Bangs.

I cut bangs [for myself] once when I was an undergrad, and they came out pretty terrible. This time around, I left it to the professionals. I pincurling my hair for bed Saturday night and decided to snap a few photos for you all since I don't think you could see how short they were in the post I did after I got a trim.

I may get my bangs and layers redone in March before my BFF's wedding, but I'm not sure yet. We'll see if I meet my goal of 2 more inches & go from there...

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How to Retain Length :: Fairy Knots

The "fairy knot" or "single-strand knot" is the bane of many a curly-headed Feisty's existence. These knots are born when a single strand of really curly hair coils up on itself and forms a knot (they get their nickname "fairy knots" because they're so small and happen so randomly, only a fairy that hated you could have tied them while you were sleeping (-_____-). Fairy knots are a point in the strand where breakage is more possible, so length retention can be difficult for Feisties who have them.

Because my hair is more wavy than curly or coily, I don't get fairy knots often. I only get them in the back of my head, where I have two patches of very coily hair. I also get them if I have my hair out and then drive with all the windows down, or if I don't blow dry my hair in sections with a blow dryer comb attached. But tightly coiled Feisties (like our very own Jaye) deal with fairy knots all the time. In fact, many of you have a head full of the little knots.

The easiest way to tell whether or not you have fairy knots is to straighten your hair. If you have little bumps up and down the length of your hair, take a closer look--those are probably fairy knots. Fairy knots can make your hair seem rough once its straightened, which is SUPER ANNOYING!

To get rid of fairy knots, you can do 2 things: hire a fairy that likes you to untie all the knots while you sleep, or...cut them out (I'm guessing most of us succumb to the latter). To prevent fairy knots from coming back with a vengeance after you've cut them out, there are a few things you should do:

• Do not wear your hair out often, especially when it's windy. If you're prone to knots, you may want to make sure you're not wearing your hair in styles that have the ends out, such as braidouts, twistouts and puffs. Instead, wear buns and styles that have your hair braided or twisted all the way to the ends. You can still wear your hair out from time to time, just not most of the time. And when you do wear your hair out, don't do so in windy weather! The breeze can manipulate your ends cause them to form knots.


• After moisturizing, seal with a HEAVY oil. I use EVCO to seal my ends because it's light and doesn't weigh my hair down. Because my hair is so fine and more wavy than curly, EVCO is heavy enough to keep my hair from knotting. Tightly coiled Feisties, however, should use heavy oils to seal ends. I heard that JBCO (Jamaican Black Castor Oil) works WONDERS for sealing and preventing knots in coily hair. Another heavy oil is jojoba oil. You can also use petroleum jelly (vaseline) to seal the VERY ENDS of your hair, but be careful--petroleum jelly is NOT an essential oil, so it blocks moisture from getting into the strand. Moisturize well before using, and use as a last resort.


• Detangle and then wash hair in braided sections. Knots can form during the washing/styling process. Feisties should wash hair in braided sections in order to reduce the amount of manipulation and prevent the chance of the strands knotting up. Try detangling before washing/co-washing hair. Divide hair into 4-6 sections. Spray each section with a conditioner/water mix and then detangle carefully with a wide-toothed comb. Once hair is detangled, braid the section and move on to the next. When you're done, your hair should be detangled and in 4 braids. You can now apply your shampoo/conditioner directly to those braids. Washing your hair in braided sections will reduce manipulation and prevent tangles. I used to wash my hair like this, and I'm going to back to doing so! (see this great video below from Moptop Maven).
  
  


• Before styling, use a fine-toothed comb on ends and then style. When styling your hair, use a fine-toothed combs just on the ends the last 1" of your hair to smooth out the ends and prevent your hair from knotting. Keeping your ends as smooth as possible is key in preventing knots.

