Pictures of the Day

In my hair: Herbal Essence Hydralicious Reconditioning Conditioner
I finger detangled in three sections, two strand twisted the front, and that's it. :)
You like? 11 months, 3 weeks, 6 days natural.

It's nice and voluminous and defined.  I know my front facing camera sucks, but you can at least see how big it is. :)

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. :)

DHB: I Finally Got Second Day Hair!!

I always thought second day hair was just something I couldn't get because my hair was too short. But then when I used this method, my hair was actually ok enough in the morning that all it took was a couple spritzes from my water bottle and some fluffing for my hair to look good!! That is so exciting to me because that means I don't have to manipulate my hair on a daily basis unless I want to anymore.

I think using conditioner and a much lighter gel were preventing me from stretching my wash n go's. There just wasn't enough hold to keep my hair from becoming completely smooshed in the night with all my wild sleeping. But the Eco Styler gel has a really good hold and that's what made my hair last. I'll be experimenting with different leave ins in combination with this gel and I'll probably experiment with different Eco Styler's as well.

Wish me luck! :)

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

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. :)