditioners

Hi beautiful people

2 weeks ago I spoke about shampoos, so it made sense for me to talk about conditioners.

For a while I had been noticing that my hair was growing longer and healthier but I was still experiencing some shedding (not the normal shedding). I would see a lot of hair on the floor after combing or brushing my hair. Then after talking to some friends (Shout out to BK and Sikha) researching and watching some youtube videos I learnt about slaphate free shampoos, moisturizing conditioners and protein conditioners. I realized had been giving my hair too much protein and not as much moisture. This was bad because our hair needs a balance of the two. Some people need a lot more protein while others need more moisture. However too much moisture or protein is bad for our hair and can cause breakage and shedding. So it`s important for us to know our hair, so we know exactly what we need at different points in time. 

Black people tend to have naturally dry hair therefore the best way to add moisture to it is by deep conditioning it with a moisturizing conditioner. Water based products are the best for moisturizing. It is also very important to drink a lot of water about 2L a day.

Moisture

• makes your hair softer which is important because our hair is naturally dry 
• makes it easier to handle and manipulate your hair.
• keeps your hair hydrated 
• promotes growth of new hair.

Protein is responsible for 

• strenghtening hair
• rebuilding the hair follicle
• repairing damaged hair
• decreasing breakage and shedding

Protein conditioners are usually written repair/restore or for damaged hair.

I`m sure by now you are wondering how you can tell what your hair needs. Okay so basically when our hair is feeling brittle and dry it obviously means it needs moisture and when our hair is feeling too soft then it needs protein. So its important to feel your hair before washing it so you know what exactly it needs.

Dry = deep condition with a moisturizing conditioner

Soft = deep condition with a protein conditioner

We need to alternate between the two depending on what our hair needs at that point in time.

List of moisturizing conditioners

• Mizani Moisturfuse Moisturizing Conditioner

• V05 moisture Milks Conditioner

• Tresemme Naturals Moisture Conditioner (what I'm currently using)

• Dove Intense Moisture Conditioner

List of protien conditioners

• Dark and Lovely Ultra Cholrstorol (what I usually use) 

• Aunt Jackie's In Control (what I`m currently using)

• ORS Hair Mayonnaise

• Motions Moisture Silk Protein Conditioner

I hope this helps you out when you are picking out your conditioners as well as washing your hair. Feel free to comment, make suggetions or ask questions in the comment section below or dm me on twitter, FB or IG. You can also expect a post from me every Thursday! 

Oh and this blog reached 5000 views this week😀🎉 🎊   Thank you so much for the support and thank you to all the people that have sent me pictures and messages telling me that I've helped them it means so much to me.

XOX & Take good care of that hair.

Transitioning to natural hair

Hi beautiful people 
I know a lot of people are transitioning from relaxed to natural hair so I decided to ask my friend Sikha to share her story and hair journey so far.

This was my second attempt at transitioning I failed the first time and gave in to relaxing because I still wanted straight hair.

OK so my decision to transition to natural happened when I started to understand that my particular hair texture was not conducive to relaxers/ relaxing and it would not be fully healthy in that state. I have very curly and yet very soft and fine textured hair, when I relaxed it became thin and looked sparse at times. My ends were brittle and thinned out maybe also due to a lack of proper haircare.

I was really excited about going back to natural, but I was waaay too scared to try a big chop immediately so I opted to gradually transition. What I did first was cut all the very visible damage in January 2015 and started with neck length hair.

Transitioning is essentially ‘growing out’ the natural hair while trimming or cutting the relaxed hair as you go along, when you get to the length of natural hair you are comfortable with then you can finally big chop all the relaxed ends and remain natural. Some people like myself never had a big chop I just kept trimming the ends until I ended up here.

There are a lot of awkward hair stages if you are going to commit to transitioning, you will be trying to style hair that has two sharply contrasting textures. I struggled a little in the beginning and flat ironed a lot but I realised I was damaging my hair and I committed to buying hair products that would promote the growth of my hair as well as its health. Natural hair or curly textured hair loves moisture, so it can get very dry. Shampoos/ conditioners with sulphate in them strip the hair. I invested in some sulphate free options, these two are my favourite shampoo and conditioner.

My hair is very fine as I mentioned which also translated into fine edges that were not very strong. I didn’t have a hairline problem but I thought hey prevention is better than cure so I researched products that give hair a fuller look while making the edges stronger and fuller too, and I discovered these gems. Caivil fusion hair grow essence oil which has every single healthy hair oil you can imagine as well as Jamaican black castor oil with coconut which actually smells pleasant. I’ve never turned back.

                        

In the wake of taking care of my hair I discovered what natural my curl pattern actually looked like. I had serious damage in the front so I cut there the most which turned out to be the most prominent place to see the pattern. I unfortunately don’t know in which category this texture is!

