hair rant

Thanks to O'naturals for the article below.

definitely spot on!

enjoy! 

 

Hair Rant - Cabella

We have to deal with so many mis-informed stereotypes and misconceptions.

Why is it that you automatically start talking about messy, unkempt, dirty hair when we are talking about natural hair? As if relaxed hair cannot be messy, unkempt, or dirty. Why do we natural haired women have to defend our choice to wear our hair in its natural form? How did we get to the point where natural hair, worn in its natural form, is considered unacceptable? Shouldn't the question be 'why are you relaxing your hair?' NOT 'why don't you relax your hair?'

Oh how about in the work place?! Why is it that no one challenges a woman when she wears a fake afro, a fake twist out, fake locs or a fake afro puff but when I wear exactly those hairstyles on my natural hair you start to talk arrant rubbish?! Yes it is rubbish! Ah and when the 'half caste' woman walks in with her natural hair as is, all of you start cooing about how lovely her hair is. *insert long hiss here!*




Source: Memegenerator

 Natural haired women talk about "taming" their hair for the workplace yet one woman walks in with a long , big and straight weave and that is okay. No taming is required there abi? Come on people!

It is so messed up! The worst of all of this is that people see nothing wrong with it. And they will sit down, stand up in their self righteous tone and 'explain' why straight hair is better or why BLACK natural hair is not.






Source: The Angry Black Woman


You see the issue is not the hairstyle. The issue is that I am styling my natural hair in its naturalness. Like I said above, if I go to the office with a fake twist out I will get compliments and be asked where I got the fake hair from. Enter me another day with my natural hair in a twist out and as soon as they know it is my natural hair, I will start getting useless and unsolicited advise from people. The message is HIDE your natural hair and all will be right with the world. *insert an even longer hiss!*

Why is MY natural hair YOUR business? Mind your own business and leave my hair alone!

If people heard that I was not hiring people because they wear weaves will there not be an outcry? Yet folks think it is okay not to hire or promote a woman because she is wearing her natural hair in its natural form. No be one kind madness be this?

Imagine a dark skinned person being told to "lighten" up for clients. Or a tall person being told to "shorten" down for their job. How about someone with light brown eyes being told to "darken" those eyes to look more professional? The point is, those attributes are natural and why should they be changed whether permanently or temporarily?

What is vexing is that I am constantly being 'advised' to PERMANENTLY OR TEMPORARILY ALTER THE TEXTURE of my hair. Like permanently alter your skin colour. My hair is coily, kinky, nappy, natural - whatever you want to call it. That is the texture and I ain't changing it!

*dropping mic and kicking soap box*

Cabella

Wash and go - attempt

hiya, hope you all having a great weekend.
i took out my weave this morning. thot i'd play with my hair a bit, so decided to attempt a wash and go.

i did a prepoo using coconut and amla oil. stayed under a cap dryer for 10 mins only and just left the plastic cap over my head while i did my chores. methinks i washed the hair after about 2 hours. not sure now. but definitely for a bit. washed using aussi moist conditioner. and that was it.

for leave-in conditioner, i used Creme of nature argan oil leave -in. ehm... a new purchase.
Vitale olive oil moisturiser on that.

oh oh oh, when i took the weave off, my hair was super moisturised, and zero breakage. the hair was silky soft.  i really didn't want to wash the hair to be sincere. guess my fingers were twitching to use the new products i bought.

after putting the leave-in and moisturiser, my hair felt a bit iffy actually. wasn't sure i knew what was the cause. got the spritz bottle hand, (aloe juice, glycerin, eucalyptus oil, Castor oil). and kinky curly coiling custard. sectioned the hair into 4 parts using butterfly clips. then started from the back.

Working in little sections, i wetted and then raked the custard through . the first thing i noticed was tangling. oh my God, i had loads of single strand knots. it was unbelievable. then felt the curls were not really popping out.  for the remaining 3 sections, after wetting, i applied oil (Castor and sunflower oil mix) before adding the kinky curly custard,
oh my!!!, my curls popped out kaboom! before my eyes. didn't believe i had this kinda of curl definition.
i continued through the whole hair. alas, by the time i got to the front, my hands were tired and stared taking bigger chunks of hair. but all in all i loved the definition i saw.

i May have used too much product, cos my hair was white when i was done. i had to rinse with cold water and shake my head from side to side to get some product off and curls popping every where.

am i excited about the definition?, you bet!!.

the hair didn't dry as quickly as i had though though. as at now , yet to dry. i feel tempted to use a dryer on it.I'll try not to though.

Oh well, right now, loving my hair.

l8r!

xx



 

side view

back view



 

top view
 



U-part wig

hi all,
doing okay? great1
guess what, i plan on taking out my weave this coming weekend. kinda missed my hair. i know protective styling is the way to go for length retention, so, no stressing about my hair.
when i put in the weave, i did say, I'll carry it for 3 to 4 weeks or something like that. so I'm quite justified to remove the tracks this Saturday.
despite the weave, i still followed my usual care regimen. i washed weekly. conditioned, moisturised and sealed.
a new thing i did with the weave this time around is caring for it properly.
i actually sued leave in conditioner and sealed with oil. after 3 weeks, weave is still looking fresh.  i promise I'll post pictures as soon as i can. promise.

i was at the store this afternoon and bought 3 packs of length 16" curly weave, a pair of C shaped weave needles, and a couple of wig caps. unfortunately, i did not get a mannequin head though. should be able to improvise some how.

the plan is to have the wig done .........by myself

fingers crossed it will turn out well.
maybe a should get a regular wig nearby in case....

oh well will keep you posted on how it goes..

