Hair Dictionary

 

Deep conditioning (DC): A yummy treat for dehydrated strands. Most DC’s are labeled as such and should be left on with heat for about 30 minutes or an hour without heat.

Co-wash:  Using a cheapie conditioner to wash your hair. This retains moisture and is only recommended between full washes.

Cheapie Conditioner:  A lightweight conditioner used for co-washes. Aussie, Suave, VO5, and Garnier are all perfect examples of cheapie conditioners.

Pre-poo:  A treatment prior to shampooing your hair.  Can be done by applying a deep moisturizing conditioner and/or oil to you hair with a plastic cap to be left on overnight or 30-minutes before your shampoo.

Moisturizing:  Using a water-based moisturizer on your hair daily. You can use a spray or cream moisturizer,  depending on what you hair loves. Moisturizing your hair daily helps prevent breakage due to dryness and also improves elasticity.

Sealing:  Locking your daily moisturizer in by applying a natural oil to your strands afterwards. Use pure oils such as extra virgin olive oil, castor oil, coconut oil, jojoba oil.

Baggying:  Applying a daily moisturizer and/or natural oil to hair strands, then placing a plastic shower cap on to lock in moisture. This treatment is good if you are suffering from chronic dryness, but be careful about over-moisturizing which could also cause damage.

Low Manipulation: The art of being able to stop messing with you hair.  Low manipulation means to avoid touching, combing, brushing, and applying heat to your hair. Low manipulation reduces breakage and shedding, so consider decreasing your use of hair tools.

Protective Styling:  Wearing hairstyles that hide your ends, therefore protecting your hair from environmental dangers such as strands rubbing against clothing, strong wind, UV rays, etc. These styles give you and your hair a break. Examples of protective styles include buns, braids, twists, etc.

Braid-Out:  A low-manipulation style that is achieved by braiding wet hair in sections, allow to dry, then unbraid for a wavy look. Can also be done on dry hair and very helpful while stretching relaxers.

Stretching:  Extending the time between touch-ups to avoid over-processing and over-lapping relaxers.  Example is to do your touch-up every 8-12 weeks instead of every six weeks.

Search & Destroy: Hair trimming technique that involves searching for split ends and destroying, or trimming them, on contact. This is often done between trims to clean up or “dust” your ends.

Hair Type: Your natural curl pattern. You can determine your hair type by assessing your new growth, if you are relaxed.

Texlax: The middle ground between having natural and relaxed hair. Can be achieved by skipping the smoothing method during touch-ups, adding olive oil to relaxer, or reducing the processing time.  Texlaxed hair is relaxed, but not bone-straight; you hold on to a bit of your curl pattern for fuller hair (I fall into this category).