My hair made a baby cry :-/

I know it can be a little strange if you've never seen it… Big curly hair that moves oddly with little provocation.  I get it.

But this baby girl, maybe 8-9 months old who has a white mom with long straight hair and a black daddy with short coily hair, was having NONE of it. Which is ironic, because her hair looks a lot like mine did as a baby, and she may very well end up having hair very similar to mine when she gets older lol.

She stared and stared. Many babies are quick to grab earrings, hair… whatever seems interesting. This little girl…NOPE. She just stared. And if I was holding her she was staring or making sure that my hair did not do anything unsavory behind her back, craning her neck and shifting positions to keep it in sight.

So here I go, deciding to see if she was curious, scared - what… what is it?
My BF was holding her right next to me on the couch and she's staring from 2 feet away. First I used my hand to move some of it back away from my face. Well that caught her undivided attention. So then I shook it a little at her. Mind you she was sleepy and in silly/cranky mode so I was totally provoking her lol. She shrunk back, but her eyes got all big.  She stared.  I shook it again.  She let out a small whine.  The other adults were watching and laughing now like oh no, she's scared! So I very slightly shook it one more time… NOPE. tears. A monster. I said let me stop teasing her.  She stared at me the entire rest of the night - from far away.  Aww.

I felt like a big ole meanie, but also like, dag… I just washed it this morning!

Wash & Go using Camille Rose Naturals Moisture Milk and then Curl Maker with Castor oil layered on top.

Weekend Hair extended through the week with updoes

A few weeks ago my home girl in the front of the pic below (she's sporting a nice twistout BTW) had a birthday party at a club and I wanted to wear my hair out big and curly. I did a wash and go, but went easy on the gel, which means I had volume, but usually I have to de-tangle and start over after 3 days.  The frizz and knots take over if I don't use a lot of gel to keep the curls defined as separate.

Here is a documentation of the wear of this lightly set wash and go over the days.

Here is day 3. The frizz has begun to set in but in this super cold weather I wasn't ready to wet it again so soon.

The end of day 4. The frizz has taken over.

The rest of the picts are various updoos I did on days 5-7.  I let it get damp in the shower and then did loose flat twists to create a way to pull the rest of it up.

 

Wash & Go in Winter. I do not fully endorse, but...

But sometimes it's just so easy and fast.

Just before the holiday break I went to a few holiday gatherings at friends houses.  A Friday night and then a Sat night back to back. One was a wine party and the other a game party. I wore my hair big for these too but didn't stretch it out with heat, only pineappling at night.  I used Castor oil, Nubian heritage Honey Blackseed leave-in and Wetline Extreme gel. I diffused pretty well before going out into the cold, so it worked out pretty well.

I didn't get pictures on the first 2 days but here is day 3 hair :)

I didn't lose any curl pattern since the Press in early December.  Phewww!

Around the house I had it like this, and by the end of that week I was wearing it like below and in buffs to work. I have to wear a headband when I wear it out now because I'm growing my bang out again, for now.  So my hair hits awkwardly on my face when not stretched.

Twist and Go?

I've been doing my hair at night lately and calling it a "wash and go" even though I do all sorts of extra stuff to it. lol.  Not just the "dingle coils" but like big huge twists left to begin drying overnight. Most of the time they don't come anywhere close to drying, but sometimes... sometimes they semi dry at the root and ends.  And I get this twistout/wash & go hybrid.

 

But this is how it starts. Ha. My soaking wet, sectioned, freshly washed and detangled hair.  I use a light leave in, lately just some Infusium to coat my hair thoroughly, and then I go through each section with a small palmful of castor oil.

THEN here is the fun part.  I open each twist back up and work in a generous amount of WetLine extreme gel, using my fingers to smooth it through.  I then retwist and move on to the next section.  I don't really consider it a twist out because the twists are so monstrously huge, and only dry about 30%.  When I take them out, it's very much like shaking out a wash & go, but the roots are a little dry, so the direction the hair falls is set.

The pictures below are from the end of the next day.  When i first take the twists apart, I just kind of shake them loose.  They are wet enough that my hair still has a lot of movement and thus a lot of shrinking to do.  A LOT of shrinking :)

 

I'm happy to report that with the hold of the gel, this set lasts a week solid with little tangling. I just sleep on my silk pillow case, and sometimes put it in a ponytail.

Though challanging, SHRINKAGE is not the enemy!

I hope this post provides contrast to the last one about extreme stretching.  Shrinkage is totally annoying when you know you have long hair and you can't seem to get any hang time.  Completely frustrating when you want to have hair on your shoulders or back, or surrounding your face, but alas, your hair coils up to your ears.  I find that the warm flat iron is the answer for those times, for me.  Using the tension method with a blow dryer works well too, but takes a little longer, and seems more drying. 

