What was supposed to be my Winter Protective style

I had been experiencing quite a bit of split ends and single strant knots at a rapid pace, due to color damage (and a little of my own neglegence -_- ) so i finally decided to do another protective style! I got so much growth out of my braids after only wearing them for 2 weeks, so i want to challenge myself to keep this install for 3 months!!! I figured i would take this out the week before X-mas and then decide whether i wanted to go back into a weave, some other protective style, or just rock my own hair for New Years...

I bought this hair back in June with intentions to install it for my birthday. 

Because my BF likes my natural hair better than a weave, i decided not to install it. I'm so glad that i'm now finally getting to wear this hair because i love it! I bought the 10" Signature curly from Indianhair.net.

I did this weave myself; cut, color, styling, and texture blending. I hope you like!

I only have these 2 pics up because this is an old post and i only kept this in for about a week. I meant to post this sooner...  about 2 weeks ago sooner, but here's why i took this out so soon:


Athough i have absolutely no complaints about the indian weave hair, as it was beautiful and did everything i wanted it to do and more, i decided to remove this install early because my hair wasn't long enough for optimal texture blending. I do not mind wearing weaves as protective styles, but i refuse to wear a weave that doesn't look like it's mine. With this hair, my hair was obviously not as silky and has a much tighter curl. I thought i could get away with doing twist outs to blend, but at my length, i couldn't get the twist to be big enough to match the curl of the weave. I found myself flatironing and then doing twists on the flatironed hair but considering i didnt want to add too much heat to my hair, and this weave was going to be wet a few times a week, i knew it would all be defeating the purpose. My edges are coming back to life, the last thing i want to do is put unnecesary stress on them and cause them to thin and fall out again. It was fun for the week... i still have the hair and i'm pretty sure i will reuse it when my hair is longer.

Homemade Mixtures

Yesterday I decided to use what I had to whip up some nice stuff for my hair. I've been wearing my hair  loose this past week and probably will again this week. Due to this NYC weather I'm becoming increasingly anal about not having dry hair because I don't want my hair to break.

The first thing I did was pre-poo with Burts Bees Avocado Butter Pre-Shampoo treatment and mixed it with Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. I've read from The Natural Haven in this post how beneficial putting coconut oil to hair before washing to prevent the hair from swelling (and swelling can weaken hair!) I mostly pre-poo with just evco but when it's cool out I tend to break out the Avocado Butter

I applied the mixture in sections then braided my hair and left it on for about 30 minutes. Then I washed my hair with a new shampoo I'm testing Curlicious Curls Cleansing Cream Organic Shampoo (which I will review later). I then finger-detangled with Herbal Essence Hello Hydration and rinsed my hair thoroughtly. This combo made my hair feel really soft and silky.

I then did a deep conditioning treatment using Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Raw Honey, and a tablespoon of coconut milk. Honey has anti-bacterial properties which is good for someone like me who suffers from scalp issues. I added a little coconut milk because it detangles like a charm and I really did not feel like breaking out the comb. I feel like I put too much EVOO because the mixture was a tad runny for my liking, but it smelled amazing!

Defined curls, "naked" hair

I wrapped my hair for about an hour then rinsed with cold water and my hair was shiny, bouncy and my curls were popping. I'm going to be doing more homemade mixtures for my hair because it can be less expensive and I have a lot of stuff thats beneficial to the hairs anyway...

Some Updates

Ohaithur, hair enthusiasts =)

SP and I (Curly Film Chick) have been so busy! Interestingly enough we are of course trying to incorporate new routines with our hair in order to fit our hectic days.

I restocked on hair essentials and have tried a couple of new products that I will review soon. Also I have some new hair styles I been working on, I'm trying to do more protective styling for this crazy NYC weather, although wearing my hair loose has been pretty good to me lately. I'm trying to get more creative! I have another idea style in mind that I plan to execute this weekend, most likely Sunday when I have my "me" time...lately I been thinking a lot about coloring my hair. I love how dark and silky it is but I also love to change it's color. Since high school I been coloring my hair using the boxed dyes and honestly never had too many issues with it other than my hair gets drier.  I had a head full of brownish red color, gold hi-lights, light brown hi-lights and my last set of orange hi-lights (done by SP herself) are now a deep red thanks to the henna. I haven't colored my hair in about 2 years and want to again. Until of course I start missing my dark hair and let the color grow out and the cycle will continue! I'm still shopping around for a place because I don't want my hair messed up and I know it will add upkeep to it. I'm thinking of a "chocolate" brown. So far I'm all for Aveda but they are pricey! I'm also afraid of going to a salon, because they've always acted afraid of my hair (haha) so we'll see if I actually go through with it.

We'll also be having a giveaway soon. Trying to decide how our followers will win something....be on the look out for that!

Anyway, feel free to drop us a comment about what you've been doing to your hair and if you have any of your own hair blogs or interesting links to share and we'll check them out. Welcome new followers! Shouts out to follower Beauty.Mindset for putting us on her blog roll and basically being awesome! Thanks for reading!

My Henna Process

Last weekend, I henna'd my hair using a different brand from the BAQ (body art quality) Jamila and Dulhan I've used. This one was a store brand and naturally I was hesitant but it turns out that it did my hair well. Henna can be very drying to the hair, but I found that this brand wasn't particularly that way.

Kulustyan's Henna-Indian grocery store in Manhattan

I mixed this henna with green tea and let it sit for a few hours to let the dye release. The henna powder is green but turns brown when the dye releases.

fresh henna

Some time elaspsed, mixed with green tea

I heavily coat sections of my hair with henna and then wrap my head in saran wrap and then cover my head with a scarf or an old t-shirt to keep it moist, or else the henna will dry up and crumble. Turns out this henna colored my old hi-lighted strands a really nice red. I used Suave Naturals Tropical Coconut Conditioner to help with the rinsing of henna (lots of mess and gunk!) and was pleased with the results. Remember henna doesn't "lift" dark color, but in the light the henna shows up hi-lighting dark hair...

Freshly henna'd hair

See the reds?

Henna can be very drying, but mine felt awesome. Even though my hair felt even silky and moisturized, I decided to DC overnight with the last of my Renpure Organics My Hair Is Parched Conditioner just in case and put my hair in four braids. I rinsed out Monday morning (my day off!) and my hair still felt awesome. Then I preceded to style. I'll go into detail with my little experiment in my next post...

My ID came! My ID came!!!

And i'm sooooo happy because it came out perfect and i LOVE my puff!!! 

That's the me i want everyone to see when i hand them my ID!

excuse the orbit wrapper covering my info, lol

Braids Remix

So I decided to co-wash my hair with Oyin's Honey Hemp conditioner (as a side note, I forgot how creamy it is!). My hair felt pretty awesome...I sealed with Coconut oil too.

Sopping wet braids

My curly ends

For some reason, I decided to add flexi rods to my hair to give some "umph" to the braids..

Results! (Please excuse my sleepy face!)

Up Close

I've decided to actually take out my hair this weekend. I want to do a henna treatment and try another hairstyle that's been floating in my head and since this is a holiday weekend I'll actually been able to spend some time doing my hair. I've been so busy lately and once again, thankful for protecting styling.

Ha!

This is how i feel about bad weaves, wigs, hair extensions, and lace fronts...

Just sayin... lol