Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Random Flax seed gel success

Nuri and I were talking yesterday about types of products and making our own stuff.  I got a little energized so when I got home, while making my dinner, I randomly threw on a pot of Marshmallow roots and golden flax seed. I had never mixed the seeds and marshmallow together on the heat like that.  I also added a teaspoon of raw honey at the end and whisked it all together.  I was like humph- looks nice. Let me test it.  I started with a little piece of hair and was shocked by the slip and hold, so the section got bigger and bigger.  Then I freaked a little and made this video.  I def have to follow up with whole head results and a better description of what I did.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Final Wrap up- Press is over

I have my kinks and coils back! :-)

I got an astounding 11 days out of the press this time around.  And for ME, beeswax (not pure but rater mixed with petroleum- as in Dax) is the key!  I even added it to the little Amazon store on the sidebar. As soon as my hair gets fluffy and starts to revert I would smear the thick stuff over the ends in particular and viola!!  It is saved.  And resistant to humidity!

To wash it out what I do is soak it in a slurry of half conditioner and half oil for about 4 hours.  I put that directly on the dry straight hair - and experience a moment of panic as the hair does not immediately curl up o_o
Last time I used vatika oil, this time olive oil.  I read somewhere that oil helps dissolve the wax, lessening the need for harsh shampoos.  I only needed one sudsing with Giovanni's 50/50 balancing shampoo and my hair felt super naked.  I followed that with Joico k-Pac reconstructing conditioner for 15 min and then yes to Tomatoes (just happened to be what I had) for one final smoothing and clumping session.  I noticed absolutely NO heat damage, and actually my hair seemed coilyer than it has in months.  This is probably because of the rare shampooing and deep conditioning.  Maybe the trim too.

But all in all, I think I have this thing down.  Yey for home hair care!!

Here is how the press played out over the days, chronologically.

Day One reminder:
Day 2:
Was wearing it wrapped under a hat when commuting to work.
Curls fell over the weekend and I didn't feel like re-curling 
by sleeping in flexi rods until Sunday night.
New work week!
Thursday- 1 full week:
 
Indoor light:
 Friday bun at- 8-9 days. I wore it out one more day after that. 
Then another bun and finally a wash later that day.
By the way- I have a really cool feature post with a HUGE (! H U G E !) update from one of the Yougocurl girls in the side bar. :-D  Stay tuned.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Newly Pressed Picts and Wrapping Tutorial vid

I pressed my hair again! on a whim the day after my birthday.  It turned out well last time with no damage and I was bored and needed to wash out the failed birthday hair anyway.

I spoke too soon in this video when I said I had not noticed any single strand knots, because as of a few weeks ago, they cropped up again.  And I was due for a trim as the last one, prior to almost constantly wearing my hair out, was over 9 weeks ago.  So I pressed my hair the same way as before, using a dab of Dax Beeswax as I went. Here it was before trimming:
I cut this much off, not too much... I followed the shape of the existing curl ideal layers, and cut a little extra from the very front bang area, as they had gotten a bit too long.
And it looked like this after trimming and before curling:
And here it is the next day after sleeping in the purple flexi curlers.
That was last week and today is day 5.  It still looks good, but the curl is practically gone, yet I have not wanted to sleep in the curlers.  My hairline is a little sore, which I find happens when I wear my hair straight.  My scalp is soooo not used to being accessed every day. I have been alternating the directions of my wraps, so that has provided some relief.

SOoooo here is a tutorial on how I wrap my hair.  I know everyone has their way of doing it, so here is mine :-)
Note my minor (and sucky) video editing lol.  I was rambling like hell so I had to trim some foolishness out!


Thursday, February 16, 2012

Birthday Weekend and Valentine's Day

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!
As some of you may know, it was also my birthday on the 14th.  I have a definite hate/tolerate relationship with my birthday and all my closest friends not only know this but have seen my best laid plans unravel due to the holiday or snow.

Soooo they decided to jump the gun early and throw me a surprise dinner! And they got me good :-o
I thought I was meeting 2 girls for "decompression drinks" and when we "randomly" picked a place, ta-da! ALL my closest friends! It was awesome.
So then one of my girls hosted a game night and we played wii and Taboo, with shots. Good times lol.  Perhaps you can see that us ladies on the right were not doing so well with the MJ dance game lol. I will spare you the rest of the details, like how the women lost to the men in Taboo, furthering our 0-74 record...

Anyway, so the day of my birthday I took the day off work, went shopping and did an experiment with my hair.  I tried adding some "glue" by Garnier to the leftover goddess curls gel. (I'm soooo serious about using up these dud products someway-somehow!) I stretched it out with my blow-dryer once it dried.  And it was ok for like 5 hrs then started to flake :-( But here are a few picts.
 
 Yep those are flakes :-(
I did have a casual (and very nice and handsome!) valentine date that evening and I wore all the above (you have seen that outfit before lol). But I also must mention my fancy nail polish.

