Protective Style Errors That Cause Breakage and Damage

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Hello Ladies,

This post is a short one but it is long overdue. To all my consultation clients, thank you for keeping me super busy.  I will always find time (somehow) to update Hairducation even though it may not as often as I’d like.  I am making efforts to improve my work-work balance (I don’t have much of a social life right now) .  For now,  my uploading of posts here will be sporadic.  So please do keep checking in for new posts and if you are new to Hairducation, there are loads of posts you can catch -up on.

So on with todays post which is about common mistakes ladies make when protective styling with their natural (relaxed and virgin) hair.  It’s great to see more and more ladies rock their real hair in either its virgin or relaxed state however I have noticed a few mistakes that can lead to thinning, damage and breakage.
The most common errors are…..

 

  • Not hiding the ends
    One of the main aims of a protective style is to hide/tuck your ends so that the moisture in your hair does not evaporate excessively.  It also ensures your ends do not rub against your clothes or upholstery. Whether it is a bun or goddess braids, try to have your ends well hidden or tucked in.
  • Making the style super tight
    I see so many ladies with ponytails, buns, puffs, wigs and cornrows under wigs etc that are super sleek and super tight. I wont lie, it can look really cute when a protective style is hella sleek but there should be a balance between sleekness and safety.
    There is a mistaken view that only braids, weaves or other extensions hair styles cause traction alopecia.  Styles created with your own hair can do that too.  If you can feel your temples  being pulled tightly……. or you feel blood rush to your head when you undo the hair or take off the wig or hair band ………or you cant turn and bend you neck comfortably …….or have had the ponytail “facelife”….it is too tight.
  • Using a lot of gel and hard brushes daily
    A continuation from the hella sleek mistake in the point above is the laid for the gods mistake. Using a lot of gel and hard brushes on your delicate edges on a daily basis will result in thinning of your hairline and damage to the hair fibres.  It is okay to use a natural gel or non drying gel and a soft brush from time to time.
    Some ladies may have a hairline that can tolerate daily stress to their hairline.  Some of us, like myself, certainly do not.
  • Parting or bunning in the same spot
    If you have a go-to protective style that requires a part, try to alternate the pattern of the style so that you are not always parting in the exact same spot over the years. Doing so will result in the hairs in that area being manipulated more often than other areas.  This will often result in small amounts of breakage which over time will make the hairs in those areas shorter.
    If you are a lady who loves buns and ponytails, move the location of your bun or ponytail to avoid causing stress on a particular spot.
  • Using pins and bands that are defective or damaged and snag and tear your hair. I think this one is self-explanatory.

As promised, a short and sweet post. My next few posts will be educatative product reviews and a microcsopic comparison between afro textured hair and Caucasian and Asian hair.

As always, I’ll work hard on making the posts worthwhile so see you soon.

x

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow

 

Gold Rush!!

Hello Ladies,

You know how you learn something new about yourself every once in a while?  Well recently I’ve learnt that I like putting gold (plaited) things in my hair.  And from the looks of it many ladies out there love it too.

I remember when I put the picture on the left on Instagram, it had over 40k likes across many natural hair pages. I spent quite a number of months answering questions about where I got the head piece from. For the record I got it from Asos but I had my own ideas of how I would wear it.

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I was stocking up on my hair products a few weeks back when I stumbled on some gold hair clips which I thought would be fun. They cost £2 and because you get what you pay for they all broke after my niece and I wore them once. I went shopping at H & M recently and saw these hair clasps which were more study and were still really cheap. 10 for £4 cheap.

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I decided to pimp out my bun with them but they aren’t as flexible as the first set I bought so it was hard to tighten them in my hair and they occasionally fell out. So my hunt for gold hair toys continues.

What are your favourite hair accessories??

My next post will be all about our edges. I have written two posts about this already but now realise I need set out more facts about it.   For some reason I’ve received quite a number of questions about edges lately so I know its time to revisit it.

Happy hair journey and see you soon

X

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow

Hair and Life Update

Hello ladies

It’s been a little while. I know.
I hope you have all been well.  I usually don’t tend to give too much about my personal life away -aint nobody got time for that 🙂 – but because I know things have been unsteady for the last month on the blogging front I thought I should let you know why.

I moved countries.
I moved back to the UK in March and as you can imagine, things will be a bit disrupted whilst I settle back in the swing of things.  I will off course keep trying to keep the Hairducation going regular and helpful blog updates.

Hair Update

Being back in the UK has been a bit of a shock for my hair and I’ve had to make a few adjustments in my hair regimen.
I am still using the same products but I have to moisturise and seal a lot more often than I did in Lagos.   The cooler weather and the fact that I now live in an area with hard water which can be very drying to hair and skin are the reasons why I’ve had to double up on how often I  moisturise my hair.
Besides this, its business as usual with my hair. I may experiment with one or two products now that I have much easier access to them. So there may be a few product reviews coming up soon.

How is your hair doing? Have you made changes to your hair regimen recently?

My next blog post will be about diet related. It has just occurred to me that one of my all time favourite things to eat may be one of the things that contributes to the health and length of my hair.
Find out what it is by coming back soon.

Happy hair journey

x

Lade

Learn| Change| Grow

February Up-do of the Month

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Hello ladies

Thanks to Solange Knowles, beaded braided hair styles are popular again.

I decided to create a hair style inspired by her for the February updo of the month post. I certainly wasnt going to braid all of my hair but I decided to somehow incorporate the trend into an updo.  I ended up with this bun and 4 box braids combo.
I was concerned that the beads would feel heavy but suprisingly it was comfortable however I only had the style in for a few hours so i am not sure what it would feel like after a day or two. When I moved or walked around the beads would crash againt each other and were a little bit noisy…and for some reason I enjoyed the noise.

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I actually really loved the style and I am looking forward to texlaxing in a few more weeks just so I can wear it again.

 

Happy hair journey ladies

x

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow

New Hair Style Series

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Hello ladies,

Last year, I forced myself to get out of my hairstyling laziness/rut by starting a bun of the month series.
I tried to come up with simple and easy to do bun hairstyles each month that were different from the everyday super plain ones I usually wear.

The bun of the month series went down well and this year I’ve decided to start an up-do of the month series.
Now here’s the thing….. I love up-does…. but I love them more on other ladies.  I actually do like creating them but the reality is that I will probably keep wearing my buns or faux bobs when I have my hair out because I prefer them for myself.   I’ll probably save the up-does for special occasions.

And on that note, here is the first up-do of the series.

Please look past the facial expression and focus on the height of the style 🙂

 

I absolutely loved how much height the front/top of the style had (thanks to my new growth and all the texture left in my texlaxed hair). I don’t know how I managed to forget to take a picture of the back of it.   I’ll do better ladies, I promise.


Please come back soon for the educative post about how scalp massaging boosts hair growth.

x

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow