Total Hair Envy

I need my hair to grow faster!! I'm looking at this thread on Nappturality, and all it's doing is making me want my hair to grow faster! I can't wait until I can wear an afro-puff (or two), that's part of the reason why I decided to go natural. Heck, I've been watching Big Chop (BC) videos lately too, and it's sooo making me want to cut my hair before May. But I don't want to cut it and then hate it, so I'm going to stick out this transition for at least a year. All of this is why I love looking at photos, albums, and Fotki's it keeps me motivated because I want to be able to do all that stuff with MY hair some day. So yeah, I'm experiencing TOTAL hair envy, how about you?

Christmas Hair

Yes, I'm posting this on Christmas. LOL, and Merry Christmas to all who Celebrate!

So for my hair I decided to do what my CurlyNikki Big Sis suggested and do flat twists and a bantu-knot out. I like it, but as you can see I'm still working on flat twisting ~lol~ and I think next time I'll do bigger knots (while the tight curls last longer, I'm kinda tired of small curls). Overall, I think it came out pretty well.

Here's what I did/used:

• Co-Wash/detangle with Aussie Moist
• Deep Condition with Castor Oil/ORS Replenishing Conditioner
• Seal: Aussie Moist Hair Insurance, Coconut Oil, ORS Olive Oil Incredibly Rich Oil Moisturizing Hair Lotion, Raw Shea Butter
• Twists: Clear Eco-Styler Gel (not much)
• Bantu Knots: Aloe Vera Gel

I sealed my entire head before styling instead of sealing and styling at the same time. After that I parted my head ear to ear for the flat twists. I ended up doing 5 flat twists (I wanted to do big ones). Then I started at the back and did my bantu-knots. The back of my hair doesn't always hold by itself or even with bobby-pins so I used hair ties to keep those two together and worked my way up. I didn't do the twists knots individually, I tried to combine them with other hair where possible. Then I sat under a medium hood dryer for an hour, then I sat under a cool dryer for abotu 10 minutes. My hair actually wasn't completely dry in the back, but that's okay. I tied down the twists in the front and just put a satin bonnet on to sleep over the knots. I didn't have to go anywhere yesterday, so I kept my hair set (I took the bonnet off, but left the scarf on).

This morning I took out the knots, and separated them, and that's it! A relatively simple style. You can let it air dry if you have the time (that's the great thing abotu bantu-knots), or you can let the back of your hair mostly dry and then put your bantu-knots in damp hair that will be dry by the morning. Normally I let my hair air dry, but I did my hair at night, and I'm not going to sleep with a drenched head. LOL.

If you don't know how to do bantu-knots, it's really easy. I twist my hair all the way to the end most of the time, but you don't have to, Just single twist your hair at the base until it starts to curl into a knot on it's own, then wrap the rest of the hair around that base. You can twist all the way to the end or not. There are lots of videos on YouTube, so if my instructions weren't clear, please go to YouTube-- that's how I learned how to do them :O)

As far as flat-twisting for me I find it works best if I twist and pick up hair as I go making sure that the hair is split all the way to the end to avoid knots and tangles. This is the best video I've found to teach me, it's short, sweet and to the point. Now I just need to practice, and that method works going backwards too :o)

7 Months Since My Last Relaxer Today!

Yay for me! As of today it's been 7 months since my last torture treatment, that means only 5 more months until I reach my goal of a year!

Right now I'm doing a bun challenge that I found on CurlyNikki.com. I went out and purchased two bun hairpieces last week (they were $7.99 and $8.99. I'm hoping over time they will become a lot less shiny, but usually my hair can compete when I put some Castor Oil on it. So far the challenge is okay, I did what someone suggested in the thread and put some oil on my ends and then covered them in a plastic bag. I'm kind of almost already sick of buns, but I'm going to make it last until March. Maybe I'll try flat twisting my hair back into the bun next time? Just to get some variety, and so I can practice my flat twisting skills. Once I get flat twists down, I can move on to braids.

