Nubian Heritage and Shea Moisture, winning in the game?

So Shea Moisture and Nubian Heritage is winning in the game. They just released a hair color product to rave reviews, including the art on the packaging.

I feel like this and also the rave reviews and success of Curly Nikki's book Better than Good Hair are indicative of a shift in power as of late. WE can be successfully marketed to AS WE ARE, and not in a way that sells us a version of ourselves we can only "aspire to." It brings me joy, makes me smile, makes me believe we are getting a step closer to my whole "it's just hair" mantra. I love the energy.

I found this interview part 1 and part 2 and I can really respect the whole business model, and the fact these products are available on the ground, at Target and Walgreens for me, and AFFORDABLE.  Walgreens stays having a BOGO on these products :-)

I've posted about their products quite a a few times on this blog and I will some more :-)

Particular favorites of mine are the smoothie, the heat protect leave in (I now LOVE the strong smell, and even bought the lotion) and the wrap mousse gave me the best press yet after a roller set. I'm trying to figure out the gel and souffle and the milk was a little too light for me.  I am also still avoiding products that are primarily coconut oil based.  My skin is not giving me any wiggle room on that :-/

So is anyone going to try the hair color? What are your favorite Shea Moisture/ Nubian Heritage products?

They also make lotions and soaps. How do you like those?

A few of my favorite things

Aside from my KMF gel, Castor oil and plastic ponytail holders, there are a few other items that are always at short reach lately.

Hair! 

"Honey I'm Strong" conditioner by HE.
This conditioner has even more slip than the other Herbal Essence conditioners I've liked in the past. I've tried not to make HE my go-to however, because of the ingredients and strong smells.  Yet this one has a much lighter smell and the slip is unmatched.  It also seems to coat my hair, or have an actual protein/enriching effect within a few minutes.  It has the coating effect that KMF mistreated has, but with the slip I so desperately need.  Winning formula for me, and the cost and on-the-ground availability puts it close at hand.

Nubian Heritage Honey Black Seed Heat Protect leave-in cream
Though I don't press my hair or use direct heat that often, I picked this up a few months ago and was perturbed by the STRONG fragrance.  However it works wonderfully as a regular leave in and the smell quickly grew on me.  So much so that I also use the Honey and Blackseed lotion all over!  I now use this leave in instead of the Shea Moisture smoothie.  It costs about the same and a little goes a long way.  It provides great slip and long lasting moisture.  And now, for me, a smell that I love.

Nubian Heritage heat protect Keritan wrap mousse
I used this for my last two roller sets before pressing my hair.  It works so much better than Gel!  it's much lighter so my hair dries faster and it helps me layer in heat protectant before the flat iron hits my hair.  I get no flakes, just shiny light hair when I take the rollers out. Granted, I don't quite have the kind of hair that roller sets straight, so I still have some frizz and bumpy/loopy parts (can't wrap it) BUT it gets it close enough that one pass with the flat iron as I take each curler out is enough to smooth it out, but not loose the entire curl set by the rollers. It smells like nothing, and comes out as an easy to control and apply foam. I'm smitten.

Makeup!

Revlon Just bitten in Charm

I am a huge fan of stains because of my braces.  Lipstick can transfer onto my brackets at any time and is hard to remove without a trip to the bathroom. So I prefer stains. Over the past year I've tried them all and I have a few favorites, but most of them don't fare well in my purse and can't be applied without a mirror and precision.  These, on the other-hand, are a huge crayon lol.  Pretty foolproof.
Yet I still am not confident applying the darker colors without a mirror to make sure it's even.  This color, "Charm", is super light - lighter than my natural lip color.  BUT it actually stays put for hours, unlike the other stains which often don't come in light colors - and when they do they wear off quickly. I also wear "Precious" often, which is a little cooler. I can put these on like a lip balm and I can't go wrong with it.

Mode Nail colors and polishes
The difference is night and day when I use a Mode basecoat or topcoat vs any other, even with any other polish.  Mode polish does not stink and it does not chip.  It wears off, like it rubs off, but it doesn't chip and peel like most other polish.  Its cheap at $4 a pop and they have lots of colors. I keep seeing beautiful colors at the drug store and inevitably pick one up but unless I'm using a mode base and top coat I never get my money out of it.  Which makes me wonder if I should just stick to mode colors, period.  I have a mode (winter-not-doing-my-feet) nude on my toes and its growing out! Not chipping or peeling off.

