Processing Normal May 4, 2009

Still waiting for April showers to bring some May flowers…but in the meantime I stayed home for the majority of this past weekend to clean my place and my hair!  A little nervous because while I recently did do a product haul, a lot of what I’d gathered together were mostly body products, etcetera for Mother’s Day.  I was out of my Donna Marie’s Pudding, out of all my fav Afroveda products, had next to nothing left on the Blended Beauty end…instead I had to improvise and dig deeeeeeper into whatever I’d had left or hadn’t used.

I pre-pooed this week with the remainder of my Nature’s Gate Hemp Condish before lightly rinsing and applying my Alaffia Recovery Shampoo.  Again, Shampoo was distributed with an applicator bottle, but this week to prevent that stripping feeling I’d felt last week, I added some TLC…a.k.a oils! Added about a TBSP of each:

• Hemp Seed Oil
• Khoret Amen Hair Oil
• Vitamin E Oil

 Shook all together in a bottle, evenly distributed and treated myself to a nice scalp massage.  I have to say, the oils DID in fact make a difference!  My hair came out perfectly cleansed and while I was massaging I noticed my curls defining and separating, which rarely happens with a cleanser (*exception Oyins Honey Wash.)

DC’d this week with Aubrey Organics White Camellia Rose which I’m determined to finish.  While I do like this conditioner and feel it’s quite effective while I detangle and twist…eh, the smell I could certainly do without, and compared to the Honey Suckle Rose…well lately there is no comparison.  The Honey Suckle Rose works a smidge better on my hair, at least in the moisture dept.  Next week I plan to use the remainder White Camellia as a pre-poo mix with H2O.

After detangling and twisting I cold-rinsed and styled this week with KBB Hair Nectar paired with Donna Marie’s Cocoa Hemp Buttercreme.    I purchased this during my last product haul, and simply forgot I’d had it! For $10 bucks I had a 4oz jar with a creamy thick consistency, similar to a shea-loe mix, but with a strong cocoa scent! My only concern using this  was moisture.  I knew it had the power to moisturize my hair, but with recent change in weather I didn’t want to over do it, which is why I opted for a lighter leave-in with the Hair Nectar.

I applied both products, clipped my roots, said hello to my bonnet dryer for 2 whole hours and finally undid my twists this morning for the results.  Before untwisting, sealed with Afroveda’s Hemp Butter, and added a touch of KBB hair creme to soften the rest.  Final results are good! I highly doubt I’ll have to moisturize before heading to bed tonight because my hair feels soft, has movement and just enough shine.  I did forget to moisturize my scalp, which is a must later,  but overall I’m just happy to have my hair back after last week’s results with the buttercreme.

And the Winner Is… April 20, 2009

Ohhhhh rainy day! As I type it is raining buckets outside my window. I don’t get it…with such a fabulous weekend…weather wise etc., it’s still discouraging to see such a gloomy day….ALL DAY…?!! 

But I digress to say that it’s all good! I had a fun weekend with a trip to the museum and rocked a pretty fab twist out.  Again, I pre-pooed, washed and conditioned in record time this week!  Pre-poo done with some leftover Giovanni’s Tea Tree Condish mixed with a bit of coconut oil.  After, I hightailed it to the shower to rinse and apply my Alaffia Neem & Shea Shampoo.  I applied the poo with an applicator bottle, massaged for a good 2 minutes, then conditioned with Nature’s Gate Hemp + a palmful of AOWC.  I detangled my hair in the shower this week to cut back on time and remembered just how much I HATE doing this.  My hair sheds oh so much…and I was dodging falling hair left and right.  

Never. Again.

No deep conditioning this week, which means I didn’t get the chance to separate and detangle with my Denman…my hair didn’t like:-(.  I did a final cold rinse and left the shower anticipating an uphill climb while styling.  Eh…not so bad really.  This week I used Afroveda’s Curly Custard with KBB’s Hair Milk and twisted to pretty fantastic results in the a.m.  I clipped the roots down to avoid any potential frizz while drying with my soft bonnet dryer and sealed my ends with Afroveda’s  Hemp Butter.  

