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

Somebody Call 911!!! Hair EMERGENCY!!!

Hey guys!!!!

We had our first natural hair emergency this weekend...right before church at that!!! However I learned a valuable lesson in products and hair typing.  Before Sunday, I never really had a product that just didn't take at all to all three of our hair.  But the Nubian Heritage butter that I used on Pooh's hair HATED KK's hair!!! Her hair was heavy and sticky and just gosh awful!!! The only thing I could think to do was wash it! 

In a rush to set her hair for bed, I just used it to "moisturize" it before bed.  BAD IDEA!!! If you haven't taken a peek at the updated blog for Pooh, here's a link about the product line.  It's awesome for Pooh's hair! 

But KK's hair? No way!  But...this is when being natural is AWESOME!! What did I do to fix this emergency? 
1. I used the ACV mix to cleanse her hair because of the heaviness of the product. 
2. I co-washed with Tressemme Naturals and left a little in as a leave in.  I sealed with extra virgin olive oil.  Since it was literally 30 minutes before church began, I didn't have enough time to really style it so I had no choice but to do a wash and go. 
3. I raked a little Eco-Styler through her hair for more curl definition. 
4. To try to speed up the process of the drying, I left the t-shirt on her hair while I showered and dressed (about 20 min).  It soaked up majority of the excess water and then I had her to "shake, shake, shake" her hair (which she LOVES doing, LOL). 

Being natural comes with A LOT of benefits and this is definitely one of them.  When a style goes wrong, all you have to do is add water.  Here's a picture of her hair after the water saved it!  You can notice the definition as well as the product that hasn't dried.

 

 And here are the divas all ready for church!

Until next time..

#KinkyCoilyCool

Product Review: AS I AM

 

  

THIS, RIGHT HERE, IS MY SWAG!!!!! :)

 

 

 Needless to say from the title, I absolutely LOVED this product.  I am being very stingy with it too!!! I have to think twice before sharing with the girls...it's JUST that good! YES! Well, for my hair anyway.  It was given to me by a fellow #teamNATURAL member.   She didn't like it much and I put it in bid for it.  After my last wash session, I used this to set my twist and when I say they were SUPER moisturized.....HONTY..... :) LOL

 

They stayed soft and moisturized for days and days afterwards.  Ok, well at least 3 days.  Which was another plus.  When I got ready to re-moisturize, like an idiot, I went to my usual spray bottle.  Then it hit me one day...and I used the cream.  BAM, SHAZAAM....way better than the spray bottle! This is a product I would definitely shell out some muulah ($) for to keep stocked.  Here's a pic of my twist once I finished them.

 

 

  

Forgive me for looking mean in the pictures but it was 3am in the morning! HA!!! What I loved was that even my colored ends were moisturized, which are normally a little harder to maintain.  Overall...I give it a definite A+!!!

Til next time...

#KinkyCoilyCool

UPDATES on MY hair!!! :)

Ok, now that I've given you the 411 on Pooh's hair...now for my hair.  I have mainly been wearing wash and go's.  I wore that for about 2 weeks straight and then ran across a video that transformed my wash and go's for good!!! It's considered to be a "modified" wash and go for 4a or tightly curled hair. 

I was soooooooooooooooooooooo excited about the results and they lasted for I believe about 5 days!  It was WONDERFUL!!! I think that I can show you better than tell you!  :)

This was Day 3...I mean that hair was ON POINT! :) LOVED IT!!!!

 

So what did I do that was so modified?

 

Wellllllllllllllllllll sure, I'll tell ya!  I did this style in the shower!

 

1. I finger - detangled with my Tressemme Naturals conditioner

2. When it was thoroughly detangled I applied a little conditioner (TN) as my leave in and sealed in with extra virgin olive oil

3. In sections of four, I applied the EcoStyler to each section; making sure to rake the product throughout my hair from root to tip.  I did this for each section.

4.  Out of the shower, I did not t-shirt dry my hair or anything, I simply shook my hair vigorously several of times to loosen the curls and rid of the excess water. 

