Pure Unrefined Shea Butter is NOT Yellow!

Early in my natural hair journey, I was ga-ga over shea butter, and I thought the yellow kind was the real deal. Nope. In my naive excitement, I was duped. I fell for the okey-doke, and as a result, I ordered this stuff in bulk and even received a bad (moldy) batch once. That’s when I stopped using shea butter and started looking into other natural, REAL butters.

Correction is needed

Looking back on my earlier posts on this blog about shea butter, I feel the need to correct the information I gave regarding shea butter, especially when I pride myself on giving the best information and advice possible when it comes to natural hair.

To recap: Shea Butter is an all natural product that comes from the nuts of the karite shea tree. It is often used in cosmetic and skincare products such as facial creams, soaps and lotions. Shea butter is a skin nourishing emollient that can be applied to the skin or hair in its pure form, allowing your skin and hair to receive all of it’s healing and moisturizing benefits.

Pure unrefined shea butter

Pure unrefined shea butter is packed with Vitamins A, E, F, and K. Containing many fatty acids, it is a very effective moisturizer. These fatty acids are needed to retain skin elasticity and moisture. It can be used daily as a pure moisturizer or be used as a barrier against harsh elements.

How to identify pure unrefined shea butter

How do you identify pure unrefined shea butter? You can identify it by its color and smell. Pure unrefined shea butter is white or beige in color and has a characteristic nutty/smoky scent. This shea butter is made from the nut of the shea tree without any additives or chemical processing. Yellow Shea butter is made and processed similarly from the same nut with the addition of the Borututu tree root during the milling process. Additives are added which lessen or completely take away the many natural healing properties and vitamin benefits.

make an informed choice

The choice is yours: If you want the pure unrefined shea butter which will give you the most benefits for your skin and hair, make sure it’s white or beige and nutty in scent. However, if you don’t mind having processed shea butter with little or none of the healing benefits and vitamins, then the yellow shea butter is for you.

Whatever you decide, I want you to be well informed on what you purchase to use on your body or in your hair. While we’re discussing pure unrefined shea butter, let’s go over the many benefits this butter offers:

skin Benefits

*Shea butter has the ability to soothe, hydrate and balance your skin.

*It is used as a moisturizer for dry skin and eczema, as a dry scalp treatment, for chapped lips and to help soften cracked dry skin on heels, elbows and knees.

*Shea butter has natural anti-inflammatory properties that have been known to heal scrapes, cuts and burns; relieve sunburn and rashes; take the sting out of insect bites, and ease the pain from muscle fatigue and arthritis.

*Shea butter has been used for centuries as a wrinkle reducer. Shea butter contains essential fatty acids, along with vitamins A and E, which are imperative to maintaining your skin’s elasticity and suppleness.

Hair Benefits

*Shea butter is a great natural sealant to lock in moisture on your natural tresses. Apply to the ends of your hair and twist or plait up after a wash and deep conditioning.

*As a scalp treatment, it can help with dandruff, eczema or itchy scalp. It does not clog pores as many believe if you wash your hair regularly.

*It is a sun protectant for your precious coils from damaging UV rays.

*With many of the vitamins that are packed in pure unrefined shea butter, it aids in hair growth.

I hope this information helps you to make the best-informed decision for your skin and hair health.

My Satin Pillow Case is Giving Me & My Sisterlocks LIFE!

Since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I was taught that my hair had to be tied up at night. My mother or one of my older sisters always braided my hair the night before, so to keep my hair fresh and looking nice for school the next day, it had to be tied up at night. (My mother worked third shift our entire school life and would be too tired to comb three heads of hair in the morning. So there were practical time saving reasons for doing our hair the night before.) Tying my hair at night continued into adulthood. When I went natural, I switched to silk scarves and satin hair bonnets because they are gentler on our fragile natural hair.

Satin bonnets and my edges

The problem with hair bonnets are the elastic edges. The elastic is needed to keep the bonnet secure on your head at night. However, the elastic is also known to break your hair off around the edges from constant rubbing and friction. Since getting sisterlocks, the satin bonnets irritate me. I don’t know why, but they do. I stopped using them and bought satin pillowcases instead. Oh my goodness. I LOVE THEM! Why didn’t I do this sooner?

