Search Results: Karen McIntosh
When it comes to porosity and its effects on curly hair styling, naturally curly consumers are well ahead of the curve. In the past few years, natural curlies have evolved home-grown styling techniques beyond those that only emphasize curl type to ones that include porosity and its impact on curly hair wearability.
Porosity – Its Highs and Lows
Porosity is all about water and how your hair absorbs it. All hair is porous, and curly hair is more porous than natural, uncolored straight hair.
Highly porous hair has a cuticle layer that is raised and open. The hair quickly absorbs moisture, but loses it just as fast. Very porous hair can absorb more than twice the amount of water and moisture than hair with normal or low porosity can. It loves rich, moisturizing conditioners that contain protein, and even takes to pure protein treatments well.
But the more porous your hair is, the more prone it is to lose tensile strength and to break when soaking wet. If oils, butters and silicone products are applied in the wrong order or amount, your hair can get weighed down from within and build up in the hair shaft make it bloated, limp and lifeless. With porous hair that’s relatively dry and lacks sufficient moisture in the shaft, when dewpoints rise, get ready for a frizz fest.
In hair with low porosity, the cuticle layer is more tightly closed. Hair is slower to absorb water and longer to release it, so low porosity hair holds moisture quite well. But with fewer surface openings for product to be absorbed into, build up on the hair’s surface can happen quickly. Too much conditioning and excessive stylers may coat the hair and rob it of its vitality and bounciness. Some styling products may even sit on your hair or create a white cast. And because there’s little margin for absorption on low porosity hair’s smooth surface, excessive or pure protein treatments may cause the crispy, straw-like feel of protein overload.
Achieving Your Personal Porosity Best
The key to working with your hair’s porosity is how you layer your products on wet, clean hair. Those products closest to your naked hair have the most impact.
Cleansing
All porosities can benefit from condition-washing, alternating with the occasional gentle, effective cleanser to clarify. Use one that does not strip hair or neutralize the fatty acids in the hair shaft. Sulfates are not recommended.
Deep conditioning treatments also benefit all degrees of porosity, especially moisturizing ones with good detangling properties. How much they soften, enrich, moisturize and strengthen is the key. Experiment with the level of protein to see what works for you. Proteins help smooth the cuticle by filling in the gaps. The general rule of thumb is the higher the porosity the higher the protein content. The same rule of thumb applies to rinse out conditioners.
Since very porous hair absorbs ingredients faster, heavy silicones and oils on naked wet, clean hair will sink in and bloat the hair. Curlies with higher porosity may want to try henna, cassia, or clay treatments combined with a moisturizing conditioner. These help to smooth and coat the hair shaft and temporarily lower porosity. Do a final rinse with cool water to seal the cuticle. Leave conditioner in; you can even add more after rinsing.
Lower porosity curlies may find a warm water rinse helps to open cuticles for styling product. Leave enough conditioner in to cover and clump, but rinse enough to dilute product and avoid coating. And since your hair holds moisture more efficiently, you may not even need a rinse out conditioner. Try going straight to a leave-in from your co-wash.
Leave-ins and Stylers
Leave-ins and conditioners containing protein help clump curls and minimize frizz in highly porous hair. Protein smooths, but it can also dry, so seal by smoothing or scrunching in a buttery product, emollient or your favorite carrier oil. If your hair is on the lower porosity spectrum, use proteins that can wash off easily, like amino acids. Fine, low porous hair tolerates proteins better than coarse low porous hair. And for low porous hair that’s well moisturized, a light leave in and a good gel may be enough to maintain low-frizz in most dew points.
Porosity is a continuum. Don’t be afraid to experiment and have fun with it.
Karen Mcintosh (Suburbanbushbabe in CurlTalk”> is grateful to the straight hair gods who ignored her. Share your views with Karen in CurlTalk or her blog
Going gray while transitioning to natural curls can require a long grow out period.
Going gray at the same time you’re transitioning to natural hair from chemical straighteners seems like a no-brainer. Both require a long grow out period, with multiple trims along the way to the final reveal. So what’s the catch?
Going Gray and Natural Can Be Stressful
A dual detox from relaxers and color to gray hair and natural texture is one of the most challenging transition journeys you can take. This is especially true for ultra-curly 3c, 4a and 4b textures. It is an adventure that will change the way you see yourself and the way you think others see you. Obstacles like dry hair, breakage, hair loss and more cause many women who start the journey to become discouraged and want to relax again. But chemical straighteners won’t help and can cause even more thinning, dryness and breakage.