Alright ladies, I hope that information was helpful for you all. Like I said, I don't have a lot of fairy knots, but hopefully this research has been a great starting point for you all to re-examine your regimens/styling practices and find out what you can start doing in order to keep those fairies away from your beautifully coily hair! And for you Feisties who have won the fight against fairy knots, please comment below! Share your techniques with a Feisty in need =)

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Is Long Hair Genetic? [Part 2]

In Part 1 we concluded that based solely on genetics, the average Black woman should have "long hair," which we have defined as APL, if she wants it. However there are many of us who have been struggling with getting past SL. Why is that? If we're genetically capable of achieving our hair goals, why don't we?

Before I started my HHJ, I was STUCK at SL. My nape was a little past SL, but that's the longest my hair would ever get. I just figured long hair wasn't in my genes because no one else in my family had really long hair. I started my HHJ because the beau asked me one day, "Does your hair ever grow?" He wasn't trying to be mean...he was just curious. And that question is what really got me thinking. Why doesn't my hair grow?

Clearly my hair was growing, which we learned from Part 1. My issue was that I wasn't retaining my length. Length retention involves keeping the ends of your hair from breaking at the same rate or a faster rate than your hair grows. If your hair grows at 1/2 inch per month, then you need to make sure your hair isn't breaking at that same rate (it would be great to keep it from breaking at all!) Length retention is dependent on what we do to care for our hair.

Split Ends. Fairy Knots. Dry Hair. Weak Strands. Improper Moisture/Protein Balance. Unnecessary Roughness. Using the Wrong Products. All these issues negatively impact our ability to retain length. Every one of those is also preventable (or at least able to be kept in check). Now I honestly can't go in to every one of these issues in detail in this post (we'd be here all day), but throughout the next few weeks, we'll tackle each one. I want all of you to feel empowered to achieve long, healthy hair if that's what you want to do.

Now don't get me wrong...you may not instantly reach your hair goal. It's taken me almost TWO YEARS to get from a little past SL to being an inch away from BSL (it should have taken 18 months tops!!!) Even though I'm retaining more length than I ever have, my hair still breaks. My hair was breaking up until a few weeks ago when I finally had it trimmed and got rid of my split ends. But I know that was my fault: I wasn't moisturizing AND sealing with oil daily, I was very rough with my hair, and I wasn't doing my henna treatments regularly, which left my hair very weak and prone to breakage.

I'm dedicated to getting to BSL between now and my BFF's wedding in the beginning of March. That's 4 full months, but with the trim and layers I recently got, and looking at the pics I just took today, I think I'm about 2 inches away.

Based on my current growth/retention pattern, 2 inches in 4 months is a really big goal for me, but I think I can do it if I stick to my new regimen. As I go through my new regimen, I'm going to address the reasons why I had issues with breakage, including the above issues I mentioned earlier (like fairy knots and unnecessary roughness) and hopefully that helps you all with retaining length too.

I'm really excited about this!!! I'm DEFINITELY a goal-oriented person, so I get super pumped when I have a target or deadline in sight lol. But I honestly think this newest Feisty House series will be fun!!! Aren't ya'll excited too??? =)

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Is Long Hair Genetic? [Part 1]

It seems as though a lot of Black women think it is. I've heard Black women say they "know" their hair will never reach BSL because it's not in their genes. They point to other women in their family and conclude that because no one else has long hair, clearly they just don't have the genes to get there.

Hmmm...I can't quite get down with that.

Borrowing from the "nature vs. nurture" concept, I believe long hair (let's say APL and longer) is more reliant on nurture than it is on your genes. In my opinion, the only genetic limitations to achieving long hair are one's terminal length (the length to which your hair grows during its growing phase before it naturally sheds itself) and one's rate of hair growth (how slowly or how quickly your hair grows--the average is about 0.5 inches per month).

While there is very little scientific research on the subjects of terminal length and rate of hair growth, one study shows that African hair does grow at a slower rate than that of Caucasian or Asian hair (see The Natural Haven for some amazing posts!). According to the study, the average growth rate for Caucasian hair is a little less than 6 inches per year, while African hair grows at a rate of only 4 inches per year on average. Now as a researcher myself, I can't bet my bottom dollar on one study with a very small sample size, but since that's all we have to work with, let's just use it.

