What's going on currently...

Hey all,

I was born, raised and still currently reside in a coastal section of South Brooklyn, unfortunately this area as well as the other low-lying areas on the East Coast were hit particularly hard by Hurricane Sandy. My own home was badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy, but I have to say that I am truly blessed that my whole family is safe and that we have a safe, comfortable place to stay. I am praying for everyone in the regions affected by the storm and I hope all of you are safe and healthy. As far as posting goes, I will try to post whenever I get the chance, but internet and cell phone service has been spotty and I'm not sure how much longer it is going to remain that way. I have been trying to keep up with my regimen to keep my mind off what's been going on, and so far I think it has helped.

Thanks for reading and God bless,

Birthday Time ;)

Happy Sunday!

I turned 24 on Thursday, so I celebrated the occasion last night :). Good thing I did a trial run of heat styling the week because a few adjustments needed to be made. I basically followed the same wash day techniques from last time (excluding Keraphix because that shouldn't be used weekly), including deep conditioning with Nexxus Humectress, rollersetting and then flat ironing. I then flat ironed just my roots since the rollers left my ends so smooth. I have a hair pic from the party, but since I was running late (as usual lol) I couldn't take pictures before I left :p.

And some pictures of second day hair. The first time I flat-ironed, I completely forgot how to maintain straight hair and I used the wrong moisturizers and didn't set it at night, mostly due to laziness yet again lol. This time around I remembered to set it, and what to use and I didn't go too crazy. I do now remember why I hate heat styling my hair, my hair is sooo much drier after. This time, however, I put small 3/4'' flexi-rods in my bang and I pin-curled the rest of my hair. At night I applied coconut oil to my scalp and some argan oil to keep my ends moisturized. This morning I used a small amount of Mizani Butter Rich Deep Nourishing Hairdress on my nape and ends and sealed with argan oil and applied Organix Moisturizing Macadamia Oil Dry Styling Oil to my nape (which btw, smells super good, is very light and I love it :). Here is my second day hair:

 

I think I did a better job of managing my hair this time. It's still soft, flowy and moisturized. Although I love the look, my hair just isn't a fan of direct heat so I won't be doing this often.

And to all of my ladies on the East coast, be safe!!


Thanks for reading :),

Wash Day + Flat Ironing!

I hope everyone is having a delightful, or at least productive, Monday!

This was kind of a big weekend for me, my birthday is in a few days, and although I've been meaning to get to this for weeks, I've either been too busy or too lazy to begin the process lol. My plan was to do a full rollerset with magnetic rollers, let it air dry overnight and then flat iron my roots after it was dry. Last night I remembered why I put this off so long, because it really does take forever lol. Anyway, here are the wash day steps:

1. Pre-shampoo treatment with grapeseed oil and Carol's Daughter Tui Moisturizing Hair Smoothie on the length and coconut oil on my scalp. My hair was super dry, so I figured I'd add conditioner to my pre-poo to soften my hair prior to washing.
2. Shampooed once with Nexxus Therappe. To remove build up prior to heat styling.
3. Shampooed once with Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo.
4. Applied Nexxus Keraphix to damp hair and left it in my hair for about 10 minutes without heat while I showered. My hair felt super smooth and strengthened after use, Keraphix really is the best.
5. Deep conditioned with Nexxus Humectress for 15 minutes with heat, let it cool and then rinsed with cool water.
6. Then t-shirt dried, added my leave-in (Rusk Smoother, no argan oil this time) and then finger detangled. 
7. I then rollerset my entire head on medium sized rollers.
8. I left the rollers in for about 18 hours and then took them out.

 

The rollerset after it was completely dry.

Now after I took the rollers out, I did something that I haven't done in about 15 months, I used my flat iron! I used my 1'' ceramic Solia flat iron (it's pink!) on 300 degrees and began to flat iron sections the same way they were rolled the night before--that saved a lot of time. To each section I applied a small amount of Redken Smooth Down Heat Glide, combed through and then flat ironed. I am a huge fan of the results as well as this heat protectant!

