Back To My Roots

BAA Challenge Month 6

2010-11-03T07:33:00.001-04:00

Checking in

Month 1 on the left month 6 on the right:

I haven’t really been doing anything different with my hair this month. I’ve been working pretty much the entire month which means I’ve been mostly doing protective styles. For the last 3 or so weeks I’ve just been twisting my hair and wearing tams to work. Sometimes I’d untwist for a couple of days and rock a twist-out. The last two weeks I’ve started co-washing only again because it’s about to get cold and that means my scalp isn’t sweating as much so I can get away with just co-washing. I’m loving my growth though! I think it’s about as long as it was when I decided to transition.

Month 4 Styles

2010-10-04T13:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some of the styles I did in Month 4.

BAA Challenge Month 5

2010-10-03T11:55:00.001-04:00

So I officially passed 4 months since my BC on September 22, which was cool. Hard to believe it’s been 4 months since I cut off my relaxed ends! I still haven’t had a day of regret. So it’s time for my 4th check-in for the BAA challenge (don’t be confused by the “Month 5” I started with 1 instead of 0. . . this challenge ends for me in December, but I think I may still track my monthly progress every 6 months).

Pictures over the jump :o)

Month 1 on the left, Month 5 on the right:

I don’t feel that my front shots do a great job of showing my growth. . . I can tell you when I BC’d the top came to about halfway to the tip of my nose, stretched, now it’s a little bit past my nose. When I “start over” in January for tracking I’ll maybe to a pic off to the side or something so it’s easier to spot the growth. Also, the hair over my hear can now touch my collar-bone (not sure if you can tell from the pic). My neck and back pics are pretty accurate. I had mom assist for my back again so it only took one shot to get it. LOL, last month that back pic was giving me fits. I mean it’s not long enough for me to grab from the bottom, but it’s too long for me to really get a good shot of reaching my arm over the top like in the month 1 photo. Maybe I just need to be more flexible. . .

This month I didn’t do anything special with my hair. I did pretty well with protective styling pretty often, or at least doing low manipulation styles. I seriously can’t wait for my hair to be long enough to just throw in a bun and be done with. LOL. I am worried about my edges (especially on the right side) so I’m taking extra care with them when styling. I don’t do as many puffs as before and when I twist I make sure not to pull too hard (the same with this random tender spot in the middle of the back of my head).

As I’m sure you all can tell, the longer it gets, the more coily it gets. I love my coils, but sometimes they are HELL to detangle. LOL, I do a lot fewer WNGs in September (even though it was still hot as all get out) simply because the detangling session that follows isn’t worth it. I also have been trying to at least shampoo my hair in twists which makes it easier for me to get the shampoo on my scalp where it is needed the most. I’m still going to try to remember to get an applicator bottle the next time I see one. Maybe I’ll just make a special run to Sally’s.

I also haven’t been doing my usual deep condition treatment the last 3-4 weeks because I’ve been playing around with 3 minute deep conditioners (as I’m sure you can tell from previous posts). I like the 3 minute DCs when I’m in a rush, but I may go back to my longer routine with Winter coming up just to see how my hair does. I DC with Raw Honey typically which is a humectant which may not be a good thing in the winter. But I don’t LEAVE the honey on my hair I rinse it out completely, so I’m not too worried on that score. Hell Castor Oil is a humectant and I used it all last winter with no problems, but then I was still transitioning so I don’t know if it will have a different effect on my hair fully natural.

Alright, I’ve talked enough, adios!

My Advice To Transitioners

2010-10-01T21:59:00.000-04:00

I often find myself being asked for advice by friends about transitioning and my routine as a natural, or reading posts on forums asking for advice and not having the motivation to type it all out.

My personal transitioning journey actually started about 4 months after my last relaxer. I usually stretched my relaxers out that long (a habit I picked up going to undergrad away from home --I didn’t trust just ANYBODY with chemicals, or scissors for that matter, near my head-- so I had to wait until I got home on break which was usually about 4 months apart at a time) , but when it was time for me to get a relaxer I didn’t really have the money, and I didn’t really feel like going through the pain (my head always itched when it was relaxer time, and so I always scratched, and we all know what happens when you scratch), and my hair was growing wonderfully without it. I’d been thinking about going Natural for a while, but I kept putting it off for arbitrary reasons, so one day in October 2009 I decided to just stop getting relaxers. I called my stylist and told her what I was planning to do and tried to get a little advice, I don’t remember what she told me, but it wasn’t much. I do remember her telling me that she thought I’d only need to go about a year after I told her I wanted to just grow the relaxer all the way out (like my mom did) instead of doing a Big Chop. And thus began my journey.

The first thing I did was start doing some research. I don’t know WHY exactly I decided to do research. Probably because I was excited and since I wasn’t working at the time I had plenty of time and nothing to really fill it with. The first site I found was Nappturality and then I started spending a lot of time on CurlyNikki. I used the message boards on these sites to reach out to other transitioners as well as people who were already natural for advice. I had no idea how to do my hair since I never REALLY styled it before. I’d just flat iron it after I washed and blowdried it every two weeks, then it would just end up in a ponytail or just straight down until it was time to do it again. Knowing what I know now I cringe at that routine. Eventually I got myself together, started co-washing every week and letting my hair airdry in twists, I deep conditioned weekly and mostly kept my hair in protective styles. I also clipped my ends about once a month since I was going to be cutting them all off anyway (when I was relaxed I HATED getting my hair trimmed with a passion, I was focused more on length than hair health. I’m glad I got over that.

So anyway, my advice is fairly simple:

Have fun with your hair. If you aren’t used to styling your hair, like I was when I first started, this is an excellent time to learn how to do new things. I spent a lot of time trying to teach myself how to do various styles. Some I got very good at, others I’m still trying to master to this day, but through the entire process I had a lot of fun learning what my hair could do and learning new skills to keep my hair looking good. My hair looked better from the time I decided to transition than it ever had relaxed if it wasn’t someone else doing my hair.
Treat your hair like it’s already 100% natural. Again, the transition period is an excellent time to learn techniques, learn how to identify different ingredients, and what does and doesn’t work for your hair (and your budget). There isn’t one single thing I used transitioning that I couldn’t use today. Thanks to my limited funds I didn’t have the money to become a TOTAL product junky so I very quickly found some products that worked for me and stuck with them. Taking the time to get your regimen together NOW will save you time and heartache in the future. Even if some of the products aren’t as effective for your hair after you are fully natural, you can switch those out, but you will still have your routine (i.e., Wash every Thursday, Air Dry, Style using. . . , etc). You can really stop here with my advice, but if you want more detail, keep reading :o)
Set a goal. Transitioning isn’t just a physical thing, it’s a mental thing. I had a goal of at least a year before I’d even consider doing a Big Chop (BC). Even when I was in the last 4 months or so and starting to get antsy about seeing my natural hair in all of its relaxed-ends-free glory, I made myself wait a year. I think in making myself wait instead of cutting my hair off on an impulse I gave myself a lot less room to be disappointed. By the time I cut my hair I didn’t care what other people thought, I just knew I was ready and looking forward to the day. If you’re someone who, like me, wasn’t sure about having super short hair and shrinkage and all that good stuff, setting a goal for your long-term transition will help you greatly. If, like me, you did research the entire time, you will start looking forward to getting rid of those relaxed ends no matter how short your hair will be when you reach your goal date. If you join a couple of the Natural Hair Online Communities, you’ll have a huge support system of people ready to encourage you and help you on your way. When you have a goal and you reach it, you will just feel so awesome about your goal and reaching your goal that no one will be able to discourage you from your journey. At least that’s how I felt. In setting that goal for myself I gave myself the time to mentally transition because I knew come the end of May I was cutting my hair, I had time to prepare myself mentally for what that meant. This isn’t to say that some people who cut their hair more on a whim weren’t/aren’t perfectly happy with their hair. I’m just saying if you’re anything like I was, having that goal, that set date, went a long way in helping to mentally transition.
Don’t obsess over ingredients. Just because an ingredient is considered taboo, doesn’t mean it won’t work for your hair. For instance, a lot of people use the Curly Girl method which means no shampoo and no ‘cones in the conditioners you use. I’ve been using cones the entire time, they don’t really hurt my hair. So I’m not going to obsess over finding cone-free products to use because I don’t need to. Also, in a similar fashion, just because something DOES work for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for you. If you try something on someone else’s recommendation and you don’t like what it does to your hair, stop using it. You aren’t obligated to use a product because it works for your favorite guru.
Stay away from heat. I will admit that for a couple of months after my last relaxer, but before I decided to officially transition, I was following the same routine I had when I was maintaining a relaxed style—wash every 2 weeks, deep condition, blow dry (without any heat protectant might I add) and then flat iron (again without any real heat protectant, I think i did use some Oil Sheen, but that probably only fried my hair). I’m not sure when I got super lazy and stopped with that routine, but I do know that since I decided to go natural, or napptural would probably be more accurate, I haven’t TOUCHED a flat iron, and when I DO blow dry it’s on the lowest setting possible after my hair has air-dried for a few hours. Honestly, I think I’ve used the hair dryer like twice since this time last year. Heat damage can be just as bad as a relaxer when it comes to your natural hair, and if you are trying to maintain your texture staying AWAY from heat is the best way to avoid heat damage. I did a modified blow-out a couple of weeks ago, and I never put my hair on a setting above warm (on my hooded dryer it’s below medium and right above cool) or the lowest setting on my hand held dryer. I was VERY careful to not put too much heat on my hair. Some people go natural and flat iron their hair every week or two and that works for them, but I don’t do that and my advice is to not do that.
Keep your hair CLEAN. There’s a myth out there, that I think I once believed myself, that your hair grows faster when it’s dirty. That’s not true. Chances are your hair is growing at the same rate regardless, so you may as well keep it “so fresh and so clean.” Whether you do that with a shampoo or through-co-washing is up to you.

in this same vein, I’m going to advise you to stay away from shampoos with sulfates. This is the ONE ingredient I steadfastly avoid. If you’re like me and you had dry hair/scalp it may have been, at least in part, due to sulfates. Sulfates strip your hair of EVERYTHING, even the good oils that your body produces. You don’t want to strip your hair too much because then it becomes dry and brittle. The ONLY time I use sulfate shampoo is when I’ve tried a new product that I HATED (like Kinky Curly Curling Custard) and wanted to make sure ALL of it was out of my hair, and after I used that sulfate shampoo I did a deep condition for a couple of hours just to be safe. But again, if sulfates don’t hurt you and you like a shampoo that has sulfate in it and it’s working for you, don’t fix what isn’t broken.

Air dry whenever possible. This may be a bit redundant to point #4 (staying away from heat), but I really think air drying helped keep my hair happy and moisturized while I was transitioning AND after I BC’d. If you’re worried about how long it will take for your hair to dry, just try to be light handed when the products. The more product you put on your hair while it’s wet, the longer it will take your hair to dry. It’s best to do your hair when you have enough time FOR it to air dry if you’re going to do this. I know some people sit under a cool dryer for like 30 minutes before going to bed so their hair will be fully dry in the morning, that works too.
Deep Condition regularly. I deep conditioned once a week while I was transitioning (even when I was just co-washing), something I still do to this day. Every time I shampoo my hair I deep condition (even if I am using my sulfate-free shampoo).
Don’t be afraid to trim those raggedy ends. I don’t mean you have to do a BC (unless your ends are split all the way up the line of demarcation), but if you see your ends are looking crazy, don’t be afraid to cut them, they’re going to be gone eventually anyway. As someone who really (REALLY) hated getting her hair trimmed when she was relaxed, I found that trimming my own ends was kind of like therapy for me. At first I had my mom do it, but there were times she didn’t feel like doing it, or I didn’t feel like asking her to do it, so I learned to do it myself. For me the best way to trim my ends was the “dusting” method which is where you twist up your hair and cut off the tips where it feels thin. I wasn’t overly concerned about it being even since I was wearing curly styles and you couldn’t tell if it was even or not. Also, getting over my fear of the shears (LOL) enabled me to do my own BC when the time came which again was very therapeutic to me. I didn’t trust anyone but MYSELF to cut my hair for my BC, and I’m glad I did it myself.
Protective styles are your friends. Your hair is already super fragile near the line of demarcation (where your natural hair meets your relaxed hair), so the less you are doing TO it the less likely it is to break off. When I was transitioning I did a lot of buns (when I’d cut it too short to make them like I liked with my own hair I bought a couple of fake ones and baggied my hair underneath for like a week), twists, twist-outs, bantu-knots, bantu-knot outs, and braid outs. Every style I did could/did last a week. So basically after I washed and DC’d my hair I styled it and that was pretty much all I had to do to it until it was time to wash it again. I think this is why I didn’t have huge problems with breakage and was able to last a year without BC’ing prematurely or getting a relaxer.
Seal the moisture in your hair after you wash it. I did a post on this while I was transitioning, and anytime anyone asked me how I kept my hair moisturized I pointed them to a video by BlackOnyxx77 on YouTube. Basically you seal the moisture in your hair by using a water based leave-in conditioner, followed by an oil, followed by a cream based moisturizer. You did it in that order for very specific reasons. Water is what moisturizes your hair which is why the water-based leave in was first, then the oil would seal that in, and the cream based moisturizer would seal all of it in. I frequently switch out the cream based moisturizer for my Shea Butter mix because that’s what I use to style. When it gets cold again I may use the cream based moisturizer AND whatever Shea Butter mix I’m using to style that week (now I have more than one ~lol~).
BE PATIENT. This is going to be my last little bit of advice. Just be patient with your hair. Don’t obsess over other people’s growth vs your own. Don’t freak out if you can’t get a style the first time you try it. Don’t freak out if you don’t think your hair is growing fast enough. Transitioning can be a tough journey for a lot of people, I think what kept me from freaking out or finding it overly difficult was my (admittedly surprising) patience in dealing with my hair. If you take care of your hair it will grow and it will be healthy and you will BOTH be happy. And if you’re doing like #1 advises and having fun with your hair it will be so much easier to be patient with it.

So there you have it, all of the advice I have to give on transitioning, and actually probably on being Natural/Napptural as well. It’s really all very simple, there’s no magic silver bullet on what you have to do to your hair for it to look good. One of my favorite things about being natural is the fact that no matter how badly I mess up a style I’m trying to do, I can always just throw it in a puff and it looks good (LOL). So if you aren’t natural yet, that’s something to look forward to.

Aussie Moist 3-Minute Miracle Preview and Some Randomness

2010-09-26T16:14:00.001-04:00

So I wanted to see what was different about the 3-minute Miracle vs. Aussie Moist Conditioner and did a compare and merge in MS Word 2007. Here’s what it gave me:

Water (Eau) , Stearyl Alcohol , Cyclopentasiloxane , Cetyl Alcohol , Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine , Dimethicone , Ecklonia Radiata Extract (Australian Sea Kelp) , Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice , Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil (Jojoba) , Glutamic Acid , Fragrance ~~(Parfum) , Bis-Aminopropyl Dimethicone ,~~ , Benzyl Alcohol , EDTA , Methylchloroisothiazolinone , Methylisothiazolinone ~~, Ecklonia Radiata Extract , Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil (Jojoba) , Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice~~

Generally it looks like the same ingredients with different amounts. This should be interesting, I’m looking forward to seeing how it stacks up against the Biolage Hydra Therapie Ultra-Hydrating Balm. . . both only take Three Minutes. I’ll try it out this week, if I like it, it may become a permanent fixture. It’s kind of nice not having to take 15 minutes or more to DC, especially when I’m in a hurry.