Take heart, double transitioners! If your hair has had it with the double chemical whammy of color and relaxing, you can bring it to optimum health with these tips and make your double down transition a win-win.
Why Does Gray Hair Feel and Act Differently?
Hair texture changes when it loses color. You may find your grays are more wiry or coarse. Gray hair is more susceptible to dryness and breakage, which can be caused by decreased moisture levels in the hair, tension between the new and old growth, or both. And if you are going gray during perimenopause and experiencing thinning or breaking hair, hormone loss or change in thyroid levels can be the culprits.
Rules for a Healthy Double Transition
The first rule of going gray? Your hair needs a lot more moisture than any other color. Eliminating harsh cleansers and products with stripping power is the first major step to healthier looking, moisturized, more supple gray hair.
1. Give your hair moisture, moisture, moisture.
If you have been bumping along using the same products you did on your relaxed hair, change your hair routine to one that nurtures gray hair. Do it now. Do not wait. Do not sleep on it. Take these protective steps:
2. Take strain off your strands — big chop now, not later.
Want to minimizing breakage? Cut off those relaxed ends now! What are they, keepsakes? No matter how careful you are, the point at which relaxed hair turns natural is where much breakage occurs. Letting the natural growth run free without fighting for dominance with relaxed ends will help stop breakage in its tracks.
If you decide not to chop and wear a bun, consider braiding, twisting or bantu knotting instead. Pulling the hair back stresses the hairline and can cause breakage at the binding point. Protect the hair when sleeping with a silk or satin pillowcase.
3. Stop treating hair like laundry!
Eliminate shampoo, especially any shampoo with laurel or laureth sulfates. You may as well wash your hair with Tide or Dawn; that is how harsh these shampoos are. Women with stick straight hair who need to control the amount of sebum coming down the hair from their scalps can use them. We ultra-curly 4a and 4b women have no such problem — the first coil or kink stops the sebum in its tracks, resulting in dry brittle strands. Instead, use light conditioners to cleanse the scalp and hair.
Eliminate shampoos containing sulfates.
4. Eliminate products that indelibly coat the hair.
Eliminate conditioning and styling products with silicone, heavy waxes, mineral oil or paraffin. That means most products in the Ethnic Hair section at the drugstore whose first or second ingredients are mineral oil. Follow a no shampoo method, and after 2 to 4 weeks you will start to notice the difference.
5. Let your clean, uncoated hair soak up moisturizing conditioner goodness.
Splurge on rich, moisturizing, detangling conditioners and deep conditioners with balanced moisture and protein and use with every wash to restore gloss and shine to your gray hair. Condition often with completely water-soluble conditioners and leave-ins. Cool water rinse, leaving some conditioner in, or add some back after the rinse. Then “seal” that conditioner in hair with natural oils, butters and soft gels.
If you can go a day or two without re-cleansing, maintain softness and moisture on your dry hair with a small amount of product like Devacurl Set it Free or Qhemet Burdock Root Butter Cream.
6. Treat your hair from the inside out.
The second rule of going gray is to improve the health of your hair from the inside out. Effective treatment starts within your body. A medical check-up, exercise, good nutrition, vitamins and mineral supplements will all help enhance the look and feel of your gray, natural, curls, coils and kinks.
As women age and enter perimenopause, there is more going on than just the hair turning gray. Our hormone levels — the building blocks that regulate almost every function of our bodies — drop drastically and continue to drop throughout and after perimenopause. This can cause the hair to thin — along with mental fuzziness, breast pain, weight retention, digestive and bowel issues, food cravings, migraines, drier and less elastic skin, lowered sex drive, vaginal dryness, interrupted sleep cycles, hot flashes, night sweats and more.
The good news is that hair loss due to decreased hormones is usually temporary, especially if you modify your diet and lifestyle to increase hormone consumption and improve circulation.
7. Get a check-up that includes testing hormone and thyroid levels
Get a thorough medical checkup with an endocrinologist, gynecologist or hormone specialist who understands the issues aging women face and can recommend several options to treat perimenopausal as well as possible thyroid symptoms, which also cause hair loss. Many doctors just think menopause is our cross to bear. Back away from those doctors quickly.
8. Add nutritional supplements.
Eat foods containing phytoestrogens, cruciferous vegetables, and soy isoflavones. Because there are many healthy hair benefits of Omega 3, you should take supplements containing Omega-3s and magnesium, as well as probiotics.
With knowledge, determination, and care, your transition to natural hair and gray, curly locks can be a beautiful one.
