The Missing Chronicles of August 2011 - February 2012: Guess Who Met Taren Guy?

This Trini gyul, that's who lol. I had the wonderful opportunity to not only meet the lovely Taren Guy (taren916 on Youtube), but collaborate with her and the uberly talented Ms Aingeel of Khamit Kinks salon in Brooklyn on a holiday styling special for naturallycurly.com. 

Holiday Hair w/Taren Guy for NaturallyCurly.com

This was actually my first experience getting my natural hair styled in a curly style at a salon. My previous salon visits were usually for straightening, weaving or braiding purposes. It was an amazing experience to say the least. It feels so good to have someone who understands my hair type wash, condition and style it. It takes so much weight off you so you can just relax and enjoy the experience and even learn a thing or two.

From l to r: Aingeel, yours truly and Taren after getting my hair styled at Khamit Kinks in Brooklyn, NY. Check the lovely layout and ambiance. 

The salon itself is very natural-friendly and even on a Tuesday early afternoon it was fairly busy and all the clients seemed like happy regulars. Folks were professional and on time and everybody that left there was looking good! There were folks getting their locs maintained, getting their fades neatened up, getting braids done, weave put in, two strand twists etc. I even saw a hairstyle I had never seen before and haven't seen since.

Check out that crazy braid!! Anybody can figure out how she did that?

As for my personal experience, Aingeel washed and deep conditioned my hair. She detangled my wet hair with the conditioner still in it using a brush, something I would NEVER do on my own hair, but  surprisingly it did not rip my hair out. It effectively detangled my hair with no breakage to speak of. Once she was done washing, she put me under the dryer until my hair was about 80% dry. She then used a cornbird dryer to blowdry my hair using the tension method. She then styled my hair into a really nice updo using Jane Carter products to moisturize and style. The most important thing I learnt was using mousse (Jane Carter Wrap and Roll) as a replacement for gel to smooth edges and keep a style slick and neat. Great hold without the hard feel!

See how smooth the style looks?!! Thanks to Jane Carter Wrap and Roll  Mousse.

The front/top of the style

Thanks again to Taren for the opportunity and to Aingeel for the great job she did!

Blessings
MNT

The Missing Chronicles of August 2011 - February 2012 - I'm a WrapStar

As you may have figured out by now, I lurvvvvvve to wrap my head. Turbans, headscarves, headbands, I love them all. Last year a fellow naturalista, S, introduced me to a wonderful group on facebook for folks to share their love of headwraps. The group is called Headwraps and Wrapstars. You can view the awesomeness here. I dedicate this post to the lovely members of that group and the wonderful Sister S!

Used a black scarf to wrap my head then used a pink and white polka dot one for a highlight.  

Boboshanti Styling 

Had my hair in a high ponytail and wrapped a headband using my black satin scarf to keep my edges slick on a windswept day 

Black scarf again, this time using a white scarf for highlight. 

The Missing Chronicles of August 2011 - February 2012: Rediscovering Juiciness

Head Full of Juicy Twists

One day on a whim I decided to try a new leave in conditioner. As you may know, I had been using various creamy concoctions based on kimmaytube's method for a while. However, I only used those on wash days and as we moved into fall and winter I found that my hair was getting dried out between washes. I decided to experiment with spritzing. The practice seemed conducive to easy use during the week, and the minimal effort required once you made up a batch was ideal for my busy lifestyle. The very first spritz I made, I didn't measure out the ingredients, but it consisted of the following:

• infusium 23
• rose water
• bottled water
• aloe vera juice
• almond oil
• vegetable glycerin
• lavender essential oil
• peppermint essential oil

Let's just say my hair was so juicy I almost fell out. Absolutely frizz free hair! Unfortunately, two weeks after I discovered this miracle, I straightened and cut my hair (more like a deep trim as it wasn't cut into a style) so no spritzing for a month and then I moved and had my hair essentials shipped so I've been unable to replicate since. However, as soon as I have all ingredients in hand again, I will be repeating this experiment. Enjoy the pics!

Absolutely ZERO frizz!

The resulting juicy twist out

My Braids after getting my hair blow-dried and a deep trim

The Missing Chronicles of August 2011 - February 2012: Length Checks and Deep Trims

Yah. I did it. Remember at the beginning of 2011 I mentioned my hair length goal for 2011 was to get to 3 inches shy of the crack of my butt? lol Well turns out I made my target with 4 months to spare. 

