UZOMA'S HAIR LOSS AND RESTORATION STORY

Around July 2015, I suffered a hair setback when I used a protein treatment. In order to recover, I decided not to relax my hair as planned and started using wigs as a protective style. In October, I got a new wig and it was a bit tight. I wore it for a few weeks, thinking that it would loosen up. That month, I noticed some thinning at the front of my hair. I thought it was the tightness of the wig so I stopped wearing it.

I went back to my normal regimen and I was still losing hair. It finally got to a point where I had a bald spot (about 2 inches in diameter). It was smooth like the back of my hand. There was no indication for the hope of hair growth.

During all of this, I had an awful skin rash that wouldn't go away. My skin can be sensitive and reacts to slight changes. Normally, I use a cream my doctor prescribed and it goes away after a few days but this one lasted for months.

 Off to see the Doctor

In early December, I went to a different doctor about my skin. I thought he would prescribe some cream or other medicine to treat the rashes. He asked me questions about my diet and talked about eating more fruits and vegetables. “Who vegetables don epp?”

At the time, I had a horrendous diet. I would usually eat twice a day and the meals were not balanced. I couldn't remember when I had fresh vegetables or fruit. My job involves standing and talking for long periods of time. When I would get home from work, I needed to lie down for hours before I could do anything else. I was basically running on fumes. The doctor told me if I improve my diet and rest more, the rash would go away. He gave me a follow-up appointment with the resident dermatologist a few weeks later.

After my appointment with the doctor, I decided to get a full checkup and to see a trichologist. I needed to know what was happening to me. My visit to the trichologist was informative. I was diagnosed with androgenic alopecia.

Being the nerd that I am, I asked plenty of questions and did further research on the internet. Based on this information gathered, I would continue losing my hair if I did nothing. With androgenic alopecia, once the hair is lost it does not come back. Needless to say, I was worried.

The trichologist recommended Rogaine to help keep the hair I had left. I was wary of using Rogaine because if I stopped using it, the hair would fall out again. There are also various side effects. 

After meeting with the trichologist, I had my appointment with the dermatologist. She said the hair loss was due to stress and it should grow back with time.

So, I had some conflicting information. Was my hair loss due to stress or a genetic issue or something else?

I also did a full check up with various blood tests. Most of the results were normal. Only two of the results had low levels: hemoglobin and alkaline phosphatase. Low levels of alkaline phosphatase are usually rare (Source link). When it happens, it is an indicator of protein deficiency or malnutrition. (Source link) Hemoglobin is a protein present on red blood cells that helps to deliver oxygen to various cells in the body. Low levels of hemoglobin can be associated with various blood disorders.

Plan of Action

With all this information, I took my time over the Christmas holiday to develop a plan to help with this problem. (click here to view plan)

Geared up, I pushed forward on my path to hair growth. I was prepared for the worst which is that my hair would not return. If this happened, I would reevaluate and make changes. In the first month, I began to feel better and my skin rash healed. I wasn't as tired and I had more energy for my everyday activities. By the end of the first month, I noticed that my bald spot wasn't smooth anymore. It felt rough like hair was growing in. By the third month, the spot was essentially covered. The progress has been so encouraging.

  

              Jan. 2016/Feb. 2016

To be frank, I did not follow everything in my plan to the letter. Hello, exercise. However, the parts I did really seemed to help. I plan to continue and have my scalp and hair checked at the end of the year.

  March 2016

What can you do?

There are a few things that I think helped me to deal with my hair loss. They may help you as well.

1. Be an advocate for your health:  No one can take better care of you than you. You have to be aware of what is going on with you.

2.   Take action:  Nothing can change if you don't change.

3.  Be encouraged: You are not alone in this struggle. Many people deal with hair loss every day. I almost didn't share this story on my blog because of embarrassment. People have reached out to say they are going through something similar.

4. Be patient: Rome wasn't built in a day and your hair doesn't grow back overnight. It will take time before you see changes.

I'm very happy that my hair has improved. Everything that has happened was due to the neglect of my health. It may seem vain because it took my hair loss to start getting my health in order. I'm glad that everything has improved.

Nat Says: Thank you for sharing your story with us Uzoma. Studies have shown that a poor diet and stress can trigger hair loss in some people. Take care of yourself, find balance in life, work, and family, and be very observant of the signs that your body gives when you are not being your own best friend. 

To follow Uzoma visit donttouchthehair.com

WHY YOU REMEMBER YOUR HAIR BEING DIFFICULT TO HANDLE (FOR THOSE WHO FEAR TRANSITIONING)

 The beautiful Munachi Abi

Want to transition but fear that your hair would not be as soft as the Naturals around you?  Here are 5 reasons why you remember your hair being dry, hard and difficult to handle.

1. No deep-conditioning: As a child, I can't remember anyone taking the time out to deep condition my hair. At the time, the only hair type that got that preferential treatment was relaxed hair (remember placenta? ^.^). The sad part is that today, most relaxed ladies in Nigeria don't even get their hair treated (steamed) in salons or  at home by themselves. This could be the reason why a lot of us have hair that never seems to grow.

