Need a Solution

(Post written October 30, 2010)

I'm having a horrible weekend so far. My car decided to make loud noises on my hair to my professors office hours yesterday morning. The result....I missed his O.H., missed work yesterday, missed an hour of work this morning. Ugh I don' t have the money to tow the car to the shop so it will be sitting patiently in my complex's parking lot. Normally, I'm constantly worrying and forever stressed. Since I know that I only have so much control over things that happen I need to redirect myself to some things I can actually change....like my hair. Me and my hair have always had some issues when it comes to my edges, my two strand twist frizz, and retaining length. I am going to start doing some research and make a few trial regimes.

The problems include:

1. Very short edges which I know can be caused by a lot since their so fragile. I hardly pull on my edges when making ponytails, braiding, or twisting. Plus I don't use brushes bc I hate how they feel scraping on my edges.
2. My two strand twists always frizz A LOT on the 3 or 4 day of wear. I tend to do small twists to extend the style. The frizz is always on the crown of my head which is also my area with the loosest texture(3c or less). I used to use shea butter only when twisting...then tried almond oil and coconut oil...now I use a mix of all three. I use a hair moisturizer spritz that contains water which maybe part of the problem.
3. I wear protective styles more than 98% of the time. However, I usually were them down or in a ponytail with the ends tucked in.
   

Details soon!!

Hair Confusion

I have been searching for staple products for years now, looking to find the ones that "work" for me. What the heck does that mean exactly. Not brittle?...uh none of my products leave my hair brittle. Besides that....what are other ways beyond the shine of ur hair that lets u know ur doing something right. Breakage hasn't been a problem since I've been natural so that doesn't help. Spilt ends?...maybe I could be more aware of that if I actually looked at my ends more often(Yea that's definitely on my lists of things to do).

I think my main obstacle is that I'm trying to kick all commercial products to the curb. This is in regards to my hair, face, body(including lotions), and maybe even deodorant. This has been a hard task, not so much because I like all the products I already have so much but because I'm too cheap to throw it all away lol. I currently have a few commercial products left, but the majority of my tote of products are oils, shea butter, black soap, castile soap, acv, and the list continues.

I've been told so many things about what our hair needs from so many ppl I don't know who to trust now lol. I'm worried that I'm going to f up my hair to tell u the truth. Maybe I should continue with my trial and error and cross my fingers that nothing will go wrong.

Soooo I'm definitely still looking for a few concoctions(or a element) for the following:

Hair

• Deep Condish(Do I really even need it now?)

• Hair Moisturizer/Leave-In(Is it true that an oil might be all I need? If u can prepoo with just castor/coconut/evoo/jojoba oils and it does wonders with ur moisture after washing it out y can't I use it as a moisturizer on a frequent basis?)

Face

• Mild Face Moisturizer (Both Coconut and Shea Butter break my face out on during warm months)
  
• Toner(I'm using ACV and it keeps my face ok just ok)

As far as my face goes its too the point that I don't get break outs anymore, but I want to work on my blemishes and splotches.

~Sista in Need lol

Low Maintanance High Results

As I've mentioned several times before I try to be religious protective styler. It does get a little boring sometimes, but heck its worth it. I've always wanted to find a low-maintenance style that would help me achieve my hair length goal. I don't talk about my length goal much, becuz its not really important to me.

My whole regime is low-maintenance. One thing I do which a lot of ppl don't get is I do not use combs(Except to part very small sections) or brushes. All of my detangling is done with my fingers. I normally detangle with my dc. This usually is around every two weeks when my hair is worn in protective style. When I'm wearing my hair out I detangle once a wk with a condish. When I talk to ppl about this they feel "well I wouldn't be able to get away with that with my hair." My response to that is at least try it out. The reason that I am so anti-combs/brushes is becuz I absolutely hate seeing my hair come out in locs of hair. When I finger comb, I've noticed I have about 70% less hair in my drain after I wash. Also, I hate hate the sound of the comb/brush yanking at my curls(this is the exact reason I returned my Denman the same wknd I got it).

I decided to take part in the Castor Oil challenge. If you haven't heard peep it out

Honestly I don't desire my hair to be any thicker, but I think I will reap many other benefits like healthy and stronger hair.

And I can't forget about my protective styling. I intend to wear my hair in two strand twist mainly, but depending on how much I like the crochet braid I plan on trying I may alternative. Y'all I've been practicing my cornrowing styles. Also, I've acquire a good habit for myself. Becuz of my lack of free time I will often style my hair in halves. Like this:
I wore my hair like this for a few days.

