Flakes, Flakes, Flakes! Yeah u know I got them Flakes!

NO GO!
Full stop, return to base, do not pass go.  The Jamician Mango Lime Coily stuff, mixed with Flaxseed gel did indeed FLAKE. Badly!  by mid-day 2.  I took my hair out of my ponytail and was like WOAH! how random!

It looks like Sacha Baron Cohen got me at the Academy Awards :-(

AND I took the time to doublestrand-multi-bantu my hair last night to stretch it out.
And I have to get home still. :-(

Product review: NEW! Royal Curl™ Curl Shaping Crème

You all know I give all these products a fair shot right?

So I got this about 1.5 months ago from a local store - Yes Organics I think it was.  And OH, it sounded so lovely! 

In a hive, there’s only one queen whose diet is only Royal Jelly, a nutrient packed super-food with 17 amino acids, vitamins A, C, D, K and multiple B-vitamins. We use the Queen Bee’s Royal Jelly in Curl Shaping Créme to naturally tame frizz, define curls and smooth waves with silky hold. Pure Aloe Vera Gel and Agave Nectar quench your hair’s thirst without the grease, while powerful Green Tea antioxidants and intense moisturizers defend against damaging heat and humidity.

All natural: No harsh, or drying chemicals like alcohol, sulfates, petrolatum, parabens or phthalates.

Transforms Kinks To Defined Curls and Soft Waves

I tried it right away on a wash and go- following the directions, forsaking all other products and using my fingers to distribute it.  That was not good.  It dried frizzy and a bit crunchy, lacked sheen, and was clearly not going to yield me day 2 hair.  I also felt there was a slight residue by the time it dried- making it look a bit dull all over.  FAIL.

But I was not ready to give up.  The ingredients seemed so good!  and maybe it just needed some oil?

Just this weekend I tried it again.  This time I took the cream and some oil in the tub with me and applied it liberally to wet hair with oil added to help with dryness and residue, I hoped.  It is very thin and does not have inherent slip.  So though it was not clumping I was still like- "well maybe I will get a more shrunken and piecy wash and go."  That's not always bad- my lil curlies are dope.  I finished applying it and it looked quite alright soaking wet.  I sat under a hair dryer for an hour, since I was just home chilling on a weekend evening, and let it just dry without touching it.  Even still- I had a shrunken shiny wash and go.  No ringlets and a bit frizzy but it seemed like the helixy shape of the "inner hair" was intact and I would have a few days of nice textured hair.  I did multiple bantu pineapple knots and went to bed.

The next morning.....  FLAKES.  Flakes galore!  they spawned over night and were everywhere!!  root to tip.  what sucked worse- it was like flakes on top of sheeny zig zaggy hair that would have otherwise been fabulous, if not a bit velcro like. I did some yard work but eventually knew I had to wash it out and start all over.  sigh.

So my conclusion is, you can't use much of this product before you get flakes, yet if you don't use a lot you will NOT get definition on anything crookeder than curly hair.  My hair is spongy and fluffy, but it will coil and curl with the right product.  THIS is not it.  This is totally false and misleading: "Transforms Kinks To Defined Curls and Soft Waves."

I am not amused.

I still have half a jug left- it comes in a large 15 oz jar, like kinky curly. Maybe I will try it on a twist or braid out this winter, but I have a stronger suspicion that this jar will collect dust unless someone wants it! Who has time for potential fails on cold weather hair?

I didn't take picts because I never even got to a styled head of hair with this mess. By the time I finished my yard work and really began pulling my hair apart I had already turned on the water in the shower lol.

(oh hell- I just noticed the pic of the girls' hair on their website! What kinks??? smh.) 
ZERO out of 5!

What a week! Good day 1 results with ultimate fail

I have been MIA I know.  I have a bunch of posts on deck so hopefully they will all trickle out this week.

I went out a lot the week before last and I was dog tired by the end of the weekend.  This week began on the bottom of that hill and it's taken this long to get back on top of it.  I'm also gardening this year and it is sooo much work.  I'm really excited by the prospect of eating foods I've grown myself though.  I am now growing Kale, Spinach, Collards, Peppers, Lettuce and some herbs.  I have tomatoes and beans and cucumbers waiting to go in the ground in early May.  I spent time after work getting some free pots donated by a woman in the area (yey FreeCyclers!), doing some planting, watering, weeding, cutting grass.  Spider webs and tree jizz in my hair. lol. AND I am at war with the darn squirrels lol.  These are not the ramblings of a fashionable urbanista, and I have been anything but.

Also I'm on a medicine now that requires me to change my diet :-\
I'm all low carb and no sugar now but so far I have not had any side effects.  I'm looking forward to seeing it kick in (PCOS related).

As for my hair and what I can say about it, I'm continuing to grow it out. I wore it out last weekend to a few concerts and I was happy for my curlies.  I can't wait for the warm weather to really take hold so that I can just get on with wash and go season in earnest.  I'm still waiting a month more to cut it though.  I don't see myself freeing up to really create the styles I like to try in the next few months.  So far I am still totally in love with the Kiss My Face gel and I have recently tried mixing it with grapeseed oil.  Pretty successful!