Black hair needs to be moisturised because it easily gets dry; no thanks to weather and a few other factors.

What has changed?

Now Naturals know that deep conditioning keeps the hair moisturised for long periods of time so we don't joke with this part of hair care.

2.Combing: Back in the day, the combs used to comb our hair had little spaced bristles (rat tail comb). Even with tears streaming down your face, the stylists wanted smooth/knotless hair and smooth/knotless hair they got.  Using the wrong type of combs to detangle our hair means that a lot of us have bad memories of our hair being hard and difficult to handle. Stories of black hair breaking combs and crying spells during hair grooming sessions are popular amongst Nigerian (African) women.

What has changed?

These days, we stick to using the wide tooth comb and some naturals on youtube have done a good job of showing us how we can do without using a comb by finger-detangling our hair. You can show your stylist how to do this or you can find a salon that has stylist(s) who know how to take out the knots of your hair without causing damage. Remember, less manipulation = length retention.

3.No emphasis on conditioning: As most Nigerian women know, more emphasis was and is still placed on getting the hair clean without putting much thought into conditioning. So for instance, your hair will be washed 2-3 times and conditioned once with little or diluted conditioner.

What has changed?  Now we understand that the pH of shampoos causes the cuticles to open up. If the hair is not properly conditioned after shampooing, the hair cuticles stay that way when it gets dry, causing it to feel rough and dry. With this knowledge gained, we know that we can get better results by washing our hair once or twice with a shampoo/bar and following up with a THICK rinse-out-conditioner like Vo5 to close our cuticles and end up with soft , smooth hair. Remember that to have manageable afro hair, emphasis should be placed on conditioning and not just cleansing.

4.We got re-united with black soap: Yes, we totally forgot about the benefits of black soap and fell hard for imported shampoos. While I have nothing against shampoos, I have observed that they can leave black hair feeling hard and dry.

What has changed?

Quite a number of us have found the goodness that is black soap again. I used the word 'again' because our great-grand mothers used this soap to wash both hair and skin but for whatever reason most of our mothers and salons did not use this on our hair (for those who knew black soap, it was strictly for the skin). Unlike most shampoos you will find, African black soap leaves afro hair feeling soft during and after washing.

5.Much love for the LOC method: Taking care of natural has progressed from what you used to know. Among others, you will hear terms and techniques like finger detangling, low heat tension method, and my favourite; the LOC method (click on link to read more). These new techniques have made taking care of natural hair easier and cheaper. Yes, cheaper because you can do most of them by yourself; saving you the cost of frequent salon visits.

So now that you know, please go head and take the steps you need to get healthy hair. If you prefer your hair being relaxed still do your research by visiting other natural hair blogs and sites because what most of us preach is healthy hair and most of the techniques that work for natural hair will work for chemically treated hair.

Pictures & Hair Do's from CN2 Abuja

 

CN2 was so much fun. It's great to see the Natural Community in Abuja growing. You all were the best and I so look forward to CN3 already. Please scroll down to see pictures and hair styles from the meet-up. Bless!

 

 

Just a few products on sale at the event. For more pictures please visit here.

 

 Note: Photo credit for pictures 6 and 8 belong to www.naturalnigerian.com. Please contact NaturalNigerian via the link above before reblogging.

CN2 Coming Very Soon...

Please share the flyer and spread the word:)

HAIR INSPIRATION: NIKKI

Introduction, who is Nikki?

Nikki is a pharmacist by day (and sometimes at night), a lady in love with the arts (especially music), a musician in her own ‘dormot’, a fitness enthusiast, food lover and of course a naturalista! *wide grin*

When did you go natural?

Consciously or unconsciously? Lol. I say this because I had been natural all my life up until 2003 when I decided to start growing out my hair and then I relaxed it. I had a TWA but didn’t know that I was ‘natural’ or that what I had was called a Teeny Weeny Afro:). I consciously decided to go natural in 2009 when I transitioned for about 8 months. I had a relapse in September 2010, regretted my decision and big chopped on the 3^rd of March 2011 making me 2years natural.

How has your journey been so far? 

The journey has been one-kind, let me not lie. Most days I love my hair, like LOVE! And some days I am like “what is wrong with this one sef, don’t you see your mates on YouTube and blogs?” But then I remember that the ladies on there mostly show their good hair days so I have learnt to work with what my hair throws at me and make it awesome.

My second time going natural was when I decided to really study my hair. First, I learnt that my hair didn’t have a curl pattern, then I found out my hair was low porosity. It wasn’t until late last year that it dawned on me that my hair strands were actually thin (I had always thought of them as thick and resilient) and densely packed. I have been tweaking my hair regimen* (more on this later) based on these findings and my hair has been good.

