Shedding and Black Tea Rinses

Ever since I can remember, my hair was the kind that shedded....alot. And in the summer time it got even worse. All this time I thought it was something normal, but once I started watching youtube videos and seeing that alot of people were only losing a couple of strands on wash day, compared to literally the mound of hair I had at the end of my wash day had me worried. Having thick hair, like Ive said before, is so important to me, even more than length. So I did some research and of course my beloved Long Hair Care Forum there were many posts about Black Tea rinses. Heres one that I found...

http://www.longhaircareforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=312901

The testimonials were all positive. Even one of my hairpsirations Traycee from K.I.S.S. said that she started using Black Tea rinses in her regimen and the shedding has gotten so much better.


Basically how the rinse works is that Black tea has a very high percentage of caffeine, and the caffeine helps block DHT in your hair. DHT is a hormone that causes hair loss and shedding. Over time, with continued use of the black tea, hair should thicken, shedding slows dramatically, hair becomes stronger, and darker (yes it will darken your hair). Also black tea is known to stimulate growth. I have been doing the black tea rinse for 1 month and I absolutely love them. They are a permanent part of my reggie.

I use about 1 cup of water and brew 4 tea bags, for a couple of hours to overnight. Then I put the tea in an applicator bottle. Once Im done washing my hair I apply the tea to my scalp and let the remainder run down the length of my hair. I put on  a plastic cap and let it sit for about 20 mins. After this I dont rinse out, I just out my DC on top of that and DC as usual. After about 1 hr then I rinse everything. I do the black tea rinse before the DC because it does have a tendency to make your hair hard, like a protein treatment, so its a good idea to DC after to soften the hair back.

 Before: wash day - no  black tea rinses

After: wash day -  4 weeks of black tea rinses

The dreaded no-lye dryness :/

Ok so a lil update on my experience w/ ORS No-lye. Even though my hair is still really thick from it, this week my hair has been acting up something fierce. Its weird cause I relaxed on Friday and my hair felt fine until about sun or mon, then it just was really dry. I was moisturizing day and night, something I never had to do when I was using lye. Finally last night, my hair felt like it was getting back to normal. Im going to wash on sat. I will def use a chelating shampoo to remove ne kind of calcium buildup there is and see if my hair feels ne better. I guess the relaxer thing is like a catch 22, the lesser of two evils, with lye I got thinning, but moisturized hair, with no lye its very thick but dry hair. Lol FML...well I'll wait it out and see what happens. I might have to step up my DC's or co washes for now on to keep my hair moisturized, but I'll do whatever I need to do, even though all of this I still lean towards no lye. To me the thickness is so important, even more important than the length itself. I rather reach waistlength with a thick bushy head of hair then reach it which thin straggly, lifeless hair. Oh well, just my thoughts, ttyl, deuces :D

Update: Aug 25th
Ok so I washed my hair this weekend, like I said I would w/ Nexxus Aloe Rid. Instantly after I did that my hair felt soooo much better. So I guess it was the calcium build up after all. Then I Dc'ed w/ Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose, and my hair felt sooooooo soft. Like butter :0 Its felt great ever since then, so dryness or ne thing. I think I will stay w/ the ORS for the time being.

My HHJ So Far: Feb 2009 - May 2010

So Id figure that I would do this post since Im kinda late on this whole blogging thing. I want you to see that everyone starts from somewhere and I just didnt wake up with the hair I have now. Ive had my trials but Im so happy and feel so blessed to be where I am now. So lets start from the beginning...



2008
March 2008, also my 21st birthday, I decided to transition to natural. At the time I was suffering form alot of relaxer damage and my hair was literally falling out in clumps. My relaxed hair was healthy before, between SL and APL, very thick.

RIP pretty hair -  summer 2007

 Two bad salon visits w. over processing and overlapping the relaxer sent my hair in a downward spiral. I was over it at the time.

May 2008 - Thin, lifeless ,over processed hair :_(

June 2008 I got braids. Of course I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing and once I took the braids out in Sept of 08, majority of the relaxed ends had broken off. I just let it rock, and continued on w/ the transition. Getting braids and taking them out every 3 months. Of course I didnt know ne thing about moisturizing, sealing, DCing, lol nothing. Sorry I dont have ne pics from this year of my hair outside of the braids. I have a complex about short hair on me and of course didnt want to document it. Just trust me it was short...really short.

2009
February I discovered youtube. I one day google searched how to take care of natural black hair, and tons of vids came up. I was so excited to see that I wasnt the only one trying to grow their hair out naturally. I was obsessed and started watching vids like everyday, learning the basics about hair care: washing, DCing, moisturizing, ect. In March for my birthday I took the braids down. Surprisingly w/ my hair being in braids for about 9 months w/ little to no daily moisture (except when I would wet my hair in the shower) grew from literally nothing to a little past shoulder length. I was sooooo happy. But I knew I had a long way to go.....

