I have been asked this question several times. There are a great number of reasons why hair loss occurs.
Let’s look at what could cause thinning edges and other forms of alopecia.
Hair loss can occur anywhere on the head...even on the body
- Genetics: You are predisposed to androgenetic alopecia thanks to your genetic make-up.
- Bad Practice: You do not treat you hair well. Depending on what exactly you are doing, this can lead to traction alopecia. It may also lead to dried up hair follicles (which means that the follicles will never produce hair again) or hair that is of “low quality”.
- Illness/Stress: You are undergoing some sort of emotional stress. An illness can also result in hair falling out. Alopecia Areata is actually an autoimmune condition.
- Hormonal Imbalance: Your hormones are out of whack for a number of reasons – pregnancy, you may be taking hormone shots or it could even be caused by stress. Also, hormonal levels tend to fluctuate sometimes.
- Poor diet: Your hair needs certain vitamins and nutrients to nourish it, strengthen it and keep it growing. Your diet will reflect on the quality of your hair.
As you can see there is more to hair loss than just a 5 minute discussion which is why when people ask me to talk about hair loss, I am usually at a loss (pun intended) as to where to begin to tackle the subject.
I was hoping that I could lay the foundation with the Hair 101 series and then segue into hair loss as I find that it is easier to follow if one understands a bit of hair science. I ran into some trouble as the last one seemed too technical. I will attempt to finish and then we can launch into tackling the topic of hair loss properly. We will then wrap up with treatments and suggestions to prevent pre-mature hair loss.
If you agree with this plan, let me know!
From the desperate last post, you would have been able to glean that I have been crazy busy.
I have been so busy that I have let my hair care slide. In the last 7 weeks, I have washed my hair only twice and have not deep-conditioned it at all at all. My entire hair regime has been reduced to shampoo, using a leave-in and a butter for sealing. Every 4 days or so, I would spray with a mix of water, glycerine and panthenol and then re-style my hair.
Here is an old picture of my hair...I wish I could take a photo now but I am out of town and don't have a camera with me.
However, all that is about to change. To re-introduce moisture into my hair, I have resolved to do the following:
- Co-wash with conditioner every week for 3 weeks. 1 week of using a clarifying black soap shampoo that has been fortified with oils. I am not a big fan of co-washing so this is a biggie for me.
- Deep condition at least twice (My schedule is crazy these days, I can not honestly say that I can do more than this).
- Add a bit more ooomph in my hair spritz by including some Aloe Vera Juice which I love, love, love. It really softens and moisturizes my hair.
- Use a herbal hair rinse like Neem (a.k.a Dogonyaro) to get a really clean scalp. Neem is a powerful antiseptic and antifungal herb and massaging it into the scalp is a good way of promoting scalp health.
When I get back home, I am going to make a hair mask from a fruit in season so look out for that.
I am also not going to forget to get a protein treatment in. My main concern is moisture as my hair is turning to hay but the protein is equally important to strengthen my hair.
I will report back in a few weeks to let you all know how it went.
Have you been treating your hair right? Or have you fallen off the wagon like me? What have you done to change things?
I am taking a few days off….I have had to come to this decision because there is so much I have to catch up on. On top of that, I have also had to travel.
If I owe you an email (several people asked for the updated product list), please give me until the end of the week to get back to you. I will also have new posts up at that time.
Apologies for the inconvenience. Please know that it is a decision that was not made lightly. Also, I didn’t want to just take off without letting you know.
I did say in the last post that I would dedicate a post to our amazing presenters and compere. I have decided to do individual posts as that is the only way I can do them justice.
I am starting with our compere for the day – Chigo. We go way back – starting entry level jobs at a multinational years ago. From the first day I met her, she had me in stitches. It was clear to me even then that she should be a compere rather than hold a conventional job. I am glad that she has decided to do finally heed the call.
I should also mention that when I called her to compere NITC2, although we had been in touch, I hadn’t seen her in years and couldn’t offer her any money. She didn’t hesitate though. She immediately agreed to do it and didn’t even blink at the fact that she would have to do it for free (kisses, girl!).
She arrived in good time and was a professional throughout. If you need a compere that will bring clean humour and order to your event, you can’t go wrong with my girl, Chigo. (Yes, shameless plug, lol!)
Here she talks about what she does:
My name is Chigo and I am a Compere.
I am not a comedian or an MC, I am a Compere.
What’s the difference? Check my blog chigosplace. blogspot.com for full details.
However for now, know that a Compere is a delightful, resourceful combination of these things (i.e. Mc and Comedian) with even much more to offer than you have ever known… and this is the summary of who I am….a Compere….A funny, entertaining, Intelligent, dramatic, clear diction, perfectly arranged tenses English speaking but down to earth COMPERE.