 

The Process was quick this week, and so is this post…lol! But as promised a winner for the Cantu Shea Butter Giveaway!

 

Congrats to Afia!!  

 

A number  was randomly drawn using this fantastic site, random.org to alleviate my agita of choosing a winner;-).  Thanks to everyone for participating, including those who e-mailed, I’m still purging my stash so more goodies tbd!

*Afia, e-mail me your address and I’ll send the Cantu your way;-)!  

The Healing Process March 30, 2009

So yesterday I was all about the hair. Totally devoted to styling and pleasing my mop because I’d so erroneously ignored it for the past two weeks. To back track, I’d carelessly over-conditioned my hair while revisiting the conditioner method, as well as styling with Lustrasilk and KBB milk the following week sans DC’ing and clarifying.  As a result my hair turned hard, fuzzy and unmanageable by the time Sunday rolled around.  To manage through the unruly hair days, I’d been pinning and tucking my hair in up-do’s and trying out various gels and buttercremes to tame the frizz.  Most of the products I’d sampled were all goodies for the hair, but I’d definitely over-used one too many.  I tried the Afroveda Pur whipped Jelly one day, then switched to the Wet Set pudding the other, then topped off with some Flaxseed Gel.  Yesterday I’d woken up to an irritated and inflamed hairline! All that product usage along with the continuous brushing aggravated the hair around my front temples forcing me to bring out the big guns.

Yesterday I was more than happy to dig up the remainder of my Bentonite clay for a nice deserved treatment.  I had just enough to cover my hair, and mixed in some ACV, water, Vitamin E oil as well as some Hemp Seed oil.  The Hemp Seed to help fight the inflammation and Vitamin E to help heal any potential scarring.  Before applying the Hemp oil to the mix, I did test a small patch on the inside of my forearm for any adverse reactions, and thankfully found none (something I’d recommend every product junkie to doin light of previous skin sensitivities).

I applied the mix to freshly pre-pooed & sectioned hair, which makes application a ton easier in my book! I started from the back and worked my way forward making sure to target the scalp first and then evenly distribute throughout the hair.  After applying to each section, I massaged the batter a bit more throughout my head, leaving no hair unturned…followed with a conditioning cap and left it on for 1 hour.  I wanted a serious deeeeeeeeep cleaning, hence the hour block as opposed to my previous 15-20 minute. 

This was the longest I’d kept the bentonite in my hair, and it was well worth the wait.  I finally experienced that softer feel every other bentonite user had been harping about for some time! My hair at first appeared longer but, soon realized my curls were a tad more elongated, though more importantly my hair and scalp felt cleansed!! I rinsed out the clay using Nature’s Gate Hemp Nourishing Conditioner for good measure (thanks to maturenatural for the rec;-).  This is my second go with this brand and I’m finding that it agrees with my hair & my budget. At around 6 bucks, I’m able to run away with a full 18oz bottle! For something that works well, is hair friendly in terms of ingredients…I’ll say it’s a keeper.

After rinsing I applied Curl Junkie’s Curl Rehab and DC’d for 1 hour.  My final rinse was with cold water and this week I opted to style with Donna Marie’s Lock and Twist Pudding.  I made my twists larger this week to cut back on time but also rolled the ends using my old stash of flexi rods.  I was going for a shortened curly look, that would gradually lengthen over the course of a week, and using the rods help to achieve the look.  To protect my ends I used end wrappers before rolling, and utilized for the first time my soft bonnet dryer!! Turns out there’s no cute way to look when using any bonnet, so I embraced it for what it is and stayed put for about two hours, the average time to dry my thick hair. 

This morning I unrolled the rods, and sealed ends with Afroveda’s Hemp Seed Lock ,Twist & Roll Butter before taking down and separating each twist.  Final result was just what I wanted! I have a bob look going that should fluff and expand as the week progresses.  No frizz, sufficient moisture and a cleansed scalp make me a happy PJ;-)!

 

Giveaway update: The winner of my second giveaway for Dr. Susan Taylor’s Rx for Brown Skin goes to Miriam P!! Miriam, email me your address (backtocurly@gmail.com) and I’ll swing the book your way! I’m making my way up to some product giveaways in the next month, so look out;-)