Can't Wait!

Hi everyone! I hope your week has been great and that you're ready for the weekend.

I am a Kardashian fan - I love their style, craziness and everything that goes along with them. I really love Kourtney K's style and her buns! Every time she wears her signature high bun I drool and dream of the day when my hair is long enough to rock it just like this - all slicked up and perfect! Enjoy :-)

Of course this isn't Kourtney, but the bun is definitely cute!

Wash Day

This weekend was another wash day experiment. For the most part I did my normal routine which includes a hot oil + conditioner treatment with heat for 30 minutes, followed by a clarifying shampoo, regular shampoo, conditioner, and twist n curl.

The main issue this time is that as always, I washed my hair after work and ended up going late into the evening and went to bed with wet hair. That's not a problem, but I thought my hair would have been dry by the time I was ready to go out at 12:00 the next day. WRONG! My hair was still damp and as a result, my normal twist n curl turned into a twist n bend.

I did not undo the twists so that I could roll my hair again at some point and get the the results I'm used to. It's really important for my hair to be curled tight because I'm generally able to get two weeks out of this style, but the curls gradually fall as the week progresses, which is part of what allows me to wear it longer.

I've learned yet another lesson on my hair journey - my hair takes longer to dry than I thought! I'm actually about to start wearing a wig again so that I can be lazy and go into protect mode. I just have to go wig shopping because I threw my other one away (I wore that baby out!). Till next time!

Is It Just Me...

Or when your hair is/ was around shoulder length, it was difficult to M&S (moisturize and seal) the back of your hair? I'm at shoulder length and when I M&S, I feel like I sort of miss the back of my hair, or only get the top layer of hair, not underneath if that makes any sense. I make a conscious effort to take extra care with the back, but I'm just wondering if M&S'ing the back of your hair gets easier as your hair gets longer?

Hectic!

My life has been pretty hectic because I am working on some things personally in addition to my normal work/ life routine. Nonetheless, I am trying to stay encouraged and excited for what God has in store for me and know that my hard work will pay off! With that - I'm stepping away from hair for a sec and including one of my favorite songs right now. I hope you enjoy! I'll be back to the regularly scheduled program soon :-)

I'm Going to Give it Another Try

I'm really into trying new things to help establish a solid regimen for my hair. As you may have started to notice (my attempt at the Greenhouse Effect and homemade protein treatment), I'm the type of person who will try anything once that's within reason. If it won't hurt/harm/endanger/be plain stupid, etc., I'll give it a go.

I have definitely noticed that many ladies with great length are avid co-washers. I have attempted co-washing twice so far and can't say that I love it. I feel like my hair is left with a coating on it and I'm just not sure that my hair is benefitting from it. Not to mention that after I've co-washed, I'm not sure how to style my hair? I certainly don't feel like or have time to do a twist n curl and I can't really rock a bun or wear it wet because of the thickness and length (I look like a 16 year old, or adult trying to keep it young - not cute).

So to all of you co-washers - what do you do with your hair after you co-wash? This especially goes out to those who co-wash several times per week!

New Moisturizer

Lately I've been on a hunt for a good moisturizer. Well - maybe I shouldn't call it a hunt because I haven't actually purchased and tried any new products, but in my mind I've been on a hunt for a good moisturizer. It's very easy to become a product junkie (PJ) during your hair journey, but I actually have this weird thing about me where I like to finish something before I start something else. So the point is, I was very excited to finish my Phyto 9 Daily moisturizer/ leave in conditioner because that meant I could try a new moisturizer!

I decided to give the Qhemet Biologics Amla and Olive Heavy Cream a try based on the rave reviews of Qhemet Biologics products by Just Grow Already and The Awkward Stage, two hair bloggers with beautiful locks! Fortunately, Qhemet products are sold in my area, so I was able to hop in the car and take a short drive to get this moisturizer (along with a corned beef special sandwich from my favorite delicatessan in the city...I'm a foodie). While I was at the store, I almost purchased the Cocoa Tree Detangling Ghee to use for co-washing and detangling, but I did not like the smell at all! I was also close to buying the Moringa Tree Coditioning Ghee, but I figured I would sit tight and see if I liked the moisturizer first.

I'll start using the Amla and Olive Heavy Cream after the next time I co-wash. I hope I like it!

Is It Just Me....

Or do you also inspect every strand that falls from your head? Sometimes I think I'm crazy, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm relatively new to the journey, but I make a point to manipulate my hair over the sink, which is light in color, so that I can pick up any strands that fall and look for that golden bulb on the end! Of course the point of analyzing the strand is to see if it's shedding or breakage. I find that even when I'm pretty sure that a strand is shed hair, I still check for the bulb. I have gone as far as measuring my strands to see whether it's shed hair or breakage.

Does anyone else do this? Will I eventually stop...lol???

Hair Growth

Please pardon me if this post seems a little weird, but since this blog is about my hair and matters related to the journey, I figured I could freely express my thoughts.

I am a very hairy person always have been, and likely always will be (I completely get this from my Dad's side of the family). This isn't a bad thing, but of course you get the good with the bad - as in I have hairy side burns, hairy arms, a hairy neck in the back, etc...Ok this sounds really gross and you probably now have an image like this in your head:


But I'm not that bad! Anyway, the point is, I've noticed recently that my body hair is growing back faster than normal. For example, I shave my legs weekly and by the time I'm closing in on a week I can tell it's time to shave again. Recently, by the end of one week, it looks like I haven't shaved in 2 weeks, which is really odd. Also, I get the occasional stray hair in my neck that I have to pluck, but recently they have been sprouting out all over the place! I literally plucked two today, and about three last week. I normally tweeze about 1X per month. What's really good?

