My Curls Are Poppin'!!!

So, the picture to the left, shows my curls poppin' with some conditioner in my hair. I made it a point to take a picture of this area of my hair to show the drastically different textures that are right next to each other... this is only in one little segment of my hair mind you.

I definitely haven't been wearing wash and go's because of this little fact of having extremely drastically different textures everywhere, but i missed my curls, so i prepared for a day of crazy, curly hair! I oil treated my hair overnight with wheat germ and neem oil, a little Trader Joe's Nourish Condish, and baggied to sleep.

After Cowashing, I realized I had never tried the whole T-shirt wrapped on the head thing, but decided to give it a try and OMG! Love this technique! My hair was still damp but not soaking wet, and my curl pattern wasn't disturbed or made frizzy.

Four products (Lacio Lacio Leave-in, Care Free Curl Instant Moisturizer, Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing smoothie, and something new to review later!!!) and a little smoothing and shaking later, pow! Curls! I had to leave my house soon and my hair was still a little damp so I used the diffuser to do a little blow drying, and then switched to my nozzle attachment to stretch my roots out a little.

  By the end of the day, a little shrinkage had ensued, but frizz was still kept to a minimum and my curls were still poppin'!


I got lots of compliments and mini convo's that day, a whole lot more stares, and even more hands in hair syndrome. And though I'm not looking forward to the detangling, I really missed my curls so I'm enjoying this wash do too much and go, lol. I pineappled to sleep, and woke up to amazing second, and today even makes third day hair (banded last night though).

After wearing my hair in roller sets and blowouts for like the last 2 months, always up in a bun or semi-protective style, it was a great change to rock my curls for a few days. 

How have you been rocking your natural? 

Product Review: La Plancha Deep Heat Reconstructor

Product Description: Helps restore texture, body and shine, replenishing essential proteins, amino acids and humectants to your hair.
How to use: This product can be applied in three different ways depending on your particular needs:
1st Option: Apply La Plancha after shampoo, leave in hair for 3 to 5 minutes, rinse with warm water. Style as usual
2nd Option: For moderate conditioning, shampoo and towel dry hair. Apply La Plancha from scalp to ends, wrap hair in plastic cap and place under dryer or blower for 15 minutes, rinse with warm water. Style as usual.
3rd Option: For deeper conditioning and intensive hair repair, after shampooing apply La Plancha, divide hair into sections, wrap each section in aluminum foil. Proceed to heat each section with a professional hair ceramic iron for 30 seconds. Rinse with warm water. Style as usual.


Ingredients: Deionized water, behentimonium methosulphate, cetyl alcohol, propanotriol, cetyl trimethyl ammonium chloride, ciclomethicone, PPG-3 benzyl, eter mirystate, dimethicone, propilene glycol, hidrolized silk protein, fragrance, lanoline, decyl oleate, metyl/propilparaben, ceramide, panthenol, citric acid.


Towards the end of the summer I really started to access the state of my hair. I had a lot of single-strand knots from too many wash-n-gos (which I'm not mad about, because that comes with the territory of tightly curled/coiled hair) and some breakage, most likely because I was being too rough. I vowed to step up my deep conditioning game up and while talking about straightening hair on one occasion with SP, she mentioned La Plancha hair products which she likes for heat-styling. Curious, I wondered into the Beauty Supply Store and found they had a deep conditioner on the shelf.

I thought I'd give this Dominican product a try, considering they haven't failed me in the past. No, the ingredients aren't organic or "natural" but I saw behentimonium methosulphate and was like, there goes the de-tangling agent that works for my hair! I generally shop for products this way, looking at key ingredients I know work well for me, which you start understanding after much experimenting! Anyway I have to say I like this conditioner! It smells faintly sweet like maybe citrus, and it's very creamy. I slabbed it onto my hair, de-tangled, and put on a plastic cap (option 2). I also turned off the AC in my apartment so it could get warm and I could pretend I sat under a dryer. Once I rinsed, my hair felt super soft and after a few uses my hair is definitely getting back to that silky-strong texture, and I'm also wondering if it has anything to do with my diligence to keep DCing (in other words, will my hair still get stronger without using this conditioner?) After my first use, I did a rollerset using Lacio Lacio as a leave-in, and then because I was bored that night I actually passed a flatiron (once) over sections of my hair, without doing the roots; then pin-curled. I thought I got nice results from that:

My verdict: This is a very nice deep conditioner. I plan to keep this on rotation as part of my Fall 2012 products!

Combating Breakage in Dry Desert Climates

 I recently came back from the west coast for a work trip, spending a week in Los Angeles and 2 days in Las Vegas. A few posts ago I had mentioned how ever since my hair's been long enough to go into ponytails, that's exactly what's been happening with it... I had been moisturizing daily and making sure to tuck my ends under whenever I did little buns, but one day while removing my ponytail holders, I saw a few broken strands of hair and totally freaked out!!! I knew it wasn't the ponytail holders because I got some new ones I really love that don't snag my hair at all. I knew my hair had been feeling dry with all of the dry desert heat, visits to the pool, and tanning, but I never thought it would start breaking. All I could think of was all of my hard work, feeling like I've been working for it forever and then watching it going down the drain.
Immediately, with my small resources (seeing as how I wasn't home I didnt have everything I needed) I began putting together a concoction of what would be the deepest conditioner possible at the time... A mix of whatever conditioners were on hand, and some Palmers Cocoa Butter Body oil. Thank goodness it worked! I started mixing the oil into my conditioner every time I washed my hair, and left a good amount of conditioner and oil in my hair afterwards too. I'm so glad I've come this far in my haircare to understand that what I saw was breakage, and to have had an idea of how to combat it.

