Video on press process and products

Quick and dirty iPhone video on my press process and products.

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 and beeswax pomade

I made myself wait over 6 months since the last time I used direct heat on my hair and I was happily surprised to see the growth I achieved!

I pressed my hair by roller setting it first using Nubian Heritage Honey & Blackseed Heat Protect Keratin Wrap Hair Mousse.

Then as I took each roller out I pressed it using my Remington Wet 2 Straight 2" Wide Plate Wet/Dry Ceramic Hair Straightening Iron with Tourmaline and then did a painful search and destroy session to get rid of single strand knots. Section by section.  So like... 35 times for each curler.  It took for-ev-er. 5 hours from wash to wrap.

But my results are solid straight, and today is day 9 and I'm certain I can make it a full 2 weeks this time.

The key once again, I believe, is this beeswax pomade I made a while back.  I need to make another batch!

I took about 1.5 tablespoons of organic beeswax pellets and melted them in refined castor oil with some rosemary essential oil. It made a thick pomade, similar to Dax but without the petroleum.  I used a dab of that on each section as I pressed and then every day or two I use about .5 teaspoon throughout my hair, but mostly focusing on the ends. It really keeps it smooth and shiny and its surprisingly not-that-greasy.  I also brought some Advocado oil and I use that at night when I wrap my hair.

So on to the pictures.
Freshly done:

Not much of the curl was left after the press and trim so I put some flexi rods in over night and I got this:

And this is day 7 hair after sleeping in rollers again on day 5...

It's BSL in the longest parts, definitely growing! I'll probably press it again for my birthday in February.

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.

Oh Yeah. The blog. The press.

So I have been active on Twitter and Facebook, but have greatly neglected the blog :-(
It all started with me catching the dog-gone flu for NYE and being down for a week.  So I didn't get the picts I wanted for the press post. And then, and then... I just kinda took a break lol.

I'm catching up though!  I have picts for days! I'll start with what I did have from the press I did before I left for the holidays.  I get better at pressing and maintaining it each time!

This was the fastest and most long lasting press yet.

I roller set it, using Nubian Heritage Honey & Black seed wrap mouse instead of gel, and it dryed in about 80 minutes, which is record time for me! Then as I took out each curler I ran the section once over with my flat iorn on 330. It went so fast! and the curls from the roller set stayed put so I didn't have to sleep in curlers early on to create curls.  I was simply done, and never even had to re-curl it! This is the winning process for me.

The other thing I did was make my own pomade to use throughout the life of the press. I took a small glass jar and combined castor oil, two teaspoons of beeswax pellets, some grapeseed oil and some fragrance oils and microwaved it just long enough to melt the beeswax. I got a nice solid pomade once it cooled, which had the wax I like to keep my hair smooth throughout the press. I've discovered that for my fine hair I need that heavy coating to combat reversion and frizz.  it also seems to lock in whatever moisture I had from the wash and set process.  Thus my hair did not dry out for many many days. I could have gone 2 weeks, but I felt my hair was far too dirty for my liking after 9 days.

I took most of these pictures on day 4.
The 1st picture below is one I took right after I finished pressing it.