February 2015

CURL
LIFE
N AT U RA L
OBSESSIONS
4
MAJOR
Mistakes
I’ve Been
Making
with my
Natural
Hair
H A I R | C U L T U R E | S O P H I S T I C A T I O N
PUBLICATION
Natural Obssessions
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the publication or how to find
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4
KIT CONTENTS
ESSENTIAL HAIR ACCESSORIES
FOR THE CURLY GIRL (PART 1)
6
Go to our website for more
Questions about a CurlKit,
EDITORS NOTES
7
TOP BOOKS
EVERY CURLY GIRL
SHOULD READ
4 MAJOR MISTAKES
I’VE BEEN MAKING
WITH MY NATURAL
HAIR (PART 2)
to A DV E R T I S E H E R E
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rates and info
E DI T OR’S NOTE S
When asked the question “How Can I Maintain Healthy Hair”,
my first response is always “what Is Your Interpretation of
Healthy Hair?” For many of us, attaining healthy hair is the
ultimate goal. However, in order to achieve a goal we have
to have the specifics identified. For some, healthy hair is
synonymous with length. Needless to say this is a falsehood
so let us take a look at the characteristics of healthy hair.
Healthy hair is elastic. This means you should be able
to gently pull on your strands, get some stretch and once
released, your hair should return to its original configuration
without snapping and breaking. Healthy hair is strong and resistant to breakage, but
that is not an excuse to treat it poorly or neglect its care. Protein provides strength and
elasticity to hair and helps hair to properly retain its moisture. Remember that moisture
comes from water and or products that list water as their primary ingredient.
Healthy hair has shine. The outer layer of healthy hair (the cuticle) lies flat and stays
closed. This configuration allows hair to reflect light and give off sheen or shine depending
on hair type. More textured hair types give off less shine (but has sheen) than straighter
strand, this is not an indicator of health however, but rather, a consequence of the strands
curling and coiling, thus reflecting less light.
Healthy hair is soft. This again is a function of texture. Straight hair and textured hair
won’t feel the same to the touch but when hair is soft you will definitely be able to tell.
Proper moisture balance through deep conditioning treatments, are critical for achieving
and maintaining softness. Soft hair is often smooth to the touch and usually makes very
little sound when touched or when the strands come in contact with each other.
Overall, healthy hair is free of split ends and excessive feathering. Feathering is the
excessive thinning of your ends to the point where the difference in thickness with the
roots and rest of the hair shaft is starkly evident. Your ends are the oldest parts of your hair
and will weather no matter how well you take care of it. However whenever feathering is
excessive, splits ends, knots and tangles form making hair difficult to detangle and causing
breakage. This is the reason trimming of ends is recommended for maintaining the health
of your hair and promoting length retention. How healthy is your hair?
3 | N AT U RA L O BS E SS I O N S
products
including
BONUS
ITEMS!
“ N AT U R A L O B S E S S I O N S ” CO N T E N TS
CurlKit wants you to savor your “Natural Obsessions” and Fall in Love with your Curls.
We have selected a great line-up for you this month. Each item was hand-picked with you
and your curls in mind. We hope you love everything as much as we did and look forward
to seeing all your reviews and un-boxing videos. So until next time....
new! alikay naturals
new! carribean natural
Pomegranate Passion Elixir
Protein Strengthening
A combination of botanical oils
Conditioner This extra-rich
to keep your hair soft, manage-
conditioner tames and softens
able, and provide vital nourishment
even the coarsest locks. Nourishes your
to strengthen and replenish your hairs
hair while adding moisture, hydrates
natural moisture.
and helps to prevent breakage. Contains natural ingredients.
snappee
Hair Ties Just wrap and snap your hair into awesome up-dos and unwrap to let your hair down – all without tangles. No more pulling out
your hair, trying to untangle a hair tie that has woven itself between thousands of your
precious hair strands. With Snappee damage and breakage are history.
spray co.
8oz Spray Bottle A curly girl essential. Your spray bottle is one of
the most valuable tools in your hair regimen. You can use it with plain
water or to mix your own spray concoctions, each with a different effect, to help style
and maintain your curls.
curly hair solution curl keeper
Ultimate Hold Gel or Frizzy Hold - Original With Panthenol this Gel
gives ultimate holding power without flakiness or crispiness. A water-based
formula, Curl Keeper Gel leaves no product buildup and supports any curly
hairstyle for longer length of time. Great for scrunching curly hair, styling with
brushes, blow-drying or drying naturally.
www.curlkit.com
Essential Hair
Accessories For The
Curly Girl – Part 1
All curly girls know that
having good accessories is
half the battle. The right
hair accessory can stave off
a hair disaster and rescue
you from a catastrophic hair
day. Let’s take a look at some
of those hair day saving
accessories no member of
#TEAMNATURAL should
be without.
HAIR PI N S AN D BOBBY PI N S
These accessories are magical. They magically
create updos, salvage hairstyles that don’t go
as planned and hold hair in place so that it
falls just the way we want it. Hair pins and
bobby pins also have another magically power;
they disappear in the blink of an eye, literally.
You can never have too many hair pins or
bobby pins because before you know you’ll be
searching underneath the sofa cushions to find
that last hair pin needed to complete your hair
style.
SAT IN SCARF AND SATI N B O N N E T
Keeping hair moisturised and tangle free is
a major objective of all naturals. Keeping
hair covered under a scarf or bonnet while
sleeping helps prevent hair from drying out
and becoming a tangled, matted mess. No one
wants to wake up and have to deal with that.
We may not wake up completely flawless but
satin scarves and satin bonnets ensure we
don’t wake up a hot mess.
