Day 3

Hey guys,
So this is day 3 of my kinky twist 90 day challenge. I did the twist on Friday evening after work, it took about 6.5 hours, with a couple breaks to tend to my son. The reason I am doing this is my life is a little hectic at this moment and doing my hair everyday is something I wish I could do but Ive proven that it cant be done they way I want it to, so Im taking a break and giving my hair a chance to do its thing.

What I will be doing:
co-washing my hair every week
spritzing my scalp and moisturizing the ends
"pre-poo" hot oil treatments

What I will not be doing:
combing my hair
no cutting
basically not really touching my hair

I still havent decided if Im going to redo them every month, maybe half way through Ill see if it needs re-doing. Im at work so Ill be posting pictures later when I get home for you to see .

My hair was in twist after I had washed it the night before and I twisted my hair twist by twist. I applied some more Shea Mango butter mixture to each section then twisted, just as a final moisture attempt. After each strand was twisted I set it on blue or grey perm rods. Once my entire head was completed I dipped the rollers into hot water and then took out the rollers.

The final result wasnt what I had envisioned. I wanted tight curls and I know where I went wrong. 1st I ran out of blue perm rods and the beauty supply store was closed already so I had to use the grey ones which I normally use to curl my natural hair. Needless to say the diameter was too big for the look I was going for. So some curls came out very tight, like I wanted, and others very loose. I spend the better part of Sat morning with my mom attempting to recurl the ones that didnt take. 2nd the next time I might do the twists a little smaller, I did them medium sized because I didnt want to spend all night doing my hair. Overall I am happy with the results but I see that I will have to recurl the ends every week, well the ones that have gotten straight.

ETA: Here are the pics

washed and conditioned

I bought 3 packs of hair and used almost all of the 3 packs. I cut the hair in half right down the middle instead of using the entire length of the hair. This way gives you a shorter twist set

The final results

not the best but not the worst, theres room for improvement

90 day challenge

I know Ive been MIA for the week, but I had to handle some personal issues that arose over last weekend, which resulted in me not really touching my hair all week. So sad I know.
Update: Im starting my 100 day twist challenge today!!
last night I clarified my scalp and hair with Giovanni 50/50, this time only putting it on my scalp. Oh wait no first thing I did was do an oil treatment with a mixture that I made up, then I clarified. (Sorry if I seem a little rushed, Im at work and Im trying to make this post quick :-)) Then i put some Giovanni LID, Jamacian Black Castor Oil, and then my Shea Mango Butter mixture. I did these in that same order. Oh wait I forgot that I did an Organic Root Stimulator replenish pak treatment. I put that in after I detangled with VO5. Ok this is the order in which I did it:
Oil treatment-Homemade
Clarify- Giovanni 50/50
Detangle- VO5
Protein treatment- ORS Replenish Pak
Moisturize- Giovani DLI
Seal- Jamaican Blk Castor OIl, homemade Shea Mango Butter mixture.

I did an overnight treatment with the ORS and my hair was in big twist the entire time. I woke up and rinsed that out and sealed the ends. Once the hair was mostly air dried I pinned up the twist because I had to work this morning. Once I get home Im going to start the twist.

M.I.A

Im back after a long weekend. So the last time I did my hair was last Fri night. What I did was co-wash w/ HEHH, detangle w/ my Jilbere shower comb and sealed my ends with Giovanni LID, Whipped Shea and Mango Butter mixture and Curl Junkie Coffee Coco Curl Creme. I was reading Chicoro's Fotki and decided to try her sealing method. Basically after washing your hair, to seal your hair, you want to start with a water based moisturizer, then an oil based one and finally an emulisified base. Thats the combination that I used above. I did 2 strand twist all over my head and set the ends on perm rods. In the morning I pulled apart the 2 strand twist and pinned back the front. I didnt really take good pictures this time..Sorry lol










My hair was a little crunchy I probably put too much Curl Junkie, but it was cute for the day. To maintain the style, each morning I spary my homemade 50/50 glycerin, aloe vera moisturizer all over and then melt some whipped Shea Mango butter mixture in my hands and rub that in to my hair to seal , fluff out the hair and keep it moving. Sunday I packed up the baby and we went on a little roadtrip that led us to Columbia, MD. We actually went to my cousin's son 1st birthday party. We had fun, but man there was A LOT of children lol. Guess that what I have to look forward to....but actually I am. Its crazy who you meet and what you can learn from them. At the birthday party there was this woman with the thickest hair ever, and it was gorgeous, I wish my hair was like that. We bagan talking about our hair and what we do and I started telling her about my Shea Mango butter mixture and her response was something to the effect of "wow, Im gonna use you as my hair inspiration" and that really made my day. Can you imagine, little 'ole me inspiring someone else with techniques and tips to better the health of their hair?!?! Im still learning but life is all about paying it forward. Its no good for you to learn something if you cant take that information and help the next person out.

