Heat so real

It has been the longest time since my last post but I have a very solid reason …life….
Happy New year 🙂 New year, new beginnings (and all that jazz….)

Using heat to straighten your hair not only allows it to show its true length, it leaves your hair shining and bouncy, looking completely frizz free (Insert shampoo adverts’ images, tehehe). That is something every person would love to have every single day…

Well at least that’s what we would all like to believe. This is a trap many women fall into *sigh* but the unfortunate reality is that heat damage is very real! This post is not completely about natural hair but heat damage that occurred to relaxed (read chemically straightened) hair. Heat damage could very well affect natural hair, possibly having dire consequences!

At the beginning of the last year (sometime in January 2015) my sister- who has relaxed hair- found a new salon where the stylist assured us that she understood hair ( -_- ).

 

Hair before heat attack

The salon has a programme where hair was blow dried and straightened every Saturday and it was to be treated once at the end of every month. During the week however, my sister had to style her hair and to give it bounce so she would hot brush it once or twice more (Hot brushing is a method of straightening hair, using a round brush;usually one with short bristles and rolling the brush through the hair using a blow dryer) this was an exciting time because her hair looked amazing when she came back from having it done.

 

Bouncy hair from salon treatment– Exciting times–

 

Shiny hair from heat straightening

 

 

The fact is that African hair is dry, whether it is chemically straightened or in its natural state and that is something people don’t (or maybe refuse to ) understand. Using heat on hair removes any moisture that might have been in the hair because it forces the hair cuticles to lie flat, which prevents hair from absorbing moisture. This is especially the case for natural curly (coily) hair. The flat cuticles reflect light and make the hair appear shiny. This looks great, but over time the forcing of the cuticles to lie flat, causes frizz and yes… breakage (sob). My sister’s hair broke to about half of the length it was at the beginning of the year and by June 2015 it had thinned out.

Thinned out hair

 

I have mentioned before that I avoid using heat as much as possible and really we should’ve known better about using heat twice/three times a week, every single week! But we were so caught up in how great her hair looked and didn’t even pay attention to the condition of the hair and the fact that it was falling out…

The hair is in recovery, though now her length is compromised because the damaged length has to fall off as she refuses to cut it off.

If you want to stretch natural hair and avoid shrinkage, there’s nothing wrong with using a blow dyer, on a low setting after washing. Heat straightening could also be done once or twice a YEAR for special occasions or when you feel like wearing a different look. What you should never do is ‘over heat’ your hair.

Don’t be seduced by the idea of shiny, bouncy hair at the expense of your hair’s health. This is especially applicable to natural hair which would have to be blow dried and then flat ironed to get it to be straight and have the same effect, meaning it suffers twice the amount of heat. Heat protection serums should always be used but it only works to a certain point!

Organic heat protection serum that I always use

There are so many ways to style your hair, at different lengths (Will do a post later) without using heat and you can still stretch out hair with no heat. I mostly sleep with the hair in several braids and that gives me a good stretched length in the morning and prevents my hair from tangling.

 

I know that when you are at the TWA stage or medium length (like me), you can be tempted to show your length by always blow drying; but to keep your hair healthy and growing in good shape, say NO to constant heat ’cause heat damage is so real!

 

‘Fro wins

In February I entered a T444z and Niche hair care hair competition where I had to send in a picture and have people vote for the hair to win….

The photo I used to enter- Hair: January 2015

And I won 😀 yaay

The ladies who won the competition

Thank you to everyone who voted and thank you T444Z (here’s a cup cake ^_^ )

Thank you cup  cake

So the prize I won included a hamper that  had T444Z products that would(ideally) last for 6 months. The hamper  contained shampoo, conditioner and hair food. Part of the prize was also a consultation and styling session with Sandra, the lady who created the T444Z products.

Competition hamper

I started using T444Z when my sister discovered it,  about a year ago. I base my scalp with the hair food every second day and after every wash. I had never used the shampoo and conditioner before the competition because they are fairly new in the market.

So after the win, I went to a salon, called Niche Hair Care, they were hosting Sandra and she gave an assessment of my hair. I learned a whole lot about my hair and practices that prevent my hair from retaining the length it should,which is one of my goals. Some of the advice I got from Sandra, which I will use is :

– Washing my hair in the direction is naturally goes. This means hair should only be washed backwards and not facing forward! Which is what I’ve been doing every time I wash(tsk tsk tsk)

-The same goes for drying hair, the hair should only be blow dried in the direction of natural growth i.e. towards the back at all times.

Drying hair using fingers only, in backwards motion

– Using a comb while blow drying is a negative. This I was already doing because I’ve been avoiding using a comb as much as I can. The lady drying my hair just pulled it with her fingers and using the heat to stretch it out.

