Lazy Days Turn Into Lazy Months!

And hello!

It's been way too long (again) LOL.  No one warned me that being pregnant would make me lazy and that I would become even more lazy and inconsisten after the baby!

One thing that I have managed to do is stick to my "Mixtress in the Kitchen" recipes. 

My basic recipe includes:

Avocado, EVOO, egg, and honey 

OR

Banana, EVOO, egg, and honey

I'll do different blog on that specifically.  When? I won't make any promises!

I recently blew my hair out for the second time this year.  I'm serioulsy thinking by April - I will mainly be a "straight- hair" natural. We'll see. 

Sooooo my regimen? 

1 wash a month for all of us! LOL I simply wet and restyle.  The fros mostly.  

What's become of my lazy months?  

1. More split ends.

2. Less retention of growth

So is it necessary? Yep..I'd say so! 

The next months I will be trying HARD...well, ok, HARDER to stick to a consistent routine.  I'll soon get the girl's hair either braided or twisted in mini twist or extensions.  I haven't decided.  The way my son's attention span is set up - :/ I'm on his schedule.

In the mean time, Pooh and I will be working on a book for natural kids! :) All her idea. So, yes, we are quite the busy bees!

Until next time...  

What's UUUPPPPPPPP....What's HAPPPPPP'NNN?!

I KNOW....I KNOW....

It's  been a long time.  One thing that I found out is that I am NOT about "that" life.  The consistency it takes to hair blog...ooooommmmmg.

However...I have decided to give you guys an update on a few things.  It's coming up to my 2 year Natural Anniversary and things have changed MUCH since the first year.  

1. My regimen.  It has become even more inconsistent than my blogging lol.  It is  a lot more simple and wash day for the girls and myself has been reduced to once or twice a month.  I moisturize our hair daily or every other day using the LOC method.  When in need, I simply do a cowash and style over.  If I can make a style last more than a week though..I'm wearing it out lol.

2. Products. I am very much still a plain jane. BUT my dear cousin introduced me to raw black soap.  AAMMMMMMAAAZZZZZING.  It cleans but doesn't leave our hair dry.  #winning  We still do hot oil treatments with EVOO but I have completely fallen in love with UNREFINED coconut oil.  It is light but moisturizes VERY, VERY WELL.  My deep conditions are now a BLENDED mix of avacodos, honey, conditioner, and oils.  For protein I use eggs, honey, conditioner, and oil.  Yes, we are still using ol faithful Tressemme Naturals. To style? Still using EcoStyler or the SheaMoisture smoothie.

3. Styling. For the girls I mainly still stick with flat twists of some sort.  The creativity flows.  Currently however, Pooh has kinky twists.  I have decided that for KK I will be cutting her hair in January and beginning her natural journey over.  I will utilize mini twists and let her hair grow out from there.  Her hair never reverted back from her Jackson visit.  I've let it grow out a bit but it's time to do what needs to be done.  As for myself, I am practicing more with dry hair.  I am even considering blow outs and flat ironing my hair.  It's longer and it's cooler now. I was doing wash and go's but that's pretty much out of the picture for the winter.  Instead...I am trying new styles. My last style I did with flat twist and perm rods.  This week, I originally begin to do a  blow out but I opted to do a few chuncky twist and wrap them.  Hoping for some good results with that.  SO...I guess you can say I'm starting a new in experimenting with my hair. :)

I did get a sew in a few months back and I hated it.  It was too much stress on my scalp. With the upcoming baby (*insert shout and big smile*) I am considering getting box braids. 

But that's about all.  Ya know...I am still loving the "natural" thing and will try to keep up a little better.  I have my handy ipad and bluetooth keyboard that should help with that.  As far as videos though???? That's another story!!!!!

#kinkycoilycool

#ThatMOMENTWhen

Welllllll it looks like my baby girl will be getting a BC soon....I haven't decided whether to transition or just cut it off. I am not happy, not happy at all!!!! The first two pictures are the before pictures, the last is just a portion of how it looks. There are several strands that won't even curl and just stay straight. :-/

I have already tried one protein treatment without much luck. :-(

Mixtress in the Kitchen: Greek Yogurt :)

It's Friday night...and the mood is right!!!

Well...actually it was Sunday night and the mood was definitely not right.  I wasn't feeling  too well but I knew I needed to push myself and get in a deep conditioning treatment.  That's the thing about extending the wash day another week- no choice but to stay consistent. By the way - I think that it's offiial - my wash days will be every two weeks.  But that's another post.

As I was looking for a deep conditioner, I thought I would originally do the cucumber juice but I didn't feel like going through all of that.   Instead, I bought a single serving of yogurt and decided to do a protein treatment.