How have you dealt with your hair under different climate circumstances?

Quick and Easy After Pool/Beach Up-do

One thing I always remembered about the summer, was always needing to have some way to contain my hair during water activities. For the most part, as a child, I lived in box braids and single strand twists, so going in the water meant nothing but shrunken hair... which at that point meant nothing because my hair was always shrunken anyway. lol Since I was never the one in charge of my hair and my mother worked a lot, styles like braids and twists were essential to my mother, being able to easily rinse them and not have to worry about combing hair if she didn't have the time.
This time around while out in LA, I figured going in the pool with loose hair couldn't be that bad, now that I'm old enough to do my own  hair (lol) and my hair is now long enough to go into a ponytail... that would be my saving grace, and it was! I grabbed whatever conditioner I could find, and smoothed it onto my hair after I was finished with my pool shenanigans. On my way to tan, I put the back of my hair up into a little high bun and left what would be the bang area out. It shrunk up quite a bit... but if you don't mind the skrunken look and want to pull off a little more than a curly fro or ponytail after the pool or beach, this can be a cute and quick little updo look for you. Adding some conditoner is a great way to keep your hair from totally drying out from pool and/or ocean water and the sun, and get a little deep conditioning time in. You can even try a conditoner with SPF if you know you'll be out in the sun for a while, or adding a little oil to your conditioner if you have really dry hair.

 I hope this saves someone's beach/pool hair!

Back to curls + Twist outs in July

  I've been so crazy busy it's been ridiculous; from work, to family affairs, to down right tragedies... it's no wonder I've hardly had time to get on and properly blog, much less any time for my hair.
Ever since I've made my way into the ponytail/bun world my hair has been washed, moisturized, and thrown back into a ponytail or bun of sorts. I haven't had the time or patience for twisting or retwisting, and with my multiple textures, wearing wash n go are currently no-no's for me.
 In these photos I was deep conditoning my hair to get ready to twist it for a twist out. This was the week of the 20's in July, I was prepping for my trip to LA (not under the happiest circumstances, but it turned out that I got the opportunity to work while out there so that was great... more on that later). I left in some Giovanni Deeper Moisture Smooth As Silk conditioner and proceeded to twist with Eco Styler Olive Oil gel. Slept/Air Dried, and removed my twist the next evening to go to a party I didn't even make it to... lol.
Crazy thing was, I usually love twist outs but I really was not liking the outcome of my twist out this time around...
I think it probably had more to do with my hair length than the actual twist out though, because I will say Eco Styler does make my twist outs come out beautifully. My hair is just growing into a point that I think might become mildly awkward for wearing out and curly, since it is becoming overall fuller, and longer, but still has a ton of shrinkage. My hair can still look 2 inches when it's about 8. The little Bob I have going on is getting a little mushroom-y! The good thing is, I've just braided up my hair so hopefully this little break will also come with a good little growth spurt... lets see if I can hold out for a month! lol
 I have sooo much to post about my hair on the West Coast so I will definitely be back with more posts!

VERY Happy Hair as of lately!

 You all know I'm impatient, so it's no wonder I took my weave out in a week! lol I guess what it is more so though, is that I really enjoy my own hair, especially now that it's getting longer. And though I enjoy wearing weaves and extensions, I still end up feeling fake. I know I will enjoy weave more when my hair is long enough to fully and easily blend... right now it's just a little more work and leaves me with limited styling that makes me just rather my own hair...

So, I took my hair out 2 nights ago, and since I had washed my hair about 3 days before that and moisturized it, It left me with a beautiful, soft, and defined braid out.. In love!!!

Randomly, I bought this Aloe Body Lotion at the hair show that I did not love for my body, but upon reading the ingredients further, decided to try it in my hair, and so far it's amazing!!!

I don't want to jump the gun, seeing as how i've only been using it for a day or two, so I won't give any reviews or names of anything until I've used it for a while... especially since it's initially intended to moisturize the skin... Review in let's say...a week?  

Anyhoo... I moisturized my hair yesterday using the Aloe Cream and decided to wear the braid out in my fave 2 buns, and was so happy to see how much my hair had grown, as my buns were bigger, fuller, and longer! I even had to squish them down quite a bit to get scrunchies over 'em.

I definitely loved the protective styling benefits of wearing the weave for a week, and I am thinking of wearing my usual large, long extention braids for the first 2 weeks of May... just to  get some protective styling in (especially for my front edges) without missing my hair like crazy. Also, though I love those braids, they're damned heavy! lol

 I bought some new products at the hair show I wanted to try and my scalp was a little itchy so I decided to wash my hair last night. Again, I won't be reviewing anything until I use it for a little while so I can give a full and thorough review...

Before washing however, I decided to do a few length checks, just to see how this growth process is going and I'm happy to say I'm pleased. My hair doesn't grow super fast, and it can break, tangle, get split ends and single strand knots pretty easily, so growth around here is a joyus occasion, lol. My edges are still basically the shortest of my hair, my hair at my crown and upper head in general being the longest.