The benefits of the satin pillow case

I know tying your hair up at night – whether if it’s by using a satin or silk scarf or a satin bonnet – is a necessity, but I get tired of doing it. There are times where I’m so tired that I don’t feel like doing it or simply forget. Satin pillow cases take away all of that worry and stress.

Another thing that I experience is me sweating in my head at night. I live in the cold midwest, and winter is in full bloom with single digit temperatures, so of course that means the heat is running constantly in the house. Not only am I sweating because of a warm house, but also because of hormones. (I’m at that age, y’all.) When I was tying my hair up at night with scarves or using bonnets, my sweating would be awful because they held the heat in. I’d wake up in the morning and the back of my head would be drenched. Ugh.

The satin pillow case eliminates the extra sweating you guys. Yes I’m endorsing satin pillows cases because they have been a game changer for me. They are another form of hair freedom. Yaaaasssssss!! #ImHereForIt

Sisterlocks & Hair Density

My sisterlocks journey is teaching me more and more about my natural hair, and I’m loving it! For many, their biggest fear is having “scalpy” sisterlocks that may look like this:

I’ve learned that depending on your hair density, you will either see a lot of scalp, a little or not much at all. It should be noted that the “scalpy look” usually only happens in the beginning when your locs are new. Over time they will mature and swell up and you won’t see your scalp anymore. Even if you have thin hair.

What is hair density?

Hair density is the number of strands on your head. It determines how thick or thin your hair is.

Low density means your hair strands are lower than the average amount of individual strands on your head. It also means being able to easily see your scalp; therefore, it is affecting you from having thick and full hair.

To determine your hair density, look at your dry hair hung loose in its natural shape, from different angles and up close. If your scalp is easily visible, you have low hair density. If your scalp is somewhat visible, you have medium hair density. And if your scalp is barely visible, you have high hair density.

My hair

This is how my hair looked the day I had my sisterlocks installed:

From the back you don’t see any of my scalp, and the same was true from the front. Therefore, I fall into the high density hair category. I only bring this up because when I went for my follow up appointment with my consultant, she mentioned to me that I have the type of hair that will grow outside of the grid. At the time I didn’t quite understand what she meant, but then the conversation also came up again with someone, and this person mentioned that perhaps I had breakage before I got sisterlocks or maybe my loctician is not using the correct tension or rotations. She also said that her hair never grows outside of the grid.

Doing research

Knowing that no two heads of hair are the same, I decided to do some research on hair density because I didn’t believe any of those things she suggested were the case for me. I didn’t have any breakage at the root of my hair before I got my sisterlocks installed, and I’m pretty confident in my loctician’s skill and experience.

What also gave me a better understanding about hair density is YouTuber Melissa Blake, who is also a loctician in the U.K. In the video link below, she explains why some people’s hair type cannot hold the sisterlocks grid and how your hair density plays a huge part in this. Watching this video was so enlightening, and I’m so glad that I found it. I hope it’ll help others with (or without) sisterlocks understand their hair density.

If you found this information helpful, please let me know!

Xoxo

2019 – Here We Go!

We’re only in the second week of the new year and I’m noticing some changes with my locs.  My sisterlocks are maturing, swelling, and I’m noticing buds on the ends of some of them. That is so exciting because that means PROGRESS! They are starting the locking process! I feel more confident just letting my locs be. I no longer wake up feeling the need to do something to my hair. I’ve officially graduated from that plucked chicken stage. YAY ME!

Personal changes

I’ve initiated change in my personal life by resolving to not put up with negative energy of any kind – personally or on social media. I’ve been actively cutting such things out of my life. With zero regrets. Reclaiming My Time still applies in 2019 people. Auntie Maxine said so.

Liking what I see and helping others

I like that when I look in the mirror now, I truly love what I see when it comes to my sisterlocks. The messier they look, the better. Remember the Fed Ex woman I told you about a few months back who has traditional locs? I finally got to see her last week, and she saw my sisterlocks for the first time, and in turn, I got to see how much her locs have grown and matured! We sounded like two school girls squealing over each other’s hair, LOL! It’s these kinds of moments that I live for.  The connections I’m making – be it on Facebook, YouTube, in person or through this blog are awesome. I feel like in some small way I’m helping someone and they are helping me. It makes me happy that I am documenting my natural hair journey, and now my sisterlocks journey.

So bring on 2019 and all the positive energy and happy vibes. I’m receiving them so I can sprinkle them right back over others. Like glitter.