The only way to keep natural hair moisturised is to lock the moisture in with oil. That is when I discovered two things I now cannot live without that is coconut oil and hot oil treatments. In my opinion for transitioning and natural hair these two are a must. For hot oil treatments you can use a whole range of oils; olive, jojoba ,argan ,castor, coconut (there are so many) as well as a plethora of essential oils. I mainly use the Caivil oil (because it contains so many good oils already), coconut oil and black castor oil and peppermint for the essential oil.

To moisturize daily or as a leave in conditioner I use shea butter (which I don’t have a pic of right now) If I need to oil my hair daily I either use the coconut oil or ORS hair spray

                                                                    

As I said before styling can be a mess so I honestly stuck to protective styling 75% of the time, braids and weaves mostly. I also learnt how to do bantu knots which is a healthier way to deal with double textured hair.

                             

I hardly actually took notice of progress but I did a few length checks later on In 2015 since starting January of that year, then a one year length and health check in Jan 2016.

October 2015:

December 2015:

                                   

Last check was January 2016:

              

I am still on my journey and I can’t wait to see where it goes!
Disclaimer: I am not a hair expert this is just what worked for me and i hope it helps those of you transitioning or planing to. Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section. 

XOX & Take good care of that hair.

Sulphate Free Shampoos

Hey beautiful people
A number of people have asked me about sulphate/sulfate free or low sulphate shampoo. So I decided to read up on it and let you guys know information that can help you out when picking a shampoo.

What are Sulfates/Salphates (both spellings are correct)?

• Ingredients that cause products to foam when they come into contact with water
• They tend to strip hair of  both its good and bad oils 

How to know if a shampoo contains sulphates.

• Read the ingredients on the label. If it has Sodium lauryl or laureth (SLS & SLES) or Ammonium lauryl sulphate  (ALS)

Pros of using sulphate free shampoo

• If you suffer from allergies or skin conditions it is advisable to use a sulfate free shampoo because they are not as harsh on your hair and scalp 

Cons of using sulphate free shampoo 

• They are a bit pricier 
• They do not lather as easily because they do not foam as much
• You will use more product if your hair is long

List of sulphate free shampoos (you can find these in clicks or dischem)

1. Tresemme Keratin Smooth Shampoo
   
2. Tresemme Naturals (low sulphate) 
   
3. Dr Miracles Curl Care rehydrating shampoo
   
4. Nature's Gate Shampoo
   
5. Moroccanoil Clarifying Shampoo
   
6. Marc Anthony Sulphate free Shampoo
   
7. Reflections Style Innovation Gentle Care Shampoo
   
8. Dark and Lovely Au Naturale Anti Shrinkages
   
9. Aunt Jackie's Curls & Coils Oh So Clean! Moisturizing &Softening Shampoo
   

I recently purchased Aunt Jackie's hair products including the shampoo so I'll post a review and tell you guys how I feel about them.

If you know any other suphate free shampoo please do comment below letting me know and I will add them to this list. Thank you

XOX & Take good care of that hair.

7 tips on how to grow thicker hair

Hey beautiful people. Hope you are all good.
 A number of people have asked me how i got thick hair or for tips on how to grow thicker/fuller hair. So here's a list of 7 tips on how to grow thicker hair. 

1. Castor oil : Normal castor oil or Black Jamaican Castor oil can be used. Mix it with another oil, Coconut oil, Rosemary, Olive oil, Amla oil etc (pick whichever essential oil you like). Massage the oil to your scalp everyday or every other day. If you want to monitor your results take a pic of your growth/roots (if you have relaxed hair) or your natural hair before you start using the oil and then take another pic after about a month. There is really no need to put the oil on your actual hair just the scalp is fine.  
2. AVOID HEAT: Try by all means to limit the number of times you blow dry or iron your hair. I hardly ever iron my hair. I'm sure I iron my hair less than 10 times a year ( that's excluding the hair I leave out when I have a weave) Instead of blow drying your hair you can let it air dry if you have time.
3. Avoid tight hairstyles because they put a lot of tension on your hair which may lead to shedding 
4. Trim your ends: as much as we want long hair it is also important to have healthy hair. Yes, I know it sucks but it has to be done. Oh, and i know some of us have had people who have cut off a lot more hair than they should have when "Trimming our ends". Find someone you trust to trim those ends. Split ends are not a pretty site and after they are gone your hair will look thicker and healthier
5. Braid outs and Twist outs make our hair look fuller and thicker.
6. Protective styling: Braids, weaves, cornrows etc will protect your hair from breaking  and help it grow thicker    
7. Avoid over processing your hair with dyes and relaxers 

 It is important to know that we all have different hair types and because of that it may be more difficult for some people to get really really thick hair. So lets just be realistic with some of our expectations. However the castor oil has worked for many so please do try it and please show me pictures of your results . I hope these tips help you out.

