Titi Branch
Q: My 5-year-old daughters is biracial — Mexican and African-American. Her hair has been relaxed with a texure softener. She could wear it down, but I can’t get her frizzy baby hair to lay down and she has at least a good half inch on the sides. Any suggestions?
Titi: Miss Jessie’s Baby Buttercreme is an excellent product to “lay those sides down.” Apply Baby Buttercreme with a boar-bristle brush. Dab a teaspoonful on each side, and then proceed to brush down the sides with the brush.
Q: Oh em gee! Your hair is really beautiful. I’m 17 and I’m trying to learn how to deal with it because my mommy has been doing it all of these years. But it’s time for me to take over because I’m going to college in a year.
College-bound curly looking for advice on caring for her hair.
Titi: What a beautiful head of hair you have! Is the curl pattern the result of a twist out? If it is, I think you are doing the right thing to manage your hair. You can do a wet twist out with Curly Pudding. Section freshly detangled hair and apply Miss Jessie’s Curly Pudding to each section and twist. Either air dry or sit under an overhead dryer then untwist. The result is a marvelous twist-out. Retwist large sections at night with Baby Buttercreme to preserve the coil that was formed and then untwist in the morning. You can continue this process for about two weeks without rewetting your hair.
Q: I live where it’s very humid, and it’s impossible to leave my 3c hair down. After an hour I have a big ol’ fat head like you can’t even imagine. But I don’t want my hair straight, either. I love curls. I was thinking about relaxing it to just kind of loosen the curls. Are there styling products and techniques I can use instead of turning to chemicals? I’m going crazy! I can’t even get ready in the morning anymore without crying.
This photo shows a model with one side stretched out and elongated.
Titi: If you don’t want to use chemicals to stretch your hair out, you can do so manually and with heat. Apply Curly Pudding to wet hair and comb it through in sections. Allow it to dry then take a blow dryer and blast the hair out from the root to about mid shaft. The heat should relax the curl, allowing it to temporarily hang longer and be more controlled. The heat blast lasts about 24 hours.
Q: I’m looking for ideas to style my hair — mainly updos and styles of that sort. My 3c hair is below my shoulders when wet. I live in Florida and there is no way I can wear it down. It will get three to five times as big within an hour of being out and it will make me feel like I’m suffocating. Any ideas what to do with hair that doesn’t make you look like a little girl and isl sexy/classy?
Titi: Use some Miss Jessie’s Quick Curls for light hold. Diffuse your hair dry. Accessories are really key here. You can pin up your hair by twisting large sections from the nape to the crown and insert a flower or any other beautiful ornament. This combination of texture and ornamentation tends to be beautiful and unique.
Q: What are Tomoka’s Twists, and how much hair is a good minimum to have to rock them?
Titi: I can’t say I’ve used them but some quick searching online I came up with this: “Tomoka’s Twists was a style established to meet the needs of the growing numbers of women embracing their natural hair who wanted to creatively and functionally adorn their crowns. Tomoka’s Twists started around an old, oak table when a young lady wanted something better than a rubber band to make a huge, afro puff. With the help of her family, a few laughs and a few hours later, three Tomoka’s Twists were born. One became an anklet and another a bracelet. And finally, one was worn for its true intention — a high afro puff.”
So it seems that they are an alternative to rubber bands except they are way more creative and beautiful. If it can be used for an afro puff you can pile all of your hair high and wrap and twist a tomoka twist around it to keep it secure.
Q: I am experiencing breakage in the back of my 4a head. The area feels dry and brittle. As such, I’m pretty hesitant to do a protein treatment. What should I do to nurse that area of my head back to health? Or are deep conditioners and patience the best remedy?
Titi: Moisturizing deep treatments, not protein, are the way to go. I recommend Miss Jessie’s Rapid Recovery Treatment at least once a week. If you can steam with it for 20 minutes, that would be beneficial. The idea is to keep that area soft and supple. As far as daily moisturizing, Curly Buttercreme or Baby Buttercreme would be a good bet to keep the dry patch moisturized. As our hair grows, we just need to ensure that we are preserving all of that growth. That means patience, moisturizing treatments and a daily moisturizing hairdress.
