First ACV Rinse

Did an apple cider vinegar rinse for the first time!  Combined water, acv, and tea tree oil in a water bottle, hopped in the shower, then soaked my head in it while making sure to pay attention to the scalp.  Felt really good, so I’d do it again definitely.  My scalp has been acting up lately and I don’t know why….I’ve been finding scalp pimples and a couple of scabs, so I need to get to the root of the problem.  I know, gross, but it’s weird and freaking me out.  So perhaps it was from product build up, so that’s why I used the acv rinse.  I’ll use my stronger shampoo the next wash, see if that helps because apparently cowashing alone or my aloe organic shampoo/conditioner isn’t working as well as I’d hoped 0_0   Anyone else ever deal with that???

Did great two strand twists with the blended beauty curl styling butter.  That stuff makes them more defined than the amla olive cream I discovered, the roots are less puffy and the blended beauty smells so good like vanilla frosting.   I’m sure that I’ll have an epic twist out when these come down!

hair hero of the day, Erykah Badu

Spring Fever from Coach

The Coach Poppy collection is giving me serious spring fever.  I want the days of sunshine and flowers and girly dresses.  Sigh, it can’t get here soon enough and with Chicago’s erratic weather track record, spring probably won’t grace us until May.

Back to the collection, I ADORE the cutesy charm that they’ve utilized for the bags, clothing, and jewelry, with hearts and flowers and afro puff girlies looking ever so cute on all of the products.  A couple of must haves that caught my are:

the glam metallic leather poppy tote

I have a million totes, so really that wouldn’t be something that i NEED, but this one would certainly top all of my totes!  It looks to be a good size and it’s frigging LEATHER, so luxe and pretty with my favorite colors.  I give the tote an A+ for style and functionality, because it looks like I’d be able to carry my laptop and nintendo ds along with a book in there if I ever get a frigging JOB, so that when I have to ride the train I can look tres stylish doing so

The Poppy Pinky swing pack is the winner for me of the poppy afro puff girls collections, simply because it’s not a tote (i ADORE the other characters tote bags, but really, how many totes does one girl need?  And I’d pick the leather one above out of the collection if i were to get a tote)

It features a poppy pinky afro puff girl, who I find completely and utterly adorable!  I want all of the girls so that I may build a collection, but alas, I am not made of money.  Okay okay, I know that the hair is supposed to be poppy’s on the sides of their heads, but can anyone tell me that those don’t look like afro puffs?  Whatever they are, they are all CUTE!!  Here’s Pinky’s sisters:

Pepper

Cherry

Lemon

and Pinky in Tote form

I wonder why they only made pinky into wristlet and swingpack form?  Curious, curious.  Anyway, all of them can be found here: http://www.coach.com/poppy-us/bags.html

I would so rock the t-shirt full of pretty afro puff cuties!

Cornrows for the Win

My best friend came over and gave me cornrows; I’m so grateful since I can’t do them myself!  They aren’t for style right now, just wanted a protective style and wearing wigs over them when I leave the house.  Next time that I do them, we’re going to practice with extensions, that should be an adventure, lol.  It doesn’t LOOK hard to do the cornrows with added hair, but we shall SEEEEEEE, verdad?

Cowashed with Organix shea butter conditioner and olive oil, then braided with the amla/olive cream and sprayed with my aloe concoction.  Yay for protective winter styles!  I’ll leave these in for a week or two I suppose, spraying every day with my aloe grow spray and maybe slathering on some coconut oil to seal.

below, pic of me wigging it out  Easy instant makeover:

Wigging it

Winter is certainly in full effect out here! I’m so over the cold, snow, ice, chilly winds.  Can it be spring already?  To get our minds off of the ferocious coldness, my friend and I were contemplating where we need to take a vacation for next year so that We can have time to save.  Top two trip contenders at the moment are Italy (Rome, Florence, etc)  and Brazil (not sure what city or anything).

brazil

Italy Trevi Fountain

I’ve been to Italy, which was amazingly beautiful and historical, great food too so I’ve always wanted to go back, but it’d be nice to try somewhere new right?  In that vein, Brazil would be amazing.  My mom has been there, but I have not, so it would be a fab experience I’d say.  Hell, either of the two beats cold Chicago right now!  Even if it’s cold there, it’d be a change of cold scenery, so good enough for me!  Have you been to either place?  What were your experiences?

hair hero:  watching This Is It movie and anytime I tear my eyes away from Michael I am admiring Judith Hill’s awesome hair

Rollerset Results

Rollerset came out soft and everything, but maybe TOO soft, because just going through the day has made it fuzzy/frizzy.  This time I did the set with my amla/olive butter and while it moisturized it didn’t hold.  Last time I did it with my blended beauty curl butter and that held better while letting my hair remain soft.

