Roller-Set Attempt (3)

Tried again with vinegar combination and other mixture and achieved...a mediocre result.

It was decent. Still was a bit puffy. I wore it out the house so it wasn't that bad but could always be better.
My best bet....Curlformers, I'll just stick with those.

Roller Set Attempt (2)

Roller Set Attempt (2): FAIL

Too puffy...will try again tonight.

Roller-Set Attempt (1)

From now on I am a Nazarene. No razor shall touch this hair until it gets to the length that I want it to be and its a long ways from there...And, nope, I'm not afraid of split-ends:

1) because I'm not directly applying heat to it anymore
2) because I use vinegar + oil...all kinds...mixed together (which is what I refer to as my 'vinegar combination')

Anyhoo, thats not what I was going to right about. I was...am going to write about my failed attempt at roller-setting my hair using KCCC. I'm thinking back to my natural hair journey and I actually don't think I have ever did a roller-set on my hair.

I've braided it and then put it on rollers. I've also twisted it and put it on rollers but I have actually never done it straight without manipulation until yesterday. Maybe its because I just discovered butterfly clips to actually hold the rollers in place.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I'm just trying it now...back to my failed attempt explanation.
It didn't fail in the sense that it didn't keep the shape (I air dried by sleeping in the rollers), it failed because of residue!!!

I had all these little white clumps of gel in my hair and it would not get out until I washed my hair. Which KCCC is notorious for if you don't use conditioner before slapping it on your head or oil in addition to slapping it on your head.
So, I suspect it was what I left out: Conditioner before slapping KCCC on, like the instructions say
or what I didn't put it: Oil of some kind to melt the KCCC while its still wet.

I tried again today and using my vinegar combination and Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie...Which btw is going to be a staple in my hair regime. My hair loves it like crazy and it definitely lives up to its name where Moisture's concerned. Thats $9.99 well spent!

Once again....Curlformers rule the day

This is like my 500th post on curlformers. So I'll just keep it short.

You want to straighten your hair and make it curly at the same without using a direct application of heat....Use Curlformers.

'Nuff Said.

See, Nice and Short.

A pledge not to ignore

One negative: Now that I know the recipe to my hair success, its kinda like, now whats going to prompt me to keep writing.

One Positive: I have more free time since I'm not standing in front of the mirror for hours on end trying to bend my hair to my will.

I have pictures to post but I haven't gotten around to cropping my eyeballs out. Why? because I enjoy the anonymity that the internet provides.

Anyhoo, just because I'm content doesn't mean I'll become complacent....hopefully.
I might take sabbaticals but I'll not altogether retire from posting.

Got it Back....If at First You Don't Succed!

Bantu-Knot Out Update. So, I said to heck with gel and changed the technique of how I twist the hair and my bantu's came back.
I used a random product I have left over from whenever....It kinda has the same consistency as conditioner. Used it on dry hair and mixed it with one of my homemade concoctions.

I think a big factor is also the way I twist my hair. Instead of taking two sections of hair and twisting them around each other, like a two-strand twist. I just take a section of hair and twist or twirl it around my index finger really tightly and then knot it, bantu-style.

I was heaven bent on getting it back. I don't quit so easy.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

Aguirre Jose Ignacio's image: 'angry woman'

If I'm going to document my natural hair journey that means I have to share all parts of the journey: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Today my natural hair journey took me on the path of insanity. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results. Well, I experienced just that today.

So, the plan was to return the Aveda Conflixor gel and get my money back right?! So why was I in the Aveda store reasoning with myself like..."I just got Shea Moisture Smoothie maybe if I try it with the Flaxseed & Aloe Strong hold gel, I'll get my bantu-knot out back" while the other part of me was screaming, "No, you idiot, you already tried that, just give them their stupid gel and get your money back!"
I agreed with the more optimistic part of my mind and got the Flaxseed gel, yet again!!

Got home tried it with the Shea Moisture Smoothie and guess what...Same Ol' Same Ol' story. No such luck, chuck..

The funny or sad part, whichever way you see it, is that when I was in the store one of the girls basically told me that it was the last time I could return the product. Which, she probably wouldn't have found out if I hadn't told her I already made a previous exchange.
Her reason: they have to throw the product away after its been returned. So I in turn asked her where that statement was written on their policy. Her return: silence and the same lame excuse about waste.

The way I see it, I'm paying with my own money and time to be patronizing their store and so long as its not written anywhere on their policy. I'm not following some on-the-spot-made-up-excuse passing for a policy. Let me walk up in there next time and I dare her to try and not give me my money back watch if I don't threaten to sue (the beauty of living in a legalistic society) on the basis of her foolishness!