I also went to the health foods store and got some Aloe Vera Gel (the smell is horrible to me) to try out. I’m thinking of adding it to my Shea Butter mix, but I might try to come up with a new shea-loe mix since my Shea Butter mix is pretty awesome to me as it is. Decisions, decisisons.

Oh, and I’ve been 100% relaxer free (as in no more chemically straightened hair) for over 4 months. YAY!!! I’ll do a post sometime soon with the styles I did last month since I did try to switch it up a little on the styles.

Matrix Biolage Hydra Therapie Ultra-Hydrating Balm Review

2010-09-18T11:28:00.001-04:00

So, someone sent me some of this to try and yesterday I decided to give it a whirl. This isn’t a product I’ve used more than once at this point, but I think I have enough to try it again next week. Overall, I like it. . .

Ingredients: Aqua (Water) , Cetearyl Alcohol , Behentrimonium Chloride , Glycerin , Amodimethicone , Cetyl Esters , Fragrance , Methylparaben , Cetrimonium Chloride , Trideceth-12 , Chlorhexidine Dihydrochloride , Propylene Glycol , Hexyl Cinnamal , Polysorbate 20 , Coumarin , Linalool , Butylphenyl Methylpropional , Hydroxycitronellal , Amyl Cinnamal , Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) , Geraniol , Algae (Algae Extract) , Pollen Extract , Saponaria Officinalis (Saponaria Officinalis Extract) , Saliva Officinalis (Sage Leaf Extract) , Silk Amino Acids , Cymbopogon Schoenanthus (Cymbopogon Schoenanthus Extract) , Triticum Vulgare (Wheat Germ Oil) , Methyl-2-Octynoate

Price: Anywhere from $15-25. For me this is a little steep for one product at this time, but it may be worth it on some level. . .

Smell: The smell is actually kind of strong and it smells like a Salon product (if that makes sense). It doesn’t smell BAD but it doesn’t make me want to eat my hair either. LOL, the smell DOES linger so if you’re sensitive to smells, this probably isn’t the product for you. I mean after using the product, I did a green tea rinse, then I used my other products that I normally use to style, and I can STILL smell this stuff on my hair (combined with my leave-in). It doesn’t bother me because it’s a clean scent, but if it DID stink, I’d have a real issue with it. As it is, I rather enjoy the scent.

Results: Here’s what the bottle says it will do:

Intensely conditions very dry, thick, coarse hair. Formulated with a sumptuous blend of silk amino acids and shea butter to envelop and smooth the cuticle, helping lock out humidity, frizz and unwanted volume.
Made in USA

After Biolage Ultra-Hydrating Shampoo
Massage into wet hair
Leave on 1-3 minutes
Rinse

Now, I didn’t use the shampoo, but other than that I tried to follow the directions (although I may have left it on for a little more than 3 minutes because I was combing it through to the end and all that good stuff). When I put it on my hair did feel softer, and the product does have a good amount of slip. I didn’t even have to use a BUNCH of product to feel it. I maybe used 2 1/2 50 cent piece-sized amounts on my hair to cover ALL of my hair:

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I REALLY enjoyed rubbing this product over my hair (which may have also contributed to my leaving it on for more than 1-3 minutes. After that I rinsed the product out of my hair. I loved that it didn’t take a super long time to get it all out of my hair (unlike my normal DC). Here’s my hair after I rinsed it out:

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My hair shrank back up almost IMMEDIATELY, which means it was pretty hydrated. It was soft and light to the touch. Overall, I was pleased with the results, even more so since I didn’t have to sit under a dryer for 15 minutes or wait 45 minutes-1 hr to deep condition. I think that was my favorite thing about the product. It’s an excellent time saver. On top of that, I didn’t even need to add raw honey and EVOO to it (which is good because I’m running low on both. . . ). Now I did follow this with a green tea rinse, but that was concentrated more on my scalp (I needed some relief there) so I don’t think that significantly altered the effects the balm had on my hair.

Here is my hair now completely dry and set for my latest style:

It looks great and no different than it would if I did my regular DC. I’m excited to see what the style ends up looking like.

Afros: Overall I give this product 4 out of 5 Afros. The only demerit is the price, while I love the product and the convenience, I’m reluctant to spend that much on one product since I DC once a week. I could see myself buying some for standby for those days when I don’t feel like doing the longer DC. If you are someone on a budget, this product may be too expensive for you without making a sacrifice somewhere else, but if someone gives it to you, I say go on and give it a try!

Twist-UpDo on Dry Stretched Hair

2010-09-13T09:31:00.001-04:00

So I decided yesterday that I wanted to try to come up with a new protective style, and I’ve always wanted something else to do with twists besides just twisting them. The above is what I came up with.

I started by co-washing my hair with my V05 Strawberries n Cream Moisturizing Milk and thoroughly detangling with a wide-toothed comb. Then I added some Garnier Fructis Sleek-n-Shine leave-in. After that I banded my hair by twisting the end (not two-strand twist, just twisting around themselves) and then putting on a ponytail holder and following through with other bands using the criss-cross technique seen here in this video. I then sat under a dryer on low for 30 minutes and cool for 30 minutes. After that I took each banded section out and blow-dryed on low for about 15 seconds just to get it dry, then I put Castor Oil on the ends and worked my way up before putting the section into a big twist.

The purpose of the Castor Oil was to soften and moisturize my hair, particularly my ends. I try to pay special attention to my ends to avoid the need for a trim, or at least frequent trimming, which is why I start with any moisturizer at my ends and then work my way up.

After I had my hair twisted up, I took it all out and played with it a bit (hey, I couldn’t help myself!) before parting it into 4 sections to begin the style. Section off a part in the middle and put the two sides into a ponytail or twist or whatever you do to keep it out of the way.

Once you have your hair sectioned off, begin your flat twists. I was going to try to do fancy parting and a cute design, but I’m not that great with the parting yet. Although it WAS much easier with my hair dry and stretched, I’m just not that good with parting. So I did straight parts and twisted straight back. Once I got to the end I finished it as a two strand twist and used a metal duckbill clip (plastic ones just don’t last for me). Do each side, then twist the ends going up and put them into a loose bantu-knot.

Now that you have your sides out of the way, simply do two strand twists at the top, once that finished those, I just took half and curled them under to the left and pinned and did the same thing to the right. You can pin these however you want. Here’s what it looked like when I finished doing all of that:

Check out my puff! Actually, I was tempted to leave my hair like this, and if you want I imagine you can. But I told myself when I started this process that I was trying to come up with a protective style, so I parted the back into sections and did pretty big twists, there are probably only 20 back there:

Again, you can leave your hair like this at that point if you want, but I wanted a protective style. So I experimented and ended up doing a bun last night:

Before I went to bed I rolled my hair on satin rollers and rods to get the twists curly, and because the twists on the left side (where I naturally have a looser texture) didn’t want to stay together. This morning I played around with pinning them using hair pins:

It was actually pretty cute. I wanted to go for a pin-curl look, they don’t look precisely like pin curls, I may try them again. I took this down though because I really didn’t feel like having a bunch of pins in my hair all day. I took that down and just put my hair into the style you see at the top of this post.

That’s all I did, pretty simple style, but I think it’s very cute. It’s going to be cold soon, so I need to come up with different things to do with my hair. One thing about fully stretching my hair out, it was cool to get a better idea of the length. Check my fro:

That is a LOT of hair. LOL

Yes to Cucumbers Conditioner Review (Finally!)

2010-09-11T20:19:00.001-04:00

Yes, so I’m finally doing my Yes to Cucumbers Conditioner Review. I’m not trying to make this suspenseful, so I’m just going to say I LOVE this stuff.

Ingredients: Water, Cucumis Sativa (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Cetearyl Alcohol, Peucedanum Graveolens (Dill Extract), Capsicum Annuum (green pepper extract), Maris Aqua (Dead Sea Water), Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Magnesium Chloride, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract (Chamomile), Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil, Brassica Oleracea Italica Seed Oil (broccoli), Benzyl Alcohol, Spinacia Oleracea Leaf Extract (spinach), Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Oil, Calendula (Calendula Officinalis) Flower Oil, Maris Limus Silt Extract, Cucumis Melo (Melon) Fruit Extract, Parfum/Fragrance, Triticum Vulgare Wheat Germ Oil, Punica Granatum (Pomegranate) Peel Extract, Lactic Acid, Centaurea Cyanus (Cornflower) Flower, Beta Vulgaris (Beet) Root Extract, Olea Europaea (Olive) Leaf Extract, Dehydroacetate Acid

Price: Now, it’s kind of pricey if you get it in Target or Walgreens at around $9 a bottle but it’s totally worth it. I’ve heard people say they found it for $3.99 in Ross (I think that’s the name of the place) and TJMaxx, but I clearly haven’t been to either of those places. If I ever DO go to one of them and they have it for $3.99 I’m stocking up!

Smell: I wasn’t crazy about the smell when I first got it. It doesn’t smell BAD, but it also doesn’t smell yummy. It just smells, I guess you could say “clean.” It’s weird, I don’t care for the smell too much when it’s just in the bottle, but on my hear it smells rather nice. I don’t know if it’s my body chemistry or the water or what, but I love the smell.

Results: Here’s what the bottle says it will do:

You will love our Color Care Daily Makeover Conditioner, specially formulated to protect your color treated hair. Add moisture with organic cucumber, spring water and hydrating green tea to give you a glossy tangle-free shine.

Combines organic cucumbers, aloe vera, centaurea and Dead Sea minerals.

We've also added extracts of centaurea that contain a powerful blend of potent anti-oxidants to lock in color and protect fading. You can thank us later!

99.6% Natural ingredients.
For damaged/color treated hair.
Hydrates and adds shine.
Combines organic cucumbers, aloe vera, centaurea and dead sea minerals.
Free of parabens, petroleum and SLS.

Yes To Cucumbers: A cool calming way to make your hair shine and your skin glow from head to toe.

Against animal testing.

I remember the first time I used this, and my hair INSTANTLY felt super soft. And when I say Instantly, I mean as I was raking the product through my hair, my hair felt cottony soft (it didn’t feel dry, just think of how soft good cotton feels). I was reluctant to rinse it out. This is not a one time event either. EVERY TIME I’ve used this product to co-wash my hair has felt the same way. No matter how dry it felt before doing the wash, my hair ended up feeling really soft. When I rinsed my hair felt super moisturized.

I’ve even used it as a Deep Conditioner by adding Raw Honey and EVOO to it and LOVED it. Honestly, in my eyes this product can do no wrong. the only way I haven’t tried it is as a leave-in, and that’s only because I have this complex about using rinse out conditioner as a leave-in. I just feel like there’s a REASON you’re supposed to rinse it out.

Afros: All in all, I give this product 5 out of 5 Afros. I can’t find anything to complain about other than the price, and honestly considering the product does what it says it’s going to do and NOTHING else I’ve tried makes my hair feel the same way I don’t mind the price. I’ve had this bottle for a couple of months and I still have like a third of it left. If you haven’t tried this product, I say give it a whirl, you may just fall in love with it.

I took a picture of my hair after using this product as a deep conditioner to try to give an idea of what my hair looks like afterwards, it’s not as clear/defined as I’d like, but I think you guys will get the general idea. I also just wore my hair as a WNG (I can’t remember if I added a leave in/oil afterwards) but I’ll attach a photo of that as well.

Month 3 Styles

2010-08-31T19:54:00.000-04:00

I realize this is Month 4, but I never did a post on the different styles I did in Month 3, so here it is (over the jump)!

This is just a WNG with two flat twists in the front:

These are the best set of twists EVER! I loved how they looked :

This style is two cornrows in the front and a chunky twist-out in the back:

This is the same style with the chunky twist-out pulled apart more to make it flufflier. I LOVED this and yes, my hair WAS as soft as it looked:

I didn’t experiment much this month as you can see. Hopefully I’ll experiment a little more this month! I really want to try a fro-hawk, and I need to start figuring out some pin up twist styles since it’s gonna be cold before I realize it (meaning it will sneak up on me. LOL)

BAA Challenge Month 4

2010-08-30T18:11:00.001-04:00

This month I notice that my hair is curling up a lot more, I don’t know if it’s the length, or if it’s retaining more moisture or what, but you can see in the pictures below I have little spirals popping up all over the place. Even that part that’s not nearly as coily on the left side of my head is curling up more.

Products I’ve been using this month hasn’t really changed. I feel like if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The last couple of weeks I did my DC with yes to Cucumbers instead of ORS still using the EVOO and Raw Honey and my hair loves it. Maybe that’s why it’s looking curlier too?

I didn’t do as much protective styling since I’ve been working, but I am going to try to get better at that as I get more length. I’m not one of those people who can just wear twists all the time because I’ll get bored with it. I did learn how to cornrow last month though, so that’s a good thing! I’ll still have to practice at it more. I’ll do a post later on some of the styles I did last month (I think).

Without further ado, the pictures:

Month 1 on the left, Month 4 on the right:

That back picture isn’t very good at all, sorry, I’m not as flexible as I thought I was and I couldn’t get it to show the actual length. Just trust me when I say it’s grown :o)

That’s all for now!

Guess Who Finally Learned How To Cornrow?

2010-08-15T20:37:00.001-04:00

YAY! So last night after the Carol’s Daughter FAIL, I decided it was a good time to give cornrowing another shot. After being unsuccessful at keeping it going once I got it started, I decided to look for a tutorial again online. I don’t know why I thought I’d suddenly find one, but alas I did! And from one of my favorite YouTubers no less. Armed with BlackOnyx77’s awesome and easy to understand tutorial I set off to try cornrowing. Here’s what my hair looked like when I went to bed last night (OMG my arms are SORE, actually it’s mostly my shoulders and neck, clearly those muscles need to be conditioned):

The one on the left is the last one I did:

I think it looks rather perfect myself. (Ignore the one next to it where you can clearly see I lost motivation ~lol~). So I woke up this morning and washed and DC’d my hair, then I set off to kind of imitate her style, I chose to do chunky twists in the back for a twist-out but here are a few shots of the braid:

This one is still wet

These two are after tying it down for a while and letting it dry:

I think I’ve pretty much mastered these! I’m so excited about it too because it opened up a whole new world for me as far as styles to try.

Now, if you’re going to use the tutorial I just posted you need to know how to plait. I’m not going to take it for granted that everyone knows how to plait. I’ll try to find a good tutorial. Plaits are just braids that aren’t cornrows (bad description, I know. LOL)

Carol’s Daughter Hair Milk Shampoo, Conditioner, and Lite Cream Review

2010-08-14T21:01:00.001-04:00

So, my mom bought some Hair Milk Shampoo, Conditioner, and Lite Conditioning Cream when Lisa was last on HSN. Although I HATE Carol’s Daughter Products generally when it comes to my hair, I decided to give it a shot. So without further ado, let the reviewing begin!

