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 =)

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 !!! =)

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 !

Hair Hiding Again

I've decided that I want to go back into hair hiding because my hair grows like a weed when I'm not touching it everyday. I am going to stick to washing & DCing once a week, and I will oil my scalp a few times a week as needed. I will also moisturize my hair as needed ( probably every other day).

I decided to go back to wigs because my schedule is just to hectic to deal with my hair everyday, and it's just easy to throw a wig on for a week and wash on the weekend !!! I am about to order my first full lace wig online too, I want a nice body wave wig that I can flat iron !!! I can't wait for that unit to arrive and show the pics of her.

Here are the wigs I am in right now... The first wig is my work wig, I rollerset it all the time to restore the curls. It is a wet and wavy type lace front that I bought from my local beauty supply store.



The second is a half wig that I cut to make more subtle... That thing was huge !!!







The first wig is by Zury, it's a lace front (not to be confused with a full lace wig) and it's called Ashanti..The second wig is a by Outre named "Evony".

Thanks for reading !!

My "Bunny-tail"

I came across my bunnytail today by accident!

I decided to use Wild Growth Oil on my scalp when I woke up this morning, I haven't used it in a very LONNNNNG time and wanted to revisit it. It left this waxy film-on my scalp !! Then the smell of it was upseting me. I couldn't stand it anymore so I washed and shampooed my hair. The film was still on my hair!! It felt like a thin coat of candle wax was on my scalp. I realized that I would need to apply plenty of cheapie conditioner as a prepoo to get the film to soften and eventually come off, YUCK...

Anyways, my hair was still wet from being washed. I used a generous amount of Aussie Moist all over and pulled my hair into a pony. I haven't used it since last year, in December. I just applied it any kind of way, but my hair dried soooo pretty !! All I could think about was how pretty it would look if I had actually detangled and used the rake & smooth method to define my hair ! I'm going to try shingling my hair sometime later this month if I have time. Here are the other pics, enjoy !

No Natural Hair on the Job...Not Yet !!

Well, as I just wrote in my previous blog, I have my career finally !!! I wore a synthetic lace front the first couple of days, but the lace was bothering me way too much, it irritated to the point I broke out on my hairline and scalp! That bothered me, not to mention the fakeness of it. I hate how synthetic hair looks like Barbie Doll hair !! Ughhh. I cracked and bought myself a human hair lace front and I will never buy synthetic again !! LOL...I bought this wig off of the mannequin head for a 20% discount so I don't have all of the info on it's name but if anyone wants to know I'll go back to my BSS to find out for you =)

Here is how it looks on the mannequin...







.... and this is my work look ! I love it. I can't wait until my hair is this long. Hopefully after a year and a half I'll be close..



I plan on wearing my real hair to work as soon as it is long enough to put in a ponytail/cute updo. For now it's still too short, but hopefully by the end of the summer I'll be able to =)

My New Job...

Hey ladies !!! Well if you've read the older blog posts, you know I wrote about how I needed time to get away from youtube and the hair boards to get things in my personal life together. I didn't want to talk about all of my personal matters back then, but I can talk about everything going on now that it's all worked out =)

I have a new job !!! After being unemployed for almost 8 months, I finally am working again. I feel so blessed ! I've been training for the last 2 weeks and I still have about 2-4 more weeks of training. My training is rigorous, I have to become acquainted with a million and one different software programs and the correct way to use them. It's been alot of fun learning though !!! Somewhere in the hustle and bustle of my orientation and my hands on training I've been sooooo tired and just haven't had time to update here and especially not on youtube or the hair boards. I know time will free up eventually though !

I just wanted you all to be caught up on my doings so that you won't worry too much =)

I sincerely thank everyone for all the kind words and prayers ( a huuuuuge thank you to Nakeisha, Kim, Diana,Laine, and Sweetfm for their prayers for me !) and to everyone else who I haven't talked to yet but just wrote hello to me on any of my pages. Thank you all for just remembering me if nothing else, it's nice to know I have extended friends =) Right about now, you ladies know more about what's going on in my life than my own personal friends, hahahahaha .. I love typing in my blog about everything !

As always, thank you for reading everyone. I hope you enjoy your weekend !!

8 Months Since the Big Chop !! ( Afro Puff Comparison )

Hey Ladies !! Well I just wanted to write a very short and sweet blog to update you !

