Healthy and Relaxed

NICOLE

Name: Nicole DeLoatch

Occupation: Advisor/Educator

Hometown: Burtonsville, MD

 

When/why did you decide to focus on maintaining the health of your hair?

Now let’s do what I LOVE to do- discuss hair. I decided to focus on maintaining the health of my hair after I abused it for years. Blow dryers, curling irons, flat irons, spritz, hair color, and at one-point relaxers were all keeping me from having and achieving healthy hair. I didn’t have the knowledge or the scientific understanding about trichology (the branch of medical and cosmetic study and practice concerned with the hair and scalp) that I have today. I decided to start my blogs on healthy hair care to share this information with everyone else who may have trouble maintaining their hair. I offer a heat free styling solution that will keep you in the game!

What has the journey been like?

My hair journey has been a process of self-discovery. I always had long thick hair as a child, and soon after I decided to experiment with almost every hair color and style, it was broken off and limp. Even after abusing my hair for years and suffering from dry hair and scalp, breakage and thinning hair, I decided that I could have healthy hair and started researching healthy hair care. After consuming vast amounts of knowledge from stylists, doctors, and women on the web who had healthy hair, patterns started to emerge.

I found out that if I wanted to have longer healthy hair I needed to do (and not do) a few simple things:

        –Don’t over process the hair with chemicals- chemical damage cannot be undone with any conditioner.

        –Don’t use direct heat on the hair too frequently- thermal damage will cause the hair to break off and roller setting is a better option to maintain a straight or curly hair style.

         –Do use a sulfate free shampoo and concentrate on cleansing the scalp. The scalp is the foundation for the hair- a weak foundation will lead to weak breaking hair.

         –Do deep condition the hair as much as needed for your hair type. Relaxed and chemically treated hair will need tender loving care and one way to do this is to find a moisturizing and a protein deep conditioner that you like. Apply the conditioner put on a plastic cap and sit under a heating cap to infuse the moisture or the protein into the hair.

What are your favorite products to use and why?

There are so many great products on the market now, but I simply adore Organic Root Stimulator or ORS hair products. Their line offers many conditioning and gentle cleansing hair products.

I use their creamy aloe shampoo when I need a deep cleanse (about once a month) and alternate between deep conditioning with the Replenishing Conditioner (moisture) and the Hair Mayonnaise (protein) on a weekly basis.

The Organix Shea Butter and Argan Oil Shampoo and Conditioner are wonderful products as well. They offer a sulfate free shampoo and a moisturizing conditioner.

What is your hair regiment?

First, I shampoo twice with a moisturizing or a chelating shampoo.

Next, either I apply a generous amount of a moisturizing or a protein based deep conditioner- if the hair feels hard then use a moisturizing based conditioner or if the hair feels mushy use a protein conditioner- with a plastic cap, and sit under the dryer for about 15-30 minutes to deep condition. I do this every time I shampoo my hair.

I faithfully roller set my hair. Using a dime-sized amount of leave-in conditioner, diluted setting lotion and a dime sized amount of a glossing polish; I roll and dry it with a soft bonnet dryer.

Finally, I use coconut oil on the ends of my hair before wrapping it at night to keep it healthy.

Do you have any advice for girls trying to keep their relaxed hair as healthy as possible?

My best advice would be to avoid heat as much as possible regardless of whether you are natural or relaxed. Heat styling can do some terrible irreversible damage to the hair, and keep you from achieving your hair goals.

 

Want to connect with Nicole?

Check out her blogs and learn more about her heat-free styling approach:http://boundlessbeauty85.blogspot.com/ orhttp://justrelaxed.wordpress.com/.