DO YOU KNOW WHAT TODAY IS? IT'S MY ANNIVERSARY !!!

That's right... one year ago, I did the BC !!!! I was happy then, and I'm happy now. I got alot of growth, found some excellent products and developed an excellent routine, and there is nothing more I can really say besides enjoy the pics !!

I'm Blessed !!!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER WRITTEN A COMMENT, A MESSAGE, DID A YOUTUBE VIDEO, WATCHED MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS, SUBSCRIBED TO ME, BEFRIENDED ME ON THE HAIR BOARDS/TWITTER/FOTKI, ANY AND EVERYTHING !!! I LOVE EVERYONE AND COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT THE LOVE AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF MY (ONLINE) FRIENDS !!!


.... that was then......




.....and this is NOW !!......







I think I have excellent growth, even with my shrinkage....I can't wait to do a one year flat iron comparison in September next !!!

Thank you for reading everyone !!! =D

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

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 !!!!

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 !!

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 =)