According to an amazing article on terminal length (which was also the basis for my previous post on the subject), the time it takes for a strand of hair to reach its terminal length is between 2 and 6 years. This is true for all races. That means that on average, it takes 4 years for a hair on your head to reach its terminal length--the length it would reach if it never broke or split or was damaged. Using the previous study as a guide, I did some very simple calculations:


As you can see from the table I created, based on "genetics," the average Black women should be able to grow 4 inches of hair. Multiply that by an average growth phase of 4 years and that gives her 16 inches of growth. Based on the average Black woman's height (5'4" for a Black woman born in the 1980s), that would easily mean that the average Black woman's terminal length should be at BSL based on genetics alone.

WOW. I was actually pretty amazed to see those results. It turns out that we're all genetically capable of attaining "long hair" (which for our purposes is only APL). So...why don't we think we can get there? Why aren't more average Black women rocking BSL hair? Why was I stuck at SL for 90% of my life?!?!?!

It's because maintaining length retention is usually the key to having long hair, not your genetic rate of hair growth.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

***SN: These are simplistic figures, and based on averages, so of course your rate of growth may be faster or slower, or the length of your growth phase could be more or less than 4 years. You may also be very tall, so 16 inches is only SL on you (BTW you'd be EXTREMELY TALL if that was the case =) What I'm trying to say is that the world is based on averages, and that's what I'm using here. Truth be told, we're all not as special as we think: 68% of us fall EXACTLY in the categories described above.***

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Porosity

My hair is porous. Porous hair has a raised cuticle, which allows moisture in and out very quickly. It is VERY easy for my hair to dry out, especially when I'm behind on my henna treatments or haven't been sealing my ends with oil.


It is super important for me to moisturize and seal my ends every morning and every night before bed, but there are days that I don't get to it *face palm.* But I am determined to retain at least 2" of growth by the weekend of my best friend's wedding (March 6), so I am going to maintain a very strict regimen:

• Moisturize and seal every morning and evening: Because porous hair is prone to dryness, it's important to moisturize well so that hair doesn't dry out during the day, and to seal in that moisture with an oil (I love EVCO for sealing). Hair must also be moisturized at night, especially during the winter when the air inside is dry.


• Use cold water to style: Cold water helps to seal the cuticle layers, preventing moisture from escaping the strand. If I need to wet my hair a little during styling, I'm only going to use ice cold water (put a spray bottle with water in the freezer, or put ice and water in a spray bottle).

• Deep condition weekly: Puts necessary moisture back into the hair and is especially useful when paired with heat!


• Protein treatments every 2 weeks: Protein fills gaps along the cuticle of the hair. When those gaps are filled, the hair is more able to keep water in rather than let it escape. The protein treatments are also necessary to keep my hair from being overly moisturized since I will be deep conditioning weekly.

• Cold water/ACV rinses weekly: The acid in ACV and the cold water used to rinse are great for sealing the cuticle. This makes it more difficult for the moisture I put in my hair during deep conditioning to escape. I use a half-cup of ACV and 4 cups of cold water (1:8 ratio) in my ACV rinses after I deep condition.


• Henna every 3 weeks: Henna is a wonderful plant! Not only does it reduce shedding, protect hair against breakage, and add shine, but like I mentioned above, henna helps strengthen porous hair by adding another layer to the cuticle. I have been SLACKING on my henna treatments, so I need to get back to doing them regularly.


• Porosity Control Shampoo & Conditioner before & after straightening. Many feisty ladies on LHCF swear by Roux Porosity Control Shampoo and Conditioner (you can get it at Sally's). Roux Porosity Control is acidic (pH 4.5) so it closes the cuticle of the strand and also makes hair smoother & easier to detangle. Heat styling exacerbates porosity, so I'll use this before and after I straighten my hair.

You can perform a few tests on loose strands of your hair to determine its porosity, or you can assume your hair is porous if it feels soaking wet in the shower, but then air-dries really quickly (that's how I knew). Also if you moisturize in the morning and your hair feels dry in the afternoon, your hair may be porous (you may also be using products with silicones or mineral oil, so check your ingredients before making this assumption).

Any Feisties out there dealing with porous hair? Any suggestions/tips?

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