Beauty Tuesdays: Must- Have's with Oreka Godis
1. What's your personal philosophy when it comes to healthy hair?
Retention is better than cure – be it for length or body, your hair is always right! Pay attention and give it what it needs, not what you want.
2. How important is it to have an overall healthy lifestyle?
The body functions with its own essential level of stasis. Eat the right things and you can boost your body's natural SPF. Drink enough water and your organs function better. Exercise right and not only should you (eventually) feel better for it but the telltale signs will blow your trumpet for you. You can’t want to look good on the outside and neglect the important level of happiness needed on the inside. Your body works when you have unity.
First of all, regimens are not for everybody and for those who choose to do it, your focus must be clear. If you want length and use a lot of heat as part of your daily styling process, your hair product cabinet may differ drastically from someone who just wants to maintain a full head of pixie crop hair.
My hair and scalp for example are not extension friendly. At the first sight of synthetic or human hair, be it for braids or gone-with-the-wind-fabulous weaves, you can trust my hair to fall out in clumps, break and recede all at once. I had gone out of my way to ignore this known issue with my hair but in February 2013 after I had get yet another rescue trim, I decided the time had come to put down the blow-drier, give away my weaves, straightners and products with sulfates, cones and serums that are often needed when heat styling. Taking that action has meant that even though I now opt to mostly air dry my hair (old school roller setting with a temperature controlled hooded drier is still a styling tool for me), I try to limit damage caused by air drying through the inclusion of ceramides in each step of my regimen.
I recently updated the regimen I adopted in February to now include an ideology: if I can't potentially eat it, I don't need it in/on my hair & scalp. That is not to say that I don’t use synthetic products at all because as you may know, good ol protein from chicken eggs for example are too large to penetrate your hair shaft. For a real protein treatment, you need hydrolyzed or quanternized protein which lucky for me, Elucence has.
When it comes to protein, I try not to argue with the scientists so, in addition to Elucence; I have the Affirm 5 in 1 (reconstroctor), Aubrey Organics (light protein treatment) and Roux Porosity Control in my cabinet their use i.e Affirm & Roux has been repurposed for relaxer top-up days as I opt to tea & vinegar rinse my hair regularly now. More on that later.
My point right now though is that as much as I plan to use products that nature provided (coconut milk, carrier oils, fruit, herbs, seeds & spices), my hair is relaxed and that is not as nature intended so, I’m going to need to leave some products to scientists to formulate for me. I compromise by using organic products like - Aubrey Organics and Giovanni, so help me curbing my need to try some soy sauce in my hair.
With that said, my new regimen which I kicked off in August 2013 is a personalised version of Real Queens Green-House Effect Regimen and it goes like this:
Tuesday Night* (if washday falls on a Wednesday)
Lightly apply my moisture spritz to dry hair
Proceed to strand ceremony with my home blend** of carrier and essential oils I purchased from Kinky Apothecary at L'Espace
Slap on this shiny bad boy, tie a scarf over it, add a knitted wooly cap for extra sexiness and go to bed.
*some days I opt to prepoo with heat for an hour and trot straight on to wash my hair per below*
*if wash day falls on a Wednesday, I just shift things along accordingly. Same process, just different day*
**I always ensure that my oil blend has a ceramide present. My go to is Hemp Seed Oil because it is a known ceramide and also has 60% lioneic acid present. I often include Coconut Oil because it comes with many benefits especially when used as a preepoo treatment.**
Other oils I pre-poo with include: Palm Oil (10* lioneic acid)), Extra Virgin Avocado Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and I seal with Kinky Apothecary's whipped Shea Butter (it contains a lot of goodies including castor oil) and Sweet Almond Oil.
Wash Day! This is where things get a bit different between my old and new regimen. I have been practicing the no poo wash for a few years now but this is the first time that I absolutely mean no poo. Where before I used conditioners to "wash" my hair, now I'm dabbling into the pH Balanced Poo pond. My process:
"wash" with this recipe using coconut milk aloe vera juice/gel, carrier oil (ceramide), essential oil and occasionally, a tea spoon of vegetable glycerine. Alternatively, I wash with Elucence Moisture Balancing Conditioner too.
tea rinse - follow the links for Jeni's tip on how to, benefits and tea options. I buy my Bobeam hair tea from Kinky Apothecary. I sometimes add fresh herbs from my kitchen/fridge to the brewing tea (black tea, mint, basil, lemongrass -thanks to that grocery store on Idowu Martins). Per Jeni's method, I pour the tea on my hair, catch it with another bowl and repeat the process until I'm all out of the measure OR I put the tea in a spray bottle, spritz away at every strand I can get at, I then let it air dry a little before moving on to the next stage which is
deep condition with honey and olive or coconut oil + hemp seed oil for 30 minutes with or without heat.