I don't usually paint my nails noticeable colors, but this one caught my eye in the store for it's suggestive grey/blue color.  It's called "Greycian Goddess" by Loreal.  It seems to change color depending on what light you are in, having a neutral grey or a blue tint.  I was loving it UNTIL I tore my thumbnail darn near in half early the morning of the 14th O_o

Almost ruined my day, as I was in the middle of doing my hair and was struggling to get the lid of a bottle when it happened.  But I threw a bandaid on it till I could get some nail glue later, and I kept it moving! I took picts of the other hand lol.

Hope you all had a lovely Valentines day!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Whitney Houston

She was certainly HERE.

And now she's gone.
Having known and loved people struggling with substance abuse, and various demons, I was kind of numb to the public spectical that became Bobby and Whitney and a million soundbites.  Soundbites that are fun to repeat, but were fragments of her life being scattered about like glitter. I never watched their reality show- it was painful for me to see her like that, and have some knowledge of what it might be like for her baby girl and the rest of her family. In that light, her death does not shock me as much as sadden me and stoke my pessimism.  We can certainly use ourselves up, only to find ourselves finished at the most perplexing times.

But her artistry, talent and legacy are part of American history and culture. Forever. Like I've stated before- we are sharing this time with each other.  I am happy to have lived part of my time here, during her time here.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

So Funkdafied


Nia and I were chatting the other day and I mentioned that I’ve been getting 7-day hair [insert various expressions of shock and awe here]. My explanation for how I’ve been doing this will come in the form of another blog post, although it’s really pretty simple. Basically, I’ve been leaving my hair alone. However, there are a few things that have provided background support in helping my hair doowhatitlikes. One of these items is TRESemmé’s Fresh Start Moisturizing Waterless Foam Shampoo. It’s basically a dry shampoo for dry/curly hair.

As per usual, I gave this product a hard side-eye when walking past it on many a drugstore/Tar-jay trip. Then one day I caught a whiff of what Nia calls “scalp air” and what I like to call “head funk” emanating from my own dome. Not cute. I had recently washed my hair, but frequent workouts and wearing a lot of hats in the cold weather caused my scalp to get a little funkdafied even though my hair and scalp were, for the most part, clean and healthy. In the past, I have remedied such a situation with some swipes of witch hazel on my scalp, and/or with the use of essential oils, but in a sudden Aha moment, I realized that this is the exact purpose for which dry shampoo was created. I snatched up some of the TRESemmé foam (it costs about $3-5) and tried it the moment I got home (following the instructions on the package). I expected it to immediately suck the life out of my hair, rendering it the texture of straw on a hot summer day. I was wrong. My curls perked back up, product buildup was removed and most importantly, I was funk free. I’ve been using it for a couple of months now and I still love it. The scent isn’t my favorite, but it smells fresh and clean, and let’s face it, that’s the exact point of the product. Although it’s not something I have to use frequently, it’s great to have in the arsenal for when the need arises.

While I’m talking about products I’ve been trying out, let me mention Physicians Formula Organic Wear 100% Natural Origin Jumbo Lash Mascara. Eyelashes are hair too, so I can talk about this here, right? ;) When it comes to cosmetics, I’ve found it difficult to obtain products that don’t contain scary ingredients. With something that regularly goes directly on the skin, or really close to the eyes as in the case of mascara, I think it’s important to keep things non-toxic whenever possible. So, I’ve been playing around with mascara options. The least expensive choice I’ve found is drugstore brand, Physicians Formula. 

This mascara does a great job lengthening, separating and thickening lashes, but needs improvement in its staying power. Encounter a little humidity and the result is raccoon eyes. Not a good look. But, for a normal day at the office, or running errands when there’s no precipitation and/or low humidity, it’s an excellent option. Somebody holla at me when they come out with a waterproof version though.


Sunday, February 5, 2012

Friday, February 3, 2012

There will be no twist out!!

LOL

Twist out uber fail! wth! week old twists wilden out thus loosened!

 
Pulling them apart was like opening thread or yarn fibers!!!
Washed and conditioned. Wash and go today lol.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Styled twists with a pinwheel bang.

hey ya'll.  I twisted my hair up this past Friday evening.  I twisted it dry but used KMF gel as I went, which resulted in some very thin and smooth twists- which I don't like.  What do you know.  They were super elongated and stringy so I put them on flexi rods for the night, but the next day I still wasn't feeling it.  So I came up with this for Sat and have been wearing variations ever since.

They are all just pinned to one side and left to fall as they may.  The front I pinned and tucked into a pinwheel shape.
 Then this week at work it turned into this as more of the twists got uber straight and wanted to unravel.  The curls also fell the rest of the way out of most of them.  That KMF gel is very wierd.  it really changes my hair to a different texture.  bueno for loose hair, not so good for twists.  Here is a twist taken loose- it looks like I did it on pressed hair or something.

So I have been wearing it like this, which I have rather enjoyed!! Its in a "selective ponytail" to one side.  a few twists have been freed to hang longer that the rest.





 I was feeling my outfit too so here it is! lol.  Nine West boots, Forever 21 jeans, OldNavy blouse and sweater. AND 65 degrees outside yesterday and today in DC!

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