 In the beginning, I was searching for miracle products, products that would keep my hair moisturized for days, products that would practically ‘melt’ the tangles in my hair and all that jazz. But I have realized that it is mostly about technique; how you detangle, what tool is used, how you moisturize, hair protection at night etc.

Though I am still a product junkie, my junkism is not based on looking for the next best thing, but more about me being my usual inquisitive and experimental self. Once I started being realistic about my hair, she became easier to manage.

How does corporate Nigeria take your hair?

I haven’t had any issues with my employers, past and present, about my hair. The people I have had issues with are my colleagues at work. They don’t just understand why my hair is natural. They wonder why I won’t get a relaxer like everyone else, why I would rather have my natural hair styled than have it in extensions, if I am a member of a particular religious group... I could go on and on. But I have not had anyone say anything really nasty about the hair at work, at least not to my face. In fact HR manager likes the hair sef. 

I usually just try to enlighten them about natural hair and my preference and they leave me be. Apart from these strange folks, most people I have worked with love that I am doing something different with my hair. Plus I have inspired some ladies in my place of work to take better care of their hair even though they prefer to have it relaxed.

How do you deal with negative comments at work?

Forget negative comments at work because I don’t get any from there; let’s talk about negative comments in church and other places. Strange right?  

Example 1: "Are you not a pharmacist? You will be making so much money, If I were you I will be changing my weave-on anyhow”

 Example 2: “This your hair makes you look like a school girl oh, you have to start doing your hair fine so you will get husband” (meanwhile guys are drawn to the ‘ugly’ hair o!)

 Example 3: (This one happened at my LGA during my service year) “Do you comb your hair at all?"

 Example 4: “Come let me buy relaxer for you”.

The thing is, because I am used to getting very nice compliments about my hair, all these evil comments don’t get to me and I just think they are weird. I usually answer them appropriately and smile or I ignore them totally. At one point  my mum did not understand why I went natural. She was of the opinion that it is either my hair was a TWA or it was relaxed, that I couldn’t go about looking unkempt. But now she likes the hair and compliments it sometimes. It is my hair and I choose what I want to do with it.

What is your regimen?

I can’t say categorically that I have a regimen I follow. These days, I listen to my hair and do what she wants. If my hair and scalp feel dirty I would shampoo. If dry, I would co-wash or do a deep condition. When I have my hair out (without extensions), I like to shampoo and condition/deep condition my hair during the weekend.  For protein treatment, I henna my hair every 3 – 4 months. I feel regular protein treatments make my hair dry and more prone to breakage so I do more of moisturizing treatments. I moisturize and seal my hair every other day.

A typical wash day for me would be to first finger detangle my dry hair and put it up in 8-12 twists. Then I would shampoo with a clay shampoo bar or do a bentonite clay treatment, rinse, apply conditioner and then detangle properly using a wide tooth comb or a Denman brush and then further separate the twists so I end up with 16-20 twists when I am done. On the days I deep condition I still use a rinse out conditioner. When I am done with wash, I wrap my hair in a towel or t-shirt to take out excess water and then let my hair air dry. I spray my hair with aloe vera juice, seal with castor oil and use moisturizer over that and then style when hair is fully dry.

When I have my hair in a protective style like twists, braids or cornrows, the above regimen applies because I usually have the style in for a week.  If I have extensions, I prefer using witchhazel to clean my scalp instead of washing because washing my hair in extensions makes it frizzy.

 

What are your favorite products?

When I remember to prepoo, I love to use coconut oil. Apart from all its benefits, I like the fact that it is light I won’t be left with buildup after shampooing. I love clay shampoo bars now, just started using them and I am sold. Bentonite clay treatment is really awesome. These clean my hair and scalp very well without stripping moisture. I co-wash when I can and I love to use VO5 conditioners and Sauve Naturals Coconut Conditioner for this purpose (these also serve as my rinse-out conditioners). 

Henna for protein treatment and Castor oil as a sealant (I blend with some other oils because Castor oil is really thick). For deep conditioning I usually amp up my regular conditioner with oils and honey or I use avocado and honey but I  have found that my hair really loves Aubrey’s Organics Honeysuckle Rose Conditioner but it isn’t always readily available. 

For moisturizers I like Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie or Shea Moisture raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner. Finally my hair loves aloe vera juice, I have been using this as a leave in since I discovered it last year.

Where can we find you?

You can find me on twitter @pharmnikki or instagram @nikkibutterscotch or in my father’s house :).

Any last words or advice for transitioners?

It is very important to be patient. Your hair can’t grow long overnight and it will take time to find out your favorite hair products, detangling methods, hair styling methods etc -unless you are lucky. Enjoy each stage of your hair journey; remember it is not something you are used to so take it one day at a time. All the best loves!

  

Lol at "do you comb your hair at all?" I had a similar experience during my service year too. Plus that husband talk is old na, haba. Thanks for squeezing out time for us Nikki! The pics and info are just too mush, Oshe o. I wish I knew what you know now I went natural.