Told y'all.....Insanity and Ugliness on the same day. That's the real reason they call it Black Friday. The good, the bad, and the ugly!

Shea Moisture's Curl Enhancing Smoothie + Aveda's Conflixor Gel Update

Here's an update. Bought the curl enhancing smoothie by Shea Moisture today and I must mention right off the bat that the smell is divine. I usually never comment on product scent but it smells soooo gooood! Alright, I digress, here's the deal.

If you want soft hair without wetness or your hair feeling weighed down this product is for you. My hair was definitely softer after I put it on. So, I added a bit of Aveda's Conflixor gel on my hair to do my bantu-knot out and I'm still not impressed with the result. It doesn't really hold. The frizz is still there. Of course, I will be returning the gel to Aveda and requesting my money back.

Now I'm plain and simple on a mission for a gel that will make my bantu- knot results come out the way I'm used to. Defined with 'hang factor'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amnesia Cont'd

Yes. My hair did get amnesia. I've always heard of this weird phenomenon from other naturals but it's never happened to me until now. This strange thing happens when the product combination that you've always used on your hair suddenly no longer gives you the stylying results that you have come to expect.

The combination that I've used for the past 6 months or even longer to achieve my gorgeous bantu-knot outs has always been Aveda Flaxseed Strong Hold Gel (even though I did a early review where I gave it an ifinite thumbs down, that was before I learned how to use it) and my conconction of water+safflower oil+whatever else I poured in the container. And its always worked!

Until I discovered my vinegar concoction, then I took about 2 wks off from bantu-knot outs. Now that I want to go back I'm not getting the results I want at all. So, I went back to Aveda to purchase the Conflixor gel which is supposed to be another strong hold type of gel.

I have tried it with one combination but I wasn't too excited about the results either. My next plan is to purchase Shea Moisture's Curl Enhancing Smoothie, which I have heard many good things about, and use it along with the Conflixor gel to hopeful achieve the bantu-knot out results that I'm used to.

We shall see.

Amnesia

Crap-to-the-Ola....did my hair get amnesia!
My tried and true combo is not working!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An Observation: Heat on Coily aka Kinky Hair

In my almost 3 year journey of being a natural I have noticed something strange about the direct use of heat in forms such as flat iron, hot combs, other new fangled hair straighteners and what have you, on coily or otherwise known as kinky hair.

These observations are based on my experience, real life viewings, and on-line browsings. These observations apply to coily hair only. It seems to me that if you want coily hair to grow to its optimum length, whatever unknown length that may be, it is best to stay away from the direct application of heat.

Case in point, all the naturals that I have seen in real life or on-line that are in the extremely coily/kinky hair category who have never applied direct heat to their hair have very long hair. I do not believe this is a co-ink-i-dink!

Even if they have been natural for either 2 years or 12 years they always rock:1) amazing volume and 2) tremendous length. While those naturals who flat-iron their hair on the regular seem to always have a shorter terminus point i.e. the hair either grazes slightly past their earlobes or barely grazes their necks.

Based on this observation it seems to me that the direct application of heat to extremely coily hair retards or deters the growth of the hair. All the heat protectants and serums of this world will not debar this fact because the heat protectants do just that; protect your hair from being singed and fried by the heat and falling of your head.

In conclusion, if you have extremely coily hair and you desire it to grow to that unknown optimum length your best best is to refrain from the direct application of heat.
Perhaps a coily haired chick can consider one of those wonderful inventions known as a wig on days when she desperately wants to switch up her look.
Slap it on in the morning and take it off at night time. Convenience at its best!

A Message From ESSENCE: I Completely Agree

Commentary: Black Women Are Loving Their Hair

Friday, November 5, 2010 | 3:36 PM

by Tia Williams

Right now, black women everywhere are enjoying a lusty love affair... with their hair! On the heels of Sesame Street's "I Love My Hair" video and 10-year-old Willow Smith's debut single "Whip My Hair," nothing's hotter than Black tresses right now. And it's about time!

From birth, Black women are taught that their hair is too fuzzy, too curly, too nappy -- not white enough. Although these two wildly popular videos are targeted to the under-18 set, the messages of self-acceptance have resonated with Black women in a major way...

