The Down-side to Shea Butter

If you follow my blog, then you know how much I love She Butter. I think it's a great moisturizer. Last year, I used it for everything. I used it to moisturize my dry hair and to condition my wet hair.

I realized that Shea butter for wet hair, during the winter is not a good idea for me. While you're in your hot shower, it feels great, but once your hair gets in contact with cool air, you will realize that your hair will start to look dull and get stiff. It doesn't look or feel good.
I deep conditioned my hair with melted Shea, and heated it with my handheld dryer for about 15 minutes.
When I went to rinse it out, it felt great (it's always best to rinse Shea butter with warm to hot water). When I came out the shower to add my styler (I used Aussie again) my hair began to look dull and it began to feel stiff. I regretted using the Shea butter. I would have rinsed it out but after spending almost an hour de-tangling, I just wanted to get out of the bathroom.

Depending on how my hair looks tomorrow, I might re-do it, or leave it.

Below I've posted a picture of how my flexi rod curls looked after the NYC rain and snow this week, had it's way with it. It looks a lot like a 2nd or 3rd day wash and go.

Flexi Curls, Post Deep Conditioning

Alright, I know I said that I wasn't going to use the Aussie 3 minute miracle as a styler again, but I thought that since it wasn't a good deep conditioner, for my hair, it might be a decent styler.

Well, I'm happy that I decided to give it another chance, because I was pleasantly surprised this morning, when I took my braids and flexi rods out. The first thing I felt when I started separating the curls, was the olive oil that I had added to the Aussie.

Although these are great results, I've had better, especially when you add in the fact that I deep conditioned. Maybe, I should have done exactly what the bottle said, "leave it on for 3 minutes".

The frizziness is because, I let my hair dry in braids, before dampening and adding the products to style.
Regardless, I am once again on a hunt for a good moisturizing a protein deep conditioner.

Tedious Wash Day

Today I decided to wash and deep condition my hair. I had no idea what I was getting into. I don't even remember the last time I thoroughly de-tangled my hair.
I realized that as my hair gets longer, the harder and harder it is to de-tangle. I was actually hoping that my over- night deep conditioning treatment would have eased the de-tangling but it didn't.

Yesterday, I washed with my Dr. Miracle's tingling shampoo and conditioner. It's a really good shampoo if you have dry scalp, like I do. I'll do a review on it soon.
I then applied my deep conditioner: Aussie moist 3 minute miracle mixed with a little Extra Virgin olive oil.

I slept with that in my hair over night and woke up this morning and tried to de-tangle.
The Aussie is'nt a very good deep conditioner, because my hair was almost just as dried out as before I put it in. I was very disappointed.
I decided to use the Aussie as a style since it sucked as a DC, tomorrow I'll see how it turned out. I also used the flexi rods on my ends as well.

The Picture below is of my damp hair with olive oil, after the Deep Conditioning. As you can see it's frizzy and it doesn't look like it's been deep conditioned all night.

My hair today

I took out the flexi rods this morning, took out the braids, pinned one side behind my ear and went to class. The pictures are below. Sorry for the quality, I'm using the webcam from my Acer labtop, and it's not that great. I really have to get a good camera.

Well anyway, I was actually very surprized this morning. Like I wrote yesterday, my expectations for this style wers very low. So this morning when I took out the flexi rods and the braids and saw that my curls/waves were well defined and decently soft I was happpy.
I am definately going to try these flexi rods again, next time it will be on freshly washed and deep conditioned hair and I want to see the results.

I am in great, great need of deep conditioning. I think that last time I deep conditioned was the 29th or 30th of January. That's about 3 weeks ago and that definately explains the dryness and breakage I've been experiencing. Winter is a time when you have to deep condition at least once a week, to maintain soft hair. I've definately been slacking and I need to get back on top of it.

Satin Cap/Bonet

I also bought a santin bonet or satin cap, whichever. I actually bought it before I bought the flexi rods, but I never got around to posting that.

Flexi Rods!

I finally bought flexi rods! I have wanted to try them for a long time. I had to buy a hole puncher for one of my classes and I though why not stop by the local beauty supply store while I'm out. I bought a 6-pack of the purple ones, I'm not sure what the exact measurements are though, but they are about medium sized.
I'm sorry for not taking pictures of my hair yesterday. I know I said I was going to, but I was excited to try the flexi rods and I completely forgot to take the pictures.
I wet my hair, not completely wet but pretty damp, and then I added some conditioner(Aussie 3 minute deep conditioner) this was my first time using this as a styler. I don't think I'm going to continue using it as one. I then braided (without detangling) and added the rods. I started at the bottom, then loosely rolled up the whole braid.

I am going to post pictures, I really will this time, even if it comes out bad. I dont have high expections for this style, mainly because I didn't detangle and also because I haven't deep conditioned in a while, so I'm not expectioning soft, shiny, bouncy curls.

The Twists are Gone.

I went out yesterday and I didn't want to go out with my twist, so I took them out, mainly because I didn't know how to style it. I wore a twist out yesterday and last night I braided up each section and wore a braid-out for school today. I couldn't post any pictures today but I will try and post them tomorrow.
It snowed all day in New York today and all that moisture made my braid-out look like a stretched out wash and go. I completely loved it. I didn't realize how much I missed my natural texture curls. I'm so used to wearing braid outs, and a braid out stretches the natural curl, so it has definitely been a while since I rocked my natural curls. I think that during the summer I will wear some wash and go's, not much though because I haven't forgotten the reason I stopped wearing them. If I'm wearing a wash and go I have to redo my hair everyday and that's a lot of manipulation. If I decide want to go 2 or 3 days without re-wetting and re-styling my hair, I can definitely expect a truck load of single strand knots.