Taken 8/25/11. 

Then in October I got antsy and decided to get a blowout and THEN decided I should also get a trim. I ended up leaving the salon with bsl length hair lol. 

Length check on a braid out done on blow dried and deeply trimmed hair. Back to about bsl. Picture taken 11/19/2011.

Rocking my shorter hair has been great. Honestly, since moving hair has kind of been low on my priority list so I haven't been really doing right by it. Despite this, it still managed to grow back to about midback length.

Rough length check on extremely curly and tangled medium twist- twistout hair. seems to be back to about mid back length. Picture taken 3/2/2012

I think now that I'm more settled, I may try actively growing it back out again. If only to get some hang-time in this sweet country they call T&T, with what feels like 200% humidity. I loooove my shrinkage but sometimes I leave my house with hair down by my armpits and return with hair around my ears and rain didn't fall. LOL. I'm kinda curious what length I have to get to for my hair to get less than 50-75% shrinkage. To re-frame that: at what length of hair is it heavy enough to give me serious hangtime in its kinky-curly state? Only time will tell. 

The Missing Chronicles of August 2011 - February 2012: Styles I've Rocked

To say my hair has been through some changes would be an understatement. More details to come in other posts but I'll let these pics do some of the talking.

Braid-out using Shea Moisture Curl and Style Milk 

Chunky Juicy Fro done using my homemade spritz 

Rocking two french braids or 'canerows'. Combed my hair out dry, or I attempted to, in order to do this style for a smooth finish. Can we say epic fail? lol There is a reason I have banished the comb and that reason is called breakage.  

The resulting curly fro after taking out two french braids

Another chunky fro. Also did my boo's hair. To neaten his locs I palmrolled using Jane Carter's wrap and roll setting lotion and Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie. I then made about 8 large braids using his locs and then wrapped them on each other to create what he calls a rose.  

Wash and Go, no shingling

Twistout style using Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie 

Front of twist-out style 

Rocking Mini Twists. These lasted about a month 

Did a Page 56 style on my gf P. Multiple Flat-twists coming across horizontally from the right ear  and then two french braids on the left side. Very chic! Used Shea moisture curl enhancing smoothie as the style aid. 

Inspiration video for this style by Ms MahoganyKnots from Youtube can be found here

Twistout on blow dried hair. Wish I got to take a pic of the blow dried hair before the humidity hit it, it was gloriously huge! can't wait to do that and go out in Trini LMAO

The beginnings of a failed rodset. Used Jane Carter wrap and roll for a setting lotion. The ends and middle turned out great but the roots were very frizzy 

The ending of a failed rodsetting attempt. 4 canerows on each side, A textured pompadour on top and swept the rest into a high pony and threw a piece on that. lol Got to have that emergency piece I tell you.

My other fall back - the Bun. When in doubt, spritz hair with water, slap on some ecostyler, bring out the boar bristle brush and pull that hair into a bun. Tie down my edges with a  satin scarf for a few to smooth the edges and voila! 

A closeup of the bun action. In this one I wrapped the base of the bun with a braid. 

Been experimenting with more roll and tuck protective styles lately. Particularly loving the texture in this pic. This style is inspired by ACurlsBestFriend (Youtube)

The inspiration video for the style above - ACurlsBestFriend

Victory Roll-esque updo inspired by Ms. FusionofCultures on Youtube 

Side View of the victory roll updo 

The inspiration video done by Ms FusionofCultures

When in doubt, just throw on a beanie and go lol

The Missing Chronicles of August 2011 - February 2012 - The Preamble

[Source] 

Don't call it a comeback, but I'm back! lol. As I wrote that I realized I'm back in so many ways, not just to posting on this blog. Back home in sweet TnT. Back with my family, my boo and my friends. Back to a productive, settled state of mind. Back to a happy place. The list can go on and on. Happy 2012 people and happy 2nd year blogiversary to me. I figured as I ease my way back into sharing this hair journey with the universe I should probably update the folks who read these posts on what was going on with me hair-wise since July 2011. 

Ladies and gents I present: The Missing Chronicles. These will be a series of posts with some hair-related highlights from the time I haven't been blogging. Once we're all caught up, expect posts more regularly than once every six months and if I can get my act together, I may even try some new stuff on here. 2012 feels like a year of growth, change, opportunity and blessings. Hope you are in beast mode too!

Many Blessings

MNT