DIY Strengthening & Softening Deep Conditioner

How I Did My Hair Today

So this isn't exactly how I did my hair today, more so how I did it yesterday, lol. I meant to put this post up yesterday but some ugly internet drama had me wanting to stay away from the keyboard for a while, so I'll just share it now.

I wore (and am still wearing) my hair in a fro hawk done on Wash n Go hair. I did my hair in the shower, first detangling with my paddle brush while my hair was loaded with Yes To Cucumbers conditioner and Giovanni 50:50 balance conditioner. I didn't section or anything because I was in a rush to finish my hair, but I should have gone ahead and detangled in sections. :(

But anywho, after my hair was detangled, I just let the conditioners sit in it for a few minutes while I completed the rest of my shower routine. Once I was finished with that, I split my hair in half, one section on top, one on the bottom, and rinsed out most but not all of the conditioner. Then I added a nice fingertip full of Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie to my hair via smoothing and raking, then followed with Olive Oil Eco Styler gel. I then split the top section in two and followed the same process on each of those sections.

To finish off, I put some extra virgin olive oil in my palms and spread it throughout my hair to seal in all the moisture and soften up the gel's hold. I put my head back under the shower stream for just a second to give it one last rinsing of water, then shook my hair out vigorously, while covering my face with my hands. This allowed all of the curls to separate and clump into their own preferred units. The last thing I did before stepping out of the shower was to scrunch my hands all throughout my hair to get rid of the excess water and product.

After that, all I did was pin back the sides, put the front up into a little quiff, and diffuse for a few minutes before stepping out of the house. I had a GREAT hair day, despite people on the internet trying to bring me down and convince me I was a "tumbleweed head, nappy headed hoe" who needs to get a perm. Excuse my french but f**k the haters! My hair is fabulous, and I'm beautiful so if you don't think so, you can go somewhere else. Bye loves! :-*

Daily Giveaway's For The Month of September

One of my favorite sites, NaturallyCurly.com is doing a giveaway a day for the entire month. At the end of the month there will be a grand prize worth $1,000 at the end of the month. I believe each of your entries counts as an entry for the grand prize. If you love hair products, or just want a chance to win some free stuff, I say hop on it.

I noticed that the banner advertising the giveaways says the grand prize is $2,000 but that's incorrect. It must have just been a typo, so don't be upset if you enter and see the grand prize changed to $1,000. That's still more money than I've ever spent on my hair!!

What Is The Green House Effect For Hair??

Hi guys. I wanted to tell you all about some of the things I do to maximize my hair growth so I'm going to start with the Greenhouse Effect or GHE. Now, what on earth is that, you may ask. Well, basically the GHE is using a plastic bag or shower cap along with a scarf and bonnet, or possibly a hat during the night to create a warm and moist environment on your hair while you sleep. The excess heat and moisture trapped on your hair by the shower cap and other layers help to promote the natural oils in your scalp, known as sebum, to come out in greater abundance than they normally do. Sebum helps to nourish and moisturize hair, helping it to grow long and healthy.

When doing the GHE it's recommended to use a natural oil of some kind to coat your hair strands from root to tip to provide extra moisture and lubrication to the hair than can be produced from layering alone. Jamaican black castor oil, extra virgin olive oil, and extra virgin coconut oil are a few really popular ones. It's all about finding what works best in your hair. Personally, I use castor oil from Walmart and massage it into my scalp before putting on all my layers for the night. I don't choose to coat the length of my hair in oil simply because I don't think I would be able to go multiple days between washing and styling my hair if I did. When I first went natural and began to identify my hair as curly I learned that curly girls should never run their fingers through their hair because it can muss up the curls and separate all the units. So running my hands down the length of my hair with oil seems counter intuitive to me.

Normally hair grows at a rate of about half an inch per month, but with the GHE people have been able to get anywhere from one to one and a half inches of growth every month! I think those results speak for themselves. The GHE works better the more often you do it, so I try to do this at least every other night. I recommend you guys try it out for a month or two and see how your hair likes it. Maybe you can speed up your rate of growth! The Greenhouse Effect is part of a larger regimen, which was started by Meeka Jael on YouTube. She has a new channel called RealQueensRegimen where you can get all the info on the GHE and the overall regimen. The Real Queens Regimen also has a group on Hairlista for women who follow the regimen or do the GHE to help each other out with tips and experiences. If you decide to add the GHE to your current routine or to completely switch over to the Real Queens Regimen let me know in the comments.

