Challenge Accepted

Every hair blog I turn to mentions a healthy hair challenge every so often.  And while I strive for healthy hair I just don't have it in me to participate.  But then I turn to YouTube and get super jealous of the girls on there.  Sometimes I feel like my hair is at a standstill.  It's been 2 and a half years since I chopped my hair off and (yes it is probably due to shrinkage) it just feels like it stopped.  Ugh.  Now I admit I have my moments when I'm just not in the mood.  When I put braids or twists in I almost never moisturize.  Actually protective styling for anymore than a month tends to do more harm than good for me.  Since I clearly know that I'm the culprit why am I complaining right?  One of my goals this year is to take better care of my hair.  So I've armed myself with a monthly subscription to curlBox (just an excuse for my inner project junkie) and am devoted to taking care of her because she deserves it.

Here's my own personal informal hair challenge.

Hair Hell

As I mentioned before I've spent this past week visiting my fiancé in Charlotte (my soon to be new home.)  My hair was twisted from Monday of last week until Thursday (the day I flew out.) My plan was to keep the twists I had in until that weekend but by Thursday I just wanted my hair out.  So I had an amazing twist out that I wore from then til Superbowl Sunday.  But then Monday came and I knew I had to wash my hair.  Since I've been visiting Charlotte (2 yrs) I've had maybe 3 successful hair days.  It's not the weather but something about the blazing heat that he leaves on in the house and the lack of products I have over here makes it hard to have a good hair day.  My hair had been twisted from Monday til yesterday and the twist out I attempted to do was an utter #FAIL. Which brings me today... Right now I decided to do braids on dry hair then rub some smooth on some KCKT (Kinky Curly Knot Today) and baggy them for a lil bit.  Hopefully it'll turn my mess into something great for date nite tomm and the get together we're hosting on Saturday.

All I know is I gotta figure out how to turn these bad hair days around quick because I'll be living down here before I know it.

My Regimen

It's Sunday aka Wash Day.

When I'm at work I get approached by plenty of people asking what I use in my hair and although I preface with , "This may not work for you but..." I catch them making mental notes of everything I say to them.  

Now I've been natural for about 20 months now (although it kinda feel longer) so I have a handle on what works and doesn't for my hair.  

For those of you who are curious, here's a summary:

- Prepoo with Vatika Oil & JBCO

-Co-wash or shampoo (depending on my mood) with a conditioner of choice or Bee Mine's Ayurvedic Shampoo Bar

-Finger Detangle

-Try to Deep Condition weekly under a dryer with either Miss Jessie's Super Sweetback Treatment or ORS Hair Mayo (my cheaper alternative to the SST) While I have the DC in detangle my hair again with my Ouidad Double Detangler and twist each section.

-Rinse and wrap with a t-shirt til hair is damp.  

- Add Kinky-Curly Knot Today, SofnFree Strengthening Creme, Roots of Nature Butter Whip Coil Cream to each section and retwist or braid, sealing the ends with Karen's Body Beautiful Butter Love

And here are the products:

That's about it.

Not too complicated.  

I've tried a lot of different methods out and I find this is one that seems to work best for me.  But of course that doesn't stop me from buying and trying different products.

What's your Wash Day procedure look like?

For the Product Junkie in You

I think I was better off staying away from my Google Reader.  Once I opened it up to check out the blogs I follow, I was introduced to these two:

 

Just great.

Another reason to cry broke. 

BUT 

In my desire to become a better blogger, I find they're a great opportunity to try new products and share my highs and lows.

(any excuse to feed my addiction plus it's always a good day when you get a package in the mail)

Basically, each box contains 5 or 6 samples of products based on a beauty profile you create when you sign up. (CurlBox is geared towards natural hair and Birchbox handles skin, hair, makeup, fragrance)  CurlBox hasn't officially launched yet so I don't know the price point but BirchBox is $10 a month which isn't too bad in my opinion.  

If you're interested, check out:

BirchBox / CurlBox

OR if you've tried Birchbox already, let me know what you think.

