My head is pounding because I’m stressed out about school crap but here are some pics of the style I just put in for the week. I did a 3rd henna last night, rinsed out this morning with TJ’s Nourish Spa, DC with some coconut oil, AOHSR and some DevaCurl One Condition (it was on sale at Ricky’s this week). Then detangled, rinsed, added a bit more One C, some Qhemet AOHC, a little OHHB on the ends, twisted and let air dry. took the twists out added a bit of BRBC to the hair and some Honeybush Soft Hold Gel on the edges to keep them from getting frizzy and voila! I intended to do a similar style to the one I did for the trip, but I just decided to keep twisting to see what it would look like. I’m used to having some kind of hair on the top to help my face look not so ROUND, but I think I’m gonna leave it in at least for the week. Maybe two since I know that I can. It’s gonna be a busy few weeks for me anyway with final projects and all for my classes, the last thing I wanna be thinking about is my hair.
I’m working on getting some pics up from the two henna applications I did, but I HATE iPhoto and iPhoto hates me. Blech.
Hennaing went well. The first application was a bit rough on my hair because I had to do the henna first then the indigo. The henna part went fine but the indigo was messy and crumbly and very difficult to work with. All that washing and apppying and rinsing and applying and rinsing and detangling and styling was WAYYY too much for my hair. I kept my hair in twists for a week after that. Two weeks later the second henna (no indigo) went very well and my hair feels great. Curl is elongated, the color is nice too. I’m pleased and will probably do another henna after I come back from my vacation if I have time.
Anyway, in the past few weeks I’ve bought some new products, used some old products, tried some new things and found out what my hair does and does not like. I’ll list some of those things here so they will be here for me to reference later on.
Likes:
DevaCurl Lo-Poo. CoWashing didn’t feel “right” to me, washing with conditioner, so I decided to give lo-poo a try. It seems to be working well so far, it takes the gunk out of my hair, but doesn’t dry it or leave it with that stripped hair feeling. I may go back to co-washing though, because the DevaCurl is kind of expensive. If anything I’ll alternate weeks, and just lo-poo once a month to get rid of build-up.
The ENTIRE Qhemet line: LOVE this stuff, and plan to buy bigger sizes when they have their Black Friday sale. The Burdock Root Butter Cream is great and I’ll be picking up a larger size of the Alma and Olive Heavy Cream and the Olive and Honey Hydrating Balm for the winter. I’m manipulating my hair alot (I’m not comfortable with just washing and go0ing just yet) and these products seem to work for my hair at keeping it moisturized and feeling nice.
Olive Oil. It’s thicker than coconut and my hair appreciates that. I’m thinking of trying castor oil since it’s even thicker.
Henna. I love the results but the jury’s still out on whether or not this is the reason my hair has started shedding or if it’s something I’m doing or NOT doing as far as moisture/protein or styling. I love the results of henna tho, so I think I’ll keep doing applications and try to change around some of the products I’m using and maybe that will help with the breakage.
Aphogee. I used this last night after being hesitant about it for weeks. I was afraid that it would be too strong for my hair and make it dry but that turned out to not be the case at all. Right now my hair is in twists after washing, ready to be styled and it’s very soft. Whether or not the aphogee stopped the breakage I can’t really say because I still experienced breakage when detangling, and when applying my leave-in condish and moisture before twisting. I’m not sure if it’s normal or not normal or will stop over time or what. In the meantime I’m just going to stick to a routine for a while and see if I can repair some of the damage before it gets worse. I really hate to admit that I might need to wash my hair more than once a week but it’s looking like that is indeed the case. Friday before washing my hair felt like a brillo pad it was so dry. I THINK I know the reason for that tho. Which leads me to my hair’s dislikes…
Dislikes:
Shea butter. This stuff sucks. I don’t know WHY everyone is in such an uproar over this stuff. Its difficult to rub in, seems to sit on TOP of my hair and if I have some of this in my hair and then wet it.. it makes my hair super THICK and makes it feel like Ive got dax in my hair or something. I ordered some Afroveda Lock Twist and Roll Butter and used it last week and my hair wasn’t very pleased. The first ingredient is shea butter. But I will say this. For my dry twists and twist outs it worked wonderfully and smelled very good. I had the twists in for two days and rocked a twist out for two days and even in the moisture, humidity and rain of the week the twist out stayed pretty much in tact and didn’t frizz at all. But for the rest of my hair (I used it for a twist out style in the front and flat twists in the back) I wasn’t too please. Although it might have had something to do with what I put on my hair before applying the Lock Twist and Roll Butter…
Coconut Oil. I think coconut oil was the culprit in drying my hair out at the end of this week. I overdid it with the coconut oil on Sunday and it just kinda sat on top of my hair all week. By the end of the week with all the manipulation and whatever it was just a hot mess. I think I’m done with coconut oil, at least by itself. Same with shea. I can deal with coconut oil mixed with other things, like after I did the Aphogee I applied a bit of coconut oil to my hair, then the Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose condish and that was fine. But coconut oil alon? Not happening. Same with Shea. Shea butter alone on my hair? No way. Shea butter mixed with other things. On dry hair, yes. Twists and twist outs? Yes. Flat twists? Dry only. But for me it seems shea is better for defining a twist out and less for moisture. I’ll have to use something else for that.