One good thing about the bun challenge is the fact that I don't really manipulate my hair AT ALL, as opposed to low manipulation with the bantu-knot outs, and more manipulation with twist-outs (I'm not really a fan of twist-outs though). I am going to have to be careful about my edges though (that are just now starting to recover from the relaxer, they aren't TOO bad, but they are bad enough for me to notice them).

New layout

Okay, I thought the other layout was too dark, so I decided to change it, what do you think? Also, if you want to follow me on Twitter, feel free, but I don't update it much. LOL! Maybe having this feature on this blog will make me update it more, but it will probably be all about HAIR :o)

Learning The Hard Way

This is going to be short. I read Nappturality a lot, and one of the things they say is that using any heat is bad, but especially direct heat like blowdrying/flatironing. Well last week I did a mid-week co-wash with Suave Naturals Coconut and then I think I put a little jojoba oil on my head and blow dried it on low. My hair looked dry and nasty, and didn't feel much better. I haven't bothered to try flat-ironing. But I suppose I had to learn the hard way. Yet another reason why I can't wait to be done transitioning, then I can do wash and gos! LOL, something I could have NEVER done with relaxed hair.

Texture Shots

Click for larger images
These are from today, I finally figured out what the "macro" setting was for on my camera after seeing someone's fotki. LOL (don't judge me). Here are a couple of texture shots, my hair is just in big twists right now. I'm hoping I can find a way to do a twist-out that I really like (my previous attempts have been so-so).

I am waaaaay too geeked about this

I am waaaaay too geeked about this. So I decided to try Aussie Moist conditioner for my co-wash today since I've been hearing great things about it and I already love the Hair Insurance leave-in, and after I finished washing it I lifted a piece to try to gauge my new growth (I do this every week when I wash my hair) and I noticed little curls! I had to run and show my mom I was so excited. It just made me more excited to see my natural hair when I cut it, and it's making me more likely to just cut it when a year is up instead of just letting all of the perm grow out. So of course I had to take a picture and share it because this is just awesome! I'm probably TOO excited about it, but hey it's the little things in life that bring me joy. I'm sitting here with my Castor Oil/Olive Oil Condis. in my hair (deep conditioning) and I just had to post this.

As far as the Aussie Moist, I like it! I can see I'll be using it in rotation with my V05 until I run out of the V05, then I'll just use the Aussie Moist (I have the 33 oz bottle, which should last me a loooooong time). I also picked up some Herbal Essences Hello Hydration, I'll probably try that next time.

Comparison Shots + My Regimen

Hey to anyone reading this! So I'm trying to figure out how long my new growth is and how fast it's growing. Here's a pic from after co-washing but before deep conditioning from 10/13/09:





and here's one from 12/2/09:





Not bad for seven weeks, eh? As you can see, my hair gets a LOT of shrinkage, it'll be interesting to see when I cut the relaxed ends off.

My current regimen:

Co-Wash: V05 Strawberries and Cream Moisture Milk
Deep Condition: Castor Oil & Organic Root Stimulator (ORS) Olive Oil Replenishing Deep Conditioner (put on cap and sit for 45 minutes to an hour)
Moisture Sealing (post-wash): Aussie Hair Insurance Leave In Conditioner, Raw Coconut Oil, ORS Olive Oil Incredibly Rich Oil Moisturiing Hair Lotion, Raw Shea Butter

Here's a pic of what I use in the order in which I use it (from left to right):




That's it. After I do the moisture sealing stuff, I either put my hair in Bantu-knots and sit under a dryer on medium heat for an hour, or I band it and let it get mostly dry and while it's still damp put in my bantu-knots. Here's what it looks like when I'm all done (this is the one I did on 12/2 when I let it mostly air dry before knotting it. When I knot it and then sit under the dryer the knots are smaller, but the result is the same):



and here's the end result: