Straightening, Trimming, and Shaping

As CFC mentioned last week in her post The Conundrum of Coloring Henna'd Hair, she got her hair high-lighted at an Aveda Salon by her house... here's a little sneak peak.... Aren't they lovely?!

I then met up with her at her house to straighten and trim after her highlighting appointment...

First thing's first, Whoa! I always forget that she has enough hair for 4 people on her head and it's going to take me all day to do! Lol I've only met a few women who have had heads worth of hair and i have to say, i tip my hat to you ladies because that must be a lot of regular work!

I am always drooling over her hair so i never mind getting the chance to dip my fingers in =D I flatironed from dry curly to straight using Chi's silk infusion, trimmed/shaped, and silk wrapped her hair.

What is Shaping you ask?

When i say Shaping in this instance, i mean trimming her hair as little as possible, mostly to shape-up the shape her hair already has and/or add shape, as opposed to just trimming only the the length or giving her more of a haircut. As you can see in the pictures, i took off a lot of weight when i shaped her hair which will help it fall nicely when she wears it curly or straight, especially since she has a lot of hair.

 

The Left side are the Befores and The Right side are Afters...
She said she loves the shape!




  

Mohawks for the Holidays and Giveaways....

Happy Holidays!!! Hope everyone enjoyed stuffing their faces with their families. Gobble. Lol

So we currently have a little Mini Giveaway contest going on right now which ends right after the Holidays on Sunday, November 28th @ 8pm so check it out and don't miss out on your chance to win some cool Giovanni products!
So for our contest, we asked our Yais readers to follow and send us a pic of your favorite protective styles! In my effort to contribute, although i can't win (darn!),  i decided to do a cool little stlye for all my TWA ladies out there. I know everyone loves Mohawks so here's my spin on it with my little TWA twist hawk.. thingy.. lol

Sorry this is the only pic i got of the twist-out i later did on the 2 strand twists

Mini Afro update II

These pics are from Sunday, before CFC Henna'd my hair for me. This was my first day picking out my fro' since i chopped again and i love the color and fullness my fro has, not to mention that its growing back at a pretty good rate :) The Brown you see in my afro is some of the color i missed when trimming off all my colored ends but those will stay there until i decide to trim again some time in 2011.

I twisted my hair to stretch it over night, picked out the twists in the morning and added my head band and little flower clip for decor'. I plan to try a new style just for you TWA ladies out there who feel bored  and don't know what to do so stay tuned!

Happily Henna'd hair!

It was finally time for me to get a good deep condition so CFC Henna'd my hair for me yesterday!
She mixed the same Henna for me that she uses, with some green tea and natural raw honey.
HERE is the post she did showing the Henna she uses.

My hair loved it!!! I kept it on for about 2 hours and washed vigorously with Suave Naturals Tropical Coconut condish to help the henna grains slip out. I washed probably a total of 4 times so far and my scalp feels clean, my hair feels moisturized and softer than ever before, and even my problem areas aren't seeming to be such a problem! My curls clumped together beautifully after using Henna, i definitely will be doing a henna treatment again... maybe even on a monthly basis!

As for color, i did get some red deposit but i will say that i love the way it looks! My hair is so shiny and it looks browner than it did before. I think the henna helped to removed some of the black rinse i had left in my hair from rinsing my hair for the weave install, so now i can really see my natural color and i love it.

The Conundrum of Coloring Henna'd Hair

I wanted to let dear hair enthusiasts know how my salon trip went yesterday. As I mentioned before, I have never been to a salon unless SP was there using my hair for an assignment or doing some sort of project. So there I was at Natural Looks, an Aveda salon with my hair stretched from a bantu-knot out. The colorist touched my hair and brought my some color swatches of brownish reds and shades of brown. I picked a much lighter brown then I had originally intended. I also only wanted half a head of hi-lights (#notmadeofmoney) She thought my hair never had been colored, but I informed her that I had hi-lights before that grew out and that I use henna. Oh, I'm going to have to use bleach, she said. Because henna is a plant that binds itself to the hair. This was something I already knew but I was hoping she wouldn't have to bleach it because I'm horrified of messing up my hair. But with proper care, I knew my hair would be fine and Aveda's color is for the most part non-damaging, so I was like ok, bleach me!