xx

Hair and face care regimen - update

hallos peeps!
hope you had a good weekend. over here in Lagos, we had a 4 day weekend. last thursday and friday were public/bank holidays.
my hair is still in protective styling. been a week and two days since i installed the weave. it wasn't an expensive kinda weave or anything, but i love it. simply because i now know how to care for weaves better than i did the last time i wore one.

this past weekend i washed my hair. i felt good afterwards. dunno why, but i had this feeling of  wellness afterward. maybe it was all the pampering and me-time i had. felt good.
Dudu Osun african black soap was what i sued to wash both the weave and my hair. i raised the tracks in sections so as to get to my oen hair and gently rubbed the soap on. the soap is a solid bar, so it was easy to rub on my scalp between the tracks.
 this was done while in the shower, made the washing process easier. i then used Aussi Moist conditioner on my scalp. covered up with a shower cap and cotinued with my normal shower routine. i rinsed out the conditioner and voila, my hair was all nice and fresh. the weave didn't tangle. though a curly weave, all the curls were still intact.  i half feared i might lose the definition on the weave. oh no, it actually looked better after the wash.

after drying with an old t-shirt.  i love my huge grey t-shirt. it wraps round my hair like 2 or 3 times, and the long sleeves make a good tie to keep it in place. the t-shirt was over my head til i finished dressing up.
there after,  while hair was still damp, i applied Giovanni direct leave in conditioner to the scalp and hair under the weave. that was all i put actually.  on the weave, i rubbed Aloe vera gel in sections. voila!, i was done.
the next day, i misted my scalp and hair with aloevera juice + glycerine + castor oil + eucaplytus essential oil mix, and sealed with Organics extra virgin Olive oil  hair polisher. and that was it.
moisturising and sealing while hair is in a sew in weave is not as easy as it used to be without the weave. hoping to use the aloe juice mix as my main moisturiser, and the polisher to seal. of cos, i'll still use jaimacan black castor oil once or twice a week. for now, i'll relax on the use of shea butter mix. since this will just sit on the cornrows and not penetrate it to moisturize.

Face regimen.
iread on the curlynikki forum on how someone mixed black soap with aloe vera juice and use as a liquid facial wash. i wondered why not give it a try. i have a huge bottle of  AVJ in the fridge, and since i can do a mud was right now (bought it to mix with bentonite clay for a shampoo substitute), might as well use it for my face.
on sturday, i poured the juice in a  pump bottle and cut of bits of black soap and left it to dissolve. by the next day, it had completely dissloved and ready to use. ehm, i must say, i was a bit impatient, on the day i preparedit, i used it to wash my face. i probably used just aloe juice with a trace of blac soap. impatient me.

used it for two days now, and i like how my face looks today. my face looks soft and moisturised. not oily as much as it used to be. it's still early days, and will still give an update.
a recap of my current  facial routine

Morning
1. wash with black soap
2. put honey and rinse off at end of shower session
3. moisturise with my usual body moisturiser

Evening
1. olive oil to remove eye make up and loosen oil and dirt from my face
2. wash using aloe vera juice + black soap mix
3. use rose water + glycerine as a toner
4. moisturize using Johnson's tissue oil.


oh dear, this post has really gone longer than i had thought it would. that's me, getting carried away.

thanks for reading.

xoxo

Acronyms - hair lingo

in response to a comment from a reader, thought i'd post a list of commonly used acronyms with respects to natural hair care and their meanings.


2a, 2b, 2c, 3a, 3b, 3c, 4a, 4b, 4c = curl types
2nd Day Hair = Hair that looks good enough the day after styling that it can just be misted with water or have a little product added try to revive and refresh its style.
ACV = Apple Cider Vinegar
AOHR= Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose
AOMM = Aubrey Organics Magic Mandarin Jelly
AOWC = Aubrey Organics White Camilla
APL = arm pit length
AVG= Aloe vera Gel
BAA = Big-ass afro
BB=Blended Beauty (product line)
BC= Big Chop
BSL = bra strap length
c. = Coarse texture
Canopy = the top layer of hair, which is exposed to the elements the most, and is prone to frizzing
CG = Curly Girl routine or "Curly Girl," the book by Lorraine Massey
Clarify = remove build-up from the hair via ACV, lemon juice, or shampooing
Clumping = strands of hair clumping together to form bigger, chunkier curls
CO = conditioner or "conditioner=only" as in not using shampoo
CO wash = conditioner washing
Condish = conditioner
Crunch = the hard, crunchy feeling left by some gels when they dry, which can sometimes be scrunched out.
DT = deep (conditioning) treatment
Elucence MBC = Moisture Balancing Conditioner
EOs = essential oils
EVOO = extra virgin olive oil
f. = fine texture
FSG=Flax Seed Gel
GDLI = Giovanni Direct Leave=In
GioDLI= Giovanni Direct Leave In
Giovanni DLI/ GDL= Giovanni Direct Leave-In
HE = Herbal Essences
i, ii, iii = Fia's hair-typing system descriptors for volume
JC N&S= Jane Carter Nourish and Shine
KCCC = Kinky Curly Curling Custard
KCKT = Kinky Curly Knot Today
m. = medium texture
NG= Nature's Gate
OC = Devacurl One Condition
ORS = Organic Root Stimulator
pineapple = gathering hair gently on top of head with a scrunchie to preserve curls for 2nd day hair
Pixiecurl diffuser method= leaving diffuser OFF, using the bowl to scrunch hair up to root, turn ON for 30 seconds=1 minute, turn OFF, and then repeat on next section of hair. Minimizes frizz and reduces the amount of disturbance on the rest of your hair while diffusing.
PJ = Product Junkie (addicted to trying the next new, possibly better hair product)
Plop/plunk= Method for putting your wet hair into a towel to encourage curls (video on jessicurl's website)
'poo = shampoo
PVP = A polymer found in most gels
'quats = polyquaternium polymers found in styling products
SAO = Sweet almond oil
Scrunch = encourage curl or apply product by gently squeezing/pushing hair upward from end toward root.
Shrinkage = shortening of length due to curl tightness
SL = shoulder length
SLS = Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (surfactant found in most shampoos)
SOTC = scrunch out the crunch
TTO = tea tree oil
TWA = Teeny weeny afro
Understory = hair under the top exposed layer

Check out Naturally Curly for a more exhaustive list.