GO O DY BAN DS/HAI R E L A ST I CS
Sometimes the last thing you need is hair in
your face, on your neck or down your back.
It could be because of the heat or because
that’s just not your thing. Whatever the
case may be, sometimes you just really need
your hair out of the way. Now, while those
tiny ponytail holders do serve a purpose,
few of us (especially those of us with kinkier
textures) can actually fit all our hair in these
ponytail holders. This is where goody bands or
stretchy hair elastics come in. They are wide
enough for us to get all our hair in and strong
enough to hold hair securely in place without
snapping. At least they are most of the time.
These are also great for creating the beloved
afro puff. Many naturals make sure to always
have a goody band and a few bobby pins tucked
away in their handbags making their very own
hair emergency first aid kit.
PO N YTA I L H O L D E R
Ok. So as stated above, many naturals can’t
actually get their hair in a ponytail using these
small holders but that doesn’t mean ponytail
holders aren’t handy. When separating hair
in small sections or handling twists and braids
these are pretty great.
S PRAY B OT T L E S
Maybe you want to moisten your hair with
water or your favourite hair mixture, or a
product is too thick, and you need to water
it down and distribute it evenly throughout
your hair. All of the above and more are
great uses for the spray bottle.
5 | N AT U RA L O BS E SS I O N S
TOP BOOKS
Every Curly
Girl Should Read
Knowledge is power! This is never more true than when embarking on a natural hair
journey or continuing one. Information is critical, especially since most of what we were
taught about hair care growing up is of little use to us as naturals.
There is a lot of information out there on blogs and social media from hair types and
products to curly hairstyles for long hair and short curly hair, however, those blogs
or websites don’t always present these in a stuctured and logical chapter-by-chapter
progression as a book would. There are many books out there that look at the topic of
naturally curly hair and its care from different angles. We’ve compiled a list of some of the
most beloved books on natural hair for you. In no particular order, these are:
1: The Science of Black Hair: A
3: Curly Like Me: How to Grow Your
Comprehensive Guide to Textured Hair
Hair Healthy, Long, and Strong by
Care by Audrey Davis-Sivasothy
Teri LaFlesh
This powerful book introduces readers to
Curly Like Me is the off-the-grid, do-it-
a comprehensive healthy hair care strategy
yourself owner’s manual for tightly curly
for achieving beautifully radiant hair
hair: Tightly curly hair isn’t like any other
regardless of hair type. Black hair structure,
type of hair, and it needs a totally different
properties, and maintenance methods are
care to make it happy. This book gives you
carefully outlined throughout this go-to
the information and techniques you need
reference book to give you the tools you
to celebrate—not fight against—your very
need to improve the health and look of your
curly hair. You will learn how not only to
hair, today.
care for your curls, but to cherish them, all
2: If You Love It, It Will Grow: A Guide
the while saving time, effort, and money.
To Healthy, Beautiful Natural Hair by
4: Grow It: How to Grow Afro-Textured
Phoenyx Austin
Hair to Maximum Lengths in the
Thanks to Dr. Phoenyx Austin, a physician
Shortest Time by Chicoro
and natural hair guru, we now have a
Grow It walks you through a simple six
fabulous book that explains how to grow
step process to help you understand which
and maintain healthy and longer Afro-
actions contribute to gaining healthy length
textured hair.
and which actions do not.
www.curlkit.com
4 MAJOR
MISTAKES I’VE
BEEN MAKING
WITH MY NATURAL
HAIR… AND WHAT
YOU CAN LEARN
FROM THEM (PART 2)
MISTAKE #3: I Got Color But
Didn’t Change My Regimen
I was naive enough to believe that I could get real color
(not that ammonia-free Garnier stuff) and just treat my
hair however. I thought that I could make minimal (and
I mean minimal) tweaks to my regimen and be just fine.
I thought I could just incorporate a heavier moisturizer,
do more co-washing, and keep it moving. Lo and behold,
that wasn’t enough. And I learned the hard way.
The Fix: Colored hair requires different care, period.
Don’t be lazy about it, or wait until it’s too late to start
investing in the health of your hair. The coloring process
lifts the cuticles, (which are sometimes damaged in
By Christina Patrice
the process) in order to for the hair to receive color.
www.maneobjective.com
Therefore, using products with heavy-duty hydrating
[email protected]
and moisture-retaining properties are key, as is
/ maneobjective
maintaining a protein balance. I’m layering products in
the LCO order, with an emphasis on more potent leaveins and moisturizers. Restructuring protein treatments
and sprays to fill in and strengthen cracks and chips in
the cuticle are a must. To get my hair back on track,
I’m backing away from “wash and go’s”, and using
ApHogee’s 2-Minute Reconstructor every week before deep conditioning.
Mistake #4: I Kept Trying To Make My Hair Something It Wasn’t
To add insult to injury (and breakage too), I found myself lost in the social media sauce. The
Internet is nuts over big hair, and I found myself craving that Instagram-cropped-my-curls look.
I wanted big hair on day 1. So I did all kinds of ridiculously out of character things. I diffused my
hair to hell and back. If I didn’t like the way my hair was setting with a particular curl definer,
I’d wash it out and start over. I experimented with an Afro pick, my Q-Redew, and even used
the prongs of my diffuser to separate curls and fluff. Then I realized that what I was doing
made no sense. Not only was I competing to play in the big hair Olympics of Instagram, I was
sacrificing the health of my hair because of it.
The Fix: Step away from deficit thinking. Focus more on what your hair is and can do, instead
of what it isn’t and can’t do. Easier said than done, and I’ll be the first to admit it. I’m still
learning to appreciate the beauty in others without feeling the need to “be like that” myself.
7 | N AT U RA L O BS E SS I O N S