The Dingle Coils Video

I finally made a video on the Dingle Coiling Technique I showed off here.  Check out the video below and let me know what you think or if you have questions.  I still really, really need a better name for this technique though lol.

Never stop learning, wash&go coils

My last relaxer was in April of 2001. I've not had any relaxed hair on my head since August of 2001. You would think by now that even something so mundane as a wash and go would be second nature to me.  HOWEVER.... no. lol

Over the years, so many new products have come out, and so many other women have stopped relaxing their hair and trying all these products that the interwebs are now FULL of inspiration and new info.

On my own, I was able to discover a few dozen techniques, processes, tools and products that work on my hair.  Yet using the internet, and inspiration from others I've and perfected or discarded hundreds (yes hundreds) of tips and tricks for kinky/curly/coily hair. But even still, with the assistance of the internet, I sometimes think there is nothing new under the sun, and that everything that can be tried has been tried.

Here was my happy mistake...

I was rushing one morning and gotten sucked into the shower time warp before work, co-washing my hair.  By the time I got out and realized I'd sunk the extra 20 minutes I needed to get dressed, I had a head of soaking wet, product free and rapidly fizzing hair.  I slathered in a generous amount of gel and castor oil but had no time to rake it through! Or even make a sopping wet, dripping bun.  I grabbed the worst offending frizzys and hand coiled them, with one hand, while getting dressed. I left the house with about 7 dingle-coils hanging from the back of my head, that to me, looked decidedly better than the alternative half-fro.  I have no picts to prove my hypothosis lol.

A few hours later I pulled the dingle-coils apart and was pleasantly surprised. They were dry on the ends and damp in the middle, but the frizz was greatly reduced and it looked fine. 

I thought to myself, "self, what if you did shingle or rake through AND dingle-coil (I REALLY need a better name!! lol) I could banish frizz for good!!

So I tried it...

Wet hair:

 Dry:

 Separated:

Stretched:

 3days later!

 

7 days later!!

 

So you see what happened right?  The ends STAYED coiled, even when the insides/roots frizzed, making it wearable for many days.  It also seemed to stay moisturied waaaaay longer than normal without the ends being frizzed out. 

I just did this again today and will post the video I made about it next week! It was only 5 extra minutes of time but I got a huge bang for my effort.

Braces Update and coils picts after trim

I swear my visits to the orthodontist sometimes feel like a test of my pain threshold. You know that moment when you know someone is going to do something to hurt you, and there is nothing you can do about it- so you brace yourself?  Then you can stand practically anything for like 10 seconds. A shot, blood drawing, splinter or ingrown hair... whatever.  You can handle it.

SO at the ortho- they go to take the bands off, which always hurts. My bottom teeth are still super sensitive though, as they have been moving all month. (see exibits A and B below.) So I brace myself... ok taking bands off. It extra hurts but it has to be done. cool. cool.  I only flinch a little.

She says I'll get the same wire. Cool.  Then she takes the wire out after looking around a bit... hu?  Then she comes back with a file looking skinny thing, and tells me its like a nail file and tells me I'll feel pressure between my bottom teeth.  My super crowded, can hardly get floss in, sensitive bottom teeth...

I have but a split second to brace myself, and then it feels like the most cruel sandpaper being forced between my aching teeth. I flinched hard and she asked if I was OK- to which I quickly responded YES (part of the bracing of self hardcoreness I was attempting).

So she moves on to the other side of the tooth and, NO I'm not OK, and I am about to stop her and she's like "awww I know these teeth are sensitive, I'm almost done..."  so I refrain.  BUT DAMN. She attempts to go between one more, which I know I won't be able to tolerate, but this time she can't even get the "saw" in between the teeth. She says "wow, some very tight contacts here, this tooth has nowhere to go" and gives up.  Pheeewwwww!! After re banding them- which was a breeze in comparison, she sends me off saying lets watch my bottom teeth continue to "unravel."

Now my whole bottom jaw is aching. Great.

