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 I S S U E Find & friend us online: 3 EDITORS NOTES 4 KIT CONTENTS FACEBOOK: CurlKit PINTEREST: CurlKit INSTAGRAM: @curlkit TWITTER: @curlkit 5 ESSENTIAL HAIR ACCESSORIES FOR THE CURLY GIRL (PART 1) Go to our website for more products and information. WWW.CURLKIT.COM 6 TOP BOOKS EVERY CURLY GIRL SHOULD READ Questions about a CurlKit, the publication or how to find certain products from previous months? Feel free to email us: info@curlkit.com! 7 4 MAJOR MISTAKES I VE BEEN MAKING WITH MY NATURAL HAIR (PART 2) to ADVERTISE HERE Email your request to: advertise@curlkit.com for www.curlkit.com rates and info
EDITOR S NOTES 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 NATURAL OBSESSIONS
products NATURAL OBSESSIONS CONTENTS including BONUS ITEMS! 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 snappee Pomegranate Passion Elixir Protein Strengthening A combination of botanical oils Conditioner This extra-rich to keep your hair soft, manageable, and provide vital nourishment even the coarsest locks. Nourishes your conditioner tames and softens to strengthen and replenish your hairs hair while adding moisture, hydrates natural moisture. and helps to prevent breakage. Contains natural ingredients. 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 PINS AND BOBBY PINS 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. SATIN SCARF AND SATIN BONNET 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. GOODY BANDS/HAIR ELASTICS 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. PONYTAIL HOLDER 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. SPRAY BOTTLES 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 NATURAL OBSESSIONS
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 Comprehensive Guide to Textured Hair Care by Audrey Davis-Sivasothy This powerful book introduces readers to a comprehensive healthy hair care strategy for achieving beautifully radiant hair regardless of hair type. Black hair structure, properties, and maintenance methods are carefully outlined throughout this go-to reference book to give you the tools you need to improve the health and look of your hair, today. 2: If You Love It, It Will Grow: A Guide To Healthy, Beautiful Natural Hair by Phoenyx Austin Thanks to Dr. Phoenyx Austin, a physician and natural hair guru, we now have a fabulous book that explains how to grow and maintain healthy and longer Afrotextured hair. 3: Curly Like Me: How to Grow Your Hair Healthy, Long, and Strong by Teri LaFlesh Curly Like Me is the off-the-grid, do-ityourself owner s manual for tightly curly hair: Tightly curly hair isn t like any other type of hair, and it needs a totally different care to make it happy. This book gives you the information and techniques you need to celebrate not fight against your very curly hair. You will learn how not only to care for your curls, but to cherish them, all the while saving time, effort, and money. 4: Grow It: How to Grow Afro-Textured Hair to Maximum Lengths in the Shortest Time by Chicoro Grow It walks you through a simple six step process to help you understand which actions contribute to gaining healthy length 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) By Christina Patrice www.maneobjective.com info@maneobjective.com / maneobjective 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 the process) in order to for the hair to receive color. Therefore, using products with heavy-duty hydrating and moisture-retaining properties are key, as is 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 NATURAL OBSESSIONS