Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Summer Protective Style #1



This is a phony bun that I made using Milky Way Indian Hair Brazilian Curl !!! I purchased 14 inches in a 1B. I LOVE IT !




- I cut the hair in half, and took one half of it to make my bun and saved the other half for another day =)

- I shampooed and conditioned the hair with my KeraCare Weaves & Extensions products.

- I washed my real hair as normal, applied my leave-ins, and then applied my Eco Styler Olive Oil Gel over my edges.

- I pulled my hair into a ponytail, and wrapped the tracks around my real ponytail.

- I bobby pinned the hair down, twisted it up into a bun, and wore that thing fiercely !!! Here are the pics and the link to my video where I show the entire process step-by-step.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHl1ieh2CqE






I LOVE IT !!! Alot of my transitioning subscribers expressed how they want to try this. I'm so happy for you ladies, you'll love this style. Nicole, if you're reading, THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN ! I love this style and I plan on wearing it forever, LOL

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

9 Month Comparison



Just a little timeline of my flatirons on natural hair. It grows ! I have to look at these pics to remind myself sometimes. My shrinkage is becoming so intense with each wash day !!

JUNE FLAT IRON !

I'll keep this blog short and sweet =)

I rollerset my hair on saturday/sunday night and then I lightly passed the flat iron over my hair !!! My ends look a little rough but that's okay bc I only straightened my hair with intentions to trim it. I don't like straightening my real hair, I'd rather use a clip in piece or a wig to get the relaxed look. I can't wait to cowash tomorrow and watch the curlies come back !!! Here are a bunch of pics from the experience !

Here is my hair after washing and then rolled up :




And here are the results !! Again I do apologize my ends look a little rough, I am going to trim them tommorrow (probably an inch). I did want a good idea of my true length though !!














I'm happy !!! Here is the before and after for you =) Thank you for reading !!!!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

18 Months Since My Last Relaxer !!




Yesterday completed a full 18 months ( a full year and a half) since my last relaxer !!! My last relaxer was December 15th 2008. I still can't believe how far I've come. It's like a dream !!

Anyways, I'm VERRRRRY close to wearing my natural hair out without a headband or any other kind of accessory. My fro is getting larger !!! It's not much of a TWA anymore. As you can see in the first picture, my shrinkage is around 50%. I can't wait to straighten it out and be amazed, LOL.. In these pictures, I just got off of work and took my cornrows down and this was the result ! I'm going to start doing more braidouts on dry hair to continue and give my hair that "hang".

Thank you for reading everyone !!! Hang in there transitioners !!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Eco Styler Olive Oil Gel- First Try



Well I finally purchased this product after hearing so many youtubers and bloggers rave about it. I went to Sally's Beauty Supply on Thursday and it was on sale for $3.29. That price seemed good to me ! I bought the 32 oz jar and it will probably take me 2 years to use it all up. There's no way I can use all of it anytime soon. Anyways, I did my 2 strand twists with it in place of shea butter. The results were very pretty, but nothing worth going crazy over. I can't tell the difference between my results with this or any other product I use. I didn't use too much because I didn't want crunchy hair. I had intentions of undoing and wearing my twists out, but I still am not comfortable with my length. I ended up pulling my hair into a puff, as always. I can say though that I'm happy my hair isn't crunchy or hard at all. I look forward to revisiting this product in the future when my hair is longer, but for now I'll let my Mom and sisters use it. Maybe I'll use it to slick my puff back sometimes. I would rather wait until my hair is longer before I start to play with other styles other than the puff. Just my preference :-)




I did have a highlight of my day though !! I saw my old transitioning photos on fotki from one year ago and I was inspired to do a comparison photo. I'm really happy at what I see! One year ago I had about almost 3 inches of NG with those long stringy relaxed ends hanging... Now one year later I have 9 inches of all natural, thick healthy hair on my sides ! The inches honestly don't matter though, I'm just glad the strings are gone !!! Hang in there transitioners =)

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Thank You !



Thank you to all 85 readers who voted in the poll !! The majority of my readers are transitioning (44%) with a close 38% of ladies/gents who are already natural! That really shocked me, I thought the majority of my readers were recent BC-ers like I was. I never gave much thought into sharing my transitioning stories, but with this newfound info, I definitely will write more blogs geared toward the transitioners !! I will transfer some of my hair board blogs I wrote during my 7 month transition to this page. I am also going to begin featuring women who are transitioning (or have transitioned) so that you ladies can bond together. That is crucial for a successful transition. I would have quit and just relaxed if I didn't have my online friends (and my designated transition buddy Diana) on the hair boards to support me. I never told any of my friends in real life of my plans, because none of them could understand or appreciate my healthy hair journey. I want you ladies to be able to stay close and connected and encourage each other !

A good percentage of ladies are already relaxed/texlaxed and plan on staying that way (14%). Thank you to those readers as well, it makes me so happy that someone is reading even though you have no plans on going natural. I will begin to write about inspirational relaxed ladies too who have grown there hair out from damaged lengths to much more healthy, full lengths.


Only 2% of the chemically treated ladies are considering transitioning in the future. Don't worry, I won't try to sway your decision !! Going natural has to be a subjective decision, I don't ever deliberately try to change someone's mind, that pressure can lead to regret later on.

This insight really helps !! I never know who is reading so it's harder to think of what to write about. I will continue to document my HJ, but I will also write blogs geared to all women on a HHJ so that you can feel inspired =) Please feel free to share if you have an idea of what you would like to see mentioned on this blog. Have a great week everyone !!! =)

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The Price of Being Cute...

Yesterday was my youngest sister's 16th birthday! Our family went out for dinner. It was very hot and I decided I did NOT feel like wearing a wig. At the very last minute, I decided to do a quick wash and go. I knew I wouldn't have time to prepoo for at least an hour or overnight like I normally do, so I figured I would leave some Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship Conditioner in so that my hair would smell really sweet :-)

.... I could kick myself for doing that !! Something told me not to use the Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship Conditioner, use my Suave Naturals Tropical Coconut Conditioner (dimethicone free) instead. Suave always keeps my hair soft and detangled. Well of course the HE LTR is LOADED with fragrances and cones, both of which lead to my hair being TERRIBLY dry. For some reason, my hair always feels dry hours later after using my Long Term Relationship. That's not good, usually it takes a few days for me to feel the dryness a product can cause, but not with this particular conditioner.

Here was my hair before, it looked so soft, smelled sweet, and felt so great that I made a tweet about it !!




Just hours later and especially by the next morning, my hair felt and looked so dry !! I am going to make a youtube video so that you can see how bad my hair looks and feels. I took pics, but for some reason my camera is just not capturing the full extent of the dryness. The flash takes away from how serious the problem is, LOL... I really need to toss the HE LTR or give it away. It's just not a good product for my hair type. This product is always a hit or miss. 95% of the time, it's a miss. I haven't had a good experience with it since my relaxer days. I just don't have the heart to throw it away since I spent money on it.

As always, I am once again depending on my organic products to undo the damage and be my cure all! I wish I would have just washed with my Zipporah Beauty like I always do, but time didn't allow me to properly wash and deep condition the way I like to. No more shortcuts... I will make a youtube video so that everyone can really see just how dry my hair is right now and the steps I take to fix it.

Thank you for reading, as always !