Wash and Style

Alright so, wash- day was postponed until today. Which means I went to school yesterday with un-washed hair. With all the preparations I was making for the first day of classes, I simply had no time for the long and tedious wash session.

The wash session really wasn't as bad as it would have been, if I had not detangled on Wednesday and yesterday. I applied shea butter and a sprayed some water on my hair, section by section, detangled, braided and added rollers to each end. I didn't take any pictures of my hair yesterday. I do though, have some pictures from Wednesday's hair, which looks just like my hair yesterday, except a little neater, of course.

Today I washed with my Dr. Miracles shampoo and conditioner. This shampoo does have sulfates, but it's near the end on the ingredients list. Plus, I only apply it to my scalp, so that way I clean my scalp without drying out my hair. I also deep conditioner and learned something wonderful! I deep conditioned with another one of my concoctions, this time it was an egg, some regular vo5 conditoner and a bit of extra virgin olive oil. I realized that that the olive oil made my hair very, very soft! I love it and now I'm going to buy some more and add it to all my deep conditioners. I styled in a regular braid and curl.

Dreading Wash Day

Well, there's two days left until my classes begin. I've been putting off my wash day, because I rather wash and style when I have somewhere important to go and that would be school. Anyway, I'm really not looking forward to wash day because I haven't thoroughly combed through my hair in over three weeks(thanks to my twists). I'm hoping that the little combing I have done and lots of conditioner, will help me through the process.
I'll be washing and styling Wednesday evening/night, because classes start Thursday morning and I want to have a 'fresh' hairstyle.

Braid-out results

Before I went to bed last night I added the green rollers to my ends. When I took my braids out today, it looked really soft and fluffy. It's stretched out because it was done on dry hair. For a while I even considered doing this style often, but I remembered that school starts next week and time will definately be an issue, seeing how long it takes to comb out my dry to lightly damp hair.


We'll see how things go though.

To Twist or to Braid...

I've been wearing my twist-out for the past two days and tonight I noticed that it started tangling in the back (my tangle-prone zone). I decided to lightly de- tangle and set it in braids or twist.

I randomly sectioned it off and I applied Shea butter to each section. I then sprayed water onto the ends and started de-tangling with a normal sized comb.

I had a LOT of shed hair, as expected, when you don't de-tangle your hair for three weeks.

After de-tangling I twisted each section, by the time I was all done, some of them was already starting to unravel. I decided to take all the twist out and braid the sections instead.

I noticed that when my hair was shorter twist-outs looked better in my hair, but as it started to grow, it seemed to prefer braid outs. I have no idea why, or if it's just a phase or something, but we'll see.

As I type, I'm sitting with my hair in braids (or plats). I think I'll put some rollers in before I go to bed and I'll pictures of the braid out.

It will obviously look longer than my regular braid and curl, because it was done on dry to slightly damp hair.

My Twists are Out

I took my twists out yesterday, the 19th. Which means I kept them in exactly 3 weeks. That's the longest I've ever went with two-strand twist in my hair.

I'm going to wear a twist-out for the next couple of days and wash and style at the end of the week or the weekend.

My twist-out is huge and I love it, but I have to find a way to style it. I'm going out today, so I'll post some pics of whatever style I come up with.

Update: I decided to go simple with the styling so I simply pulled back the front and clip it.

Life vs. Hair

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of posts. My computer crashed a while ago and until I buy a new one (which should be soon) I'll be using family and friends' computers.
I also moved, which had me busy. When life gets in the way, things such as hair care has to take a backseat.
I still have my hair in twists, but it's not looking too good. Because of the way I've been sleeping, some of the twist end up slipping out from under my hair tie, and getting rubbed on my cotton pillow case...not good. This could definately be the reason I've been seeing so many split ends, even after I did I my trim. Before I take my twists out, I'll do a search for any split ends and trim them off.

My prayers are going out to Haiti!

Bunning my Twist!

Hey readers, I haven't had a chance to access a computer lately, which explains why I haven't been posting as often.

My twist have been getting frizzy, of course. Yesterday, the 12th, made two weeks since I put them in. I think I'll leave them in until the week of the 24th, because my classes start the 28th.

I think I'll wash them either this weekend or sometime next week. They will shrink up of course and I'm not sure if I'll leave them that way or redo a couple of them. Either way I'll post pictures.

Below are a few pictures of my latest style. I made a donut bun last summer, by following an awesome tutorial on youtube (I don't remember the link). It's really easy to make and they also sell them pretty cheap at beauty supply stores. I put it in my hair to give my bun more volume.

Trimming My Twist

My hair's still in twist, I do plan to leave them in for a while especially since I'm on vacation from school. I don't really have anywhere to go and I have no need for styling.

I desperately need a trim though, just looking at my hair I can see numerous amounts of split ends and single strand knots. I believe the reason for these splits and knots is neglect. I haven't gotten a professional trim in about 2 years, but I think I do fine on my own. The problem is the fact that I don't do it often enough. I trimmed a little less than an inch off in November when I straightened and now I'll trim the same amount off. I'll be trimming each twist, which might take a while.

I know that trimming my hair is extremly benificial. After a trim my hair is much eaiser to de-tangle and there is virtually no breakage.
My problem isn't that I don't have a trimming schedule, my problem is that I don't trim when I know I should. I can always tell when I need a trim, just by looking at my hair. I just wish I would stop putting it off because then it gets really bad.
Tonight, I'll be trimming. I'll trim about half an inch off each individual twist. That's not a lot and within months it'll grow back much healthier.
I think the key to trimming while retaining length is:
1) Keeping your hair healthy. If you keep your hair healthy, by deep condioning often and keeping maliputation low, you won't need to trim as often.

