Versatile Blogger Award

I have been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award! I would like to thank Nadine, Diamond, and Cecily for the nomination :). These ladies have some fantastic blogs, be sure to pay them a visit.


To Do List
1. Thank the Blogger that nominated me.
2. Share 7 random facts about me.
3. Nominate 15 bloggers who are relatively new to blogging
4. Let nominated bloggers know they have been nominated.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award to my post.

7 Random Facts
1. I am all about sleep. I can sleep whenever and wherever lol.
2. Law and Order SVU is my all time favorite show.
3. I love greek and roman mythology.
4. I would love to visit Greece someday <3.
5. I don't really like chocolate that much.
6. I thoroughly enjoy techno and think it should be played more often lol.
7. I love leopard print items (clothes, phone case, shoes, etc :)

Nominees :)
So many people have already been nominated, I may have trouble finding 15 people who haven't been lol :)

1. Ashley the Fashion Guru
2. Blessed Tresses
3. Aneesah's Healthy Hair Journey
4. Healthy Hair By Special K
5. Fulltime Feminine
6. Lexi Minty Fresh
7. Simply Into My Hair
8. Donna Dell
9. Hairly Obsessed
10. Hair I Am World
11. Guyanese Sista

Also, I know I have seriously been slacking on posts, my life has just gotten unexpectedly hectic :/. I will be stepping my game up for October though, including a giveaway for birthday month!

Thanks for reading :),

Wash Day -- New Products + Flexi-Rods

Hey there,

So I have been slipping on my posting a bit recently. My mind has just been all over the place recently, but luckily I have been keeping up with my hair routine even though I haven't been posting much. For whatever reason, this weekend's wash went extremely well. I feel like I've performed this wash tons of times, but it somehow turned out really well. This wash day went down on saturday afternoon (I know, mad late lol) and here are the steps:

1. Overnight pre-poo treatment with Kinky Curly Perfectly Polished Hair Oil (I've used this a few times, still not impressed--especially not for the price, but I'm making it work) and coconut oil.
2. I rinsed out like 15 hours later and shampooed twice with diluted Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo. I recently started diluting this shampoo, more on how and why next post!
3. I deep conditioned with Organic Root Stimulator Hair Masque for 20 minutes with heat.
4. After the conditioner cooled, I rinsed it out and finger detangled under running water.
5. I t-shirt dried for about 10 minutes, then applied my leave-ins: Silicon Mix Bambu Leave-in (love this!) and argan oil.
   I must confess, I think adding the leave-in may have been too much protein for my hair. It didn't break while detangling, but it was far more tangled than usual, it was also a bit dryer too. 
6. I finger detangled, combed my hair out and let it air-dry loose.
7. When it was about 90% dry, I moisturized with Deja's Hair Milk and sealed with a combination of argan oil and the Jane Carter Nourish & Shine. 

After doing that, my hair was super hydrated, smooth and tangle free and for whatever reason it remained that way until Sunday evening! On saturday night and sunday morning all I did was run a bit of argan oil through it and that was all. My hair had been straight all weekend, so when I arrived I decided to toss some curls in it because you see, i recently FELL IN LOVE with flexi-rods! Why didn't anyone tell me these things were so amazing lol?! It makes my hair look like a full magnetic rollerset in a fraction of the time.

So last night, I lightly sprayed my hair with water, finger detangled and applied Mizani Butter Rich Deep Nourishing Hairdress (I figured I'd give my Deja's Hair Milk a rest for a bit) in sections. I then rolled my hair onto eight, 11/16'' gray flexi-rods, put on a hairnet and called it a night. As usual I was running late for work (lol), so I couldn't snap pics this morning but I took some when I arrived home.

 

 

I'm shocked at how well these held up after being done on mostly dry hair! 

I'm sold on the flexi-rods :).

My hair is also super moisturized and still bouncy with a great smell. Mizani FTW lol. I'll use this a few more times and then I'll review it, but if the results continue to look, feel and smell this good, this may just become a staple.

Thanks for reading :),

My Sister's Update #2

Good afternoon!

Janelle hit me up with her 2 month update! Lol, she loves this hair stuff so much I don't even have to remind her to update me :). She sent me a pic of her wash day results a week after her relaxer.

She relaxed two weeks ago at 8 weeks post with a no-lye relaxer (she forgot to ask her stylist for which relaxer was used. I told her to get back on that! lol). I had her incorporate the mid-relaxer protein step (using a protein treatment after rinsing out the relaxer but before neutralizing) using the Organic Root Stimulator Replenishing Pak. She noted that her hair had more body immediately after relaxing, she was pleased (apparently her stylist was too :).

She left her hair down for the week after her relaxer and bunned for a few days the next week. Here is her wash day run down down at 2 weeks post: 

1. Coconut oil pre-treat at home.
2. Rinse at salon. 
3. Organix Moroccan argan oil sulfate free shampoo
4. Aussie 3-minute deep conditioner
5. Under dryer for 10 minutes
6. Rinse and roller-set
7. 45 minutes under dryer
8. Wrap in a satin doo-rag and go! 

 Post wash day pic :)

 

A few bun shots

Janelle comments:

Much softer and stronger and growing at a nice rate. Great body only 2 weeks after relaxing!