Later, loves. :-*

Detangling Tools! :)

BOV Number 2

This is late, but it's finally up. Here's the vlog promised in the last post. Enjoy and leave your comments below. :)

Hair Experiment/Product Combo of the Day

For the past week or so, I've only been using the Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie plus Eco Styler gel to do my Wash n Gos. This has given me really nice results, but I wanted to see what, if anything, else could work well with the gel without giving me that gross product reaction.

So today I decided to try out a product that I previously hated. For whatever reason, the Curls Creme Brulee did not work well with the Curls Goddess Curls Gel AT ALL!! I hated those two products together. And the fact that they come from the same line/brand kind of added to my dislike for them. I felt like the Brulee did nothing to really define my curls and the gel felt like all it did was lock in the frizziness that I always got with those two products.

But surprisingly, the CCB plus ESG worked really nicely for my hair. I basically had to use the CCB as nothing more than a moisturizer and stop looking to see if it would give me any definition on its own. That's just not happening. But so far, I'm really pleased with how my hair turned out, and it smells freaking fantabulous!!! I'll update with either a BOV or pictures of the day later. :)

Naturally Curly Hair Growth Prediction/Theory

It should come as no surprise that I examine my hair very often. It's still something new to me so I try to learn as much about it as I possibly can. So, every now and then when I'm bored, I'll sit in front of my mirror with an index card and put it behind my hair to examine it piece by piece. I also study photos of curly hair that I come across in every day life.

These examinations have caused me to come up with a theory about my hair, that can be applied to curly hair in general, concerning the way curl units grow. In the very front/top of my hair, there is almost no curl definition. The hair there is just wavy with no real units forming until you get to the very end of the strands. After about the first four to five inches, the hair no longer waves and starts to curl all in the same pattern, and become a defined, visible curl.

I've seen this on all kinds of curly hair, not just highly textured African-American natural hair. So, that lead me to the conclusion that some hair has to reach a certain age before it begins to grow in the same pattern as the hairs around it and form a defined unit.

Hair grows from the scalp at about half an inch per month, so the ends of our hair are the oldest parts and hair closest to the scalp is the youngest. If I have 5.5" of hair, and the first 5" has grown in random waves and the last half inch all comes together in the same curl pattern, that tells me my hair has to be at least eleven months old for it to grow in the same pattern as the hair around it and become a true unit. So, the first 5" of my hair might always be randomly wavy, but if my theory is correct, all hair after that will be in actual curl units.

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments. Later, loves. :-*

Pictures of the Day

I decided to experiment with my hair again. :) This time I used my Tresemme Naturals conditioner as a leave in, applied raw unrefined shea butter on top of that, and finished off with Olive Oil Eco Styler gel. These pictures are what my hair looked like just after I finished styling it. I'll try to update throughout the day. Enjoy!! ^__^

I'm On Hairlista!

Hey loves. First update of the day (I hope, lol). Just wanted to let you know that I have joined the oh-so-popular website, hairlista.com. My user name is Aaliyah Lanae, and I'd love some more friends, so if you're on the site, add me!

If you're not aware, Hairlista is kind of like a social networking site dedicated to helping women of color grow and properly care for their hair. There is so much good FREE info on the site it's ridiculous! There are also lots of forums, groups to join, blogs, photo sharing and a bunch of other stuff. It's a really nice site and I think it's worth it for everyone with a hair goal in mind to join. Hairlista can help you get there.

I'll be updating this blog with info on the challenges and groups I'm apart of so even if you're not a member, you can at least know what I'm doing. It's all part of my hair journey. :) Don't forget to hit the follow button on the lower half of the sidebar to the right! You'll be updated much quicker. Later, loves. :-*

I Think I've Decided To Shampoo

Even though I've been faithfully following the curly girl method by avoiding silicones, not using shampoo with any kind of SLS, and using conditioner to cleanse and style my hair, I think my hair needs a little lather in it's life. Lol.

I like co-washing and using just conditioner, but yesterday, I was examining my hair and I noticed some curls were looking a little limp on the ends. I've been meaning to do a good deep treatment for a few weeks now, but I never got around to actually doing it.

