midweek update: smaller two strand twists are the business

So last night I decided to do some smaller two strand twists in my hair for thanksgiving weekend. I used infusium 23 and cantu as my moisturizers and used the ORS smooth and hold pudding for hold. I banded them overnight and here are the lovely results! soft, stretched, good-looking twists.

All bunned up. got to protect those ends!

Compared to the last time I rocked twists like these in July, seems like my twists are hanging lower than before, seems to have progressed from just pass shoulder level to brushing apl.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Natural recipes make me go hmmmm! Part deux

I am trying a new leave-in. It is based on kimmaytube's leave in recipe. My adapted recipe consists of the following:

• 2 tbs Aloe Vera juice
• 2 tbs Cantu Shea Leave in conditioner
• 1 tbs redken extreme antisnap
• 2 tsp jojoba oil
• 2 tsp jamaican black castor oil

This is my second week using it and it is amazing! my hair is so soft, shiny and frizz free. My twist outs are also so defined, I have way more hang-time and it doesn't shrink up as much when I'm dancing up a storm. lol You can substitute the cantu and redken for any creamy leave in you can find or prefer and the other ingredients you can get at your local health food store. 

I use this mix once a week after my wash and acv rinse and store the remainders in the fridge. I spritz my hair with diluted infusium 23 before applying and I seal my ends with coconut oil. I also continue to oil my scalp but I have now added jbco, jojoba oil and coconut oil to my doo grow for this job. During the week, if my ends get dry I spritz with diluted infusium and seal with coconut oil or plain doo grow. I still baggy nightly. 

With the recent changes in my haircare regimen, I think my hair has gone to another level. My hair is so soft, I didn't even know it was possible. LMAO In fact, it is so soft that I went to a party this weekend and I was dancing around minding my business when some random dude put his hand in my twist out and exclaimed in shock OMG her hair is so soft! LMAO I know, it's a bit off-putting (why da hell is dude's hand in my hair) but I just thought it was so cute and hilarious. Plus I was happy and in a good mood. LMAO

Natural recipes make me go hmmmm!

Hi Yall,

it's been a hot minute since I've updated but I wanted to share with you all. I have been experimenting with more homemade recipes recently. I am in the process of simplifying my haircare routine and I am really motivated right now to use stuff that I can get readily in my community as opposed to ordering stuff online or depending on ridiculously expensive products. I was also inspired to find stuff ppl can get anywhere particularly as many of my friends from Trinidad are always asking me about products I use and very few of them are sold in Trini. The more I get to know my hair and the more research I do, the less I am concerned about using specific products or brands. I think being a broke student also prevents me from being consumed by product junkyism. lmao. I believe knowing what specific ingredients your hair likes and what type of products you need are more important. Then you can go out and get what ever is available to you in your community that can fulfill similar purposes. Easy, effective, available and cheap is what I'm going for with my hair care regimen.

As my hair is getting longer and thicker now, I have been finding detangling in the shower using a comb is becoming a problem. I have stated many times, patience is not my forte and I was finding that I was ripping out too much of my hair in the shower. As such, I stopped using a comb in the shower a few weeks ago and instead did some finger combing and did most of my detangle when I was about to do my protective style. I started saving my shed hair every week to keep track of if I was losing less or not. I also started researching pre-poo treatments. I've always heard about them but I hadn't really paid them any particular attention before. I needed to find something that would take the pain out of my detangling and present less hair each week to be put in my ziplock bags. lol

It's def getting longer and thickening up

Last week I tried my first pre-poo because I finally found something I thought actually made sense for me. The majority of pre-poo's ppl use consist of using oils on their hair pre-shampooing. I guess the reasoning is that you prevent totally stripping away oils during shampooing and so prevent the drying out effect shampooing sometimes bring. Personally, I was not too interested in that part because I feel like I have mastered the art of shampooing my hair now that I don't get this drying effect. What I needed was something to help with the detangling and simply oiling my hair wasn't going to help with that.

I have been looking into coconut milk recently and came across a video on youtube by thatgirl5 with a coconut conditioning treatment that she used on her daughter to soften her hair and ease detangling. She called it a "relaxer" but I didn't see any relaxing of her daughter's curl or anyone else who used it on youtube and I personally do not want to change my curl pattern but I decided to try it for the detangling potential. The recipe I used was

• 2 tbs extra virgin coconut oil - melted in the microwave
• 1.5 tbs coconut cream (I used Goya coconut milk [no stabilizers or gums] - I opened the can and poured the contents into a glass jar and left it uncovered in the fridge so that the fatty cream would float to the top and some of the water would evaporate. I then scooped the cream from the top for this recipe)
• 1 cup of plain yogurt - left out to get to room temperature before mixing.

After getting home from a party in the wee hours of Sunday morning, I applied the mixture (pH 4) to my hair section by section, put a plastic cap on and went to bed. Putting this mix in my hair was a revelation in itself. It felt amazing! I was skeptical about if it would work on my dry dirty hair but as soon as I started smoothing it out, it stretched out my curls and i was removing my shed strands with so much ease! When I was done applying it I had so much hang time and my hair already felt so moisturized and detangled I was quite pleased. I ran to take a pic but my camera batteries were dead and I didn't have replacements. I promise the next time I do it I will post pics.I was also quite tired as it took me near an hour to apply it. 

My reasoning for doing it at that time was "hey I got to get up soon anyways so I'll rinse it out and then do my regular washing routine". I didn't want to leave it in too long because I didn't want to run the risk of changing my curl pattern. Needless to say, I overslept and 8 hours later I was washing this mix out of my head. I rinsed the mix out throughly then shampooed with HE Hello Hydration and conditioned with HE Longlasting Relationship. I then did an ACV rinse. When I was done my hair was so soft it kind of scared me. LMAO. I was like "OMG I think I changed my curl pattern" It was weird, my hair had the same curl pattern but it definitely was stretched more and just so unbelievably soft it threw me off. I wasn't sure I liked this soft mane after all. Regardless, detangling was a BREEZE and I can now happily report that one week later my hair is definitely still my hair just so much softer and easier to detangle. lol. But next time, I'm only leaving it in 2-3 hours tops because I don't like it super soft. 

Left bag is my shed hair from detangling the week before the coconut treatment, middle bag is week of, right bag is this week (1 week post treatment). I know you can tell the difference. lol

This week I used the HE long lasting relationship conditioner for a co-wash and used my regular hair mayo from ORS for a deep condition. It is astonishing how much less hair I removed from my hair this week. I will def continue to use this coconut treatment on my hair, probably once a month or even every other month, depending on how often I think I need it. I also tried it on one of my friends hair yesterday and she also loved it and reports she is going to use it as a deep conditioner in the future. This is also an effective protein treatment as the yogurt has lots of protein in it. I would also recommend it to ppl who do adapted KCCC methods, this is great for getting your curls to clump so you start with a great foundation. 

So if you are looking for softer, way easier to detangle, more hang-time, clumped curls hair, you might want to try this. and u can find all the stuff u need cheap at your neighborhood grocery store. lol