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Grace Magazine | www.fbcglenarden.org 25 Healthy Ha, for many years I have read or heard that hair is dead. My question is this, "If hair on a living person's head is dead, how can it become damaged?" Hair is also said to be healthy. Is there such a thing as "healthy dead hair?" Why would we seek to condition dead hair? I have personally experienced designing hair of deceased individu- als, and I can say there is a significant difference. The hair of the deceased is spongy and very difficult to style without the aid of greasy lubricants. Through close observation, hair on living heads is ALIVE! Hair can get sick, hang limp, look healthy and feel beautiful. My advice to all women: If you want a full head of healthy hair when you're OLDER, you must take care of it and save your hair NOW! A BRAVE Transiti over the course of 25 years, more women are transitioning from relaxed hair to natural hair. Natural hair has gone from uncommon to a mainstream movement. More often women are consulting with their stylist regarding the healthiest way to transition from chemi- cally treated hair (relaxers) to their natural tresses. During the transition from chemically relaxed to natural hair, I find that more women are starting to see the transformation and discover how beautiful natural hair can be in its natural curl pattern and/or blown out. Observing transformation alone aids more women to make a brave decision to transition ra- pidly from relaxed to natural hair. For most, experiencing the transition and actually seeing your hair transform from chemicals can be alarming and exciting all at the same time. One of the problems women fear while transitioning is the loss of hair and its length. You may lose hair and hair length from the initial shock of not using chemicals. Some women struggle to grow their hair for years and the thought of losing hair, along with its length, is one of the biggest fears women face when making the brave decision to go for it and no longer use chemicals in their hair. Chemically treated hair has often sometimes caused unexplained breakage. Althou- gh I have nothing against using hair relaxers, I know going natural is not for everyone. I believe relaxers cause hair to become dry and brittle. What makes this happen? When hair is being relaxed or roots are being touched up, sometimes chemicals are placed on already relaxed hair. This causes the relaxers to overlap and over time the hair becomes over processed, dry, and brittle. This can cause the hair to break. This is one of the main reasons women are transitioning. Their hair is weak and damaged and ultimately relaxers are causing their hair to break. There are two ways to transition from relaxed hair to natural hair. The most common of the two is the Big Chop which is cutting off all the relaxed hair, leaving a short amount of new growth near the scalp. Some women prefer this way to make sure the hair is chemical or relaxer free, and to grow the hair out naturally, but not everyone wants their hair to be less than an inch long. If you're bold enough to try a new look, the big chop is a choice that allows you to immediately get rid of all your relaxed hair, creating an immediate full transition to natural hair. You can keep the perm on the ends of your growing, natu- ral and minimize possible breakage. Be very delicate with your hair during the transition and minimize how much combing you are doing to your hair. Please be aware that hair is more fragile than normal while making this tran- sition. You want to minimize the amount of heat you are using to style the hair. Make sure you keep your hair hydra- ted. This helps replenish the hair with moisture. Consider using a leave-in conditioner during the day before styling it. Limit shampooing hair to at least once every 7-10 days with a sulfate-free shampoo to ensure that your natural oils are thoroughly coating each strand. Sulfate is present in most inexpensive shampoos and it causes significant drying of hair strands and clogs up the pores of the scalp, reducing hair growth. Herbal shampoos are also good because they are natural and have no alcohol in them to weaken the hair; they are acid-based. This is particularly crucial if you swim. If this is so, I suggest coating the hair with petroleum jelly before swimming, in order to keep moisture and to protect the hair from the damaging effects of chlorine. Some hair needs oil based shampoos.