My favorite products and regimen

I don't think I've taken the time to post my favorite products or my regimen, so in case you wanted to know, here goes.

This is the products I use and the steps I take to create a beautiful braid and curl, my favorite style.

What I use:
Dr. Miracles Tingling shampoo and condtioner (one product)
Suave conditoners (mostly coconut and green apple scents)
Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner
Melted Shea Butter


What I do:
Washing ->I wash my hair with Dr. Miracles tingling shampoo and conditioner (I don't apply shampoo down the length of my hair, I only apply it to my scalp and let the water flow do the rest). I wash my hair with shampoo only ever couple of months, other times I wash with either conditioner or diluted Apple Cider Vinegar.



Deep Conditoning->I usually 'make' my own deep conditioners. I use mayo or yogurt, eggs, olive oil and a bit of melted shea butter. It's not the most amazing deep conditoner, but I haven't found any products that makes my hair feel they way this concoction does. My little brother always makes fun of me when I do this, he says that I'm feeding my hair. But I figure, If I can eat it, then it's good enough for my hair and it's cheaper.


Styling -> Ok, my favorite styling product is Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner. I'm not strictly on the 'conditioner-only method' (http://www.tightlycurly.com/technique/curlyprimer/) because if I find a good styling product that produces similar results as Hello Hydration, I will use it. I have tried many styling products and eventually they all make my hair feel horrible.


Directly out of the shower (and I mean directly, any air-drying time is no good) while my hair is still soaking wet I separate my hair into small sections, and I apply my the conditioner then I braid or plat if you prefer, that section as close to the root as possible. I don't braid it down all the way to the bottom, I leave about two and a half inches of hair at the bottom un-braided and I roll it on either the black or the green roller. The black roller is an inch and a half and the green is an inch.








I do between 8 and 12 braids. I let the braids dry overnight. If I have to wake up early in the morning and there's not enough time to dry, I would take a towel and tightly squeeze my hair( before I braid) to get all of the excess water out.

In the morning when I wake up my hair looks similar to this:

Before I take the braids out, I melt a little Shea butter between my fingers and I run it down the braid. The shea butter keeps it soft and shiny. When I first take my braids out, the curls and waves are very defined and I don't have much volume. So after lots of fluffing, it ends up looking like this:

This is usually how my hair looks by day 2 or 3 and I love it more than day one.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comment box.

Don't Forget to Enjoy Walking Under the Rainbow.

Many women get so taken up in growing long, healthy hair that they forget to enjoy HAVING beautiful hair. To me, it's like chasing the pot of gold, and getting there only to realize that it's just a bowl of corn flakes.

When we first start growing healthy hair, we get so excited the first couple of months when we realize that our hard work IS actually paying off. But then as time go on we start learning so many new things, like how good protective styling is for the hair and that our hair must have a moisture protien/moisture balance and it grows best when we trim EVERY six months and before we realize it, we're bunning for a year (we know buns are boring, but hey it's for the hair) and we mark down a trmming schedule and start buying so many different protien and moisture products and end up stressing about when to use which.

I'm not against people who do this, because sometimes that's what it takes to make our hair reach it's full potential. I just hate it when poeple get so into these 'rituals' that they dont even take the time out to enjoy their progress, they just keep chasing.

It can be really depressing to reach our 'hair goal' (the pot of gold) only to realize that since we didn't pay any attention to the progress, the journey and little accomplishments, that 'goal' isn't really what we wanted (the bowl of corn flakes).

Life is short. Do what you must, to get what you want, but just dont forget to enjoy the journey.

Too cold for cute hair

For the past few days, it's been in the teens and low twenties, in New York City. I wanted to try out some cute up-dos with my twists, but I ended up just gathering them into a low ponytail and putting my hat on top. Any updo would have just been crushed or ruined by my hat or probably wouldn't fit underneath it!

I have been moisturizing my hair with shea butter. Every night I put shea butter all over my twists, to keep it soft.
In the past, when weeks have gone by without me paying attention to my hair, the first thing it tends to do is break off. I think that's because I was too busy to notice the first signs, like the dryness and the split ends.
Now I'm gonna hit the breakage at the source...DRYNESS. Dry hair is like a dry twig, it will snap very easily. Whereas, a piece of branch which is getting moisture from the root, will bend much eaiser and it will be harder to break.

Hair lessons learned in 2009

I learned to...

1) Never, ever go longer than 5 days without detangling. Detangling sessions turns into a nightmare!

2)Moisturize everyday! In 2009 after I styled my hair on day one, that would be it until next wash day. Bad idea! Dry, hay-like hair! It was horrible. In 2010...I'll be making a huge effort to moisturize everyday!

3) Trim on regular basis! I'm trying to grow out my hair and so I thought trimming would just set me back. Actually, not trimming, was what set me back. I had so many single-stand knots and split ends and now I have to do a big trim. This year, I'll be doing search and destroys, to avoid split ends and cutting too much hair off.

Curly Twists

Although I had no where to go, I decided to do something with my hair. I still have my boring, body-less twist in, so I decided to curl it.
Curling it gives it the apperance of having more body, which is what I like. It's not that noticible because I only curled the very ends with the little green rollers over night.

My New Years Day 'hairstyle'

I still have my twist in, and decided that although I'm not really going anywhere, I should still style it for New Years Day. It's not really a stlye though, I honestly didnt put that much effort into it. I just put it up into a cute, kinda messy bun. I like the way it looks so...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I would like to wish everyone out there a very happy, blessed and sucessful new year!