Mixtress in da house

This will be a rambling post. Bursting at the seams with loads I’ve been up to since my last post.

Hair update

I did a protective style. Those who follow me on Instagram would have seen the pictures. Lovely jumbo braids. I carried them for 4 weeks. I was impressed. One that I didn’t get bored with the style after 2 weeks. Secondly that it didn’t frizz too quickly. By the 4th week, it had frizzed proper, so I was glad to take out the braids.  Did I miss my hair?, not really. I moisturized and sealed every day. the only difference with my normal regimen was I did not wash my hair throughout the period the braids were in. I didn’t have any itch issues.

What did I moisturize with? I had 3 types of spritzes.

1. Aloe vera juice (whole leave, home made)

2. Plain water with coconut oil, tea tree e/o and peppermint e/o

3. Kimmaytube leave in conditioner. (aloe vera juice, leave in conditioner, castor oil and jojoba oil)

Everyday, I spritzed with any of the spritzes I fancied, then sealed with an oil or homemade hair grease sometimes. There were times I didn’t need to seal with an oil. I definitely did a Keep It Simple Sister. (KISS)  J J

The braids have been out for about 3 weeks now. For the first week, I did two strand twists…..all by myself. 3 hours of standing in front of the mirror. I was impressed by the outcome. I liked it enough to take to work for a whole week. I didn’t want to lose another 3 hours of my time doing twists the following weekend. What did I do, went to the salon, that’s what I did. I enjoyed my vist. My hair was done in under 30 minutes. Two strand twists. Not different from what I did myself, but in only a fraction of the time. Wondered why I haven’t been going to the salon all this while. The cost of my hair at the salon and the home service I have been doing is not much different. Salon visits will spare me all the unnecessary bantering and socializing, which frankly I don’t feel up to most of the time. I just want my hair done in piece without me having to make conversation. Anyone out there like me? give me a shout out!!

That’s what my hair has been up to in the last 7 weeks.



Mixtress_ing update

I have honed my DIY_ing  a.k.a mixtress_ing skills. My new motto is, “if I can make it, I won’t buy it”

Hair Grease

While braiding, the braider asked for a hair pomade. Frankly, haven’t used any in ages. All that mineral oil makes my scalp itch. Vaseline is a no-no . told her not to worry. I mixed up a hair grease in less than 15 minutes.

1. Beeswax

2. Cocoa butter

3. Shea butter

4. Coconut oil

5. Olive oil

That was all. Using double boiler method, I got all the ingredients melted and mixed. Poured into a container and in less than 5 minutes, it had solidified. Hair grease ready!

Antiperspirant

After I took out the braids, I felt I didn’t need the grease anymore. Feel it will be too heavy on my hair, being fine and all.  What did I do?, I added some bentonite and rhassoul clay, a little more beeswax ( I think too much) and got a deodorant/antiperspirant. Easy peezy  right?

I had to ditch the antiperspirant though. The beeswax I used must have been too much, I didn’t like the sticky under arms.  Back to using Thai Crystal antiperspirant. Store bought. Will try the clay antiperspirant recipe another time.

Cold press coconut oil

This is by far the most exciting thing I have made to date. I didn’t believe how easy it was to make cold pressed coconut oil. I used two coconuts. Grated and extracted the milk. All I did was to leave the milk to settle. The oil was at the top of the bucket. After about 12 hours, it looked more like curd.  Scoop out the cream at the top and leave to sit for as long as you want, the oil will float to the top. There you have it, cold pressed coconut oil, no additives, preservatives or what not. Pure, unrefined. I had recently bought a bottle of coconut oil, now I’m looking for who would like to have it. I prefer the one I made. I have used on both body and hair. Definitely one item I won’t be buying again!.



Almond milk

After I made it, I wondered why I had spent money buying it in the first place. Seriously, there’s no need to consume packaged almond milk. I don’t care if its touted as being organic, no preservatives or whatever. It is not worth the money. Earlier I had attempted to make almond mil. The sieves I used were not fine enough, so there was always bits in the milk. Didn’t quite fancy the grainy milk. I bout a whole case (12 cartons) of almond milk from a health store here in Lagos. Yes…. It was okay, but I couldn’t get round all the added sugars and sweeteners. It probably contributed to my weight gain during that period.