Shampoo:

What it’s supposed to do:

A nourishing shampoo for the type of hair that needs it most...curls. Cuts frizz, gently removes dirt, oil and product build-up. Made with essential oils plus Vitamin A to help condition the scalp and keep moisture in. Gives curls what they need for that desired healthy, bouncy look.

Curl Perfecting Shampoo Benefits:

Pro-vitamin B5 (Panthenol) – Helps minimize tangles and balance moisture
Vitamin A (Retinyl Palmitate) – Scalp conditioner that also protects from moisture loss. Plus protects from environmental damage.
Vitamin E (Tocopherol) – Conditioner that protects from environmental damage.
Essential Oils of Orange and Lemon
Paraben-Free, No Petroleum, Mineral Oil or Artificial Color
SLS/SLES/Sulfate-Free

Ingredients:

Water (Aqua), Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Glycerin, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, PEG-2 Cocamide Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), *Arctium Majus (Burdock) Root Extract, *Malva Sylvestris (Mallow) Flower Extract, *Equisetum Arvense (Horsetail) Extract, *Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Peel Extract, Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Peel Oil, Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Fruit Extract, Camellia Sinensis (Tea) Leaf Extract, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Saccharum Officinarum (Sugar Cane) Extract, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Oil, Elettaria Cardamomum (Cardamon) Seed Oil, Thuja Occidentalis (Cedar) Leaf Oil, Panthenol (Pro-vitamin B5), Biotin (Vitamin H), Retinyl Palmitate (Vitamin A Palmitate), Ascorbyl Palmitate, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Acetate), Linoleic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Creatine, Sodium Hyaluronate, Cetrimonium Chloride, Betaine, Glycol Distearate, Hexylene Glycol, Hexapeptide-11, Citric Acid, Disodium EDTA, Sodium Hydroxide, Acrylates Copolymer, AMP-Acrylates Copolymer, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Hydroxypropyl Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Silicone Quaternium-3, PVP, Trideceth-7, Trideceth-12, Polyurethane-14, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, PEG-150 Distearate, PEG-200 Hydrogenated Glyceryl Palmate, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Fragrance (Parfum)

* Certified Organic

I followed the instructions:

Apply a quarter-sized amount to damp hair. Work into a lather, rinse thoroughly. Repeat.

Well, I used more than a quarter sized amount because I didn’t feel like it was lathering. Which brings me to my first point, This stuff does NOT lather if you want a good lather. When I use my Shea Moisture, or even the ORS Aloe Vera shampoo, I get a great lather. Not so much with this product. I didn’t take a pic because I didn’t take a camera with me. But I did go get my camera to take pictures of my hair after I washed it out which will be posted directly. Now when I was using this shampoo I felt like my hair was being stripped, and that’s not a good thing in my book. My hair NEVER feels stripped, not even when I was doing ACV rinses or using the ORS Shampoo (which has sulfates in it). I was concentrating more on my scalp since I had a lot of buildup there (I was washing in twists at this point because that makes it easier for me to get shampoo on my scalp. I think I’ll have to invest in one of those applicator bottles), but I did get my hair, and I didn’t like the way it felt.

When it comes to smell, the shampoo smells the best of the three products to me. I can’t really describe it, kind of sweet but not TOO sweet if you don’t like that sort of thing. Anywhoo, I think I don’t think I’ll be using this shampoo again unless I feel like there’s way too much product on my hair and it needs a heavy duty cleaning. My hair wasn’t really that dirty (as I had just co-washed a couple of days before).

With that being said, I DID notice curls popping all over the place (click for larger photos):

All in all, I’d give the shampoo 3 out of 5 Afros, I think it DID kinda do what it was supposed to do, there seems to be less frizz, and you can see curls popping and my hair was definitely clean. BUT, the smell was only “ok” and I didn’t like the dry/stripped feeling when I was done washing.

Conditioner:

What it’s supposed to do:

The perfect companion to our nourishing, Curl Perfecting Shampoo. An indulgent, penetrating, moisture treatment that restores while supporting healthy-looking natural curls. Made with essential oils plus Pro-Vitamin B5 and Biotin to help replenish and strengthen hair with the natural nutrients it’s thirsting for, leaving your curls under control…which is where they belong.

Curl Perfecting Conditioner Benefits:

Pro-vitamin B5 (Panthenol) – Helps minimize tangles and balance moisture

Biotin (Vitamin H): Strengthens hair follicles and helps promote healthy hair

Vitamin A (Retinyl Palmitate) - A Vitamin A derivative known for its antioxidant properties and acts as a scalp conditioning agent. It also protects against moisture loss and environmental damage.

Vitamin E (Tocopherol) – An antioxidant and conditioning agent that protects hair from environmental damage.

Essential Oils of Orange and Lemon

Paraben-Free, No Petroleum, Mineral Oil or Artificial Color

Ingredients:

Water (Aqua), Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Cyclopentasiloxane, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Peel Oil, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Oil, Elettaria Cardamomum (Cardamon) Seed Oil, Thuja Occidentalis (Cedar) Leaf Oil, Panthenol (Pro-vitamin B5), Retinyl Palmitate (Vitamin A Palmitate), Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Acetate), Biotin (Vitamin H), Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Linoleic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Cetrimonium Chloride, Dimethicone, Amodimethicone, Cyclohexasiloxane, Divinyldimethicone/Dimethicone Copolymer, Caprylyl Glycol, Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, Citric Acid, C11-15 Pareth-7, C12-13 Pareth-3, C12-13 Pareth-23, Dicetyldimonium Chloride, Laureth-9, Polyurethane-14, Polyquaternium-37, Polysorbate 60, PEG-45M, PPG-1 Trideceth-6, Trideceth-12, AMP-Acrylates Copolymer, VP/DMAPA Acrylates Copolymer, Tetrasodium EDTA, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Fragrance (Parfum)

Instructions:

After shampooing with Hair Milk Curl Perfecting Shampoo, apply a quarter-sized amount to hair, comb through from roots to ends. Leave on for 3-5 minutes, rinse thoroughly.

Soooooo, I was a little leery of following the instructions since that’s not how I NORMALLY condition on wash day after using shampoo, but I went with it because I wanted the review to be “pure” or whatever. LOL, so since I had already thoroughly detangled with Suave Humectant before washing it wasn’t a hassle to comb through my hair. This conditioner immediately made my hair feel a bit less stripped, and it felt like it had slip. . . at first. I don’t think this conditioner has enough slip to apply only a quarter sized amount, so again I added more than the instructions stated. Then I went through and combed my hair with my wide-tooth comb which wasn’t hard at all really. But I don’t know how much of that was the Hair Milk Conditioner, and how much of it was the fact that I’d already pretty much detangled before washing. I don’t think it would have been as easy had I just washed and then conditioned without detangling beforehand, ESPECIALLY considering how much hair was in those twists since they were in for a week (I wanted to leave them in for two, but it didn’t happen. More on that in another post. . . maybe).

The smell, I didn’t care for the smell. It smelled a little better in the bottle than it did on my hair.

I left it on with a shower cap (because hey, I didn’t think it could hurt to add a little body-heat) for 3-5 minutes (I didn’t get an exact time) Here’s my hair after conditioning (click for larger photos):

Here it is after rinsing the conditioner out (click for larger):

All in all, I’d give the conditioner 1 out of 5 Afros, Again, curls are poppin, but I’m not convinced they are poppin’ any more than usual. I didn’t like the smell, and my hair doesn’t really feel all that conditioned at this point. I get the same results from co-washing with a cheapie conditioner.

Conditioning Cream:

What it’s supposed to do:

A curl’s best friend. A curl boosting, weightless lotion that tames frizz while defining your curls. Adapted from our famous original formula, Hair Milk Lite is made with essential oil of Lemon and Vitamin C for an extra light, moisturizing hold.

Hair Milk Lite The Curl Booster Benefits

Apricot Kernel Oil – Increases moisture

Cocoa & Shea Butters – Condition the scalp and hair

Vitamin C – Protects from environmental damage

Lemon Essential Oil – Gives this formula it’s energizing and uplifting fragrance

Paraben-Free, No Petroleum, Mineral Oil or Artificial Color

Ingredients:

Water (Aqua), Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Polysorbate 60, Dimethicone, Cyclopentasiloxane, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Triticum Vulgare (Wheat) Germ Oil, Beeswax, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Peel Oil, Myristic Fragrans (Nutmeg) Kernel Oil, Xanthan Gum, PVP, Silica, Phenyl Trimethicone, Polyurethane-14, AMP-Acrylates Copolymer, Caprylyl Glycol, Hexylene Glycol, Potassium Sorbate, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance (Parfum)

Instructions:

Apply a dime-sized amount to damp hair and style as desired. Add more as necessary

Ah, Hair Milk. I’ve used the Original before, I didn’t like it. In fact, the first bottle I got when I was still relaxed so of course it did nothing for me. I ended up giving it to my Grandma and she loves the stuff. My mom gave her the second bottle of her Light Hair Milk and my Grandma loves that too, she likes it a little more because it’s not as heavy which is good for her hair since her curls are way looser (I love my Grandma’s hair, if I live to be old I want it to look like hers).

So it said a dime sized amount to damp hair, so I dried my hair a little with an old white T-Shirt. Then I took some Hair Milk (more than a dime, I figured it’d be okay because it’s “Lite” and my hair definitely needs more than “Lite” conditioning). I put it on my head rubbing it back like I was gong to put it in a ponytail a few times before shaking. here it is right after application:

I wasn’t worried about the white because I know creams will eventually absorb.

Here it is mostly dry (click for larger):

Now it IS soft, and as you can see it’s actually pretty defined. Makes me wonder if maybe the Original Hair Milk would work better with the Shampoo and Conditioner. Buuuuuuuuuuut, the smell is making me want to throw up. I WOULD wash my hair again right now, but it’s late and I don’t feel like sitting under a dryer.

But again, I’m not convinced that this product (the smell of which makes me nauseous) does anything I can’t get from just a regular leave-in conditioner the smell of which doesn’t make me sick.

All in all, I’d give the Lite Hair Milk 3 out of 5 Afros, My hair IS soft, and it IS pretty defined. I don’t really feel like I can run my fingers through my hair, but that’s a usual for me just because of how my coils form. Once my hair is dry, at least at this length, it shall not be moved. LOL. I don’t TOTALLY hate this product, but I definitely will NOT be using it again.

BAA Challenge Month 3

2010-07-29T18:13:00.001-04:00

So I’m actually on time this time! LOL

I didn’t really do anything different this month. I did get some Yes, to Cucumbers and some Suave Humectant that I’ve been playing around with the last couple of weeks. I tried a new style: Bantu-Knot Out. I loved that style of course. I didn’t do many WNGs this go round. I did re-incorporate Castor Oil.

Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. LOL! I am thinking about getting the Yes, to Cucumbers shampoo, but it has sulfates in it, so I’m still marinating on it. Oh, and I’ve been adding Raw Honey and EVOO to every DC. I can’t tell you the ratios, I just kinda eyeball it.

Without further ado, the pictures:

Month 1:

Month 3:

That’s my Mom’s hand in the back picture, I needed an assist.

Again, my shrinkage amazes and amuses me. LOL

Bantu-Knot-Out

2010-07-25T19:00:00.001-04:00

This was actually done in Month 2 (and it shall be tagged as Month 2), I was just too lazy to do it then.

So I finally got around to doing some Bantu-Knots, they weren’t comfortable to sleep in at all. Here’s the final result of the first set:

(click for larger pictures). Pretty, eh? LOL, well once the humidity got to my hair it looked like:

(click for larger picture)

So I put them back in that night, and the new set lasted for the rest of the week WITHOUT me having to “sleep pretty” because I don’t “sleep pretty”, when I try to do that, I don’t end up getting much sleep.

It wasn’t as fluffy as the first one, but it was still very pretty. Anyway, over the fold to see how I did it.

So first I washed and DC’d. I think I used ORS Aloe Vera Shampoo because my scalp was giving me fits, which meant it wasn’t clean enough. I only do sulfates once every couple of months, so I figured I’d be okay. After that I DC’d with ORS Replenishing Condis, Raw Honey, and EVOO (I still haven’t found anything better than this combo. I don’t measure, I do the old school way of cooking which is just doing it by eye. But I do know I use a lot of Honey and EVOO and Conditioner because I like my head to be fully saturated).

After I finished DC’ing, I did my “old school” (LOL) sealing method from when I was transitioning. That meant a water based leave in (I think I used my Aussie Hair Insurance), Castor Oil, and ORS Olive Oil Moisturizing Hair Lotion. That’s it, I banded my hair to let it dry stretched bececause I tried doing the knots on wet hair, and my hair isn’t long enough yet for me to do that without driving myself crazy. Here’s a pic of my hair banded:

After it was almost dry (probably 4 hours later) I took them down section by section and detangled again using a cool hand held dryer with a comb attachment (I know this is a no-no, but I only did it for probably 20 seconds per section, and my hair was already thoroughly detangled before banding it) to get it more dry. After that I put in my Bantu-Knots (notice, without adding anything to “set” the knots, which is why I think the humidity did a hatchet job on it that Monday ~Lol~)

I used the method where you two strand twist and THEN knot it. This is the first time I did them that way and liked the outcome (I didn’t care for that method when I was transitioning.

As you can see I used my ponytail holders to keep them in place, I didn’t want to use bobby pins because I don’t have any plastic ones, and I’m not scared to use the metal ones (LOL). As Bantu-knots tend to do, it was very hard to sleep in them. It wasn’t a comfortable 3 nights (the two on the weekend, and then again on Monday when I r e-did them).

I did them in larger sections because I wanted a looser curl, I think it came out beautifully. When I took them down I just carefully removed the ponytail holders and kinda pulled so the knot would come out, then I gently took apart the twist. Sometimes I took the twist apart a little more to cover some parts (this is what made it look fluffier) since the parts were so huge. I only wish that humidity hadn’t gotten to me. The day after the humidity, I re did them using some ORS Wrap and Set Mousse, and like I said before they lasted until Friday.

I have quite a few weddings coming up where I’m a bridesmaid, at least for the first one this may be the style I do, it’s cute, I can do it myself, and I don’t have to worry about what some stylist may be putting in my hair.

Two Months Down!

2010-07-22T10:00:00.000-04:00

In honor of my second month natural, I made a video of what I did this month. Enjoy!

LOL

2010-07-17T12:23:00.001-04:00

Gotta love shrinkage. . .

SheaMoisture Organic Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque Review

2010-07-13T18:14:00.001-04:00

Okay, I am totally backlogged on everything I keep meaning to blog. LOL, I’m going to try to catch up tonight. This is the product I’m reviewing:

The ingredients are:

Deionized Water

Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter)*

Argan Oil

Cetyl Esters

Sea Kelp Extract

Panthenol (Vitamin B-5)

Ammonium Salt

Essential Oil Blend

Avocado Oil

Lonicera Caprifolium (Honeysuckle) Flower (and) Japonica (Japanese Honeysuckle) Flower extract

Tocopherol (Vitamin E)

Hyssopus Officinalis Extract

Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf and Equisetum Arvense Extract

Soybean Oil

Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Seed Oil

*Certified Organic Ingredient

Now as you can see, this product is supposed to be for Dry, Damaged hair. I don’t think my hair is or was particularly dry or damaged, but I’d seen other people on different sites raving about it, so I was excited to try it.

First thing is first, this stuff smells DELICIOUS. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to eat it or put it on my hair, and while it was on my hair, I kinda wanted to eat my hair. LOL. Also, the price was pretty reasonable at $9.99 for 12oz.

Other than the smell, this product disappointed me. It has a consistency like cake icing (the kind you buy at the store), but when you put it on it doesn’t feel nearly that thick unless you use a whole bunch of it. When I used it I left it on for 45 minutes to an hour. I tried it twice, once without heat, and once with heat. Neither result impressed me. My hair didn’t really feel particularly soft and/or moisturized afterwards.

The instructions state that you can also use this product as a leave-in, but I don’t think that will work if you aren’t doing something like twists. I tried it as a leave in for a wash n go, but it’s too heavy for that. That may have been my own heavy-handedness more than it was the product, but I applied the same amount as I do of my Garnier Fructis leave in. I had sat under the dryer to expedite the drying process because I was gonna go somewhere later that day and didn’t really want to roll out with wet hair, and it was drying WHITE (if you remember my KCCC experience, you know I HATE that), so I ended up rinsing it out like it was just a DC and my hair did fine.

So basically, I don’t think this product was really all that moisturizing. I will try to use up what I have but I will probably add honey and EVOO to it to see if I get better results.

I will not be repurchasing this product. Heck, I might give away what I have, I don’t know. . . LOL. Anyone wanna trade?

I give this product 2/5 Afros for the smell and the price.

BAA Challenge Month 2

2010-07-04T20:10:00.001-04:00

Hola chicas, so I’m checking in (late of course) for my BAA Challenge, month 2

First off, what I’ve been doing since the last length check. I’ve added shampooing once a week to my regimen. Co-washing was great and all while transitioning, but after I BC’d (as I’m sure I mentioned before) I really wanted to start shampooing again. I still co-wash for WNGs and if I’m washing again after an initial wash. The night before I wash, I detangle my hair with water and EVOO, and leave the EVOO on with a conditioning cap and satin bonnet to sleep (aka pre-poo). I use the SheaMoisture shampoo I reviewed below. I shampoo twice, the second time I shampoo I de-tangle with the shampoo in it.

After I finish shampooing, I do my deep condition once a week. I used the SheaMoisture Deep Treatment Masque twice, I don’t think that’s really something I will/want to use every week. Other than that I used my staple ORS Replenishing Conditioner to deep condition. Once or twice I sat under a warm dryer to speed up the process, other times I just left it on with a conditioning cap and my satin bonnet for 30 minutes to an hour.

After I rinsed out the DC in cold water, it was time to style. I think I did mostly twists for the entire month. There was a week in there where I did a bunch of WNGs when I was trying to perfect my method, but so far my go to “protective” style has been twists. Maybe this month I’ll stop being lazy and start trying to do different things like Bantu-knot outs and braid-outs.

When styling I did my traditional sealing method, but I cut out the last step. Since it’s hot outside and too much product on my scalp when I’m sweating makes my head itch, I just do a water based leave in, and then seal with EVOO. Then if I was twisting I’d use my Shea Butter mixture (which my hair and I LOVE).

During the week I’d spritz my hair with water, the last couple of weeks I started using Green Tea for my daily spritz, and it made my hair really soft.

So I haven’t really been using any new products or done anything unusual with my routine. the biggest change I’ve made from my “winter” routine was using EVOO instead of Castor Oil to seal, and skipping the creamy moisturizer to seal, oh and shampooing once a week.

Things I think I want to try for the next month:

Hot Oil Treatment
Braid-Out
Bantu-knot out
learn how to cornrow/french braid

I don’t know if that last one will ever happen because I always lose motivation when I try. LOL. So it will be on my list until I accomplish it.

Now for the length checks:

Month 1:

Month 2:

So far I’m happy with my progress. Next month I will compare the pictures to the first month, not the second month, and so on. That way when I get to the 6th month I will be comparing those photos to the beginning as opposed to the month before. Maybe at the end I’ll also do a timeline progression thing to see how it went from month to month side by side.

SheaMoisture Brilliant Curl Shampoo Review

2010-06-24T17:27:00.001-04:00

So I’ve had this product for almost a month now, and I’ve been using it to wash at least once a week. I figured I’ve given it enough time for me to write an honest and accurate review of it. Here is a pic of the product of which I speak:

First thing’s first. This stuff SMELLS AWESOME. I know the scent of something shouldn’t be your biggest concern, but for me if I don’t like the smell of a product there’s no way I’m going to want to use it consistently. The smell is pretty coconutty.

Ingredients are as follows:

Here are the ingredients in order:

Deionized Water

Decyl Glucoside (Sugar Beets)

Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil*

Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter)*

Aloe Vera Leaf Juice

Vitamin E

Melia Azadirachta (Neem) Seed Oil

Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate (Coconut Oil)

Panthenol (Vitamin B-5)

Rosemary Extract

Silk Protein

Lonicera Caprifolium (Honeysuckle) Flower (and) Lonicera Japonica (Japanese Honeysuckle) Flower Extract

* Certified Organic Ingredients

All good stuff, nothing that is on the “bad” ingredient list for Natural hair. The price is also VERY reasonable. I paid $9.99 (plus tax) for it at the local Target, and I have a feeling it will last me until like the end of the year. In the picture above that was after like 5 or 6 washes (one day I used it to wash my hair 3 times in a row trying to figure out a WNG, I think I talked about it in a previous entry).

If lather is important to you, then you will LOVE this stuff. A little more than quarter sized amount is enough to get you a nice lather all over your head the FIRST time you shampoo. You know how sometimes with shampoos you don’t get a really good lather out of shampoos until the SECOND time you do it. Not with this stuff. You get awesome lathering EVERY time you use it.

The only thing I did before washing my hair was pre-poo overnight with EVOO. Since this is a sulfate-free shampoo I didn’t have to do any of the diluting stuff I’ve heard other people do to their hair. This shampoo does NOT leave your hair stripped at all. In fact, I think I could get away with not conditioning afterwards and just going straight to my leave-in and some EVOO for WNGs. I’m not going to TEST that theory (LOL), but I think I could get away with it.

Additionally, if you want to revive your curls, this shampoo will DEFINITELY do it for you. While washing my hair after the first rinse I can feel curls popping all over the place (especially in the back where my curls are tighter). It’s a wonderful feeling. The bottle says that you can use it for detangling, and I will say that the bottle isn’t lying. I like to rake my fingers through (not a comb!) to get any shed hairs I may have missed detangling the night before.

When I rinse my hair out it feels REALLY soft. For those of you who watch Rachel Ray, you know how she’s always talking about “smell-a-vision”? Well I wish computers had “feel-a-vision” because my hair feels so wonderful after using this shampoo. I think it does what it says it will do. I think there was an accompanying regular conditioner or hair milk type thing, I may have to go back and get some of that. If just the shampoo is as moisturizing as I find it to be, it may be even BETTER if I use it as a set.

Which brings me to another point, this product DOES work well with others. I don’t think you will HAVE to purchase it in a set of other SheaMoisture products if you don’t want to.

Here’s my hair after my first use of the shampoo, this was BEFORE I used any type of conditioner:

Here’s my hair on the 22nd after washing with the shampoo and DCing with my ORS/Honey/EVOO mix:

My hair loves this stuff (oh and in the second pic, that’s water running down my forehead, not a vein or something. LOL). If you click on the pics I think you may be able to see larger versions.

So basically I give this shampoo 5 Afros out of 5 (LOL). I recommend it to anyone with curls and thick hair. There is not one thing I dislike about this shampoo. It’s also excellent for your scalp.

Green Tea, Oh How I Love Thee. . .

2010-06-23T11:24:00.001-04:00

let me count the ways ~lol~

So I participate in a couple of hair forums, and on one of them a few ladies would talk about doing “tea rinses” to their hair. It sounded interesting, and since the ladies had beautiful hair I thought “hey, maybe there’s something to this”. So, I started doing some research on tea and hair. As it turns out, I only had green tea in the house so I wanted to see what benefits it has for the hair. Here’s what one article had to say about it:

Soothes Dandruff and Psoriasis

Research also suggests that green tea can help with scalp conditions such as dandruff and psoriasis by soothing skin and reducing inflammation. Using a shampoo that contains green tea or using a green tea rinse after shampooing can help reduce scalp irritation. Many commercial anti-dandruff shampoos contain carcinogens, making green tea products a safer alternative. When choosing a green tea shampoo, look for one in which green tea appears close to the top of the list of ingredients and that does not contain harmful chemicals such as sodium lauryl sulfate or parabens, which could contribute to scalp irritations.

Strengthens and Conditions

Green tea also contains vitamin C, vitamin E and panthenol, which are all common ingredients in hair conditioner. Vitamin E restores dry or damaged hair, while vitamin C guards against damage from UV radiation. Panthenol, a provitamin, strengthens and softens hair and prevents split ends. Choose hair products that contain real green tea extract or EGCG.

Read more: How Green Tea Benefits Hair | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5002209_how-green-tea-benefits-hair.html#ixzz0rgj2IALf

It also supposedly makes hair grow, but I’m more concerned with dandruff/itchiness and conditioning. So I made up some green tea using loose herbs and a personal tea maker thing I got from Wal-Mart. I can’t remember the name of it, but here’s a picture:

So it’s like a little tea kettle and cup, it’s for making individual cups of tea. I think if you fill it it actually makes a little over 1 cup. So I’d put in two teaspoons of the herbs to a cup of water. Then I’d microwave the water and let it stew for about 5-10 minutes. Then I’d put it in a little plastic container and throw it in the fridge. I filled a little spray bottle (like one of the $1 travel ones you can find at Wal-Mart or CVS) and I keep it in the fridge. I wake up in the morning and spritz some on, and I spritz some on before bed. I use this instead of water now (something I picked up from one of the ladies on CurlyNikki.com.

After doing this for a week my hair was soooooo soft and moisturized. Here’s the twist-out I ended up with after using this method:

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Now, I didn’t do a great job of getting the tea on my scalp, I really need to figure out a failsafe way to moisturize my scalp. My HAIR was really soft and moisturized, but my scalp was dry, and I ended up with a lot dandruff for like the first time in a long time. I think that also may have been from the fact that I didn’t DC last week. I only co-washed. So I washed my hair with my SheaMoisture Brilliant Curl Shampoo yesterday and DC’d with ORS mixed with Honey, EVOO, and a couple of drops of Jojoba Oil. My scalp feels MUCH better.

I think the next time I wash I’ll actually try the tea as a rinse as well as a spritz. But basically, I say if you haven’t experimented with tea, you should give it a shot! I may even try drinking more green tea too (even though I don’t care too much for the taste).

One Month Natural (As Of Yesterday)

2010-06-23T10:37:00.001-04:00

So yesterday was my one month anniversary! YAY me! So what did I learn in the first month?:

Conditioner only does not work for me as far as WNGs
Gel doesn’t really work either
Leave-In Conditioner and EVOO works wonderfully for my WNGs
My smaller twists look better if I just grab and twist
Trying to part my hair is definitely a process. I’m hoping it will get easier as my hair gets longer (so it’ll be easier to clip out of the way)
My hair apparently LOVES green tea
Detangling at night and pre-pooing the night before washing = happy hair and a happy me
SheaMoisture Brilliant Curl Shampoo is awesome on so many levels (review pending)

Here’s some of the styles I’ve done over the last month:

My New Wash N Go Method

2010-06-14T17:39:00.001-04:00

So even though I BC’d less than a month ago, I wanted to perfect my WNG. I knew it was going to be one of my staple styles over the summer since it’s hot, and I’m lazy when I’m hot. So the accordion method I was talking about in previous posts works out fine, but my hair wouldn’t stay defined when it dried. It turned into a curly fro. I liked the curly fro look, but I still wanted to try my hand at defining the curls a little. Find out what I did over the jump

So here's exactly what I did:

1. Wet Hair thoroughly (I used cold water)

2. Add V05 (the day before I used Tresemme Naturals, both worked equally well, I tried a different one today to see if I could get the same or better results) and detangle with fingers in sections (this really doesn't take very long at all, especially if you did it the day before)

3. After de-tangling using the kimmaytube method to get rid of shed hairs, flatten your hands and run them over your hair

4. Rinse your hair, don't touch it, just let the water run over it, I start out leaning back and letting the cold water run over it then when I feel like all of the conditioner is out, I may bend over to make sure I get the back, and the same for the sides. You can run your hands OVER your hair but make sure you run it in the same direction the water is going don't rub.

5. Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake until most of the water is out. I start out shaking while leaning back, then I stand up and shake, then I shake from side to side by tipping my head from left to right, then bend over and shake. This basically makes your hair really fluffy.

6. Add leave-in of your choice making sure to get it all over. Again don't rub, just run your hands over your hair repeatedly. I do it from front to back, then from back to front, then from side to side. Until your hair is saturated. It should dry clear, so don't worry if your hair is a little white.

7. Shake it like a Polaroid picture (LOL), seriously, shake your hair again as much as you want. You should see the curls clumping together at this point.

8. Add oil of your choice to further seal in moisture the same way you added the leave-in, I used EVOO.

9. Shake again as much as you want (or can handle)

Here's what my hair looked like after that:

10. Style as you wish, or you can wait and style after it dries a bit

11. Resist the temptation to touch it.

All of this takes less than 10 minutes really.

Here it is dry:

The product does dry clear (as you can tell better by the pictures at the top of this post. And it’s really nice and shiny (as shiny as our hair can get) from the inside pictures.

My hair dries super soft and light, it doesn't feel weighed down at all, and it's MOISTURIZED which stops tangles (because you're actually sealing in the moisture instead of just leaving on a conditioner alone). No gel is required, you may be able to add it, but my hair doesn't really care too much for gel when it comes to WNGs.

Embrace the Shrinkage

2010-06-09T12:13:00.000-04:00

So I BC’d a couple of weeks ago, and one thing I was really worried about before BCing was shrinkage. For the last few years I was obsessed with length. I even hated to have my ends clipped even when I needed them clipped. It’s amazing how far I’ve come in less than a year. Yes, less than a year. I may have BC’d a year after my last relaxer, but I didn’t “officially” officially decide to go natural until about 4 months later. I usually went that long without getting a relaxer since I got used to it in undergrad (I didn’t like non-professionals putting chemicals or scissors in my hair), but one day I just decided “f-it, I don’t want anymore relaxers.”

Anyway, my point is, I was once afraid of shrinkage and obsessed with length. Now I’m more obsessed with the health of my hair. I don’t want it to be dry and nasty and dirty. I want my hair to be happy, when my hair is happy, I’m happier. When my hair isn’t happy, I’m not happy. It may just be a psychological thing, but when you look good, you feel good.

The way I see my shrinkage now is, it’s healthy. My hair is curly almost to the point of being coily in some spots, and less so in others. When my hair is healthy, it will shrink. When I pull a piece of my hair out, it usually snaps right back into the curl, and I love it. When it grows out some more it will still have shrinkage, but it probably won’t be able to do what it does now, so I’m embracing my shrinkage. I love my shrinkage. My shrinkage is part of what makes me and my hair uniquely beautiful. I’m sure there will come a time when I dislike the shrinkage (no one loves anything ALL the time) but I suspect those times are going to be few and far between.

So embrace your shrinkage, especially in the summer because while some necks will be baking, mine will be nice and cool. :o)

Perfecting my WNG

2010-06-07T09:24:00.001-04:00

I’ve pretty much decided that I cannot do the whole “curl defining” thing, at least not at this length. I don’t have the patience, and when I do try to be patient with it it ends up being too white (as in too much product) and I was paranoid that it wouldn’t dry clear. So I went back to the conditioner only method (LOL@ “went back to” when I’ve only been natural like two weeks. . . ). I love the accordion method from Mahogany Curls for my WNGs, the shake method didn’t give me the same results. But with the accordion method, it took my hair way too long to dry. I think part of that was using HEHH because that conditioner is so thick, and part of it is my hair is thick as all hell. So it takes almost 24 hours for my hair to dry.

This morning I woke up and refreshed my WNG, but then I decided to try something different. So I co-washed with my V05 Strawberries n Cream conditioner (which is lighter than HEHH) and then I rinsed my hair and shook it to get out most of the water. THEN I took about two quarter sized amounts of the V05 conditioner and ran it over my head. After that I did the scrunching method and pulled it back into a puff. Now it hasn’t even been an hour yet, and my hair is pretty close to dry (except for the very back which for some reason always takes a really long time to dry ~shrug~) And it’s bigger and fluffier than when I use the HEHH. Here’s a picture of it now.

The curls aren’t really “defined” per-se, but I like the curly/fro look.

This is my first time trying this method, I like it, I’m going to try again tomorrow to see if I can get a little more definition, and to try to figure out a way to get the back to not take as long to dry. Right now it’s really trial and error.

Twistouts

2010-06-01T21:11:00.001-04:00

So I’ve been natural what 10 days? LOL and I’ve already done TWO twist-outs. That is out of control. So here are the twists I did like the day after I BC’d:

I wasn’t crazy about them. I don’t think I did them small enough that time, but considering it was a first effort, not bad. As you can see the ends were looking kind of dry and crusty. I think that’s the only spot where I’ve really had that horrible dryness that I heard a lot of people have after they BC. But night after night I’d put some EVOO on my twists and slowly but surely those ends came to life. Also, some of them were being plagued by some stowaway straight ends, I’ve been snipping those off. I did my first wash n go AFTER these twists and the subsequent twist out, and between the WNGS and the lastest set of twists, I think I may have finally gotten them all. . .

Here is the resulting twist-out:

Not bad. There’s a lot of definition which is good, and the twists were about the size I liked, but I didn’t like how much scalp was showing. I think that will go away though as my hair begins to get used to its freedom, I’m already seeing it stretching to be free.

Then on Sunday after that WNG I did I got bored and decided to re-twist my hair again, this time I did it much smaller (at least I thought I did. . . And I just grabbed and twisted, no comb was really used. Pics over the jump.

So here are the pics of the smaller twists that I did which I liked more. I actually was going to try to keep them in for two weeks, but due to a mistake in styling the night before I had to go on an interview, I ended up taking them out sooner and so I’ll be rocking a twist-out for the rest of the week. I am DETERMINED to keep my hands out of my hair for at least a couple of days. We’ll see if I last.

I think the twists came out very well, and I really did love them. I’m actually kinda pissed that I couldn’t keep them in longer since it took me so long to do them, but a sistah is trying to get a j-o-b. . . Here’s the twist-out:

BAA Growth Challenge

2010-06-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

So I’ve entered a BAA (or “Big ass afro” challenge that will run for six months starting today. The purpose of this challenge is just to make your hair grow. Nothing special involved there.

Here is my starting information (I actually took the pics a few days ago, but my hair is probably the same length, I don’t think it’s growing quite THAT fast ~lol~)

Current length: about 4-5" in the front, about -46" in the crown/middle and 5-6" in the back

Any goals: I want about another 2-3 inches, and healthy happy hair. I also want to learn how to cornrow/french braid

Challenge Duration: June 1-December 1

Products: Not sure yet since I just BC'd, right now I'm just going to use what I used while transitioning and see what does and doesn't still work. So my staples (I rotate the conditioners) are V05 Strawberries n Cream, HEHH, Aussie Moist, DC = ORS Replenishing Conditioner, Leave-in= Aussie Hair Insurance, Oils= Castor and EVOO, Styling = ORS Lock and Twist Gel & Shea Butter mixture.

Regimen: Wash at least once a week & DC, if I wash more than once, I just co-wash. Shampoo once a month, ACV Rinse once a month or as needed.

Here are the starting pictures:

Wash N Go

2010-05-30T09:53:00.001-04:00

So the night before I detangled my hair by spraying water on it and finger detangling before putting about a quarter size amount of EVOO on each section (I had 5 or 6). Then I went through it with a comb and put that part in an afro puff. When I was finished I played around with my fro before putting it into 4 puffs to sleep.

I woke up the following morning, co-washed with Aussie Moist, then I did an ACV rinse, but instead of rinsing it like I normally do, I put my conditioner stuff over it and then covered that with a conditioning cap and a bonnet and let it marinate for a little over an hour. I rinsed that out with cold water, and now was coming the fun part! I was going to try out the KCCC my LS sent me. Well, it's true when they say that stuff doesn't play well with other products. as I was putting it on I noticed it was turning white. I thought it would go away as it dried, but as it dried it only got worse. So I looked online and according to the KCCC people if it does that it may mean your hair wasn't wet enough so the product didn't get distributed. Okay. So I rinsed my hair through a little bit to try to get it more evenly distributed. It got worse.

Here's my hair after the initial application. I thought I greatly resembled Lionel Ritchie from the "Hello" video. I wasn't feeling it, but I knew it would shrink up.

but after I rinsed and tried to get rid of some of the access moisture using an old T-shirt my hair looked like this:

Oh heyal naw. I WAS going to sit under a cool dryer to speed up the process, but I noticed that as it dried it GOT WORSE. So I had to wash that crap out of my hair. I still have a little left, so I may try again and just use the Knot Today and KCCC since that product REALLY doesn't play well with others. My curls were being defined, but they were also turning white.

So I used some of my mom's ORS Aloe Very shampoo and got that stuff out of my hair. Then I used some HEHH and a little clear Eco Styler gel to do a variation of MahoganyCurls's "accordion" technique. (I'd done a different technique that required me to take little sections of my hair smooth and release to do the KCCC application, and I just didn't feel like going through all of that again. LOL, so I'll try that again next time with something else next week) So here's my hair right after finishing the accordion technique, it's SOAKING wet, but after what it just went through, I figured it earned the right to air dry since I didn’t have to go anywhere anytime soon.

I don't know if you can tell, but the curls on the left are a lot looser than the ones on the right, but my hair has always been like that. The left seems to grow faster, but that’s because the curls are looser. I actually really don’t like the looser curls, I’m hoping they’ll tighten up over time. Plus, I think I missed more straight ends on that side, so that may be weighing the curls down. I’m slowly but surely getting rid of all of them. That’s the good thing about this style, I’m finding all of those little straight pieces that previously alluded me, and I’m less likely to cut a curl because I can just grab that one straight piece.

So after my hair dried I ended up putting it into a puff because I don’t really like leaving my hair just hanging. I LOVED my puff though. I used the same method I’d been using while transitioning which was to take a knee high and tie it in the back, then slide it to where I wanted it before knotting it. Be careful not to get hair caught in the tie in the back. You can try putting the knot in the front where you’ll be less likely to catch it on some hair, but it may be more difficult to hide it.

For the front, sides and back I used a LITTLE (and I do mean a little) clear Eco Styler Gel and brished it back to where I was going to have the puff start before putting on the knee high. You don’t need a lot, a little goes a long way. That night I just took about a quarter sized amount of EVOO and patted it on my hair and slept in my satin bonnet.

Here’s my second day hair:

For my second day hair, I merely took my spritzer bottle that only has bottled water in it and sprayed my hair down until it was well saturated. Then I took some EVOO and patted it on my hair and smoothed it on the edges. That’s it.

This morning I probably could have gotten a third day out of it, but I wanted to see if it was a fluke the first time. So this morning I co-washed with HEHH and then did the accordion method again. This time instead of using a little Eco Styler Gel I used some Carol’s Daughter Hair Milk. So my hair is a little softer due to the absence of gel. I also didn’t gel down the front this time to see if I could still get the look without the gel. Once it got pretty dry (as in no longer dripping) I patted it with about a nickel sized amount of EVOO to seal in the moisture that was still on my hair. Here’s the result:

It’s still wet in the back, but it’s mostly dry everywhere else. I think that’s another advantage to not using the gel because it’s letting my hair dry faster, and it’s super soft. Not bad. I think I found a staple style for the summer! I’m not going to do it too much though because I do recognize the benefit of protective styling. I’ll probably have it in protective styles for a week then let myself wear the WNG for a few days.

So that’s my first experience with a wash n go. I may try to do one of the curl defining styles in a couple of weeks. I need to get some of those claw clip things before I try that because my hair is pretty long for a year, but it’s not long enough for duck clips to be effective at keeping the hair I’m not using out of my way since it’s so thick. I don’t think those should be called “wash n gos” because they take soooooooooooooo much work.

So. . . I did the Big Chop on May 22

2010-05-27T19:02:00.001-04:00

I’ve been putting off writing this post, I don’t know why. . . I think it was just pure laziness. LOL, but I did my BC on Saturday. I’ve been Natural for almost a week now, and I’ve never regretted it.

So that day I had to go to my Cousin’s Baby Shower, so instead of cutting in the morning, I ended up putting my hair in a puff. I was doing the twist challenge on CurlyNikki so I’d had twists in which would have made it hard for me to see the difference in texture (which is why twist-outs are such a good transitioning style), so I co-washed my hair that Friday and put it in braids, which ended up in a braidout puff:

Pretty isn’t it? I was kinda sad to see it go, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. So When I got home I asked my mom to help me cut the back because I can’t see back there, but she said she didn’t feel like it, then she said she didn’t want to mess it up, so once again a girl’s gotta do. . . so I did it all myself. After the first cut I remember thinking “OMG! Well there’s no turning back now” or something like that. About halfway through it didn’t even phase me anymore I was snipping away.

What I did was run my head under the shower for a couple of seconds and drenched my hair to make my natural curls pop a little more, then I sectioned my hair off into 4 parts. Then I went section by section and put in a bunch of Suave Naturals Coconut conditioner. It didn’t do as great a job of making my curls curl as I thought it would, in fact by the time I got to the end I didn’t even really put any on because it was easier to tell the difference without it.

Here’s how much I cut off:

Those permed ends were surprisingly heavy when I picked them up for that pic. Here’s my hair as soon as I put the shears down:

I wasn’t really in shock at this point, it did feel kinda freeing to use a term a lot of people do after BCing. I was just so happy to see the curls. Immediately after my BC I co-washed with V05 Strawberries n cream moisture milk, then I did an ACV rinse, and then I DC’d for an hour before letting it just air dry. I’ve got to re-figure out how I’m going to do my moisture sealing routine to make sure it doesn’t get dry. But I did it as best I could considering my hair hasn’t been this short since high school when I was growing out one of those short Monica 90s cuts.

So while it was drying (I know, that’s a no no) I played around with it just a little. Here it is in a puff and my fro. (the back looks a little flat, but that’s fine because it’s really pretty even all the way around, the middle part just has RIDICULOUS shrinkage.

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So that was my BC, I did it all by myself, something I never thought I’d be able to do even a year ago (I didn’t like letting ANYONE take scissors to my head, not even professionals. LOL, but yet here I am cutting it all off by myself). It almost felt like a rite of passage, and it only cost me $4.26 (the cost of my shears). I would do it the EXACT same way if I had to do it again.

Please note: I have no intention of needing to do it again. LOL! This will be my last post with the “transition” tag unless I’m posting advice.

Carol’s Daughter Tui Shampoo and Hair Smoothie Review

2010-05-14T20:08:00.001-04:00

Okay, I don’t think it’s a secret that I don’t care too much for Carol’s Daughter (CD) hair products. I bout them a while ago and they didn’t work too well on my relaxed hair which was always dry (probably because I didn’t know how to really properly care for it). So today I decided to wash my hair because I didn’t care too much for the puff I did with my twist out (I’ll post pics of that later) and I wanted to shampoo my hair. So I decided to use some of that CD stuff since I had it and that stuff is NOT cheap. So anywhoo, my hair was kind of unruly because I combed out the twist out dry (first mistake, but I didn’t feel like pre-pooing).

Then I washed my hair using the Tui shampoo, I did it twice, the second time rinsing until the water dripping off of my hair was clear. My hair was already feeling kinda dry, I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t pre-poo or what, but the product doesn’t SAY to pre-poo. Here’s my hair with the shampoo in it:

My hair felt dry even as I was shampooing, but maybe that was because of the cleansing.

Here’s my hair after I rinsed the second time. It was kind of soft, and I do know that it started to dry really quickly which is what my hair does when it’s totally clean. I barely had time to scoop the smoothie on it. Here:

So then it was time to deep condition. Now the instructions on the smoothie say to leave on for 5-15 minutes and you can add heat for another boost. Seeing as how my hood dryer blew out a couple of months ago, I just left it on my hair for a little over an hour. When I was putting it on my hair there was like NO slip. I got more slip with the shampoo than I did with the hair smoothie (which is supposed to be a conditioner. When I rinsed it out my hair didn’t feel as moisturized as it normally does. Unfortunately I didn’t take my camera with me when I went to rinse it out, so I don’t have pics of that.

So overall, I wasn’t satisfied with my hair. It was really dry after I let it dry stretched for a couple of hours before blowdrying on the cool setting (I felt like doing my hair today rather than tomorrow). It feels soft and moisturized NOW, but I think that’s because of the products I used to style it. Suffice it to say I won’t be using the rest of that stuff. Maybe I’ll be a glutton and try again after I BC, but I doubt it. I do have some Black vanilla stuff left too, so I’ll check out those ingredients and maybe try them out the next time I need to shampoo.

My Shea Butter Mix

2010-05-13T14:35:00.001-04:00

So a few weeks ago I tried my hand at a Shea Butter mix, and I’m wondering why I didn’t try it sooner! I absolutely LOVE this stuff.