But now I'm thinking the DT might not be as effective as it normally would be if I don't really cleanse my hair and get all of the buildup out. Despite what some people might have you believe, anything can and will build up on your hair if it's not being properly and regularly removed. I poured out my last bottle of shampoo a few weeks ago and have been exclusively co-washing since. But I think I should be able to find some shampoo around the house since I'm the only one who doesn't use it. With three other females in the house, there should be something I can use.

I'm just going to dilute about a nickel size amount into a cup of water and see how that feels. I don't want to strip my hair, but I want it to feel really clean so my DT doesn't have to fight through layers and layers of other products just to do what it's supposed to. Wish me luck, and I'll give an update later. :)

I Just Remembered Why I Don't Like Wide Tooth Combs

.....For detangling. More specifically, I don't like them for removing shed hairs. I just finished doing my hair in the shower (I know it's 8 at night, but I had things to do. :)) and my denman brush wasn't in the shower where it was supposed to be so I just used my wide tooth to do my detangling.

And I instantly remembered why I stopped using it to detangle in the first place. For one thing, I don't think wide tooth combs are adequately equipped to remove smaller sized tangles. There's just too much space between the teeth. But whatever. If I go through my hair with the comb enough times, I think I can get it detangled enough that there won't be any problems.

But removing shed hairs is a totally different matter. After I finished detangling with the comb, I ran my hands over my head one last time for good measure, and came away with lots of shed strands that the comb just didn't remove. So I ran my hands over my head again. Lo and behold, more hair. I pretty much had to detangle my hair all over again, this time using just my fingers, to remove all the shed hair. Now, to some this may not seem like a big deal because I could always remove them the next time I do my hair; which, since I do my hair every day, would be tomorrow. But I don't like the idea of just leaving shed hairs on my head to sit and get caught on growing hairs and possibly cause extra tangles and knots that I wouldn't have had to deal with had the loose hairs not been there.

I was just really annoyed by this. I'll be using my denamn tomorrow, like I usually do. What do you all think? Is daily detangling too much or is my frustration well founded? Let me know in the comments.

Daily Hair Blog: New WnG Method

Hey guys. I've been doing my hair in a different way for the past few days. I normally cowash my hair in the shower and then spray my hair thoroughly with a water and conditioner (Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition) mix, seal with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and then rake my fingers through my hair to evenly distribute the products. That usually left me with soft hair, and lots of thin little curls all over my head. I say thin because there never seemed to be that many strands of hair per curl, but I always just thought that was how my curl units liked to clump.

But one issue I always had was the crown/top of my head. The hair there doesn't have any curl to it (yet), it's just wavy and it loses all the water from my shower almost instantly. Since I like my hair to be almost soaking wet when I style it, to seal in all the moisture I possibly can, that was a serious problem. After my hair was done it would always look good at the sides and the back/bottom of my hair, but the top was normally just wavy with no real clumping going on, so it always looked frizzy. I had to find some way to counter that issue.

So, the very first thing I changed about how I do my hair was doing it with a spray mixture. I waited until my bottle of water/condish mix was completely out and started doing my hair in the shower. First, instead of Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition (which I still absolutely love!) I used Tresemme Natural's Nourishing Moisture conditioner to cowash my hair, and then reapplied it to use as my detangler/leave in. Then I detangled with my fingers until I didn't feel any major knots and then followed with my denman brush to remove all the shed hairs that my fingers missed and applied Extra Virgin Olive Oil after scrunching out the excess conditioner to seal in the moisture. The whole time I would be raking my fingers through my hair to help (or so I thought) with definition.

My hair turned out nice and soft, and very moisturized, which is my main concern. But the top was still looking a bit frizzier than I'm happy with, so I decided to try something else. I bought LA Looks Sports Gel to try as a finisher because it was very cheap, it's CG friendly, and I've heard really positive reviews on it. So, I did everything the same way I had been doing it, minus two things: After I detangle with my denamn, I don't rake my fingers through my hair. I just smooth on the EVOO and gel. Then, once I'm done, I shake my head from side to side and back and forth to get rid of any excess product still sitting on my hair, and to separate the curls. I decided to try shaking instead of raking because I wanted to see if it could give me better definition in my crown area, thinking that if I shake, all the curl/wave units will just break up into all the little sections they naturally want to. Whereas if I rake, I'm mechanically breaking them up into little units that they may not have chosen on their own.