When the carton finished, the health store no longer had the milk in stock. They made me get flax milk. Wasn’t bad, but too much added sweeteners. Told myself I would return to attempting homemade almond milk. I changed the sieve to cheese cloth. Hey!, that was the trick. I had flawless milk. Beautiful. No grains, just smooth milk.  I couldn’t get enough of the milk. Cheese cloth started to wear out. And miracle of miracle. At Game (ShopRight, Lekki) in the auto section, I found something called sheep cloth. No idea what its meant for. Maybe cleaning. The texture looked like it was a finely meshed cheese cloth made from soft wooly fabric. It was a roll. It was cheap, less than 2,000Naira. I bought it. That very evening, I made almond milk. Sigh!!! It was pure heaven. Ahhhh!!! The best almond milk to date.



I have an endless supply of sieve, almonds are cheap and readily available. Who says dairy intolerant people can’t enjoy a bowl of cereal without milk, ehn?

One more thing I won’t being buying again.



Aloe Vera Juice

Sometime last year I planted aloe Vera in a flower pot. It grew so well, I had to transplant into another pot. Both pots are huge, with leaves everywhere. I had bought a gallon size aloe Vera juice from trader joes. When that finished I got another bottle.  Why waste all that money when I have the plant staring at me everyday.  Decided to start making my very own aloe Vera juice. I have made two batches now. No regret. What I noticed is the spiny edge should not be included when juicing. The first batch I did, I plucked, washed and juiced up. I got itchy neck and ears when I used the juice. Interestingly, my scalp did not itch.  Second batch, I trimmed away the edges.  The resultant juice was perfect. No itch anywhere.  One more thing I won’t be buying again.



I’m not yet done mixing by any means. I have two recipes, I plan on trying out soonest. Ghee and carrot oil. They are so easy to make. I’ll keep you posted as soon as I make them.



Till then, keep smiling!!



XOXO

hair regimen - mud wash

Hallos everyone. It's been a while. I haven't updated this blog like I should have. Pure laziness if you ask me.  Wish a day could have 40 hours. Sigh! Would be great.

I have developed some form of regimen which I have kept to for some time. I would say it hasn't been such a bad idea to have a routine. I think my hair even knows the regimen. Lol.
Every two weeks, I wash and deep condition. I don't wear my hair loose. It's always in some form of protective style. Braids, twists or cornrows usually.  Routine has been, 1. take off twist/braids/cornrows.
2. Pre poo with oil, any oil.
3. Was hair and scalp with either a us si moist shampoo or Aubrey organics moisturising shampoo.
4. Deep condition. The items are use are a function of what I can lay my hands on the re and there. Some ayurveda powders, mayonnaise, eggs, honey, oil, banana and some ready made deep conditioner .  I steam by wearing a plastic cap and covering over it with a scarf.
5. Rinse off after 1 -6 hours. Depends on j ow much time I have.
6. A tea rinse
7. Moisturise and seal.
8. Voila! Get my hair plaited.

I love experimenting.  For a while I want to replace the shampoo with a mud shampoo. Yep!,  you heard me right. Will use mud to wash my hair. I have bentonite clay and will use it as a base for a d.i.y shampoo.  I'll report back on how it goes.

Yesterday,  I made a mud face wash. It didn't sud or any thing. I however liked the way my face felt afterwards. Clean and not dry. Will use the mud wash to wash my face for some time and see how it goes. On the face, will do a 1 month challenge.

Till next time,

loads of hugs

Natural Hair At Work: 6 Best Practices To Remain Professional

This article is culled from Black Hair Information and was written by Emily Cottontop.
Enjoy!





Back in March, the Huffington post did an article surrounding the topic that black women worry that their natural hair might be affecting job retention and job employment.
They made reference to a panel discussion that took place at Georgia State University entitled “Black Women, Their Hair & The Work Place” and one statement made by a student at GSU read something like this:

You’re talking about being polished and (having) interview skills and yet no one is addressing the fact that natural black hair has been traditionally seen as not polished on its own whether it’s well cared for or not. So basically it’s all about maintaining the Eurocentric standpoint.

In an article written and published on BGLH by Domineque Michelle otherwise known as LonghairdontcareLLC on youtube, she shared her own experience at work where her boss told her she ‘had to wear her hair organised’.

I could go on and on with the examples because like many of us with natural hair, at one time or another we are all faced with the ‘should I wear a bun all day everyday so I don’t scare em, or can I roll with my signature puff?’ This is a hard topic with many opinions, on both ends of the scale.
Women with natural hair want to wear there hair how it naturally grows out of their head, on another end of the scale, how our hair grows especially if worn in an afro type style is seen as ‘political’ or unprofessional by some people.
Further to that there are other situations where your natural hair could actually interfere with your work. For instance, if you work in an environment where your hair has to be covered like food preparation industries or operating rooms, it’s just not reasonable to expect to wear your hair ‘out and free’.
Among the opinions here are some best practices we can adopt in order to remain professional within our various places of employment while being true to our natural roots.