I'm hoping that this random growth spurt with my body hair is taking place on my head as well! I won't know for sure until I get my next relaxer and trim in November (another 8 weeks).

TTYL!

Greenhouse Effect Update

The last time we met, I had just taken an oil bath in EVOO. Well I tried the Greenhouse Effect again on Saturday night and I woke up with better results. My hair felt a bit more moisturized and I didn't have oil dripping from my curls, but I knew I would have to bite the bullet and wash my hair on Sunday evening.

I have been experiencing breakage and haven't been able to get it under control so I decided to try a homemade protein treatment. Traycee from KISS posted this on her blog and I decided to give it a go. 1 egg, beaten until frothy, mixed with 1 c of water and 1 tsp of oil of your choice. I made the protein mix and it seemed like a lot (I later learned that the 1 c of water was way too much). I added the mixture to a spray bottle because it was watery and I wanted to ensure that I covered all of my strands from root to tip. I covered my hair with a plastic cap for 15 minutes and then rinsed. After I rinsed, I deep conditioned for 30 minutes to restore the moisture and then went through my normal wash day routine.

I did 1 clarifying shampoo just in case my hair had some build up, did a regular shampoo, added my conditioner and then detangled in sections. As I shampooed my hair, it didn't feel any different after the protein treatment so I don't think the treatment worked. I think it was too watery. Not to mention that as I was detangling my hair, I found pieces of cooked egg in the back. After I detangled, I twisted my hair, rinsed with cold water and then added my protein leave-in and regular leave-in.

All in all, last weekend was NOT a good weekend for my hair and various bright ideas/ experiments! Hopefully I'll have better luck moving forward. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude because I'm still learning my hair and what works well, but this stuff is for the birds!

I Don't Know What to do With This Hair...

As you know, I've been having a little issue recently with figuring out how to keep my hair moisturized. After wash days, my hair always feels moisturized for a few days, but by the end of the week, it starts to feel dry and brittle. I M&S daily or every other day with my moisturizer (see regimen page) and EVCO.

Don't ask me why I thought this would be a good idea, but yesterday I was surfing hair blogs and random You Tubers and got the bright idea to try the Real Queen's Regimen. I figured since the goal is to get your hair to a "greenhouse" state over night, this would be perfect because I would wake up with moisturized, soft hair. Sounds great, right? So I kicked off my attempt at the Real Queen's Regimen by DOUSING my hair in EVOO mixed with EVCO.

Just to add some color to how this whole thing went down - I went into the kitchen, grabbed the EVOO and poured about 3/4 cup into a container. My BF looks at me perplexed and says "What are you doing?" I smile and slyly run to the bathroom to begin mixing some EVCO in the EVOO. I return to the kitchen to melt the EVCO in the EVOO and he's like "Babe! OMG - You can't put all of that in your hair...you'r going to clog your pores!!! I don't know much about hair, but that's too much oil!!!!" I laugh and return to the bathroom. My BF is very curious and intrigued by my hair experiments, so while I'm literally making the largest mess possible, pouring all of this oil on my hair, getting it on my neck, in the sink, etc. he comes in and is like "you cannot be serious right now!" So I put him to work, told him to grab the cup, and pour some oil on the back of my hair where I couldn't reach very well, LOL! Long story short, when all of the oil in the cup was on my hair, I had A TON of oil on my hair, neck, etc. You're supposed to put your hair in the style you plan to wear it before covering it so that the next morning you can just remove your head wrap and go. So I placed my hair in my normal pineapple position for sleeping (this helps keep my curls for my twist n curl), slapped on a plastic cap, and added my normal scarves on my hair. Technically I should have put a hat, or some other covering on my head to create the "greenhouse effect," but I wanted to try it my way first. I placed a towel on my pillow to catch any extra oil and called it a night.

This morning when I woke up, I went to the bathroom for my normal routine and while I'm brushing my teeth, my BF looks at me and says "what is that?" I'm like what...I look in the mirror and there are literally streams of EVOO RUNNING DOWN MY NECK, LOL!!!! Gravity clearly took over since I was no longer lying down. I took off the scarves and plastic cap and my hair looked as dry as normal, but with beads of oil sitting on top. I would call this an HUGE FAIL! Overall my hair did not feel moisturized and I was really sad.

As I went throughout the day today, I literally had oil collecting on the bottom of my curls that I would have to remove with my hand so that it didn't drip on my shirt. AND the headrest in the car looked like the couch on Coming to America when the Soul Glo family stood up!

I think where I went wrong is that I used too much oil (as I'm sure you guessed) and I used EVOO, which I know my hair doesn't love. I tried EVOO before and didn't think it worked well, but figured I would give it another shot. Welp - that's one oil that gets crossed off of my list for good!

So now I have all of this oil in my hair and a normal person would wash their hair, but I don't have time to wash and I'm a sucker for punishment, so I'm planning to put on a plastic cap, place a hat on, and try to get this greenhouse thing going again to absorb some of this oil.

So sorry for the long post, but I had to share my adventure! I'll let you know how it turns out.