I finish the wash process as I begun - with pH balance in mind. This time though, I reach for Apple Cider Vinegar as my final hair rinse. Nadege reported the benefits of using Coconut Vinegar and I'm hoping that too will be stocked at L'Espace soon.
wrap my hair with a cotton shirt for about 15 minutes then proceed to L.O.C.O. My staples:
(L): homemade version of the MSM moisture spritz (most people notice more growth when taking MSM as a supplement but because I already take Vitamin C, 2,000mg Evening Primrose Oil daily to help with my cramps, Garlic Oil and alternate between Hairfinity and GNC Ultranourish-Hair, supplements, I choose to apply MSM topically)
(O): Carrier oil blend – at this stage, I focus on oils that function as excellent carrier oils, are known ceramides, are light and provide natural sun protection factors (SPF) too. See table below for oils I’ve come across with known SPF:
* Roman Chamomile and Helichrysum essential oils are also said to contain sun protection factors.
(C): The third part of L.O.C.O is cream and for this, I use Elucence Moisture Balancing Conditioner or Giovanni Direct Leave-In Weightless Moisture Conditioner
(O): Then I seal with Flax Seed Oil (15% lioneic acid content) or Kinky Apothecary whipped shea butter.
I either air dry with a silk scarf on it like so like so or air dry with bendy rollers if I want curls the next day. I do not use any additional items mentioned in these videos. I do have a tub of Eco Styler Gel though which you can get at the Kinky Apothecary stand but I use that (and Aloe Vera gel) for my edges only on days when I’m on set and need to get a clea up do.
Hair Trigger on my scalp and as before,
Proceed to strand ceremony with my home blend of carrier and essential oils
Slap on this shiny bad boy or a showercap, tie a scarf over it, add a knitted wooly cap for extra sexiness and go to bed.
Wash Day! The process is pretty much the same except that this is the day that I do my special care treatments such as protein, hibiscus and henna (available at Kinky Apothecary). So, I :
Apply treatment to dry hair first. This could be hibiscus and henna mask, AOHR, AOGPB, banana, coconut milk, avocado & molasses treament (I once added soy sauce to this one). I let it sit for 2-3 hours without heat or 1hr with heat then
deep condition with honey and olive or coconut oil + hemp seed oil for 30 minutes with or without heat.
L.O.C.O, air dry or style as the mood or level of tiredness determines.
*When my hair is in cornrows, I follow the same wash twice a week routine except I use the TZ445 (also sold at L’Espace) liberally on my scalp during installation. Other than prepoo and installation days, I stick to Real Queens recommendation of not applying oils to your scalp. I relly on her method of greenhouse effect to encourage my natural oils to do its thing.
4. Any tips you'd like to share?
I find hair forums helpful when I need a quick survey to decide which products to change such as my pending Affirm Fibreguard (lye) vs Elucence relaxer (lye) decision. As I’m transitioning to fully texlaxed hair, I want to get the best relaxer with my hair’s pH needs in mind and general survey is great but sometimes, of particular use are blogs like The Natural Haven, Swift Craft Monkey, Science-y Hair Blog, Chemist Corner, Colin’s Beauty Pages and The Beauty Brains because they speak to the cosmetic chemist in me and help me make informed decisions on all my cosmetic products. Just take a look at this pH list of conditioners for example.
A few of the longs list of blogs I frequent:
Nibi Lawson of Kinky Apothecary
Jeni of Just Grow Already
Nadege of Relax Hair Health
I am Oreka Godis, my hair is partly relaxed, partly texlaxed. I am transitioning to fully healthy looking texlaxed head of hair. I love oils, I love Elucence Moisture Balancing Conditioner – I use it for pre poo, cowash, hair mask mixes, leave in conditioner, I all but drink it!
I love Kinky Apothecary, I love L’Espace.
Repurposed products from my previous regimen:
*I used to use Dr Bronner's Castile Soap (purchased from the Kinky Apothecary counter at L'Espace as a clarifying shampoo. I still have this and use it in a recipe similar to this on days when only a clarifying shampoo will do. I also chelate with Aubrey Organics Swimmers Shampoo when required.
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