Either way, you end up spending more than a day getting your hair "right."  It has to be completely dry before the stretching process.  That takes a full day for my hair!  And you also have to have a very solid shingle set before hand.  Defined, moisturized curls stretch, and stay stretched better.  I don't always have time for that, and the stretched look is also not always what I'm going for.  It's nice when I want a different look, or when I have plenty of time to do it, but there are other times when the shrunken shape of my hair is cute and easier to work with for certain styles.

When I want to wear my hair shrunken up, I just have to beware of tangles, and single-strand knots after the first day.  Here are some other tips for wearing fully shrunken hair for more than a day:

1. Make sure that the hair is fully de-tangled before letting it dry. I like to co-wash, detangle and put my hair in 4 sections by double strand twisting it and rinsing it with the 4 twists still in.  I then open each section one by one, apply my leave in, gel and oil and loosely re-twist.  I usually do this at night and let it partially dry over night.  This helps set the part where you want it and tell the hair what direction to dry in.
2. Keep the ends moisturized.  That means a little spritz and leave in every evening for me. 
3. Protect it at night!!  I sleep on a silk pillow case (better for skin than satin) and I also either pineapple or re-set in the 4 large twists before bed.  If I used gel before letting it dry, retwistsing keeps it smoother, if not, pinappling keeps the roots a little flatter so I don't have a round fro by day 3 :) 
4. Unlike my stretched wash and go, the shrunken version will tangle faster and more completely.  This leads to single strand knots and a heck of a time de-tangling later.  Thus I only recommend wearing loose shrunken hair for 4 or 5 days instead of 7 or longer. This tighter hair is also more difficult to manipulate into a different style later, such as a bun or updo because of the density and tangles, so be careful if you try to do so, and be patient and gentle.

Here are some picts of my BSL hair shrunken into a bob with a side part.  I also have a headband on in these picts. It looks like I had a major haircut!  Fun to throw people off sometimes, though their curiosity can be tiring lol.

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!!

Wet Line Xtreme Gel, KMF gel changes formula!!

I'm not sure what I was doing exactly, but I ran across this video by Healthy Hair Zone about Wetline Xtreme gel.  I was intrigued and went down the rabbit hole of reviews and, like her, found that everyone seems to love it.  It's the number one gel in Mexico apparently and has a strong hold with no flakes.  I saw somewhere that it re-constitutes when wet too, like Kinky Curly custard, and I just had to try it.  My neighborhood "bestway" (latino grocery store) had it in abundance- different sizes, colors, containers... and it's like $3 for a huge, Huge tub or tube. 32-35 ounces!

I don't understand the ingredients to be natural at all, but I looked up the "chemicall-y" sounding ones and none had a hazard rating above a 4 or 5.  I was game.

So this stuff will freeze your curls exactly as they are wet.  It drys hard and shiny, does not flake and mixes with every leave in I've tried it with. I'm a fan of gel in general, but if you are not a fan of a gel "feel", this will be the worst gel ever lol.  For me gel works well because if I can get my curls to hold in my fine hair, I can avoid tangling, de-tangling and manipulating, even in a wash and go, for several days.  I don't mind a bit of crunch!

Here are a few picts of my curls using this gel.  It's very heavy and coating so this is definitely "small hair."  I took these on the day I got my Braces off :-D

 I took these weeks later ~ day 6 of a similar wash & go.  With a little water the gel re-gooes itself so that you can easily create updo's.

I have also been notified on instagram, and since verified that my old favorite, Kiss My Face Upper managment gel has changed their formula.  Most notably, they added Glycerine as the SECOND ingredient. That is a humectant... fine sometimes, but I don't see how it could possibly have the hold I so love.  I do want to get my hands on a new bottle just to see if my fears are unfounded.  Has anyone else tried it yet?

Meantime, if you are a fan of gel, def try the Wetline Xtreme gel.  As far as gel goes, it does the MOST. 5 out of 5.

Heat Stretching a wash and go

I wanted to show off a little length this past weekend so I decided to stretch out my wash and go before I even washed my hair.

What that meant is that I needed a pretty solid shingle to start with.  I washed my hair using bentonite clay and followed with the Herbal Essences Honey I'm strong conditioner.  Then I actually used some Yes to cucumbers leave in conditioner I stumbled on in my bathroom.  Its a light leave in that I can't say I'm smitten with, but for a wash and go I use a ton of castor oil with my gel, so I figured a light leave in would be fine. I shingled it pretty thoroughly using KMF gel and castor oil and I actually went to bed a few hours later with damp hair pulled up into a pineapple with a scarf.

So the next morning it was just slightly damp at the root so I diffused for a few min and then I switched the attachment to the concentrator nozzle.   I will make a video about this but I use the tension method to stretch from root to about 2 inches form the ends.  I like my ends to stay coiled as tightly as possible. 

So here is the result.  This lasted for 3 days :-)

Drying shingled set:

Finished product: