The Reactions and Aftermath of Straight Hair

gratuitous shot of my hair =)

I was rocking straight hair a couple of weeks ago and I knew that the kids at my job were going to react to it (as a matter of fact, my co-workers made a big deal out of it too.) You may recall that some of the girls had been "inquiring" about when I was going to wear it straight so I can look pretty, blaze blaze and how reluctant I was because of babygirl A who gets made fun of for having a lot of natural hair. While the kids were in awe with my hair including the boys, (Is that all yours? You've had all that hair since you were born?) A came up to me with the biggest grin on her face, you're hair looks so pretty! she said, and holding down her hair she continued, I like that we can do different things to our type of hair! Out of everyone's compliments that made my week.

Now that I'm back to curly, a few girls actually expressed dissapointment. Keep in mind that I work with very outspoken and sometimes downright rude children. I went back and forth with a 4th grader yesterday who is known for being "outspoken" amongst other things. She asked me why did I have to go back to how my hair is now. Because I wanted to, I said.

Well I think it's ugly.
Okay.
You look better with how your hair was before. You should keep it like that.
Well, I'll do what I want to my hair.
Well it's ugly what you're doing to it now.
Okay...

She went on for a little longer, and she does the back and forth thing with everyone which is why I answered her pretty passively because I know she's looking for a reaction. Most people do anyway. At this point most of the kids I'm around know that I'm quite comfortable with who I am and I'll answer their questions about my background (because that almost always comes up for them) and I let the girls touch my hair because I know they are curious and I see nothing wrong with it. My co-teacher and I were actually talking yesterday about how the kids should learn more cultural history and teaching them about hair acceptance and just acceptance in general of their images (this is a predominately Black/Hispanic school) because the teasing about hair thing is pretty awful as I mentioned with one of the kids. My co-teacher is relaxed mind you, but I don't neccesarily think that's a bad thing. I'm fully team natural, but most kids probably do not have a choice in what gets done to their hair. And if readers have any suggestions on how I can go about getting a good message out to the kids, please feel free to let me know.

Getting Back To My Curls

Happy Monday!

I was so eager to see my hair back to curly with the shape and hi-lights so I washed my hair Friday night. I used a new line of products, Jessicurl. I ordered the trial pack which includes shampoo, conditioner, her infamous weekly deep conditioner and some styling products.

I won't give a full review just yet because I only used it once, but I don't mind it so far. I split my hair into four sections, then pre-poo'd with Burts Bees Avocado Butter for about 20 minutes on wet hair and then rinsed it out. I then used Jessicurl's Hair Cleansing Cream on each section and then rinsed. I will say that my hair felt pretty moisturized and smooth and the smell is not bad either---sorta reminds me of putting herbs in my hair.

Right after rinsing out Avocado Butter

Cleansing Cream in my hair

I then used the Too Shea! Extra Moisturizing Conditioner which was a thick cream with some detangling power. Rinsed that out and then went in on the Weekly Deep Conditioning Treatment that I've heard so much about. I applied it to each section and wrapped my head up in a plastic bag and let it sit for about 45 minutes as I was busy about my apartment. I rinsed it out in cold water and detangled a little, which was a breeze...

freshly washed and detangled hair

 THEN I decided to stretch my hair using curlformers. I let it air-dry, took them out and using my fingers smoothed the curls out and put my hair in a high ponytail. I was done for the night. Yesterday I decided to put my hair in medium-sized boxed braids that I'll probably take out at the end of the week or maybe leave it in for 2, I haven't decided yet. You can probably see how the ends of my hair are unraveled and curled up...I like it like that actually.






The Full Look

The pincurls are out........

the back

So, this is how my hair looked the day after I got my hair colored and flat-ironed. I really loved the shape and the fact that my crunchy ends are pretty much gone. I pretty much just moisturized with Coconut Oil and my hair stayed soft and moisturized.

i hate you single strand knots.

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!