PDA

View Full Version : Grow It!....The NEW LHC Handbook!!



1953Diygal
March 25th, 2011, 11:04 AM
For years now, I’ve been looking for a book about hair care that would be kind of like a print-and-binding kind of substitute for TLHC. I mean, the board does sometimes go down and, well, we all take road trips from time to time.

I’ve found a few books along the way, but none of them were exactly what I had in mind. They all seemed to be full of vague information and recipes that, well…let’s just say that I’ve seen far superior versions of these recipes on this site. The only one that even came close is the Curly Girl book.

Then, just last week, I was toodling around Amazon and searched for “long hair” or some such AmaGoogle term and the book Grow It! (http://www.amazon.com/Grow-Afro-Textured-Maximum-Lengths-Shortest/dp/0982068905/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301071306&sr=8-1)by Chicoro popped up. I was able to go in and do that little “click to look inside” function and I really REALLY liked what I read! I liked the spirit of her hair growing endeavors. I liked the names of the chapters. I liked how she told stories about past damage done to her hair and about resolving to start really caring for her hair.

Well, my copy arrived yesterday. The more I read, the more excited I became! At one point, I looked up and realized that I had been engrossed in reading and had gotten up from where I was sitting (still reading) and was now standing in the middle of the room!

If the author, a woman named Chicoro, is not a LHC member now, she was once, because her information is straight out of these pages. She uses our lingo—terms like “arm pit length” and “bra strap length.” She describes plopping and even Dianyla’s separation technique (although she doesn’t call them by those names). She advocates blogging/writing about hair routines and even mentions photographing your length and setting goal lengths. And yes, she discusses CO washing. In fact, much of her hair care information seems to come from the damaged hair care faq found on this board!! Oh, and ps: I LOVED her huge chapter on detangling! She describes how to break apart mats/dreads, which was info I wish I had last winter.

I am IN LOVE with this book! It’s like being able to carry TLHC around with me in the form of a little paperback book. This book is geared toward African-American hair care, and no, I’m not AA, but the way I see it, non-AA hair-growers use a lot of the same techniques to encourage hair growth and even use the same products. In fact, if, while you’re reading the book, you just substitute the terms “damaged hair” or “fragile hair” or any similar term for the words “Afro-textured hair,” you wouldn’t even realize that it wasn’t geared toward any one ethnicity. We long hair types have hair care routines that cross over the racial and ethnic boundaries!!!

I would encourage every member, especially the newer members, to buy this book! There is so much good hair care info and also a lot of great hair science in it! And, Chicoro, if you're a member here, speak up!!! :D

Slinks
March 25th, 2011, 03:28 PM
thanks for the shout out .. I'm going into Amazon to check it out :-)

MissManda
March 25th, 2011, 03:42 PM
Thank you so much for sharing! If one of my friends ever tells me they want to grow their hair long, I'll definitely consider this as a birthday/Christmas gift. :) I think the unconventional advice that is here on LHC may be less intimidating or off-putting to some people if it is in book format.

einna
March 25th, 2011, 03:50 PM
Thanks for sharing. :)

I`ll also leave a link for another hair growers site (and she has a book). She is about 3c, and she seems sooo sweet, and the methods seem to fit with the LHC way.

http://www.tightlycurly.com/welcome/

x0h_bother
March 25th, 2011, 08:01 PM
I also like tightlycurly, good to see books are out there- LHC was down for me today and I was lost w/o it! I have no life IRL!

long&blonde
March 25th, 2011, 08:06 PM
Thanks for the recommendation! Will buy a copy of Grow It off Amazon right away!

ooo
March 25th, 2011, 08:48 PM
Maybe I'm flattering myself, but most of the stuff I learned from this and other forums usually stays in my head. There wouldn't be a need, to carry this knowledge around.

Still I guess this might be a good gift :) Thank you for posting.

Jenn of Pence
March 25th, 2011, 09:29 PM
One day I would like to write a few books, and a hair book would probably be one of them......writing a thesis is probably the "book" I should write first, though. ;)

Lollipop
March 27th, 2011, 11:14 AM
I think that she's originally from naturallycurly.com. I do like looking at some of the curly and natural threads andbooks, because they all seem to focus on getting healthier hair. Plus reading the transitioning threads kills any flickering urges to get a haircut.

lacefrost
March 27th, 2011, 05:26 PM
Chicoro was originally on LHCF which is like LHC but there's mostly black women on it. She was featured here: http://www.curlynikki.com/2008/12/chicoro.html and here is her Fotki: http://members.fotki.com/Chicoro123/about/ It has LOADS of pictures.

And I have a special place in my heart for Teri LaFlesh from tightlycurly. She was so sweet to me when I first started and helped me get over my initial AGH! Will My Hair Be Ugly?! pangs. The befores and afters of her hair really changed my mind about mine. Her hair curl is much looser than mine (about 3b/3c whereas I'm a 4a) but what she says about hair and curly hair was lifechanging for me.