Giving Up!

Remember when I said I'd do protective styles for a year? Well, I'm not even 3 months in and I'm giving up! I have realized that I am not disciplined enough to do so. I've come to the conclusion that when I have protective styles, I do not take care of my hair, leaving nasty product build up. This defeats my purpose of protective styles. While it is low-manipulation, my hair is not being nourished. In fact, the product buildup due to the protective style is stunting my growth. However I have 2 main concerns going forward -  California and co-workers:

Meetup Concoctions

On Saturday I attended a hair meetup where we were given several recipes for homemade hair products. I made a leave-in spritzer and used it immediately. Ingredients?

• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp aloe vera juice
• 2 tbsp glycerin
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or EVOO as my friend Rachel Ray calls it)
• a few drops of your favorite essential oil (I used peppermint oil)

I like it! Granted I need to us it more than once to tell definitively but just the process of making my own product was super easy and somewhat fun. What's your favorite product to make?

Clothes + Curls Cyber Monday

Here are a few of my favorite cyber monday steals. If you know of any others, feel free to post them below.

for curls:

oyinhandmade - 20% off, free shipping for US customers w/purchase over $60, international customers get $10 off shipping

miss jessie's - buy one get one free, or in my mind - 50% off an even number of items :)

jamaica hut - 15% off using jahut26 @ checkout

shi naturals - 25% off using ANGELS @ checkout

for clothes:

tobi - 40% off storewide

express - 40% off + free shipping

justfab - 2 items for $49 (usually each item is $39 each)

modcloth - super sale!

1st Maryland Meetup

This summer was my first time attending meetups where I was interning in San Jose, California. Tonight was my first meetup in my home state, the mighty state of Maryland. It was a Swap n' Eat where we had dinner at Stoney River in Towson and then swapped clothes, hair products, shoes, accessories, whatever! All the ladies were so lovely and I look forward to seeing them again.

This meetup was a double endorphin-releaser. After eating my delicious salmon, I was in a food coma. Then after trading, I know I came home with more stuff that I left with. There's nothing better than free clothes :)

 

Pictured above Schezwan Salmon [first]; Motions Naturally You cleanser and conditioner, Miss Jessies Pillow Soft Curls, and Curls Leave-in Conditioner [second]; a nine west purse and 2 fabulous necklaces [third]; a black and white dress, pink island skirt, orange dress with flowers, and a gray tube top [fourth]

Hair Lessons Learned from Science

#1 rule of manipulating different variables - only change one thing at a time

I'm finally home from my summer internship and decided to do a deep clean of my hair. I looked in my mom's cabinet and thought I hit the holy grail - 2 different shampoos and 1 conditioner. I decided to combine all this with my regular conditioner and ended up applying the following to my hair (in this order):

1.  Creme of Nature Kiwi and Citrus Ultra Moisturizing Shampoo
2.  Nairobi Detnagling Shampoo
3.  Jane Carter Nutrient Replenishing Conditioner
4.  Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition Conditioner

Needless to say my hair came out stringy and was shedding in clumps. Which product caused this? I have no idea except that it wasn't my normal conditioner (the Fructis). Why? Because I added so many new products  at once. Maybe they all work fine separately but, together, leave my hair chemically imbalanced (pr maybe they're all just horrible for my hair). Next time I'll try one new thing at a time. 

First Meetup!

I attended my first natural hair meetup this past Saturday in Campbell, CA. Since I'm interning in the Bay area this summer, I figured I'd give it a try. Plus, I have no clue where to find natural hair care products out here!! 

The meetup was geared towards Transitioning & New Naturals, but even though I'm fully natural, I'm a new natural to the area, right? 

Anywho, I enjoyed the company of the ladies that were there. Each of us were at different stages and had a different story about their hair.

Back to the hair products issue. I never realized how much I took the DMV area for granted. In the DMV Targets, there's at least an entire aisle dedicated to natural hair care. Here, I'm lucky to find a shelf (unless I'm in Oakland, but I may be too afraid to venture out there lol). 

How easy is it to find hair products in your neighborhood? Or do you just tend to buy everything online?

Challenge: Curly-Kinky Cupcake Wars

If anyone is familiar with the show, Cupcake Wars, on the food network, you know that bakers are challenged to create delicious cupcakes from strange ingredients. My faves in the past have included cupcakes with bacon, cream cheese and chili!


But what would happen if naturalistas decided to participate in their own cupcake wars with ingredients from our favorite products! A few that come to mind - 

• olive oil
• brown sugar
• honey
• apple cider vinegar
• -----updated with Jen's ingredients----
• coconut oil
• avocado 
• yogurt
• castor oil

But all of these are tame. Can anyone think of more exotic products to use?