The Sesame Street video features an adorable brown Muppet singing a darling ditty about loving her curls ("don't need a trip to a beauty shop/cause I love what I got on top"). Written by an Italian man inspired by his adopted Ethiopian daughter, it was meant to teach self-acceptance to young black girls, but on blogs, Facebook and Twitter, grown women are writing about how the song has helped them reexamine their relationship with their hair. In a few short weeks, the song has become an anthem of self-love for Black women of all colors and hair textures.

Soon after "I Love My Hair" came Willow Smith's debut single and video, "Whip My Hair." The beat is positively addictive, but the lyrics are what's resonating with Black women. In the video, the pint-size Jada lookalike whips her long, ropelike braids to and fro, singing "Don't let haters keep me off my grind/Keep my head up I know I'll be fine/I whip my hair back and forth." For Willow, her hair personifies strength. Her tresses are so beautiful and powerful that the action of tossing it around can keep negativity at bay. Quite a message -- it's no wonder that in two weeks on YouTube, the video has 12,078,383 views; and a mash-up of Willow's song and the Sesame Street video has earned over one million views!

Why now? Now more than ever, Black women have been growing out their relaxers and embracing their natural hair, while haircare lines like Carol's Daughter, Miss Jessie's and Hair Rules are now offering top-notch products to help us care for our natural curls. We were already on the way to an honest self-acceptance, and then an curly-haired brown Muppet and a sassy 10-year-old came along and spoke directly to the little girl in us, reminding her that her hair is beautiful because it's hers. Can you imagine how evolved we'd be if we'd had such strong self-love messages as kids? No matter -- what these videos are teaching Black women is that whether you're 9 or 39, it's never too late to fall in love with yourself.

Read more: http://www.essence.com/hair/commentary_1/commentary_black_women_loving_their_hair.php#ixzz14S2urw2s

Curls...Yes Please.

Just achieved, hands down, the best curl-formers set on my hair in the history of my natural hair journey thanks to the help of vinegar, essential oils, and another weird ingredient that may or may not have contributed in shaping these gorgeous spirals. Vinegar rocks my coils.

Hooray for big hair. My curls are back and I am loving it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gonna Wash That...Flat Iron...Right Outa My Hair!

And what I did yesterday. The water was calling to me and I wanted to see my coily coils again. Good to have you back coily coils, Oh! how I have missed you!

How in the World Does Hair Grow This Long!!!

I just had to share this one.

Saran Wrap Review Again

Got my hair flat-ironed professionally on Saturday and tried the saran wrap method on it on Wednesday and I don't think I liked it.
I feel like it took the bounce out of my hair and left it limp. My hair is usually voluminous when I get it straightened. Lots of volume and shine. Anyway the saran wrap didn't add anything it actually took away.

But I suspect, that its really good if you do it after a roller set. So, I'll probably try that in a couple of weeks.

BTW: My hairdresser still refuses to tell me what products she's using on my hair, which is starting to get really annoying 1.)because its my hair and I have the right to know what the heck you're putting on it and 2.)that's an insecure and childish way to act.

My goal is to go through the rest of this year and all of next year without flat ironing my hair.

Vinegar Vinegar....All a girl needs for soft hair

Once again, I'm singing the praises of this everyday household item that people take for granted. I;m talking about your regular average distilled vinegar. I've taking it step further by using it as a leave-in spray. I figured it works so well to rinse my hair with then why don't I just leave it in.

So, I put it in a spray bottle about 2wks ago, sprayed it on my hair and styled with curlformers. Absolute softness, less porosity (sp?, all around shine and manageability, and 80-90% less shrinkage guaranteed. Bet your bottom dollar that no product on the market can claim these results without toxic chemical ingredients.

Lets just say. I found a new staple for life. Its cheap. Its quick. Its safe. Its amazing. Well what else can I say but...try it for yourself.

Saran Wrap and Garnier Products

The resolution on this camera sucks...I'm taking it back....and will invest in a more expensive one later on....until then...I'll keep writing.

Anyhoo...the products were from Ganier Fructis. I used the Pomade and the Putty. It looks good when my hair is wet/moist but when it dries....my hair gets really dry and frizzy. When I use them in combination with my oil mixture, esp. magnesium oil...my hair gets soft but becomes really sticky to the touch. Well, thats where my curiosity led me...the putty is not bad...it actually reminds me of KCCC when I put it on wet/moist hair but...its too drying.

So, I usually do my bantu knots at nite and tie a plastic bag over my hair, go to sleep, wake-up and unravel. But in between the unraveling, the biggest step is untwisting the the knots, don't touch or fluff or anything...because it'll just turn frizzy, wait for it to air-dry for a while, and then, unravel, fluff, and manipulate.

