Paul Mitchell's Straight Works Gel

A funny thing happened to me on my way to Sally's Beauty Supply Store a couple of days ago. I walked in there with the intention of purchasing some more curlformers because a lot of the ones I have are falling apart gradually. Side Note: I need to complain to the makers of this product because curlformers are entirely too expensive to be falling apart like that.

Anyway, I walked into Sally's and while I was browsing I ran across a curling/clumping product that was supposed to make my curls pop or whatever. I picked it up, figured I'd give it a try but while I was in line waiting to get checked out, I scanned over the Sale Items of the Week that was standing next to me.

And this product just seemed like it was screaming at me to pick it up. I did pick it up out of curiosity and debated if I should put it back or not becuase of the price $4.99. I got the cash register, when the lady behind the counter rang it up it came up as 0.99cents! and she let me keep the price!

I got home, used it liberally all over my hair and fell in love! I'm still trying to figure out how it works but I think the key is that unlike other gels, it actually doesn't clump my hair together. It basically un-clumps it and makes it more individually strandy. It basically tries to get the strands of my hair to seperate and be defined at the same time.

I've used it for flat-twists a couple of times now and in both cases it's turned out well. It make my hair super shiny and super uber soft. Which is actually a negative for me because it means my hairstyle won't hold for longer than a day.

But it's definitely one of those products I will keep in my arsenal and continue to tweak and mess with it. But so far, I am in love, so much so that I am returning the original product that I bought for $7.00 to get more bottles of Paul Mitchell's Straiht Works Gel.

I looked on google blogs to see if anyone's else has used and reviewed this product and didn't say one so, it's nice to be the first, at least to the best of my knowledge, to blog about it.

Still Going Strong

This is the longest time that my natural hair has kept twist-outs. I think it's been a week now and it still looks nice. My hair isn't matted or anything. The twists are still defined and nice.

I sleep with a scarf on my head at night and in the morning I spray some jojoba oil on the hair, fluff a little bit and go. I love having "get up and go hair" that's reliable!!!

Operation Twist-Out was a Success

The twist-out I did with half a bottle of Kerastase Oleo-relax was a definite success. So much so, that even my second day hair still looks nice. I could even venture to say that it looks better than my first day Hair!

Kerastase is definitely a keeper in my arsenal now, at least on dry straight hair. Only heaven knows how it'll react on coily wet hair. I'll find out in a month or so.
It definitely held the style in place. I sprayed some Jojoba oil on it to give the hair some shine/sheen.

An idea occured to me for a different kinda twist-out. I remember back in the day when I used to do twisties on my hair. The front of the hair would be flat-twisted and the back would just be straight hanging down (memories of my relaxer days).

Well, I think I'm going to try that on my hair the next time but instead of having the back of the hair straight and not doing anything, I'll flat twist the back sections also. I think this will give a more fuller look for my hair.

I think the ends of the twists will be more defined and fuller because the ends will be more curlier. What I do at the ends of my twist is wrap it around itself - kinda like a Bantu-knot. So, I'm imagining the result will be half the hair would be wavy and half curly. A good even mixture of this.

I really need to invest in a camera because I don't think anyone can picture what I just typed except for me, the person that typed it. One of these days, I'll re-arrange my priorities so that the purchase of a digital camera will be closer to the top of my list and I too will join the digital age!

Bantu-knot Result on Dry Straightened Hair

I did the Bantu-knot twist out on my currently straightened hair with a mixture of Jojoba and coconut oil.

It was cute, it did the whole coily fro thing it always does, but I was expecting the curls to be looser and more defined. Needless to say, it was still somewhat frizzy and the majority of it wasn't defined, especially for the second day hair.

But I got a pleasant surprise earlier today when I applied mega doses of my left over Kerastase Oleo-relax serum to my the dry, second day, bantu-knot twist outs. It made the curls very much looser and defined.

But I didn't leave it to see what it would look like in a few hours, instead, I proceeded to do some flat twists on my hair because I am taking full advantage of this straight manageable hair. I also sprayed some of the Salerm brushing spray on it, to give the twists some hold, and then sat under the dryer for about 15 minutes.

I think I should have set the temperature for the dryer to medium and not high because I lost a lot of the shine that the Kerastase serum gave my hair. But we'll see tomorrow morning when I un-twist the flat twists, what results I get.

Don't think I can experiment with Kerastase any more because I've pretty much run out of the whole bottle. It took me just two stylings to use it up. Some reviews I read said the serum lasts for 6mths. or longer. Not if you got the hair on my head it don't, LOL. It lasted a whole week, ha! I think I'm going to try the one for really dry hair next time. Maybe then I won't use so much of it. I highly doubt that.