But look how much they moved over the past month. (yep switched to silver on bottom after debating purple for a sec lol.)
May 21st > June 25th


As for my hair...
I had been severely neglecting it over the past few weeks as I dealt with some ailments and tragedies in my family and around home. I had been starting off with a wash and go and then not moisturizing, not protecting it at night as I slept in various places (such as hospital suites, my childhood bed, a chair... standing up lol).  I hardly had time to wash and de-tangle once in those few weeks, not at home, no deep conditioning, no time to protective style. So last week when I returned to work, while drifting off  at my desk I was partaking in a nice hand in hair session when I noticed an abundance of single strand knots and hair that was simply coming off the end of my hair in my hand. Perturbed, I actually took my work scissors and cut away some of the worst offenders right then and there, rather than have them get lost in my hair again and begin to work in more innocent bystanders.

After another day of making the same discoveries knew I had to cut some hair off my ends all over and be done with it. :-(
I cut my hair wet with conditioner, with my professional sheers, practically curl by curl.  I ended up taking off 1-1.5" all over.  Hardly noticable while shrunken, but if I press again I've set myself back a few months.

Now imagine- some naturals never protect their hair at night, and don't know how to properly moisturize or seal their ends.  3 weeks and I effectively knotted up the ends of my hair. There really is something to taking those few extra steps to preserve length!!  At home I have silk pillow cases, and I use castor oil to seal, steam in the shower, a few different leave ins... It doesn't take much, but it takes something. 

My ends look great now! I took a few flicks of a chunk I pulled down yesterday.  I have in it Paul Mitchel's The Conditioner, Eco styler gel and had refreshed with steam and Nubian Heritage (read this! the same thing happened to me in CVS when I picked this up) Heat Protect Leave-In Conditioning Cream Honey & Black Seed. It has a VERY strong scent and I'm not yet sure if I can deal, but I will keep you posted when I am able to try it alone.

Shampoo, yes?

I mostly stray from the tenants proposed by the curly girl method but it makes sense, just soooo much sense, not to use harsh shampoos on our delicate coils.  I heard this waaaay back in 2003 and tried it then but instantly noticed that my curls were more prone to frizz without the shampoo.  I went back to shampoo.  Then newfangled "shampoos" came out, with better ingredients, less sudsy.  I went for those wholeheartedly and stuck to co-washing as much as possible.  Except for the rare occurrence, such as a 3 week long protective style or a particularly horrible product experience that warranted shampoo, I've been mostly off it for the past 3 years.

I always keep on hand a bottle of Trader Joes Tea tree tingle, or Giovanni's %50/50 balancing shampoo (or similar) for the aforementioned reasons. Most recently I shampooed my hair after wearing it pressed for a little over a week, and contrary to what would be expected after a press, my curls returned yet TIGHTER than they had been.  I thought it may have been the shampoo, but shrugged it off.

So like last week, I again shampooed my hair because I had mixed my flaxseed gel with some horrible product and got a head FULL of flakes.  This time my hair was light and fluffy and blowing in the wind when it dried. I felt it had been similarly light before that, but I blamed the products.  It was curly but light, floofy.

So then yesterday, lol, I decided to shampoo again, because I had not wet my hair in more days than I care to mention, and I was not feeling put off by the shampoo bottle (now sitting comfy IN the shower). Afterward it felt really nice! I diffused, pineappled and went to bed. The product I used will be another post- light hold- I like it and it's not my flaxseed gel- I forgot to refrigerate the rest of the last batch :-(
This morning, my hair is again super tightly coiled, even in the front. It's light and blows in the wind and shiny.

Humph.... Now I feel again like I did way back in 2003! WHY do I keep getting lured back into the co-wash low-poo/no-poo movement when my hair so clearly tells me it's FINE with regular shampooing?!  Mind you it's a milder shampoo than your traditional off the shelf types. But its real shampoo. Not a cream, not a low sudsing stuff. 

Bentonite clay would probably yield a very similar result and adhere to the curly girl way of life, but sometimes.... SOME times you just want to get in the shower and grab something off the shelf.  Shampoo is cheap.  and just there. and non-messy.

I do admit, my hair is squarely on the fine side of the spectrum so the coating/residue I experience may manifest quite differently on courser hair. So NO, I don't condone shampooing as a general rule lol.  BUT my hair is telling me something, and I am going to try harder to listen. And remember.

Shine!

 My bang/front hair, which is normally MUCH looser than the rest. 

Slightly looser, but resolutely coiled today.