Update on my simplified regimen

hellooooo,
guess who's back, back again, guess who's back......... Eminem....

c'est moi.
in my last post, i mentioned i would be wearing wigs for a bit. un hun, indeed i have all this while. i actually bought a couple new ones to to spice things up as it were.

me believe my hair loves a simplified regimen. no fuss, no tears. after 5 weeks or so of wearing wigs, i am now ready to wear a sew-in weave. i have fixed an appointment to have my hair fixed this weekend. hope to carry it for 3 to 4 weeks max. it will serve as a protective style.

Over here in Lagos, the dry season will set in any moment now, and then the hair care regimen wil have to be reviewed. 

while wearing the sew-in weave, i hope to continue washing my hair once a week. weave and all. i'll use castor oil to oil the scalp during this time. i still have the Jaimacan Black castor oil, will use it.
i'll like to finish the bottle i bought before i'll comment on whether it's thickening or growing my hair or not. so far, i'll say not exactly impressed.

Face/skin regimen
i have continued to use African black soap to wash my face and body  in the mornings. for a while i used raw shea butter as my facial cream in the mornings. i got bored with it last week and satred using my body moisturizer for my face.  did i hear someone shout 'lazy babe'? LOL my body moisturizer isn't greasy like shea butter.
for evening wash, i am currently using tea tree facial wash (from Superdrugs) and moisturizing with Johnson Tissue oil. been doing this for less than 4 weeks, so a bit too early to comment on the results. the pack did say 6 weeks to see visible results.
Patience, patience the best quality  i say.

2 items i jsut added to my face regimen in the last two days is honey and olive oil.
olive oil as a make up remover at night before using the facial wash. started only yesterday actually. massaged on face and around eyes (gently) to remove eye makeup. then wash off after 3 - 5 mins.
the honey i use in the morning, after washing with black soap. i put a little on my palm, and rub my hands together, apply to my face. then rinse off after 2 to 3 mins. well, as soon as i'm done washing my body.

Olive oil and honey have been said to benefit the skin and body generally for centuries. since i have quite a bit in the house, thought i might as well incorporate them. by the time i use up what i have, i'll assess the results and know whether to continue with them as staples in my skin care..

anyone used any of the items i have written about in this post? will you like to share your experience? pls feel free to comment.

thanks for reading,

ciao!
xoxo

New hair care regimen

hello........
sorry i've been silent for a while. been hectic and totally disracted with other aspects of life. :-) there's more to chikeebee than hair......

In my last post i told you how i had my hair in twists. well,  i had them on for 6 weeks. and they still looked nice when i took them down.  big thanks to all the natural hair blogs, curlynikki.com and Coilybella blog for their tips on maintaining hair while in mini braids with extensions.
My hair was well moisturized and had little breakage when i undid the twists. that, my dear reader would be the first time i would put extensions in my hair with little or no damage done to my hair.

next thing i'll try would be to braid without extensions.

for now, i'm wearing wigs. i did chunky braids, about  10 and put on a wig. been wearing wigs for the third week now.

i did say i was going to write about my new simple regimen.  silly me, getting carried away....

taking a break from all the oils i have. if you ever met a product junkie, it would me moi!! got products i don't even remember where i bought them from. that bad.

the in-between washes care i do now is to just spritz with water + oil+ aloe gel mix and and use whipped shea butter (from Kinky Apothecary) as sealant and styler. nothing more nothing less.
going to do this a month and report back to you on my observations.

thanks for reading

xoxo

Protective styling - mini twists

Decided to try a new approach to growing my hair. For a couple of days a washed each time I took a shower. An attempt at wash n go. My hair shrunk like crazy.

Hair was so shrunken that I shuddered when I caught a glimpse of my reflection while out and about from a car glass. Oops!!! Wasn’t what I had in mind. Looks like my hair does not like wash n gos.

So put my hair into mini-twists with extensions. The brand the hairdresser used is ‘Expressions’ .

She did a good job because everyone suddenly gushes over the new look and say it suits me. and then they add, I shouldn’t  wear my natural hair out again.

Feel like a deflated balloon.

Well, refuse to take a defeat in my attempt at naturalness. So re-strategizing. Will do protective styling to grow my hair out. Hopefully my hair will be better accepted when it’s long.

Will continue to treat the twists like it’s my hair. Moisturize and seal daily.

Castor oil for the scalp and edges.

Hope to keep the extensions in for 5 to 6 weeks and then decide on the next style to do.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. As soon as I am able to I’ll do a post containing pictures only.

Later peeps!

First Finger curls style

I have to admit that new naturals can learn a lot on how to care for their hair from the online community. In another post, I’ll list the online resources I have found invaluable.

Before washing my hair this week, I checked online for styling ideas.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 (Guess you will have figured out my washday is Mondays by now. For some time now, weekends are choked and I hardly can find the time to wash my hair. I hate to rush so I don’t bother with weekends any more. Hopefully, my schedule will change soon and then I’ll be back to weekend washes and have a fresh style Monday morning.)

