TWA Do's and Don'ts

My quest to finally have long hair this year has had me thinking quite a bit about how I handled my TWA in 2010; The good, the bad, and the ugly!

Here are some quick TWA Do's and Don'ts from my lesson's learned in 2010...ahhh...good year... lol

DO!!! =0)
- Have fun with your TWA while you have it. Even if you aren't excited about having short hair, hair grows back so don't waste your time feeling down about it, learn to enjoy it while you have it. 1 year having short hair out of an average of at least 80 years of life really can't be that bad right?

- Make sure to moisturize! Even if you have less than an inch of hair, make sure you're moisturizing daily!

- Deep Condition! Yes it's only a TWA but its still hair and it needs to be deep conditioned so do so as regularly as you can.

- Make sure to Wrap/Cover/Tie your head down with a silk/satin scarf and/or bonnet at night!!! There's no reason you should be dealing with split ends and SSK's on a freshly/recently cut TWA. I also wear a satin bonnet under  my winter hats so they won't dry out my hair.

DONT!!! > = x
- Buy Every Product you hear is supposed to be good. *Although i'm not one to hair-type, i did find that finding girls with textures that seemed similar to mine helped me figure out what type of regimen and products i needed for my hair, so i was able to streamline my products, and my product junkie-ism!

- (If you are planning on growing your hair out) Don't go crazy doing everything to your hair! Stay away from over processing your natural hair with color and bleach or texurizers. Give your hair a chance to grow and just focus on making sure it's healthy

- Don't forget to LOVE YOURSELF!!!!!
Everyone takes transitions differently and making a transitiion from relaxed to natural can be a very drastic change for some. Don't waste your time comparing your hair/texture to others, take your time and learn to love the hair you have. Buy yourself a few new accesories to jazz up your new look and learn to have fun with it!

Product Stash: Conditioners

Back with my conditioner stash!

Okay, so here we have Suave Naturals Tropical Coconut, a tiny bit of Kinky Curly Knot Today, Marcia Teixeira Brazilian Keratin Conditioner (normal hair), Renpure Organics My Hair is Parched, and Herbal Essence Hello Hydration.

The Suave conditioner I used over the summer a lot, and then I strictly started using it to rinse out henna and now whenever I do a Bentonite Clay treatment. I like having it around as a "rinsing" conditioner and it's cheap and can be found anywhere. That's really all I use it for. Knot Today I use as a leave in before I put anything else in my hair. It's great for detangling and to use under gels and other styling products in my experience. It hasn't failed me yet and I'm a little sad that I'm running low.

The Keratin conditioner from Marcia Teixiera was actually a sample I got when I ordered my Jessicurl Trial pack from Curlmart. It came with the shampoo too which I really liked (but gave away to one of my sisters) but the conditioner is nothing to rave about (in other words, I won't ever buy it). The Renpure Organics I've been using as a deep conditioner since I don't really have any more of the Jessicurl Weekly Deep conditioner. And I only buy the Renpure Organics when it's on sale for under 5 bucks. The Herbal Essence I had only bought for my mini-trip to Ohio but it's a good conditioner for me to have on hand so can't complain. I really would like a thick, emollient conditioner for deep treating, so I'll have to look into that. I want to re-order the Weekly Deep Conditioner and perhaps try the Sheamoisture mask that everyone has been raving about. Any other suggestions?

Product Stash: Cleansers

I was doing some serious cleaning today, when I got distracted and started accessing my hair product stash once again. I think this help me figure out exactly what I'm doing with my products and what I need or discard. So let's start with the cleansers, aka shampoo.

So here we have the Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat, Curlicious Curls Cleansing Cream, and Jessicurl Hair Cleansing Cream all shampoos I have reviewed. Now the Giovanni Tea Tree is the same bottle I have had since the beginning of summer 2010 and I bought it for about 7 bucks. It does wonders for my scalp and I enjoyed using it in the summer, but I will not be purchasing again. I need something more moisturizing and with some detangling power because of all my hair. I'm going to somehow finish up this bottle.

Now the Curlicious Curls and Jessicurl shampoos, I'm going to continue to alternate with them. I love both and haven't made up my mind as to which I like better. They are both pricy but totally worth it to me. They both will last me a while too, since every other week I plan on using the bentonite clay to clarify and strengthen my hair. I know that most naturals don't seem to shampoo quite as often as I do, but every 5-7 days is for me. Especially since I'm using very moisturizing shampoos I haven't noticed my hair being dryer or anything.

Stay tuned for my next post discussing my conditioner stash....