Well, let me just tell you guys, MY HAIR HAS NEVER LOOKED BETTER than when I use this method!! I have more definition than I ever really thought I could because my curls are nice and plump, with lots of hairs in each unit. And the addition of the gel gives my hair the hold it needs to stay in each little curl without every being crunchy or hard. I was so impressed! Obviously, once my hair get's longer I will probably have to find a different method to separate the curls, because I don't want to make a mess shaking my hair out. But for now, my hair is #winning! Lol

My First YouTube Video!!!

Hey everyone! I added my very first YouTube video today!!! This is just me introducing myself and letting everyone know what my channel will be focusing on. I didn't really say everything I wanted to say in the video, but I suppose that's what this blog is for! :)

I was seriously not feeling my hair today because I did something different to it, just for the sake of doing something different and I did not have favorable results. My hair wasn't anywhere near as soft as it normally is with my regular routine and I could just tell by the feel and sound of it that there wasn't enough moisture there. I should have rinsed all of the products out and started over, but I knew I wasn't going to leave the house today and I figured one day with drier than normal hair wouldn't ruin me.

I normally follow the conditioner only method, also known as the Tightly Curly Method as pushed by Teri LaFlesh in her book Curly Like Me (which I absolutely love and recommend).  But today I decided to try using two products that I bought at the very beginning of my hair journey and only used a few times because I didn't like how they worked with my hair. They are Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie, and Kinky-Curly Curling Custard.

   

I decided after a few times of using CES that it didn't work well in my hair due to the high coconut oil content, because my hair doesn't seem to like coconut oil very much. It just leaves it dry and brittle instead of soft and moisturized. And the KCCC just sat in a drawer full of other hair products that I barely touch because I didn't really see anything too special about it and it left my hair hard and kind of crunchy when used alone. Though I did once have pretty nice results when I used KCCC and Tresemme Naturals conditioner together.

So, boredom with my normal routine struck and I convinced myself that maybe I just needed to revisit these two products and see if perhaps I was using them the wrong way, or possibly using the wrong portions. And I had heard of numerous people combining these two products and having wonderful results, so I just wanted to be counted among them I guess. 

Well, you know what they say: Don't try to fix what isn't broken. I wouldn't say I had the worst hair day EVER, but it wasn't a good one. I'll stick to COM/TCM in the future. Instead of trying different hair products,  maybe I'll just try out different silicone-free conditioners. But that's a whole other post so, till next time! :-*

How I Did My Wash n Go Today

So today I did my hair in a kind of experimental way. I normally just used my water and conditioner mix to do my hair but for the past couple days I've noticed that my hair is only soft for the first half of the day. By the time I'm almost ready for bed my hair feels dry and almost crunchy. It doesn't become totally crunch but its close.

So what I decided is the conditioner alone wasn't doing enough to keep my hair hydrated for more than a day. As my hair gets longer and I'm finally able to stretch my wash n go's, I don't want to still be forced to redo them on a daily basis. So I decided to start sealing my hair before adding the conditioner to see how my hair likes that.

I normally seal with extra virgin olive oil but I've found that that can be a bit too heavy and its hard to control how much I'm using when I'm just pouring the product straight from the bottle. But I really do love that EVOO is one of the only oils known to actually penetrate the hair shaft and moisturize from the inside out. So I wanted to keep using it, but in a way that would offer more control and add to the softness of my hair.

Welcome, shea butter! I made a mix of equal parts shea butter, aloe vera gel, coconut oil, and olive oil, with a few drops of tea tree oil added to act as a preservative. The consistency is hard to describe. It's kind of like a creamy and slightly gritty solid. But its very easy to scoop.

I added this mix to my hair as soon as I got out of the shower while my hair was still dripping wet. I divided my hair into three sections, one on the bottom/back and two on the top. About a finger tip full was enough for each section. Then I sprayed each section liberally with my normal mix of GFTN and raked the product through. Using paper towels, I squeezed out most of the excess water and product, then diffused my hair on low speed and low heat for about five minutes.

That was about two hours ago and so far my hair is nice and soft. Hopefully I can keep my hair as healthy as it is now. It's all just a bunch of trial and error. Wish me luck. :)