Feature Friday: Meet Ifai!

      Hi everyone. I just want to introduce the second winner of the Healthy hair bootcamp 2012 . I picked the winners based on their dedication and progress, not necessarily on their hair lengths. I must say that I have no personal relationship with any of them and I have never personally met any of the winners.

Anyways, this is a feature post of winner number 2, Ifai:

  1. What is your hair type? 4a or 4b?  My hair type is 4a.
  2.  How often do you touch up/relax? I retouch every 3 months (12 weeks)
  3.  Please share your regimen. What do you do daily, and weekly, to care for your hair?  During the bootcamp, my regimen was:

Daily: Every morning, I spritz my hair lightly with my homemade braid spray which I use for my daughter’s braids followed by Hollywood Beauty Olive Cream  and seal with extra virgin olive oil.  By this time my hair is really soft and I comb lightly or just smoothen with a comb and bun. Most evenings, I do nothing except use my satin scarf.

However, prior to this healthy hair bootcamp, I used to moisturize every morning and evening because by the end of the day, my hair would be dry but I noticed I could do without the night moisturizing during the bootcamp.  Honestly, a few weeks to the end of the bootcamp when I increased my deep conditioning to twice a week, I noticed my hair was really soft and moisturized most of the time although I’d still go ahead and moisturize it in the morning.

Weekly regimen: Prior to the bootcamp, I tried to wash and deep condition once a week and throw in an occasional co-wash midweek.  But during the healthy hair bootcamp, I religiously washed and deep conditioned every week.  I usually pre-poo with pure peanut oil or soyabean oil (I prefer the results of the peanut oil though) with a plastic cap.  After about 30 minutes, I’d apply African Pride Organics Hair Mayonnaise (for a protein pre-poo) and cover with a plastic cap.  After about an hour, I’d shampoo it out then apply Lustrasilk Tea Tree Cholesterol for a moisturizing deep conditioning treatment.  This would be rinsed out with warm water and finally cold water to close the cuticles.  Sometimes, I use my Infusium 23 leave-in conditioner followed by Vitale hair serum then I proceed to air dry or sometimes roller set by myself.

If I decide to go to a hair salon, I’d shampoo and DC at home then go with a V05 conditioner to the salon.  I’d tell them I’ve washed, they should just condition and set.  I don’t like the way they ‘scrub’ hair at the salon with very sharp finger nails.

