Eczema and Other Skin Conditions

Posted on September 28, 2012 by BackToNaturalHair

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have sought advice from dermatologists on my hair loss issues.  Last year prior to me finally deciding to go natural, a dermatologist prescribed a shampoo and foam corticosteroid to be applied to the scalp two weeks on – two weeks off.  I was hesitant to try these products but FINALLY decided to give them a try a few months ago.  So far, so good I guess but I really haven’t been using them long enough to notice a big difference.

I have been an eczema sufferer since I was a child so skin issues are nothing new to me.  I just never thought about skin conditions related to my scalp but I guess it makes since – it’s skin.  Prior to using the shampoo and corticosteroid that the derm prescribed last year, I reached both products.  To my surprise, these products are typically used to treat seborrheic dermatitis and other skin conditions.  Seeing what these products were used to treat prompted me to do more research on what products are good for people who suffer from seborrheic dermatitis. While doing research, I discovered the National Eczema Association® site – Eczema research and awareness has come a LONG way since I was a child.  I ended up ordering one of the NEA approved conditioners.

I learned a lot from researching the impacts that various hair products/ingredients have on people who suffer from various skin conditions.  I stopped shampooing and conditioning my hair in the shower after realizing that the break-outs and flare ups that I tended to have around my neck and upper back were possibly due to the hair products/ingredients that I was using.  I had been noticing for a while that some products would cause a ‘tingle’ along the nape of my neck every time I used them.  I haven’t had any break-outs or flare up around my neck and back since I stopped shampooing and conditioning in the shower.  Reference the NEA’s list of Ingredients To Avoid as well as the exederm® site for more information on irritants.

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Wigs And Such – Guaranteed Results

Posted on September 16, 2012 by BackToNaturalHair

A few months ago I interviewed for a new position. When I received the call letting me know that I was selected to interview, my first reaction was excitement. My next thought was…what will I do with my hair? I was a little frustrated that I actually had to include my hair as part of the interview prep process. Lucky for me, round one of the interviews was a phone interview which bought me some time to think (= agonize) on what hair style would be most appropriate for my interview. After receiving the first phone call letting me know that I would be interviewing in the first round of interviews, my mind immediately fast-forwarded to a second in-person interview. I knew that I would not be comfortable in an in-person interview wearing the natural hair styles that I had ‘perfected’ to that point. I also knew that there was no guaranteed outcome on a flat iron attempt the day of an in-person interview and it would be too time consuming anyway.

I decided to search for a wig. Seemed simple but proved to be a pretty difficult task. I was looking for a wig that looked pretty natural, meaning looked like relaxed hair. What I found when I visited various wig shops to see my options is that the demand must be dictating long, flowing, unnatural looks. I had to search long and hard to find a wig labeled human hair that looked fairly natural to me. The style is a really short bob style that I feel very comfortable wearing. I moved to round two of the interviews and wore the wig during the interview. I didn’t get the job but I felt comfortable during the in-person interview.

While out searching for the ‘interview’ wig, I noticed that there are wigs and hair pieces in true natural hair textures available. I plan on trying some of those when time permits.

If you’re considering purchasing a wig, my suggestion would be to go and try on a few at your local wig shop rather than ordering one online. I made the mistake of ordering one online and was disappointed with the way it looked when it arrived. I ended up returning it immediately because it did not look like the picture of the wig that I ordered.

Good luck to you if you decide to purchase a wig out of necessity or just to try a different look. The search can be frustrating but it’s worth the effort in the end.

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Setting Expectations

Posted on September 15, 2012 by BackToNaturalHair

I’m back folks.  Looks like I’m going to be doing quarterly posts rather than daily or weekly LOL.  My posts haven’t been as frequent as I thought they would be.  I often have ideas for articles as I journey through this natural hair transition process but just don’t seem to make myself sit down and type my thoughts.

In this posting, I’d like to discuss setting expectations for your hair.  Prior to making the decision to go natural, I never gave any thought to what my hair would be like in its natural state.  I had relaxed hair for 20+ years and honestly had no recollection of what my hair was like without chemical straighteners.  I wasn’t really prepared for what I have been dealing with as my natural hair grows out.

Roller sets and wraps had been my staples for years so when the roller sets and wraps no longer worked as my natural hair grew out, I was at a loss.  I researched various hairstyle options for natural hair.  Two Strand Twists and Wash & Go’s are very popular hair styles for naturals and you can find numerous how-to videos online.  I was excited to give these styles a try as I transitioned from relaxed to natural hair.  Most of the tutorials that I viewed online had amazing results and boy was I eager to see these results on my hair.  No Such Luck!  What I later learned was that results vary based on the texture of your hair.  I had been viewing tutorials and outcomes of naturals with a different texture of hair than mine.