I'll say that first off, I literally had to laugh at myself.  I was mixing and eating the mixture at the same time. LOL Seriously.  I took the yogurt and mixed in some honey and a tad bit of ACV and I  took several spoonfuls.  LOL I couldn't help but to say, "Man my hair about to eat good."  LOL  Where did I get the idea from?  OH, just another hair crush - Whitney from YouTube channel Naptural85.  I'll post the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p2O33-d154&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I also wanted to try something else for my scalp and so I invested in another product.  As a recovering PJ (product junkie) I don't tend to buy a lot of products unless they are on sale.  Even though this was not on sale, I knew I wasn't going to feel like mixing this concotion so I just decided to buy it. :-\  The name of this product was Yes to Carrots Scalp Relief.

Step 1: You know the drill - a hot oil treatment
Step 2:  Shampoo with ACV mix
Step 3: Condition and detangle with the Yes to Carrots conditioner (click link for review http://werockinksncoils.blogspot.com/2013/04/yes-to-carrots-no-to-smell.html?m=1)
Step 4: Deep Condition
Step 5: Leave in Tressemme Naturals and seal with oil

When I finished, my hair was amazingly soft, very detangled, and very moisturized; it was so moisturized that it still felt like I had conditioner on it.  The mixture was very hard on my hair but rinsing it out I could instantly tell how soft it was.  I also re-applied just a little of the Yes to Carrots conditioner and detangled a bit more.

This was a very good deep conditioning session.  I have to remember to make the most out of it since I'm only doing it twice a month.  My scalp was irritated but that was more to do with the fact that I had been slipping on sleeping with my bonnet and not moisturizing my hair as well also. (I'm going to learn one day...!)

For the style, I decided to try a faux bun.  I needed to make sure that I had a style that would carry me at least a week.  I applied two more products - the Dark and Lovely souffle for tight kinks and coils and then the EcoStyler.

Now my hair apparently is very stubborn.  It took several hours to get it to lay down, especially on the side.  I ended up letting the scarf stay around my hair throughout styling the bun and I went to sleep with it tied.  I like it and I've received several compliments on how "cute" it is!  Let's see if I can make it a whole week though! :)

Until next time....#peace!

#KinkyCoilyCool

Yes to Carrots, No to the Smell!!! :-/

Hello, hello, hello!!!

In my quest to find something scalp relieving, I decided to try a new product.  I am usually very DIY but I wasn't feeling very well and didn't feel like mixing in the kitchen this weekend.  So, I sacrificed $7.99 and decided to give it a try.

Here is the product!!!

What I love about it:

**The tingly feeling on my scalp when I rinse it off!!! I think that this could be used as a great deep conditioner and I may try it next wash day.  
**The consistency of the product was nice and creamy...The "slip" wasn't just great (in comparison to my old faithful Tressemme Naturals) but it was not a bad slip.  If I had to rate between 1 and 5, 1 being horrible and 5 best, it would rate 4.5.
**The feel of my hair once it's rinsed off.  It was so clean it still literally felt like the conditioner was in there even though I rinsed it all out.  Very, very soft!!! I LOVED touching my hair; it really didn't even need the leave in conditioner so I only put in a tad.
**99% natural ingredients; With all the fakery of "natural" products on the market, you really can't beat that rate.  This was why I didn't mind speaking $8 bucks on it.
**I didn't have to use as much as I thought.  I ended up squirting a lot in my hands during the first use  because that's what I'm accustomed to with conditioning.  However, in the end, after I had applied the conditioner to my hair heavily, I still had too much on my hand.  I'll know next time to go easy!
**The awful smell doesn't linger in your hair!!  (More on that next!!)

What I didn't like about it:
**The GOD awful smell!!!!!! This was the ONLY negative regarding this product.  I mean, geeeeez it is horrible!!  I can't even begin to describe how it smells. LOL  No, seriously.  It was like maybe a mix of chemicals; like a relaxer.  But the product is made from 99% natural ingredients.   I guess that the best part about this smell is that it doesn't linger, as mentioned before.
**It's not necessarily "cost - effiecient" for me because I have to use more than a dime size amount.  Even though I don't have to use as much as I thought I had, I still have to use enough.  This product may last (with me washing 2x a month) a minimum of two months.  In the long run, I guess that's not too bad.  But we'll see.  I'm not sure if it's THAT good.  See, with my Shea Moisture products, they've lasted 3-4 months minimum, but most last longer than that.  But, two months isn't so bad I guess.  We shall see.

Would I recommend it? Yes indeed, but only if you can deal with the smell briefly!

Til' next time...

#peace

#KinkyCoilyCool

What About KK?! :)

HELLO again!!!!!