I have been doing this job for 8 years and some months now and what an exciting journey. I will be doing this job till I’m old and grey….This is my medicine, my law, my ministry….it is my career path.
When I’m in front of a crowd with the mic in one hand and the program of events in the other hand I feel so alive. I forget that my heels ache, I forget that I’m hungry, I forget that I was feeling a bit low when I woke up in the morning or that Lagos traffic got my blood pressure up on the way to the event…I forget…I forget..I forget it all and just enjoy my audience and the event; piloting it from the customary initial “stiff” moments to the “crescendo” heights of excitement and touch down to the vote of thanks and where necessary closing prayer. I LOVE MY JOB.
I love formal events and corporate forums. I prefer them to weddings and “family events” I don’t know why …I’m still conducting that research on myself.
Maybe it’s because I have had a combined 9 years corporate experience in Banking and Telecoms juggling various roles over the years ranging from Customer service, Marketing Communications, Commercial and HR while interfacing with Operations and Finance groups.
Through the years my colleagues told me I didn’t belong on the corporate corridors. Not because I was not doing a great job but because they enjoyed my entertaining nature while we worked together. They said I belong on a TV show or radio station or writing books or keeping a column in a magazine and several other options too many to mention but they all agree that being a Compere is just my sweet spot because it allows me to move in and out of all their suggested roles.
You may reach Chigo by:
Naturals in the City 2 was a blast! Here are a few pictures. I have deliberately not put up any information on the presenters and our compere for the day. Dedicating a post to them will do better justice them.
To explain the pictures a bit, we sat through presentation slides indoors at the Carib Health nutrition clinic and then went out to the garden to take group “cheesy” pictures. There were vendors set up in the garden as well.
Thank you to all that attended. If you filled out the forms that were handed out, you are entitled to 2 wonderful discounts – you know of one already, wink! Both will be announced in due course.
Interested in downloading the presentation slides? Check Screwy Haired Girl‘s blog soon for the presentation slides.
Screwy Haired Girl and others mingling after the event.
Out in the garden, swapping stories and buying from vendors
More networking
Happy guests at the event
Cross section of guests
TWA
Friends of NITC2
Screwy Haired Girl with Vanessa Banigo (Genevieve Contributing Editor)
Vendors in the Garden
Buying from vendors
Friend, Naija Fit girl (http://naijafitgirl.com) and mum. Will post a video of her mum speaking about natural living soon.
Omozo of O'naturals.blogspot.com and some ladies from her BB group - African tresses. Don't you just love that Ankara & Chiffon top Omozo has on?
Naturals in the City
There was a lot to smile about
For more pictures, please go to O’Naturals and DeepBrown Kinks
I am about to say words that you don’t hear a lot in Nigeria so brace yourself.
OUR PRICES ARE DROPPING!
When we started retailing products, we wanted to offer them at prices that were affordable while maintaining the quality of the goods we had on offer.
This proved to be difficult because of the inhibitive price of shipping these products to Nigeria. At a little over $3 per pound, it made everything more expensive than earlier anticipated. However, we were recently able to strike a deal that assured that the price of shipping would reduce drastically. This has allowed us to drop prices substantially!
The debut of this price cut will be the “Naturals in the City 2” Meet up after which time I will put up a price list on the blog.
Another reason to see you there…..
Cocoa butter is a hard butter which can be used for many different uses – in food products, hair care products and skin care products. It is even used in making black soap among other soaps.
Let’s look at what cocoa butter contains. That will help us understand the hullaballoo.
- Rich in anti-oxidants which are good for fighting wrinkles. Anti-oxidants also help to protect your skin from the ravaging effects of the elements.
- High Vitamin E content which leaves the skin feeling soft.
- Rich in minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, zinc, manganese, copper and iron.
Like other natural butters, when applied to the skin it acts as a protective seal which slows down the amount of water that is lost to the atmosphere from our skin. This is called being occlusive, which means that we can retain more moisture in our skin – leading to skin that remains supple for longer. Data has shown that that cocoa butter is more occlusive than Shea butter. It is also quite emollient.
This occlusive property also works when cocoa butter is used on hair. You lose less moisture to the atmosphere and retain whatever moisture you are trying to seal in. It is a good lubricant for the hair as well.
Cocoa butter and stretch marks
There are several testimonies online about how cocoa butter has been used to prevent or remove stretch marks. However, I have found no scientific evidence that cocoa butter can do this. Sorry, wish I could say that I have but I really haven’t. If anything, there is evidence that cocoa butter does not remove or prevent stretch marks. I have referenced the study at the end of this post.