Mode Mineral powder foundation and Kabuki brush

They have my color! I'm a yellow gal and they have a yellow powder! I've actually been using this powder for over a year and JUST ran out.  I ordered more and got the recommended Kabuki brush.  OMG.  I love it. love. it.  I previously used a MAC brush that I paid waaay too much for, as I am not really into makeup and brushes and such to begin with. I don't have any idea which it is- the salesgirl "sold" it to me.  It's cool.  But it is not this big soft, fluffy beautiful brush.

I'll stop there for today but I may keep doing these posts periodically. I have more makeup and even some bath products and home products that I can share if you all are interested!

Blow out!!

I blew it out!

I've been feeling like my hair has been loosing its density as I age, but when I see these pictures it looks very much the same as it did when I was younger.  I need to stop worrying so much!

I am now entering a phase where I want it all dark again though :-/

I may waylay my plans for length for a little bit while I trim the rest of the color out over the summer.  I thought about putting a rinse over it, but I finally have the majority of my natural color now, so I don't want to mask it with anything.

The process to blow dry it was simple:

• I split my wet hair into 6 twisted sections then put a turbie towel on for about 20 minutes to absorb access water. 
• I then applied the Nubian Heritage Honey Black seed heat protectant leave in and then foam with avocado oil on top for shine. 
• I used the tension method to mostly dry my detangled hair on medium heat while held taught.
• Then used higher heat and the comb attachment to smooth it out a bit more.  It probably took about 5-8 min per section. 

I twisted it up after the blow out and then wore the twists for most of last week in various up-dos.
Over the weekend I finger combed it and put it in much larger twists with curlers and the last pic is the result of that.

 

 

Pressed hair for my birthday

I just washed my hair yesterday after wearing it pressed for 10 days.  All my curls are back, but I must say, it was a good looking and long wearing style.  I was, for the first time, a little sad to see it go.  I know- odd. But it was hanging in there really well, low maintenance (except for the the whole all forms of WATER is the devil thing).  I roller set and pressed it like last time and used the same beeswax pomade I made last time. I had reservations at first about pressing it again after just having done so in December, but with the heat set to 330 and the roller set preceding it I have a pretty safe, quick and easy system to get it right. And I was bored lol.

With the roller set I really don't even have to curl it again.  There was one day I sat around the house for like 6 hrs with curlers in, and another time for maybe 2 hours.  That was mostly for the longest part of my hair as I wanted it to corkscrew instead of bend.  I wrapped it every single night, reversing directions a few times.

But here are the pictures as the days passed by.  It's certainly growing! I only trimmed off about 1/4 inch in places. 

And I'm back!  I let it sit baggied overnight slathered in coconut oil and then conditioned, rinsed, shampooed and conditioned again. In it is KMF gel, castor oil, and Nubian Heritage heat protect leave in.

Birthday hair! I went with a press with new products.

I decided to press my hair for a change of pace.  I wasn't sure about it since I just pressed it in November, blew it out in January and I wasn't liking the health of the lightened ends.  I cut about an inch off while I had it blown out, So I haven't gained any real length since November.   But it does look a lot better as the bulk of it grows back into my dark color.

I made a new batch of my beeswax pomade, using avocado oil instead of castor oil, and I used a different batch of winning products for the roller set.

For my leave in I used Camille Rose Naturals Curl Love Moisture Milk. I'd heard great things about the line, and when I saw it at my local target I read all the ingredients.  I avoid coconut oil at all times, and I needed to avoid glycerine for the press.  Bingo. I out my hair in 8 big twists and let it dry about 80%. It seems like a very moisturizing leave in.

The next step was to roller set it.  I skipped the oil/beeswax this time and instead used my regular Nubian Heritage Heat Protect Keratin Wrap mouse (a foam). AND I used Neutrogena's Triple Repair Fortifying Leave in on the ends.  I love, love love this stuff.  It is a very thick cream. It protects hair up to temps of 400 degrees.  I set it on the Orange hard plastic rollers and it dried in an hour.

Here were the results!

 

I was actually able to wrap it without pressing it further! I wore the roller set hair to work the next day, but since I'd brushed it all out I realized I would not get the longevity to make it to birthday weekend, so I decided to continue on with the press that evening.

 Here is the pressed result.  I used a dab more of the Neutrogena leave in for each section, and when I was done I applied the beeswax pomade all over:

As you can see, most of the lighter ends from a year ago are gone now. It def grew a lot, though it's about the same length now as it was late last year.

