Sales and Links

Can you believe, I am still wearing my half blown out hair in various (and somewhat unglamorous) ways this week. Been lazy and the braided hair has been getting straighter and straighter. lol. But alas- I am collecting information for my next style.  I'm ALWAYS collecting info from the interwebs in fact.  I subscribe to like 50 blogs lol.

So the tip of the week is- to check out the "What I'm reading section" on the sidebar >>

I tag things of particular interest to me, so I can find them - interesting articles, posts and sales - and they show up in the sidebar automatically whether I'm posting or not.  So this week, there is a braided figure 8 style I am coveting and... a huge sale at Walgreens, who carries Shea Moisture products, and is selling them buy one get one free. 

Braid style inspired by Youtube- Channyboo9023 and Tracee Ellis Ross

Here is the video Channyboo posted.  I saw it come up on Curly Nikki's blog :-)
Go to about @7:15 to get to the style - I thought it came out dope... So I copied it!  I just said I was looking to get my hair off my face and out of my hands and this was perfect.


And here is my take on it!

This is how I set it afer I washed it.  I used Kiss My face gel mixed with castor oil and braided it up while soaking wet to stretch it out as it dried. 

It didn't dry overnight though :-( so I had to blow it out a little to braid it quickly in the morning.  I was struggling to get it braided neatly and not tear up my hair as is was trying to shrink up and tangle.  A 3 min hit with the blow dryer helped a lot. And here is how I wore it to work.
I wore variations of it for the next few days.

And a vid of the take-down with a quick show and tell.

Under Cloud 9

Have you listened to the glory that is Cloud 9 by Donnie? It just came on and I'm smiling, writing this and playing it back.

This song meant soooo much to me when I first heard it. I was working at a big huge bank (municipal securities) and sitting at the front desk. It was early 2003 and I had about 6-7 inches of natural hair on my head.
In Boston.
In the financial district.

I was still trying to figure out how to care for my curly and kinky hair, how to live two lives (at work and at home) and how to keep it looking "neat" all the while.  Amidst occasionally visiting the Black Planet forums on natural  hair, perusing Fotki and like 2 other sites about natural hair to fortify my resolve then, this song used to come on my streaming radio station.  I would stop everything I was doing and just zone out.  I'd smile and think about my crown and how fine I was with it.  The station did not display the artists or song titles so I wrote down some lyrics and consulted google. Donnie.  The album was called The Colored Section, which I promptly purchased and subsequently enjoyed every minute of.  It's still one of my favorite albums, like ever. 

One day after that- I will never forget:

I had gone to a salon over the weekend and had my hair pressed- maybe in 2004.  It was very straight.  shiny.  swanging.  shoulder length.  and I was headed to work to debut it for all my fancy banker bosses.  I stepped out from under the shelter above the train tunnel downtown, and BAM!  An accumulated cache of old residual rain water randomly streamed down from overhead and hit me on the temple, (picture the scene from 28 days later when the blood dripped down from the bird's meal and fell right in the dad's eye) soaking a good 3 inch lock of hair near my face.  It IMMEDIATELY reverted, only there, and by the time I got to work I had a huge puffy chunk of hair ruining my new do.  I was crushed.  It was my debut of "their hair" for all to see, and I had been excited.  and I had been done in by water.  Like the aliens from signs.  I felt soooo stooopid. for my excitement, for my demise, for what I intended to show off. For the temporary state of straightness that I had gone through so much to get, and so little to loose. I was mad at my hair, and water, and mad at me.  Sigh.

But I had Donnie that day.  And I saved the style later at home, and I let some expectations go.  Twist my cloud and let it rain.

If you ever feel a bit stuck, or a bit confused and tormented by the pressures around you that nudge our beauty out of place and challenge our confidence- give this song a spin. 

We live from the head down and not the feet up
And I'm adorned with the crown that's making this up
And I'm fine under cloud 9

Yes I wear the lamb's wool, the feet of burned brass
And the wool defies gravity like the nature of a gas
And I'm fine under cloud 9

Twist my cloud and it rain
And when it rains it pours
And the energy will absorb
Power for the metaphysical one

Happy to be nappy, I'm black and I'm proud
That I have been chosen to wear the conscious cloud
And I'm fine under cloud 9

I be a chameleon and wear it bone straight
But it's so much stronger when it's in its natural state
And I'm fine under cloud 9

Twist my cloud and let it rain
And when it rains it pours
And the energy will absorb
Power for the metaphysical one

Repeat

We live from the head down and not the feet up
And I'm adorned with the crown that's making this up
And I'm fine under cloud 9