Beginning of day:

it’s not the best job ever done, but it was my first and I was fine with it

then, more frizzy by end of the day:

I’ll just stick to my twist outs, it lasts longer!  I can have it in twists for like 4-5 days and then twist out for about 3 days, so it’s better for me.  I wasn’t happy trying to sleep with the rollers in my head, so I’ll stick to my twists for now!

New technique = EPIC failure

Okay, so yesterday I wasn’t all that keen on the new hair style where I sectioned my hair and put gel in to define the curls.  Some curls popped, some was just fluff with a little curl, whatever, but I just thought it looked like a bad afro wig, lol.

Not a happy camper, but I figured it was trying something new and I won’t like all results but I’ll wear it a couple of days because I might as well.  HOO-BOY, that was NOT going to work.  I’d slept in my satin bonnet as usual, woke up and WOOF!  Took the cap off and holy crap batman!  Ever get those ignorant people asking “is your hair rough?  natural kinky hair looks rough, is it like a brillo pad?”  MOST days I would laugh in the face of that blatant idiocy and say no, my hair feels like soft pretty cotton THANK YOU VERY MUCH, but today?  I would have had to sadly put my head down and say yes, yes my hair is just like the texture of a rough wiry piece of dish washing equipment.  :weeping:

Hair was shrunken, hard, wiry, and just overall a complete change from the soft, lush, pretty, want to bury my face in it hair that I’m used to.  So um….yeah….definitely got in the shower asap to wash that crap out with my lovely pure life aloe shampoo (wooo, that stuff is great)  and sat with honeysuckle rose again for about 5 mins.  Detangled my now soft again pretty hair and rinsed out.  I decided to do my own rollerset for the first time, used small blue rollers with tiny itty bitty combs on them and my amla/olive heavy cream.  Sprayed with my homemade aloe juice concoction after all done and voila!

I started at the back and made my way to the front where I got lazy and didn’t make sure that the sections were uniform or wet, so it’ll probably look like a crap spirally bush in the front, but at least i can walk backwards and look fly to death!  lmao

so, to wrap this up, experimentation is good but know all RESULTS won’t be good and now I know that i don’t have easily defined spirally curls everywhere on my head.  Beware overloading on the gel and thank god for just today not having a job because I would have been MORTIFIED if I’d awaken to that head of hair and couldn’t do a damn thing to change it!

Sucked in by Honeysuckle Rose

Okay, count me IN on the honeysuckle rose bandwagon!  This stuff is LUXE, so rich and creamy and smells delightful, not overpoweringly floral like I feared.  It smells like sweet candied roses, lol, whatever that would smell like.  I hate floral scents, so if I’m loving this, then it definitely is good!  lol

the great, natural ingredients are: coconut fatty acid cream base, aloe vera, shea butter, wheat germ oil, jojoba oil, honeysuckle oil and a host of other natural yummy for the hair things     I added olive oil as well and sat with it on my hair under a shower cap for an hour while I watched something.

When I took the cap off, holy sweetness, it was so soft and lush!  Definitely definitely definitely like this conditioner!  Hopped my happy self into the shower to rinse it out then cowashed with my organix coconut conditioner.  I’ve been finding that when I rinse it out with water as cold as I can stand, that it really does make curls pop more, so I did that.  Applied Kinky Curly Knot Today and coconut oil, then sprayed with concoction that I made and talked about in previous post.  After that, it was experiment time where I tried out the new technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx9WhK-NY00

Results:   well, I don’t know….it’s okay.   Pretty much figured out that she and I don’t have the same type of hair, lol!  Mine does not look like hers, but ya know at least I tried something different. Pretty much an afro with some curlies popping somewhat, decent look, but I’ll stick to my twist outs or roller sets.  Just more my speed!  I used Fantasia IC gel instead of ecostyler and am glad that hair isn’t crunchy even though i used a truckload of gel.  I’ll probably wash this out in a couple of days and maybe roller set my hair since I bought new rollers today.

edit:  i look all of 12 years old in these pics, lmao….i swear, i’m of age and legal, for all you who may have naughty thoughts looking at me and my fro goodness and glasses   It looks different in real life, looks better….i dont know why hair never shows up right in pics for me!

New Spray

I made the concoction that I talked about in the previous post.  I put it into the empty 8 oz spray bottle that my marula oil came in:

I poured in about a 1/3rd water, 2/3rd 99.7% aloe vera juice from the organic health food store, then dripped in rosemary oil, peppermint oil, and tea tree oil with lavender extract.   Shook it up to mix together then spritz spritz!  Smells good, pretty much like peppermint with a little herb scent too.  Was cool and refreshing since the water I added was some Dasani from the refrigerator so nice and cold!  The peppermint tingles on the scalp some.   So I’ll let you know after using it for a while how it goes!  Pics will always be up to watch hair growing progress!

