Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by kastababy on July 30, 2009 at 2:56am

Good morning Portia,

As someone who has lived with AA for the past 26 (going on 27) years, I can tell you unequivocally that with ANY current treatment available for AA, your results will last only as long as you continue to take the treatment. So for example, if you are receiving cortisone injections into your scalp and you are seeing regrowth, that if you stop the treatments, any growth you achieved during the time you were receiving the injections will be lost again. Of course, there is always the possibility that you may keep your growth, but the overwhelming evidence points toward losing whatever you get.

One thing you may want to try to alleviate the dry hair is hair care products made specially for African-American hair. Because African-American hair is so coarse and dry, the hair care products developed for it focus on moisture, moisture, and more moisture. I personally swear by anything made by Design Essentials or Optimum Care products. They also work well on color-treated hair as well. I hope this information helps you quite a bit. Please feel free to message me if you have additional questions.

YoKasta

Permalink Reply by Portia Mason on July 30, 2009 at 12:45pm

Thanks. I have a question about hair care products. What about African Pride or African Royal? I have been using them both for years and I am not sure if they have a lot of chemicals in them. And, is it best to avoid harsh chemicals that you put in to your hair?

Permalink Reply by kastababy on July 31, 2009 at 6:41am

African Pride is okay I guess -- my natural hair texture is more like that of a Caucasian person, so the most I will use is the Hot Six Oil, which is fabulous stuff!

One thing I've learned over the years about using chemicals in my hair is this: If you're going to color your hair, use the most gentle products on the market. DON'T color and perm at the same time, or even a couple of weeks apart. If you're going to perm your hair, perm your hair; but don't do both -- AA makes whatever growth you get back much more fragile than it was before you started losing your hair.

Also, if you're not taking a multivitamin already, I would suggest doing so -- it actually does help to strengthen your hair!!!

Permalink Reply by Portia Mason on July 31, 2009 at 2:41pm

Okay. that is the same oil I use. Thanks for confirming that. I haven't done any kind of curls or perms in a long time. I had a good healthy head of hair back in the late 80's and early part of 90's till I started to wear braids and started pulling my hair out. But, I keep it in a low short cut since I am having diffifulty growing it back since there are a lot of bald spots in several parts of my scalp. Also, I couldn't go out or a while because I wondered how people would preceive me. Portia