Cinderella.....Giovanni 50/50......Aphogee

Tuesdays are my only day off so I usually spend it catching up on household chores, cooking and cleaning, so yesterday was no different. Unfortunately I didnt get to start dealing with my hair until about 11pm and soon after I started my son woke up needless to say I didnt finish everything till about 2 and didnt go to sleep till after 3am. Anyways my hair didnt come out the way I wanted it to but I know where I went wrong and will correct it the next go round. 1st- my shea and mango butter didnt come in the mail yet and I wouldve preferred to use that instead of S-Curl Gel. 2nd- I was rushing and didnt really smooth out the hair before rolling it which left some curls frizzy and 3rd- some curls werent dry all the way but it was after 6 30am and I was running late for work. I pretty much stuck with the routine I outlined before here is what I did:


- all day pre-poo with castor/coconut oil mixture and HE Hello Hydration Cond
- clarify with Giovanni 50/50
- Aphogee 2 Min Keratin treatment
- Co-wash and detangle with HE Hello Hydration Cond
- Giovanni DLI then Castor/coconut oil mixture to seal ends
- I set my hair on perm rods
I did forget to do a final rinse with the ACV.

When I took my vow I did some research by looking at other peoples blogs and websites dedicated to natural hair care and I stumbled across a video demonstrating the proper way to detangle knots and that was a God send. Usually I would try to untangle it, to no avail then I get so frustrated that I would end up ripping my hair but this video has helped me keep a lot of my hair, Im going to try to find the video because those simple steps are an invaluable lesson to retain your hair. I finger detangled my hair first and took out any knots before using my Jilbere comb and when I did go to comb the hair, it was like a warm knife cutting butter and a lot less hair broke and shed. This is all the hair that was lost during my 20 minute detangling session. Since I started moisturizing and taking care of my hair the amount of hair that is lost has significantly decreased and I can see that the hair lost is coming from the root because of the white bulb on the ends. Theres still some broken ends but things are looking better than before.



Aphogee 2 Min Treatment
The first time I used Aphogee 2 min treatment my curls got super duper define and my hair shrunk to half its normal size when wet and I wish I wouldve taken a picture to show you guys what I meant. I used this product again and my hair did shrink but not as bad as the first time.



the first picture is my hair after using Giovanni 50/50 and the next is after the Aphogee treatment, can you see the tightness of the curls? I wasnt sure if that was suppose to happen but I like the product because it strengthened my hair



Giovanni 50/50 Hydrating/Clarifying Shampoo
This shampoo was the bomb. Usually when I use shampoos it leaves my hair matted and just dry until I used a conditioner which restores some type of manageability. As Ive learned that "stripped" feeling the shampoo leaves is because of the sulfates used in most shampoo. This shampoo however left my hair feeling soft and moist, however I cant give it complete credit because I did do just about a 24 hr pre-poo, but the combo of both was great. I used too much because I usually have to use A LOT of shampoo because my hair just drinks it up. This however my hair LOVED and is deemed the first staple in my hair routine. It lather very well for a non sulfate organic shampoo. If your looking for a great clarifying shampoo try this one.

After all was said and done here is the end result, some parts were more curled than others. The next time along with using Shea and Mango butter instead of S-Curl Gel, Im going to only use the grey rods because it is smaller and those curls on the grey rollers came out perfect and I will sit under a hooded dryer to make sure my hair does dry.



as you can see the curls around the front came out better then the middle

Happy February!!!

I cant believe its already February, before we know it we're going to be half way through the year. This weekend was a rather busy one, not really but when your sleep-deprived it seems that way. Finally my son slept through the night and hopefully we can get him back on track with sleeping at night.

I haven't done much with my hair because Ive been so tired. Ive been wearing it in the same afro from sat morning. Last night while talking to my mom about our hair I decided to see if I would be able to put some curls in it. So I grabbed a piece of hair, put some s-curl activator on the piece and set it on a perm rod and in a couple hours it did curl, so now my objective for tomorrow is to set my entire head...what a mission Im setting myself up for.