I’ve been watching some youtube videos today and think that I’ll try this technique  with my fantasia gel in order to get my curlies to POP like popcorn…okay, damn that was corny, please don’t judge me    She and I have the same texture looks like, so hopefully it’ll work.  I’ll post pics, fail or triumph!!  I’ll probably do it on Monday, when I’ll have time to sit around and do hair.

hair hero: the prettiest model to me, Wakeema Hollis

Homemade Concoction

In the past couple of months I’ve been compiling many bits and pieces of information on how to grow strong, healthy, long hair.  The products that I’ve wanted and tried have been showcased on my blog, since I’m all about the premade, just buy and use products, lol.  Now, however, I am going to mix up my own concoction from a variety of sources and see how that goes for my hair.  Don’t get me wrong, I ADORE all of the products I’ve bought so far (well, most of them, there are a couple that haven’t fared too well in the reviews section of my site) and plan to continue, especially the thick butters and creams that I use on my hair like Qhemet Biologics amla and olive heavy cream (aka cavier for the hair, LOVE it).

But why compile all of this lovely info if I in turn do nothing with it??  So when my Oyin Frank Juice runs out, I’m using the bottle to create my own super grow spray  It will be a mix of the following:

Aloe Vera (99.7 aloe vera juice)

a bit of olive oil

rosemary oil

tea tree oil with lavender extract

peppermint oil (maybe)

water

mix all of that together and put into the spray bottle for a daily spray for my lovely locks.  Sounds like a good plan!  Peppermint stimulates the scalp, rosemary aids in growth, olive oil is rich, should be an all-star lineup  I’ll let you all know how that goes!  Got any homemade concoctions you just adore and can’t live without??

hair hero: my late, great sweetie Michael Jackson in his afro days

Knots and locks

I keep finding single strand, or fairy, knots in my hair which is super annoying.  I’d done a wash and go for my ‘fro a couple of days ago, because I simply didn’t feel like twisting it after washing and am coming to the conclusion that my hair out so much is no good for my ends.  Even when I do a twist out, I still get some single strand knots, probably from when I sleep and my hair may move with me under my satin cap.  Oh what to do?

Last night to keep my hair from doing that, I did dry twists with my new Amla and Olive Heavy Cream.  Can I say, this stuff is like caviar for the hair, soooo rich and luxurious  AND I got it on sale for 20% off.  It’s amazing, so creamy and delicious, smells and looks like my coconut lime body butter from bath and body works, just a lighter scent.  I smoothed some on my dry hair on each twist before I twisted, brushed through slowly with a denman-esque brush (worked well, didn’t have to tug at my hair and only like 2 strands came out in the brush. Yay for tangle free hair!) and twisted medium and small twists throughout.  The cream made it soft and smooth while brushing, so I highly recommend and give the product an A+.   I look like a reject cast member from Bebe’s Kids, but if it’ll keep my hair healthy I’ll do it!  Not like I planned on going on some hot date with it like this anyway, lol.  I suppose it can stay in these twists for a couple of days while I try to finagle someone into cornrowing my hair

What have you done to minimize single strand knots?  Any suggestions?  I’ve just come across a great post on http://bglhonline.com/ about how a mother grew her type 4 child’s hair down to her waist, simple regime and emphasis on LOW MAINTENANCE, so I’ll have to adapt that by learning how to braid and twist much smaller twists so that they can last.

hair hero: beyonce’s afro (i know it’s not natural, but it’s damn cute!)

Great Moisture

Chicago winters are NO joke, with it’s icy strong winds and all.  My hair used to always be dry, regardless of season, but practically a dry bush in the winter!  NO MORE.  Going natural was the best thing I could do, simply because it kick started an INTEREST in my hair and its well being.  From stalking blogs to reading product ingredients, my hair is now THRIVING.  It’s thick and lush, soft and moisturized!  I can’t believe it, I’ve never felt my hair be soft and moisturized without being greasy from overloading on any old oil or grease that I got my hands on.  Now, I know that mineral oils and petroleum are NO good for me.  Luscious creams, butters, and virgin oils have my hair dancing with happiness

my dream team of products.

Now, thanks to natural hair blogs and good ole knowledge, I can see my hair flourish.  I cowash with olive oil and Organix conditioner, use Kinky Curly Knot Today as a leave in mixed with coconut oil, twist my hair with yummy blended beauty curl styling butter, then spray with either oyin frank juice or qhemet karkady tea mist the next days for added moisture.  And it’s perfect!  Now I’ve purchased the Amla and Olive Heavy Cream by Qhemet because it was on sale and the ingredients like castor oil, olive oil, and amla are divine for the hair! I can’t wait to add that to my arsenal as well.   You really don’t get how amazed I am at how soft and lush it feels    So for you 4A ladies, especially in a cold Northern climate, check these products out if you want to retain delicious moisture!  What are your dream team products, kinky curly girls??