Up and Away

I'm not even going to discuss how long it has been since I've posted anything and I honestly don't have a good reason for it.  Instead I'm just going to post these updo pics I took and hope I'll be forgiven for being a bad blogger.  (Excuse my face, it was a long work day) I pulled my hair back because it wasn't working not matter what I tried to do to it.  Now that my hair is growing out I think I'm going to start doing more updos as a styling option.

 

 

 

What do you think?

 

 

Mama, I made it!

Who is that girl in the first picture? She looks so familiar?

I know, I know it's a picture but I've been obsessing over the hair and looks of Le Coil since I was transitioning so when I was approached to take a picture, I felt like I had arrived! Plus it was on a bummy day & still got compliments! Hell Yes! So what my hair is tucked away, I couldn't be happier!

A Year and a Day

Here's my day 2 hair and a sneak peek at my outfit today.  Still not in love but it's getting bigger slowly, by Thursday, Friday... It's gonna be a problem!

Happy Anniversary (to her)!

Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of the day I BC'd.  Now I would've shown my hair from yesterday but I just washed it and as you may know by now I HATE day 1 hair.  So here are pics from Sunday nite before I washed my hair (excuse the gross-ness).  I wanted to show comparison pics but lucky for me (insert angry, annoyed face here) my computer crashed not too long ago so I can't find pictures from when I first chopped my hair off.

All I could really find were these...

VERSUS

Not too bad.  Here's to the future, Fro.

 

So...

Two things:

1. I forgot to charge my camera becfore heading to Charlotte so I have no hair pics aside from this pic I took of a "my braidout is failing me so now's a good time as any to try my first updo" on my Blackberry (which means the pic quality sucks)

and

2. My kinky twists are back because it's no-hassle and it's time to give my hair a protective style time-out

Sleeping Beauty

Before I head to bed I wanted to demonstrate what I do with my hair at night.  So for the sake of being a (decent) blogger, I'm putting up pictures of me looking a Hot Ass Mess.  Ugh this better not come back to bite me in the ass.  I mini-pineapple my hair.  In other words, I grab sections of hair, tie them up loosely in hair bands and then throw my scarf on.  Now it's not the sexiest look in the world (thank goodness I don't live with the bf) but it works.  I untie, moisturize, steam, fluff and go.  It keeps my hair from matting and shrinking up.

I'm gonna warn you.  What you're about to see is not pretty.  My hair is looking a little rough because 1. it's the end of the night 2. my braidout is about 7 days old and I need to push it out for another few days because I wanna wash right before I head to Charlotte this weekend for CIAA.

It starts out like:

 

After tying up each section it ends up looking like this:

Tomorrow I'll put up pics of how I end up styling my hair for work.  Something tells me it's gonna be pulled back and puff-like because I'm pushing it and I don't want to rebraid.

 

She's Back...

The twists are gone and my hair is free to be once again!  I missed it so much.

Even though I washed my hair with the twists know there was definite buildup; she needed some serious TLC.  I washed with Curls for Target Creamy Cleanser, conditioned with Suave Almond and Shea Butter then deep conditioned with Miss Jessie's SST.  She was loving it. I clipped my ends just a little then threw some Design Essentials leave-in and HE Long Term Relationship leave in, twisted it up, sealed with Vatika oil and was good to go.  When I went to bed I really thought my hair was gonna be dry because I didn't apply the leave-in sections like I usually do but when I woke up this morning, it was super soft.  Though because my camera sorta sucks, I doubt you can tell.

Here are some pics of how my hair turned out today.  Now for me to put up day 1 hair is a big deal, because I typically never like my hair on day 1 but I was kinda feeling myself today.

Hopefully I can maintain my hair during the winter but with hats and scarves I'm a little worried.  In fact while I was out running errands, I damn near cried because I felt a strand of hair get caught on my scarf.  Plus the wind... I almost bought a bag of hair again out of fear.

My next goal is start experimenting with different styles: bantu knot outs, braid outs, mini-twists.

Til then.