Practical Styles – Avoid Distractions From Your Job 
The point of employment, is the work that you are hired to do, it really isn’t about buns and afro puffs. Sometimes we can get caught up with texture of our hair but really the issue is how the hair is styled.
Style your hair in a manner that is not distracting to you or the people around you. Define distracting? Distracting is, hair in your eyes where you are unable to make eye contact with someone that is interviewing you or the people you are addressing as you make a presentation in a meeting.
If you have to constantly move your hair from your face, or play with it in any manner, then your hair is probably a distraction.When your hair is shorter you may be able to get away with a neat puff pulled away from your face but as your hair gets longer, well, you have to admit that as naturals, we have A LOT of hair and a puff will probably come across as wild regardless of how tame the front looks.
An easy go to style, would be a neat bun, or an updo that pulls the hair back out of the face or even pinning your hair behind your ears.

Avoid Potentially Political Hairstyles Such As Afro’s
This one is a doozy and there might be potential swearing and side eyeing because what some of you consider ‘political’ others on the other hand might consider normal. Here’s the thing, get your paper and save the speech for another setting that is more appropriate.
This is as hard a pill to swallow as it is to write, because we don’t want what we know to be beautiful and special to be seen as political and negative. Lets face it, there is a lot of history behind certain styles specifically an Afro, some of it positive and some negative.

If you were Caucasian and had long flowing hair down to your butt, a head band and a long floral skirt its highly unlikely that your client who is a senior engineer will take you seriously at your quarterly clients meeting.
You cannot fight the good fight alone, and if you choose to, there is a slim chance you might win but a bigger chance you may lose and lose way more than its worth. Choose a hairstyle that will not start a political or negative conversation, even when you feel different.

Style Your Hair According To Your Schedule
This just means, know what days to make sure your hair is polished versus the days when you can take it easy and wear something relatively fun. For example, if its Monday morning and you are the manager about to begin your monthly one on one meetings with your employees you might want to choose a style that is sleek polished and shows focus. There is a reason why buns are seen as sombre, they were probably invented for Monday mornings!
The idea is to set the tone of the meeting and your appearance plays just as an important role as the conference room you choose to have the meeting in. Additionally a loose twist-out might be more appropriate for ‘Jeans day Friday’ or a casual lunch meeting with a long time client. You would be surprised at how the smallest of details derails intent because as humans we are affected by so many things, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Do Not Make A Big Deal Over Your Hair
Simply, if you don’t make a big deal they wont make a big deal. Sometimes we are so proud of our natural hair we tend to go in hard with trying to communicate our feelings to everyone, and since we are almost always at work, that might mean managers, clients even the cleaning crew.
So what your wash and go gave you life that morning, smile about it to yourself and keep it moving. If someone says something or directly asks you about it, feel free to indulge in a little hair talk. If by any chance someone chooses to have a cynical conversation with you about your hair or tries to bait you in anyway, the best practice is to politely and quickly shut it down and move on.
The idea here is, if you want people to accept that ‘its just hair’ then act like ‘its just hair’.

Accessorize Less 
Accessories is anything from, really huge flowers clips that dangle and make annoying clicking sounds to spray bottles. Again this is all about distraction. In a relatively quiet office no one should ‘hear’ you hair or be unable to concentrate on an important conversation because they cant get past that bright yellow dandelion is that’s practically covering your left ear.

This brings us to spray bottles, early in the game most of us carried a spray bottle for touch ups in case our hair got dry within the hour.
If you are at a staff meeting and all you can think about is getting out of there so you can get your spray on then, your spray bottle is a distraction.If you are constantly bending over at your desk to spray, and moisturize, whether you want to admit it or not, your hair is a distraction and it will get noticed.

Avoid Coming To Work With Your Hair Wet
If you have to wake up an hour earlier, then that’s just what you have to do, because wet hair with little white speckles of conditioner or Miss Carol’s Kink It Up Pudding is extremely unprofessional and quite messy.
Nobody wants paperwork slathered in watery conditioner. Get a diffuser, and if you want to avoid heat try styling your hair the night before so that it isn’t sopping wet when you get to work.
So do you agree, disagree? Let me know in the comments.

About Emily CottonTop

Hi I'm Emily Cotton Top, a staff writer for BlackHairInformation.com. Born and raised in St. Andrew Jamaica, I first moved to the United States in the year 2000 in order to find a job after college. I spent one year living in New York before moving to Texas in 2001. I went natural in 2008 after a bad perm experience and have enjoyed my hair ever since. I am still learning and I like sharing my experiences with my cottontop :)

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.

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!

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!!!!

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.....