Pre-Lent Haul

Something tells me you're gonna be seeing a lot more of me on this site especially since I've given up Twitter for Lent.  I know what's the big deal giving up Twitter right?  Even though I don't tweet all the time, I have to get my daily dose of Twitter so I'm making the decision to give it up entirely for 40 days!  I've also decided to give up buying anything beauty and hair related.  Especially since it was starting to become a problem.  I need to keep that money in my account since these wedding expenses are NOT cheap.

Now that I'm on a Lenten time out, I wanna share some of the last things I picked up.  

 

I picked up the two Nothing But products from my local BSS since I was interested in SofnFree's new all natural line.  I use their their milk protein and olive oil products religiously so I wanna see what these are like.

Then I went to Walgreens and got lured in by some yellow tags and picked up the nude Wet N Wild & yellow Sally Hansen.  And as I started to walk to the register there it was.  Now I'll  let you know I'm not big on lip color but when I saw that coral lip gloss (sorry it doesn't come across in the pictures, I'll take better ones when I have it on)  I had to have it.  And since all Revlon products were buy 1 get 1 50% off, I picked up the Bordeaux gloss just for fun.

I've already used two of them today, the nude/blush nail polish & the Nothing But Curl Sealer.  While I won't know how I feel about my hair until tomm, I am in love with the nail color.  So much so that I'm pretty sure that it's gonna be THE color for my wedding day.

So that is all I can buy until after Easter.

Oh I do have a Birchbox & a Curlbox that will be coming some time during the 40 days but I ordered those way before.  

Til next time.

Stuck on Repeat

This song and Rihanna's "Birthday Cake (remix)" have been on repeat in my car as of late.  Finally got the visuals for this now just to wait on the "Cake" video because I'm sure that's coming since Rihanna loves her some controversy.

It's be nice if I mentioned the artist and song title right?

  "Another Lovr" from Teedra Moses & (boo in my head) Wale.

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.

Mini-twists/Twist out

Don't judge but towards the end of a very long Wednesday work day I started twisting the back of my hair (very common for me to do when I'm bored) but because time was dragging I was able to twist a quarter of my hair without interruption. 

I had a scarf that covered the twists in the back, I'm not crazy enough to walk around my job with a half fro/half twists.

When I got back home I managed to twist the rest of my hair up and pin it into an updo to last me the rest of the week, which gave my a couple extra minutes of sleep. Yay!

Except I forgot my employee appreciation party was on Saturday and I wanted something a little more fun. So what did that mean... TWIST OUT!

I think I'm hooked on these twists as my everyday work hair (for the winter at least) but once the weekend comes, I was my hair big, free and a little obnoxious. 

Here's a look at the before

 

And the after: 

 (Had to block my face out... It was a long night, trust me you'll thank me)

I also managed to get a pretty good trim from the smaller twists than I do from the ones I typically do.

I'm under the dryer right now with my DC in (today it's Miss Jessie's SST) getting to finish up my wash routine and twist my hair up for the week.  

I'm headed to Charlotte on Thursday to spend some time with the Mister for a week and a half so doing my hair will be an challenge since I don't have my staples out there.  

Good or bad, I'll make sure I document the outcome.

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?