Hairy Situations: Shedding v. Breakage

This is a follow up to the video on S2S. (Check out the video here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yCxSuZXGSM) So you can reeeeead it. Lol. (also, I refer to breaking several times in the video as shedding…Don’t mind me. I think that word was sitting next to me whispering in my ear the whole time lol)

What is Shedding? Shed hair is hair that has reached the end of its growing cycle and NATURALLY falls from the scalp with a tiny, white "root" attached. It appears white because the hair stops producing melanin (color) at the point in its growth cycle right before it gets ready to fall.

Remember! Shedding is 100% Natural. There is nothing you can do to prevent it. However if you feel that you’re hair is BREAKING here are some tips you can try out.

Try sealing in your moisturizers. A light coating of oil after your daily moisturizer will help seal the moisture inside. Natural oils like jojoba, olive, carrot, or coconut oil work the best.

If you use oils without a moisturizer or before one, the oil will seal the moisture out of the hair strand and lead to a coated feel and eventual dryness.

Always have a good protein regime as well as a good moisturizing regime. Protein based products reinforce the hair shaft, and help it remain strong enough to fight breakage. Moisture based products…moisturize. They protect against having dry, brittle hair which always ends in breakage.

Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. So Balance, Balance, Balance!

Avoid excessive heat (such as from hair dryers, hot showers, and curling irons) on your hair. Only use when you absolutely HAVE to.

If you live a high stressed life try reducing stress by taking some time out daily just to relax. WooooooSaaaaaaah!

Maintain a HEALTHY diet.

And of course…Get enough sleep.

Do the Wet Hair Assessment to Determine What Your Hair Needs:

First...you need a wet strand of hair. When washing your hair..tug 1...ONE!! strand of hair out so that you can have a whole strand to test.

tug the wet strand......

if it snaps right away, you need moisture.

if it just stretches, stretches, stretches...you need protein. it will be kinda wet noodle consistency.

if it is like rubber and is flexible but doesn't stretch or snap, it's balanced.


Product Recommendations!

Some great PROTEIN based products to try are:

Shampoos- Aphogee Shampoo for Damaged Hair, Millcreek Botanicles Biotin Shampoo

Conditioners-Motions Moisture Silk Protein conditioner, Aphogee Keratin 2 Minute Reconstructor, Aphogee Balancing Moisturizer

Leave Ins/Other Products- Aphogee Two-Step Protein Treatment, Aphogee Keratin & Green Tea Reconstructor, Aphogee ProVitamin Leave-In Condtioner, Cantu Shea Butter GrowStrong, Cantu Shea Butter Leave In, Organic Root Stimulator (ORS) Hair Mayo, ORS replenishing pak,

Some good MOISTURIZING products to try are:

Shampoos- KeraCare Moisturing Shampoo, Creme of Nature Shampoo (all variations)

Conditioners: Crème of Nature Nourishing Conditioner, Keracare Humecto, Mizani Moisturefuse, Cantu After Shampoo Rinse-Out Conditioner


Sneak Peak: Check out this post on Saturday, June 13th to find out what's going to be on Next Weeks show.

4th Week on Aphogee Journey .. 1st Protein Treatment (Pics)

Ok so here are the pics that I promissed from my last post. My hair is soooo much thicker...I love it. Just can't wait until my relaxer lol. From the pics you can kind of tell that it's grown compared to my first day of using Aphogee...but keep in mind that I'm on my 5th week of my relaxer and am relaxing my hair on April 8th. So length results will be more visible then. I'm soo happy I made this step. No complaints here. Still tweaking my hair regimen a little..But I'm glad I switched to Aphogee products :) I'll probably post a written verson of my regimen 1nce I finish tweaking it in about another month. I'll also do a video too. Enjoy the pics :)

So I Did My First Protein Treatment...

So today was the day I marked on my calender for me to do my Aphogee Protein Treatment. I washed my hair with the Damaged Hair shampoo..and conditioned for like a minute just to give my hair a little moisture b4 the treatment. Then I parted my hair into 6 sections (3 on each side of my head)...and got to work. I put my Treatment into a spray bottle...so it wasn't as hard for me as it was for a few other people I watched. But anyway, it didn't smell that bad to me. Maybe because my sinuses are backed up...but either way I didn't get that rotten pickled pig feet smell like 95% of the others did lol.

Since I don't have a hooded dryer, I used my blow dryer for about 15 minutes then let my hair air dry for a hour and a half. Got the same results as you normally would if you used a hooded dryer...and my hair was STIFF AS A BRICK! Lol...thankfully I knew this was going to happen so I wasn't alarmed...it was just fun going through the process after doing soo much research on it to make sure I didn't mess it up.

So after my head was stiff and my neck felt like it was going to fall off ... (my neck was soooo sticky from the drippings while it was drying...my towel started sticking to me...so I decided to put paper towels around my shirt LMAO....ended up having paper towels surgically implanted into my neck LOL. Good thing I knew to wear a oooold shirt) ... but neway..after having to hold my neck still for like a good 30 minutes I took my journey into the shower. Of course I didn't just rip my shirt off...wasn't trying to rip my hair off along with it...so it took me a good minute to get it off "safely". But...hopped into the shower...and just let the water run down my haid. Because I had clips in my hair I had to let the water soften up my hair b4 I pulled them out. After a good minute they just slid right out...and I automatically noticed the softness in my hair. Applied the Balancing Moisturizer for 2 minutes then the 2 minute Reconstructor for about 5 minutes..maybe longer .. (I used that time to clean off my sticky body lol) .. and was cursin out Jesus in the shower LOL. I was like OMG! Wat took me sooo long to find this stuff.

After I was finished...it literally only took me 10 seconds to detangle my whole head...like my comb flew threw there like BUTTER.

So I put in my Restructorizer spray, my Pro-Vitamin LeaveIn, Cantu Oil Moisturizer and my Wrap Foam and wrapped it wet. I didn't feel like blowdrying my hair so I'm just letting it dry naturally and I'm going to flat iron it in the morning.

I will definitely post pics of my hair when I do that because this will be my 4th? Maybe 3rd? week of my healthy hair journey. It would be nice to see any changes.

My relaxer is scheduled for next week....I CAN NOT WAIT. I already notice my hair growing. I have over an inch of new growth...Yay!