I'm Back =D

It has been a while since i've posted. I've been really focused on school (20 credits) with midterms, papers, and finals and haven't been able to update. But i'm back! =D

This winter has been HARD on my fro. Ironically, I've been doing more wash and go's since my curls have been coming in beautifully. I've noticed, however, that eyelash sized pieces (and some bigger) have been breaking off and i'm not too pleased with that. Now, i'm on a journey to keep my ends. I'm going to trim my ends once i get some clippers and then we'll see where it goes from there.

While i was gone, I turned 21! I wore my signature style: a puff in the back and my mini bang fro thingy in the front. I did a wash the night before and a twist out the day of.

I'm still using my concoction of shea butter and coconut oil. It provides great moisture and I haven't really been using it as often as i should, but I noticed that once I started up again, my hair thanked me. This whole maintenance thing is new too me, but i've realized that this is all a work in progress and I'm willing to do this work.





This winter break, I put my hair in mini twists for a week and then wen I was going out, I untwisted it for a mean twist out. It was looking quite sexy if I do say so myself ;)

So far, in spite of this terrible winter, my fro has been flourishing. The bottom line is that I love my hair. I love the curls, I love the maintenance, and I love the outcome. I'm taking this journey all the way.  Length check coming soon....stay tuned!!

New Additions to the Staple Product Family Part 2 [shea butter and coconut oil]

Okay so, if you peruse hair blogs like I do, you've most certainly seen/heard talk about shea butter in its natural state (unrefined) and/or coconut oil. Let me tell you, they aint lie [jay-z voice] lol. Recently, I discovered that the BSS (beauty supply store) in my neighborhood now carries unrefined african shea butter...imagine my PJ (product junky) excitement :D! So yesterday, I went out and bought a 16 oz jar for around 7 bucks (not bad considering that when whipped it's like 32 or more oz.) and decided that I would try to make shealoe (shea butter and aloe vera gel) little did I know, shea butter rehardens when cooled -___-   It still kind of worked tho, even though it was hard to work with. I washed my hair last night and melted my concoction in my hand and applied and them curls were poppin like L'il Mama's lip gloss! Anywho,  i did some research and found that in order to prevent shea butter from rehardening, one needs to add a carrier oil...hmmmm....yeaaaa idk what that means either, but upon further research, I learned that coconut oil does the job so, when I get home, I'm going to try again. Stay tuned!!!!

Here are links to the recipes I was going to combine and try:
1. http://www.agrlcanmac.com/2010/01/mixtress-chronicles-shea-pudding.html
2. http://mixology101.ning.com/profiles/blogs/shaes-pudding-curly-pudding

Here is the tutorial I'm going to use later:
http://blackhair.about.com/od/products/ss/howtowhipsheabutter.htm

BTW....
i also discovered that the vitamin shoppe has an entire line of natural products!!!!! (that's where I got my coconut oil and essential oil)  yaayyyyyyy!

Beanie = Care free Protective Hairstyle

It's getting quite chilly in Jersey, and since my hair is getting longer, it's also taking longer to dry.  Because of this, I can't really do the wet set styles that I love any more :( However, I discovered beanies last year (while still relaxed) and always rocked it with my bang out.   When I decided to go natural, I didn't really think that I could where it anymore because my hair wasn't straight. THEN, I saw a lot of other naturals sporting gorgeously on the web and decided to try it too.

relaxed 

natural ...kind of ;)--side view

 

Method:

Last night (like every weekend) I triple conditioned my hair (co-wash, conditioner, deep conditioner). Then, I 2 strand flat twisted the sides with my fave oils (castor and avocado or olive oil) and Eco-Styler Olive Oil gel with a little spritz of my Aussie leave-in ...it's my fave thing to do! After that, I put the back in two braids and pinned them away, because I knew that portion wasn't going to show. To get my poof in that wave pattern I put my Herbal Essences leave-in on the whole front section, two strand flat twisted it and put the remaining hair into a bantu knot. It gives me the perfect curl/wave w/o being frizzy!

This, and variations of it, will most likely be my staple style until my BC...Stay tuned!!!!

Kinky Twists

I am currently rocking kinky twists as we speak just to keep my hands out of my hair.  So far, It's working! I've had the twists in for a little over a week and I plan to keep them in until the end of the month. Then, i will redo the front myself. I learned how, through youtube and was even able to do my aunt's hair! So yea, I'm excited! Peep this pic!

textures smextures

Wow! I haven't written in a while, and I apologize.  Now that I'm back, I need to
share with you guys some of the stuff that have been on my mind. While looking on other blogs and fotkis about transitioning, I've noticed that there is a common complaint among them: the two different textures are so hard to deal with! Maybe it's just me, but they're really not that hard to deal with.  As long as you keep your new growth soft by moisturizing and conditioning, you're good.  Avoiding your new growth is not going to aid your growth or management at all. For me, conditioning is a main part of my regimen. I condition every Sunday religiously. I deep condition rarely because I have yet to find one that my hair likes, and I apply a leave in condition daily.  This is really the key to keeping your new growth mangeable, otherwise, your hair is going to be coarse, hard, and you're going to want to relax it to make it more "manageable" which defeats the purpose of growing out your hair in the first place.