On March 29th, I made it to 8 months post Big Chop !!! Today I'm rocking a super-sized puff and I LOVE it. Earlier today, my sister, who has teased me since the big chop by calling me She-baldi (hehehehe !! that's still funny to me)...

well get this... She says to me, "I like your hair today. It looks nice." :-O *jaw drop* Did I hear her correctly??? Wow !!! lol... My sister always asks me if I'm going to straighten my hair, or get it blown out and I constantly tell her no, I don't like it straightened. This is the first time she's told me that my natural hair looks nice, as is. I was shocked, like Fred Sanford, hand over heart, "Elisabeth, I'm coming to joing you !" shocked. Don't get me wrong, she doesn't call my hair ugly, but whenever I ask her if she likes it, she says how it will look cuter once it gets longer. Can't say I disagree with that, because I honestly have always felt that way.

Anyways, I'm just SO HAPPY that it's growing to the point others can see it =)

Here is a pic of my puff today. My hair almost completely covers the back of my hairline!! I can't wait to see my ponytail in another 8 months !



... and to the transitioners, hang in there!!! Here is an 8 month comparison of my afro puff. The pic on the left is from August 2, 2009 (4 days after the BC).
The pic on the right is today, April 1,2010 ( almost 8 months later)!! My hair has been growing the average 1/2 inch a month, nothing miraculous. I'm just glad to be retaining the length.



HHJ Everyone !

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.

My Second Flat Iron !!

Yesterday I rolled my hair for my 4th time. I'm so happy because I've graduated roller sizes !!! I can use the red rollers now !!! (not much of a difference at all, but an accomplishment nonetheless for me lol)





After rolling I did a saran wrap, and then lightly flat ironed on low heat to make the hair lay down a bit.. here are the pics !!!






Check it out in my latest video, My Flat Iron parts 1 and 2

Shrinkage Comparison !!

This is my hair after a wash and go, and also after combing out my rollerset. Wow ! What a difference... I love rollersetting for these cold winter months, it's nice to have hair on my neck once again. Rollersetting every week is helping my patience while I'm growing out this TWA !!



What I love most about rollersetting is that it becomes easier with time, my hair becomes "trained" to stay straight, and for longer, and when I prepoo or wash my hair, the curls snap right back and they have absolutely NO heat damage !!

Thank you for reading !!

2009 Hair Journey Progress Picture !!!

It was a great year.. I did my BC, and pretty much made it back to where I was last year =) .. I'm excited to see what this year brings !

My Results with Miconazole Nitrate (MN)

Alot of people want to know more about my personal results with MN, so here is the progress pic blog I originally wrote on the Hairlista network in September. That was also when I stopped using MN. I have copied and pasted it for you, enjoy !

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO HAIRLISTA ON SEPT. 19, 2009


Well I wanted to post the results of my personal 2 month MN challenge that I planned to do from my big chop ( July 29 ) to the end of this month (Sept. 30)





I know I'm cutting my challenge short,but I am too lazy to continue using and mixing MN every other week lol.. MN is wonderful, but the cream and oil separate and I'm so tired of shaking and mixing vigorously every time I have to apply. That is the only drawback I've had with it.

It has really helped my nape too. I'm no longer bald there, I have enough hair that I'm not ashamed to wear updo hairstyles with it showing ( I'll take pics of it soon for comparison). My baldie is the reason I tried MN in the first place. One of my friends on another hair board wears wigs bc she is balding in patches on her head. She tried tons of products but MN worked best to fill the spots in. She saw my blog back in March about my balding and suggested MN, but I wasn't trying to hear anything about coochie cream lol...Well 3 months later, it was too hot to wear my hair down all the time to hide my nape and I wanted to rock my bun so I tried it out. It's not a miracle, but it did work to be so cheap lol... I had ringworm on my nape back in gradeschool and the hair never grew back in sadly ... I've spent a good hundred dollars the past 10 years buying products that are supposed to regrow balding napes and edges and nothing else worked so quickly ( I havne't tried Rogaine though )



Just in case you can't tell, the pic on the left is from March 4, 2009. If you use my ears as a reference point, you can see my hairline stops at about the middle of my ear. In the second picture, its harder to tell, but my hairline starts at the bottom of my earlobe ( took that pick Sept. 6). Yay !! lol.. like I said, MN is no miracle product, but it really did work. I tried WGO and Castor Oil on my nape exclusively and I had no luck. I will go back to MN soon, I"m just lazy right now lol


I want to use EVCO exclusively for my next challenge. I am really loving the idea of using all natural and organic products now, my hair is responding so well to them, its time to use them on my scalp lol. I just started with Biotin this week, and I look forward to starting MSM powder when I go to my doctor and get the go-ahead =)

*** I've been applying MN 3-4 times a week to my entire scalp. I massage my scalp after I apply it, and I take a multivitamin everyday. That's it ! My MN is mixed with regular 100% castor oil and wild growth oil =) ****

Rollerset Again !!

