Lovely Mix

Just a quick post to say I am really loving the Hollywood Olive Oil Creme/Shea mix. It's been keeping my hair so soft and locking in the moisture without being greasy. I had a problem with my hair feeling really oily with the castor oil and feeling oily and being weighed down with pure shea. Mixing these two together is absolutely perfect! I am really happy with this. Luckily, I have a lot. I made the mix in a an empty Lustrasilk Cholesterol jar. Most of you know how big that is. And that was only about half of the Hollywood Olive Oil and I have tons of shea butter. I'll be using this mix for a long time! Yay!

Hollywood Olive Oil Creme

In my last post, I talked about all of the products I purchased at Walgreen's. I'm going to start doing reviews on them. First up: Hollywood Olive Oil Creme (HOOC). I purchased this to use as a sealant. When I opened the jar, it was really creamy (hence the name but I had a duh moment. lol!) I was worried that with it being so creamy, it wouldn't seal in the moisture. I immediately decided to whip it with shea. I have tons of shea that I wasn't really using because I didn't like how it made my hair feel coated. I actually thought I was the only one with that problem but I have found out that some peoples hair just doesn't like oils. Their hair works better with creamier products. I knew this from using products too watery but didn't make the connection to oils until just recently.

Anyway, I whipped the entire container with a a little less than equal parts shea butter. I also added 2 tbsps of olive oil but I just did that because I felt like I should be adding something to the mix. I'm sure it didn't need it. It came out really fluffy and creamy. When I scoop it out, it looks like whipped cream!

I used this to seal after applying Elasta QP Mango Butter. The combination was perfect! The HOOC mix didn't leave my hair feeling coated and oily like most sealants do. When I touched my hair, it felt smooth and moisturizer, not oily. I kept touching my hair, expecting to pull back oily fingers but nope! None greasy moisturizer hair. The only thing I don't like is the smell. YUCK! It smells like Cholesterol Deep Condish from Lustrasilk or any other cholesterol dc. Those smells remind me of perms and always make me nervous when I use them. I keep thinking I'm going to rinse and end up with permed hair. lol! The mango butter and shea balance out the smell a bit but not enough for me. I'm going to have to get some type of EO to mix in there asap! But I love it despite the scent.

4 more products reviews to come. Stay tuned!

24hr Walgreen's

Headed to Walgreen's to satisfy the pj in me when I got off work. To say this was a GREAT experience is an understatement. First, I only went to purchase two products: Renpure Organics poo and condish. I was initially disappointed because I wanted the moisturizing set but the tops were broken on all of them. I settled for the "I Love My Hair!" body and shine duo. Then, I was thinking about the fact that I haven't done a dc in forever so I grabbed Renpure Organics Amazing Miracle Deep Penetrating Reconstructor (with aloe, kukui & silk protein). Remembering that I needed something to seal and I'm out of Castor oil and not loving Shea right now, I turned around and grabbed Hollywood Beauty Olive Creme (smells like a perm though :-( yuck!). But I picked it up because it had a free container of Olive Cholesterol deep conditioning creme. Then, I saw Organic Root Stimulator Replenishing Paks (grabbed 2 for $1.39 each). And as I walked down the aisle, I saw shower caps (needed one for my dc as I just had to throw away the one I had) and black headbands (all black ones are broken). So, this long list of products cost me LESS than $25. The Renpure Organics was buy one get one free and all 3 of them have mail in rebates. So really, after I mail them in, I'll have spent $13!

All this for less than $13 after mail-in rebates

When I was checking out, the clerk told me how beautiful my hair was and said her granddaughter had natural hair down to her waist. She had been having trouble finding products to use on the child and asked my advise. I told her for detangling, I use HEHH or HETT. Upon her request, I showed her the two products, explained how I detangled and showed her a few other products I'd tried or heard were good. She was so happy! She told me again how beautiful my hair was and that she was so happy she was at work tonight so that she could meet me. She said that God sends angels when we least expect it and on this night, I was her angel. That was about 30 min ago and I'm still smiling. I almost went to Walgreen's last night but changed my mind and went tonight instead. There was obviously a reason why. I feel really good.

