If you've already read my '
hair history' post, you know that myself and my locks have a rather love/ hate relationship. I love that it's thick, I love that it's dark, I love that it's resilient to *most* of the abuse I throw at it. I hate that it's curly, I hate that it's frizzy, I hate that it takes almost 2 hours to straighten properly when I have a full head and I hate that anti-frizz/ smoothing products generally have zero effect on it. However, there are a few products I've found work wonders...
First things first, my hair has to be the colour I want it to be! I went natural for about a year, but I always return to bleaches and dyes. Most recently, I've been using
Directions 'Rose Red' for a red-pink shade and a
mix of toners and dyes for a purple. To bleach my hair, I used
Jerome Russel B Blonde Powder Bleach and
40 vol. peroxide by the same brand. Once my hair is light enough, I empty some dye into a
tinting bowl and apply it to my hair with a
synthetic fibre paint brush (tint brushes are too clunky for me) before
combing it through to ensure it's an even application.
After letting the dye take for about one hour, I rinse it out, using
Naked 'Intensive Care' Shampoo to ensure every last bit has been washed away! After a bleaching session, hair is in need of TLC and
Naked 'Repairing Hair Treament' is the perfect way to ensure soft, well nourished locks. I roughly towel dry my hair, spritz
Inecto 'Leave In Conditioner' to the tips and run
Avon 'Lotus Shield Serum' through the lengths to guarantee frizz free hair.
After leaving my hair at least 24 hours to dry out naturally (avoid damage from blow drying if you can) it's time to style things up!
Got 2 Be 'Guardian Angel Heat Protection Spray' saves my hair being sizzled to a crisp by my
Philips straighteners. I used to use GHD heat protection spray with GHD straighteners, but honestly I think they are SO over-rated - you can find better products at much cheaper prices!
Random slides and bobbles hold my 'do in place,
Batiste dry shampoo saves me on lazy hair days and
Tresemee 'Extra Hold' hair spray makes my hair near enough bullet proof for nights out :)
What do you use to smooth out your hair? Any product recommendations for a frizzy haired 1/4 African ( my hair has mainly afro traits) lass?
I didn't know you were 1/4 African :L Erm, as a full African I chemically relax my hair and then add extensions or whatever I want to do to it so I don't think I'm much help :/ I have these teeny weeny Remington hair straighteners which are quite good, and then try and put moisture back in with hair lotions from Afro-Caribbean beauty shops?
ReplyDeleteI really want to dye my hair teal but do not have the balls. :(
I'm 1/2 black carribean with an uruly afro I use coconut oil on my hair when washing it, I find it helps with frizz so much! I also use Lustre's pink sheen spray, Inecto coconut conditioner and Wella SP colour finish cream(I've never colour treated my hair, I would love to but worry about the damage). I don't relax the hair, I did once but then decided to get it cut super short. I find I get the same effect blow drying the hair(sometimes using a little coconut oil) and then using my GHDs though I do prefer Lee Staford straighteners, they made my hair very sleek and caused much less damage than the GHD straighteners. I generally don't use shampoo that much though when I do it's natural source coconut and almond.
ReplyDeleteCoconut oil is great for the hair, especially afro hair. It's a great product for the skin, hair and weight loss! I swear by it :)
Great post xx
My favorite heat protector is Sebastian Trilliant, and I use a Rusk flat iron. I've never tried the Got2b heat protection spray - do you love it like a holy grail, or are you on the look out for a better spray?
ReplyDeleteI don't have afro hair but I also use coconut oil and I love it along with vo5 miracle concentrate and aussie 3 min miracle xx
ReplyDeleteI used Dicections (don't remember name of the color) for bright pink and I loved it!
ReplyDeleteI love directions for colouring my hair. I have gone from pink to blue to purple with directions and I'm convinced it's a much kinder dye for hair than anything else i've used.
ReplyDeleteI'm 1/2 Italian and 1/2 Irish and my hair is bi-polar. It's thick, bordering on coarse and the top half is wavy and the bottom half is stick-straight.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing I've done to lessen frizz is ditch the towel. Now, I use an old cotton t-shirt to press the water out of my hair after washing. The flat fibers of the t-shirt are much less likely to roughen up your hair cuticle, thereby lessening the frizz.
Also, I use natural, sulfate-free shampoos or else a lightweight conditioner to wash my hair and use Moroccanoil conditioner about once a week for a deep treatment. I think this has added to my hair's better behavior.
Lily you need to try L'Oreals Majicontrast & Majirel. You dont need to proper bleach, you just mix it with 6-12% developer and off you go. It's really amazing. I used to bleach my hair beforehand and then use Directions over it but I found that too damaging to my hair and the Directions stuff faded so quickly and stained everything!! xxx
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