– If you see too many balls of hair when you handle your hair then you need to change your moisturizing regimen!!

– If using heat to dry hair, always wet the section not yet done, don’t drench it but dampen it a little. This  means you shouldn’t blow-dry dry hair because it causes the hair to lose moisture. I actually felt the difference between drying damp and dry hair.

There are however a few things that  Sandra mentioned which I did not agree with:

– She doesn’t agree with me washing my hair every week, It is suggested that I wash once a month (uuhhm  O.O) I don’t like the way my head and hair feels if it’s not washed for that long. I also swim once or twice a week, I know the chlorine is not the best for my hair,  but swimming is something I enjoy, this means I need to wash my hair after every swim meaning once or twice a week (oh well).

-She  suggested I keep my hair protective styles for at least 6 weeks. I don’t see how that will work out for me because by the time the hairstyle gets to week 3 or 4, it is looking all sorts of disastrous. My  afro is basically on top of the plaits, especially if they are cornrow extensions. Even when I get braids, the bottoms of my braids end up just being an afro bush with braids at the ends (so not cute), so I hardly ever  keep hair that long. So I will stick to keeping my protective styles for 3 to 4 weeks.

Fuzzy cornrows after only a week :O

Before my hair was styled, Sandra gave me a wash and blow dry. She used the T444Z shampoo, conditioner and the heat protection serum. I absolutely loved the shampoo, it’s definitely one of the best ones I have ever used . It gives amazing slip and leaves my hair  tangle free (hallelujah) for the first time I actually did not have knots on my hair after a wash! The conditioner is also good but the shampoo stood out for me. It also didn’t hurt that the shampoo and conditioner smell great.

T444Z shampoo and conditioner

I normally use Organic Root Stimulator (ORS) heat protection serum if I use heat on my hair, which I use as little as possible.The T444Z heat serum worked great but I don’t think it’s anymore different than the ORS one. Even though it is not on the market yet, I don’t think I would buy it because it would be significantly more costly than the ORS one and do the same thing.

Sandra’s own hair is great, it is long and in good health. Her daughter has natural hair that is mid-back length (green with envy) and they both use T444Z.

Sandra’s hair

I have been using the products for a few months now. I have been using the hair food and shampoo exclusively, meaning no other brand of shampoo and hair food and have been varying between the T444Z conditioner and my old Tresemme conditioner(still using my daily spritz and coconut oil to seal). The progress has certainly been interesting. I’m not really sure if there has been any length retained because I hardly stretch out my hair. The dry factor has however slightly changed, I do not experience hair falling as much as at the beginning of the year.

In the next few months I’ll continue to use the T444Z shampoo, hair food and conditioner and I will follow Sandra’s advice( as much as possible). ‘Will see how it works out (crossing fingers). I am hoping to see my hair retaining  length and hopefully get rid of the  dryness.

I’ll have a follow up of the progress towards the end of the year…

Side cornrows-protective style done by Sandra

‘Fro’s travel adventures-Phuket, Thailand part 2

I really am terrible at keeping up with writing for the blog 😦 but anyway,this is about my trip to Thailand during December. Yeah it’s very delayed but oh well…

Getting to Phuket was a little bit of  a culture shock. The moment you get out of the airport you are bombarded by the number of transfer taxis looking for their clients. They are so many of them holding up names that you struggle to even see your name while the transfer driver is holding it up.  As I mentioned in the previous post, it got really hot, really fast. By some miracle the driver came straight to us within 5 minutes of us exiting and rescued us from the heat.

The drive from the airport to Patong, where we were staying, was very long. It was not the most pleasant experience after an 8 hour flight. Considering the fact that Phuket was hit by Tsunami just over a decade ago (26 December 2004), it is amazing to me the progress that has been made. Having been to countries that were war torn decades and decades ago (the 70s) and still not recovered, I found this to be interesting. Hearing stories from people who experienced he Tsunami was a little terrifying.

Patong beach side walk

It was interesting to see the number of taxis that are motorcycles. I always thought South African taxis are the worst on the road but these motorcycle taxis proved me so wrong!

Taxi with side luggage carrier

We arrived in the evening so driving  through the night life was again very much a culture shock . The streets were very busy and crowded which I did not expect at that time of the night and so many stores were open, some even looked like they were only opening then, which is interesting considering that in South Africa everything dies down after 6pm. There were massage places on every block in each street, the number of currency exchange places was also alarmingly high, I’m still not sure how legitimate they are!!