The Maiden, the Crone, and the Mother—these familiar female archetypes can be somewhat limiting to the roles women actually play in the world. In honor of International Women’s Month, we expanded the female archetype to include the female qualities that don’t fit these narrow classifications—Healer and Crusader; Warrior and Rebel; Goddess; Wise Ruler and Sage; Free Spirit; Storyteller or Muse; Adventurer; Diva, Trailblazer, and Chieftain/Leader.
We put the spotlight on curly icons who have made a difference in the world. They are living (with one exception”> legends that through their acts and achievements embody the spirit of an archetype. All have lived long enough to shape our times and our lives. And regardless of which archetype she fits, each is a leader and trailblazer.
Here’s to these extraordinary women and the waves, curls, coils and kinks that are an intrinsic part of them.
Healers and Crusaders
Robin Roberts
These two women transcended their respective roles as journalist and actress to become outspoken advocates for other women with cancer.
Robin Roberts was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. Currently Anchor of ABC-TV’s Emmy Award-winning “Good Morning America” and author of “From the Heart: Seven Rules to Live By,” Roberts used her peerless reporting skills to document her chemotherapy and radiation treatments and the arduous journey back to health. After her hair fell out due to her treatment, she filmed herself having her head shaved bald. Six months later she ditched her wig on-air and appeared almost completely hairless and shared her worries about her new on-camera short curls. Her courageous and public battle has been recognized with awards and honors from organizations around the country, including The Susan G. Komen Foundation. She has truly shown us that “We are all a little stronger than we think we are.”
Fran Drescher
In Fran Drescher’s book “Cancer Schmancer”, the actress writes: “My whole life has been about changing negatives into positives.” Fran Drescher took the contrast between her beauty and love of haute couture and her comedic talent and trademark nasal Queens accent and bankrolled it into a sitcom tailor-made for her. The Nanny ran from 1993 through 1999 and was nominated for two Emmys and a Golden Globe award. In 2000, after two years of symptoms and misdiagnosis by eight doctors, Drescher was diagnosed with uterine cancer and underwent an immediate radical hysterectomy to treat the disease. She celebrated her ninth year of wellness on June 21, 2009. Now a U.S. diplomat and an outspoken health care advocate, her efforts helped get unanimous passage for Johanna’s Law, which provides for programs to increase the awareness and knowledge of women and health care providers with respect to gynecologic cancers.
Warriors and Rebels
Angela Davis
Professor Angela Davis is a cultural icon and a symbol of the Black Power movement for many who came of age in the 1970s. From a segregated childhood and early education in Birmingham, Alabama, marked by racial conflict, by her junior year in high school Davis won a placement in a New York City high school. Later she joined the Communist Party when Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968 and then joined the Black Panther Party. Following a 1970 courtroom killing of a judge, Davis was briefly on the FBI’s most-wanted list for allegedly providing guns for the attack. She was tried, represented herself, and was acquitted of all charges by an all-white jury. She was active with the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee”> before joining the Black Panthers, and in 1980 ran for U.S. Vice President on the Communist Party ticket. She achieved tenure at the University of California at Santa Cruz, though former Governor Ronald Reagan swore she would never teach again in the University of California system. She has published on race, class, and gender.
Goddess
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren (really, who else did you think would be in this category?”> is the second most-awarded actress in cinema history, surpassed only by Meryl Streep. This beautiful lady became one of the major sex symbol of the sixties, competing with Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda. Loren is one of The American Film Institute’s 50 Greatest Screen Legends, yet never appeared in a theatrical production because she suffered from stage fright. Her prominent films include “El Cid,” “Marriage Italian-Style,” “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” “Two Women,” “A Special Day,” “Prêt-à-Porter”, and “Grumpier Old Men.” Loren, who turned 75 last September, can currently be seen on the big screen in the star-studded cast of “Nine,” in which she plays the deceased mother of Daniel Day-Lewis’ Italian film director, a man overwhelmed by the many women in his life.
Wise Ruler and Sage
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Delegate to Congress from the District of Columbia, Eleanor Holmes Norton was active in the civil rights movement and was also an organizer for the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee”>. By the time Norton graduated from Antioch, she had already been arrested for organizing and participating in sit-ins in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Ohio. While at Yale Law School, her encounter with Fannie Lou Hamer during a trip to Mississippi compelled Norton to bear witness to the intensity of violence and Jim Crow repression in the South. These turbulent beginnings propelled her through an impressive political career—from a clerkship for a Federal judge, executive assistant to New York City Mayor John Lindsay, campaigning for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to becoming the first female head of the Equal Opportunity Employment commission under President Jimmy Carter.
