10/16/11 - How Does It Look? My Daughter's Hair Courtesy of Her Momma!

Well here she is... My daughter who is 100% natural and decided to protective style like her mother for at least a month.

Let me tell you that this was no small feat.  My arms, back and hands are killing me this morning as I am typing this blog.   My child who did not get up until 2pm yesterday wanted me to do marley twists in her hair.  Well we did not start until 730pm and finished at 3:30am this morning.  I am so freaking tired here at work I could cry.  My forearms are killing me and I have to bowl tonight... I will have to get off work early today to get some rest prior to bowling.

I tell you my daughter has some hair on her head!  Her hair is a normal thickness but a super high density and super curly.  I washed and conditioned her hair prior to doing the marley twist by just twisting her hair to air dry to stretch.  Let me tell you as I only put a leave-in in her hair and it was so defined I really wanted her to try her first twist out.   She has the thickness and hair type that naturals who like styling would just love.  Her twists remind me of Frostoppa where you can't even twist her hair completely to the end because it just swells  but stays twisted.  Soooo Much Density.  She has a bit of heat damage in the very top front which has made that portion a looser curl pattern and a hard area to twist and stay twisted.

I used Equal Marley Braid in a 1b/27 in the front and 1 in the back to give her a bit of "Flavor".   I was worried that she was not going to like it but she seems to have accepted the style and feeling free to challenge her styling creativity with them.   Remember my daughter loves her weaves and long flowing straight hair down her back... she can't wait for hers to grow longer.   Her hair type will be one that will have to be stretched in order to really see the length because her hair can get so compact it feels like berber carpet but curls. 

Her hair with the aid of a good leave in was a breeze to detangle and absolutely joy to finally put my hands in.  She has been staying on campus and always says " I got this Ma!" when it comes to her hair.  I found myself exhausted and envious of how beautiful her hair is.  It is so dense and healthy from root to tip.  Juicyness!  I hope next time she will let me start styling her natural hair.  I want to create some beautiful styles for her on a weekly basis.  I think she will let me as long as the hair session is not as long as it was yesterday.

I will have her send me photos as she tries her creativity with her twists.   For now, My twists are the same way they were last week.  I don't even want to take these down until I need to oil my scalp.  I am going to get me a good application bottle to aid with oiling without taking down my twisted updo.

Pray that I make it through the day with the 2 hours of sleep I got this morning and that I can throw this 15 pound ball for 3 games tonight with Success.

Tell me what you think of my Baby Girl's Hair?

10/4/11 - How Does It Look? Protective Style Challenge .-Update

Well last night I bought an additional pack of hair and finished my crown area of my Marley Braid Twists.  Once taking down the other updo it was a bit more of a challenge to put it back the same way.  So I had to switch it up a bit.

 I tell you, this style I twist and tucked both sides until I came to an area behind the ear.   I left some of that area untucked and twisted a few twists together to make a pin curl design on the side of this style.

Of course I used my swarovski crystal accessories to give a bit of elegance to the style as well.

I am getting a kind of good with the styling although it takes me between 20-30 minutes to manipulate to the point of satisfaction.

I am enjoying this protective style because all I did was use the GNatural Hair & Scalp Conditioner to oil and massage my scalp through out the twists.  Then spritzed my hair with SM Hold & Shine Mist that I added some Argan Oil and put my LOC SOC on my head and went to bed.  Updo's may not display length but it is really going to protect my ends.  Continuing to work on hair strength and moisture to get fabulously healthy hair.

I have received many compliments from young and old and I am feeling really proud of myself for having the patience and skill to do what others want to charge $180 or more.  My daughter wants me to possibly do hers this coming weekend but I tell you that child has some seriously dense hair so I will definitely be splitting the hair in half to lighten  the weight of each twist.

My hair will definitely stay in this style until I am ready to oil my scalp again.  All ends are tucked away and therefore unless my scalp gets dry or itchy I can even rinse my hair in this style.   Can't wait to see how long this style actually lasts me.

Have a great Thursday and let me know what you think.

Cold Season is Definitely Upon Us! Intro to GNatural Products

 

Please Ignore the Messy Desk!

Good Morning,

I don't know if its the weather or what but I am having a difficult time getting up in the morning.  I know that I have been borderline of a cold.  Seesawing back and forth with a head cold and this morning I woke up with a dry cough.   Last week I got the flu shot which is rough when you have an underlying cold but I have not been totally out of it yet.