Well I notice that  I rarely ever post about my KK's hair.  Her hair, as mentioned before, is different from mine in that her texture is slightly looser.  I consider her to be a 3c/4a curly, coily girl.  If you've read my other blogs, you'll know her "documented" wash day is on Thursday.  LOL I say documented because the more I get a hang of this thing, the more lazy I become! LOL I mean, our hair just doesn't need AS MUCH as I thought I guess. 

I also tend to skip two steps: the hot oil treatment and the deep conditioning.  This is because with her hair being in such a virgin state, it doesn't seem to require as much.  The thing about natural hair is really just "listening" to it. 

This week, I felt more and more as if some of her ends needed to be clipped.  I felt like no matter the "age" of the child, hair is still "hair" and it gets old, it breaks off, etc.  Especially with KK's hair because her styles are often styles that she wears out.  Even when I've put her hair in ponytails, by the time I pick her up from daycare - she has taken her OWN hair down.  She likes to shake her hair and feel it's volume.  I sought some advice from other natural hair moms but in the end, I ended up slightly clipping a few of her ends.  One thing I've learned from Pooh's hair is that IT WILL GROW BACK!  I want to make decisions in the best interest of my girls' hair and ya know....it's ok I think to clip and trim if needed.  Of course, SHE didn't like it.  Imagine that?!!! As I inspected her twists for "raggedy looking" ends and begin snipping...she said, "NOOOO! YOU CUT HAIR! YOU CUT HAIR!!!!!" LOL I had to reassure her that I was only cutting a little.  The funny thing - SHE'S JUST TWO!!! GEEZ!

LOL

Another thing I did this week was a protein treatment.  Again, I rarely do them with KK.  But "listening" to her hair, I decided that a nice hot oil treatment and deep conditioning was in order.  Again, mainly because of how she has been wearing her hair. 

I've changed up my hot oil treatment, now using a mixture of oil and water in an applicator bottle.  I developed this method from Alicia James if I'm not mistaken.  Who is Alicia James....oh just my  natural hair crush :D  She is AWESOME...check her out!  (http://easynaturalhair.com/)

I "washed" her hair with our "shampoo" (ACV, water, conditioner mix).

I conditioned with Tressemme "Moisture Rich" (which I will admit that I'm not a fan, but I'm kinda stuck with the bottle #shrug).  I also finger detangled at this point as well.

For a deep conditioner I used mayo, Herbal Essence Totally Twisted conditioner, and olive oil.  I left the mix on about 20 minutes ( long enough to bathe her, dress her, and brush her teeth).  Afterwards, I washed the mix out.  By the way, here's the Herbal Essences Totally Twisted conditioner.  I use it specifically for deep conditioners.  I caught it on sale and bought about 3 bottles of it.

Anyway....Just as I thought, her hair was GREATLY replenished with moisture.  It was clean, a rich black color (indicating strong moisturized hair, in my opinion), and manageable.  I added Tressemme Naturals conditioner for our leave in.  This, as you know, it my LOVE!!!  Nothing has yet to compare to TN! :)

To style, I use Shea Moisture Curl Smoothie and Olive Oil EcoStyler gel.  These are two styling staples for her hair, I haven't switched up yet.  The two work perfect with her texture.  For a style, I decided to do her a twist set since she likes shaking her hair so much.  She looked in the mirror and "gasped" and said, "Show Daddy hair!!!"  :)

One of the things that makes me super proud is that my children LOVE their hair at such an early age.  It's BEAUTIFUL!

Natural Hair Benefits!

I remember the relaxed days...going to the gym and having to wrap my hair and worry about "sweating out my perm."  I remember my whole work out schedule revolving around my "relaxer appt."  See, if I'd just gotten one, that means I had a fresh curl set or roller wrap and how DARE I sweat out those $40-$55.  #aintnobodygottimefadet LOL  But I did...it was something serious!!

But last week...I rock a set of twist ALL week and worked out 4 days straight.  NOT only that...I did a twist out Sunday, ran my hair under some water Monday and had a "fresh 'do."   THEN I went running...sweated like crazy - did two miles in 37 minutes (my shortest time ever by the way!) and guess what....

Yep...that's me after my work out.  Now, granted my headphones are covering my hair and I took this picture with the front camera of my iPhone 4s (which sucks) - you can still see the definition. 

The only thing I had to worry about really was my scalp.  Wiith it being such a long time in between washes, my scalp was irritated.  Nevertheless...how better could it get.  I said to myself, "Anybody that can't ejoy the benefits of natural hair is truly missing out." 

This was almost the highlight of my day.  That, and the fact that I got my run/walk time down! :)

This is a picture a few hours later...

What did I do? NOTHING...I got in the shower and got out.  I didn't put anything on my hair; the only thing I did was shake it to loosen the cirls.  That is is!!! Can't help but enjoy the benefits of #naturalhair!!!

#KinkyCoilyCool