Monday and Tuesday, I wore my hair in a w-n-g. I wanted to twist my hair on Monday night for big, wild hair but had an interview and went for a more subdued look. On Wednesday, my want for big hair hadn't gone away. I decided to try and wear my hair in a puff. I knew it wouldn't be long enough while curly so I did a quick blow out. I wet my hair with water and used a little bit of Palmer's Coconut hair milk. I detangled with a wide tooth comb and then blew it out. I used tons of IC Fantasia gel to slather my hair down and then picked out my puff.

Everyone seemed to really love my hair. I was called everything from Lady of Rage to Cleopatra Jones. I just laughed at these comparisons. It was crazy because I felt pretty sexy with my hair in a simple puff. So I put of the plans I had for my hair and I'm going to keep rocking the puff.

To preserve it, I kept my hair up and two strand twisted the puff. I'll be taking it out soon and fixing it up a bit for work tonight.

What to do with the left overs

I was perusing a hair blog that I like and saw something interesting in the comments. A woman said she used conditioners she no longer uses/likes as shaving cream. She claimed to have smoother skin for it. I just so happen to have a bottle of HH Longterm Relationship that I'm not using. I wasn't too pleased with it and only really used it as a leave in when I was styling.

I shaved with soap under one arm and used the condish on the other. I have very sensitive skin and am easily irritated when shaving. The side with soap was irritated as usual. The side with condish, little to no irritation. The little I felt wasn't enough to bother me. If it weren't for the fact that I was being very conscious about it, I probably wouldn't have noticed. I tried my bikini area and same results. Just haven't done my legs yet.

This works better than shaving cream in my opinion! Guess this is what I'll be doing when I run low on condish. Instead of trying to squeeze out the last few drops for my hair (esp since it doesn't even do anything for my hair anyway since it's not enough) I'll use those drops to shave.

It's all in a name

Across the hair boards, there a posts where naturals play the "Name your 'Fro" game. It's always cute and funny. Ladies select their name and explain why. I love it when I see something really original that actually has some type of significance. I tend to role my eyes at the ones saying they name their fro "Sasha Fierce" because it so fierce and they love Beyonce. Yuck! What does that really have to do with you?

I thought about it and decided I would do name my fro. She is official dubbed Jessi Rose. The reasons are as follows: My favorite romance/erotic writer is Beverly Jenkins. She writes a series of novels based in the 1800s about black men and women who accomplish great things. They range from deputies, conductors in the Undergroud Railroad, slaves, business moguels, doctors, lawyers, cowboys, train robbers, madams at brothels and the list goes on. They usually overcome so obstacle and do something for the greater good of thier towns and the black community. She also incorporates historicaly facts into every book. Jessi Rose comes from the book "The Taming of Jessi Rose." Jessi Rose is a woman who is confident, unafraid of what anyone says/thinks of her, unconventional and a bit on the wild side on the days she chose not to be tamed. Those are characteristics that people who know me well have described me as and I fell that my hair is the same way. My hair shows my confidence and gives me more. Although I did care at first, I no longer care of other people's opinions of my hair (although I do love to hear them if they are positive). Natural hair is unconventional. Natural hair can be wild or tamed, just depends on the day.

So, all of that to say, my 'fro is Jessi Rose, whether she be tamed or wild!

Detangling

My hair is getting longer and with that, detangling sessions are getting longer. W-n-g's aren't so quick anymore but are still one of the styles I mainly wear. I've been getting fairy knots for the past month or two. I officialy despise those things! I'm also getting more tangled and knotted hair. They are easy enough to get out but still I worry about breakage and splits because of it.

Currently, I detangle using just my fingers. I prefer that to a wide toothe comb because right now, it's easier and it works. I did use a comb one day and felt like I was breaking off a bunch of my hair. It shed the same amount but I just didn't like it. Plus, I felt like it seperated my curls a little too much and gave me a jheri curl type of look. Lol! I love chunky curls. (Guess I won't be investing in a Denman after all.)

I shed a lot so I'm going to continue to detangle a couple of times a week. Stretching detangling sessions would probably be horrific. I'm going to stick with HE conditioners for detangling sessions. The slip they have is awesome. I'll only stray from this line when I go organic (meaning when I have more $$$$). I will continue to use my fingers as I am most comfortable and less scared about breakage as I have more control over what's happening to my strands. I will reincorporate monthly deep protein condish into my regimen because I'm noticing a lot of elasticity when detangling. My hair has too much moisture and very little strength. Gotta get over that protein fear because my hair is telling me she needs it. I will listen!