Va Va Volume....a la Curlformers

Since my hair was already straightened and since I don't appreciate straight hair that just sits on my head and does nothing. I decided to add me some curls! with the help of my, sometimes trusty, curlformers.

Well, they got the job done, and they did it well.

First I doused my hair and scalp with Jojoba oil
Then I applied coconut oil onto every section I was going to curl
Then, when all the curlformers were in place, I sprayed my hair with some
Salerm Brushing Plis Technico, or whatever it's called.
Its the same spray I used to flat iron my hair
Then I dried the hair, even though it wasn't wet but, this is the only way to keep the curls in place. So, I dried it under my trusty hooded-dryer for about 45min.

Left the curlformers in, tied a scarf over the whole shabang
Woke up in the morning and Voila, nothing but volume, honey!
My hair came out wavy and voluminous, and I love it. But, of course, the real challenge is, how long will it last.

But I won't be too dissappointed if it doesn't last long because I want to try the same exact steps with Bantu-knots instead of curl-formers. I actually think the Bantu-knots will give more defined volume, as opposed to a loose volume, like curlformers. I also think the Bantu-knots will last longer than the curlformers.

I might as well enjoy and experiment with this straightened hair for as long as it lasts.

I Did It...But I'm Not Impressed

I flat-ironed my hair last night/this morning. It took me a total of 4 hours even with my new fangled flat iron. Why 4 hours? because my hair is really thick and it got even thicker with the products that I used.

First Step: I drenched my head in a mixture of Shikakai powder and coconut milk.
The box said to make it into a paste, well I didn't realize how much
milk was in the coconut milk can because all I saw was the fatty white
stuff. So I got a little carried away and the paste turned into runny
muddiness.
No worries, I still used it anyway. My goal was to keep it on my head
for at least 2hrs. I think I managed 45min. because it started running
down my face and neck.
Needless to say I liked it and it will be part of my regimine. It made
my hair thicker, (not sure if I need anymore thickness) somewhat softer
and overall stronger.
Thats precisely why I waited to use it before I flat-ironed my hair
because I wanted it to be strong enough to handle the heat and not have
as much split ends.

Second Step: I pumped a handful of Kerastase Oleo-relax on my hands and applied it
all over my damp hair before I blow-dried it. Lets just say this
anti-freeze serum was no match for my frizzy hair, not even close. It
just made my hair feel hard and weird.
The funny thing is the box says to use two small pumps and apply over
the hair. I ended up using two puumps of the serum for every strand of
hair on my head. I literally used half the bottle.

Third step: I used Salerm Brushing spray on each section of the hair and re-used
Kerastase on the same section, and then, another pump for the ends of my
hair, which is what I really want to protect.
Then I flat ironed with the brand new Solia flat iron I purchased from
Folica.com

Overall, I'm not impressed. Yes, my hair is flat. But that's all it is flat. It's straight but not silky or anything, actually, its very dull looking (gotta hit up that jojoba oil. I tried to put some "oomph," some bouce, body, whatever you want to call it but, it basically fell flat this morning.

I'm not impressed with the flat-iron so I'm returning it. I figure I can use my rollers and over-head drier and get a semi-straight result. I won't be as soft and the ends will still look kinda crinkly but the overall effect is pretty much the same. So, obviously I will not be flat-ironing my hair every 3 months like I thought.


Maybe I'll try again next year with a different flat iron and/or different products.
This experience just reminded me of one of the main reasons I went natural in the first place. I hate when hair just sits flat on my head and doesn't do anything!
At least give me some shine, something! something to work with!
I plan on returning the flat-iron on Saturday and getting my roughly $80 back into my account where it belongs. Thank God for return policies!

Its That Time Again...Coco Swiss...Natural Hair Star of the Month

When and Why did you decide to go natural
I decided to go natural as my way of letting go of the past and starting over.

Who does your hair mostly, i.e. hairdresser, aunty, urself, e.t.c.
I a beautician, so myself

What r ur "IT" Hair Products
Miss Jessies buttercreme, curling pudding, fantasia Ic leave in and Black earth shampoo-Taliah Waajid

Who is ur natural hair inspiration
Kelis, when she had big and curly hair

Words of Wisdom to natural hair folks or those considering it.
Be patient, enjoy the many hair stages you'll go through, Love and learn your hair and discover the natural beauty that's inside all of us. The end results are well worth it.