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Sunday, September 2, 2012

AN ADVENTURE INTO COLOR





Me, Elisa & Eshae'





Eshae' & Elisa



O.K. so if you follow my blog you know that I have been trying to resist the urge to get color! For various reasons while I admire the different hues of color I see in many naturals I respect the damage that color can cause and the work it must take to ensure that damage due to color does not become part of my natural journey.  However, my two teenage daughters 14 and 19 have the resilience of youth and are fearless on many things including experimenting with color :)









On this particular Saturday the girls seemed like they had a dream about color and at the break of dawn they decided to wake me up with the unnerving idea that I should take them to the hair dresser today and allow them to get color.  For Elisa that was no big deal her little patch had grown nicely and healthy and the color was barely holding on to the ends so it was time for her to go back and redo her color. However, for Eshae' this request made me nervous especially since she wanted to change the color of her entire head of hair and vision of straw like hair texture and breakage occurring at a drop of a hat had me scrrrrrrrred!!!!

Nevertheless, I decided long ago that it was their individual journey and the only peas I had in them Q's was making sure they had the knowledge and tools to ensure that they themselves kept their hair healthy and thriving so off to the hair dresser we went.  Eshae' decided that we should all dress alike on this adventure thus the jumpers we all wore....( my girls sometimes forget that I am a little long in the tooth and expect me to dress like them....well we do share similar taste in clothes lol lol).  I was savvy enough to tape the experience so take a look at the process
So, all in all the experience was wonderful thanks to our stylist Uni from Celsa's House of Beauty.  She was extremely great at taking her time and helping the girls pick what hues they wanted as well as explaining to them the process and  what she would have to do to get them to their desired  style.  Most of all I loved that Uni was confident enough to do the color and then watch me take over the girls co-washing and styling experience.  Uni watched as I made the girls kinks, coils and curls pop with just some conditioner and our safe gel and she was happy to say wow "I learned something today".  The girls were happy with the end results and as a parent I could tell you that having two happy teenage girls in your house is paramount to any parents sanity! Thus, I was happy for the moment, since the thoughts of how I would keep Eshae's hair moisturized still plagued my sub-contious.  If you are wondering why I am not as worried about Elisa's color it is because 1. She had this patch done previously 8 months ago when she first went natural and has proven that she can maintain it and 2. she is a college student so she lives in the dorms this year not in my house(YES!!!!! lol).


Elisa's hair after color on the left it is freshly co-washed on the right styled with CJ Repair me protein conditioner and Kiss my face upper management gel

Eshae's hair before color and after color. Her hair was styled with the same products as Elisa in the previous picture.


I am happy to say that it has been a month since the girls adventure into color and I can report that surpisingly Eshae's hair is even more moisturized than before we did the color....HUH islandgurl your previous statement must be a typo....you might be thinking... but nope I can clearly state that ShayShay's hair is more moisturized now than ever.  Why? Because she is much more diligent about moisturizing and deep conditioning her hair since we introduced color to her tresses.  The deal I made with the girls is that if they suffer damage we will BC, no need to hang on to raggedy unhealthy hair and 2. the color can only be done once a year for them this means every summer.

Eshae's Routine for dealing with color and keeping her hair healthy includes;

  • Washing hair weekly with a no-poo (we like DevaCurl and Curl Junkie)
  • Moisturizing deep conditioner once a week under steamer
  • Spritzing hair every night with water/aloe vera juice and glycerin mixture
  • Sealing in that moisture with a butter (we are loving TastiKiss Ayurvedic Butter)
  • And lastly we put some Jamaican black castor oil to finish it off.
  • Put the hair into large twists or braids and tie it down with a silk scarf for the night.
This process has been working well for us thus far in keeping the colored hair soft, healthy, and moisturized. I am happy to report that its been one month and the appearance of straw like hair and dry hair that breaks at the touch has been successfully abated by this household.....As always thanks for reading and remember to "TWIRL A CURL" today and everyday....