single strand update

Soooooooo. My knots have disappeared. In one week. It's amazing. I have no idea what caused them in the first place and why they suddenly disappeared. All I know is that when I washed my hair yesterday I couldn't find them. My hair is also so moist and sexy soft right now. I love it! I guess my hair loves box braids. I washed with them in this week and then took down post deep condition and redid my protective styling for the week i love being natural, all the different patterns of curl in my head and getting control over them. I started going crazy for a while trying different things but I think I will stick with what works for my hair and try not to get bored. lol. this weeks regimen:

Cowash - Herbal Essence Longlasting relationship
Deep Condition - ORS Hair Fertlizer
Leave in - Giovanni Direct Leave in and Redken Extreme Anti Snap
Sealing Oil - Doo Grow Hair Oil
Sealant - Hollywood Castor Oil Hair Treatment with mink oil

Bane of my existence - single strand knots!

So I was playing with my hair and realized I have a whole bunch of single strand knots going on! I don't know if they were always there and I wasn't paying attention or if they are a recent phenomenon but i don't like it one bit! I've also noticed that my ends are more raggedy these days and I think its because i started cornrowing instead of box braiding my wet hair. SO today I decided to go back to basics. I co-washed with my herbal essence Longlasting relationship conditioner, deep conditioned with ORS hair mayonnaise, moisturized with Giovanni Direct leave in and Redken extreme anti-snap and sealed with Doo Grow Hair Oil and Hollywood Beauty Castor Oil Hair treatment with Mink Oil. I then put my hair in 12 box braids. My ends look better already. lol. I'll keep this same regimen for the next month and see what happens with these knots. I'm hoping the lubrication will take them out cuz I don't want to have to cut them. I'm planning on trimming in June and December so I really don't want to get scissors anywhere near my hair before then.

loving the shine

side/back view

closeup

First try with henna, kind of

So I got the Hask Henna and placenta pack at Walgreens and gave it a try. I decided to do this rather than buy the henna powder and do the whole mixing thing because... I'm kinda lazy. LMAO anyways, I would say I wasn't particularly blown away. Its basically like a deep condition treatment except not as moisturizing. It says on teh pack that you can just rinse it out and style but I thought my hair was dry so I followed it up with conditioner and a deep condition. Here are the results after all that:

Looks nice and shiny to me but I think that's more due to the deep condition than the henna

It looks like the henna actually kinda colored my hair as it looks more brown now than it did before, which is fine with me. However it's ironic because the pack said it doesn't change ur hair color.

I used some new products this week as well. I used Giovanni 50:50 balanced hydrating-clarifying shampoo, Giovanni smooth as silk deeper moisture conditioner, Giovanni direct leave-in weightless moisture conditioner and Organic Root Stimulator Oile Oil replenishing Pak Deep penetrating conditioner. The Giovanni shampoo and conditioner were ok, I wasn't too impressed. The shampoo did that drying thing that most other shampoos do with my hair. The conditioner didn't give me enough slip for detangling. The leave in however seems like it works well, very moisturising and it defines my curls well although it doesnt do much for the frizz so I'll keep using it for a while. The replenishing pak is just as wonderful as I remebered it being. Really nice shine and very moisturising and a lovely smell.

I'm gonna go hunting for some good henna and try the mix and see what i get before i totally give up on henna. I'll be sure to share my experience!

This week's regimen:

Shampoo - Giovanni 50:50 balanced hydrating-clarifying shampoo

Henna Treatment - Hask Henna and Placenta treatment

Conditioner - Giovanni smooth as silk deeper moisture conditioner,

Deep conditioner - Organic Root Stimulator Oile Oil replenishing Pak Deep penetrating conditioner

Leave in - Giovanni direct leave-in weightless moisture conditioner

Oil - Doo Grow Stimulating Growth Oil

Sealant - Hollywood Beauty Castor Oil Hair Treatment with Mink Oil