Finger curls looked easy and the subsequent ‘out’ looked nice. Well, in the pictures I saw on google. So, decided for it. And wow!!!, it was very easy to do.

I used aussi moist conditioner as  leave in and my  eco custard mix as styler. Before that, I’d co-washed with TRESemme Natural conditioner only.  Noticed how curly my type 4 hair looked when wet. Super moisturized and curly. I felt tempted to leave it to air dry and see if it would still stay curly.  (will save that experiment for tomorrow evening. Being Friday, if it gets all frizzy when dry, I can always re-style it Saturday morning.)  I then put in the finger curls. Took me about 30-45mins. Hopefully, it will be quicker next time

By morning, my hair wasn’t thoroughly dried, but since I had to rush out of the house,  I quickly separated the curls to get a fuller look. Had been tempted to wear the finger curls straight up, but changed my mind when I saw the picture of it. The subsequent finger curl out was nice. The hair dried in the course of the day, and it didn’t get frizzy or anything. That  was Tuesday.  As at today, Thursday, I still have the same style, and the hair looks great.

Maintenance

At night I spritz and wear a satin scarf. In the morning I rub my hands with oil and lift the hair up, then use an afro pick to fluff out the curls. Spray oil polish on it and I’m good to go.

Gotten 3 full days out of the finger curls. I think that is just wow!!

I haven’t done any flat twists or two strand twists this week and my hair is presentable.

I plan to co-wash this evening however. My scalp has been a bit itchy and that’s probably because I haven’t been oiling it since I did the finger curls. Usually, I oil with JBCO every day,

Oh well, will keep you posted.  Wanted you to know how my first attempt at finger curls went.

Woohoo!

L8r peeps,

Styling experiments with Ecostyler gel

Hello peeps, hope you’ve been good. Over here in Lagos, it’s been raining everyday for the past 3 weeks. No exaggeration. This morning, let’s just say almost everyone in Ikoyi had a swimming pool. On some streets, the whole road was a communal pool of sorts.

Oh well, lots of moisture in the air, yay!!! No complains about dry brittle hair right now. J

Been doing a lot of experimenting of late. Still searching for the products my hair needs and wants. Yeah, there could be a difference when you think about it.

Experiment 1 – Wet and Go (WnG) using Ecostyler

Still trying very hard to love ecostyler, not sure I’m at that level yet. The first time I did a wash and go, I probably used way too much gel, cos I carried white, I mean white hair for the whole day. I kept saying it would soon get absorbed into the hair. Oh no, that didn’t happen. By evening, I wiped off all the white goo with paper towels.

Results

On the second day, it actually looked nice. Carried it well. However hair was crunchy and stiff.  I had defined coils. I’ll post pictures up later. I got 3^rd day hair out of it, by pineappling. Had to do about 6 pineapples because my hair is very short. Being still in TWA stage. But by day 3, most of the definition was gone. I’ll try a WnG again before I conclude it’s not for me.

Lessons learnt:

1.     Not to use too much gel next time

2.     remove excess gel after setting but before it dries. Will try rinsing off the excess gel with water next and see how that plays out.

Experiment 2 – use of  Eco  curl custard

After washing my hair normally, I allowed to dry. By next day, it was well dried. Though I must say, the drying bit was actually just per chance. I wore an afro puff the day after wash day. Immediately after washing I usually  put hair in braids to let it dry and stretch.

It was the day after washing I happened on the eco custard recipe from curly nikki forum. I was searching for a homemade curl definer recipe.

Basically it’s 

1 cup Ecostyler gel,

1 table spoon EVOO,

1 Tablespoon EVCO and

1 Tablespoon AVG.

 give them a thorough mix till you get a smooth custardy consistency.

A little note: I made the curl custard and applied to my hair late in the evening. Had gotten home quite late as a result of the usual Lagos traffic.  Round about  8-9pm. I’m saying this because I believe the results were affected by this.

So I whipped up the curl custard, felt impressed at my mixtress skills. And used it to do a braid-in. The plan was to have a braid out the following morning.  This time around, I used much less product than I did when I used ecostyler alone. I did a light  LOC though before using the custard.

Results

The following morning, the braids had not dried. They weren’t anywhere near dry. All that moisture in the air (rains) didn’t help matters much. I picked the hair out into an afro. Since I’d worn an afro the day before, didn’t want to wear an afro again. So I took a blurb of the custard and rubbed on my hair and used the flat of my palm to rub my hair in circular motions. Attempting to get some curl definition by all means.  Absolutely didn’t like the result. Had to take the hair like dat to work though cos I was running late. A definite bad hair day!! like that wasn’t bad enough,  I had serious shrinkage. Since the hair was still very damp, it didn’t stretch out and my ‘palming’ it got it even smaller. Did I get definition? Not really. Hair was all frizzy.

Lessons learnt

1.     allow time for a desired style to set. If not enough time, don’t do style

2.     not to use too many products at the same time. Had done LOC before using curl custard.

Conclusion

Experiments are good, but if the right conditions are not met, desired results should not be expected.

I was done experimenting for this week. The plan for yesterday evening was to co-wash and just do my basic simple style. Moisturize and style with whipped shea butter. Buuuut, got home late again and was just too tired to wash my hair. All I did was to lightly spritz it and flat twisted it all back.

This morning, I picked it out and went to work. Hair is stretched out, the definition I got didn’t last 2 hours, but it’s okay.

I have come to realize something, in the Lagos humidity (been 98% for a while) I shouldn’t expect to see curl definitions as well as what I get when I travel outside Lagos.