Here is the third attempt at rollersetting ! This time I rolled from ear to ear first, and omitted the mohawk method. I like it MUCH BETTER this way ! I was able to get rollers on and didn't need the flexi-rods. Here are the pics :-)





How I Did It:

-pre poo overnight with Elasta QP DPR-ll
-shampooed with KeraCare Shampoo for Weaves & Extensions
-sprayed ApHogee Keratin & Green Tea over my hair and combed through
-rubbed 5 squirts of my KeraCare Foam Wrap Lotion into my hair and combed through
-rolled with 33 turquoise rollers
-sat under my hooded dryer for over an hour, then airdried the rest of the night
-fell asleep with the rollers in my hair !! (it wasn't comfortable at all either)
-took down the rollers, and saran wrapped my hair, then back under the dryer for 15-20 mins
-shake and go !

I made a youtube video if you want to see how it looks real time =)

Thank you for reading =) !!

Fro-Hawk Fail

Last sunday, I tried doing the frohawk... It didn't work !! I just don't have the right hair to pull off this look yet. Honestly, I don't have the right persona either.. My style is more of a reserved one. I just DID NOT feel right and I felt it looked wrong on me. This style is for the bold & edgy woman !! That's not me anymore, hehehehehe. Maybe I'll try again in the future though :-)

on a much better note, my favorite style ( THE AFRO PUFF !) is only growing larger every month !!! I'm TOO happy about that !! I hope to be able to make a decent sized ponytail by the summer, so that I can go swimming with it =P



I hope I don't sound vain and conceited, but I just want to stare at this pic when I see it !! The huge afro puff is one of my reasons for going natural !!!

Beauty Supply Store Haul !!

Hello Everyone !! I hope you all had a great week and are ready for this weekend =) On the first of the month, I had the chance to go to the Beauty Supply Store and restock on some hair goodies ! I have cut out my former Product Junkie ways, and now I pretty much rely on my natural & organic products mostly. That makes me so happy ! My coils on the other hand, have been begging me to buy their old-time favorite, Elasta QP DPR-11...

I ran out of my beloved DC shortly after my big chop. I had such a hard time finding it at any of my local BSS (beauty supply stores). Well Monday I found it !! I almost walked right past it, I didn't recognize it in the new jar ! Not only is the jar new, something about the consistency, color, and smell are all new !! I didn't see any changes in the ingredient list though, so I was partially confused. At first I worried if it would still give me my PERFECT results like it used to..Well I applied it yesterday night, and while applying to my hair and using my "Fenman" ( fake denman!) to get it on evenly, I immediately fell right back in L-O-V-E!! I honestly can't tell a difference in the way it made my hair look and feel (compared to how it made my hair feel in the past when I used it). Somehow the product is different though, but I just don't know how. I need to go check the Elasta site and find out..I have no complaints though !!!

The second product I purchased was Lustrasilk's Shea Butter Cholesterol with Mango !! I hear great things about this particular product. In the past, I used the carrot oil formula on my relaxed hair, but sadly it did nothing for me. Since completing my BC, it has only done marvels !!! Go figure ... lol. Well the Shea Mango Cholesterol was just as FABULOUS !! I had to make a youtube video on how great it was =) I went heavy while applying it, because it seemed as if I didn't even apply any to the shaft. It almost felt like putting creamy water on my hair, it did nothing !!! I kept applying it though, and hoped that it wasn't a waste of my 3 dollars... Well sure enough, after letting it sit on for 30 mins, it made my hair feel sooooooo soft and it really defined the curls !! It will definitely become one of my staple prepoo/deep conditioners ! It is great to be fairly cheap. That is great for me because I don't have money to spend on a costly DC... I just want something that does great, and costs less !! I've found that in this product.

I also bought some more mango butter ! It ran out around the same time as the DPR-11. I wanted this again because I need something creamy to moisturize with when I rollerset ! My water based products would cause my hair to revert, and I'm not a fan of moisturizing with oil on dry hair unless I'm doing a hot oil treatment !!

So now I have all 3 of my babies !!! My Elasta QP Mango Butter & DPR-11 and my Shea Mango are all keepers forever =)