Roots 4 LiA

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Protective Designs: The HALF MOHAWK.

As you know by now, I'm always trying to come up with some protective style that can push me a week or two! The other day I went on youtube and tried my best to recreate a style one naturalista was rocking. I think my style can come out OK if i didn't have partition anxiety! I can't part my hair for the life of me! Anyways, here it is:

I ended up two strand twisting the back and gathering everything in the middle! It lasted a week before I was bored and had to change it up for my Birthday!

Later,

Roots4LiA.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Been MIA, Now I'm Back!

Wow!

Haven't posted on here in like forever! The last post I did was a year ago and since then, a lot has happened! Life has happened and it has blessed me with such grand things! 2013 was incredibly an amazing year. My whole life changed, I become a mother to the most beautiful son in the whole entire world. It's been a great journey, learning new things as I go along and adjusting to my new home in Germany. Before I jump to the hair talk, let me just summarize why I've been MIA for a whole year!

1). I was pregnant, gained tons of weight and by nature, did not feel like doing anything hair related for the whole 9 months!
2) I moved to my new home- Germany. (NY you still have my heart!) I love it here, but the natural hair scene is almost nonexistent so of course am still learning where to buy my hair products and currently on the hunt for places to get my hair done.
3) Becoming a mother has left me with absolutely no time to do my hair, heck I barely have time to shower!

I've always heard/read how pregnancy makes your hair grow, how it gives you glowing and shiny hair! WRONG!. Pregnancy left me with severe breakage. Like the depressing kind, the kind of breakage that when you wash your hair, the shower drainage blocks because you're simply shedding too much hair. The amount of hair I've lost is too much, and now at 4 months postpartum, my hair is yet to recover. It's dry, no amount of moisture can do the trick. I'm constantly deep conditioning, moisturizing and sealing, but my ends are so rough, crunchy, and super dry that I don't know what else to do. I want to switch to deep conditioning once a week instead of every two weeks, but I simply do not have the time. I recently changed my weekly wash regimen so maybe that would do the trick, but for now my thirsty hair is in dire need of some serious moisture!

During pregnancy, I wore my hair in either kinky twists or senegalese twists. I didn't have neither the patient nor the strength to do my hair. When you're pregnant and your back is aching and you're constantly nauseated, throwing up and what not, the last thing on your mind is doing your own hair.

I had these senegalese twists done when I was 8 months pregnant. They lasted me almost three months!

Senegalese Twist.

After the take down, my hair of course was on another level of damage! But I was kind of prepared and expecting the damage because I knew going 3 whole months with a protective style was a recipe for a complete disaster. Split ends, fairy knots, dryness, breakage, you name it, I had it! Check the mess below...

Later.

Root4LiA.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Natural Hair Traveling Essentials + Travel Pics

Hello Beautifuls!

I'm excited for my one year anniversary which is coming soon!- in February. I know I haven't been updating my blog frequently but that's because I've been traveling and haven't really had much time to update. On Dec 14th, I did my hair in a protective style-Janet Kinky braids, one of my most favorites styles. I like to keep my hair in protective style especially when I'm traveling because it makes my traveling much easier. But there are some things that I always travel with, some hair essentials that I can't do without. Even when my hair is in a protective style, I make sure that I deep condition at least once a week-this is mandatory for me. I love LOVE Olive Oil deep conditioner, I don't travel without it and I always have to make sure I stock up on it before traveling.

Another hair essential I carry with me is my vatika coconut oil, this stuff is amazing. My hair /scalp gets dry really quick, so I always have to make sure that I keep it moisturized and vatika-coconut oil works wonders for me.

Last but not least, I can't go anywhere without my spritz bottle. It is a must have to for me. I usually spritz my hair twice a day, when I wake up before I get out of the house and at night before I sleep. My spritz bottle has only water in it, I usually add a little coconut oil but water by itself also has its own magic. I always ALWAYS have to spritz my hair twice a day to keep it moisturized, because on the days that I forget to give it some water, it gets really DRY and I hate dry hair.

Of course at night when I go to sleep I always have to make sure that my edges are protected so my hair is not rubbing against the pillow. I also take some vatika oil and rub it on my edges, this is something i do on a daily basis before sleep. To protect my edges, I take a scarf and tie it around my hair, something like this... (and when I'm feeling lazy to style my hair, I sometimes leave the scarf on my head and go on my daily business).

So at the moment I'm still in Spain, I'm leaving Spain in three days and flying to Denmark, then back to Germany and finally back to New York in Three weeks. My Europe vacation has been awesome! I saw the most amazing building in Valencia, and fell in love with Barcelona.

Here are some travel pics...

Valencia- The City of Arts and Sciences Building, Amazing Architecture!