My Nexxus Hair Care Experience

So I love the Nexxus Line of shampoos and conditioners.  I had been tweeting about this brand the other day and realized I never blogged about so here it goes.

 

Background

Now before I began transitioning I was a use whatever type of girl.  Well that's not entirely true I try products and if I absolutely fall in love with them, they become my staple until I either can't afford it or run out and didn't replace them or I find something new.  At the point of discovering Nexxus I had decided I was going to transition and had been doing so for about 6 months.  At six months into my transition I was still getting used to this new process.  My hair was extremely dry.  All I knew was to do protective styles, protective styles, protective styles, if I wanted to keep my length.  The only protective style I was good at was mini twist so that is what I did.  I kept my hair in these twist because they prevented me from combing it and it resembled a wrapped style so I was used to that.  The product I used on my hair before this was basically the Suave brand.  I only used the Suave brand because it was Christmas time and I was cutting cost to be able to give the kids a nice holiday.  But before then I was using the Pantene relaxed to natural line. 

Typically I begin with a Shampoo.  That is if I had been faithful to my routine and didn't need to give my hair any extra TLC.  The Shampoo smells really good.  Its thick and has great lather.  The slip is nice and it's ultra moisturizing.  At first I pump 2 to 3 pumps on my hands and rub into my hair.  Because of the product build up and dirt on the hair the lathering will be tough.  Once that is massaged through I rinse and repeat.  The second Wash I will only need 1 pump sometimes 2 but I rarely need to use two.  The lathering is great at this point.  If you use too much it will be hard to rinse out.

Next I condition. And the Humectress Ultimate Moisture Conditioner is whats happening. I mean it has a medium consistency. Softens the hair beyond belief. Detangles like a champ, is true to its word in moisturizing and smells wonderful--almost tropical. Your hair is definitely more manageable, hydrated, and has a silky sheen to it. I love love love this product. Its definitely my favorite out of all the products.  

When I need a protein treatment I go for Keraphix conditioner. It smells really good. and stops my breakage. The only thing is this product dries my hair out tremendously so I have to replenish my hair with a hot oil and an extensive conditioning treatment.

To combat frizz I use the Silken smoothing conditioner. Its an added step that is purely based off my preference. But its also moisture rich and softens the hair. Lots of people says it combat the frizzness and I suspect that it does but I don't mind frizz!

So that's my review of the Nexxus line.  no matter what I have been trying lately I have come back to these products to rescue my hair.  When I am experiencing breakage.  I come back to this.  When I experience dryness I come back to this.  When my hair is just not acting right I come back to this.

If you are having difficulty with your transitioning hair, I strongly encourage you to try this product line out.  It not only restores your damaged, dry, brittle, lifeless hair.  But it brings a manageability to it that is unheard of if you have two totally opposite textures of hair.  The Nexxus line has help me to presevere through this transition.  I honestly believe  if it was not for this product line I would not have been able to transition as long as I have been!!

Check out the video:

Moisture is Magic for your transitioning hair!!!!!!

Moisture Moisture Moisture.  Yea us transitioners really need moisture.  Moisture helps prevent breakage, moisture allows manageability, moisture promotes growth, moisture aids in elasticity, moisture helps with shine/sheen, and moisture feeds your curls.





Moisture is vital for your overall hair health.  So lets talk about what moisture is and what it is not.


Moisture is:

1. Water
2. The base of all styling
3. Conditioning
4. humectants such as: glycerin, honey, aloe vera, vitamin E, sorbitol, CoQ 10
5. most water based products

Moisture is not:

1. Oils
2. creams
3. heavy
4. waxes
5. alcohols     

Some of us confuse the needs of our hair.  We tend to cake our hair down with oils when it feels dry and brittle.  When in fact all we need to do is add water.  Now I know it may confusing, you may ask well "how do I add water onto my hair when I need to style it and have it not look "afro-y" or puffy?"  well the thing is you may need to increase your washes.  I know in the African American hair community we are used to washing any where from once a week to once a month because we've had to maintain that hairstyle, not wash that relaxer out so fast, or to prevent us from hours of styling to maintain controlling our tresses.  But now that we are tranistioning, part of this journey is to promote hair health so we have to change our way of dealing with our hair.  Increasing your wash days will definitely make a difference for your hair.  It is recommended that you wash your tresses anywhere from everyday to every 4-5 days if you are experiencing extreme dryness,  I am sure if you are a dry haired sufferer and you take heed and wash more often, you will notice your moisture retention increase. In fact I'm willing to bet the farm on it- if I had a farm!