This is what I plan to do:
- Pre-poo tonight with a Coconut/Castor Oil mixture I made and do a 5 min scalp massage
-Wash hair tomorrow with Giovanni 50/50 clarifying shampoo
- Aphogee 2 minute keratin treatment
- detangle/DC w/ HE Hello Hydration w/ 30 mins of heat under hooded dryer
-ACV rinse to seal cuticle
- Giovanni DLI and Coconut/ Castor Oil as a sealant
-Set hair on perm rods w/ S-curl activator gel

I really wish my Shea and Mango Butter would be delivered tomorrow so I could use that instead of the S-curl Gel, but I highly doubt it. If any of you know something else I could use to define and set the curls better, feel free to let me know

So Ill keep you posted on the results!!!

Too tired

After work on Friday nights I usually come home and do my hair for church the next day. I am a born and raised Seventh Day Adventist, btw. So lastnight I wasnt really able to do anything with my hair, as Ive said in a previous post I have a 15wk old son and for the last couple of nights he hasnt been sleeping through the night like he normally does. IDK y but I just have to deal. Add the restless baby on top of just coming in from work and running off of a combined 10 hrs of sleep from the last 3 nights= not doing my hair for church. What I was able to do was douce my hair with some EVOO and Suave Tropical Coconut conditioner, donned a shower cap with a headband around the border to keep the cap in place and called it a night.....yea right, we didnt go to sleep till about 4 30 this morning and only because his father put the tv on a channel where it "snows" and the white noise lulled him to sleep.
I didnt get up this afternoon till about 1 45pm, mind you I had to be at work for 3pm. What I was able to do since my hair already had conditioner in it I just wet it some more and began to detangle it added more conditioner as needed. I jumped in the shower and washed it out, did the final rinse with ACV and squeezed out excess water. I added Giovanni LID followed with Jojoba Oil. I wasnt really sure what I wanted to do with my hair and I was pressed for time so it was loojing like an afro day, so I added some S-curl activator gel then realized that I had aloe vera gel and that would be better so I added some of that to my wet hair as well. Then I saw some white residue Im guessing from the S-curl/Aloe mixture in the front which was not sexy, needless to say I rinsed that out. I used the blow dryer and finger diffuser on cool in an attempt to not go outside with sopping wet hair. Once it was just about dry I put some more Jojoba Oil in my hands and formed the afro. Ill put some pictures up tomorrow as I am currently at work now.

Time wasted

Ok so this last week has been a little hard to maintain my routine and be a mother to my 15week old son. Im back at work which is going well, but by the time I get home, get the baby to sleep and do my hair stuff, its about 1am and thats too late. So what Ive been attempting to do is cowashing on Suns, Tues, Thurs and Fri nights. On the in between days Ive still been moisturizing with a mixture if castor oil, aloe vera gel and a couple drops of rosemanry eo in a spary bottle and spritzing my hair in the morning and evenings and sealing my ends with EVOO and coconut oil. Im still trying to get the hang of balancing everything in my life

The Routine

Ok so I made my better hair care vow about 3 weeks ago and since then I must say that I have noticed a difference in my hair. There's a lot less breakage when I detangle or even when I touch my hair to "freshen" it up. Before it use to look lack any type of luster now the color is more vibrant and alive. I dont know what took me so long to get it together but Im working on it. So Im gonna share with you guys what I bought and what Ive been doing for the last 3 weeks. I went on a big shopping binge and spent like $200 getting products...thats a lot for someone who's still on maternity leave and not getting paid, but I see it as a much needed investment for my hair. So I went to Whole Foods and my local Beauty Supple Store and got the bulk of my starter products. I didnt really know where to start to so I went on a couple blogs and hair site to see what were some common items used amongst naturals.
Whole Foods:
Coconut Oil ( food grade)
Avocado Oil
EVOO
Castor Oil
Vegetable Glycerin
Rosaemary EO
Peppermint EO
Lavender EO
Giovanni Leave In Direct
Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)
Aloe Vera Gel

Beauty Supply Store:
Suave Tropical Coconut Conditioner
hair clips
shower caps
wide tooth comb
application bottles
spray bottles

So what Ive been doing is daily cowashes with the Suave Tropical Coconut, sectioning my hair in about 6 twist and detangling twist by twist, adding more conditioner as need. I completely rinse that out and in one 8 oz applicator bottle I add about 1.5 oz of ACV, 5 drops of Rosemary and Peppermint EO each and fill the rest of the bottle with distilled water. With my hair still in twist I pour the ACV mixture all over my head, massaging it in. I squeeze out the excess water then put about a palm size amount of Giovanni Leave In and massage that in, do whatever style I feel like doing and then I seal the hair and ends with some coconut oil and castor oil, one after the other.

Like Ive said just from doing this the last 3 weeks Ive noticed such a difference in my hair.