Whether or not you believe in categorizing natural hair (see NATURALLYCurly.com®), understanding your own natural hair texture is very important when it comes to trying different hairstyles.  Now that I am 10 months post-relaxer and my natural hair has fully emerged, I can say that I am a member of the Type 4 hair family.  Armed with this information, I tend to focus on tutorials performed by fellow Type 4 naturals.  A couple of my favorite Type 4c bloggers are KinkyNappyHappy and declutteringsolution.  Viewing demos by Type 4 naturals give me a realistic picture of what to expect when trying new products and hairstyles.

Prior to understanding my own hair texture, I would view demos by naturals with hair types other than type 4 and would expect the same outcome when I would try the same technique using the same products.  That wasn’t happening.  Now that I understand my own natural hair texture, I’m much happier with the outcome of my styling attempts because my expectations are set appropriately.

I don’t think that any one hair type is better than another.  The key is understanding the texture and knowing what works to maintain it and achieve the look that you’re trying to achieve.

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A Tangled Mess

Posted on May 5, 2012 by BackToNaturalHair

Hello All.  I’m back after being M.I.A. for 2 months.  My boyfriend gave me a friendly reminder this morning that I started this blog a while back lol.  I’ve been through quite a bit with this hair the last few months. For starters, my hair was REALLY tangled in the back of my head after I would wash it – probably started noticing it around 3 months post-relaxer.  I ‘think’ that I figured out the cause of the tangled hair – it was pretty bad.  I would have hands full of hair in the trash after detangling and combing the leave-in condition through from root to end.  At first, I just thought it was a normal part of the transition process but later decided this can’t be normal.  After a few weeks (too many if you ask me) of this recurring, I tried a few things to address the problem:  regularly trimmed 1.5 to 2 inches off, stopped roller setting and started blow drying.

The only thing that I was able to come up with as a cause for the hair being so tangled after washing it was that it was partially tangled before washing it.  Since I had been doing roller sets for a while to allow curls without having to manipulate the roots, I only needed to finger comb the hair.  I’m guessing that finger combing combined with roots that had not been bothered because of the roller sets resulted in my tangled mess.  I’m no expert on the matter but it makes sense to me.  I did start noticing an improvement after trimming a decent amount off of my ends.  I would trim each section after taking the hair off of the roller when I was still doing the roller sets.  This made the trimming process easy for me.

Since I’d come to the conclusion that the roller sets may not have been benefitting me in the end, I researched other options for the transition.  After reading a lot of feedback from other naturals online, I decided to start blow drying my hair rather than roller setting it.  I must say that I have noticed a drastic improvement in my hair after I started blow drying.  I no longer end up with lots of hair in the trash after washing my hair and detangling it.  So far, regular trims and the blow dryer are my friends.  I’m leaning towards the few naturals online that have suggested that their hair likes heat.  I’ll keep you posted and let you know if my story changes :-).

6 months post-relaxer and counting.

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Stepping Up The Makeup and Accessories

Posted on March 3, 2012 by BackToNaturalHair

While getting ready to head out to see a movie yesterday, I realized that I’m taking more time to apply my makeup these days.  I’m also giving more consideration to the accessories that I select for the day.  Being a little self-conscious about rocking the transitioning hair styles, makeup and accessories can help deflect attention off of the hair – at least that’s my opinion.

These days I rarely go without at least applying a foundation, powder and some type of eye makeup – either shadow or liner.  I’m also trying to make sure that I keep a well groomed brow.  After ‘putting on my face’, I feel more confident wearing my transitioning hair style.  Adding the appropriate accessories hopefully adds some umph to my outfits and is a distraction from the hair.  I’m focusing a little more on color and texture these days.  Stepping outside of the box and wearing more than a diamond pendant and hoop earrings.  Nothing over the top for me but just enough to accomplish my goal.

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Roller Sets and Pin Curls

Posted on February 28, 2012 by BackToNaturalHair

After realizing around weeks 8 – 10 that two strand twist outs would not be the main go-to hairstyle for me for quite some time (see post titled ‘Two Strand Twists Too Soon’), I went back to the web to research other transitioning hairstyle options.  After pouring through many posts and YouTube demos, it became apparent that many making the transition opt for roller sets to make life a little simpler.  It makes sense – going with a curly hair style that does not require a lot of manipulation reduces the amount of potential breakage when the two different hair textures meet.

Having been a roller set/doobie wrap girl for years, roller setting my hair was no problem.  The first few roller sets between weeks 10 and12 were a piece of cake. It was just like working with 100% relaxed hair.  After a few weeks of roller setting my hair, I noticed that my hair in the back portion of my head was very tangled when wet.  The tangled hair occurrence now seems to be present with each washing.  This results in a pretty long detangling process and also a fair amount of hair being combed out during the detangling process.  I’m not too concerned at this point about the amount of hair that I am combing out when detangling the wet hair.  Since the roller set hairstyle requires minimal manipulation during the week, not too much hair sheds on a daily basis.  I think that I’ve read that it’s normal to lose 50-100 strands a day so I figure you each shed then daily or with each washing is all the same.