So I’m no longer putting emphasis on getting my curls defined. If it happens, great, will enjoy it while it lasts. My focus now is to grow long healthy hair.

So peeps, thanks for reading this. Please leave your comments, criticisms are also welcome.

Cheers!

Jamaican Black Castor Oil & Bentonite Clay

I did another chop on Monday, so my hair is looking very twa at the moment.

Can’t wait for it to grow out again. Ain’t gonna believe this, I now envy people with long hair. Can’t wait for mine to be long. Patience, patience I guess.

I have started a number of new things since my last post.

To begin with, I now keep a journal of what I put in my hair and how it reacts every day. Yup!, everyday.

Even have one for my face. I had to start this journal because there was a morning, my hair looked sooo gorgeous, fluffy, well stretched out and I had a nice bob style. And….. it stayed that way the whole day!!!. despite the high humidity from the rains that fell that day. buuuuut, I didn’t pay attention to the products and quantities I applied to get the effect, so I wasn’t able to reproduce it. Felt so sad. So decided, would document all products, steps, quantities, (maybe) I apply to my hair and face. 

Another new thing was, I got Jamaican black castor oil and bentonite clay from natruralnigerian.com . I had read so much about how wonderful jbco was. How it made hair long and full. Well, thought I would give it a try.  The first shocker I got was how small the bottle was.  Dunno what I was expecting,  since I was told the quantity was 8 oz.  I should have known it was the size of a large baby feeding bottle. All the pictures I had seen of JBCO online had looked huge. Well got over the shock of seeing a teeny weeny bottle. Note to self, mentally  relate sizes to real life. Whatever that means, but guess you get the picture of what I’m saying.

Bentonite clay also had good reviews. My hair had been looking a bit lackluster of late. And felt a good cleansing mask will do the trick.  You can imagine the excite with which I received the package in the mail.  As soon as I got home, I applied the bentonite mixture to my hair and face.

Looked a site, but didn’t mind. Then I washed off the mask about an hour later, and then conditioned using tressemme natural.  Couldn’t really say if it worked or not yet. My hair was quite short and so didn’t get the long falling hair I’d seen in reviews.

I used JBCO to oil my scalp, and applied olive and plain castor oil to my damp hair, sealing with shea butter. Braided and went to bed. The following morning…..oh my gosh!!!! My hair was super soft and moisturized. I believe it even looked clean and bright. No dull looks. I just picked it out to a teeny weeny afro and added a hair band. And voila, was ready to go out.

In the evening, it was still moisturized, didn’t have to add any products to the hair. Only oiled my scalp with jbco and braided. The following morning, it was still super moisturized and soft. Basically, since washday I haven’t moisturized my hair. Unlike when I used to have to moisturize at least once everyday. Even at that my hair would be thirsty, and dry.

Dunno, maybe my hair has started to cooperate, or I now understand  better how to moisturize.

One thing for sure, beginning to love my hair journey.

Ciao  peeps!

Ecostyler - Morrocan Argan oil

hi and thanks for stopping by.
hope you are all doing great. family, work, school? all great i hope.

been a while since my last post, and do i have stuff to write about!
despite my promising myself not to buy any more products till I'm done using what i have........
you are not going to believe this, i succumbed to temptation. awwwww!!!

last weekend , i casually strolled into a shop and saw, drum roll please, Ecostyler gel. okay, to put this in perspective, i live in Lagos, and the norm here is to have chemically relaxed hair. so the beauty shops store products for permed hair. wearing natural hair is still strange to many people. i walked into CasaBella store in the Ikeja City Mall, and found amongst other things, quite a number of stylers for natural hair.
Alas, they don't sell oils and the raw, organic butters. oh well, will still patronise on line natural hair supply businesses.

back to what i was saying, saw the Ecostyler gel, the really huge tub. they had run out of the smaller ones. i had read so much about how naturals use it to define their curls and bring out their curl patterns, so it caught my attention. though a bit sceptical, because i still have a tub each of Organics root stimulator  locs and twists gel  and  ic Fantasia thick and shine gel. both did nothing for my hair I'm afraid. did not see any sort of curl definition.
well, i bought the Ecostyler and tried it as soon as i got home. i wasn't patient to wash my hair before using it.
the following day, Sunday, i took out out the two strand twists i had done before. there was definition. especially on the relaxed tips, (remember i am still transitioning, yet to cut off all the relaxed ends).
i got better wist out results than i had gotten all along. got compliments on my hair. (probably a first)

i'll continue to use the Ecostyler gel and look for who will take the ic Fantasia  and organics stimulator gels off me.

in my next post i'll talk about a new discovery, Aloe vera gel.
Till then,
keep smiling, it's the best acessory to wear with any outfit.

cheers

new hair regimen - June 2012

i have so many different products that i sometimes forget what i put in my hair.
you won't beleive i don't remember all the thinks i put in my spritz bottle. of course there's water and that's about it. not sure which conditioner or what oils are in the bottle.

i've told myself that until i finish using all, i mean all the products in my wardrobe, ain't buying new stuff.

ehm..... i'm getting there.

also learning what products, oils and creams my hair prefers.

