Speak English for Crying Out Loud!

OMG! LOL! GTFOWTBS!  Really?  RLY? Yes, this is how many people communicate nowadays.  Can't blame them, you can only fit so many characters into a text or tweet.  It's only frustrating when you are trying to research something and cannot understand what is being said, what it means, and are too embarrassed to post questions.

Someone was kind enough to ask about some acronyms used on many hair boards.  I have been using them, hearing them for so long, I forgot they were still used.  By now, I reckoned there would be a new category of short cuts.  I must admit, I haven't been on too many hair forums since I found my holy grail products.  I am too vulnerable to relapse.  I still buy things to try and review, but it's nothing like it used to be. 

So, let's sort a few out and I'll attempt to explain each one:

• Pre-poo:  Pre-shampoo, is the step you take prior to shampooing your hair.  In the past, a hot oil treatment would be the epitome of "pre-poo" but this can be anything.  People are doing a lot more "in depth" things to their hair than V05 could even fathom.
• Poo:  Shampoo, is pretty self explanatory.  I guess the sham is a bit too much.  That would take two syllables.
• Con:  Two definitions for this one.  It's either short for conditioner, or in some cases, it stands for Cream of Nature, a brand of hair products.
• DC:  Deep Condition, and this is usually done with a moisturising or protein infused reconstructive agent.  There may be a bit of each but usually a "DC" is done no more than once a week.
• BC:  Big Chop took a while for me to understand why everyone was doing a BC.  It's when you cut your hair to the root or shorter.  Some people vary, but the goal it to get rid of the damaged, chemically treated, split hair and start over. 
• TWA:  Elmer Fudd must have created this.  Tiny whittle Afro is the result of a BC.  Yep, the big chop.  Many women going from relaxed to natural choose to BC creating the TWA rather than transition.

(Solange with TWA) photosources

•  Co-wash:  Conditioner Wash.  This is something along the line of Wen or At One hair but was years ahead.  Rather than shampoo your hair with the your regular ... well, shampoo, you use a conditioner instead.  The rationale is that the shampoo will dry or strip your hair, therefore, this is a better alternative for those with dry, coarse, thick hair and in order to clean the hair, say they work out and sweat a lot, a co-wash is an alternative.  Scary spice was the first person I heard of who did this.  Mel B had an article in Black Hair and she claimed to have stopped using shampoo.  To each their own *shrug*
• Baggy method/Baggying:  This is a protective style where you wash, condition, etc. your hair and pull it all back into a pony tail, then apply massive moisturizer and wrap with cling wrap or a sandwich wrap, and make it into a bun.  Then you can place a fake bun on top.  Hard to explain, but it's really simple and can be easy to do if you are on a strict hair regimen.
• Stretching:  This is the process of "stretching" the time between relaxer or BKT (Brazilian Keratin Treatment) processes.  If you normally touch up the new growth every six weeks, you "stretch" the time and either continue the process or you cut that hair off and keep the "virgin" hair to add length to your BC. 

I hope this has helped to clarify a lot of the jargon people are reading online.  I know it's overwhelming when you find all these acronyms whilst looking for how to save your hair as it's going doing the drain, "literally."  Relax, it's hair, it grows, and there are a lot of products that will help you get where you need to go.  Smile, it's not so bad.  I don't judge. ♥