Natural Hair Philosophies

Hey everyone!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy new year. I spent it in the northwest with over a dozen cousins and flew back to NYC Monday morning. Hair wise, my trip was a success. When I left, I was approaching washday, so I packed my 3oz Jessicurl Cleansing Cream, some Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a little bottle, and a travel size Herbal Essence Hello Hydration (was trying to comply with airport regulations since I had a carry-on).  I didn't really do much to my hair, but I did try a really nice gel that my cousin had on hand that I cannot remember the name of. I just know she got it at a regular store and it cost about 3 bucks.

Speaking of hair and my cousins: I showed them this blog and some youtube videos featuring naturals styling their hair and they really liked it. They thought it was cool that SP and I (and other naturals) blog about hair. My cousins are all natural, but they put yarn in their hair (which apparently is popular now, but my family has been doing this since the 70s lol) and they flatiron. They don't really see their hair as manageable and consider my hair as "mixed people's hair" even though my cousins are mixed as well. I feel like they stop short of saying "good hair" and "bad hair" and my 8 year old cousin expressed to me that she just wants hair "out" that she can play in. I shared with my cousins that I had wanted to relax at some point because I felt my hair was un-manageable because I didn't know how to take care of it and it does appear that dealing with natural hair is harder because there is still not enough mainstream information about it. And when you're a mother of 5 (like my cousin) and a wife, who wants to hear about the expensive products you buy to keep your hair looking good or the amount of time  you spend washing your hair in the shower and doing treatments?

While I personally have found that high-quality shampoos are good for my hair, I use fairly inexpensive products. Even if they seem a little pricey, they are usually products I have more than one use for or last a while. It really depends on people's lifestyle, keeping it simple or high maintenance is a choice. I place myself in the medium category, because I like playing in my hair but I'm busy and can really only make time to pamper my tresses once a week, with simple daily maintenance.  Natural hair care isn't hard, and it's the blogs and youtube that have been showing me that. I hope that it can show them too.

Blowdrying my TWA

Happy New Year YAIS lovelies and Happy Hair Health and Wealth in 2011!

Just wanted to drop in and give you guys a quick little vid for the New Years so enjoy and have a great one!

Reader Comment

This comment came from an anonymous transitioner on an old post about products I used a few months ago. 


Thank you for sharing your product lineup. I have been transitioning for a year this month and I am planning to do the big chop before the new semester begins mid-January so I have been researching a lotttt of natural hair products. Aside from the Giovanni are there any other shampoos that you like or recommend? I have heard and read that the Oyin shampoo bar is really good and I noticed that you have a few Oyin products in your arsenal, any thoughts? Also, have you tried the Giovanni leave-in? I know some naturals use it in lieu of the KCKT. Any thoughts? Thanks. I really appreciate your opinion and Happy Holidays!


First off, congrats on making a decision to go natural! As far as shampoos, I have posted that my new favorites are Jessicurl Cleansing Cream and Curlicious Curls Cleansing Cream. SPStyles was just telling me yesterday about how she likes YES to Carrots Nourishing Shampoo (which she was kind enough to give me some of to try). It's considerably less expensive and more attainable to get--you can get it from Duane Reade so maybe you want to try that. I've also used Organix shampoos at one point which seemed fine--and again less than $10 and can get at a drugstore. I haven't tried Oyin shampoo bars, I'm not sure why really other than I haven't gotten around to it but I probably will one day. As far as Giovanni products, other than the Tea Tree Shampoo, I haven't had the chance. To be honest, their conditioners are not on my list of "must tries" for me. SP does use one of the conditioners...


Anyways Anonymous, hope this was helpful and feel free to let us know when you do your BC! You can email us at yais.nyc@gmail.com if you have any other questions/comments and that goes for all of our audience.


Happy New Years!

My Best Curlformer Set Thus Far

I just wanted to share the results to a recent curlformer set I did. This was right after I used the Bentonite Clay. I used my usual Kinky Curly Knot Today as a leave-in, and IC Fantasia gel. I let it air dry and then took them out a few hours later...

As I mentioned in my regimen post, I use curlformers to stretch my hair out. I may rock them for a day but then I either twist or bun. Not only did I like the way this looked, but I really liked how my hair felt. This set was so soft and moveable and felt like there was nothing in my hair and I really think that had something to do with the bentonite clay. I was tempted to really just separate the curls some more and leave my hair like this, but my biggest problem is that I don't know how to really make them last. I been trying different methods like a high pony tail, but the curls really just "droop" after that. And a bonnet just crushes them. Oh well, my hair is twisted up now anyway.