A fail I can mention actually yielded the following photos.  Let's get into that!
I went to Yes Organics at lunch one day and picked up some vegetable glycerin, some marshmallow root, a new bottle of castor oil, and the grapeseed oil.  I already have some flax seed and plan on doing some summer experiments bwahahahaaaa!  But I could not help myself, I broke into everything already except the Marshmallow root.  On Saturday I co-washed and then made a quick mix of castor oil, glycerine, KMF gel, burdock root extract, and pure aloe vera gel (food grade).  It was nice when it was wet and drying, but then it got sticky and a bit greasy.  I had to rinse it by Moday night after some time outside.  It had attracted tons of pollen and who knows what after a jaunt through an old shed digging through dirty planters.

But on Saturday night it was cute and that is when i took these picts.  I'll keep you posted if I come up with any cool mixes.  I know they abound on the web but none I've see offer the wash and go definition I seek.  I think the KMF gel will be the key!

I couldn't decide which I liked best so here's a rack of them! this was at the end of the night when I got home at 2am- Hair completely dry.

Braid and Curl Fail. Big plans for the weekend!

Soooooooo... this is not working! LOL. Braid n curl and twist and curl sets, without a hooded dryer, have not been working as of late. Especially now that my hair is shorter, for some reason it just does not dry.

I tried it from wet. Nowhere near dry in the AM- laughable.

I tried it from dry- and just lightly misted my hair. No- still completely damp... like... even more damp than it was when I went to bed.

Makes me wonder if I have some sort of porosity issues. I dunno. Just a royal waste of time!

Damp, frizzy hair after 45 min of "setting"and 9 hours of "drying"- yey!


I tried to salvage it for work- tucked the frizzy back away into a rolled pony.


And this was the best area below, that had dried the most, so I left it out. Cute, but not what I was going for.... not like my braid and curl from a while back.

egh

So I also have fallen OUT of love with these super bright highlights, which seem so much lighter when my hair is not shrunken. My co-worker asked if I'd dyed my hair this week, but she never noticed it when I actually did highlight my hair almost 3 months ago. I think maybe they could be getting lighter over time? Though I do remember noting a few bright spots from day one.

My plan is to get a reddish brown at home gloss to try and tone it down without coloring my hair over. Then I may take more drastic measures to change it, depending on how it looks and how fast it fades. I also read somewhere that if you notice you are wearing MORE makeup after you color your hair, you have done the wrong thing. I certainly HAVE been wearing blush and lip stains almost daily, neither of which I wore much before. They say the color should bring out out skin tone, yet I feel I am washed out most days and need a "flush" of color that is missing. The color's fault? Maybe... It's an ashy blondy tan... I think I need a coppery reddish thing going on with my yellow skin lol.

Also... I was looking at old blog posts and my skin was in horrid condition last year this time. It's soooo much better, though not perfect and still speckled with fading scars. I think I may take some "after" pictures to just put it all out there. I was really suffering with my acne and it may be helpful for someone to hear what I did to stop it and what I do for my face now. I mean, my face and my hair are pretty close to each other ;-)

Dodge the Disaster! Product mixing/white balls/flakes.

"Nisus, how do you use your Eco Styler as a wash n go? When you say you mix it with a leave in, do you put them on separately or you mix them in a bowl together and then apply? I can never get the look, and I always have the white balls issue? Please help"

OMG I know this disaster all to well. You have freshly washed/wet head of hair and you go to apply product... then ICK! white globby, flaky, pearled up flecks take over your pretty hair. Most of the time you have to start alllll over again and perhaps even "wash" it out. This sort of monkey wrench has tacked on 30 min of lateness, over-washing hair, and even failed attempts at salvaging, only to find myself in PUBLIC with grossness in my hair. So in my 9+ years since getting my last relaxer, I have discovered that it is not the Gel alone that causes the issue, and also that no plan is foolproof!

What I do now is sacrifice a dime - quarter sized dab of each product I plan to mix in my palm like so: Gel and leave in.


Then I use a finger to mix it thoroughly. If I get a smooth, creamy substance, it's probably safe. However, if it does this to any degree:

DO NOT USE IT!
Looks gross right? It may vary from what looks like congealed milk or cottage cheese to a version of goo like above, where the product has a strong resolve to separate. It will do the same thing in your hair. The other thing to note is that you may have left-over product in your hair from conditioning, so add a dab of conditioner to the test as well if you still have some in your hair. Yet another variable. Similarly, a bit of water can sometimes make the products mix a little better, so if the results are questionable you could add a few drops. Water could push it to the safe zone.

The hitch IS, I have to remember to do this every time because going off memory has failed me far too many times. I'll forget which Gel or which leave in it was that worked, or sometimes arrogantly think a product is so similar to another that it will yield a similar result without testing = disaster.

The combo's I know work with Ecostyler off top are:

• CON Rosemary lemongrass leave in- check my results here>
  
• Jason Green Rootine Silkening Creme- check my results out here>
• Paul Mitchel The conditioner(the generic version they sell at Sally's) check out my results here>
• Mixed Chicks- my review here>

There are others for sure but I can't speak with certainty. I use IC gel and Kinky curly at times too, so I get confused. As far as application, it depends on how much time I have. If I have time I will mix them in an empty container beforehand and apply it heavily to my hair outside of the shower. If I'm running shorter on time, I'll apply my leave in in the shower as my last detangler, and then apply the gel, perhaps in the shower, but more likely a few min later. The results are about the same right away, but it lasts longer (3 day hair) if I mix them first. I guess it reconstitutes better, having had a more thorough mix and coat.

When testing a new product, my hair friends will say "it works with the gel!" when we find something that works. :-)

Good luck. And, everyone, let us know if you have combos that work for you.