I have been pleasantly surprised with the results each week when I do the roller sets.  Most people who know that I am transitioning are shocked that the new growth isn’t noticeable and the hairstyle look about the same as it did before I started transitioning.  One of the tips that I learned from other YouTubers and bloggers is that you can use bobby pins to pin curl transitioning hair overnight.  The pin curls give my hair a lot of body and I have lots of curls the day after doing a roller set.  In the past, I would wrap my relaxed hair at night after doing a roller set.  The next morning, most of curls would be gone and I would have more of a wavy bob hairstyle rather than a curly hairstyle.

I’m not sure how long the roller sets and pin curls are going to work for me but I’m going to rock it until I can’t rock it anymore.  (I plan to post some pics of the roller set outcomes along the way)

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Two Strand Twists Too Soon

Posted on February 25, 2012 by BackToNaturalHair

Like most people who are new to the transition, I was very eager to get started.  I spent way too many hours online watching YouTube tutorials and reading blogs on transitioning and natural hair styles.  I took very detailed notes about various products and techniques.  Being a newbie, I rushed out and purchased several products that I read about online and received pretty good reviews.  After a couple of weeks, I felt that I was armed with enough information to give it a try.  One of the most popular transitioning hair styles seems to be the two strand twist out.  After watching numerous demos, I tried the two strand twist out around week #8.

Let’s just say with mostly permed hair and only a small amount of new growth, this outcome wasn’t exactly what I expected.  The look did not have nearly the volume that I was expecting.  There are a few reasons that the look wasn’t too full – for starters I applied too much product to each section trying to ‘straighten’ hair that was already straight from the perm.  I ended up wearing the two strand twist out as an updo hairstyle.  I have grown to like this look so now when I do the two strand twist out, I always wear it in an updo that way thickness is not an issue with the hair still being mostly permed.

I’ll let you know when I think the hair is ‘natural enough’ for a real two strand twist out.

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The Light Bulb Finally Came On

Posted on February 5, 2012 by BackToNaturalHair

I started noticing an increase in the amount of hair that was shedding in my late 20’s.  Since I had always had a pretty healthy head of hair, I didn’t pay much attention to the increased amount of hair on my bathroom floor.  As time passed, I changed hair styles to camouflage the thinning hair – mainly switching from longer to shorter hair styles.  This was easy since I really like short, trendy haircuts.  The problem was that I tended to let the short haircuts grow out and then the hair issues (thinning and breakage) became more noticeable – at least to me.  Other people didn’t seem to notice a thing – just thought that I liked to change my hairstyles.

I eventually went to the dermatologist to seek help with the hair thinning and breakage before permanent damage occurred.  Glad that I made that decision in 2008 – after 20+ years of enjoying relaxed hair.  Initially, I was not receptive to the suggestion of letting the chemical relaxers go – that took a few years LOL.  The dermatologist was able to convince me to make some changes to my hair care regimen.  One of the biggest immediate changes that I made was to stop getting relaxers and semi-permanent color on the same day.  Getting both services on the same day was a double whammy on the poor scalp and hair.  I just had to learn to live with a few gray strands.  Of course I continued to color my hair but just stopped getting the relaxer and color on the same day – LOL.  Gotta keep that youthful appearance going 😉

Seeing the improvement in the health of my hair that resulted from changing the chemical processes and several visits to my dermatologist convinced me that I really should consider letting the relaxer go and return to natural hair.  It has taken me about three years to finally make the decision to go natural.  I think that my scalp will be thanking me for that!  Healthy scalp equals healthy hair.

Let me say this – I do think that there are a few things that led to my hair issues, not just the chemical relaxers.  For me, I think stress and drastic changes in diet also contributed to my hair issues.  I would notice changes in my hair during particularly stressful periods in my life and when I did a low carb diet.  I am learning to deal with stress properly and hopefully will not try any extreme diets going forward.

Now that I’ve made the decision to go natural, my focus will be on the health of the hair and not the hair style.

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Going Natural

Posted on February 4, 2012 by BackToNaturalHair

Let’s get this party started.  I am currently transitioning from relaxed to natural hair and plan to share my experiences here – everything from products and hair styles to changes in my diet.  I am really excited about making the transition and hope that I can provide some useful information to others who are transitioning or have already completed the transition.  I have gained a lot of valuable information from several Naturals on YouTube and various blogs so hoping that I can also contribute to the wealth of knowledge that’s out there.

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