My go to shampoos and conditioners

As a person with natural hair, that’s coarse, tightly coiled and misunderstood, I have had to do a lot to research to find what works for my hair and what doesn’t. A lot of people make the mistake of using and following exactly what others are doing to care for their hair. Get to know what type of hair you have, Example: 4C, coarse and tightly coiled. Know the porosity of your hair (high, medium, low. I have low porosity hair, which means my hair doesn’t absorb product properly. I use a steamer to help with product penetration. I cleanse my hair often to avoid product build up and also use natural oils ( I will do another blog post of the hair oils/products). Avoiding heavy products and silicones is very important.

Since this post is about shampoos and conditioners, I use the Tea Tree Tangle shampoo and conditioner from Trader Joe’s. I love the tingly sensation it gives me and it’s very cheap. For those that don’t have access to Trader Joe’s, Amazon has it, but it’s more expensive. My other go to shampoo and conditioner is from Luseta. So far I like the Jamaican black castor oil.

With love, from a 4C hair lady 🙂

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How I deal with breakouts

Breakouts, pimples, acne or whatever you call them can be very annoying, stressful and make us feel less beautiful. There are so many reasons why we get breakouts, but the main reason is having our pores clogged with oil and dead skin cells. I usually get them when Mother Nature visits, when I travel or when I’m stressed. Here are some tips on how I keep my face breakout free.

1. A clean face: washing your face is very important. avoid harsh soaps or cleansers. In the morning I usually just wash my face with the same soap I wash my body with. Black soap is my favorite. I purchase mine at Whole Foods market but you can find it here: Allafia black soap. At night I cleanse my face with caudalie instant foaming cleanser. I also change my sheets every week and I wash my pillow as well(as needed). If you have a pillow that can’t be washed, try changing it as often as possible. Use clean face towels as well.
2. Minimize your makeup use: NEVER go to bed with makeup, it clogs your pores. I know a-lot of people use makeup to hide breakouts, but that will make it worse, let your face breath.
3. Use a clay mask, it drys up the pimples. one of my favorites when I have major breakouts is Aztec clay mask. This mask is amazinggggg.
4. Exfoliate, exfoliate, exfoliate. I loveeee the Ocean sea salt scrub from Lush. Since this post is about breakouts, which means most of the people reading it will have oily skin, so this scrub should do wonders for you(at least that’s what I think).
5. Stop eating too much meat and oily foods. My Malian people won’t be too thrilled about this, because meat and oily foods are part of the Malian diet.
6. Exercise, you need to sweat, even if it’s just for 30 mins.
7. Drink lots of water. I put lemon in my water, which helps me drink more.
8. Last but not least, stop touching your face and picking at your pimples.

How to use the clay mask:

• Put some clay into a plastic bowl,
• Add some apple cider vinegar, enough to make a paste.
• Mix well with a plastic spoon.

Smile, you are beautiful.

My 4C hair oil treatment

Now if you have 4C hair you know how hard it is to keep it soft and manageable. A trip to the hair salon is no help because they use the products that they have available on everyone. For as long as I can remember I used a relaxer on my hair because I thought that was the only way to manage it. After giving birth to my daughter, I started caring for her hair and reading a lot about our hair. It then hit me, if I could take care of my daughter’s natural hair, and manage it, why was I still using a relaxer?

I decided to cut my hair in June 2018 and just let it grow naturally, without using chemicals.

Here are the steps on how I keep my hair soft: (I do this once every two weeks).

1. invest in a steamer
2. Rinse your hair with apple cider vinegar  (2/4 cider in one cup of water)
3. Rinse the cider with lukewarm water, and remove all the cider out of the hair.
4. In a bowl, mix Chebe powder, coconut oil, avocado oil, a few drops of peppermint oil and castor oil together. It should look like the picture below.
5. Apply the mixture on your wet hair and use the steamer for 10mins
6. shampoo your hair and condition your hair. use the long tooth comb while conditioning to get rid of the excess Chebe (yes some grains might stay in your hair)

 

Chebe, avocado oil, castor oil, peppermint oil, coconut oil mixture

 

 

amazon

amazon

amazon

whole foods

amazon

Whole Foods

trader joes

jet

 

 

Don’t forget to be KIND.

With love, Fatou

 

Itchy scalp​ solutions

Itchy scalp, now if you have it, you know how annoying it can be. Here are the products I use for mine.

• Aloe vera gel is bae I use it as a styling gel, I sometimes use it on my skin, but mainly it helps with the itch. you can purchase it on majestic pure
• Apple cider is even more bae, I pour some in the plastic bottle and rinse my hair with it before shampooing. It takes the itch right away. I purchase mine at trader joe’s, but you can get it almost everywhere. One place would be GNC
• I use peppermint while conditioning, I love the sensation it lives on my scalp. I also purchase my peppermint oil at whole foods, but you can get it almost everywhere too, just make sure its good quality.

Say goodbye to itchy scalp!

My oily face solutions

For so long I have been trying to find products (that are organic) and solutions that I can use at home, to get my oily face in control. Here are the products and tools I use.

1. I start with the black head/white head remover. I love this tool, especially for my nose. It sucks all the dirt out. I like the big head cup more than the others, and I use it on high. I steam my face first before using it, that way I get better results. I do this every two weeks, or as needed. You can purchase it on Amazon
2. I use the dead sea mud mask, which I leave on for about 15 mins. All I can say about this mask is that I love it.  I try to do this once a week. You can also purchase on Amazon
3. I use the scrub after I clean off the mask. I love doing this because the scrub is gentle, but exfoliates enough. It’s not rough on my skin.  Every week, I also use this scrub to exfoliate my whole body. I purchase this at whole foods, but you can get it online at Apothecaries
4. I know a lot of you are wondering why does she have bio oil, just because our face is oily doesn’t mean we don’t need to moisturize it. Bio oil is excellent because a little goes a long way. I just dab a small amount on my cheeks, chin, and forehead. I use bio oil every night after my bath or shower. I will post about the products used during the day in another post. I like the big bottle because you get more for your buck. I purchased mine at Walgreens or CVS.
5. I spray the tea tree water, which is one of my favorites as well. This I use every day, morning, midday, night, whenever needed. It can also be used as a setting spray. I purchase it from Lush
6. Last but not least, I use the face massage tool, to get everything in my pores. I bought a cheap one because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it, without being sure if I liked it. I purchased it on Amazon