People on my job come to work whether they are sick or not.   I wonder when people will learn to stay home if they are not feeling well instead of inflicting others with such nastiness.   Luckily most of us have offices but the common areas and doors around this joint is a breeding ground with such Germy disgusting folks.  Granted I know I am with a bit of a cold and I have started on a bit of antibiotic to protect my delicate lungs as well as I have hand sanitizer as my second skin!  Hopefully I can knock this completely out by Friday.  No need to be sick on the weekend.

I am also finding myself gaining back weight and with little motivation to work out.   Working out is key for me because I love to EAT.  I keep saying I am going to rededicate myself but now is the time for action.  The only problem is that I love working out in the Mornings but having a difficult time with getting up and moving in the morning with any energy.   I am going to have to find the discipline to do my Exercise TV fitness and get on the treadmill at least 30 mins to an hour a day.  Just like I am discipline with my Natural hair.

By the way, I have been using  GNatural Herbal Hair and Scalp Conditioner (http://www.gnatural.net/gnatural_home.html) to oil between twists and edges.  This is in addition to spritzing my hair.  One of my coworkers gave me a huge jar of this and I tell you I love the consistency and the feel of this product on my scalp and to add sheen to the hair.  He is a representative of this product and I am trying a few products to see if I would be interested being a representative( www.gnaturalproducts.com/getitin ).  He is Bald but I am hoping that is genetics and not the product...LOL.   I will continue to use this and give a full review.  We definitely donot want anything with buildup and with the natural oils that are in this product, I really donot see this happening.  A full review will be done after two weeks of this style and use of this product.

Here is the product description and ingredients:

G'Natural Hair and Scalp Conditioner,  G’Natural’s hair and scalp conditioner focuses on promoting hair growth and healing by turning brittle/damaged hair into healthy tresses. G’Natural Hair and Scalp Conditioner prevents hair breakage and It delivers lasting moisture and vital vitamins that promote thick, strong healthy hair.  Our product will relieve tight, dry, itchy scalp and is excellent for all types of hair including natural styles, braids, and extensions along with chemically treated hair.
Ingredients: jojoba oil, safflower oil, sunflower seed oil, olive oil, rosemary, aloe, sage, comfrey, matricaria, calendula, carrot, tocopheryl, lavender essential oil

How Does It Look - 10/10/11 Protective Style Challenge

  Hi There and Happy Monday.  I have been doing my hair since 11am this morning and just finished at 630pm.  That really is not that bad although I have a small area in my crown that is incomplete because I ran out of the marley hair.

I decided this week to do my normal wash routine except that I slept with my deep conditioner in my hair and prepoo'd for about 7 hours.  I bought some Marley braid hair to try my hand at some marley kinky twists.  When I started I had no idea what I was getting in to but I continued none the less.  Well first of all I should have split the hair in half because these individual twists are alot heavier than I would have expected.  I was hoping to eventually curl the ends but will have to see if the weight will be too much for my strands.  Therefore, I decided to do a quick updo because I had to go and bowl my league.

I will be purchasing another pack of hair to finish the crown sometime tomorrow or wednesday.  I tried my hand at them before I would go an pay someone $180 to do them.  I think that I definitely have it down but since this is the first try I could see room for definite improvement.  I have the patience to do a variety of styles that take quite a bit of time as long as I schedule myself to do it.

I will be moisturizing and sealing often but when putting these in, I did moisturize my hair and the marley hair with my Beemine Curly Hold Butter.  I will have to order more because I definitely am scraping the bottom of the container.

Products Used:
Prepoo-100% Pure Coconut Oil & Black Castor Oil
Shampoo- ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo ( I like this, New for me didn't strip or dry)
Deep Condition - Aubrey Honey Suckle Rose & Black Castor Oil
Leave In - Hairveda Whipped Creme Ends Hydration
Styler - Beemine Curly Hold Butter
Jane Carter - Wrap Lotion ( To Lay down any fly aways on twists)
One N Only - Argan Oil Treatment ( to discourage frizz/ Will use Natural Argan oil going forward)

Well hope you like them and Let me know what you think.

Just a little switch up!

Hey just a bit of an update as I have not done much to these set of twists.  I did release the twists that were pinned up and swooped to the side to give a different look today.