So here was my birthday look:

My guy took me to dinner and then, somehow he'd retained the fact that Amel Larrieux is my favorite artist and surprised me with the late show. A great v-day/b-day :D

Stretching a Wash & Go with a flat iron

Here is a quick iPhone vid on how I have been stretching my hair with a flat iron instead of a blow dryer.I've been doing this for a month, using the wetline gel to set my wash & go, and have noticed no damage. I keep the iron on a low 300 (lowest mine goes) and I use Nubian Heritage honey & blackseed leave in is my heat protectant. I get a week out of this!!

Buff with a twist, possible protective style

I have been a wash and going fiend, even throughout the winter.  My dingle coil method works so well I just can't stop!

The trade off is that I may need to trim a bit more than is optimal for growing my hair out.  I am on the fence whether I really want to let it grow crazy, or keep it at a controllable bra-strap length.  I don't even really know that the fairy knots won't win out, as my hair is very fine and splitty and knotty as it gets older.

But meanwhile, I know the wash and goes need to be bunned or twisted as they get a few days old.  I have been defaulting to a half back look or something like in the picts below. The good old BUFF, with a twist or two in front.  The twist is necessitated by the fact I was even letting my bang grow out (alas, I trimmed it this past weekend in a fit of blindness).

It's a quick style I can leave in for a few days, getting me 7-8 days between washes.

Its just a big flat twist on both sides.  By placing the twist a little further back, the sections that create it are visible and create extra detail as you see below. 

So onto product real quick.  I decided to try out the Nubian Heritage Repair and extend Shine Gel.  You may notice that bit of extra shine in the pictures.  That stuff is shiny indeed.  But its very much like the Shea Moisture Souffle.  It's Sugar based, sticky and greasy and I feel like although there is potential, I can't quite figure out how to use it. The shine is excellent, the hold is medium, but it is moisturizing. Has anyone had any use mixing or using one of these products?  Let me know. I will continue to try things until I run out. I'll post shortly the experience I had mixing it with KMF gel.

Fluffy Wash&Go! Product combo I Like

It's been a rough week for me over here. One of those weeks where you spend a lot of time thinking and ruminating while physically balancing work, home life and social life yet there is nothing really even happening, but nothing... lol.

And there lies the rub. And the energy you thought you had all just goes in that hole with the nothing.
But everything still got done! And it many ways it was a great week, indicative of the changing season.

I have yet to set my hair for a roller set of any sort to kick start the fall.  But I have been doing more Bang and Buffs, and I found a conditioner I love.  Suave Professionals Black Raspberry and White Tea Color care conditioner.  It smells DIVINE, it has a ton of yummy ingredients BEFORE the fragrance and I could really feel a thickening and coating effect.  yum yum yum.

I love the smell of the V05 Blackberry and sage $1 conditioner, and this has that type of scent but the added hair yum effect for $2.50.

I did a co-wash with that and applied some Nubian Heritage Heat Protect Leave-In Conditioning Cream Honey & Black Seed. Now this stuff has a STRONG smell.  STRONG!!  Off putting at first because it's so STRONG! lol.

STRONG.

But it smells like a chocolaty hazel-nutty vanilla sandlewood sweet earthyness..... Not bad by any means... I was out once recently and a random girl was like wow you smell like cocoa butter, and the guy next to her was like... yeahhhhhhh... lol

But the smell has grown on me and a little goes a long way.  It's like the Shea moisture smoothie but is isn't as sticky and yet it goes a little further. It is also absent any coconut oil that I can decipher.  (oh I must tell you how definitively incompatible Coconut is to my skin!) So I used that and some castor oil and then a scant amount of my KMF gel because I wanted my hair to be big.  These picts are of day 2 hair, the morning after pinappling my big fluffy do from the night before.  (the first two picts I shot on a whim, before I put any makeup on, orrrrr took my eye makeup off from the night before lol. Excuse the morning face lol)

I really liked the way this combo of products played out!  It was soft and defined and the pinappling really stretched it out.  I'm back at APL so I get a little hang time.  PLUS, even without heavy gel, I got an additional day of "out hair" and today I have a high buff.

And if you are still with me- I promised a picture of my fancy painting job in my dining room.  I cleaned up in there and did a little decorating. voilà, magic. Or errrr, periwinkle....