I usually skip over that part in my description but it is actually the longest part and most crucial part of getting the curly-look, otherwise, I just end up with the frizzy look, like I have today.

Anyway, I say all that to say my hair thoroughly craves moisture. Its not a luxury, its a necessity. I found that out in the past couple of days where I have not been putting the plastic bag over my head to sleep. What have I been doing? glad you asked.

I ran across something on youtube called the silk-wrap for natural hair. I was so thoroughly fascinated by it of course, I decided to try it out on my own hair with the bantu-knots. The method calls for about 15-30 minutes of saran wrap on your head and going under a hair dryer or a heat cap, remove the saran wrap, and put a regular scarf on your hair to sleep. Anyhoo, the first day I tried it was okay because I used magnesium oil with the garnier putty and those two always make for a sticky combination so my hair wasn't thoroughly dried out.

The second time I tried it, which was last night, I used the pomade by garnier and some left over flax seed gel by Aveda. I was hoping the silk-wrap method would cut out the time I have to wait for my hair to air-dry (and keep me from looking like a crazy person at the gas station because I literally will leave my hair sticking in all which direction until I get to the parking lot at work and then fluff it out) but in the end my hair ended up being frizzy.

I've also noticed this before too when I started doing bantu-knots, I would just dry my hair regular under the hair dryer, even on low heat, it would come out dry and frizzy. This all leads me to the point I had mentioned in the first place. My hair needs moisture, moisture, moisture. It needs to be in a moist environment for a considerable length of time in order for me to see any positive results.
Moisture is not a luxury for this hair in its natural state, its a necessity.

A Foto to go Along with my Last Posting

This is a picture of my curly former and bantu-knot combo. The front of the hair has curl formers to give spiral curl definition and the rest of hair is in bantu-knots to give glorious voluminous curls.
I will be reporting later on the products I used on my hair in this particular picture and no...it was not my trusty Kinky Curly Custard, mostly because I am a quasi-product-junkie and just entirely too curious in nature to stick just one thing.

The Staple: KCCC+Curl Formers+Bantu Knots

I'll try my best to describe this winning combo that I've been rocking lately...words can only do so much when a camera's not there to capture but, here I go...

Let me just start of by saying that my hair Loves Bantu Knots! I do them at night in big chunks put a plastic bag on my hair for...Moisture! Moisture! Moisture! unravel them in the morning...fluff and go!!! My hair actually looks curly when I do ....I gives my hair definition and I get that curly fro action going.

The Kinky Curly Curling Custard and Curl Former combo is actually something I discovered like last week. The front of my hair is really thin in texture and doesn't really get good definition ....its weird....so what I would usually do after fluffing out my bantu knots is do a bump in the front and the rest of the hair is just fine.

But of course, I get bored real easy and was convinced that the front of my should have defined curls too so, one day I used KCCC on the front of my hair and used the curl formers to curl it....Instant Lovely Spiral Curls in front! Why I have never thought to use any kind of gel, let alone KCCC, to curl my hair with curl formers is still something I'm trying to figure out. It's Ok! At least I got it now.

So, that's my latest experimentation in a wrap and I am loving my hair like no man's business. Thank God for Bantu Knots and Curl Formers

Aveda's Brilliant Retexturizing Gel: A Review

VS.

I washed my hair and poof back came the coils except for the tortured parts that refuse to revert back...tear.tear. Anyway, straight hair lasts on my head for about 1-2wks because I just get too bored with it.

I had been eyeballing Aveda's Brilliant Retexturing Gel for a while as an alternative to my fave Kinky Curly Curling Custard...cuz its just so diddly darned expensive. Anyway. I bought Aveda's Brilliant Retexturing Gel today and used it on my coils and lets just say I am very Underwhelmed.

Ain't nothing to write home about. It defined my coils a bit but not that much and its small. Only 5oz. and my hair's so thick I used half the bottle on my head. Lets just say I will not be buying this again.

This is the second Aveda hair gel that I've tried and have been very un-impressed by. Don't think there's gonna be a third time for me. I think I need to just close my eyes, hold my breath to go ahead and order the only tried and true gel that has ever been thick enough to handle my thick coils - the one and only....Kinky Curly Curling Custard.

Leaving It to the Pros

Since I made such a mess of trying to flat-iron my hair by myself I decided $50 is money well spent on getting my hair straight without breakage, so I headed to the hair shop. The lady that straightened my hair is actually a natural herself, dreads and all.

