So this was a question offered to me in sincerity by a grown man whom I met through a networking event. He was looking for businesses to take part in his 30 day marketing challenge. I volunteered but he turned me down when he learned I was selling hair products. He believed that I could not sell hair products and cover my hair simultaneously. He didn't care that I had plenty of happy customers and good reviews. Surely it's the customer's opinion that matters most when it comes to my brand and not what I look like...right? My first thought was wow, some people really don't mince their words. I never thought covering my hair would be such a drama. When I went natural it was because my hair had had enough of braids relaxers and weaves. By 'enough' I mean it was thin and falling out at the edges. I still had the intention to go back to the 'creamy crack'...somewhere inside me I knew I did. But at some point between age 18 and 28 - I changed. I grew emotionally and spiritually and have in the last year decided to turn my 'most of the time headwrap' into a daily Hijab. I was never forced, it's just who I am... who I became. I suppose the way I wrapped my hair was my own personal way of transitioning into more modest style of dressing.

"Why did you choose to sell this kind of product?" he proceeded, when I told him revealing my hair wasn't an option. "You can't demonstrate it.." he continued. Yes that's true I can't. And I don't blame him for having reservations, I wouldn't think to buy facecream from someone in a burka... but if i'd heard good things and seen the results on others, I would love to try it. I started covering after I started my business and I started my business out of a passion for caring for my hair. Out of a passion for loving myself in my natural state, no longer wanting to depend on extentions to feel beautiful or acceptable to look at. I wasn't going to stop caring about helping others just becuause it would be harder now. I still have hair under this scarf, a lot of it, and it needs looking after too, just like anyone else's. And it's not the end of the world that he doesn't want to help me I'm still happy to shamelessly promote myself. I know I'm not the only one who has felt that way. Am I? I'm sure that there are women out there like me who actually just want a product that works and don't care whose face is on the advert. Through my Hijab i took a stand against my ego and said "you know what world? I actually don't need your opinion in order to feel good about myself." I love my hair, and I hug my hair daily with my products and my Hijab.

Watch My Latest Video: 7 Natural Hair Products for Naturally Coily Hair Types

Videos 

Posted by Dalilah,

The short answer to this is no. Trimming our hair does not in itself cause or trigger breakage. The long answer to this is that hair tends to taper at the ends as at grows longer. This is because the ends of your hair are the oldest parts of your hair, they have therefore been through the most and are naturally the weakest.

Imagine your hair in braids, I know that personally, when im getting to the end of a braid the width of my hair decreases into a cone shape. This triangular end is the tapered section of your hair and the ideal section for trimming away. Assuming you trim all of this tapered section off, hair breakage should not directly occur as a result of this. If you notice you have split ends after a trim, it is likely that you were overly conservative in the amount of hair you chose to cut off. This doesn't necessarily mean that you should go and cut more off, if your priority is to grow your hair longer, then it makes sense to cutt of less than the amount your hair has grown in a month. But if your priority is to retain only the strongest parts of your hair, then it would make sense to cut off all of the damaged hair. It can also be a very emotional process, cutting off hair that you spent so long trying to grow, but when the ends of our hair are tapered, the shaft of the hair is literally wearing away, and it is the shaft of the hair that protects the internal cortex of the hair. Once this part of the hair starts to become exposed, then the risk for split ends and increased breakage increases. What you can do to achieve minimal breakage is to practice regular moistirising, sealing and protective styling whilst you aim to retain lenth. Have you experienced breakage after trimming? How did you take control of the situation? Please share your experiences with us in our comments section below.

Happy Hair Hugging! x

Posted by Dalilah,

When the temperature outside starts to decrease your hair can begin to react differently to your staple products. How to retain moisture during the winter months is a really important subject when striving to promote healthy strong hair all year round. Below are three things you can try to turn that crispy winter hair back into the soft fluffy defined or be int undefined curl that you're used to.

2. Wear more protective styles Winter air and wind will steal moisture from your hair. Protect your hair by wearing protective styles or covering it completely. Protective styling involves tucking the vulnerable ends of your hair away to avoid breakage when hair inevitabley becomes dry more often. Wearing more buns, braids and twists as opposed to wash n' go's will do your hair a lot of good in the long run. If you are time poor get a scarf that is satin, instead of cotton and wear this to keep hair protected. Cotton will draw moisture out of your hair, which is not what you want if you want to keep it strong. Protection doesn't mean neglect, you still have to make sure your scalp has oil and your hair has moisture. Be sure to wrap your hair at night to keep your protective style neat for as long as possible.

3. Learn your hair's protein/moisture balance Once you figure out how much protein and moisture your hair responds to, then you'll be able to prevent your hair from getting too dry. If your hair is weak add more protein, if your hair is dry and brittle, add more moisture. If your hair isn't retaining moisture increase your use of oils, try olive, coconut, jojoba or broccoli, and try an apple cider vinegar rinse every other week after shampoo to see if the condition of your hair improves. If you're escping the bittler cold for more tropical humid weather then increase your usage of products that have humectants. It's all just learning when to use what. But with low-porosity hair you need to work on opening up your cuticle more so than high porosity hair, and baggying is a great way to do this.

Posted by Dalilah, 

You wake up in the morning, take one look in the mirror and think to yourself. I should probably sort my hair out today... and then you don't. When you're feeling low, simple tasks become rocket science. You ask yourself how you ever found the energy to remove the kettle from it's charging point, fill it with water and then proceed to wash a cup in order to make tea. If making a hot drink takes 45 minutes of mental preparation its no wonder one of the first things we neglect during depression is our hair.

I think the longest I've gone without combing my hair is six weeks. I woke up one day and decided I didn't care that my hair looked like a suspicious carpet, I'd just hide it under a scarf and noone will be any wiser. But just knowing what my hair was like underneath my scarf put a downer on my day, i felt like a fraud. Below are some steps you can take to take care of your natural hair when you're feeling particularly disanimated and demotivated.

1. Use cool/cold water to wash your hair

Even though you feel low on energy you're probably still well enough to shower or have a bath. You should take advantage of this moment to pour water through your hair. Don't bother with shampoo, shampoo requires massaging and possibly tangling your hair in the process, which means that you then have to detangle before mosturising. When you're feeling demotivated the last thing you want to do is spend an hour detangling and moisturising your hair, so just rinse it with water. I'd suggest decreasing the temperature so that the water is cool and verging on cold. Be sure to start with a temperature you're happy with and decrease it for short bursts of time so that you don't startle yourself!

Hot water tends to dry out your hair, cool water on the hair can make hair appear shinier, healthier and stronger by flattening hair cuticles. Cold water on the hair and skin has actually been shown to have an analgesic effect without appearing to have any sideffects or causing dependence. A 2008 study revealed that cold hydrotherapy including one to two cold showers of 38 degrees farenheit, two to three minutes long, followed by a five minute gradual adaptation produced an antidepressive effect.  This is due to the intense impact of cold receptors in the skin, which send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from the peripheral nerve endings to the brain.

2. Use a spritz to seal in moisture

Just like washing the hair with shampoo takes an amount of time that you can't be bothered to invest, spending time parting and greasing your scalp with pomade is also too much to think about so we let our hair become dry and therefore prone to breakage. This is where you want to take advantage of a spritz, two parts water, one part oil. Literally shake it and spray onto damp hair several times a day to keep your hair in OK condition. This will mean that when you are ready to invest time in combing and styling your hair it won't have gotten so dry and brittle that the thought of taking razor to your scalp becomes a temptation. I promise you, it will get better, so please be patient with yourself and your crown of glory.

3. Wear your hair in a protective style

Depression can cause hormonal imbalace and trigger hair loss. To mimimize the impact hair loss can have the less you attempt to style your hair the better. Try keeping your hair in one symple style for as long as possible before finger detangling and re-styling into the next simple style. I kept my hair in a ponytail for a very very long time once. Literally washed it and tied it up, then put myheadscarf ontop of that. My cotton puff of hair at the back would get tangled so to minimize this I'd plat the ends into one braid and tuck it in. Below are pictures of styles you could try that are very low maintenance and will give you the time to think about other things like encorporating regular positive affirmation rituals into your daily routine.

These tips are from my own experiences and are not a long-term fix for those suffering with depression. These are to help you in the short term so that you can concentrate on feeling better without having to feel crappy about your hair ontop of other things.

Have you got any tips for dealing with your hair during testing times? Please share your experiences below.

Happy Hair Hugging! x

Posted by Dalilah,

 I know, I know…you’re trying to figure out if my hair was damaged enough to cut it off and the answer is yes! I’ve been really bad to my hair and it was starting to show. After bleaching it, cutting it, coloring it a million times, bleaching it again and neglecting my weekly and nightly routines, my hair looked worse on my four year natural hair anniversary than it did before I did the big chop. In the beginning of my natural hair journey my main focus was having long, curly hair like my favorite natural hair icons. I didn’t care much about the healthiness of my hair because in my mind, length was more important. Being a new natural was exciting too because there was so much to learn and experiment with so it was easy to stay on top of my hair care routine. By year one, I was over it. My hair had pretty much grown back to its original length (yes, it grew back in a year!) and I was happy with it, so I slowly got away from my healthy hair practices. At some point or another I realized that my hair was in fact growing, but it was breaking off at the same rate. I wasn’t retaining length. Finally, after watching my twist out look more and more pitiful each time I tried it, I made a decision to cut it all off into a tapered style. Watch the video below for more details and commentary.