Blog-Hairology

Hair blogs seem to be all over the place these days. Or it seems to have come to my attention of recent.
Ok, I've only looked at like 3 (or 2.5. The technology required to get into the first was rather plenty, considering its supposed to be just a journal).

Keep It Simple Sista has gone nuclear. The site even generates revenue from posted ads. Good for her. And her hair too. I have to admit, at first sight, the tailbone-length hair had me drifting off to shades of green. But when I really thought about it, that length will be serious work to wash, dry, comb, style, not-sit-on, etc. I will most def pass on that.

Next was My African HairBlog, by lil' Sewanee. Firstly dear, calling it "African" encourages non-africans to keep on thinking of Africa as a country, not a continent. Secondly, your LGA & genes contributed greatly to your overall hair result, but yes, you did cover the basics. N200 salons are cheaply-wrapped death traps that will kill your hair. Even the more expensive ones will not rinse out relaxer completely, will be too eager to rinse out the conditioner after 5 secs so they can get over and done with you, comb your hair with a large combination of passive viciousness & a lack of interest, have no idea how to actually flat iron hair and make it turn out nice, much less have any idea of anti-heat treatments, the point of trimming, the difference between a trim and a cut, and such.

Had a look at Hairlicious as well. She's been around for a bit too and I picked up quite a bit from her - from what to look out for in hair products, to hair handling tips, to what not to do. Visions of fantastically healthy hair motivated to go out and buy, buy, buy! Fortunately, financial restrictions soon brought me down to earth, but I'm started on my wish list already. I must say though, I draw the line at washing my hair 3 times a week. I can understand that all that product build-up will gunkify your hair, but really, that's like some 2-3hour regimen thrice weekly. I'll start small.

So now I'm keeping heat treatment (via tongs, straightners and driers) to the barest possible minimum. What did strike me the most was moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. And that makes sense cos your hair is less likely to break if its elastic and moist, and less likely to get out of control if you keep it under wraps to some extent.

I remember from M&Bs I used to read way back that the guys always loved the smell of the girls' shampoo on their hair, and I used to think this was utter bollocks. By the time your conditioner goes in, it masks out the smell of the shampoo, and by the time your hair products go in, they cover up the smell of the conditioner, so what on earth were they on about? In the past couple of weeks tho, I've learnt that the average caucasian (and naturally straight, long-haired female) does not actually use a conditioner (and so there's no fragrance-masking), and that it's people with chemically-treated hair who actually NEED to condition: that goes for relaxed, blown-out, dyed or hot-combed hair. Why do I go on about this? I'm in love with Aussie 'Moist'. It has this ... lovely coconuty smell that actually sticks after washing (when I'm not deep conditioning, but using only leave-ins). I like it so much, I've been after Xandra to start using my products as well.

I'm aspiring to FULL, Shoulder Blade-length hair. Lets see how it goes.