But boy was making that mixture a MESSY process. Melting the shea butter was kinda hard because I'd put too much water in the bowl, so the water was mixing with the shea and melting it too fast, so I had to take some of the water out of the white bowl and pour it out and just ugh. But here's what I used:

3 tbsp of Raw Unrefined Shea Butter
1 tbsp of Castor Oil
1 tbsp of EVOO
1 tbsp of Jojoba Oil (the original recipe called for EVCO but I don't think coconut oil does anything for my hair, and I didn't get the EV kind so I decided to change it to Jojoba)
3-4 drops of Essential Peppermint Oil (for scent more than anything)

So here's the Ingredients all lined up like little soldiers ready for war (LOL):

Here's the shea butter after I finally got it melted:

Once I got the bowl in the water it didn't take long to melt it at all.

Here it is after getting everything in and mixed. I added the Castor Oil first, then mixed well, then added the EVOO and mixed well, and then the Jojoba Oil and mixed well, finally ending with the Peppermint Oil and mixing:

It's actually in an old Palmers Cocoa Butter thing because it's the only container I could find. LOL, I was gonna use one of the Carol's Daughter Some of Marguerite's Magic stuff (why did I get two of those? I can't remember now), but I had waaaay too much of it left over to combine it into one, and that stuff was too expensive to just throw away. I ended up giving the fuller one to my mom and try to use up the rest of the other one, she loves the stuff.

Finally, I let it cool stirring repeatedly (about every 15 minutes) with the rat tail of my rat tail comb (hey, I don't have one of those fancy mixer things ~lol~) for about 2 hours I think before I got tired and was ready for bed. So here's what it looked like all creamy and delicious looking:

My mixture actually smells like a York Peppermint Patty to me. LOL, I don't know if it's from the old jar (I did wash it out before using it) mixed with the peppermint or the shea mixed with it, but it smells divine (to me anyway)

Relaxed Ends are Losing the Battle. . .

2010-05-10T11:20:00.001-04:00

So m BC is in less than two weeks (I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to do it) and my relaxed ends aren’t winning any battles, and we already know who’s gonna win the war. LOL. When I was detangling my hair today my fingers glided through the natural parts and got all tangled up in the relaxed ends. I find that funny because I always thought that it would be too difficult to deal with my natural hair if it got longer than it was when I needed a touchup, as it turns out the longer it gets the easier it is to deal with. I guess it’s because my hair knows I won’t be putting anymore chemicals on it and it’s just going crazy.

I haven’t been doing a great job of keeping up with my blog lately because I’ve been having too much fun on CurlyNikki, so I’ll be back later today or this week with an update on what my hair has been doing.

Big Chop. . .

2010-04-19T18:45:00.001-04:00

So I’ve officially decided to do my BC on my May 23rd Anniversary. It works out perfectly since that’s a Sunday, so if I have a job by then I won’t have to worry about dealing with it during the week. Plus, that date has significance since it’ll officially be a year since my last relaxer. I think I’ll have about 6 inches stretched *fingers crossed*

Here’s a countdown ticker:

The Castor Oil Challenge Is Over

2010-04-08T21:41:00.002-04:00

So I don’t know if you all remember, but I was participating in a Castor Oil Challenge. I think I may start over and do it again because I wasn’t exactly the most diligent, and I didn’t measure all of the parts of my hair, only the front (even though I was putting Castor Oil on all of it. But regardless, I just realized that it’s over. I did it from around Feb 6-April 6th. Here is where my hair was on Feb 6th:

Over the fold for results

----

And here’s my hair a couple of days ago:

Please excuse my raggedy eyebrows. So that’s quite a bit of growth in about two months, maybe it would have been more if I’d been more diligent in the challenge. LOL. In case you can’t tell, the rubber band is at the line of demarcation. In Feb. that line didn’t touch the top of my eyebrow, not it’s almost past my eye.

Since I didn’t really do all that hot with the challenge this time (as far as diligence goes), I think I’ll start over next week and do it until my BC (which is tentatively going to be at the end of May when I reach my year anniversary relaxer free.) So it’ll be a little over a month. Actually, I did oil my scalp with Castor Oil when I washed yesterday, so I’ll say yesterday was my start date, and the pic above is my starting length. Let’s see how much I can get in a month! When I wash next week I’ll also try to measure other parts of my hair.

Shrinkage

2010-03-19T21:18:00.001-04:00

A picture is worth a thousand words:

Remember That Piece I Cut In Month 7?

2010-03-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

Well I noticed that part was falling out of my bun, so I decided to do a little photo shoot of it

Here it is on Jan 15th:

View Full Album

Here it is on March 17th:

View Full Album

Side by side below

Nice to see progress and even more proof that I’ll have to deal with a lot of shrinkage.

Homemade Deep Conditioner

2010-03-17T11:05:00.001-04:00

I remembered hearing something about eggs to deep condition, so I went online to find a recipe for a deep conditioner. I ran across this video on YouTube. Since my scalp had been itching lately (worse than usual during my transition thus far) I decided to also try the ACV rinse.

The first thing I did was detangle my hair from the puff using HH and then I put some EVOO on top of that and covered it with a shower cap and my satin bonnet for about 45 minutes.

That’s what it looked like right before I washed my hair. While the pre-wash was in I made the mixture. I pretty much did what she said in the video, but I was using light miracle whip instead of Mayo. Maybe that accounts for the runny-ness of the mixture. I also added about two capfuls of EVOO:

You can see how runny it was. Maybe next time I’ll use only one egg and a little more mayo to thicken it up.

So when I was done pre-pooing, I co-washed with Aussie Moist Conditioner

Instead of doing it twice like I normally do, the second time I put in the ACV mixture:

I think that looks like pee in a bottle. LOL, but hey, whatever works. Now I don’t typically wash my hair in the shower, I won’t make the mistake of putting in the ACV rinse outside of the shower again, I had it running all over me, especially in the back. LOL, but after I put it in I massaged it into my scalp a bit, and put on my shower cap for about 5 minutes to let it marinate. Once I rinsed it out, I was very impressed. I will definitely be doing more ACV rinses in the future. I wish I’d known about them when I was relaxed. But my hair was nice and clean and my scalp was nice and clean. Maybe I had more buildup on there than I thought? Since I washed my scalp hasn’t been as itchy. Here’s a pic of my curls right after I washed out the ACV mixture:

Ooooh, I was so in love with my hair when I saw that. See, stuff like that makes me want to BC right then and there. LOL

Then it was time for the moment of truth, putting in the deep conditioner.

I used the method described in the video, I rubbed some all over my head first, and then I went by and put it in section by section. This process could have gone smoother if I would have brought more duck clips into the bathroom with me, but I don’t think any strand was neglected as far as putting in the conditioner. Here’s what my hair looked like after I finished putting it in. The pics in the blue shirt are right before I rinsed it out.

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Let me tell you, that was the most DISGUSTING experience I ever had with conditioner. LOL, it was running down my face and as you can see in the pic above down my back. By the time the 45 minutes was up, I was MORE than ready to get that crap out of my hair and off of my body. I ended up jumping in the shower. It did take a lot to get my hair rinsed out, but I wanted to make sure all of the DC was out whereas I’m not quite as concerned with getting it all out with my normal DC routines.

After I finished rinsing it, I co-washed again with Aussie Moist, just to be sure. Here’s my hair right after I finished rinsing everything out:

Instead of using a towel, I used an old tee-shirt that I cut up to dry my hair. Now, I think maybe it’s because I rinsed ALL of the product out instead of leaving a little in like I normally do, but my hair started air drying fast as heyal so I didn’t do my normal moisture sealing routine. Instead I just rubbed some Carol’s Daughter Hair Elixr and Hair Balm through my hair and slicked it back in a ponytail, baggied the end with a mixture of EVOO, Castor Oil, Jojoba Oil, and V05 conditioner, and threw on a fake bun. I’m giving myself and my hair a break this week. So I’ll keep it in as long as possible.

Note how my hair LAUGHS at gel. LOL these pics were taken AFTER I tied my hair down for a couple of hours to get it to lay down ~shrug~ Oh well.

As far as the results for the DC goes, my hair was really really soft, and if I push my finger inside my slicked down parts, my hair feels really soft and moisturized. This will be a good DC for when I do wash n gos, or if I already know for sure what I’m going to do with my hair, it’s not so good for if I actually want to style my hair but haven’t decided how exactly to do that.

My First “Puff”

2010-03-12T15:09:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I said I was going to try a two strand twist bantu-knot out.

Well, it didn’t come out the way I thought it would. I thought I’d get the nice looser squiggly curls. Instead I got a bit of a looser curl than my normal bantu-knot outs, it wasn’t really any more defined or anything. Oh well, I’ll keep trying. Anyway, this is what it looked like after I used some raw shea butter to take it out:

Yeah, that is sooooo not cute. I was disappointed. But I decided to take this disappointment and turn it into an opportunity! The result is my first “puff”:

So I just sprayed the front with my water/conditioner/oils mix (I don’t remember what all is in there. . . then i used some clear EcoStyler Gel to pull it back. I’d see a tip where people used knee highs to pull their hair back in a puff, so that’s what I used. I don’t think it’s bad. It’s not my FAVORITE hairstyle, I think I’ll like it better when I have an Afro.

UPDATE: I just took this pic playing around with my camera and loved it, so I have to share:

Texture Shots!

2010-03-09T15:03:00.001-05:00

I was washing my hair today and I had to take a few pictures of my hair because I’m LOVING my texture and how thick it is. I don’t know if it’s growing any faster from putting the Castor Oil on my scalp. Anyway, here are the pics I took today. On days like this I love my hair.

BTW, I’m putting them in bantu-knots, I’m twisting them first which isn’t the way I normally do them, so we’ll see how that works out. As far as products this week:

Overnight DC with my mix of HH, Olive Oil, and Honey.
Co-wash with V05 Strawberries n Cream
Sealing with (in this order):

Aussie Hair Insurance
Castor Oil mixed with Jojoba Oil
ORS Olive Oil Cream moisturizer

Styling:

ORS Lock and Twist Gel
ORS Styling Mousse

It sounds like a lot, but it’s really not a lot of product. After putting all of that on, I brushed through it to detangle again with my paddle brush (don’t have a Denman, but I think the paddle brush did well). Then I twisted the hair in two strand twists and put the twists into bantu-knots. I did them pretty big, so I only have 10 knots. I’m letting it air dry since I don’t have to go anywhere for a couple of days so I’ll probably take them out on Saturday.

Pics over the fold

The section above is only enough for one knot, just trying to give an idea of how thick it is, and look at those pathetic permed ends. LOL

Oh, I can’t WAIT to do wash n gos!

Raw Honey Masque (Skin)

2010-03-08T13:56:00.001-05:00

Okay, so this isn’t hair related, but i had to share.

So I did my weekly Bentonite Clay Honey Masque today, and afterwards I decided I wanted to try a raw honey masque for moisture. I'd tried with pure honey before but it irritated my face, so I decided to look stuff up on google to see what I'd find.

I ended up doing a masque that was (this is approximate):

Equal Amounts of Raw Honey and Bottled Water (I think it was probably 1- 1 1/2 tablespoons) and
A little less than half of that amount Olive Oil. Mix well, it'll be pretty thin (maybe I'll try to do it thicker next time so it's not so runny, but my face wasn't dripping it kinda formed little droplets on my face)

I put a warm rag on my face to re-open the pores then I put the raw honey mixture on my face. I left it on for about 10-20 minutes (I was gonna try for 45, but I didn't want that stuff to dry on my face ~lol~). Then I wiped it off with warm water. I got ALL of it off, so my face wasn't sticky at all.

After that I put a couple of drops of Jojoba Oil.

My face looks and feels awesome right now. It's so smooth, I have to remind myself not to touch it. The honey didn't irritate my face at all and I feel more moisturized than I have since Winter started. My face looks radiant right now, so I figured I had to share this with ya'll.

Quick Update

2010-03-04T14:11:00.001-05:00

So I’m not doing anything special with my hair this week, I’m trying to make these twists last for two weeks, so far so good. My scalp hasn’t been itching too much, and my hair still looks pretty moisturized. I still put some Black Vanilla Leave-In Conditioner on my hair every day so it smells AWESOME. LOL, maybe I will get some more of this when it runs out. My hair feels soft still from the overnight DC. I’m trying to decide if I want to overnight DC again when I take these twists out since I won’t be doing my normal DC this week. When I have my hair in twists I mostly leave them in a ponytail or I may combine the twists into one big flat twist in the back. I still haven’t found a way to be overly creative with them. My hair isn’t as long as I think it is ~lol~ and I’m sure it doesn’t help that I cut off at least an inch for every inch that it grows. Does anyone who happens to be reading this (other than me) have a style ideal other than twist/braid outs and bantu-knot outs that’s relatively easy to do? I was thinking of doing bantu-knots again but doing the kind where you put the section in two strand twists and then put that in a knot. I may try that the next time I wash my hair. . .

Oh, and the Castor Oil challenge is going well, I have another month. I don’t feel like it’s growing any faster than usual, but we’ll see. . .

So I Tried a New Regimen. . .

2010-02-25T17:53:00.001-05:00

This is going to be a long post, I have a lot going on. LOL

So last night during a very boring American Idol (I wasn’t motivated to call in and vote for anyone) I decided I needed to DC my hair because my ends were looking raggedy and the results of that last flat twist-out were not good at all. I ended up doing something different. Instead of using my ORS Replenishing Conditioner, I decided to try mixing Herbal Essences HH and Honey since I remember seeing or reading about someone doing that. After talking to my Soror I also added a little Olive Oil. I don’t have EVOO, when I went to the store and got the OO I have, I got the “pure” olive oil. I don’t see a point in wasting it (and any OO is not cheap), so I’ll use this up and next time I’ll get some EVOO. Anywhoo, I didn’t really measure anything but the OO since my Soror told me to use about a teaspoon. I think I may have put in a BIT too much Honey because it’s smell was kinda overpowering everything else ~lol~ and I put in more HH than anything. Here’s a pic of the mixture:

So I sprayed my hair with bottled water (LOL) and then added this. I did it by sections the way I normally DC to make sure it got on everything, but I didn’t put Castor Oil underneath. Then I put on a disposable conditioning cap and my satin bonnet over that, and then I wrapped all of that in a scarf. (I was NOT trying to get that stuff on my pillow, nor did I want to hear plastic crinkling around my head all night). I did all of this around 9, I washed it out this morning around 11 after my work out, so it was in my head for about 14 hours.

This is what it looked like right before I rinsed it out:

When I washed it out I used ice cold water as I normally do, and then I co-washed with V05 Strawberries ‘n Cream Moisture Milk to make sure I got all of that honey out of my hair and to get the smell out.

Here’s why it looked like with everything rinsed out:

After that I did something different with my sealing routine. Instead of using 3-4 products, I only used 2. My Aussie Hair Insurance Leave in Conditioner, and Castor Oil. That’s it. I banded my hair so it would stretch and sat under a cold dryer for a couple of hours because I didn’t feel like waiting for it to dry over-night. Then I took my hair out of the bands and twisted each section as I went using ORS Twist ‘n’ Lock Gel (I LOVE that stuff). I sat back under the dryer for about 5-10 minutes to let it all dry, then I sprayed a little Carol’s Daughter Black vanilla Leave In (I really just use that stuff as hair perfume, I don’t think it dose anything for me). Here’s the final result:

Suffice it to say I LOVE the results, I’m hoping I can keep these in for two weeks this time (we’ll see) mostly because I hate taking them down more than I hate twisting up the hair. LOL. Oh, and this time when i did my twists I just kind of grabbed and twisted in the back, I like the way that looks better than parting it, I think I’ll do my whole head like that next time. And I still can’t wait until those scraggly ends are gone.

