Braces update with... NEW webcam :-)

Vacation Hair, Grand Bahama

After washing out that press, I faced another challenge. I was going on vacation in less than a week and needed to do something to my hair!!  I was going to Grand Bahama for a quick 3 day vacation with pools, beaches, and humidity.  I told myself I was going to twist it up into medium sized twists....

and then I didn't.  I ended up totally running out of time, and I re-cowashed my hair the very morning of the trip and decided to just shingle it pretty solidly and hope for the best.  I used the Argen oil Eco styler, with some Shea Moisture souffle, some hairsickle cream and some Hairveda almond glaze.  It was still damp as I was boarding the plane...  smh.

BUT it held up for the whole trip, and it was mostly too cold to go for full fledged swimming anyway.  I wrapped it up one day at the beach, because of the wind and sand and I did go in the ocean up to my face.

*side note* I was told salt water is really good for your skin and my acne would clear up in the sun and ocean water....  NOT.  OMG  it got soooo much worse.  Maybe there was too much fish pee in the water?  or my sunscreen was the devil.  I dunno... I came back with weeping blemishes all over my chin.  :-(  Clean and Clear Advantage acne spot treatment has cleared it up though, and I now love burts bees face clensing wipes.  My skin looks good now.

So anyway- here are a bunch of picts from the trip :-) I long to be back on that beach with the tide out.  They filmed parts of the Pirates of the Carribean there!

Resting in a field of Flowers...I love this stuff on my head.

Blog post interlude...

I washed my hair without shingling it the other day.  While still in the shower and soaking wet I liberally applied Shea moisture milk, then some Hairsickle by Safi Hair, and then my KMF gel.  I never raked it through- I just kinda smooshed it all in.  I wrapped it in a turbie towel for 15 min and I shook it down then left the house.  Later that night when it was all dry I put a layer of castor oil over it.  Today, two days later, I used the Hairveda almond glaze to re-moisturize.  I have been sleeping with it in a high ponytail.

Treating it this way has allowed the curls, and whatever the heck these shapes are, to clump and form on their own as big or as small as they desire. 

Just now I was in a meeting (a standing room only meeting where I was crammed against the back wall) and I leaned back into my hair.  It was like a pillow.  I felt like blissfully twisting my head back and forth like I was in a field of daises lol.  The sounds in the room got muffled and I was in my own little world for a few seconds.

Doesn't hurt that the almond glaze smells divine either. 

I love this stuff on my head!! 

Texture shots:

And, btw, this is just two weeks after successfully pressing my hair!!  Who gon hair type me??

Press final results and tips for fine hair

My press lasted a remarkable 8 days!! It was crazy dirty by then so I had to wash it, but it still looked great.

I am tempted to write "this never happens" or "this is a first for me" but I know my memory is just clouded by the many times it has NOT lasted. I have gotten such wear out of professionally done presses before. I think there are two variables that make a press last vrs languish.

One is care and maintenance. If I spend $60-80 to have my hair pressed (yes... ridiculous and unfair) I am NOT going to let it revert on my watch. I will bird bath, high-ponytail and wrap my hair till I become a very different person entirely.

So the second factor is going back to old tried and true "relaxed hair" products. Cones, and waxes and petroleum... (the devil is a liar!) I have to put away the shea butter, and natural oils and do everything I can to keep moisture OUT.

So this time around what did I do? I used Murrays Beeswax. I did. And it worked miracles on fuzzing hair on the next day wrap release. MIRACLES! If ever I press my hair again, I am going to use murrays wax again. I will sing its praises. I will. I have fine hair, which usually does not like heavy product, but I needed it to control the wispyness I had going on.  I have plenty of body, but blowing in the humid wind = no es bueno.

And the second thing I did was that I wrapped it while at home. I highponytailed it in lukewarm showers. I used flexi rods on the ends and wrapped it again every few days. I even bantu knotted it one night. I spent WAYYY more time caring for my hair than I ever do when it is coiled up. I hate that I had to do that, but I got 8 days. 8 days! so I acted as if I paid for the press and I got professional wear out of it.

Yeah ok I admit - it looks a lil waxy...  lol but It was sooo shiny and behaving. 

 

Below is a similar shot to the one above but a few days BEFORE I added the wax before wrapping my hair.  See the difference?  This press got better and better.

This below was the first day of wearing my pressed hair and it happened to coincide with getting my braces tightened :-(
I wore it in a ponytail to my appt because I didn't want anything to get in my hair, or in their way.

I got grey bands this time, even though I have ceramic brackets, because I wanted to be able to eat curry, and cranberry, and coffee etc for the holidays and on a vacation I took to the Bahamas (next post!!)

 This pic is also before the beeswax and petroleum pomade.  My hair was light and fluffy and just waiting to revert.  My hair is very fine, I think it's getting finer than I remember it being actually.  So it really, really, wants to coil back up.

 

But then. Murrays.  You saved me.

 

I went to an event a week after I'd pressed my hair and I was working the door.  I knew I'd see everyone I ever knew lol, and I was kinda repping for an old school soulfull vibe, tribal paint and west indian food included...  So I was like I can NOT wear my hair pressed.  I even debated washing it early. What will I say to all the people who have not seen me in months? "It's just a press... really!"  lol.  Nah- I wrapped that bad-boy up. lol I felt ashamed.

And the Reversion.  Got every single curl back.  I slathered my hair with Vatika oil an hour before washing and put it in a bun.  Then I used Giovannis 50/50 Shampoo with two lathers and then Herbal Essence Hello Hydration.  My hair felt good!

 

P.S.

I am working on a post about wax.  I have been "studying" its effects on my hair for 6 months now and I must say it's a winner for me.  The things people demonize it for seem not to apply to my fine hair. I have a list of products that I use that contain it, and I was actually put on this path by discovering the waxy commonality of a few products I already had and loved.