My nape - the first completely flat ironed layer :)

 

The final results. This actually turned out far better than previously expected ;)

I am thrilled with my results. My hair is super smooth, light and my roots actually got pretty straight, so for 8 weeks post I am extremely impressed. This was an experiment to see how my hair straightened this many weeks post relaxer, as well as a trial run for birthday weekend. Prior to my hair journey this would've turned out to be a disaster. Hmm... now to see how I can manage this for the week (including gym time) will be fun lol.

Thanks for reading :),

Regimen Changes

Hey there,

Now that fall is officially here, I can comment and honestly say that this was a great summer for my hair. I learned a lot, experimented and I think I have found a way of managing my hair that will give me consistent, reliable results that isn't so time consuming that it is unsustainable. I am currently in the process of applying for a few post-baccalaureate programs, so next fall I may be back to school. This has me seriously considering my regimen and the time I devote to my hair, and how much of this I can realistically keep up with when my schedule becomes more hectic. Rather than wait until that occurs, I've decided to start making some adjustments while I still have the time to alter techniques if necessary. So here are a few of the things that I have either added or re-instituted into my regimen while making adjustments:

Combing - I stopped using combs for probably about 6 months at some point during the last year. While not combing certainly reduced the amount of breakage I encountered on a daily basis, my detangling sessions were taking entirely too long and I would become either frustrated or tired. I opted to reintroduce combing about 2 months ago with the arrival of my seamless combs (thanks to Ebony of L4L for the idea :). I have to admit, seamless combs changed all of the expectations I had of combs prior to use. Although I only comb damp hair on wash and co-wash days, regular combing has seriously decreased my detangling burden and keeps my hair smooth and managable throughout the week. #winning.

Flexi-rods - These rollers truly are bananas. They make my ends as smooth as magnetic rollers, for a similar length of time with about 25% of the work. I'm not really sure if that can be beat. I find that my ends remain smoother for a few days at a time so I experience less dryness, breakage and way fewer tangles. Flexi-rods will certainly be a new staple in my regimen.

Silicone - I'm going to be honest, my hair and silicone have always gotten along well, it's really my scalp and silicone that can't seem to see eye-to-eye. Even since the beginning of my hair journey, I opted to keep my silicone-containing deep conditioners because they aid in detangling, as well as my leave-ins because they aid in moisture retention. However, I kicked silicone out of my daily routine because I didn't want to have to use sulfate shampoos more than once or twice a month. Recently, I added a daily moisturizer that contains dimethicone (gasp! lol), Mizani Butter Rich Deep Nourishing Hairdress, it works fantastically. It keeps my hair smooth, and moist for the entire day all while smelling simply delicious. I just have to be sure to clarify more frequently now.

Less Shampooing - Let me just say, this isn't completely by choice. I've always shampooed my hair twice a week because my scalp is oily, I work out often and my scalp gets pretty irritated when left dirty for extended periods of time. However, since my wash days take so long now (pre-poo, detangle, shampoo, DC, detangle, air-dry/style...), I will absolutely not have the time to do my second wash during the week. I have decided to co-wash twice a week and do my full wash day routine (including shampoo) once a week. This is a fairly new addition and I am still evaluating how my hair and scalp feel about this. I have to co-wash more often because my scalp has never gotten completely clean from co-washing, but at least its a much shorter process.

These are just a few ways in which I am cutting back on the more time consuming parts of my regimen; less time spent styling due to more co-washing and flexi-rod use, more combing fewer marathon detangling sessions and smoother hair and silicone is well, awesome, when used moderately lol.

Thanks for reading :),

Product Review: Silicon Mix Bambu Leave-in

Good morning gorgeous :),

If I could rate the most important part of my hair regimen that has drastically cut down my breakage, before deep conditioning, moisturizing + sealing and protective styling, I would have to rate no direct heat as the #1 thing that really changed the game for me. Along with the elimination of direct heat, comes alternative methods of drying the hair in less damaging ways. Since I'm far too lazy to sit under a hooded dryer, I quickly became acquainted with air drying. When I first began air drying, I was faced with  poofy results that led to detangling and breakage issues. Rusk's Smoother leave-in conditioner was the first leave-in cream that I fell in love with for giving me sleek, detangled results from air drying, my one issue with it was that it wasn't pH balanced.

