Shrinkage

A picture is worth a thousand words:

Remember That Piece I Cut In Month 7?

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:

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Here it is on March 17th:

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Side by side below

Homemade Deep Conditioner

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.

My First “Puff”

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”:

Texture Shots!

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

Quick Update

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. . .

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.

Randomness. . .

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!

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)