Cultured in Media

Q. WHAT WAS YOUR TRANSITIONING LIKE FOR YOU? WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO TRANSITION?   I was at a loss in my hair journey. I mean I didn't understand how to properly care for my hair like I thought I did. I would cut, color, relax, then repeat. I would glue tracks in and then just rip them out without care. I was just reckless. Finally finding hair boards in Jan 2010, I started taking better care for the health of my hair. I started transitioning in May of 2010. It wasn't as bad as some made it out to be. I mostly wore the Southern Tease bun. I loved that bun. I pretty trimmed and trimmed until I was relaxer free in March of 2011. That was due to an incident at the beauty salon. The stylist chopped off more than she was supposed to. Long story short, I was relaxer free in June 2011. Q. DO YOU HAVE ANY PRODUCT SUGGESTIONS TO HELP GROW MY HAIR OUT? Without a question, I would say Profectiv products. You can view my article here on why I suggest their products. Q. HAVE...

I pretty much documented my ups and downs this year. Overall I am extremely happy with my growth.  Reflecting back through this year, I had a few set-backs that I am still working on. If you remember, there was a section in the middle that I had to constantly trim because it was thin, short, and easily to break. I figured out that it was the way I was flat ironing. So to fix this, I trimmed off those broken ends to start with. I added a protein treatment into my regimen, and lastly, I flat ironed a different way.  Another set-back was recently. which is also a result of flat ironing too much. My hair started shedding like crazy. I mean I could not even lay down without hair falling everywhere. If I ran my hands or anything brushed against my hair, almost a ball sized amount would fall out.     So to fix the above, I stopped flat ironing every week again. Seems to be getting under control now. I hope  you all had as much growth or health to your hair as I...

It seems as if Karlie Redd from Love & Hip-Hop ATL is holding other secrets besides for her age and secret to her youthful looks. It seems as if she is holding out on her secret to naturally beautiful hip-length hair. I searched thoroughly for a hair regimen or products that she uses, but she seems to hold all the information back for an upcoming product line. Karlie Redd, Karlie Lewis, or Keisha Lewis, whichever you choose to call her, first stood out as a cast member on Vh1’s “Love & Hop-Hop Atlanta,” who had a love interest in the rapper Benzino. I on the other hand, like so many others, found her to be the same woman in SYFY’s “Scream Queens” in 2010. Even then, her hair was always in the best of shape. It is a known fact that she wears weaves, as she promoted the release of her own hair extension line, Redd Remy Hair.  During an interview, Karlie said the only reason she wears hair extensions is to add the effect of fullness to her hair. She also wears weaves to...

Check out another awesome site generally geared to black hair care. The owner of the site is very friendly and is always willing to help a hair concern if need be. The website is VissaStudios.Com

This year in hair has been one all about embracing Black hair. Either someone is going natural, big chopping, showing off their natural hair or trying a daring color. Well how about those that had the best weaves for the year? I’m talking about the kind of weaves that you have to second guess if it they are actually extensions or not; the kind of weaves that you would get into arguments with your best friend over. Let’s take a look at the best of the best weave wearers of 2012 _________________________________________________________________ 1. KEKE PALMER: For a young lady, this girl can rock a nice weave as if she was born to do so. You can never tell when she is wearing a weave or her own her, which is naturally long in length. During an interview, Keke stated that she likes wearing weaves because she can experiment a little more with different looks.  In her video “You Got Me” Keke is wearing New York Remi Wave at a length of 24 inches. You can buy the same weave at the...

Let’s face it; most of America is not in the financial class of having extra money to buy expensive hair products. I’m talking about the products that promise to promote healthy hair growth, or to stop breakage, or even to grow hair six inches in three months. African-American women alone spend more money on hair care products than any other race.  Not talking about a few hundred dollars here and there, studies show the amount we spend on hair care products surpasses the half a trillion dollar mark annually, just in our hair care alone. So how can we cut this cost down? The answer is simple. Create treatments from the comfort of our own kitchen at little to no cost at all. The point is, we could save ourselves so much money if we used home remedies to fix everyday hair problems. There are plenty of ways to fix whatever problem you’re having with just a simple at home recipe. Top Five Homemade Hair Rescues: Mayonnaise: Combats dry hair, adds shine and adds intense moisture...

OIL RINSING: Hair’s claim to health Oil rinsing is using essential oils or hot oil treatments to rinse hair. This is often referred to as pre-pooing the hair before your normal wash routine. When I first found out about oil rinsing, I was clueless as to what it was. Naturally, I began researching the purpose and discovered that oil rinsing has many effects including combating dryness, providing strength to strands, and adding shine to dull hair. I began pre-pooing (oil-rinsing) to strengthen the strands and to promote growth by giving the scalp a massage with the oil while I waited to rinse the oil out. The results were incredible. It seemed to have given my hair life. It seemed sleeker and much shinier. You should give it a try even if you feel as if your hair is in a healthy state; this is guaranteed to give it an extra boost. Types of Oils BRAHMI OIL : The first oil that I ever used to oil rinse was an Indian brand, Brahmi Oil. Massaging this oil into the ha...

