Keep it simple

I was reading some hair site, not sure which one, and there was a woman with a fierce w-n-g. She wrote instructions on how she acheived hers. She had a long list of steps that were too much for a w-n-g in my opinion. To me, it's real simple: cowash, shake, moisturize and seal.

One good thing while reading her list was I remembered that my w-n-g turns out soooooo much better if I leave a little of the condish in when I cowash. So, using HETT, I did a cowash. I shook my head (I tend to use a washrag to cover my face so the condish doesn't get on my face). Moisturized with SoftSheen Carson Roots of Nature and sealed with castor oil. I let my hair drip dry so I wrap an old tshirt around my shoulders when I do whatever else I need to do. I've gotten to the point where I don't even blot my hair with the tshirt or a towel. It seems to work better for me that way because my texture easily gets frizzy. But to keep it from dripping too long, I do shake my hair for at least a minute to get rid of as much excess water as possible.

I immediately loved the results. My hair looked like it did when I just get out of the shower. Perfect curls with practically no frizz. And the curls were so well defined. I love it. A couple of people asked if I did a strawset. I've done it a 3-4 times with the same results.

One thing I can say, I don't like how my hair hangs down when it's dry. I fluff when it's 75% dry. I also think it's funny that the front seems to hang down like bangs if I don't fluff it a lot.  

I feel the PJ in my coming alive!!!!!!!!

I've never been much of a PJ (product junkie). I can honestly say I buy few products and use them completely before I purchase something different. But with this list of silicone-free hair products, I can feel my PJ clawing it's way to the surface!

http://ladylonghair.googlepages.com/'cone-freeconditioners


(link from Tia's blog Her Best Hair)

Other random things

Here's a few other random things that happened while my hair was straight.

It rained Tuesday. I forgot that I needed a hood or umbrella. There is an umbrella somewhere in my Jeep. Not sure where. I was literally lol-ing as I ran throught the rain to my Jeep. Luckily, my hair didn't revert.

My supervisor (black woman) is always asking me when I'm going to loc my hair. I tell her at least once a month that I'm not. Apparently one of her relatives when natural via locs and she has it set in her head that I am too. When I straightened, she commented that it looked nice but she preferred my hair the other way. She said that it suits me and shows the amount of confidence I posess to wear it that way. I don't require anyone's approval to wear my hair any particular way but it pleased me that she likes it.

After the bantu knot out, I needed to dc, poo and do a w-n-g before work. I used my new favorite dc mix and let that sit for an hour. One thing I found interesting was the amount of dc I needed to use. My hair was straight and dry when I applied it. I used less than half what I normally use. I was shocked and it felt weird. But the dc took very well and my hair was soft and moisturized as always.

I got tons of happy compliments from family and friends once my hair was curly again. Also got a few request to never straighten my hair again because my natural is so becoming on me and it makes me, me. A few people who really pay attention to my hair commented that my hair seemed even curlier after that first w-n-g. It actually did. Not sure why.

Unexpected

Well, I got some interesting reactions to my straight hair. No one like it. Well except for this black woman at my job but she always gives me the side eye when my hair is in it's natural state. Have to love the side eye. lol!

Everyone else, however, responded with "ooooh....you straightened you hair. Wow. It's long. So...when are you going to wash it and make it curly again." I confided in one coworker that I wasn't too thrilled with it myself and she responded with "good, wash it when you get home tonight. The natural hair had to grow on my at first but now I'm used to you with curly hair. I don't like it straight." I love my coworkers for their honesty. They had me cracking up laughing all night.

The next day, I was still wearing straight hair and was again questioned about how long my hair was going to stay this way. I told them I wouldn't be washing it because it took so long to do but I agreed to compromise and make it somewhat curly.
I orginially wanted to do pin curls because MSatch did some and they looked so great on her. But I tried a couple and wasn't really getting the hang of it. Enter the bantu knot!

This only took a few minutes and was fairly easy to do since I'm used to bantu knotting my single strand twist. Some of them didn't come out to well so the left side was tigher and looked way better than the right. The front right was real funky looking so I had to pin it up a little bit.

Wore this for one day but the curls had fallen a lot by the end of the night. I washed the next day.

Time on my hands

I got bored and decided to straighten my hair. I used low heat to blow dry, Palmer's Coconut Oil Hair Milk to moisturize (and strengthen as it has a lot of protein) and pure shea to seal. The shea butter seemed to really help with straightening. It got a lot straight the first time around, not looking very frizzy.

One thing that I found interesting, I was less than half-way through flat ironing when I decided I didn't like it. The only reason I kept going was because I'd already put so much work into it. I did love the bangs however. I've always loved bangs and mine were long and hanging in my eyes. For some reason, I like that.

Picture time! Oh, and please excuse the pissed off expression in the picts. Someone was annoying the hell out of me and wasn't getting the hint that I wanted them to go away. lol!

WTF was I thinking?!?!?!?!?!

Just a quick post to say I was in the shower doing what was supposed to be a quick w-n-g that turned into a damn-near 30 min detangling sessionon my TWA. Why? Because crazy me decided to sleep on a w-n-g for 2 days without any type of scarf to protect my hair. This lead to a horribly matted and tangled mess. Oh, and I was having a severe case of HIH (hand in hair) syndrome which I tend to get whenever I do a w-n-g so I was playing in my hair for 3 days.

I was so mad at myself this morning. But in that seriously horrible detangling session, I realized that I needed a protein dc because my hair was feeling really stretchy (meaning too much moisture and not enough strength).

One of my new favs!

Elasta QP Mango Butter Moisturizer. I had been wanting some for a while but was having the hardest time finding. Not sure why. I finally found some and I was super excited to try it. I co-washed immediately so I could use it on fresh hair. The smell is divine!!!! Everyone in my house was oohing and ahhing over the smell (mainly b/c I was pushing it under their noses saying "smell this!).

It's really thick which is something I and my hair absolutely love. The thick moisturizers work so much better for me. I was already aware that EQMB has silk protein so I was worried about using it. My hair doesn't require a lot of protein and will quickly feel rough from the application of it. On the ingredient list, silk was pretty close to the bottom so I felt a little bit safer. There's probably not that much in it. I still only used a small amount and followed that with the shea/softsheen carson mix that I made before (hoping to offset any protein overload). Then, I sealed with castor oil.

I did this for a couple of days before realizing using all 3 of these was too much. My hair was feeling really good. Well moisturized and strong and soft but...it was too much product. You could feel it on my hair when you touched it. So I washed with poo to clarify and tried again. This time I used shea to seal (shea doesn't moisturize my hair) but still used both moisturizers (still have this protein fear). It was lighter with the shea instead of castor oil but I still felt it was too much. I cut back on moisturizing though. I normally have to do it every day. Esp in this cold weather. But with this combo, every other day or two was working perfectly.

I'm going to be brave and try just using the EQMB and shea and see how that works. Either way, I love this stuff and will be keeping it in supply. I love the smell and it really does make my hair feel silky smooth. (lol...silky smooth...so corny!)