However there are tons of testimonies on the internet about how cocoa butter prevents and removes stretch marks. Perhaps they are on to something.
A bit more about cocoa butter:
- It smells like a dream. It will leave your formulations smelling fresh.
- It absorbs easily into the skin.
- It is comedogonic so it is NOT to be used on the face.
How can I use cocoa butter?
- When you draw your bath for a relaxing soak, you can add some cocoa butter as well essential oils to it.
- Use it in your whipped butter recipes – you will love the smell.
- Use it on your skin.
- Use it on your hair.
BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology; Volume 115, Issue 9, pages 1138–1142, August 2008
Please feel free to email it, upload it and generally share it with your friends! Click to enlarge
Flyer designed by Zahara Creations
I had mentioned on facebook that I was going to introduce Palm Kernel Oil and Cocoa Butter for sale and someone asked me what the difference between Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) was. I gave her a short answer, but would like to post a longer one here. By the way, PKO is also known as mmanu aki in Igbo. I don’t know the name in any other Nigerian language. If you do, please leave it in the comment section.
Update: Thanks to the readers that contributed names of PKO in their local language.
Yoruba: Adin Ekuro
Efik: Mmayanya (sp?)
The palm fruit that we all know and love looks like this:
When extracting palm oil at home for preparing Banga soup, the palm fruit is boiled and the orangey-red palm oil extracted from the soft fleshy part (also known as the Mesocarp). This is about the same method used in preparing palm oil commercially. (I should know, my maternal grandmother had a local commercial palm oil press 
).
Palm Oil is used for cooking, soap making and food manufacturing. Let me spend a minute on the food manufacturing – Refined (bleached) palm oil is used in Baked goods, Instant noodles, Baby formula, Cake mixes, Breakfast bars, Potato chips, Crackers and other snacks. Vegetable Glycerin which we love so much for our hair and skin also sometimes comes from Palm Oil.
Once the oil from the Mesocarp is extracted, we are left with a black hard kernel. As children we would take these kernels to a set of stones set up for the purpose of kernel cracking. You place the kernel on a stone, hit it with a smaller stone and Voila! you reveal the nut inside. They look like this:
As children, we would eat these on its own or with roasted breadfruit (aki na ukwa). Gosh, I loved my childhood! My dad used to take these nuts to school as a snack when he was in Primary school.
It is from these kernels that one gets Palm Kernel Oil. It is not an viscous, orangey-red oil like Palm Oil is. Rather it is a dark-ish, nutty smelling oil.
The women of my village use Palm Kernel Oil for their hair, skin and also in making soap. Palm Kernel Oil is used commercially by a lot of soap makers and cosmetic manufacturers.
You shouldn’t use Palm Oil on your hair. The oil to use is Palm Kernel Oil
I will do a post soon on the benefits of Palm Kernel Oil.
To finish, here is an excellent video by Akua Wood (one of my favourite people on the web) of Sheabutter cottage on which of the two oils to use for hair/skin. Which Palm for hair? (Please click on the link as I find it difficult to insert videos…)
Reference:
Uses: American Palm Oil
If you have been on Nat Mane‘s blog or my twitter account (@naturalnigerian) recently, you may have read that I now offer cocoa butter for sale.
Cocoa Butter
The day I finally got my order in, I was as excited as a kid. You see, I had never ever ever seen or used raw cocoa butter before. My experience with it has been limited to finding it in imported creams and lotions.
First of all, cocoa butter smells divine – like chocolate. I had done my research and knew it was a hard butter but was still surprised at just how hard it was. If you thought that Shea butter was difficult to spread, wait till you experience raw cocoa butter. Anway, I made a quick basic whipped butter with it (and Shea Butter and coconut oil) and used it on my daughter – from head to toe. She declared that she would smell delicious all day! Of course spreadability was no longer an issue…
Cocoa Pods - My Grandfather had a Cocoa tree. As children, we would pluck Cocoa pods off the tree and lick that white covering over the seeds.
The cocoa butter I carry is export quality – y’all know I don’t play with standards – and I am happy to say it is quite affordable. I have not settled on a unit of measurement for final sale but 1kg comes to about N1,500. It will most probably be sold in smaller quantities though.
I have heard people say that Cocoa butter makes them dark. My question to them is – were you using just cocoa butter or cocoa butter mixed with other things? I am fair complexioned, have been using my whipped butters for about 2 weeks and haven’t noticed a change. Anyway, if you decide not to use it for your skin, by all means use it on your hair.
I won’t go into all the details about what Cocoa butter is all about in this post – a post dedicated to that will come soon.
Special thanks to Nat. Mane for putting the word out there!
