Experiments in hair care
Instead of doing more guesswork, I consulted the woman who kept my hair healthy and shining, my guru before the madness, Kelsie, my Dominicana hairdresser. She has managed to stay current with trends, but still maintains a very solid base of hair care. “Oh gosh, what you do? What happen to you pretty hair?” was her response to my very short cut and bleached ends. As she scolded me, she began to sort through the brush that is my mane of thick, type 4C hair. In her book, I’d committed the cardinal sin of shaving my head and then colouring it beyond much repair. This brings me back to how we started with me cringing in my seat.
Her advice on how to avoid more damage is to absolutely avoid further stripping of my strands of hair with bleach. Hair is mainly composed of proteins called keratin. People get their natural hair colour depending on the ratio and quantities of two other proteins, eumelanin and phaeomelanin. Eumelanin is responsible for brown to black hair shades while phaeomelanin is responsible for golden blond, ginger, and red colours. The absence of either type of melanin produces white/grey hair. In order for people with darker hair to lighten the strands, there has to be a bleaching agent introduced to strip away the proteins. If not done professionally or properly, this leaves the hair quite dry and void of nutrients, which in turn leads to hair loss. Because my hair received so much processing, I would have to rebuild the follicles before I could even begin to use relaxer and strip them down even further.
The only way to do that would be to help rebuild my hair through a series of carefully monitored treatments and periodic oil supplements for my hair. She suggested I use egg and extra virgin olive oil as my weekend treatments. And a mixture of extra virgin olive oil with the keratin infused oil she gave me. The one extreme specification I was given was to get the extra virgin oil with the almost black colour, as it is usually a sign the oil hasn’t been overly processed – the more natural the better. Another possibly controversial piece of advice she gave me was to dye my hair in a very dark colour. If you’re not certain why this would be her recommendation, think of it like this, what is the opposite of bleaching? Dyeing the hair with colour treatments without stripping agents allows the colour to coat the strands of hair with an additional layer. That additional layer will act as a makeshift protective layer until the hair has been properly grown and cared for.
After hearing this, I needed to try it, but a lot of my experiments tend to be altered and/or makeshift versions of the original – partly because of laziness and partly because I prefer to use what I have rather than buying all new products. After altering the ingredients, I can honestly say I found my first fact!
Experiment: Dye & Deep Condition Hair - SUCCESS
I used one bottle of Begin dye in the jet-black shade, or #52. These dyes need water to activate them, so I thought to use thinner oil instead of just water or extra virgin olive oil. If you like, you can use Henna dyes for healthier dyeing. I didn’t measure the exact amount of oil, but I started by pouring approximately four tablespoons of vegetable oil and a tablespoon of keratin oil, waited until the dye began to darken and added another tablespoon to ensure the mixture would stretch far enough to cover my entire head. The consistency was a slightly thicker brew with a very black, glossy appearance. As if this wasn’t enough, I thought to add an egg to the concoction. This black goop resembled a combination of crude oil and bodily secretions.
The application process was simple enough and I barely needed to part my hair. I used my glove-protected fingers to work the dye into small patches of my hair. I started by applying the dye to the roots and working my way toward the end of the strands. Because the dye was so oily, it was easier for it to stretch to the end of my hair without an issue. The entire application took about 15 minutes and I let it sit all afternoon to ensure the colour was completely saturated.
The outcome
During the process, my hair stayed incredibly moisturized. Usually when you apply dye to your hair, it gets flaky and falls off the follicles after some time; this was not the case. I was able to work a fine-toothed comb through my 4C hair without any trouble. There was no hair loss besides one or two strands of collateral damage. After rinsing with water a few times, I applied some shampoo to completely rid my hair of the dye. I conditioned, rinsed again finally applied a coating of hair cholesterol and sealed it with keratin oil. I continued to add a daily helping of leave-in conditioner sealed with keratin oil. I felt like an alchemist the whole week, because I truly understood the meaning of Black Girl Magic. My coils felt alive and very bouncy for the days following.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I will continue to break down the processes of hair care and will be interviewing different experts on tips and tricks to keep hair healthy no matter the texture. Find out what happens on my journey back to healthy hair.
If you have questions or comments, please feel free to email Health & Beauty coordinator Claudienne Peterson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
