
Hair of the Day: Laura Izibor

Healthy Hair Care and Beauty Blog for Women
My growth progress from June to December.
HairObsessed is a Bajan living in Canada, who takes great pleasure in caring for her hair. She spends her days working in the IT field, but on occasion takes time to nurture her artistic flair for card making and event planning. She manages the blog Diary of a Hair Obsession which chronicles her journey towards healthier relaxed hair. The blog features product reviews, DIY styles and just about anything else hair related. You can find out more about HairObsessed’s hair journey at http://www.diaryofahairobsession.com.
It’s been nine months since I did the big chop! Yay, me. My hair is getting some length now, so much that I have to air dry in twists now. The picture above is from earlier today after washing and detangling my hair. I’ll post more pictures later on in the week.
For ages black women have given and received messages about their hair being inextricably linked to their beauty, to their identity, and occasionally, to their strength. As well, anyone with access to a television or newspaper will have noticed that since the release of Chris Rock’s movie Good Hair, there has been a lot of chatter about the stuff on the heads of black women everywhere. Many of the unspoken norms for black women have been shared, style secrets have been spilled, and urban hair myths have been debunked. As a result, I feel a heightened awareness of the fact that, at any given moment, people could be staring at my head and wondering where my $1000 weave is. I travelled to Trinidad earlier this year and was awe-struck at the sights of some of the most beautiful natural hair that I had ever seen. Maybe it was the combination of the hair, the beach and Soca music, but that trip catapulted me from the “considering” phase that I had been in for two years, into actually planning my journey to go relaxer free. I decided to cut my hair short first to get used to the length and then stop relaxing. I was set. At the salon, my hair had been washed and I had told the stylist which Rihanna-inspired style I wanted. As he completed his first snip with the scissors, removing exactly 3¼ inches of hair – I had an anxiety attack. Suddenly I felt like Samson.
Samson (who would be played by me in this story) is a biblical character blessed with superhuman strength. (I’m a single mother. Enough said.) He is tricked by Delilah (enter conniving hairstylist) into revealing the source of his strength (his locks/my hair), at which point she hires people to shave his head while he sleeps. He wakes up with the strength of every other regular Joe, only to be blinded by bullies, imprisoned and destined to forever grind grain. Okay, there are some minor differences, but in that instant as I sat in the chair hyperventilating and wishing a plague upon this stylist’s home, I would have bet money that the story was the true account of a woman who had just come from getting her hair cut.
After about 30 seconds, I lifted my head from between my legs and regained my normal rate of breathing. The rest of the hair appointment went off without a hitch! (Much to the delight of the now traumatized hairstylist.) That was 6 months ago. I have since had half a dozen haircuts and am happy to say that I have been neither blinded nor imprisoned. 3 months ago I stopped relaxing my hair, as well. When I ran into a woman that I had not seen in quite some time, she stopped me to ask what I had done to my hair. “You used to have such long, straight hair! I remember it was past your shoulders.” She shook her head in disappointment, “Those who want it don’t have it and those who can get it, cut it off!” I smiled at her and said, “Maybe one day I’ll grow it back….or not. Who knows? After all, It’s just hair!” And to my own surprise, I meant it.
Lady J is the kind of chick you can usually find trying to learn something new. She’s learning about all this new natural hair on her head, learning how to make words dance and sing in her poetry and is also back at school to learn how to do her job in two other languages. Most recently, she has had her nose stuck in her MacBook, trying to learn how to improve and add to her new blog Pen to Pages (www.pentopages.blogspot.com)
Stay tuned for the product reviews for Miss Jessie’s Curly Buttercreme & Baby Buttercreme and ApHogee Keratin & Green Tea Restructurizer. And of course, a giveaway!