Then finished the rest:
I plan on having stretched arm pit length hair by May 11, 2010. Right now my hair is slightly passed collar bone length stretched. HHG!!

Yay Twist Out Success...Well Sorta

If you know anything about my hair...u know it does exactly what it wants to do. After I BC'd I was introduced to a head of hair that I had never met before lol. It was stubborn but darn pretty. I love every inch of it...well I've learn to love it.

I often joke about not being about to do a twist out because they normally look like

this

which looks much like

this

which is just a wash n go. Because I like the 2nd pic more I normally don't wear twist outs.

Lately, I've been noticing a lot more knots on my ends and suspicious breakage areas so I need to add something to my regime. After looking at Beautifulbrwnbabydol's regime video I thought...hey I should try doing 2strand twists at night.

So I did and I used
And my 2nd day hair turned out as follows:

I'm satisfied lol

How Much Is Really Necessary?, The protein treatments, oils, deep conds

I'm going to piggy back on this thread How much is really necessary. What do you think. I am addicted to so many blogs and forums that stress the need to do sooo much. Most of the time I breeze through the articles but I hardly ever change up my regime. I like to keep it simple. I also haven't taken much time to read all the books and research about the products we so call need in our regime. I couldn't tell you one thing about protein and I don't plan on finding out either. My hair is in great shape and I don't need anything extra. Now, it would only make sense to try something different if my hair was not living up to its full potential. To me it only makes sense to keep your hair moisturized and dc religiously. I know that my hair can look sorta dead if I don't spray on my daily spritz(includes pure aloe vera gel, glycerin, rose water, and regular water) but really that's it. I mainly only use my homemade moisturizer and my spritz on a daily basis and that pretty much sums it up. What do you think.

I love DCing!!!

So I hate to have to style my hair all the time(more than every two weeks.) but I will admit I love washing my hair even tho it is an event. Is that wierd. I love how it feels to get my scalp all soapy and my hair all over the place. I make sure that I don't get it squeaky clean, because our hair needs to retain some of its the nutrients. My favorite part is when I make some random concoction for my DC, put my hair in two cornrows, and relax under my hooded dryer for 15min.


Sometimes I mix condishs(ones I'm trying to use up with ones I like) together and throw in some essential oils.

I'm trying to use this one up

+

and a couple of these

Other times I use

or

and I love it. Two weeks ago I tried

+

I loved how my hair felt afterward. So today I'll try this method again....I can't wait.

Back to protective styling

So I've been slackin on my protective styling for my 100 challenge. I've had my hair out for almost a month and I don't want my hair to suffer. Plus I was really starting to miss my two strands twists...so their back. I'll be keeping my twists up until spring is here.

I normally twist my hair on the wknd and keep them in for 5 days to a wk. I want to practice stretching the styles for at least two weeks.

If u have any suggestions, please shoot them at me.

HHG

Yes Success!!

Alrighty...so I tried something new and absolutely loved it. Last week I went looking for Bentonite Clay to no avail...I go to school in the middle Hickville, Indiana (Knowing how this place is that probably is the name of a real town here) and I can't find unique products. I think I will purchase some over the break. Well, I stopped by CVS and bought some Dr. Miracle Deep Conditioner. So here what I did in my process:

*Coated my hair with ACV and Baking soda
*Shampooed with Tea Tree Milk by Organix
*Condished with Dr. Miracle and my pre-poo (I love it so much I think I will use it as my main conditioner
*Sectioned my hair in four parts with rubber bands
*Coated and detangled each section
*Washed it out

I was supposed to leave in the conditioner for 30min since I didn't have a hooded dryer, but I only left it in long enough to detangle my whole head. My hair turned out GREAT! It was so full of life.

I then moisturized w/:
*Shea butter
*My bff's mother's grow creme

My old roommate saw my wet hair was so impressed(and secretly envious). We haven't had a perm for about the same time and my hair is longer and healthy.


Anyways...this is finals week so I need to keep studying. God Bless all the students for finals.

My Wknd Hair Plan

I don't know about u, but I have to make a defined plan when I want to do my hair. So, I get off tonight at six and I'm anticipating a house guest. My hair plan consists of prepooing, washing and conditioning my hair. If it starts to get late then I will style it tomorrow.

When I do get around to styling tomorrow. I will twist my hair and I'm hoping it turns out cute. :)


I'm praying that it goes as planned.