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

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.

Last year VS This year

I just realized that last year at exactly this time I pressed my hair so I have comparison picts!

On the left is 2012 and the right is 2013.

It's MY birthday!! but Happy Valentines day too :-)

I don't know yet what I'll do or if I'll be officially celebrating (given this holiday curse/blessing), but I'll let you all know what I did with myself and my weekend.  And in the meantime here are some things I've pondered as a single birthday gal on this fine day.

• You only get one time here.  Celebrate all the holidays, anyways and despite! Despite being single, being broke, not being where u want to be, or despite getting some things wrong.  You are still only here once and you have to mix some good into the so-so. If not, it's all going to pass and be gone anyway. 
• Read this article from Happy Black Woman and soak it in.
• Be your own valentine.  Do your hair or get it done. Do Your nails or have them done.  Wear your favorite dress or outfit or lingerie, or that expensive Mac face situation, or your false lashes. Wear heals, drive to work and park like a boss.  Heck, don't go to work. lol
• Take pictures of yourself (your SELF as in FACE and Hair please, not just your BBB - big booty & boobs!).  Perfect the selfie pic and post it, on FB, on Instagram, on Twitter. Hashtag it #naturalhair, submit it to a blog or to #mycurlsbad on instagram.  Soak in the feedback from other women.  Look at them in a month or two. Send them to your mom.
• Experiment with a change.  Rock a faux bang or bob using a roll and tuck. Add some temporary highlights to your hair. Go have a makeup counter give you a different color palate than you usually use- have them play up your best feature. Have a friend or even your mom or aunt pick you out an outfit to try on next time you go shopping, and try it on no matter what it is lol.
• Buy a new shower curtain or sheet set and hang it or wash & use it Today! 
• Learn how to make your favorite restaurant dish.  The Google is your friend. Now you can have it whenever you want for much less. Work at it and get it right! 

You get my point.  Don't save these things for later. Now is the later from yesterday.

 

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!