olive oil      - makes my hair shine but leaves it  greasy
castor oil    - super greasy. you'll even see droplets of oil on the tips even after 24hours.
amla  oil     - not moisturizing.  but still have a lot and will continue to use it.
argan oil    - same as amla oil
almond oil   - finished. thank goodness
coconut oil  - my hair hates it as a leave-in. turns it into dry hay. could even be combustible. not bold enough to find out.
8 wonder oil - not sure it did anything for my hair.
jojoba oil     - aaahhhh! kaching!! perfect for my hair. moisturizing, silkening, simply lovely. will stick to it.
sheabutter    - not sure, still using it though. now i use the LOC method, it no longer leaves my hair as dry as it used to at the end of the day. will continue to use it till i run out of it. then try other butters.
black soap   - this makes my hair soft. since i've been cowashing for a while, i use black soap only once in a while. thinking i'll use it weekly for a while and see how it goes. will cowash during the week if need be. deep conditioning or steaming will now have to be a must on a weekly basis.
Huetiful hair steamer  - a great investment. hair is silky soft after only 15min under it.
aloe gel       - not bad
Herbal Gro formula - just got it, no review yet

so what i plan to do for next month is
wash day (weekly)
1. prepoo with honey+coconut oil for at least 1 hour
2. wash hair with black soap
3. apply conditioner and either steam suing huetiful hair steamer or cover with a plastic cap and use a hooded dryer
4. rinse off with cool water
5. apply jojoba oil to seal in moisture, followed by shea butter
6. apply leave-in conditioner
7. apply the Glover's herbal gro formula
8. style hair as desired.

Between washes
1. as needed, re-moisturize hair
     a) LOC method
          i) dampen with contents of spritz bottle
          ii) apply jojoba oil
          iii) seal further with shea butter
2. as needed restyle hair
      a) use shea butter or  aloe gel or whatever gel i fancy from the wardrobe.
3. Cowash if a product has left hair very dry

and that's it. discovering that keeping things simple when it comes to regimen helps a lot. my hair seems to prefer simple no fuzz procedures.

after a month of sticking to this regimen i'll do a comparison and get back to you with the results.

till later,
cheers.

honey and coconut oil pre-poo - Part 2

in part 1 i said how ordinary my hair looked after the first time i used honey as a pre-poo.

well, this is a follow up on that story. a week later, used the same thing and my hair looked fuller and bouncier than i'd ever seen it.

must be that the honey does work.

plan on continuing to use the honey and coconut oil prepoo treatment as i continue to search for the right regimen and products that my hair loves.

will keep you updated.

cheers

honey and coconut oil pre-poo treatment - Part 1

hello there, thanks for reading this.
a couple of weeks ago i wanted to do something different while washing my hair. was in somewhat of a rut. so, checked online and saw honey for hair. kaching!!!! i knew what new thing i was going to try out that day. honey for my hair as a pre-poo treatment.

i'd been using coconut oil regularly as prepoo, so thot why not add honey, this a i did.

i finger detangled my hair, which by the way is growing. will take some pix soon and post. i never use a brush on my hair. at least for now. maybe later on, i'll be confident enough to use one to detangle.
sectioned my hair into 4 parts. working in sections, applied the coconut oil + honey mixture which i had thoroughly mixed and was a smooth consistency. loosely braided each section when i was done.

i then used clingfilm to wrap my head and went about my normal house chores.
i've been a bit lazy of late i  guess. i didn't go under the dryer or anything. after about an hour or so, i washed off the treatment with conditioner.

i then sealed the moisture with oil and sheabutter and styled.

frankly speaking, i didn't see anything fantastic about my hair after this wash day. it was just normal looking.

i'll continue this post in Part 2

Encouragement

got a boost yesterday. was crossing the road when the driver of a car honked at me to draw my attention. the lady gave me a shout out telling me she loves my hair. wow!!! was taken aback. had to go round the passenger's side to see her hair. guess what, she also had natural hair!. from the look of things, she must have had a big cut recently. though her hair texture was different form mine (must be a type 3 hair), we had similar sized hair.

very nice to know a few people out there appreciate not putting chemicals on one's natural hair to paermanently alter its natural texture.

you go girl!!!!

hair photos

here are a couple of pix i promised.

was excited at the way the back view looked. hadn't realised my hair had grown this big.

back view of my hair 

top view. you can see the two textures

this evening i did the LOC while flat twisting.

did 4 big flat twists going all back. hoping the hair comes out as desired.

LOC method for moisturizing type 4 hair

It’s been a while since I updated this blog. Been quite busy, and weekends have not been any better.

Will try make up for it with a nice long interesting post.  I got a colleague at work to help take some pictures of my hair, from different angles.  The first thing she asked me was, do I feel I’m look so fantastic that I want to take pix? Told her that wasn’t the case,  that the pix were for my natural hair blog. That impressed her, and she snapped away. She liked my phone, spent a couple of minutes admiring it before she took the pix though. Then, she told me my hair needed combing. Cheekily told her I don’t use a comb on my hair, use a pick or my fingers. Ehm, the rough look is what I was going for. That shut her up and she concentrated on being a photographer, all be it for 5mins. Oh oh, the positive thing from this encounter is she talked about her own hair. She’s got some sort of perm with coloring going, and she said, not exaggerating that she might consider going natural. I did show her how thick my new growth is compared to the thankfully getting shorter brown texturized upper portion of my mane.  (ehm….the mane would roar like baby Simba being a twa, a mane all the same J J)

Enough chit chatting, lets talk about my hair and what its been up to since the last post.

Just last week,I joined curly nikki chat forum. I’d been a regular reader of the Curly Nikki blog but never really got round to joining the community. I saw something I wanted to contribute to and so had to register and join the forum. That was how that happened.

Any way there was a thread on how to moisturize effectively type 4 hair. That caught my attention.

I have type 4 hair. Don’t know if it’s a, b or c. but definitely a type 4.

I  moisturize everyday, using water, and sealing with oil or butter. Usually at night before bed time. I would also flat twist it. (In another post I’ll discuss the different protective styling methods I use).  But no matter what, by the next evening, my hair is crispy dry and have to wet and seal again. Just felt I wasn’t doing something right, so the thread piqued my interest.

I heard about the LOC method for the first time. At first I dismissed it, thinking, not another acronym again! But when I read, the type 4 hair remains moisturized for days after when the LOC method is done, it held my undivided attention. Is this what I’ve been missing?

I googled LOC method, and there was so much info on it.

A method of moisturizing that basically locks the moisture in with oil and cream.

L – Liquid

O – Oil

C – Cream or butter.

I was excited on Friday, my usual wash day, when I decided I would give the method a test run. I used the following  things. (Though I believe you could use products that suit your hair, but it’s using them in the LOC order that matters).

Liquid -  water

Oil – Olive Oil

Cream – unrefined shea butter

I did a pre-poo using coconut oil and African organics olive oil conditioner.  Used clingfilm to wrap the hair and put a plastic cap over it. Went about my chores for the evening, preparing dinner, sorting things out around the house. After a few hours, (didn’t really look at the clock to know how long exactly the hair was in clingfilm. Not more than 3 hours though) I washed with Aussi Miracle Moist conditioner.

Blotted the excess water with an old t-shirt and then used olive oil all over the hair lightly, followed by shea butter. Quite light coating actually.

I then worked in sections to flat twist. With each section I used the LOC method. Spraying on water when the hair got dry.

That was it.

By morning, I undid the flat twists and styled. It was okay. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos the next day. it was Saturday, and believe me, the whole weekend was hectic.

Today is Monday, and I haven’t put anything in my hair since Friday, and my hair isn’t dry or brittle as yet. I’m talking 3 days, without having to spray water, rub oil on my hair.

Still early days to conclude LOC method is the best thing that happened to type 4 hair. My hair was under wrap all of yesterday. maybe that’s why it’s still moisturized? Dunno, but will definitely do a follow up post on this by end of this week to let you know how the LOC method  went.

i"ll upload the photos i took this afternoon of my hair, day 4 after using LOC and leave you to judge the results.

stay tuned.....

TRESemme and Aussie hair products - Wash day

yesterday was wash day.
had run out of the garnier conditioner i was using and thought, oh well an opportunity to try new products.
oh by the way i use the no-shampoo method. been on it for about 2 months now. use only conditioner to wash my hair. i introduced pre-pooing with coconut oil last week.

i pre-pooed with coconut oil. working in sections, and loosely plaiting as i did each section. i had 5 sections in total.
there wasn't time to leave in the pre-poo treatment for long, so i wrapped my hair in clingfilm and stayed under the cap dryer for 30mins.
noticed my hair wasn't as soft and silky as it was last week when the coconut oil stayed for much longer.  note to self....pre-poo should stay much longer in future.

used the Aussie miracle moist conditioner to wash my hair, using warm water.

then used  TRESemme conditioner (with no silicones) to deep condition. back under the cap dryer for 30mins and rinsed out ith cooler water than i used to wash.

Styling

oiled scalp with a mix of jojoba, castor and argan oils. used raw shea butter to seal in moisture on the hair and flat twisted into 12 parts. sectioned hair into 4 major parts, then flat twisted each part into 3 lines,
went to bed. ehm, sorry, did not use a satin bonnet, or satin pillow case.

in the morning, oiled the lines between the flat twists with castor oil. lightly oiled the hair after undoing the twists with jojoba oil. fluffed out,  and i was done.

here's the result. bear in mind this after a whole day of wearing my hair and napping....

coconut oil pre-poo treatment on type 4 transitioning hair

been busy of late and not bee able to post.
so sorry.
well, hope to fix that.
last weekend, decided to finally try using coconut oil to prepoo.
I'd bought some extra virgin coconut oil from Vanity oils (vanity oils.com). originally bought to use as a face moisturiser but reckoned it'll take like a decade before i use it up. and who knows, it might expire before i use it up.
i had tried using it on my hair for styling but left it very dry scrunchy  and made me hate my hair. the first time i used it, by evening, i had to wash my hair again. worried i would start a bush fire or something. that was last year though.

did a search on line for best way to use coconut oil on natural hair, and voila!!, pre-poo was the answer for my kind of hair.
i'm a kinky 4A hair. at least i think so. see so many different classifications i get confused sometimes. i'm a 4A or 4C depending on the website i'm reading. whatever the case, i'm a type 4.

back to what i was saying, coconut oil prepoo.

on wash day, i detangled my hair in sections using a wide tooth comb. working in sections, i applied the coconut oil and loosely braided. since i'm transitioning, i have different textures on my head. my last relaxer (a texturizer left my hair nearly straight and very thin. but the new growth is full and thick. when i stand in the path of a light source, you can see a dense bottom with a halo of wispy strands all around.
as a result of the different textures, braids are thick at the bootom and end with thin ends.

made 4 braids. with hair saturated with enough coconut oil, but not to the point of dripping over my face, i wrapped it up in clingfilm, and put a plastic cap over it. stayed for 30 mins like that and when under a cap dryer, on low hit setting for another 30 mins.

i'd read some leave it on overnight or for hours. well, didn't see myself able to do that, so sped things up a bit with the heat.

i co-wash. used garnier this past weekend. and used olive oil conditioner fromOrganics for deep conditioning. back in the cap dryer for 30mins and washed off.

at the end of the process, oh my, oh my, my hair was sooooo soft and silky. my hair has never been this silky. i couldn't take my hands off it.

know something, the coconut oil is no longer for my face, it's now for my hair. talk about versatility.

didn't even need to put a leave-in conditioner. used oil on my scalp and used raw shea butter to style my hair and i was set to go.

i'll definitely recommend coconut oil for type 4 hair as a pre wash treatment.

will i use it again?...you bet!!

xoxo

yarn locs March 2012

finally got round to posting a picture of my yarn locs. it was taken on 15 march 2012

will probably take them off next week if i feel up to it.

a'ight folks, will keep you posted.

l8r!!