Randomness. . .

2010-02-24T17:10:00.001-05:00

So I changed the theme of my blog again. I like it. I’m still having comments issues, but I’m sure I can work them out later since I’m tired and decided earlier today (or yesterday) that I’d actually cook dinner tonight.

Also, I think I’m going to try a silk wrap this weekend. That is IF I can get some new magnetic rollers and Saran Wrap by then.

Other than that I don’t really have anything to say. LOL, told you this was random.

9 Months Relaxer Free!

2010-02-23T18:09:00.001-05:00

I was coming on the blog today to grab a picture to post somewhere, and I saw that I’m 9 months relaxer free today! Yay me! Right now my hair is in a flat twist-out that I hate. The last time I did one, I did it on dry stretched hair. This time I did it on wet un-stretched hair and it did not come out good at all. I was going to re-flat twist it, but I really don’t feel like it. I don’t even want to take a picture to document it. LOL. I was looking at a video someone did of a silk wrap on natural hair, I may have to get some magnetic rollers and saran wrap and try that myself on Saturday, I kind of miss straight hair since I’ve been wearing it curly or in a bun for as long as I can remember. Plus, it gives me a chance to try something different. Who knows, I may actually like the roller set and just leave it like that. I do know that I will be sitting under a hair dryer because I do not want to sleep in magnetic rollers (it’s not a fun experience).

So yeah, I don’t really have anything else to say, I just wanted to acknowledge this milestone :o)

Playing with Scissors. . . Again

2010-02-18T23:08:00.001-05:00

Soooooo, I was on CurlyNikki and there was a post about hair types. I was pretty sure I was a 4a type, but as my hair grew out the curls were looking longer to me. So, I decided to cut a small piece by my ear. I took one pic of it after wetting it letting it dry and adding just a little cream oil moisturizer, and one pic with it stretched so you (and I) can get an idea of the shrinkage I deal with when it's unstretched:

It's a REALLY small piece, but it made me a bit more excited to see what the rest of my hair will look like after I cut it.

So I still think my hair is 4a or maybe 3c.

Now I'm going to have to keep myself from playing with that little piece I cut up front, I already touch my hair too much. LOL

Best. Twist-Out. Ever!

2010-02-13T17:33:00.000-05:00

Well, at least for me. I was going to wash my hair today, but when I took out the flat-twists, I liked my hair so much I decided to wait. I'll sleep on it and see how it holds up and wash it either tomorrow or Monday. But I had to share:

(Click for larger photos)

I do think I need to get some really cute headbands and scarves before I BC ~lol~

The Best Two-Strand Flat Twist Tutorial I've Found

2010-02-11T15:29:00.000-05:00

So I posted a link a couple of weeks (or maybe months) ago on how to do a two strand flat twist. While that tutorial was really good and nice and short and to the point, it wasn't quite as detailed as this one. (I would embed the vid, but I don't know how the girl that did the video would feel about that, so just go watch it on YouTube :o) )

The reason why my twists weren't so hot was because I was picking up too much hair as I was going, which made my flat twists loose like the ones on the right in the video as opposed to tighter like the ones on the left. I still have to work on the back, but I got the front/top perfect:

It took me a little over an hour to do them, and they are far from perfect, but they are a vast improvement over what they looked like before. Notice how once we get to the back/bottom you can't even see the parts anymore? LOL, such is the story of my hair. I'm thinking I'm going to have looser curls in the front, really tight curls in the middle, and something between the other two in the back. I can't wait to find out in May!

My hands were killing me while I was doing this, especially when I was doing the left side (I'm right-handed) because I couldn't figure out how to put my hands, but I think practice makes perfect, so I'll keep working on them.

All I put on my hair was a spray that has mostly water a little Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner, and a little Aussie Moist Conditioner. When I was finished I put a little Castor Oil on the parts since I am doing that challenge and you're supposed to use it on your scalp twice a week. Note: This was done on dry hair (outside of that spray) that had been stretched, so if I do it on wet non-stretched hair, I'm not sure I'd get the same results. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Normally, I wash on Fridays, but seeing as how I just put these in, I think I'll leave them in until either my head starts itching like crazy, or I get tired of them. I'll probably end up getting bored and decide to wash my hair on Saturday. LOL

Frustrated For the First Time in a Long Time

2010-02-07T12:41:00.000-05:00

For the first time in months, I was really frustrated with my hair today. So yesterday I got up and put my hair in two strand twists, and used small rubber bands to hold then ends together. I hated it. The rubber bands were irritating me like all get out, plus it was hard to do anything else with the twists with those damned rubber bands on the ends. This morning after doing my workout I decided I didn't like the twists, so I was going to take them down and flat twist my hair. So I took down the flat twists, they would have made a cute twist-out I suppose, but I decided I wanted to go on and flat twist while I had the motivation.

Well the flat twisting wasn't going well, and I was getting tired of having to re-do them. For some reason my flat twists always end up loosening. If I do them damp they loosen as they dry, if I do them dry they are just loose and somehow the hair refuses to stay parted so when I get to the end there are pieces that should be in the piece that I'm working with that were in the twist next to it. After about 20 minutes I only had one twist that I didn't feel like I'd have to re-do the other two I'd done I had taken out to re-twist. Suffice it to say I finally said "forget it". While my arms are better about working with the back of my head than they were a couple of months ago, they were starting to hurt, and I wasn't making any progress.

Mind you my hair was dry, and at this point it LOOKS really dry and nasty. So I spray some water on it and finger comb out the rest of what would have been a decent twist-out if I'd wanted to wear my hair like that and decided to just put it in a bun. While I was looking at my hair I was wishing it was all natural because I would have just left it as an afro/puff and been done with it. Remember, I dried it stretched. But alas, it's not all natural, so I couldn't just leave it out. So I decided to put it in a bun, which mind you was no easy feat with 8 months worth of natural hair. In the front it would not lay down, even with the clear EcoStyler Gel. Finally I just got it pulled back (the back is finally long enough where I can put it up further without having to worry about hair falling in the back, which is nice) and put some Coconut Oil (which I don't think really does anything for my hair, but I still have it, and I'm not going to waste it) and Castor Oil on the ends and then put on a plastic baggy and put on one of my fake buns and a hairband to hold the edges down.

Suffice it to say, this is the first time in a long time I've been really frustrated by my hair. Not enough to make me wish I had a perm, but enough to make doing it a chore instead of fun. I still don't think it looks that hot, but at this point I really don't care. Maybe I'll feel like doing something else with it tomorrow, but I think I'm going to just give myself a break and leave it in the bun for the rest of the week. I should have just left the stupid twists in.

Castor Oil Challenge + Comparison Shots + New Regimen

2010-02-05T16:36:00.000-05:00

CASTOR OIL CHALLENGE

Okay, so I'm doing a Castor Oil Challenge from the CurlyNikki.com forums. I said I was going to do it from the 6th through April 6th, but I decided to wash my hair today instead, so I'm starting on the 5th I didn't get a good length shot when I was washing, so the pic I use for the challenge will have to be taken after my hair finishes drying. As I've stated before, I already use Castor Oil to Deep Condition (DC) along with my conditioner, about 3 week ago I started using it mixed with a little Jojoba Oil for my moisture sealing routine. The rules of the challenge are that I have to use the Castor Oil directly on my scalp (something I hadn't been doing). Here are the rules for the challenge if you want to join in. I also am trying to talk one of my Sorors who has complained about how slowly her hair grows and how thin it is, so I hope she'll be joining me even though she has relaxed hair (and I don't foresee myself being able to talk her into going natural, but I'm going to keep trying! LOL)

COMPARISON SHOTS

I just realized I haven't done a comparison shot since December, I haven't been very consistent, have I? Well, here's the picture from October 13, 2009:

Here's the pic from December 2, 2009:

and Here's the pic from Today February 5, 2010:

I haven't dyed my hair, the last pic the color is more vibrant because I took the pic in different light. My hair is naturally a reddish brown color, the only coloring I've ever done is my highlights (and although I'm going to miss them when they are gone, I doubt I'll get more once they grow out/are cut off)

So you can get a bit of an idea of how my hair has been progressing, the last month or so it seems to be growing really fast to me. But I will edit this post later with a length check for the Castor oil challenge, I'll compare that to this pic from Month 6:

Ah, it seems so long ago that I was so happy about finally seeing some curls, it's like once my hair realized I'm really going to let it live without perms it started growing like crazy. I can't wait to see what it does when I finally cut off all of the permed ends since a lot of people claim that their hair started growing even FASTER after they BC'd.

And while I am getting anxious, I'm still planning on waiting until May to cut my permed ends off, and I'm about 97% sure I'll be cutting it in May, I'm already getting tired of wasting perfectly good product on hair I'm getting rid of anyway. LOL

NEW REGIMEN

So my regimen has changed a little bit since I last posted about it. A couple of weeks ago I started doing a pre-poo (or I should say pre-wash since I don't really use shampoo anymore, I think I've used it twice since last October, and I know I haven't used it at all in 2010).

Basically what I do is I take Herbal Essence's Hello Hydration (HH) and detangle my previous style (which was almost always something curly that needed to be detangled before I even dared to wash). After I detangle (usually finger combing), I twist up the back and put a clip on it. It's not like a two strand twist, it's just taking the hair and twisting it around and using a duck clip to pin it up. I then put my satin bonnet on over that to trap in more heat and leave it on for 30 minutes to an hour before washing.

For co-washing I either use my V05 Strawberries and Cream Conditioner or Aussie Moist, I haven't used the HH for a co-wash since I've started using it as a pre-poo, and wash/rinse with warm/cool/cold water. I always do the actual co-washing twice (as in scrub, rinse, repeat)

After that my routine has stayed pretty much the same. So all I really did was add that additional pre-wash step. I think my hair likes it. Other than that I've been subbing Castor Oil for the Coconut Oil. A lot of people rave about Coconut Oil, but I don't think it was really doing much for me. Maybe because I didn't have EVCO, I just had Coconut Oil. Next time I get some, I'll get the Extra Virgin kind and see if it does anything for me.

Right now I have my hair banded to stretch out my new growth, I'll probably put in some medium sized twists again (I've been crazy about twists since I got that ORS Twist n Lock Gel, that stuff is amazing!). If I actually have to leave the house, I can always just take them out and rock a twist-out, or leave them in a put them in a kinda bun.

One last thing before I end this (long) entry. Here's a shot of my head where you can kinda see what the growth is doing in the back (where my hair is SUPER thick, today it was a little tender, but I think that was because I've been scratching):

And no I'm not naked, I have on a cami. LOL

BTW, you can click on any of the pictures on my blog to see much bigger versions.

Wow, 8 Months

2010-01-27T19:27:00.000-05:00

I just realized that I completely missed my 8 month anniversary! I don't really have anything new going on. I put my hair in twists about 2 weeks ago, they are nice and low-maintenance, but I don't think I'm going to be able to do them again and leave them in for two weeks, the back is itching like CRAZY. Looks like the key to my scalp health is washing once a week. I don't mind though, I actually like washing my hair now, so it's not that much of an inconvenience, and even if I do want to do two strand twists all over it only took about 4 hours, I don't mind doing that for something that I'll only have in for a week.

Also this time I did them kinda bigger in the back, and smaller in the front, I think next time I'll do them smaller all over.

All I used on my twists was Organic Root Stimulator Twist 'n' Lock gel. That stuff is the truth, it even held my scraggly permed ends together in the twists for the most part (more in the front than the back).

Speaking of the scraggly permed ends, the closer it gets to my one year-perm free anniversary, the more I think I'm going to go 'head and BC in May instead of just letting my hair grow out. I'm convinced it will grow even faster once it's all natural. Plus I don't want to keep wasting perfectly good products on permed hair. LOL

Here are a couple of pics of my twists right after I did them:

I'm not going to post what they look like now. LOL.

I didn't get really creative while doing my twists as far as additional styling. I did put them all in one giant flat twists from time to time in the back, and I liked the way they looked. I don't feel like it's long enough to do all of the cute stuff I saw people doing in their Fotki's. BTW, to the right is a pic of one of my twists towards the middle of my head up close, notice how nice and fat the natural parts are as compared to the permed parts? That's another reason why I want to go on and just cut it off in May. that pic is not of my hair stretched, I wanted to capture the difference between the textures accurately.

Oh, and in other news, I'm trying to convince my two best friends to go Natural, I think I'm wearing one of them down. LOL, I make sure to mention it everytime I talk to them (usually about once a week, neither of them live in my city).

That's all I have to say for now, I'm going to get some other stuff done before President Obama's State of the Union Address (although, I don't think I'm going to hear anything I haven't heard before).

I Had An Interesting Thought Today

2010-01-15T16:51:00.000-05:00

The more I see my natural hair coming through, the more beautiful I feel. I was doing my moisture sealing routine and putting my hair in big twists to dry and I just kept smiling at myself in the mirror, I was just soooo happy with what I was doing and thinking how funny it is that I started transitioning after I hadn't had a perm for a while (mostly due to money) and decided I'd rather just let my perm grow out. It wasn't some deep spiritual journey for me. I was tired of chemical burns, I was tired of my hair looking thin when I KNOW it's thick (I hate being able to see through my hair). The back right section of my hair breaks off when I'm stressed, so it's practically all natural already in that little spot. LOL.

But I was getting ready to wash out my Castor-Oil/Conditioner after letting it sit on my head for about two hours when I got the urge to cut off a piece of the back of my hair to see my curls unrestricted. Now, year or even a few months ago I would have never contemplated cutting anything off of my own head. So I went and grabbed a pair of scissors and cut a piece off. I was smiling like an idiot afterwards. LOL, you would have thought I did the BC. I just kept saying to myself "So that's about how long my hair would be if I cut it now" it will be interesting to track the progress of that piece of hair as I finish my transition. But now it's pretty much decided that my hair will definitely be cut in May.

I put the hair that was remaining in a little twist just to see what it would look like (mind you my hair was wet) and it was just the cutest little thing ever! ~lol~ and the end curled instead of breaking apart. Of course I took a picture:
Doing that only made me want to cut the rest of my hair off. But I must resist the temptation. . . on second thought maybe I won't make it a year after all. . . LOL

The more I see of my natural hair, the more I love it. Another thought I had as I was smiling at myself in the mirror was that if I ever have a daughter, she's not getting a perm until she's able to pay for it herself. I might not even press her hair after every washing like my mom did me. She's going to learn to love the hair she was blessed with and see it for what it is, absolutely beautiful.

