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!