Twist my cloud and let it rain
And when it rains it pours
And the energy will absorb
Power for the metaphysical one

Live version:

Let's JAM! (2011 Remix)

Throwback: Remember LET'S JAM! Shining and Conditioning gel? Remember how it would have your edges LAID? Remember how the scent was so distinct other people could always tell when you’d used it? Remember that the ingredients were:

Aqua (Water), Isoceteth-20, Paraffinum Liquidum (Mineral Oil), Glycerin, Oleth-2, Propylene Glycol, Parfum (Fragrance), Sorbic Acid, Methylparaben, DMDM Hydantoin, Ethylparaben, Benzyl Benzoate, Linalool, Benzyl Salicylate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Hydroxycitronellal, Benzyl Alcohol, Limonene, Citronellol, Geraniol, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, CI 19140 (Yellow 5), CI 14700 (Red 4), CI 17200 (Red 33)

Scary.

I can’t even remember the last time I used JAM. In its absence, I have relied on various gels (from Fantasia IC, to Eco Styler, to pure Aloe Vera) to slick my hair back when the style or look I was going for called for it. Nothing I used quite did the job, and most (except for the aloe) left my hair crunchy and didn’t hold for the whole day.

Enter: Curls Passion Fruit Curl Control Paste.

Photo by Nuri

First of all, I just have to say that whoever is in charge of purchasing at Target is some kind of genius. They must be making money hand over fist off of us naturals by having that special curly hair section! But I digress. Anyway, I had been looking for something to help slick my edges down, particularly the hair on the back of my neck (which almost always looks crazy), for awhile. I had noticed the Curls Passion Fruit Curl Control Paste a few times on previous Target trips, but hadn’t really considered purchasing the product. Then, the other day, I went into the store to return some Palmers Coconut Oil Hair Milk, because I detested the way it reacted on my hair (a nasty, pasty, milky film just sat on the surface of my hair until I washed it). I figured I’d get something else instead and wandered over to the “ethnic” hair products section of the store. I grabbed the Curls Passion Fruit Curl Control Paste and figured I’d give it a go, because I’ve wanted to rock a giant, slicked back puff.

Now, I will say this about Curls Passion Fruit Curl Control Paste, the ingredients are a far cry from perfect. This is probably why I hadn’t tried it before. The ingredients are:

Water, Ceteareth-25, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, Glycerin, Isostearyl Isostearate, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Shea Butter, Mango Seed Butter, Jojoba Oil, Vitamin E Oil, Tetrahexyldecyl, Ascorbate, Passion Fruit Oil, Evening Primrose Oil, Hydroxypropyltrimonium Hydrolyzed Maize Starch, Panthenol, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance

Not scary, but a little unsettling.

While the product proudly states that it has “No Sulfates, Silicones, Parabens, Mineral or Petrolatum Oils” (which is great), there are still a few ingredients in the list that give me pause:

Ceteareth-25
PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate
PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil
Phenoxyethanol

That said, the product does exactly what it claims to do. The label says:

Smooth out and slick down unruly edges -  ✔
Tame frizzy out of control curls - ✔
Add amazing sheen - ✔

Photo by Nuri

Check! The consistency is quite similar to Let’s JAM – it’s slightly tacky/sticky both to the touch and when you first put it in your hair. It doesn’t smell like passion fruit to me, but it does have a sweet yummy smell, kind of like warm caramel. It leaves the hair extremely soft, shiny and LAID! I mean laid people. With just a tiny amount, my hair was super slicked back and fly-away free. The product works so well, that even though I fell asleep last night with my hair still in a puff and I had neglected to even put on a scarf/hooded band/bonnet, I woke up and my puff was intact. I actually threw on my coat and walked out the door to take my puppy for a walk without doing a thing to my hair, and without looking even remotely crazy. My hair is still soft and, miraculously, the hair on the back of my neck is still smoothed into my puff. I have only tried it on dry hair so far, but may experiment with it on wet hair later, as well as trying it on my curls to see what it can do with them.

My verdict? This stuff is great, but I wish they would reformulate with out the ingredients mentioned above. I don’t like feeling as though I am risking my health for the sake of a fly ‘do. In spite of this, I will probably purchase it again, at least until something that works as well, but with better ingredients comes along – if you have any suggestions of such products, please leave them in the comments section.

Peace.
Nuri

Day 7 update on coil-out

Here I was yesterday! Coils still going strong on day 7.  I tie them up old school style at night and add a little castor oil at the ends every few days.