Hairspeak

Hey everyone!! Hope we all good?
I decided to do a post on all the terms used in healthy hair care to help all the newbies in their hhj.
Who has read the book 1984 by George Orwell? (FYI, I love classic literature: Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen etc.). Anyway, in the book, the world is ruled by a dictator named Big Brother. So a new language is formed called NEWSPEAK, while the old language people spoke before Big Brother took over is called OLDSPEAK. So from this analogy comes HAIRSPEAK!!!
Hairspeak: all the words, terms and lingua used in healthy hair care.
Here we go!!!

- HHJ: Healthy hair journey. I like to believe that if you are reading this, you’re already on a HHJ or you’re like “let me see what this hair fuss is about”. Long story short, the minute you decide to start taking care of your hair and willing to put the work, congrats sister, you’re on a hhj!!!
- Hair regimen: basically, this is all the healthy hair practices you abide by on your hhj. If you decide to wash and deep condition your hair every week and also moisturise and seal your hair daily, that’s a basic hair regimen. Hair regimen also involves protective styling, stretching (if you are relaxed/texlaxed) and the products you use.
- Texlaxed: A lot of people ask me if my hair is natural. When I answer “No, its texlaxed”, they go “huh?” So the definition of texlaxed I give them is this: it is the same as relaxing, just milder. In texlaxing, you still use a relaxer but you don’t allow it to fully process your hair (I think we used to call it a blow-out). There are many ways to texlax (I’ll do a post on this later).
- Deep conditioning (DC): deep conditioning is important to the hair because it keeps the hair looking healthy and keeps it strong. Deep conditioning involves applying conditioner to your hair, cover with a shower cap and leave on for at least 30 minutes. You can also use heat by sitting under a hooded dryer. Heat helps the hair to properly absorb the conditioner.  I’ll be doing a post on the various types of conditioners and how to spice up your DC mix.
- Moisturising and sealing (M&S): Imagine a dry, turned brown leaf. What happens when you touch it? It breaks!!!! Same goes for hair: Hair that is dry will break!!! You need to keep your hair moisturised to avoid breakage. How to moisturise: Use a product labelled hair moisturiser. However, make sure water is number one in its list of ingredients (if water is not number one, it’s not a moisturiser). Apply generously from root to tip. You can do this daily or once in 2 days depending on your hair moisture needs. If you don’t have a moisturiser, mix equal part water with equal part glycerine (you can find this in any cake shop) and spray on your hair. After moisturising, it is important you seal in the moisture. What happens when you mix oil and water together? They don’t mix, so oil, which is less dense, sit on top of the water. Applying oil after moisturiser helps to keep the moisture in much longer. Be sure to seal with a natural oil such as olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, almond oil etc.
-Protective styling: A hair style can only be called a protective style if it keeps your ends hidden and protects your hair from friction. I know, I know, all you dream of having long hair is to be able to wear it down, flip it over your head and let the wind blow it around. All of that sound good, but it’s not good for the hair. When you let your hair down, it rubs against your clothes, causing it to dry and break. When the wind blows your hair about, it causes friction, which results in breakage. Be sure to keep your ends hidden and your hair in place. Examples of protective styles are buns, updoes, weaves, braids, twist outs, braid out etc.
- Stretching: Stretching is extending the period between relaxer treatments. For example, if you usually relax your hair every 8 weeks (2 months) but decide to wait till 10 weeks, that’s stretching. Stretching has a lot of benefits such as reducing overlapping relaxers (I’ll be doing a post on this soon).
- Pre-pooing: Pre-poo is the short form of pre-shampoo. This is usually a treatment applied to the hair before washing it with shampoo. Pre-poo has amazing benefits, especially if your shampoo has sulphates. Check out this post on the benefits of pre-pooing here.
- Co wash: Co wash is short for conditioner washing. Basically, this means washing your hair with a conditioner instead of a shampoo. If you don’t have a sulphate-free shampoo, I suggest you do this. Most conditioners have mild cleansing properties and are able to lift some dirt from hair. However, note that co washing is no substitute for washing with shampoo because they do not remove ALL the dirt. So if you’re co washing, then use shampoo at least once a month.

There you have it(for now).Feel free to ask questions on what you aren't clear about.
Cheers, Fatee.