As of now, I'm still LOVING my curls.  When I wash my hair, I spend so much time playing in it that by the time I'm ready to style it it's dry! In order to keep my hands out of my hair, I'm thinking about getting kinky twists put in... stay tuned!!

Additions to my arsenal

Yesterday, I finally found glycerin! I found it in the most random store too! Guess where....Kmart! Like i said in my product reviews, you'd be surprised how many products and beauty supplies you can find at a general supply store. I only wen there for a leave-in, but I decided to look through the other aisles and in the very last aisle of the beauty section, there were tons of natural oils! I got tea tree oil, sweet almond oil, rosemary oil ( i have no idea what i'm going to do with that yet), glycerin, castor oil, and olive oil all in the same section. Time to do what I do best....experiment! Wish me luck!

P.S: I also got a Conair shower comb, can't wait to try it!

you know your hair is thick as hay-ell wen...

So, on Sunday when my mother did my trim, I put a side comb in my hair to secure loose hair and so I wouldn't lose it. After the trimming was done, guess wat? I lost the side comb! I basically tore the place where I was sitting apart only to find that it was in my hair. Mind you, I checked my hair twice and could not feel it at all!! lol. If you think that's bad, just a moment ago while I was setting my hair, I found a tooth from my side comb! I haven't worn the side comb since friday...and I'm just finding out now, more than 36 hrs later, that it broke? lol. My hair is THICK! It was thick when I had it relaxed and It's gonna be even thicker when it's natural. I'm kind of excited to lose stuff in it lol. I'll just use it to my advantage how I use my bosom lol ;)

Softness is Bliss

I've come to the conclusion that my hair doesn't like Lustrasilk Protein Conditioner. Instead of diagnosing my hair as protein sensitive, I will simple say that my hair is senstive to this particular type of protein. In sunday, after I did a cowash and got my trim, I used my moisturizing spritz and castor oil to set my twists. Today, I finally took the rods out and my hair is incredibly soft!!! Before, only my roots were soft and the rest was kind of hard, but now, all of my hair is soft and apparently moisturized. I don't think I'll be needing that Lustrasilk protein anymore., my hair feels amazing without it. I used the castor oil to seal my ends and you should see how they glisten in the light. I've said this in previous posts, but I think these oils are my new best friend =D

Trim, Trim, Trim

I finally trimmed those gross ends of mine (maybe about 2 inches in some places). Trichologist, Lisa Akbari, stated that when transitioning, one must cut off all dead ends because the dryness of the ends can damage the rest of the strand. So, in order to promote growth, I finally got rid of my ends. I haven't noticed any drastic change (except the difficulty in sealing ends while twisting) since I just got it done on Sunday, but I hope this will make my hair less brittle in the future.

As for my moisturizing spritz, it is still treating me very well, my hair feels softer than ever! I can easily see my obsession with oils flourishing. I have yet to get the glycerin, but I will have to soon, my spritz is almost done! :(

What do you do to keep your hair moisturized?

Moisturizing Spritz Results

A couple days ago, I told you guys about the moisturizing spritz I concocted for my twist n curl. When I took the twists out, my roots were really soft and responsive (like I said, my hair loves olive oil), but I hadn't made much so it was done really quick. Luckily, I had some more Infusium 23 Leave-in Treatment and my friend gave me more oils so I just made more. This new one was even better because it had castor oil, Vitamin E, and olive oil in it. My hair was even softer!! I looooove soft hair! I'll let you know how this one turned out, stay tuned!!!

My Moisture Spritz

I've been reading on other blogs that when doing a wet set, the best thing to use is not the obvious liquid: water. Naturalistas such as Milan and Mae have said int heir blogs/vlogs/ and fotkis that a moisture spritz is the best way to go because water dries out eventually, but oils lock in moisture. Being an experimenter, I decided to try it last night, but since oil and water are infamous enemies, they need an emulsifier (glycerin) to make them compatible.  At that particular moment, however, I didn't have access to any glycerin :( but I remembered that I had a leave-in treatment (Infusium 23). I checked the ingredients and lo and behold! There was glycerin! So here's what I did, I took a little oil mixture I bought at my BSS and poured a little of both in a separate bottle.  Honey, it was so moist and sealing, my hair rejoiced!!! The Infusium 23 is also a detangler, so a detangler that moisturizes is definitely the best of both worlds; I didn't even feel the need to put an extra sealant on the ends. It even felt like my line of demarcation was stronger, but i don't know just yet, we'll see!. I can't wait to see how it looks when I finally take them out! Until then I'll continue to spritz! Stay tuned!

My nails are breaking my hair!!!

Okay, so I've said before that my relaxed ends are snapping off and I didn't care because I was trying to get rid of them anyway, but now it's annoying!!! It's especially annoying when a strand gets stuck in a pin or in another strand and snaps, but worst of all when my it gets stuck in a snagged nail and snaps! Its detrimental for both my hair and my nails, so I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to wear my nails low like a boy. The Mane and chic blog suggests wearing gloves for this reason, but I hate gloves lol. I really don't like wearing them. In the winter time, I wear fingerless gloves which would defeat the purpose in this case :-/. So, my solution is going to be to cut my nails down really low. I've been told that I have really long nail beds so it won't look too boyish, but my hair will be safe (hopefully).