It looks to me like she's retained a bit of length since she began. Stay tuned for another sister update in 1 month!

Thanks for reading :),

Nexxus Giveaway Winner!

Hey all!

I would like to announce the winner of the Nexxus Signature Line giveaway. The winner is:

Ashley Monique @ Ashley the Fashion Guru!

Congratulations hun! Please visit her blog she has some awesome style and make-up information!

*The winner was chosen by numbering the comments that were entered (excluding my comment, there were 7 that entered) under the blog entry for the giveaway. The winner was chosen using random.org earlier today.

Thank you to all of the lovely ladies who entered and a special thanks to my new subscribers ♥! You guys are all amazing :). I will be having another giveaway and lots more hair fun coming up soon!

Thanks for reading :),

The Favorite Series: Leave-in Conditioner

Happy Labor Day!
Prior to my hair journey, my hair routine was wash, condition and blow dry two times per week. Clearly that wasn't working for my length retention, so the first thing that I changed when I began to take better care of my hair was to cut out heat styling. Although, I must admit it was a hard habit to kick; as of today I have not heat styled my hair in 14 months and I don't see myself heat styling anytime in the near future. I am 100% addicted to air-drying. When I think about how my hair used to look, it occurred to me that I get smoother results from air-drying than I ever did with my blow dryer so I'm gonna stick with it lol. Air-drying didn't always work out for me in the beginning though, but I can honestly say that one day it all turned around.

Rusk Smoother Passionflower and Aloe Smoothing Leave-in Conditioner

This leave-in conditioner is probably one of the most important parts of my hair care routine. It instantly smooths, detangles and strengthens my hair to ensure optimal moisture retention. The first time I started using it was during the winter when I was having a hard time retaining moisture in cold, dry conditions. After a good moisturizing deep conditioning, this keeps my hair balanced with a shot of protein to improve manageability and keep my hair strong while manipulating during damp styling, detangling and air-drying. On t-shirt dried hair, I use this on the length in conjunction with pure argan oil on my ends to get smoother results from air-drying than I have with any other leave-in I've ever tried (and since I'm quite the product junkie I've tried a few ;). Recently I have been working on my rollersetting skills, and I came to find that this works better than any of the serums I have ever tried. It keeps my hair smooth, and makes detangling easier to create smooth, soft, strong sets that last for days without the aid of a setting lotion or other styling product. All in all, this product is just amazing. It has a smooth lotion-like consistency and an awesome light fresh smell. If they were to change the formula of this product I don't know what will become of my air-drying routine lol. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who has trouble with post-wash detangling, moisture retention or attaining smooth hair from air-drying.


Rating: 5/5--Staple!

Claim: Rusk Sensories Smoother Passionflower and Aloe Smoothing Leave-in Conditioner awakens the sense, while smoothing and texturizing the hair. Smoother Leave-in Conditioner contains protective sunscreen, and eliminates static, while providing body and a healthy natural shine. All Sensories products feature Compress Formula Technology. CFT enhances and expands the user's sensory experience. Use 30-50% less product and achieve twice the performance.


Ingredients: Water, cyclopentasiloxane, cetearyl alcohol, dimethicone, propylene glycol, polyquaternium-37, stearyl alcohol, panthenol, behentrimonium methosulfate, hydrolyzed wheat protein, aloe leaf extract, passion flower extract, centrimonium bromide, dimethicone PEG-8 meadowfoamate, PPG-20 methyl glucose ether, cinnamidpropyltrimonium chloride, propylene glycol dicaprylate/dicaprate, hydrolyzed wheat starch, fragrance, PPG-1 trideceth-6, DMDM hydantoin, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, orange 4, yellow 6, hexyl cinnamal, linalool, benzyl benzoate, limonene, butylphenyl methylpropional, hydroxyisohexyl 3 -cyclohexene carboxyaldehyde, citronellol, geraniol, hydroxycitronellal
pH: 7
Type: Protein Containing Leave-in Conditioner

Thanks for reading :),

Wash Day - Back to Rollersetting :)

Happy Saturday!
I must confess, I was sad when I had to stop rollersetting after 6 weeks post. I find that it's just too much manipulation and I lack the skills to safely rollerset after 6 weeks lol. Well, now that I'm freshly relaxed and trimmed I figured it was time to get back to what my ends really love :). Now onto the wash day details and pics:

1. Pre-poo with coconut and olive oil for 30 mins with heat and an additional 2 hours due to more laziness lol.
2. Shampooed once with Cream of Nature Neutralizing and Conditioning Shampoo to make sure all of the relaxer residue has been thoroughly removed.
3. Shampoo once with Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo.
4. Deep condition with Nexxus Humectress for 30 minutes with heat.
5. Rinse, t-shirt dry for 5-7 minutes.
6. Apply Rusk Smoother Leave-in and begin rollersetting.

This set took me roughly 45-50 minutes to complete because for once I rolled my entire head lol. I used small .75''-1'' rollers all around.

 

I let them air-dry completely overnight and took them out earlier today.

 

The results :)... I think I may be finally getting the hang of this!

 

Here's how they looked after I returned home and the wind got to them lol.

Humectress always makes for a really predictable wash day. My hair is currently outrageously soft, smooth and its flowing really well. Seems a good trim, deep condition and rollerset can't be beat.

Thanks for reading :),