I must say that I have not been spending alot of time moisturizing these twists.  Maybe its the process that I did on wash day and the products used. I did notice that with the last twists that when I took those down as well they were still highly moisturized.  Maybe my sealing and that Bee Hold Butter by Beemine when twisting is the ticket.  My hair in general is feeling really good with this regimen and although I am contemplating getting kinky twists but I want to make sure that I am retaining just as much moisture if I were to get them.

A girlfriend of mine wants me to make her a batch of  homemade butter/pomade and I think I will take care of that this weekend.  I will be creating a Shea/Aloe mix with mango butter, Aloe vera juice, avocado oil, black jamaican castor oil, and a bit of olive and argan oil.  Should be a treat and I will let you guys know how it all turns out.  She lives in Philly so I will be going to the post office to send off the batch to her.

Not sure whether Saturday or Sunday will be my wash day but I am looking forward to creating a new style this weekend and have been probing the internet looking for styles to combine.  That is if I don't decide to just go on and get those kinky twists.   I am wondering if someone who does the kinky twists would incorporate moisture in their process when putting those in?  I will have to investigate prior to securing a stylist for this.   Monday is Columbus Day and I will be off from work.  This may also be a good day to relax and get some of those closets changed from Spring/Summer to Fall Winter although Saturday is suppose to be 80 degrees.

Until the next update.... See Ya!

Wet Styling and Dry Styling

Just a quick post to talk about Styling your hair Wet as oppose to Dry.

I find that I prefer to let my hair air dry in twists then style later when it is dry.  I will apply  my leave-in and moisturizer and seal.  I will use my styler/butter and seal the ends again when completed styling.  When styling my hair we for twists, the hair seems alot more fragile and more prone to snag and break due to styling tools or a bad/lack of manicure.   This is an observance that I will have to remedy if I am finger detangling amd braiding/twisting or finger parting. 

Of course we do not want to over moisturize the hair and a balance must be in place.  I like how the gel styler or butter coats the strands for pliability of the hair when styling.  That is manageability without making the strands weaker.  This also flows in to the conversation of fine strands and using heavy cream based products, butters and gels.

My fine strands love a water based product.  My porosity is mostly normal but sometimes seem a bit high due to my color treated areas.  My hair does very well with lite cream based products like cream gels, Oyin's Hair Dew, AVG and light pomades like Oyin's BSP.

Just a quick little thought and post.

10/4/11 - How Does It Look? Protective Style Challenge .

Pretty in Pink - Monday

Good Morning,

Well as you can see I am sticking to my guns and trying new styles for my protective style challenge.   I have been in some form of twists for over a month although the Challenge that I joined did not start until October 1st.

Sunday was my Hair Day and here is the regimen :

Pre-poo 100% pure Coconut Oil
30 minutes in Heat Therapy Wrap, 30 mins with just plastic cap
Lush Curly Wurly Shampoo ( Left pieces of Coconut in my hair but using until all gone)
Deep Conditioned with ORS Hair Mayonaise and Jamaican Black Castor Oil ( Got a small for 6.99 in Beauty store) 30 mins in Heat Therapy Wrap
Rinsed and Applied Leave In Conditioner - Hairveda Whipped Creme  Ends Hydration
Let air dry in several twists 
Twisted and Styled with Oyin Handmade Burnt Sugar Pomade and Bee Mine Bee Hold Curly Butter

Flat twist front across and swoop up and pin curled

I did not know how I wanted to style but figured no matter what, put the individual 2 strand twists in the back to help with alternative styling during the week.  I did pretty small 2 strands and they seemed okay but a little scraggly at the ends.(not as bad as pictured but working on them, hence the protective style challenge)


Played it by ear with the sides and front but over all it turned out okay.   I will keep these for at least a week hopefully.  Next weekend I may try the Zizyphus that RadiantBrownBeauty.com recommended.

When I got to work I was not liking the back hanging and found a hair accessory in my desk drawer that used to be my Grandmothers and decided to pull the back up towards the top.  Especially with the turtle neck, I want to preserve these ends of mine.

I started my hair after 8:30 pm and finished as I watched TV around 11pm.  Next week I will try to be a little more creative but these up styles are good for the work place as well.   I may try to add hair next week to try to get more weeks out of the style.  I am going to spend this week finding styles that I may want to try.  If anyone has suggestions please feel free to add a link in the comment section.   I have thought about kinky twists so that I can just style those any way that I would want.  Of course I would still be moisturizing and sealing and conditioning while wearing those.   Its a thought, we will see!

Been trying to keep my edges not tight but protected in the twists .

Have a Great Week!