Adventurer
Erica Jong
Erica Jong—novelist, poet, and essayist—has consistently used her craft to help provide women with a powerful and rational voice in forging a feminist consciousness. She has published 20 books, including eight novels, six volumes of poetry and six books of non-fiction. Her 1973 breakthrough novel was “Fear of Flying” in which she first used the term “zipless f-ck”. It created a sensation with its forthright treatment of women’s sexual desires.
Diva
Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters is so astoundingly beautiful it’s hard to comprehend she was born in 1948. An amazingly talented actor and singer and one of Broadway’s brightest stars with a career that spans five decades in Broadway, television, films and concerts, Peters’ acting and singing chops are impressive. Her voice can crack and cry with emotion and poignancy, yet she maintains a control, range and volume that are nothing short of miraculous. Peters has been proudly and beautifully curly throughout her life. A native of Queens, New York, she made her stage debut in 1958 and is the youngest person to be inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.
Muse/Storyteller
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, lyrical style, sharp observations, and vibrant storytelling. Her first novel, “The Bluest Eye,” was published in 1970 and told the story of a young African-American girl who believes her incredibly difficult life would be better if only she had blue eyes. She continued to explore the African-American experience in its many forms and time periods in such works as “Sula” (1973″>, “Song of Solomon” (1977″>, and “Beloved” (1987″>, which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Morrison became a professor at Princeton University in 1989 and continued to produce great works. In recognition of her contributions to her field, she received the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, making her the first African American to be selected for the award. Morrison grew up in the black community of Lorain, Ohio, where her parents had moved to escape the problems of Southern racism. In first grade, she was the only black student in her class and the only one who could read. She hoped one day to become a dancer like her favorite ballerina, Maria Tallchief. We are glad her life took a different turn.
Free Spirit
Whoopi Goldberg
With her trademark dreadlocks, wide impish grin, and piercing humor, Whoopi Goldberg is best known for her adept portrayals in both comedic and dramatic roles, as well as her groundbreaking work in the Hollywood film industry as an African-American woman. Goldberg unknowingly suffered from dyslexia, which affected her studies and ultimately induced her to drop out of high school at the age of 17. She gained attention in 1983 in The Spook Show. The one-woman Off-Broadway (and later Broadway”> production featured her own original comedy material that addressed the issue of race in America with unique profundity, style, and wit. Among her most poignant and typically contradictory creations are “Little Girl,” an African-American child obsessed with having blond hair; and “Fontaine,” a junkie who also happens to hold a doctorate in literature. Goldberg made her film debut in “The Color Purple” playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the south for which she won a Golden Globe award and received an Oscar nomination. She won an Academy Award for her role in Ghost.
Trailblazers
Sharon Christa McAuliffe
A Framingham, Massachusetts native, Sharon Christa McAuliffe was selected from among more than 11,000 applicants from the education profession to participate in the NASA Teacher in Space project. She took a leave of absence and trained with NASA for a year to be an astronaut, planning to conduct experiments and teach two lessons from Space Shuttle Challenger. NASA’s goal in sending a teacher into space was to increase public interest in the space shuttle program and demonstrate the reliability of space flight at a time of continuous pressure and declining financial support. On January 28, 1986, her spacecraft disintegrated 73 seconds after launch. The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the shuttle program and the formation a special commission appointed by President Reagan to investigate the accident. The Rogers Commission found that NASA managers had known since 1977 that a contractor’s design of a shuttle component contained a potentially catastrophic flaw, and failed to adequately report these and other technical concerns to their superiors. After Christa McAuliffe’s death, schools and scholarships were named in her honor, and in 2004 she was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Chieftain/Leader
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American television host, producer, and philanthropist, best known for her self-titled, multi-award winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world. According to Forbes magazine, Oprah was the richest African American of the 20th century and the world’s only black billionaire for three years running. Life magazine hailed her as the most influential woman of her generation. In 2005, Business Week named her the greatest Black philanthropist in American history. Oprah’s Angel Network has raised more than $51 million for charitable programs, including girls’ education in South Africa and relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Any net worth estimates fail to account for the value of Oprah’s powerful brand.
About International Women’s Day:
Each year around the world, International Women’s Day (IWD”> is observed on March 8. Hundreds of events occur not just on this day but also throughout March to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women. The first IWD was held 1911 in the USA. For more information, click here.
