Black and Natural in Jerusalem: Fantastic pre-poo!

Black and Natural in Jerusalem: Fantastic pre-poo!: I love pre-pooing my hair. It is my favorite step in my natural hair regimen (followed VERY closely by deep conditioning). My pre-poo is not...

Fantastic pre-poo!

I love pre-pooing my hair. It is my favorite step in my natural hair regimen (followed VERY closely by deep conditioning). My pre-poo is not a mixture of oils and conditioner, as I've seen others do. I instead use a combination of deliciously luxurious oils which nourish and strengthen my hair and scalp. My combination of oils are:

Coconut Oil 3 ounces
Avocado Oil 1/4-1/2 ounce
Rosemary Oil 20 drops
Vitamin E Oil 10 drops
*my current bottle of Vitamin E Oil also has Wheat Germ Oil in it as that was all the store had on the day I restocked. I'm liking it!

I love the feel of the oils on my scalp, the nice massage I receive as I work the oils in (and yes, I do have that oil in my hair as I type, lol!) Check out my video in which I detail the benefits of the oils in my magical pre-poo. My Luxurious pre-poo/Hot oil treatment

Hope you enjoyed it! Do you pre-poo? If so, what do you use?

Snow in Jerusalem!

Woohoo, It is snowing in Jerusalem! We racked up about 8 inches (20 cetimeters) in the biggest snow since 1992!  Our family had loads of fun and came home exhausted, but happy as clams after playing at Gan Sacher (Sacher Park) for hours, meeting up with some friends (and strangers) and building a giant, snowman. Rumor has it he was about 8 feet tall!

J and Erik with the snowbear. Not our creation, but cute, nonetheless.

 J rolling massive snowballs, one of which became the snowman's belly.

 K building her normal sized snowman.

Friends and the kiddos at the park with our giant snowdude.












You'll be happy to know that my hair was tucked away happily under not one, but TWO hats. You'll be unhappy to know that I did not wear a satin or silk scarf between my hair and the hats. :-( But I did moisturize when I got home with my Whipped Creme Ends Hydration. (YAY! Thus far, this stuff is the TRUTH. But more on that later).

Sigh. It's already melting, but it was fun while it lasted. :-)

Shalom from J-town, y'all!

I got my hair goodies! Woohoo!

So, as you might imagine, it is quite a challenge finding natural hair products for "people of color" here in Jerusalem, Israel. Now don't get me wrong. There are many beautiful Ethiopian Jews here, and as of recent years, a large population of stunning Sudanese brothers and sisters are gracing the streets of the Holy City as well. However, the whole phenomenon of natural hair hasn't exactly "taken root" here, so it is quite a challenge finding products for black hair period, let alone natural black hair.

Many of the products marketed toward afro textured hair here contain mineral oil, petrolatum, straight up lye (yes, relaxers abound here) or some combination of the above mentioned products. In addition to that, there are also tons of products with dimethicone, which I don't mind in a rinse out conditioner, but really don't like in a leave in.

So...given these dire hair circumstances, it's only natural (;-)) that I would order myself some goodies and have my State-side family ship it over to me. (Actually, it's not that natural. This is the first time I've asked for such a large shipment. I was like a kid in a candy shop!) Check out this video of me collecting and diving into this here package of goodies!

Celebrate with me! Whoop whoop!!!

My Natural Hair Regimen

My Natural Hair Regimen

I love my natural hair! Learning exactly how to take care of my own head of hair, however, took time. I'd like to share with you the regimen which I developed over the years. It works very well for me, and though I may vary elements from time to time, the process remains roughly the same. I’ll list the basic steps, then give more details following that.

Pre-poo

Shampoo

Deep Condition

Leave-In

Simple, straight forward, and to the point. :-) These steps have been essential for me in providing clean, well moisturized, strong hair, and I am steadily progressing toward my length goal of waist length by following them weekly.

Pre-poo

Every week I give my hair a delicious, nourishing pre-poo in the form of a hot oil treatment. I apply it directly to the twists which I wore the previous week. I use an oil cocktail which consists of:

3 ounces of coconut oil

1 ounce (roughly) of avocado oil

15-20 drops of rosemary oil

10 drops of vitamin E oil

Sometimes I add 5-10 drops of tea tree oil as well, and I’ve even been known to throw some lavender oil up in there. I combine the oils (which I buy from a health food store here in Jerusalem, located on Agrippas if anyone is interested J), then warm them in a mug of hot water. While the oil is warming, I soak my hair in warm-hot water to open the cuticle. (Note: I do not spritz my hair with water from a spray bottle. I stick my entire head of hair under the tap and soak that stuff until it’s dripping wet, then I gently squeeze out the excess water). The oil is usually warmed by this point and ready for use. I then apply the warmed oil to my scalp and massage it in, and follow this up by applying it to my hair, concentrating on the ends. I put a plastic bag on it, and then apply heat (which for me means a heat sock wrapped around my head and covered with a plastic bag #cantfindahairdryerinjerusalem.) I leave it on for 30-45 minutes, then shampoo.