Big Hair, Don't Care

It's done! After co-washing with Shea Moisture Restorative Conditioner, I banded my hair for a little bit, whipped the blow dryer out of my closet, and wiped off all the dust it had been accumulating; it had been a looong time since I used it.  I blew my hair out in sections on med heat and on the low setting. I moisturized with Design Essentials Hydrating Leave-in, then applied Got2b Flat Iron & Blow Dry Lotion.  I chose that as my heat protectant because I was at a Walgreens at 3am looking for a birthday card for my mom and came across it while trying to find the card aisle.   The bottom of the bottle says $ course hair so that's most likely what won me over.  From what I hear heat protectants tend to feel like there's a coating on your hair and this is exactly what it feels like.  Of course I'll buy more one day so I can compare and contrast.

I think what suprised me the most was that I didn't break the attachment comb, lol.  Although there was a close call when I got to the center of my head (I'm assuming that's the crown, correct me if I'm wrong)  That's always been my troublesome spot and this was no different.  This section of my hair is easily type 4c-z.  If you don't know too much about hair typing* click here.  The stupid comb kept coming off the dryer and getting stuck in that section :(

After that whole ordeal I went from looking like this:

to this:

Keep in mind, I did not want my hair straight, I just wanted it stretched.  My goal was to get a bigger twistout that wouldn't shrink up the way it typically does.  So I twisted my hair with the help of Shea Moisture DT Masque, a little ORS Twist and Loc Gel and sealed my ends with Vatika oil.  I've only been using Vatika for a few days so the review is coming.

*I wanna get more into hair typing because some people either believe in it or think it's an obsolete system that shouldn't be used and segregates people.  I think it's helpful but more about that later.

Hair; Meet Heat

There's no rain in the forecast this weekend out here in NY.  So I've decided to blow my hair out.  Now I spent a long time growing my relaxer out and I've haven't used heat (aside from sitting under a dryer to DC) since maybe August/September of 2009.  Let's just say I'm terrified.  I mean, I won't be blowing it out so that it's straight I just wanna stretch my hair out a lil and get a bigger/longer twist out than usual.  I have my heat protectant so hopefully there won't be any damage but still.  I've been wanting to do this for maybe a month now and I decided I'm gonna bite the bullet and give it a try before I twist my hair up.  I'm gonna try and get a good trim in too.  I know my hair's gonna be uneven but I'm gonna leave that up to a stylist whenever I choose to straighten my hair.  And that isn't for another 7 months at least.  I want to wait til I hit the 1 year mark of my nappiversary.  Okay, I'm getting sidetracked.  The plan is to wash, set and blow-dry my hair tomorrow and then taking pics of the result on Saturday.

 

In My 2 Months as a Natural…

Time is flying; it definitely doesn’t seem like I cut my hair 2 months ago but it has been.  I’m starting to develop a regimen which will probably change as I start to run out of products and want to experiment with new ones.

Once a week:

-I deep condition overnight with either a mix of oils or my mix of HEHH, olive oil and honey or if I’m feeling a little lazy I’ll DC for an hour under a dryer the day of.

-Finger comb right before I hop into the shower and divide my hair into sections

-Cowash with Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle, Trader Joe’s Nourish or Aussie Moist.

- Rinse my hair with cold water to reduce frizz

-Squeeze excess water out of my hair with a t-shirt.  I don’t do my twists/braids on soaking wet hair, it works better damp.

- Run a mix of JBCO and coconut oil through my scalp.

-Section my hair, applying a dime size amt of Shea Moisture Coconut Hibiscus Smoothie as my leave-in and a dime size amt of shealoe focusing on my ends especially.  I then detangle with my Denman and twist/braid.

-After that’s all done, I’ll seal with whatever oil I grab first and throw on a scarf.

When untwisting:

-I rub my hands in a little Shealoe and untwist from the bottom up.

-After all are unraveled, I fluff my roots with my fingers.

-Spray a little of my spray bottle, not enough to undo the style just to refresh my hair, and I’m good to go. Depending on my outfit, maybe a headband, flower, or bow!

Before going to bed:

Depending on what look I’m going for the next day I may spray my hair all over and twist again or use my Shea Moisture Style Milk to retwist loosely.  I rarely sleep without retwisting my hair.  Seal my ends, scarf and sleep.