The Colorist (we'll call her N) decided to wash my hair because she had to use bleach. The shampoo lady used Aveda's Dry Remedy shampoo and conditioner which I used before and didn't really like. I'm not a fan of the smell or the way it makes my hair feel. But anyway they massaged the scalp as they shampoo'd which was good for me. Then N asked me if I always parted my hair down the middle and I told her yes. She informed me that she would do thicker lines in the front and then thinner lines of color on top, and not add color to the very front because hair is so baby fine there. She also said she was basically strand-testing the top of my hair because of the henna. Which was good because low and behold when she rinsed just the back out my hair was a very bright orange which was NOT what I was going for, as funky as it may have looked. She said she would correct it and not to worry and she most certainly did.

I was looking for a reponse on the CurlyNikki forum to find out how henna would be with hi-lights or color and a forum member told me this:

I have done henna three times and I just got highlights last week. My stylist told me that since henna is a vegetable product it coats the hair and as a result it may change the outcome. She told me that either (1) it would not color the strands evenly, (2) it may turn it some crazy color other than what is desired or (3) it will be just fine. Because of this she would not do my whole head that day and opted to do a strand test in two sections of my hair. Those two tests came out just the way I wanted them so I rescheduled and got the rest done and they turned out great!! I haven't henna'd since so I dont know what it will do from here. I would definitey ask again to make sure she actually knew what henna was before she colors your hair though! HTH!

In my case I think it worked out pretty well. I know this is like a teaser post because I didn't put any pics up of my hair, but I want everyone to see the finished look that I was going for. SP straightened and shaped/trimmed my hair which pulled my whole look together =) Stay tuned for the pics!

Impromtu twist out

I two strand twisted my hair while in the shower the other day with Giovanni Deeper Moisture Smooth as Silk conditioner, grabbing random small sections, detangling and twisting as i went along.

 I decided not to wash the conditioner out, instead i left the twists in but rung out some of the conditioner and let them airdry. 

My SO and i decided to go out so after a few hours of airdrying, i sat under my hooded dryer for about 5-10 minutes and then proceeded to untwist.

 I lifted at the roots with my pik but didn't go too crazy... low manipulation..stuck some pins in and Voila!! 

* I think sitting under the dryer definitely helped the set so i'll be sure to try this again and sit under the dryer

Meanwhile in Natural-ville....

Good morning, hair enthusiasts!

So, I'm about to leave for my color appointment but I just wanted to give an update on hair. I did pretty good with protective styling all week because of the buns. The problem of course is that I didn't manage to do anything interesting like the buns I was practicing with =/ I just kept it in a low bun, either using a donut or simply wrapping my hair around itself and using bobbypins to secure.

I had a semi-busy/stressful week so I didn't get a chance to wash my hair until Friday night, when I had actually planned to do so Wednesday. SP recommended that I also not use heavy products so soon before my appointment, but I generally don't so I wasn't worried. I opted to do a another bantu-knot out but since I work Saturday mornings and my hair takes forever to dry in bantu knots, it was still too damp and I knew it wouldn't hold so I put my hair in two messy banded ponytails and left some curly bangs. I wish I would've taken pictures! But I went out last night to dinner with some friends and I know they took some pics so I will post as soon as they make the rounds on facebook. I also wanted to say about the bantu-knot outs that I love the way my hair looks right now because of them. I dig the "messy" looks so I separated the curls some more for this fluffy look I've got going on at the moment:

Bantu-Knot set: Washed with Curls Shampoo, Conditioned with Renpure Organics My Hair Is Parched, Set with Aloe Vera Gel and sealed with Jojoba Oil.

Fluffed out knot out, 2nd day hair

Man, I'm gonna miss my dark hair. I already have a lot of anxiety about this because I've never been to a salon before and b) I'm wondering if it'll come out the way I want due to the henna. Wish me luck!!