 

The only downfall of this style was that because my hair was soaking wet, it took all day to dry.   I didn't mind; I'd never seen my curls so defined that I just shook, shook, shook and allowed it to dry on it's own. 

 

Here's the video of my excitement! LOL

 



 

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

After this style I proceeded to do a regular deep condition and do a protective style until my 1 year BC anniversary.  It's been a week since I did my last DC.  This was the recipe:

 

 

And here is my mix:

 

I can say that since last week, my scalp has been less tender.  It seems to have done more for my scalp than entire hair.  Here is some information on the benefits of cucumbers! The silicon and sulfur in cucumbers help to promote hair growth.

http://www.ehow.com/info_8068349_cucumber-beauty-tips.html

 

Ok, so afterwards, I did a length check.  Here are the results!

 

Here is my April LC

 



I saw a little growth between the two but being that I haven't been really on the "protective styling" like I was suppose to, I really couldn't expect much.  It looks like I did get at least 1/2 an inch though so I won't complain about that!

 

I have tried a new product from the As I Am line and it's going to take another blog post for that one!  This last month has been a very LAZY month! I've been off the normal regimen so much I'm thinking about moving my regimen from every week to every two weeks.

 

Another reason is because I've started excercising 4-5 days out of the week.  I'm trying to create a new regimen that works around that as well.  For this past week, I've held my twist well without untwisting them because of my work out regimen.  So, this is all trial and error again!

 

THANKS for reading and catching up with me!!!

 

#KinkyCoilyCool

UPDATES on Pooh's hair!!!! :)

WOW!!!! It's been a long time huh?  I can't remember the last time I blogged but I surely have missed it.  Everything has been in overload the last month and my weekends have been BOOKED!!! However, we're back and I thank you for taking a peep again to check out whats new!

I'm going to start with updates in products for Pooh.  About a week ago, I decided to try a new line called "Nubian Heritage."  If I'm not mistaken, it's by the same people that make Shea Moisture or either another very popular line, I'm not sure..hadn't researched that yet.  ANYHOW!!

I bought the conditioner, the butter, and just today bought the styling custard.  Here's a snapshot of the product line:

 

I absolutely loved the conditioner and the butter.  The first time I used it, it kept her hair moistured for a while.  I haven't actually washed her hair (the complete cycle) since March 29th.  I'm finding that now that the damaged ends are off, I can keep her hair moisturized more, therefore extending her wash cycle to every other week. 

To keep her hair moisturized throughout the week, I follow our usual regimen:
Spray bottle with water and conditioner mix and then seal with oil.

This is her on Easter: after the last wash cycle.

 



This is her on day 8 or 9 of this twist out!

 

And this is a picture a few days before that:

 

Needless to say, things are definitely going GREAT with her hair since the cut.  

This is a pic of the girls today rocking their hair

 

 

Of course, she wanted to wear her hair out as always.  Her dad now admits that we should have cut it a year ago!  So anyway...fast forward to today's wash cycle. 

 

I used extra virgin olive oil and water as a hot oil treatment - Step 1.

I used our usual ACV, conditioner, and water mix - Step 2.

I deep conditioned her hair with the NH EVOO conditioner - Step 3.

I used our usual Tressemme Naturals as a leave in conditioner - Step 4.

Of course, I sealed this moisture with extra virgin olive oil, which I consider part of step 4.

 

Styling:

I used the hair butter and the styling custard by Nubian Heritage.  It really seems perfect for her hair texture.  It's not too heavy but just right.  I think this will be a staple, especially if I can catch it on sale!  It leaves her hair super moisturized.  I don't expect to have to moisturize it for at least three days or so.  Here's a pic of the new style :) 

 

 

 

Thanks for catching up with me! Until next time...

 

Check the YouTube channel for the April length check and a video of me twisting her hair!  Looks like we retained at least an inch!!! WOOHOO!!!

www.youtube.com/werockinksncoils

 

#KinkyCoilyCool :)