I Know How to Cornrow Now !!!

Guess who did her first head full of cornrows ?!?! Yours truly !!! I couldn't believe how nice they came out! I have to work on getting them even and uniform, but honestly they came out really nice for my first try on my natural hair.

I did them a few times on my relaxed hair, but it was so much harder !! My hair would tangle so much for some reason. It's so much easier for me to do them on my kinky hair !! I'm not sure why. But I'm loving how easy it was !!! Check out the pictures. I tried doing a sew-in, but I didn't have enough packs of hair lol... so I left the cornrows in and just oiled my scalp. I had a professional meeting to go to a few days later, so I took them out and rollerset my hair. I can't wait to braid my hair up again !

Here are some pics :







I think I did well considering I have 2 left hands, hehehehehehehe !!!

Fro-Hawk Retry !!

Well I re-tried the fro hawk earlier this month, this time I liked my results because I washed my hair first !!! I didn't wear it out, but I can tell as it grows larger I'll gain some more confidence with it =)

Here are a few shots of it :






The very top of my hair is so fuzzy and ill-defined compared to the rest of my hair. I love my hair no matter what, but the frizziness and lack of curl on the top is the reason why I limit my styles to the puff only. It just doesn't look good =(

I'm really hoping that as it grows out I can blend it better. I did a light dusting on my hair yesterday, maybe that will help as well ! Right now my hair is straightened, I had to go to a meeting and decided it would be best for me to straighten my hair for it. So I took advantage of my straightened my hair and clipped the fuzzies ! Maybe I'll see a difference on my next wash day later this week =)

Taking a Personal Break....

I Love All of the friends I've made here, the hair boards, and on YouTube. You ladies are so encouraging and always offer encouragement and your friendships, and I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am to have met you.

This past week has been very trying and difficult. I know that I'm going through a test of my faith, and I am trying very hard to put all my trust in Christ so that I can get through this trying time. I am a Christian, and I am trying to be optimistic and remember what the good book says about times like this when we are troubled (James 1:2-4)

2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.


I don't want you to worry about me AT ALL. I am not in any eminent danger and my health and safety are all just fine.

I am however still going through some personal issues that just don't need to be talked about here or anywhere else. At times like this, I want to keep my personal life separate from my hair journey. I need some time away from the internet and just want to be with my family. I will be back very soon though.

I hope you all can understand. I truly am sorry but I promise when I come back, I'll be a force to be reckoned with..... I will have SO MANY updates when I come back here and on Youtube, you'll be tired of seeing me ! For now though, I just do not feel like talking about anything related to hair or my personal life.

I Love You All... Thank you for your prayers and understanding.

-Love Michele



BTW, for those who will want to know, I will be keeping my regimen simple. I plan to wash and deep condition my hair once a week only, and I will moisturize and seal 3xs a week as well. I am cornrowing my hair and wearing a wig to give my hair a break. I am only going to be using my Zipporah's Beauty products for a long time while I try to undo the damage I've had. I use the Citrus Delight Shampoo & Conditioner, and I also use the Vanilla Mint Moisturizing Hair Serum in combination with the Green Tea Hair & Body Butter to moisturize before braiding. The products are awesome and I'm glad that my hair is doing well while I try to make things in my personal life go just as smoothly. God Bless Everyone

Hair Drama....

This past month, I experienced some really bad drying. I mean REALLY BAD drying!! I don't know what the EXACT cause was, but I am certain I can say it was from the products I use.

Back in December, my hair felt exactly like this (dry and prone to breakage). I completely eliminated my cowashing with Aussie Moist & Tresemme, and I also rid myself of my ORS Hair Lotion. It seemed as if my problems were cured !! I cut out cowashing and began shampooing, and my hair felt much better for the next few months. In early February, I purchased some new products, and also continued on using my Cantu Shea Butter. I found my old Tresemme gel, and I began using it too when I tried shingling my hair.

Although my hair looked SO pretty on wash days, it sadly was becoming so dry and unhealthy in the days after, once again. I cannot say with 100% certainty what is causing the dryness, but I know it is either one or the combination of several products. Although I love them, they can be a gift and a curse. I think my hair also had a slight case of protein overload because I was using my Cantu Shea Butter Leave-In every wash.

I'm not taking any chances on breakage. I refuse to have any setbacks because of a product !!! I am so gentle and I don't ever do any styles to my hair. I wear an afro puff all the time, and it's never pulled too tightly. I keep my hair moisturized, and my scalp oiled. Still, something has been going terribly wrong !! Until I figure this out, I am going back to the products that NEVER let me down.. My all natural, organic products !!! I NEVER have drama with them. I feel bad I stopped with them, the only reason I didn't repurchase them was because I didn't like the smell !! You would think I would love how manageable and soft my hair was, but NOOOO ma'am.. I was obsessed with fruity/fragrant products !! That's just terrible. I'm paying the cost for that silliness now.