Silicon Mix Bambu Leave-in

The Silicon Mix Bambu Leave-in for me is comparable to the Rusk Smoother Leave-in in terms of ability to detangle, smooth and soften. It has a lotion-like consistency, is pale yellow in color and has a persistent, yet light, fresh scent. In addition to it having the qualities that i usually look for in a leave-in, it's also pH balanced so it closes my cuticles while my hair is damp leading to sleeker air dried results. This leave-in is easy to spread and a little bit goes a long way to ease detangling on t-shirt (or towel) dried hair. I will say that it feels a bit heavy when it is first put on the hair, but as it dries its weighless. I would say that the perceived heaviness when first applied is what makes detangling go even faster. I am a huge fan of this leave-in, I haven't yet tried it when doing a magnetic roller set, but it works just as well for flexi-rod sets as it does for air drying. For my protein and silicone sensitive ladies, this leave-in contains both. However, since this leave-in contains silicone and protein I would suspect that it could be used in heat styling as well. I would absolutely recommend this leave-in conditioner to anyone who needs help detangling damp hair or wants smoother results from air drying or rollersetting.


Rating: 5/5--Staple!

Claim: Contains Bamboo Extract a natural product to regenerate and nourish the hair and Silicones to smooth and give shine. Prevents hair breakage and split ends. Vitamins A, E, F, H (Biotin), H, Pro-Vitamin B5 (Panthenol), H8 (Inositol) and Horse Chestnut Extract improve the health and beauty of the hair, helping it to grow longer.

Ingredients: Water, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Phenyl Trimethicone, Cyclomethicone (and) Dimethiconol, Isopropyl Myristate, Glycerin, Polyquaternium-70 (and) Dipropylene Glycol, Silk Protein, Bambusa Vulgaris Extract, aqua, Polysorbate 20, Alcohol Denat, Aesculus Hippocastanum (Horse Chestnut) Seed Extract, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopherol, PABA, Inositol, Panthenol, Linoleic Acid, Biotin, Citric Acid, Diazolidinyl UREA (and) Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Fragrance, FD&C No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6.

pH: 5.5
Type: Protein containing leave-in conditioner

Thanks for reading :),

Wash Day

Hey there ;),

My hair was due for a wash on Tuesday after a hard weekend of time spent at the gym. It felt a bit waxy, so I decided to use a mild sulfate shampoo to clean off the silicone. These were my wash day steps:

1. Pre-poo with coconut oil on my scalp and the length, with heat for 30 minutes. 
2. Shampoo one time with the Neutrogena Triple Moisture Cream Lather Shampoo. This is one of the few sulfate shampoos that I still own. It was mild enough to clean my hair without stripping it.
3. Shampoo one time with the Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo.
4. Deep conditioned with Aussie Moist with heat for 30 minutes.
5. Rinsed and t-shirt dried for 10 minutes.
6. Applied leave-ins: Silicon Mix Bambu Leave-in and argan oil on my ends. I have really been enjoying the silicon mix leave-in, review next post :).
7. Lightly finger detangled, then combed through when hair was about 70% dry to complete detangling.
8. I then let my hair air-dry to about 90%, applied the Giovanni Direct Leave-in and added seven 11/16'' gray flexi-rods to my ends.

I left the rods in overnight and put a hair net on to keep them all in place. I much prefer to add some type of roller on wash days now, even if it's just to my ends. My ends stay smoother for longer periods of time, I notice less breakage, fewer tangles and I don't have to moisturize my hair as often throughout the week when rollers are used. I'm most likely going to continue to set for the duration of this stretch, and since flexi-rods require far less manipulation than magnetic rollers I will most likely be using those.

Fortunately, I was able to snap some pics of how my hair turned out during the day. Here are the results:

 

 

Note that one flexi-rod that was left lol, but thats about all the hair I roll on those rods for really loose curls,
and then put them into a hair net to keep them from flopping around too much

Thanks for reading :),