XOX & Take good care of that hair.

Ways to keep your hair healthy during winter

Hello Beautiful People. Hope you are all well. Someone requested a post on how to keep your hair healthy during winter, so I came up with a few tips to help out...

1. Deep Condition, Deep Condition, Deep Condition!!!! I do not how to emphasize this point. GUYS DEEP CONDITIONING IS ONE OF THE MAJOR  KEYS TO HAVING HEALTHY HAIR. (If you follow my blog I am sure you have noticed that I always talk about deep conditioning  and someone has asked me to upload a video of me deep conditioning my hair. I will do so next time!)
2. Protective styling - This is probably the safest way to keep our hair safe, healthy and growing during winter because our hair isn't exposed to the harsh weather conditions. Abuse protective styles during winter: cornrows, braids, weaves (GO CRAZY!), but also let your hair and scalp breathe in between styles. 2-3 days with loose hair won't do much damage.  
3. Moisturize your hair and scalp more often - Its important to keep a healthy scalp. Moisturizing your scalp every other day is a good idea. (I suck at this :(  ) 
4. Avoid coloring/dying your hair in winter - Dye generally dries out our hair and dry hair is the worst because it breaks easily. Dry hair + Winter = Worst Combination,therefore dying your hair during winter is a very very bad idea (I am generally against coloring hair but at some point I used to love it so I totally understand the obsession with hair dyes. I'll post some tips on how to keep your dyed hair healthy soon)
5. Do not over wash your hair - Shampooing our hair strips it of oils leaving it dry. So it is advisable not to wash your hair frequently. Washing your hair once or twice a week is okay during winter.
6. Headscarves and woolen hats - these are our besties during winter because they keep our hair covered and warm during winter. I also love these cause they are very stylish moment and ideal for those lazy days.
7. Cover your hair at night - Temperatures generally drop at night so we need to keep our hair warm. Covering your hair with 2 headscarves is a good idea. (I really really need to do this )  

I am sure after reading this you have realized that it is important to keep our  hair moisturized at all times especially during winter.Thank you for visiting my page hope these tips help you out. Please comment, ask questions, share tips that I may have left out and feel free to make requests if there are specific things you would like me to talk about. You can also interact with on my social media pages

FACEBOOK: Sarah Vee Zhuwarara

INSTAGRAM: sarahvee101

SNAPCHAT: sarahvee101

TWITTER: @mssarahvee   

XOX & Take good care of that hair.

10 ways to stop your hair from breaking and shedding

 Hey beautiful people. Hope you are all well. I know it has been a while but I'm back. So you know how sometimes you can tell your hair is growing,but you actually can't see the difference in length. It's most probably cause of all the shedding and breakage. Shedding also = thinning and I know some people don't want that at all. So I compiled this list of ways to stop your hair from shedding and breaking.

1. Deep condition your hair. This helps your hair stay strong and stops it from shedding.
2. Drink lots of water. Water is good for almost everything skin,hair you name it.
3. Do not over brush or comb your hair. 
4. When detangling your  hair do it in sections. Detangle damp hair not wet hair.
5. Sleep with a silk scarf wrapped around your hair or sleep on a silk pillow. (I struggle with this.)
6. Keep your hair and scalp moisturised at all times. Try moisturising your hair every other day. (I struggle with this too)
7. Use correct comb or brush for your hair. ( I'll do a blog post on this.)
8. Try by all means to stay away from using heat on your hair. Instead of blow drying your hair try air drying it when you have time. Use your straightener when you really really really need to. When you apply heat on your hair use a heat protector. I recommend these two but there are many out there.
   
   
   
   
9. Protective styling. Braids, weaves, corn rows etc ( I'll do a blog post on protective styling soon)
10.  Trim your ends. I know most people don't like this but it has to be done.

I'm so sorry for the silence. I will try post more regularly from now on. Thank you for visiting my page hope theses tips and products help you out.

XOX & Take good care of that hair.

How I made my temples/edges stronger

Hey guys 

I know its been a while. Sorry for the silence.

Okay I've always had problems with my temple hair its very soft ( "baby hair" or something along those lines) and because of its texture it breaks easily. Every time I braid my hair I end up with almost bald temples :( 

So I thought to myself what's the way forward... Decided to stop braiding my hair for a while, and I would always leave my hairline out whenever I weaved my hair. I started using Dr Miracles Temple and Nape balm religiously every morning. I also used Jamaican Castor Oil but just for two weeks I don't know why I stopped using it :( .... 

I'm happy with my results so far my temples are recovering.
You can find the Temple and Nape balm in Clicks or Dischem
The Jamaican Castor Oil can be found in Dischem too.

xox 
Take care of that hair.