My Big Sister, Nakeisha, has finally opened her online store (Zipporah Beauty) and I am RELIEVED... I was about to go out to the Vitamin Shoppe or GNC to buy some natural products, but instead I can give my support to her. She is one of my best friends and my Sister in Christ so I am so happy to be using her line exclusively to help undo all of this damage I've been having. I've used the products twice, once this week and once last week. It seems as if my problems are all gone, so I am going to continue with the Zipporah line EXCLUSIVELY for the next few months just to be sure that my hair woes are completely cured. I really love the line, the products are all natural and organic, plus they smell GREAT ! That's really important to me, I really do not like bad-smelling products. I will write about my experience with each product in detail in my upcoming blogs =)

Stretching My 2 Strand Twists

If you've read my past blogs, you already know how frustrating shrinkage is to me. I almost considered texlaxing my hair because I was so sick of it ! Well I did the rollerset/flat iron look for a month and LOVED it. Now I am loving my puff and fro again, and I have been using chunky 2 strand twists again to help keep my puff looking fresh and cute everyday.

On my Youtube channel, I decided to make a video series on how I "refresh" my fro once it gets dry and lopsided. One of my subscribers offered the suggestion that I try clipping my roots when I twist them in order to prevent that extra shrinkage. She told me how she does this on her twists, and her hair appears almost 3 inches longer. I tried it and it WORKS !!! You could not imagine how happy I was to see longer, fuller hair! I made a youtube video on it to thank her ( Thank you again Chrystal !!) and show the results of my trial. I never wrote a blog until now, here is how my hair looks after I clip it :





I had a hard time capturing how I do it, but I pull the twists downward to stretch the roots, and clip directly above where the twists begin. Be Sure you pull the roots downward and clip with tension. This is what makes the roots stay stretched. If you merely clip your roots, there will be no tension and you won't see any noticable change. The clips should feel securely in place, but not obnoxiously tight either. They don't hurt at all and I usually clip my roots before bed and enjoy the results in the morning ! Try this and let me know if it works for you =)

Be Blessed and Thank you for reading Everyone !

2-Strand Twistout Puff Results

Hello Everyone !!!

Here was my Saturday hair (sorry for the shadow) :-)



It's growing ya'll !!!! LOL...

Last Friday, I uploaded the 4 part "Frizzy Fro" series on my YouTube channel. Part 5 with the results was a damaged file and did not post to my page. I wanted to make sure you could see the results though and know exactly how I completed the look.

First, after I finished twisting, I put on a cute scarf because I had to pick up my sister. The scarf was on for about 30 mins total. When I got back home, I took it right off and airdried for an hour. After that hour, I gently took apart the twists. I didn't comb them out, I left them chunky and super defined. I sprayed all around my edges only with water, and rubbed some KeraCare Edge Tamer all around my perimeter to give it a nice, glossy sheen and hold. I wore my hair around the house all evening before tying my hair up again at night.

The next morning, I re-wet my edges again, but this time I used Mimosa Hair Honey to slick my wet edges back. I like the sheen it gave my hair. I didn't like this product originally, but it is slowly growing on me. It does contain beeswax, so I may end up putting it back under the sink where all of my unwanted products are. I don't know how my hair will respond to beeswax over time, I'm monitoring for now.

thank you for reading =)

Keeping the Motivation

I try to limit my comparison photos to once every 3 months so that I don't drive myself insane checking for progress. I'm glad that a full 3 months has passed since my last wet hair comparison shot in November. I was pleased with the results from today !! My hair is dripping wet here and was not detangled at all.




I'm glad that my hair is filling out on the sides each update. I can't wait to see my next update in May! I'm going to buy a nice curling product to try out on my hair so that I can finally wear these curls out !!! They're tired of hiding in the puff or rollersets =)

Living The Dream.....

It has been 1 Year since I decided to go all natural !!!

One year ago, there was absolutely NO WAY I was going to do a big chop... I simply refused to have short hair...

.....and then some 21 weeks later, I decided not to fight anymore, and just cut off all the remaining relaxed ends!! Some long term, no BC transition I had !!

I never would have imagined making it this far in my hair journey a year ago. If you would have told me that a Big Chop was coming and that I'd be natural long before my 24th birthday, I would have looked at you like you were lying through your teeth !

I say all this just to remind you, don't be afraid to dream big ! I have the hair of my DREAMS and I'm enjoying watching it grow out healthy and strong.