So far, I’ve learned that my hair doesn’t like to be soaking wet.  Gel and I do not get along but I’m gonna give EcoStyler a try for the sake of experimentation.  My hair likes being in stretched styles, wash and go’s lead to a tangled mess.  I trim randomly whenever my ends just don’t seem right.  The easiest way for me to trim is while my hair is twisted.  I don’t cut very much off; I “dust” my ends, maybe a ¼ inch at most. I must moisturize and seal my ends daily because my hair dries out very quickly which leads bad ends.  I’m partial to chunky looking twistouts as opposed to super defined ones.  One of my future posts will be a length check so I’ll have something to compare when I hit the 6 month mark.  That’ll be my next “In My _ Months as a Natural…”

The Reason Why I Now Love the Denman

 

Thanks to MsVcharles, I no longer wanna throw this brush against a wall.  A simple revamp turned it from something I regret buying to something I can't live without.  It's so much better to use for detangling than a widetooth comb before styling.

Protein/Moisture Balance

Lately the question of moisture & protein has really been bothering me.  Every week before I wash my hair I use a deep conditioning mixture that's supposed to be moisturizing but am I over-doing it? My hair feels soft and the dryness/brittleness that I had initially experienced isn't a problem but should I be using any protein treatments?  Fast forward to me looking up information on the subject and coming across a pretty comprehensive article about Protein/Moisture balance.  It's all about experimentation so I'll be trying until I learn how much protein or moisture the Fro requires.  Currently I'm gonna try using a protein leave-in every other week and see how my hair reacts to that.  My friend has a couple blocks of Lush henna that she's willing to let me try so that will be my next attempt at strengthening my hair.  I finally finished my Hello Hydration DC mix so I'm thinking of what to try next.  Maybe another Shea Moisture product when I run out to Target to buy another bottle of the Moisture Mist.

Here are the links for Protein and Moisture Balance and Over-conditioning

What’s In My Spray Bottle?

Whenever I wanna wake my hair up or kinda protect it from the harsh sun & heat, the first thing I reach for is my trusty spray bottle.  It re-moisturizes my hair and keeps it nice and soft.  Now I don’t saturate my hair so that I completely lose my style but I do lightly mist it all over.  During the time that I wore kinky twists, I experimented with different things, most of which were failures.  There was the water, JBCO, coconut oil and pure aloe vera gel combo… a complete failure.  For some reason everything clumped together at the top and clogged the nozzle.  I’m not too sure what caused it but the only thing I can think of was the thick, sticky JBCO.  Because I know many ladies out there use the other ingredients with no problem.  Then there was water, conditioner, coconut oil, which was decent.  Currently my bottle is filled with water, coconut oil, olive oil and some Shea Moisture Moisture Mist.  I love all my Shea Moisture products but that was my least favorite because it felt sticky when I sprayed it.  I’m not one for wasting so I poured a little into the bottle for fun and YEP, I found a keeper.  My hair stays soft but doesn’t frizz, thanks to the SMMM.  It’s not sticky and still has that lovely Coconut Hibiscus scent.

I don’t measure any of it but if I had to guess I’d say it’s

8 oz. water

2-3 oz. SMMM

1 tsp olive oil

and 1 tsp coconut oil

If you wanna give it a try you can add/replace the oils with any oil you choose.  Something like sweet almond oil seems like it would work really well with this.

Spray as needed, especially if your hair is feeling a little parched.  The way the sun beats down on me & The Fro, I catch myself spraying at least 3-4 times throughout the day.  Definitely have a travel spray bottle that goes everywhere with me.

I’m thinking about what to try next.  I’ve been hearing about adding a little sunscreen so I may give that a go.

I wanna know: What’s in your mix?

Kinky Curly Coily Me Giveaway

JenellyBean of KinkyCurlyCoilyMe is hosting a giveaway of We Rock Roots samples.  Head over to the site to enter and win some new products.

Hair-spiration

From one of my fave YouTubers, br0nzeqt, here are a couple of styles I'm thinking about trying out in the next week. I have a few events that I wanna look nice for and I love the look of both. I've been slacking on posting pictures so I'll be sure to take tons and actually post them.

 

My Hair Today

Just wanted to post random hair pics because I kinda liked it today