Shampoo

Roots Rosemary Oil Treatment Shampoo

This is a locally made brand. It is mild and pH balanced, and my hair LOVES it. My hair feels stripped or matted afteward. I have searched far and wide for a good, gentle yet cleansing shampoo, and am happy to have finally found one. I first wash my scalp thoroughly with one application (maybe 2 if I haven’t gotten enough shampoo on the first time) and work the shampoo onto my hair from root to tip. I rinse, them I may add a bit more shampoo to my palm and apply it directly to my hair, working my way down to the tip. This process usually takes about 5 minutes total.

Deep Condition

This is my favorite part of the hair care process, as deep conditioning adds much needed moisture and strength to the hair. I think of deep conditioning as a pampering session for my hair, giving it much needed hydration, and TLC. I’ve found that my hair thrives on moisture, and isn’t so much in need of protein (there are two basic types of deep conditioners; those which moisturize and those which strengthen via proteins). I always love the way my hair feels after a good deep conditioning session, and I noticed immediate improvement after I made this a daily staple in my regimen. (My main problem here in Israel has been finding a good deep conditioner that gives me the results that I love: soft, strong, luscious hair which is well hydrated AND stays that way over the course of the week. I don’t ask for much, lol.) My absolute favorite deep conditioner is good ole LeKair Cholesterol, but alas, I cannot find it here. I tried to deny my love affair with this deep conditioner at first due to its old school when-I-had-a-relaxer-I-loved-this-product nature, but eventually I had to stop faking the funk and admit that it really does do the job, and does it well. It’s my DC boo. So………the verdict is still out on a deep conditioner right now, which is why one isn’t listed above, but I’m still on the look out. In the meantime, if you find it in your heart to send me some LeKair here in Jerusalem………..(NO, I’m just kidding. Don’t do that. ;-))

Leave-In

Kinky Curly Knot Today

Castor Oil

Jojoba Oil

Look familiar? (If you don’t know what I’m referring to, there is a VERY well known leave-in concoction floating around the cyber-world which was whipped up and promoted by one natural sister who has now developed her own product line, and is no longer advocating the use of the above mentioned concoction.  I am not mad at her. I’ve already ordered her products and am excited about giving them a try. Just saying.) No, I do not add the aloe vera juice. I tried to like the recipe with the aloe vera juice, but it wasn’t doing it for me. I eventually removed it from the mix, and now I LOVE it. My hair stays moisturized and springy for a week with just one application of this leave-in on wash day. If I need to go a little longer, I can get another few days out of it without a new application. This also serves as a fantastic detangler, believe it or not. I apply the leave in sometimes one twist at a time, sometimes en mass, then twist by twist, I unravel, finger detangle, smooth the leave in through the section of hair and retwist. (I usually do not use a styler or an additional moisturizer unless I’m going for a different style like a twist out or flat-twists, which I rarely do.) At the end of the process, there are about 15-20 medium to large sized twists in my hair. After twisting, I pin up the twists in a cute protective style for the week, and I’m good to go. 

And THAT is my reggy! It took me some time to come up with it, but through trial and error, I found the regimen that works best for me. It saves me time, keeps my hair well moisturized, provides a nice professional style for work, and protects my ends.

What is YOUR regimen?

Black and Natural in Jerusalem: Naturally Me!

I have been natural for a long time and have gone through a lot of trial and error with my hair. I have to say that I’m pretty satisfied with the progress I’ve made and the things I’ve learned along the way. For a long time, I didn’t know exactly what I was doing with my hair. I asked questions, and did what other natural friends were doing, but I didn’t understand the “why”s of the process. Often, I was just trying to figure this whole thing out, which, I suppose, is what we’re all trying to do when we begin this journey. About 3 years into my natural hair journey, I began watching youtube videos on the subject, and suddenly WOW, a world of information was opened up to me! I hadn’t realized that there were so many resources available to me. In fact, when I started my natural journey, I’m sure that these resources weren’t available. You see, I went natural in 2005, and it all started out with me getting these micros…(more on that later)

Anyway, about 3 years into my journey, I was trying to find information online about conditioning natural hair, and came across  Glamazini's page. If you haven’t heard of her, read her blogs, or watched her vids, check her out. She is very informative, and a lot of fun, too. ;-) I discovered from her vlog that people, in fact, made videos about natural hair and actually posted them on youtube!! And I was on my way! Since then, I’ve watched a lot of videos, read a lot of blogs, tried a lot of products, and learned a lot about my own hair, and the result of that process is that I have come down to filtered out a lot of information and learned what works best for MY head of beautiful (and it is beautiful) natural hair.

Come take the journey with me as I continue to learn about and grow MY natural hair. It's gonna be a blast!