Oh, and this song has been stuck in my head all day:

The part that gets me is "Good hair means curls and waves, bad hair means you look like a slave." So true. I have a Soror I'm trying to convince to go natural, but she won't do it because she thinks she'll look like Kunta Kente. I think I'm wearing her down though, I mention it every time I talk to her. :o)

New Style: Flat Twists & Bantu-Knot Out

2010-01-06T11:15:00.000-05:00

So I decided to try a new style simply because I'm tired of the old styles. LOL, so this time I decided to do flat twists going from ear to ear instead of to the back, and a bantu-knot out in the back. I may try this style again sometime with a twist n curl in the back. I think I should have done the knots smaller in the back because they didn't come out like I thought they would doing them big. For this style I used EcoStyler's Clear Gel for the flat twists, and I used a little Aloe Vera Gel on the bantu-knots.

This style is relatively easy, just part across (the parting straight is the hardest part for me, my arms were getting tired so I still don't think I got them COMPLETELY straight ~lol~ but they'll do. Then flat twist. The one in the front is going from left to right and the one on the back is going from right to left. After I did the flat twists I put rubber bands at the base and then continued flat twisting a bit behind my ear so the ends would be with the rest of the bantu-knot out. Then I tied down the front using a satin scarf so the twists would lay a bit flatter, and I slept in a satin bonnet.

This morning I took out the knots and fluffed. If I didn't like where the curls fell, I used a bobby pin to put it where I wanted it. Overall, I like the style and will probably do it again.

Meh: Flat Twist 'n' Curl Results

2010-01-04T10:15:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm not impressed by the results of my flat twistout, I think next time I will definitely split the one in the middle in two (that way I can get a tighter twist). Overall, I don't think it's bad per se, I just don't think it's "awesome". One thing that certainly IS awesome is the shine and how healthy it looks and feels. So I'm not giving up, I'll just have to do them smaller next time. Look at how nice the ones on the right look, I want that all over my head. Since they aren't TIGHT curls, I'd imagine I'd need to re-twist every night to maintain the style, but I'll just sleep in a bonnet tonight and see how to comes out.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T19:07:00.000-05:00

I'm a day late, but it's officially 2010. New Years are never a big deal to me, it's just another day. But hey, I guess any reason to get drunk and party and not have to go to work the next day will do. LOL. Anywhoo, I'm trying a flat twist 'n' curl, inspired by CurlyNikki from CurlyNikki.com. I actually put the twists in on Friday, the 31st of December, but I haven't taken them out yet because all I've really been doing since then was laying around the house reading books. This is the first time I did the flat twists all over my head. I can't do them while my hair is wet because my natural hair makes it puff up and loosen as it dries, which annoys me to no end. So this time my hair was about 80-90% dry when I put them in. But they were still pretty slippery thanks to my sealing (I swear, I LOOOOOOVE that step, and I'm glad I discovered it, I don't think my hair has ever been this consistently moisturized).

This week when I sealed in the moisture, I forgot to melt my coconut oil, and I didn't feel like melting it in my hands everytime, so instead I did a mixture of Jojoba and Castor Oils for my Oil step. And let me tell you, my hair is the shiniest I've ever seen it.

After I finished putting the flat twists in, I rolled the ends with my satin covered rollers (I think it may be about time to get some more). Overall, I did 5 twists, next time I may do 6 because I'm not a fan of the one I had in the middle.

I took out the one you see there-------> this morning just to see what the curl looked like, and it looked awesome! I should have taken a picture. . . but I just re-twisted it (hopefully I didn't mess it up by doing that ~lol~) and put my satin scarf back on. I figure the best way for me to keep my fingers out of my hair is to leave it in these twists and leave on my scarf (I touch my hair waaaay too much). I promise when I take them down I'll post a pic, I have a feeling it may be my best twist-out yet! I still haven't managed to do a twist-out I love yet.

Oh, and I think I said I was going to do the winter-bun challenge, I did it for two weeks but I don't know that I'm going to be able to do it until April. For one thing, as you can see I'm not good enough with flat twisting to do flat-twists back into the bun, and I haven't even started trying to teach myself to braid my own hair yet. Second, I got bored with them even though I have the two bun pieces. I think I will do them periodically because it's a pretty good way to keep my hands out of my hair, but I don't want to pull my hair into too many ponytails and mess up my edges or cause breakage.

Total Hair Envy

2009-12-27T16:25:00.001-05:00

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

2009-12-25T11:24:00.001-05:00

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!

2009-12-23T09:19:00.000-05:00

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

2009-12-22T23:22:00.000-05:00

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

2009-12-14T10:42:00.000-05:00

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

2009-12-13T16:34:00.001-05:00

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

2009-12-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

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

2009-12-05T18:43:00.000-05:00

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:

My New Bantu

2009-11-28T11:27:00.000-05:00

So I've decided that Bantu-Knot outs are going to be my favorite style. Sure it makes my hair look short and curly, but I can do one and then not touch my hair for a week. All I do is put on my satin bonnet at night, and sleep normally. When I get up in the morning, a little fluffing, a little shaking, and I'm good to go. Here's a pic of my hair after taking out the knots yesterday:

New Growth!

2009-11-18T14:13:00.000-05:00

Here's a pic of my new growth post-deep conditioner (it's still on my hair in this pic).

I don't know if you can see the growth very well (i.e. Permed vs Natural hair), but you can see a little of my curl pattern. I think I'm a 4a, I can't wait to find out!

It's Been Awhile. . .

2009-11-14T14:45:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I updated this blog, I haven't really been doing much new stuff. I did try co-washing with Suave Naturals Coconut, and I didn't like it nearly as much as I love the V05 Moisture Milks. I've been co-washing/deep conditioning once a week and my hair has been doing pretty well moisture wise.

I finally got some coconut oil, so I'll see how that works in the conditioning process. I tried using the coconut oil on my face since it's also supposed to be good for that and not as expensive as Jojoba Oil, but the coconut oil didn't really do anything for my face. I think part of that may have been from all of the deep cleaning I've been doing on my face. I find that if I deep clean once a week, all I have to do is use a warm rag to wash my face the rest of the week. The deep cleaning method I think I prefer is using Bentonite Clay. That stuff really sucked a lot out of my face. LOL, you really can feel it drawing your face in. I also tried a "mask" that consists of egg white and toilet paper that worked really good in getting rid of black/whiteheads. Here's the video:

I recommend using 1-ply, because it takes too long for 2-ply to dry. Next time I do it, I'll separate the squares. I didn't do it three days in a row, once was enough for me (especially since I'd done the Bentonite Clay mask the day before), so I'll probably do it once a week. I think it does work better than Biore strips, it's much less expensive, and you can do your entire face instead of just your nose. If you have dry skin like me, you may want to do this at night so you can slather oil on your face and go to sleep.

I finally broke down and got some Jojoba Oil from HSU for about $25 for 16oz. I put some on my face as soon as I got home, and already my face feels so much better. It hasn't been itching, which was a big problem for me this week since I stripped all of the oil out of my face with the deep cleaning (something I'll never do again!).

I'll probably wash my hair again tomorrow, so I'll post a pic of my new growth when it's wet. I've been so tempted this week to just cut my hair so I can start working with my natural hair, but I'm making myself be patient because I know I'll end up regretting it the next day. If I do a BC, I don't plan on doing one for at least a year.

Bantu-Out Attempt 1

2009-10-16T10:35:00.001-04:00

So last night I got bored and decided to try Bantu Knots for the first time to sleep in because I wanted my hair to be curly today. I only did 6 knots, they weren't very big/poofy so I wasn't sure how the curls would come out. This is the result:

There was no heat at all involved, I just wrapped it in a satin scarf and put a satin bonnet on. I used the method where you twist all the way from root to tip. The ones in the back felt a little loose, but I think that's because I'm still not used to actually doing stuff to the back of my hair. I'll get the hang of it. I think it turned out pretty well, don't you?

I also need to figure out how to separate the knots without them getting that frizzy look. That's probably something that comes with practice.

My First "Homemade" Product

2009-10-15T13:05:00.000-04:00

In the course of my research, I learned that WATER is the absolute best moisturizer for your hair. Thankfully, I no longer care if my hair gets wet because I'm growing out the chemicals. So the spray I made isn't exactly scientific. I took a 16oz spray bottle and filled it with water (it wasn't distilled, just regular Ohio tap water) then I added probably a little more than a tablespoon of Castor Oil and shook vigorously. I sprayed it on my hair last night and put my hair back in the bun, it was a little damp. Tied on a silk scarf to hold it down, and covered that with a satin bonnet.

When i woke up my hair was nice and shiny, and super soft. Even my edges which tend to dry out fast.

This morning I added some of the Lisa's Hair Elixr from Carol's daughter, probably about a tablespoon, and shook it again. Then I sprayed that on my hair this morning. The ingredients listed in the Hair Elixr are:

Soybean Oil
Sweet Almond Oil
Olive fruit oil
Peppermint Oil
Sage Oil
Rosemary Leaf Oil
Fragrance

I decided to add this after reading this on Nappturality's forum. Here's what the different oils do according to the information in that thread:

Castor Oil : Ricinus communis
A very glossy oil on the skin. Used in lipsticks, lip balms and lip salves. Also used in transparent soaps and hair grooming products.

Soybean Oil : Glycine soja
This plant has been known and used by the Chinese for more than 4,000 years, though today most of the oil comes from the USA. This oil is a cost-effective base on which to prepare hair and body products where good honest moisturisation is required at a budget
price.

Sweet Almond Oil : Prunus amygdalus dulcis
Much loved for generations, listed in the British Pharmacopoeia and an excellent choice for even the most simple of moisturisers or massage oils. Almond oil should be in every formulator's palette.

Peppermint: Dry hair: Promotes hair growth

Olive (Olea Europaea )
Olive oil is an astringent and antiseptic. It is a nourishing demulcent and laxative. Externally, it relieves pruritis, the effects of stings or burns, and is a good vehicle for liniments. With alcohol it is a good hair-tonic. As a lubricant it is valuable in skin, muscular, joint, kidney and chest complaints, or abdominal chill, typhoid and scarlet fevers, plague and dropsies. Delicate babies absorb its nourishing properties well through the skin.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis)
Rosemary oil is used for cleansing skin, treating hair fall, dandruff, mental fatigue, headaches and migraine. It is also known for strengthening memory and relieve lymphatic congestion. Rosemary oil is a tonic, astringent, diaphoretic, stimulant. It has the carminative properties of other volatile oils and is an excellent stomachic and nervine, curing many cases of headache. It is employed principally, externally, as spiritus Rosmarini , in hair-lotions, for its odour and effect in stimulating the hair-bulbs to renewed activity and preventing premature
baldness. An infusion of the dried plant (both leaves and flowers) combined with borax and used when cold, makes one of the best hairwashes known. It forms an effectual remedy for the prevention of scurf and dandruff. Rosemary is also one of the ingredients used in the preparation of Eau-de-Cologne.

I know I have dry scalp, and I do get dandruff easily at times, so I think this spray and the additional washing I'll be doing will do a great job at keeping that flaking to a minimum.

So far this spray is working great for my hair, for my scalp I usually just use Vitapointe, but I may try to find something else to use. I hear Jojoba Oil is great.

My First Co-Wash

2009-10-14T20:19:00.000-04:00

So yesterday I was having a terrible day. I was just going to go to sleep, but instead I decided to try co-washing for the first time (as I initially planned to do yesterday anyway). My hair was actually curly, so I had to comb out the curls first using a wide-toothed comb that I bought at Kroger.

For my first co-wash, I decided to try V05's Strawberries and Cream Moisture Milk after doing about 5 days worth of research. It only cost me $1.07 at Kroger. I also bought a small bottle of Suave Naturals Tropical Coconut as I've also heard a lot about that. I'll try that the next time I co-wash.

After combing my hair out and forward, I "shampooed" and rinsed twice with the V05. I was actually surprised at how much stuff was in my hair since I'd only washed it on Saturday. I think that means I need to use less products in my hair because it ends up weighing it down.

Once I finished washing and detangling my hair, it was time to deep condition. For this I used Castor Oil and Olive Oil Replenishing Conditioner. I parted my hair and put the Castor oil on from root to tip (the YouTube Video I got the idea from only used the Castor Oil on the root, and used Coconut Oil on the rest of the strand, but I couldn't find any Coconut Oil. I hear they have it at Wal-Mart, so I'll be sure to get some next time I'm out, I've heard great things about it). After I applied the Castor Oil , I liberally covered the hair with the conditioner.

Once I finished applying the conditioner I tied a plastic bag on my head(I forgot to get some disposable shower caps. . . LOL), and sat for about 45 minutes to an hour. I didn't want to sit under the dryer, maybe I'll try that next time to see if I actually get better results or not.

After I fully rinsed out the conditioner/castor oil, I decided to twist my hair in big sections and let it airdry with the intention to wear it in a twist out today. My hair is pretty thick, and I think the twists were too big because it took a while for it to dry, I think it was still a little damp in the back when I went to bed.

What I've learned from this:

Co-Washing is AWESOME, I don't think I'll ever use shampoo again.
Letting your hair airdry is the way to go, it really does retain a lot of moisture

Going Back To My Roots

2009-10-14T19:36:00.000-04:00

(This was originally posted on my Muzikal Thoughts blog, but I have so much to say about my hair, and that blog is more political, so to keep them separate, here's one that's just about my hair and transition. I'll post what I'm thinking and what good tips I've found here.)

Alright, there's been a lot of focus on Black Women's hair lately with the release of Chris Rock's documentary "Good Hair." I've been mulling it over for a while, and I've come to the conclusion that it's time to let go of the perm. Sure, I thought it made my hair more manageable, but it's a chemical, it makes my scalp burn (because I inevitably scratch even when I KNOW I'm getting a perm soon thereafter), and I don't think my hair really likes it.

As it stands right now I haven't had a perm since sometime in early May. For the last month or so, I haven't been putting any heat on my hair either. Since my last perm I have about 4 inches of new growth. Instead of cutting all of my hair off and sporting the short Afro, I'm going to do what my mom did a couple of years ago, and just get my ends clipped each month until the relaxer is gone. I figure at this rate it will take about a year to transition.

Here's my hair now, no perm since May, that's a lot of new growth

I've been getting perms since the 3rd grade, and I remember one time when the lady that did my perm left it on too long and ended up burning off a lot of my hair. Since then I've gone from short to medium to short on the top and long in the back to medium to kind of long (it's starting to go down my back now), to attempting to get back to my roots. I think it's going to be a fun process. BTW, for me it was never about wanting to look white, it was about manageability. I got a perm because I hated getting my hair pressed (and I think my mom was tired of doing it). A lot of my friends have transitioned in the last couple of years, and I think their hair is gorgeous. I can't wait for the day when I can sport a nice full Afro. I don't even think it's a matter of "to be a professional you have to have straight hair" I know LOTS of Professional Black Women who have natural hair, be it short and curly or dreds.

Parts of my hair has broken off in the middle (it's always the same spot), but I think that was more from stress than anything, so all that's there is "new growth" and like a centimeter of permed hair. So no more chemicals for me, time to get back to juices and berries ~lol~

So I'll keep you all posted via this blog.