  1. How often do you wear your hair out vs. protective styling (buns, etc)? Prior to the bootcamp, I usually wear my hair down.  It wasn’t very long anyway but during the bootcamp when I noticed my hair had started grazing my shoulders, I started bunning 90% of the time.  Bunning had never been easy for me because I grew up believing when you bun your hair, you had no money to have it done.
  2. Do you use direct heat? If so, how often? No.  I’ve not used direct heat for a year now.  Since last year when I decided to take better care of my hair, I’ve stepped aside from direct heat.  I went to a salon once to wash and roll my hair and they told me they only blow dry.  I told them no, I won’t and I left.  No shame.
  3. How do you maintain moisture levels and manage breakage? By deep conditioning once a week at least and daily moisturizing I have managed to reduce the breakage I noticed at the beginning of my hair journey. 
  4. What are the major things you learnt from the bootcamp?  I learnt that consistency is very important in having healthy long hair.  I also came to understand that deep conditioning is really very important. 
  5. You’ve made some progress with your hair during the boot camp. What do you attribute most to your success?  Sincerely, I believe it’s the whole process: the ceramide containing oil pre-poo (peanut/groundnut oil has ceramides); the protein treatment and of course, the extremely necessary deep conditioning; moisturizing and sealing.  I believe the whole process combined gave me the result I have to show today. 
  6. And your favourite product? My favourite hair product is my deep conditioner Africa Best Organics Cholesterol Tea Tree oil.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any to buy here in Port Harcourt, Nigeria during the bootcamp so I made do with Lustrasilk Tea Tree Cholesterol.  I also like Africa Best Organics Hair Mayonnaise
  7. What’s your signature style? Presently, my signature style is the side bun. 
  8. What is the best tip you have learned to protect your ends? My best tip to protect my ends is to keep them moisturized then place them in a bun. 
  9. Any links you would like to share?  Apart from The Sizzling Mommy, another one of my favourite hair blogs is EbonyCPrincess‘ blog. She seems to be one of the few people that understands how to use flexirods and I’ve been battling to produce something reasonable with mine. Her rollersetting is something else and the last guest she featured (Jeni of Just Grow Already) really encouraged me in my rollersetting.  I now part my hair into four and I’m really improving!  My last roller set was manageable. I will really start taking pictures as you advised.     
  10. Have you had any setbacks/trouble along the way? When we started the bootcamp, I tried a hard protein treatment (egg, mayonnaise and olive oil.  Can’t remember where I got the recipe, either blackbeautyfanatic.com or blackhairinformation.com).  I had used it before without any problem but this time, I left it on for a long time because I was busy and my hair became hard and started breaking.  Another setback I’ve had for sooooo long is shedding.  My shedding is MEGA.
  11. How did you overcome your setbacks? To overcome the hard hair due to the protein treatment,  I tried to deep condition twice a week, co-wash, wear a plastic cap often and moisturize regularly to ‘remove’ the hardness.  At a stage I was washing/co-washing my hair every two days.  I used a sulfate-free shampoo  and co-washed with a V05 conditioner.  As for the mega-shedding, Dr. Fomsky came to my rescue.  When I complained a few weeks to the end of the bootcamp, she advised me to take hair supplements containing MSM and also try black tea rinses.  I’m usually lazy about taking supplements but since I was frustrated by the shedding as I would never reach my goal with such mega-shedding, I went and purchased some hair, skin and nails supplement.  Believe thou me, after just 5 days of taking the daily supplements, there was a great reduction in the shedding.  This really encouraged me and I have continued.
  12.  Looking back at the bootcamp so far, is there anything you would do differently? or wish you would have done sooner? Oh yes, deep conditioning twice a week.  I wish I had started that earlier.  Secondly, I really wish I had started the hair supplements earlier.  I’m sure I would have had a more spectacular result like Dr. Fomsky’s.
  13. Someone is reading this right now who’s about to start her hair journey. What advice would you give her? If you’re in Nigeria, you may be discouraged that some products you see European and American hair bloggers use are not readily available, no problem.  Just start with the good ones you can find around and be consistent. Luckily, Dr. Fomsky’s online store has some products I have read about and I would definitely try them out (she didn’t ask me to say this.  I always check her store making a list of products I would buy).  Also, you have to try to do some things for yourself.  All your good work will not produce much result if you leave your hair completely to hair stylists.  Trust me, their combing alone will cause all your efforts to come to nought.  Start small – just try.  Practise on weekends but keep a wig handy in case the result is unacceptable.  I did a protein treatment at a salon once (I went with my own treatment), the hair was so hard after it was applied but they continued to comb and comb and comb since they have to comb once a conditioner is applied. I tell you, I came to that salon with my hair almost touching my shoulders a little and I left with neck-length hair.  I’m not lying.
  14. You’re stuck on a desert island and you can only have 3 hair related items with you. What would they be and why?  Water, my deep conditioner and a satin scarf.  These are the basic items I think I would need to keep my hair going till I get out of the desert.
  15. Do you do anything additionally to support your hair? (nutrition, vitamins, exercise)? I recently started taking a hair, nails and skin supplement.
  16. Is there anything else would you like to share that I haven’t asked you about? Yes, I love your blog and thanks for having me here. Thanks for the compliments Ifai Embarassed

Dr Fomsky

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About the author
Dr Fomsky

Nigerian-born Dr Fomsky is a God-lover, a wife, a mom of three, a medical doctor by day. Plus she owns a Nigerian-based online hair product store called Sizzelle.
Dr Fomsky is very passionate about hair, skin and weight management. Since she's had her babies, she's been struggling to keep her weight and her tummy down!
At night, she likes to read books, write blog posts and leave comments on other blogs. She lives in Alberta, Canada and is also the author of Solving your relaxed hair breakage book .
DR FOMSKY'S HAIR TYPE:
LAST RELAXER DAY: December 15th, 2016
BIG CHOP: January 14th, 2017
Natural Hair, Unknown Porosity, Fine Hair strands, Low to Moderate Density
CURRENT HAIR LENGTH: Unknown
FAVOURITE DEEP CONDITIONER: ??

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4 Comments to Feature Friday: Meet Ifai!

  1. Jenny says:

    Lols. Congrats Ifai. That s a good one.

    • Ifai says:

      Thanks Jenny. Your bootcamp result was very good. I look forward to having longer hair. My kids were drooling over your hair that it’s very long and fine!

  2. Natural Girl says:

    Africa’s Best products are great. Congrats Ifai!

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