I have not been posting like I used to. Things are a little backed up for me at the moment. Hopefully by next week, everything will be back to normal. Thanks for the emails and facebook messages of concern. xoxo

CELEBRITY HAIR: KERRY WASHINGTON   Kerry Washington is one of the most underrated African-American actresses in the Entertainment industry. She is the star or co-star of very big movies like Saved the Last Dance, Ray  with Jamie Foxx, and now she is the star of the TV show Scandal . Besides for her talent, and her near perfect facial features, she is one of my favorite women simply because of her gorgeous hair. With so many different looks that she can pull off, I love the natural texture the best. Ms. Washington seems to be within the type three range since her curls are loosely hanging and you can see the definition within them. If she were to comb out the curls she most likely would get a bushy fro but not the kind you would normally see due to her hair texture. There have always been speculation as to whether she was natural, permed, or had a curl. But Kerry Washington cleared up the rumors by ...

I can finally say this is the longest my hair has been in my adult life. Any length is obtainable with good practices.

SHAMPOO & AFRICAN-AMERICAN HAIR I was always told to never leave shampoo on my hair for long periods of time because it will fall out. I never really understood that concept, considering shampooing the hair is supposed to cleanse the scalp from our natural oils and also prepares the hair to soak up the conditioner following the shampoo. So since trying to spread knowledge in black hair care, I decided to take a look into this. Shampooing is a process you do to remove build up.  Basically it is for cleansing the scalp and hair. We normally don’t think about the accumulation of dust, dirt, and debris that accumulates in our hair just from daily exposure to the air. On top of that, the scalp secretes natural oil onto the follicles so shampoo aids in removal of too much oil. When the hair and scalp are clean, it gives a refreshing feeling as if the scalp was just opened up so that it can breathe. This makes for a better appearance of the hair when it is ...

Everyone is familiar with the Wayans family. How could you not know of this huge family; it seems like all 1000s of them are in the Entertainment industry. Well among the family there is a female star, Kim Wayans. Kim has been in the sitcoms “In the House” with L.L. Cool J, appeared on numerous episodes with her brothers, The Wayans Brothers, and she even writes books for children to read. Well now she is being known for something else — her gorgeous natural hair. I remember watching Kim on TV and wondering why she would never do anything with her hair. Well there were the times that she wore braids and I thought she looked beautiful with them. But After seeing how gorgeous she looks with her natural hair, I am unsure as to why she would have ever wanted to hide it.  Click here to continue reading her journey

DO WE REALLY HATE OURSELVES INSIDE? GOOD HAIR VS BAD HAIR As black women, nothing is more personal than our relationship with our hair. Ever since I was a child, I had a love-hate relationship with my hair that only another black woman would be able to understand. In a sense, our hair is our identity. We create it to fit our style. So how does this tie in with having good hair versus bad hair?  I know most of you have seen the film Good Hair by Chris Rock; in my opinion, the film kind of hit a nerve with me. As a black woman, I love my hair, flaws and all. Just like every other race. We have good hair days and then there are bad hair days. I just thought he focused too much on black women not accepting the fact that they can never really have that “good hair.” My assumption could be incorrect but that is the way I perceived it. Back in the day, it was thought that if you had straight or wavy hair, you we...

As you know, I dyed my hair last night. Well my hair dried (air-dry), and I just finished flat ironing, so I decided to show you guys the final result. I love it. The before what I used The result: 

I got tired of having my hair brown, so I decided to do something about it. I went out and bought hair dye (home kit) and went to work. Here is the tutorial on the process. SAME PROCEDURE IS DONE FOR BOTH RELAXED AND NATURAL HAIR. BEFORE YOUR COLOR, MAKE SURE YOUR HAIR IS HEALTHY ENOUGH TO ENDURE THE CHEMICALS IN THE DYE. IF NEEDED, GIVE YOURSELF A PROTEIN TREATMENT A WEEK BEFORE COLORING. I DEEP CONDITIONED 2 DAYS BEFORE COLORING AND WILL ALSO DEEP CONDITION A WEEK AFTER THE COLOR. MAKE SURE YOUR HAIR STAYS MOISTURIZED AFTER COLORING TO AVOID BREAKAGE. FOLLOW MY BLOG FOR MORE HAIR TIPS: SCARYHAIROBSESSION.BLOGSPOT.COM THANK YOU

Wait no longer, the secrets (not really a secret), the inside scoop to get you the hair you always dreamed of. Just because you have relaxed/permed hair does not mean you cannot achieve your goal of having the length you desire. Read my article on how to achieve this in no time.  Achieving long relaxed hair

CELEBRITY FEATURE OF THE WEEK: JANELLE MONAE Bad Boy Records has a new artist and this artist brought along a new look to the music industry. With her signature “tux” suit and her 1950s themed hair style, Janelle Monae has become a natural hair inspiration to many....( Click here to continue reading her natural hair story )

I wrote an article on the meaning, the cause and the cure for scab hair. Read about it here: Scab Hair, The Meaning, The Cause, and The Cure

Photo courtesy of thehairfiles.com, click photo to enlarge image Length checking is a way to measure the length of your hair. Length checking is a way to track your hair journey, your progress in other words. The average hair growth is about six inches per year, some achieve more, some achieve slightly less than the average, but the way to track that is by length checking. Keep in mind that length checking is just checking the growth that you have RETAINED, not the actual GROWTH accumulated between progress checks.  Click to enlarge hair chart Before I tell you how to do a proper length check, let's look at how each length looks at the levels of growth. I'm not for sure what this length would be called but I'm going to just call it above ear length (AEL): EAR LENGTH (EL): Hair touches the ear in this stage. NECK LENGTH (NL): Hair is now past the EL stage and is touching the base of the neck. NL varies due to body composition. Some peo...