To protective style or not to protective style?...That's the question!

Some questions you will hear in the "natural world"...Is protective styling beneficial? When should I protective style? How long should I protective style? These are all wonderful questions to ask. It is a fact that no products on the market will actually grow your hair any faster then it is supposed to, the key is retaining the hair that you are naturally given. On average a persons hair grows 6 inches per year, which averages to approximately 1/2 inch of new growth per month. Hair does not exceed 1 inch of growth per month. At a certain point the hair ends it's growth cycle and begins to break and split. The best thing to combat this stage of growth is to protect and preserve the hair. Your goals should be to retain as much hair as possible. This is where protective styling comes to the rescue. Protective styling helps to keep hair on your head. Protective styling will give you less manipulation, with less tugging and pulling you have less opportunity to pull hair out of your head. Now no matter what shedding needs to take place. Daily you are supposed to lose approximately 100 hairs a day. What you don't want is unnecessary breakage. So yes protective styling is VERY beneficial! In my opinion it is best to leave your hair protected most of the time and treat it every so often with a cute roller set or wash and go! Protective styles consist of styles that protect your delicate ends. Some styles include buns, twist sets, braids, french braids, and tuck and rolls. Sometimes protective styles aren't all that glamorous so feel free to use various accessories such as headbands, flowers, and clips! In the end your hair will thank you! Happy growing!

Single Strand Knots! Eeekkk!

We all have come to accept them. They come with the territory of having natural hair. What is it I speak of....single strand knots. They occur when our textured hair wraps itself around and forms a single strand knot. The image above shows a microscopic view of what a single strand knot looks like. As our hair dries it shrinks and with shrinkage the hair rolls and wraps and unfortunately knots happen. What can we do to avoid them? Protective styling is one defense, with protective styling you stretch the hair and it avoids having the opportunity to shrink and curl on itself. Another defense is to get a trim. Look at your ends! Are they looking dry and won't hold moisture, or maybe feel rough and like sandpaper? If you are finding more and more knots then normal, it's time for a trim. I personally recommend a good trim every 4-6 months.

A quick tip for fellow product junkies!

See a product that your dying to try but don't want to waste your hard earned money??? See if product sample or travel sized items are available! This will allow you the opportunity to try out a new product and not have to commit to it or waste your hard earned money. You can always go back after you have tested the product out, and purchase the full size of that particular product. Some products lines that offer sample packs and travel sized containers include Miss Jessie's, Jane Carter, Bee Mine, Oyin Handmade, and Jessicurl! Happy shopping!

Welcome, with your naturally fly self!

So ladies I'm trying my hand at a blog....whew! I'm already strapped for time, but I've always felt the need to blog. This journey is not meant to be silenced and I want to share it with the world...the journey of natural hair that is. I've got alot of ideas in mind for my blog and I can't wait to share them all with you. I've got Youtube videos to share, good quotes, and lots of product reviews and photos. This is just another way for me to express myself and how I feel about living with natural hair. If you enjoy Kirstin's World on Youtube you will love being a Supr-Natural!
~Kirstin