I officially declare the Curly-Kinky Cupcake Wars under way. 

Let the games begin!

(sorry I couldn't resist the Hunger Games reference :)

Cost of Conditioner: Super Sweetback

How much is too much to pay for hair products?

Miss Jessie's Super Sweetback Treatment costs $48 for a decent size portion. While Miss Jessie's is having their annual BOGO deal, you can get 2 for $48, but is that still a steal? I don't think so.

Now there have been some who claim that other products have similar effects, but of course not exactly the same. So is $24 too much for conditioner? What's the most others have paid for hair products and is it worth it when you can get a cheaper not-the-same-effect version?

Bantu Knot-Out Fail

So I tried my hand at Bantu knots yesterday. I 2-strand twisted on dry hair* and then knotted. To moisturize and whatnot I used:

1. Cantu Shea Butter on the ends

2. MYHoneyChild Hair Humectants, it softens my hair

3. Palmer's Coconout Oil Replenishing Hair Milk

4. Jane Carter Natural Hold Spray Gel (and I have no clue what a natural hold GEL is because

my hair has no natural hold..but okay)

Left them in my hair overnight. Got compliments from my roommate. But today when I took them out...fail.

I guess that spray hold gel held a little TOO well because my curls don't bounce :(

See? Stiff! But I did manage to try an updo.

Ah well. I know what NOT to include in the pre-knot process next time. Thoughts? Has anyone had success on bantu knots?

*I decided to try it on dry hair because I usually have UBER shrinkage and did not want that.

Hair Ingredients to Avoid

Ladies! Please be careful which ingredients you are putting in your hair! I know I switched shampoo routines and it made allll the difference.

Ingredients to avoid? Why? (p.s. if you have more to add to this list, post below!)

• sodium lauryl - skin, scalp and eye irritants; may be carcinogenic
• diazolidinyl urea - skin irritants; a possible carcinogen
• parabens (methyl, propyl, butyl, and ethyl) - poses risk to certain cancers
• silicone (or chemicals that end in -cone) - some known tumor promoters; biodegradable
• lanoline, petroleum and mineral oil - suffocating; irritating
• propylene glycol - neurotoxin; damaging to kidneys and liver
• phenoxyethanol - known to cause allergic reactions to the skin on contact
• cocomide DEA, diethanomaline (DEA), triethanolamine (TRA) - a possible carcinogen
• fragrances - irritant; some are volatile petrochemical compound

(as taken from http://naturalsunshine.ning.com/; there's even a wallet printout that you can printout for those beauty supply visits)

Product of Products

SO I must first state that the right hair products make a world of difference! My hair is easier to comb through and my curls are oh-so-defined. I feel like restarting this Protective Style Challenge because I've been doing it wrong for about 2 months! Ah wells.. check the pic.

All products are listed in a previous post. So first I used the creme of nature shampoo followed by garnier conditioner and the mixed chicks

leave-in. This combo was okay but when I switched out the garnier for the aphogee reconstructor, I was in LOVE.

oh yea, and I keep trimming my split ends but now the back of my hair is about 2 inches longer than the rest. ANd tips on how to make the front/middle of my hair catch up to the back, length-wise? Because cutting it seems like the opposite of what I want to happen..just sayin.

Scratching Backs?

I've come up with the perfect natural hair product line. I call it:

empHatically natural

where each product in the line would have a label on the front with the pH level

of the product. Since it is particularly important for those with natural hair to keep a balanced pH level, AND since it's way too much work to do that on your own, this would be a hit! Thoughts?

p.s. if you take this idea, I want free hair products for life... just sayin

YouTube is Expensive!

I'm sure some of you out there can attest to this - watching YouTube videos is expensive!

You watch 1 video and the natural chica is using a new product. You watch a product review and see what a great job it does on hair. Then at the end of the video, the chica says how cheap it is and where she found it...which of course makes you want to purchase it.

So..needless to say, I've decided to try out some new products. Just ordered them from Amazon/eBay..still have to pick some up from target/CVS but here's the list so far:

shampoo: creme of nature sunflower and coconut detangling shampoo

conditioner: garnier fructis triple nutrition conditioner

leave-in conditioner: mixed chicks leave-in

deep conditioner: miss jessie's super sweetback treatment

henna: jamila (w/vatika oil)

somethin special: aphogee 2 minute reconstructor

ladies - if you've used any of the above, do they get a thumbs up or thumbs down from you?