In between washes a spray bottle filled with just water will do just fine or you can add one of the other moisture aids listed in (Moisture is).  All you have to do is allow the water to mist onto your hair if you are afraid that the direct spray will ruin your style (Spray the water into the air above your hair and allow the droplets to fall ever so lightly onto your hair). Do this when you feel your  is drying out too much.

Oil is a great sealant but it cannot and must not be substituted for a moisturizer.  This is because oil repeals water (remember that from chemistry class).  So any kind of moisture that your hair wants to contract, the oil will "push" it away.  So when the moisture that is beneath the oil is all absorbed into your scalp or hair fibers new moisture has no way of entering or penetrating them.  Which is why you may be oiling your hair over and over and the texture is not changing. Again use oil as a protectant.  As if its protecting the water from leaving your hair never use it as a replacement for water.

One last point, and I know we say it over and over and over and over again.  But you have to hydrate from within in order to aid all that you are doing to you hair on the outside. You want to maintain overall good hair health.  Yea moisturizing on the outside will definitely provide a great improvement for your hair but on those days when you forget to moisturize or are just too lazy to do so hydrating from the inside is your back up.  Drinking plenty of water is great for your physical health now you know its also great for your vanity!   

Flaxseed Gel, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil & Shea butter makes for one bouncy two strand twist bob

I just had to brag about the two hand twist out I did on my hair over the weekend.  I've had my oils for some time now and I've been watching YouTube, of course, trying to figure out how I am going to use them.  I know I need a regime especially when transitioning because the hair is more susceptible to breakage and excessive shedding.  I have actually been experiencing excessive shedding and breakage lately so I wanted to do a protective style to help me care for my hair.  Well I love two strand twist because it an easy style and fairly quick to do --its sort of a 2-for-1 style.  I can wear it as two strand twist for up to a week and the wear the twist out for about a week.  I can even get more creative if I want to but time does not allow that very often.  So anyway,  in addition to the oils I decided to use try out the flaxseed gel especially bc I knew I was gonna need something to hold my twists taut.  When I decided to transition I vowed to use all natural homemade products on my hair.  I really like the idea of having complete control of what I am putting into my hair.  I want not only length but also a healthy head of curls.  I know to help achieve this I need to put in nourishing products.

In trying to figure out what can I do to stop the shedding and breakage I again looked to YouTube and google searches.  In all my searches the common solution was asking the same question "How much are you oiling your hair?" Well for me it was not hardly.  I mean I religiously wash once a week Oil when I do my initial style but that's it.  See when I was relaxed my hair would hold oil so I had gotten used to holding off on the oil so much.  I mean my definition of oil was oil moistures such as PINK oil or Pantene moisturizing creme.  So oiling on a regular is somewhat forgein to me.  I really am going to have to get use to the thought of feeding my hair oil more that once a week or so.  Some ladies suggested oiling as much as twice a day (I imagine that is for extremely dry hair).   The trick for me is figuring out how much oil my unrelaxed hair need to thrive and how much my relaxed hair need to maintain. 

So what's my reaction to flaxseed gel, oils, and butter twist?  GREAT!!!!! I absolutely love it.  The gel provided enough hold to keep the braids from unraveling as well as providing the nourishment of the seeds.  The oils gave my hair the much needed conditioning as well as the antioxidants, vitamins, and protection that it needed to start the process of stopping the breakage and promote growth while maintain the length and over health of my hair.  I received numerous compliments while out and about as to how shiny my braids looked how bouncy they were (which mean no weighting down from too much oils and gels).  My hair felt good, airy and breezy!  I am definitely using this as my go to winter protective style!

Regime:
Cowashed, hot oil treatment which included jojoba, coconut, almond, castor, olive, and grapeseed oils. Covered with plastic cap for 30 mins with a towel wrapped around my head.  Shampoo washed, conditioned.  Parted in four sections detangled applied leave in conditioner and then saturated each section with olive and coconut oil, sealed with shea butter twisted with flaxseed gel that I added vitamin E to, and let dry over night. Note:  Hair did become dry during the process so I sprayed the dried areas with water as I braid. 

 If you used the gel let me know how your continued results have been.  If you can testify that oils is the answer to ending breakage please also let me know as i am really trying to remedy this issue.  Thanks for reading!!!