For my trip I’m going to be attempting to do this style…
Well the one that she shows pictures of at 1:01. I’ve done a variation of this style for a few weeks now, the only thing is that I’ve never flat twisted from side to side before, only from crown to nape, so we’ll see how this comes out. Also she’s rocking a twist out and I won’t be. I’ll be twisting and leaving them in for as long as I can, maybe taking them out and rocking a twist out for maybe the last day or two of the trip. We’ll see.
So… the hair went up into the all familiar updo in the morning. It was moisturized which I did love so that was a good thing. It felt really nice, soft, with a bit or curl/wave to it. It was a little greasy to the touch, but I think once I figure out how to not be so heavy handed with my coconut oil I’ll be good.
I ended up putting it up again because of two things. I didn’t use anything that would HOLD the wavyness that is supposed to be the result of a flat twist out. I am afraid to use any of the gels that I have because they all dry my hair out and right now my hair needs MOISTURE. I’ve used my fantaisia IC before back in June and that was drying as all get out. I used aloe vera gel once and my hair felt like BRILLO, and my Qhemet Honeybush Tea Soft Hold Gel doesn’t dry my hair, but doesn’t give me the hold that I really want.
I am sitting here now with my DC in under a heating cap (it’s dripping like crazy which is fun for me). I did a prepoo with olive oil (and I think that’s the last time I’ll be doing that – I feel like my hair will end up feeling greasy and coated later, but we’ll see), cowashed with TJ’s Nourish Spa, and mixed some honey, coconut oil and a dash of olive and more TJ’s for my DC. I will probably detangle with this in, twist up the sections when I’m done, rinse and then add some KCKT as my leave in, some Qhemet Burdock Root Butter Cream for moisture and twist to dry. In the morning I’ll probably add a little more BRBC, some of the KCCC and flat twist again in anticipation of a cute style for Monday morning.
I started Friday when I got home around 4pm and finished up all of the front and about three rows in the back at around 1am. I did take time to cook and eat dinner, about an hour, or so. I had to go out with a scarf on my head Saturday morning because I wanted to go to Brooklyn for sample sale. I was NOT trying to miss the sale, I didn’t care WHAT my hair looked like. I got the dress I went for, then came back home and started twisting again around 4pm, finishing at around 11. I just tried to make sure my hair was really moisturized before I twisted it up and also lubricated the synthetic hair as best I could with a shea butter/olive oil/coconut oil mixture. I actually hate the feel of shea butter on my hair and hands, but I used it this time because I wanted to make sure my hair was moisturized. Every time I finished a row I sprayed it with Oyin’s Greg Juice, which I LOVE… it smells delish and moisturizes my scalp which is a bit itchy because of the synthetic hair. The hair does soften up over time, I’m hoping the Greg Juice will speed that up a bit.
So now I can now spend the rest of my summer thinking about something else besides hair. The twists are long. And BIG. And I’d kinda prefer that they weren’t so long… and big. (And get your mind OUT of the gutter! LOL! ) But right now anything beats all that constant thinking about hair. Just tonight, instead of washing and DCing and twisting or something, I cooked my meals for the week. I’m happy with my decision to put the twists back in. I HOPE to be able to stick this out until January. I’ll still update the blog with my regimen while I have the twists in, length checks, new sets of twists, bla bla bla…
One last pic of a little tiny coil I found in my hair while I was parting. It was just so cute and coily and for a hot second I almost thought about reconsidering the twists. But then I remember this last week of sheer frustration and kept right on braiding…
Bronx Bourgie 