Long time no...

I know... I know... i've been gone for quite some time so we definitely have a lot of catching up to do!

Where do i start?

Well for 1 I henna'ed my hair again last Wednesday and I must say, my hair really loves it! This time i left in on for 4 hours and got a little reddish tint too. (Being silly with the Henna there :p

My curls are soft, bouncy, and i have noticeable growth now. My curls are starting to hang once again and i must say, this is the healthiest my hair has ever been, probably in it's life (or my life, lol). My edges are coming in nicely, slowly but surely,  but i have noticed major improvement.

Since cutting my hair again i see the overall difference in how my completely natural hair is healthier, thicker, shinier, silkier, and more moisturized as opposed to my dyed natural hair which was dryer, getting split ends at a ridiculous rate, and had caused some curl loosening/relaxing. My hair seems to be growing right some where close to half an inch, if not that, a month so i am trying my best to keep it in the healthiest state possible. That being said... i guess i sorta have a regimen.. lol (I'm laughing to myself because i'm definitely not the kind of girl who sticks to a regimen) Okay. So, low manipulation styles are the way to go for me for the rest of the winter to i am going to stick to twists, flat twists, and twists-outs on a weekly basis, Co-wash twice a week, shampoo once a week, Henna on a monthly basis, and yeah... that's pretty much my regimen. (See what i mean? lol) I have a lot more to share so i'll be back soon!

Jessicurl Hair Cleansing Cream

Product Description: Use Jessicurl Hair Cleansing Cream to wash your hair gently without leaving it stripped and straw-like. The super moisturizing formula will make your hair soft, silky and wonderfully clean. Safe for color treated hair.



My Experience: 'Tis the season of moisturizing and emollient products and on my quest to find an excellent shampoo, I definitely think this shampoo is a winner. I mentioned that I bought the Jessicurl Trial Pack-rich, which gave me 2 oz bottle of this shampoo. I love it, I think it's officially my favorite. I essentially have fun washing my hair when using this shampoo; it's like washing my hair with herbs and it has great detangling properties. It's so moisturizing and my curls clump up and it has a good lather.

Washing my hair with the shampoo for the first time...

When I rinse it out my hair feels soooo nice, not stripped but definitely clean. I do want to compare this with Curls Cleansing Cream so stay tuned for that, because I love that shampoo too. But this is definitely a keeper!


Ingredients: Water, Decyl Polyglucose, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Vegetable Glycerin, Cetyl Alcohol, Avocado Oil, C 12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Hydrolyzed Oat Flour, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Fragrance.

Winter Regimen

My hair for the week

First, let me say that I'm not happy with the windy weather. I can deal with the cold of the Northeast, I don't mind snow or rain...but wind? iCan't deal with it!

Which brings me to my new regimen. Basically, I'm sticking to protective styling and only wearing my hair loose if there is a special occasion but even that may warrant my hair being pinned up. Last Saturday night I went out for a friend's birthday and while I originally planned to wear my hair in a braid out, I decided against it once I realized how cold and windy it was (and bundled up pretty well--cute and cold is not my thing) and pulled it back into a banana clip with my hair cascading down in the back. I'm also being paranoid about having dry brittle hair; between the hi-lights, the bitter cold and my warm ass apartment ^__^ I feel like my hair is going for a ride. At one point it was dry and lacking that shine and I can't have that. So here's my winter plan:

Weekly
-Pre-Poo with Burt's Bees Avocado Butter Pre-Shampoo Treatment, leaving it on my hair for ~20min (have I reviewed this product? no? It's coming...)
-Rinse. Shampoo in sections with Jessicurl Hair Cleansing Cream and lightly detangle with my fingers
-Condition with either Jessicurl Too Shea! Conditioner or Herbal Essence Hello hydration (or which ever thick, emollient conditioner I have on hand) and detangle with my wide-tooth comb
-Rinse. Deep condition with Jessicurl Weekly Deep Conditioner and cover my head with plastic. Let it sit in my hair for ~30 min
-Rinse with cold water. Use Kinky Curly Knot Today as my leave-in and stretch my hair either by banding, braiding, or using curl formers and let hair air-dry
-Style: my usual twists or if my hair is loose then it's in a bun

I moisturize daily with aloe vera gel and jojoba oil. In the mornings I usually run coconut oil through my hair and scalp. I'm still looking around for some butters and moisturizers to use daily. I may just go back to Oyin because it works so well for my hair and am about to take a trip to the Midwest where I'm sure moisture will be a challenge. But that's it for now!

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.