#3 of 5 : Feed your Hair

#3 Cholesterol & Protein hair treatment: weekly, monthly or quarterly

My life rule for “feed your hair” is if I cant eat it I will not put it on my hair or body. My goal is to use products that are free of toxin free. Life is hard enough without poisoning myself with all sorts of products.

Part of the treatment I got at the salon each time was a cholesterol treatment.  This was one hour in the heating cap with a bunch of goop in my hair. it left my hair smooth shiny ans strong.

Later when I did not live near the salon I used the Queen Helene Hair Conditioning Cream, Super Cholesterol to do this treatment at home.

You can also make a “Hair Mayonnaise” yourself.  you just need a couple of eggs, and a few tablespoons of organic oils like coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil or sesame oil.

Basic Hair Mayonnaise for short hair:
2 whole raw eggs
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp olive oil
Place all in blender and mix on high to form a mayonnaise like cream

Place on dry hair from root to ends

Cover hair with plastic hair cap and then a towel to keep warm

Leave on for at least an hour then wash hair with water only to rinse out the cream.

Towel dry your hair as usual.

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#2 of 5 : keep the scalp clean ( wash often! )

#2 Wash hair with water daily and maybe monthly or less  with a cleaner

To some people this may seem like an unnecessary instruction.  I have learned  over the years that there are 2 thoughts on this subject.  There are folks that grew up washing there hair every day or every other day, and then there are people like me who grew up washing hair once a month or so.

Wash Daily
I grew up surrounded by adults that taught me to wash my hair not more than once a month. As I grew up I got exposed to other people who washed their hair every day!  They had longer hair than i did or cut there hair often to keep it short. The point is their hair seemed to be growing and mine was not!

Wet hair does not leads to Colds.
Now I was told I would get sick if I went out with my hair wet.  That to wash the hair meant hours of detangling, putting on rollers, and sitting under a hair dryer.  Essentially a whole day had to be set aside to do this.  My mom never used a blow dryer but she did have curling irons and she used them on me.  I had scars on my scalp from them. I have learned now that there is now illness waiting fir me if I step out with wet hair.  I just bring an extra scarf, bandana, or hat to keep me a bit warmer if the weather is cold. In the summer it feels so great to be out with the hair wet. it cools me down and is so refreshing.

Just Water, no shampoo.
Now life is very different. I wash my hair with just water, almost every single day.  If I shower then I am wetting my hair. I don’t use any shampoo on it, just water.

Deep Clean with Dr Bronners
If I need to remove the old rancid oils from my hair or I got stuff in it from camping, swimming, or hiking then I wash it using Dr Bronners Peppermint liquid soap.  I will do a really good lather up with it and rinse.  Afterwards I will use extra oils to condition it.

Conditioner = Organic Oils.
After towel drying my hair I add organic coconut oil to it. I use about 1- 2 tsp now that my hair is short. As it gets longer I will increase the amount.   The oil goes on the scalp and then I let it spread to the length of the hair.  You can also use  extra virgin olive oil or sesame oil.

#1 of 5 : keep the hair you have – Combs, and Combing

#1 Comb in Reverse

 

One of the first things I learned at the Maria Madora  long hair salon in NYC was about combing.

I was already using wide tooth combs but I would always start at the root of the hair and work my way down with the knots all collecting as I went down the hair. This ultimately collected all the knots near the ends and broke off a lot of those hair ends.  This in fact guaranteed that my hair would stay short.  The hair would grow at the root and I would break of  about the same length at the bottom through this combing processes.

At the salon they pointed out 2 things: 1) the comb really mattered and 2) how I combined could make a huge impact

1.1 ) Combs:
Most combs are made with a small ridge in the inside of the teeth because of the molds used to make them.  These ridges on the inside of the combs scrape against the hair, tearing it, snagging it and breaking it.   You can either Click Here to order the same combs  I use ( #59 and #116 ) or get a wood or metal combs that have smooth teeth with no ridges in them.  The comb should have wide teeth.  No find teeth combs to be used at all for detangling and styling

1.2) Brushes:
Get a natural boars bristle brush for final touches.  The brush is not to be used for detangling.  We are NOT going to be doing the 100 brush stokes to move the oils from the root to the ends. My hair is very thin, fine and breaks easily at this time so minimal brushing will be done.

1.3) Finger Combing:
This is my primary method of combing my hair. its very short now, about 4- 6 inches long and runing the fingers though it is enough.

2) Comb in Reverse
this was the single most important thing that I learned at the Salon.  a)  hold the hair near the ends, comb down from the hand hold to the ends.  then move had up about an inch and comb this next section. Keep moving up an inch or so at a time until you get to the root.   this leads to the least breakage, pulling and knotting.  very little hair shedding and loss as compared to combing from the root first.  If you only to this you will see a big difference over time.

 

 

5 Steps to Grow Long Hair

I learned from Maria Madora at the long hair salon in NYC how to grow my hair long. I went to that salon for many years to during which my hair did indeed grow long and beautiful.  If you are in the NYC area and can go to the Salon, that would be great! They do a consultation  to evaluate your particular situation and give you specific recommendations for your hair.  This is how I got started.  I went regularly for the hair treatments, used the products and used their combs.  They are the best. 

 

Over the years I moved away, life got busy and I went looking for ways to do some of what they taught me outside of the salon. I also looked for ways to keep to the vegetarian, chemical and toxin free life I was building.

Here are the basic rules I follow, more details later.

1) keep the hair you have  ( how to comb )

2) keep the scalp clean   ( wash often! )

3) if I cant eat it i will not put it on my hair or body ( products, toxin free living )

4) be gentle ( styles, rubber bands, hair dryers, curling irons,  and yes combing again )

5) feed the hair and scalp  ( healthy scalp makes more hair, healthy hair does not break )

That Long Hair I love … and miss

Even though my hair is very short now,
I have every plan to grow it long again.

From the time I was a young girl till I was a young adult my hair would not go past my shoulders.   Then I took steps to grow it long.  It went from shoulder length to down to the small of my lower back  and finally to the crack of my butt

Due to several car accidents that left me with neck injuries, deteriorating cevical bones and spinal discs out of place I was no longer able to properly care for my hair and had my daughter box braid it with the intent t let it grow into dread locks, which it did.

I finally realized the weight of my hair on my neck was an issue in the pain I was experiencing and  I recently cut it, but I really miss it.

As my injury heals I plan to grow back my hair back. My hair  has grown 6 inches in the last 2 years while I had in the dread locks. I am now removing the dread locks. Yes that is right I am removing them not cutting them off. My hair is too thin and fine and the locks that formed have been very hard and solid and don’t feel good to me. So they have to go, but I have no plans t be bald.

I would like to share with you what I do to grow my hair again as I do a second pass on growing my hair long