Natural hair loves water

i was used to always hiding my hair from water, rain, shower, etc.
well, with relaxed hair, weaves (human or synthetic), braids and twists with extension, one gets seriously itchy scalp if wet.
had always used shower caps during shower and bath time. you can never protect your style enuf  ....LOL
sure, I'd read, natural hair loves water,water is not an enemy, stuff like that.

the message only hit home a few days ago. Cha-Ching!!!!

why do i have to wear a shower cap in the bath?, i really don't need to. my hair will benefit from the steam, water droplets in the shower. so, wait for it...... i stopped wearing a cap while in the shower.

freedom!!!, my hair loves it.
been asking myself, what was the purpose of wearing a cap all this while?........

do you wear a shower cap while taking a bath?

MJ rocking wash and go hairstyle

Missing my hair

i've had yarn locs for only 2 weeks, well plus 2 days, and you are not going to believe this. i miss my hair.
would probably take the locs off next weekend. so it'll be a 4 weeks style.
had though i'd carry the style for 2 months, but eh!!!!! not sure i can do it.

will post some pix of the locs before i take them off.

can't wait to see if my hair's grown a bit.

a'ight, l8r!

Naturals in the City 2 - Lagos meet up 10 March, 2012

i couldn't make the event this past weekend, 10th March,  but it was well attended. check out the picx from O'Naturals blogsite  http://www.onaturals.blogspot.com/

Protective styling - Yarn locs

decided to give my hair some rest.......and me i guess, and put it in protective styling.
had yarn locs done last week. everyone says they are lovely. dunno. cos of my low density and fine textured hair, the locs are quite spacey. i understand, with time, as new hair strands grow out, it'll look denser. frankly, can't wait.

still rocking my new look all the same. pack it indifferent styles everyday.
got a huetiful steamer and steamed, yarn and all, this past weekend.

my hair regimen is still intact. wash, steam weekly. moisturise every night before bed. in the morning, i spritz it with a concoction. my spray bottle has so many things in it, don't even remember it all. some oils, aloe-vera gel, moisturiser, rose water, and some other things not too sure right now.  usually, i don't make large spritz mixtures, so it can be updated as the need arises.

got aloe-vera juice and can't wait for the current spritz mixture to finish so i can use the aloe juice.

hoping to keep the yarn locs for at least 2 months. fingers crossed.

in my next post I'll talk about the experiments at home made products I've been doing.
ehm...... all in search of the most effective and affordable home made skin care products.

till then, .....

keep it natural.

Raw honey as face wash

Read the review on how honey was good as a face wash on curly nikki 

http://www.curlynikki.com/2012/02/raw-honey-healing-face-wash.html   and decided to give it a try yesterday.

i stopped using the salicylic acid products a couple of months ago, for i didn't see any improvement in my face. have sensitive skin which is prone to breakouts.  instead started using black soap. it's quite drying and even though i moisturise after washing, didn't quite like the way my face felt.

until i read the review on honey, didn't know it could be used as a face wash. I'd used it for my hair, as a facial mask, but never as a wash.  well i used it yesterday night and this morning. and face felt calmed.

hope to use it for at least a month and hope there'll be an improvement on my face.

will share the results!

ooh, i had to stop using Shea butter, it was a bit too heavy for me. Stopped using petroleum jelly also, it darkened me.

fingers crossed, honey will be just right.

Deep conditioning with Shea butter... any one?

its been quite busy over at my end and haven't been able to post as much as i would have loved to. anyhow, will try to post more often than I'm currently doing.  promise.

this past weekend, went to the salon, because i needed a trim. don't have enough confidence to do a trim on my hair or anyone's for that matter. might end up with bald spots all over. :-) :-)

before the trim, i co-washed. the lady was wondering what was up with me. (ehm, not a natural hair salon. Where i stay, natural hair is a novelty. all the salons relax, braid with extensions or sew in weaves. that is the norm. so i usually get serious stares and the question always is, when will you be fixing your hair? quite happily always reply saying, this is my hair.)

Back to what i was saying, before a wonder off rambling. did a co-wash using Pantene slick and shine conditioner. then a mix of Shea butter, egg white, and honey was applied to the hair. a plastic cap and was put under the hooded dryer for 30mins.
the steamer in the salon was broken.  (note to self, consider getting a steamer for home use.)
had the trim and my hair looks a lot better than it did before. no more scraggly limp bits ruining the coils.

oh oh, almost forgot to mention, leave in conditioner and moisturizer were put on the hair, and Castor oil was applied to the scalp. then hair was put in two strand twists. the lady tried using a fine tooth comb to comb my hair, thinking it was relaxed hair she was working with. told her, no, thank you, and got her to use a wide tooth one.
should remember to go with a comb from home next time.

oh well, was glad with the results of deep conditioning with the Shea butter-egg-honey mix.
hair's looking a lot fuller than before.

my TWA is growing!! yay!!!

Petroleum Jelly on face?

Have had breakouts since i started using organic oils for my natural hair. well, can't be too certain which of  the oils is responsible. read the reviews on petroleum jelly for face and used it this evening after washing. can't wait till morning to see if i'll have smooth, glowing skin like the reviews said.

wondering, has anyone tried using it on the face at night, and what results did you get?

will be great to know.

Natural and beautiful



Venus William - natural glamour








pictures courtesy of  Media takeout