One of currency exchanges

One of the things that stood out for me was the friendliness of the Thai people, despite the language barrier, they always had smiles on their faces and were wiling to help out as much possible.

Before going on holiday, I was bursting with excitement because for the first time, I was going snorkeling (yaaay). We went snorkeling in Phi Phi Island. A large boat picked us up from Patong beach and took us to the the small Islands. The boat ride was really long though,about 2 hours, so that was not so great. We found out later that there actually is a speed boat that does the same trip in 45 minutes, had we known before hand, we would’ve probably done that rather!!

Phi phi Island is tiny but the place is absolutely beautiful and snorkeling was such a great experience. I was a little nervous at first but once there, it was amazing. My phone is water proof so I was planning on taking photos under the water, but I unfortunately forgot to charge my phone so the battery died before we even got to Phi Phi 😦 (sniff sniff)

Boats docking on Phi phi Island

My sister snorkelling

I am generally a lover of curries and spicy food so Thai food is right up my alley. The fact that we lived at a hotel that had a restaurant, named Baluchi,  with some of the best Indian food(yes Indian) in Phuket,was a plus for me. Baluchi imports the spices they use from India, so the curries are authentic. Authentic Thai green curry is one of the best things I’ve ever put into my mouth, the burst of flavour of the Kaffir lime,the chillies and the galangal just made my life! I absolutely loved every single meal I had while on holiday because each one was very flavorful. We even visited a curry making exhibition and ended up buying some Thai curry paste to take home with us, that was hand made my local villagers.

Going on the elephant trekking was one of the highlights of my time there. Being on the back of the elephant while taking a leisurely walk through the Thai jungle was a great experience. I was a surprised at how much smaller the Asian elephants are as compared to the African elephants (Spotted at Kruger National Park) . The Elephants are kept in a sanctuary and treated like human children,it is cute how they interact with humans. They are treated with utmost respect because they are considered to be sacred animals in Thai  culture and Buddhist beliefs.

A little fun fact I learned while there (at the risk of sounding a little slow and ignorant) was that cashew nuts are actually from a fruit, they hang off of the bottom of a cashew fruit that almost looks like a pear. The juice from the fruit tastes pretty good, not like anything else I’ve had before. I really hope I’m not the only one who didn’t know this

We went to Phuket Fantasea which is a sort of a cultural amusement park.  The park only opens in the evenings, around 18:00. There are several stores selling fair food(obviously Thai style) and cultural memorabilia. There’s even a store that has a mink zoo housing the rare White Tiger. It’s such a beautiful animal. There is a large dining buffet house, with tables set up so that different groups of diners can interact -I had conversation with a couple from Indonesia that now lived in the USA- A night at the amusement park ends with a theater show, at around 21:00( Again with the night things ) the show has Thai traditional dance, magic shows and a musical with some Thai culture. A combination of martial arts, Thai music and comedy performances.

White tiger exhibition-Phuket Fantasea

One of the days while looking at the map, when we had nothing on the itinerary, we decided to talk a walk from Patong to Kata beach which is almost 9km. I still don’t know if it was such a good idea, in as much as it was interesting walking on the side of the roads with no side walk. I guess Thai roads were not made for walking. The heat was insane , I felt like I was melting and couldn’t wait to get to the beach. I had a great time once I stepped onto the beach sand. We ended up taking a taxi back to our hotel, instead of walking back since it was really hot. Phuket beaches are so beautiful that one has to experience them to fully appreciate it!

One thing many countries could learn from Thailand, Phuket  is the business acumen, how hard working Thai people are  and work ethic of the Thai people. The retail businesses remain open long after sunset, Jungceylon mall closes at 23:00, the service providers there give it their all to give you the best service they can and  and  I did not see a single beggar on the streets. Coming from a country where there are homeless people everywhere and beggars on every traffic light(literally) , with a high unemployment rate, this earned my utmost respect as the people created employment for themselves.

On the last day, before going home,we went on a tour of the Island, yeah we did things a little  backwards, but it was still fun because the tour guide showed us places we would not have seen on our own. We even got to visit a Bhuddist temple in Chalong. The temple buildings are gorgeously architectured, finished with pure gold. It was interesting to see a part of the temple that had figures that were made from wax, much like Madame Tussaud’s. In as much as I was fascinated by the temple, at some point I felt a little awkward, almost felt like I’m imposing on someone’s sacred place 😦

Bhuddist temple-Chalong

Bhuddist monk wax statue

In as much as I was not so keen when I arrived due to being tired from the flight,time difference and the initial culture shock, I ended up having the time of my life in Phuket. Will I visit again? Only time will tell but I would definitely recommended that someone visit Phuket… Maybe an Easter Thai holiday?