Haircare ♥

 Hey! I wanted to talk about my haircare today!! 

Ok. So my hair is kinda curly wavy, and it's sorta looked like total crap lately bc I haven't been taking care of it properly. I used to be SO into haircare around like 2019 and i felt like it always looked good, but my hair has changed a little since then just due to having no more heat tool damage. Before summer 2019 I was frying it every day with no heat protectant bc i thought hair products were a scam. LOL. 

Anyways, I did a lot of researching about why my hair looks like crap but used to look really good and (other than me just being lazy) i realized i never really accounted for my hair's porosity, which is way more important than the pattern (straight, curly, wavy, coily). Manes by Mell has a good youtube video but basically porosity is how porous your hair is,  and usually undamaged hair is lower porosity so it absorbs less product. I rarely use heat tools anymore other than diffusing with a blow dryer (which is barely any heat on mine) so I think my hair has gotten lower porosity since 2019 when I first started wearing it naturally. ANYWAYS this basically just meant I needed to learn how to take care of low porosity hair. My hair strands are also fine (i have dense hair not thin hair, each strand is fine). I did a lot of reading and watching videos to learn about fine and low porosity hair, and here are some things i'm doing. just a side note, this isn't like a hair guide or anything, if your hair is a different width or porosity this might not work out for you!!

1. Not using products with heavy ingredients, like butters, heavy oils, or heavy silicones. I do use silicones sometimes, just not the heavy ones like dimethicone. I had a lot of products with heavy oils (castor, coconut...) and heavy silicones that were weighing down my hair 

2. Making sure i get a protein/moisture balance. i used to do this but now i'm choosing products more purposefully, and making sure that one styler has protein. 

3. Looking for products with lightweight moisture and oils. I'm not specifically limiting myself ingredient wise, but I know jojoba, sunflower, avocado and argan oils are lightweight so if these are in a product that calls itself lightweight then I can know it's accurate! 

4. Actually using a product with hold. I was trying to do a "one and done" method where the product I used really didn't have much hold at all. Just from living with my natural texture for a few years I know I can't get away with just a cream, or foam, I need a gel or mousse. 

5. Going back to using more than 1 product. Since products all have different uses, it's best to use more than 1 for curly hair. As you'll see later, i did try just 1 product but my hair benefits MOST from using at least a leave in and styler, maybe more. 

Generally, I am going to actually try to take better care of my curls so I can feel proud of my hair and love it for it's unique texture. I want to find products that don't weigh my hair down and hold the curl instead of randomly picking stuff I saw other people using. 

Here's some products I used yesterday!

Twist by Ouidad lightly clarifying shampoo, Garnier Fructis Papaya Hair Treat, Marc Anthony Strictly Curls Lotion

 Both the shampoo and lotion are new! I liked this shampoo because it has a sulfate to really clarify my hair but it isn't too stripping to my hair. I only use the conditioner as a mask after I clarify my hair, i've been using it for a long time! 

This is how my hair turned out! I think it's pretty good, I definitely need a leave in before and an oil after though because it was SO STATICY lol. I also think I may add a little bit of gel next time. The lotion is almost like a cross between a liquid gel and very light lotion. It held up ok overnight, but I think a gel would help in the future, 

Here are some additions to my routine featuring luna (≧▽≦) eva nyc Mane Magic Primer for fine hair, and Raw Sugar endless hair glow oil. I tried the oil on my hair today and really liked it! I use an oil when my hair is dried as a finisher to either break the gel/mousse cast or just seal the moisture in. 

Once I use everything together I'll let you know how it turns out!! 

TBH i've kinda always struggled with loving my hair texture. Not to make the post all sad, but growing up I always brushed it dry and once I was old enough started frying it with a flat iron every day with no heat protectant for probably like 6 years. I never saw girls with actual wavy hair in ads or on bottles so i literally didn't know it could look good. I thought you had to have spiral curls to use products and that they wouldn't help my "ugly" hair. I always thought my hair was the ugly before photo you see on hair straightening ads, so literally i thought that was the only option (◕︵◕) 

Now I really struggle with wanting it to be curlier. (◕︵◕) I still kinda have beef with beauty store ads because every "wavy" haired girl they show to advertise product has curling iron curls and waves, not actual waves. It makes me feel like wavy hair is the ugly sister to curly hair ◄.► I always wanted pretty spiral curls, so I guess maybe that's why too, but it's just hard to accept the natural texture that grows out of your head i think. I wish i saw more girls with a similar pattern to mine even posting online so I could chat with someone who gets it.

Anyway, I hope that this journey will help me love my hair more even though it's not exactly perfect! I want to wear my curls for my wedding in May so I want to have a good routine down by then so the hairstylist can work with my real texture and not have to touch up much with heat tools. 

see you next time!! ≧◡≦