Porosity is the measure of the hair’s ability to absorb moisture. This is determined by the condition of the hair’s cuticle layer (the overlapping scales of the hair shaft), and is rated as low, normal, and high. In normal, healthy hair, the cuticle is compact and inhibits the penetration of the hair shaft by moisture – both moisture going in, and moisture coming out. When the cuticle is overly compact and prevents the penetration of the hair by moisture it has low porosity. Hair with low porosity is harder to process, and is resistant to haircolor and perms. Low porosity hair must usually be softened prior to other chemical services. Hair with high porosity is hair whose cuticle layer is open and the hair too-readily absorbs moisture. Overly-porous hair also releases moisture easily and becomes dry and is easily damaged. Acid-balanced conditioning treatments are used to contract the cuticle layer and lock-in moisture on overly-porous hair.
Extreme caution must be used when performing chemical services on overly porous hair to prevent damage. Haircolor will take much more quickly and strongly in overly porous hair (and semi-permanent and demi-permanent haircolors will fade much more quickly). Perms and straighteners will process much faster in high-porosity hair as well. To determine the porosity of your hair, simply feel it – both when wet and when dry. If the hair feels straw-like and rough when dry, or if it feels gummy or slightly rubbery when wet, then you probably have a problem with overly porous hair.
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More about it
This heavenly exotic blend is full of all the finest oils and rich butters that your hair and skin could dream of, all in one bottle! This super charged formula will protect hair from environmental stress, replenishes the protective layer and is guaranteed to soften and de-frizz the driest looking locks by adding shine and brilliance naturally!
Ingredients
Organic Coconut oil, Shea Butter (Fair-trade),Avocado oil, Mango oil, Jojoba oil, Aloe Vera Butter, Wheat Germ oil, Organic Cocoa Butter (Fair-trade), Sweet Almond oil, Certified Organic Pomegranate oil, Hemp oil, Grape seed oil, Sun Flower oil, Essential oil lemon, Natural scent
Name one natural oil that is able to penetrate the hair.
More about it
Experience instantly hydrated and healthy hair with this creamy medium to coarse treatment! Indulge long locks, dry tresses or curls in the ultimate daily hair rescue rinse. Adds softness & shine to unruly, dry hair, helps smooth over tangles and triumph over snarls. *Excellent thermal conditioning treatment as well.*Ingredients
Aloe barbadensis (Organic Aloe) Juice, Ricinus communis (Castor Seed) Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol (Coconut Derived), Stearalkonium Chloride, Phenoxyethanol, Certified Organic Cocos nucifera (Coconut) Oil, d-Calcium Pantothenate (Panthenol Vitamin B5), Hydrolized Wheat Protein, Kosher Vegetable Glycerin, Limnanthes alba (Meadowfoam) Oil Lavendula angustifolia (Organic Lavender) Distillate, Anthemis nobilis (Organic Roman Chamomile) Distillate, Rosa mosqueta (Rosehip) Seed Oil, Salix nigra (Organic Black Willow Bark) Extract, and a natural yummy coconut scentQuestion to win the Coconut Cream RinseWhat is a humectant? Name two natural humectants.
E-mail us at [email protected] with the answer!
While browsing through the hair care aisles of Wal-Mart, I happened upon a hair care line called ceXpress. The product names and packaging seemed oddly familiar, but it didn’t hit me until I got home… they reminded me of Carol’s Daughter products! I decided to look up the products and found even more interesting things.
“It’s important that consumers know where Carol’s Daughter is really made, what the relevant facts are and that the whole home spun story is nothing more than marketing spin,” says Donyale Bush of ceXpress (a.k.a Carol’s Express).
The defense against the complaint filed by Carol’s Daughter substantiates the high quality of Carol’s Express and ceXpress brands. Carol’s Daughter and the Carol’s Express brand were made in the same warehouses at the time the suit was filed. Neither brand was made in the kitchen as of the filing date of the suit.
“This is a desperate attempt to continue to exploit consumers for anywhere from $20-$45 per product, when we provide a high quality product in ceXpress at half the price. We provide the consumer with a nature-based product at a sexy value. We know this will make our customer base, which we know to be savvy customers scrutinizing every dollar in this economy, happy.”
So, what do you guys think?