I continued on w/ braiding, learning as I went along more and more about my hair. June 2009 I found my beloved Long Hair Care Forum. It changed my hair life lol. I for the 1st time in my life was seeing  black women w/ waist length relaxed and natural hair. It was so inspiring. I was even more motivated to reach my goals. In July I took down the braids again. Coming  close to APL.....

Sept 09 Finally reached my 1st major goal. APL!!!!! I told my bf at the time how excited I was. He aint care that much...men...smh. 

Nov 09 finally decided that my hair was "long" enough to wear out so I took out the braids for good. Lol it was like all of a sudden I had a new head of hair. I never I had to deal w/ my natural hair all at one until now. I was overwhelmed to say the least. I wore buns, 24/7. I didnt really care for twists, or puffs. I tried to do twist outs or braid outs...no success.

Christmas 09

My hair was healthy. No shedding no breakage. But the de-tangling sessions took FOREVER. Literally at least 2 hrs. I was tired of the way my buns looked. I felt kinda confined to them, cause I didnt like ne of the other "natural" styles. I tried to flat iron but my 4b/c hair wasnt having it. Plus the shinkage was out of this world, shampooing was a pain. I grew more fed up w/ my hair. I had to be honest w/myself, even though my hair transitioned, my mind hadn't. I just preferred my hair straight. I loved the way straight hair looks on me. De-tangling would be soooo much easier, no worres about shrinkage.  Now Im not knocking natural hair by any means. Its a beautiful thing that more and more women are embracing their hair and knowing that they have options, that they can choose not to relax if they want to and the sky wont fall. But for me the pros of being relaxed were starting to outweigh the pros of being natural. I transitioned out of frustration, not because I truly wanted to be natural.

2010
Finally one night I called my best friend and told her "You know what Im gonna relax." For the past 6 months I have been seeing tons of women on the forum growing out their relaxed hair.  Thick, shiny, no breakage. I decided to give it a go again. I researched salons in my area and found a great one. (there was no way I was gonna do I virgin relax myself). After about spending the day in the salon my hair became this.....

Ahhhhh...the shine, the bounce, the silkiness. I was on top of the world. I knew with all the tools I had now I could def have the hair of my dreams. I researched, researched, and researched, and my hair continued to thrive. This is from April 2010.

I even learned to apply my own relaxers.Lol never thought I would be able to do that. After everything I had been though w/ stylists, I wanted to take my hair into my own hands. May 2010 was my 1st self relax.

Lol my mom hadnt seen me in about 6 months. She thought I had gotten a weave. She was wrong :)

I used think back on my hair trials and tribulations and would get sad or angry. Now I just look at them as lessons learned. If I had never seen that &$@!% ( lol excuse my french) and had my hair damaged, I never would of decided to transition, and if I never would of done that, I wouldnt of never been concerned about my hair health. Everything happens for a reason and its my past that has brought me to my present and has given me a bright future.

So yes folks lol sorry it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long. But yeppers. My fingers are tired. My journey thus far. Hope you've enjoyed it.

Official Welcome and Aug 2010 Relaxer Update

Well I finally decided to make a blog. Im really excited about starting this new part of my journey. So here we go my 1st post! I did a relaxer last Friday w/ ORS No-lye (Normal). I guess technically I should used Super, but they always scare me lol, so i decided against it. My hair is like a 4b/c, very thick, and very coarse I did a strand test and even at 30 mins it was still underprocessed so I went up to 35. I was very happy w/ my results, my hair is straight, but not bone straight, still has all the thickness and body that it had before so Im happy.

 I rocked a braid out for about 2-3 days after. Was feeling to lazy to flat iron my hair. Plus Im in Long Hair Care Forum's 2010 Bootcamp. There are very strict rules for using heat and I already used my heat pass the week before.
Oh yea I did a length check prob 2 days later and I FINALLY MADE BSB!!!!! Im sooooo happy. Now I feel like Im finally in the big leagues :) Its so cool cause I didnt think my hair has ever been this long, well I guess when I was like 8 but that was a long time ago.

I just feel soooooo blessed to have learned so much over this year and half about hair, especially relaxed hair and how to care for it. I know know that my hair can reach any length it wants to. And also I know that just because my hair is relaxed dosent mean that I have to accept it breaking, being dry, just acting up in general. It can still grow and be healthy. Well I think thats all for now. I really do look forward to sharing what I know with all you guys, and also yall (lol yes im a southerner) following me on the rest of my journey. Deuces :)