She did a good job obviously because she is working with good products. She showed me one of the products she used but the only one I'm seriously interested in is the one she used to blow-dry my hair because whatever she used let her comb through my hair like it was butter!

Of course she trimmed it because it badly needed to be trimmed from the damage that I inflicted on it. It's silky smooth in all its jet black glory and I keep it from loosing its "oomph" by doing the pin-curl method before I go to sleep, and of course wearing a scarf.

Thank God, I remember the pin-curl method from years of researching natural hair and how to keep it curly...the pin-curl method definitely works best on straight, wavy, or slightly curly hair. Basically hair that doesn't have a lot of density.

I plan on going back to the hair shop next month for two main reasons: 1)To trim my hair again because it still needs a bit more of the damaged parts to be removed, and of course cutting it always makes it grow faster. 2)To get the trade secret of what she used to blow-dry it so easily.

I also use 100% organic extra virgin coconut oil on the edges of my hairline before I put the scarf on it for two reasons: 1) I want to keep my hairline healthy and not breaking off, thinned out, or damaged in any way. 2)To get the little hairs on the edges to lie down smooth.

Just a dab goes a long way and does the trick. Oh! and to keep the entire hair looking shiny daily. I use a dime size drop of my trusty Organic Jojoba oil, rub it all over my hands, and brush my hands through my hair. Voila! Mega-shine like no other. Gotta love these natural beauty wonders this earth has to offer!!!!!!!

Vinegar for Shampoo...Yes U Can!!!

Yet another thing I stumbled upon...White distilled Vinegar to wash/rinse my hair.

How I use it: Thoroughly wet my hair under water
Dump about 2cups of white distilled vinegar on hair and gently scrub
Rinse hair with water again
and repeat the process.

Benefits: Cleanses all residue out of hair
Leaves hair feeling Soft like you cannot imagine

I have tried this about 3 times now so I know the softness is not a fluke and my hair does get clean.

Highly reccomended...who needs shampoo when you've got vinegar!

Liquid Keratin is a NO GO

I'm going to start by saying that I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that kinky-coily hair is THE MOST FRAGILE HAIR ON THE FACE OF THE UNIVERSE!!!
It may look so tough and strong like a brillo pad but it is as weak and fragile as a spiders web.

I flat-ironed my hair last weekend as planned and used the liquid keratin because I thought adding it would protect my hair from the heat. I think it did the opposite.
Don't know exactly what went wrong but I'm sure it was a combination of all the products that I used that did my hair in, Heat Damage like no other.

I mixed the liquid keratin with another product--maybe I shouldn't have done that. I used another product to blow-dry my hair out--maybe I shouldn't have done that. I used the old school flat iron, the kind that's made out of steel and you have to put into a hot stov--maybe I shouldn't have done that either.

There's definitely a lot of variables in this equation as you can tell, so I guess I can't exactly blame the liquid keratin entirely. I think I'm going to leave the job of flat-ironing my hair to the pros for a while, get the secret ingredients from them, then start doing it myself.

Thank God I know about moisture, moisture, moistured. That's all I've been giving my hair since I washed it out. I spray my concoction of aloe vera gel, safflower oil, water, and magnesium oil on it every night and tie a plastic bag or shower cap on it then tie a scarf on top of that. I think this method actually has an official name called "baggying" or something, I call it deep conditioning for 8hrs. And my hair loves it because it gets Moisture, Moisture, Moisture, which is essential for my kinky-coily!

Transitioning

Its been 5months since I've posted anything on here...who knew transitioning from college to the 'real world' would be so challenging. Graduating in one of the toughest economic times this country has ever seen has definitely taken its toll on me...Ain't even gon' lie..is been rough.

The motivation and means for anything that had to do with my hair pretty much went out the window and only now am I starting to slowly crawl back into the habit of my hair obsession. Its still gloriously nappy but not styled with any products or in any particular way. I pretty much braid it corn-row style or something close to that and ignore it for however many weeks until it starts looking un-kempt.

Its been a year since I've flat-ironed it so I am going to straighten it next week to see just how much its grown.

P.S. jus cuz i ain't bought much products for my hair in the past 5mths don't mean i wasnt makin a list...got a list as long as my arm...LOL....My 'can't hardly wait to purchase' product is Jojoba gel...heard it was just as effective as my all time fave Kinky Curly Curling Custard and a fraction of the price!!!

Trust that I will keep you updated on that...but first, I must straighten this hair out of curiousity and another product that I want to experiment with....Liquid Protein......Stay Tuned.