Olive Oil to the Rescue!

I'm sure I've mention before that I have been experiencing issues with moisture retention. I know a big part of this is because I wear my hair out a lot. But I'm at that odd length and can't really do the great protective styles. I can only get a good pony puff with a blow out or hair stretched from a old twist out so I can't do a bun yet. I haven't even tried pin up styles on stretched out hair yet. I haven't had the patience to play around with that. So wng and twist outs have been my styles.

I was twisting up and old wng last Monday while having worried thoughts about how long it would last due to dryness. I applied a liberal amount of Elasta QP Mango Butter, followed my shea mix. I added IC Fantasia gel because I wanted a lot of definition the next day. I had the thought of wanting shine (my hair always looks dull to me) to I grabbed the olive oil, poured too much in my hand and applied it through out my hair. My hair immediately felt softer.

The next day, my twistout came out funky because too much olive oil prevented it from becoming defined. I had to pin the front back. But my hair was very soft, shiny and held moisture really well for a couple of days. I've added olive oil straight from the bottle after a wng this week and was pleased to have similar results. This will probably be a step that I'll incorporate into my routine once or twist a week. My hair really loves olive oil.

Itchy Scalp

I'm not sure what happened but the overnight dc made my scalp all itchy. I've never had an issue with dry itchy scalp before. I'm pretty sure that I rinsed it all out before using HETT for a cowash. But for some reason, my scalp was extremely itchy on Monday after I'd rinsed and styled. I was at work scratching like crazy. It was especially annoying b/c of how long it takes my hair to dry. I had soaking wet hair and itchy scalp for hours. I wished I had taken the time to diffuse my hair.

The itching continued all week. I did an awesome twistout on Wednesday which I wore wild and crazy for an event I went to. I absolutely loved it! For work the next day, I pulled it into a puff, using IC Fantasia to gel it down. The itching was worse than ever! I ended up adding some olive oil to filtered water and using it to spritz my scalp. It worked like magic. I could tell the spots that I missed b/c those still felt itchy.

Though I normally don't shampoo so quickly but I'm going to do so again tonight to clarify my scalp. Hopefully it won't be so itchy but if so, I'll just use the spritz again. I have to admit that I loved the spritz.

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.

Tarnished gold or...

Saturday, I got the Senegalese twist done. I was very impressed because the stylist did them in 5 hours. He also didn't do them tightly so my scalp didn't feel like it was being ripped out. I was very pleased with those two things. Oh, and he did them to my lower back which is a great lenght with these type of twist.

That is where my pleasure in this experience ends. I was disappointed because although he works with natural hair, he used a fine tooth comb to detangle my dry curly hair. (I should have said something.) The finished look, although overall fab, was full of fuzzies. (Fuzzies meaning the hair that is usually trimmed or burned away at the end. I actually did a bit of trimming when I got home.) While irritating, I felt like I could deal with those things. Not that big of a deal.

But, this final issue...a very big deal. When I left the salon, I felt like my own hair was sticking out of the twist too much. I just felt that next time I do these twist, I need to blow dry my hair. I'm thinking it was probably because my hair was in it's natural curly state that this was causing and issue. As the week went on, more and more of my hair seemed to be sprouting from the twist. Yesterday morning, Saturday, I woke up because my head was itching very badly. I hadn't washed since last Friday. I watered down some poo and massaged it into my scalp. I shook the excess water from the ends and used the tshirt method to dry my hair. (I'll explain that in my next post.) When I removed the tshirt, it looked like the twist had been in for over a month, not a week. My hair was sticking out everywhere!

I was familiar with the basics of doing the twist so I carefully untwisted one. I examined the way he braided the hair into mine and then took it all the way out. I retwisted and then tackled the next one. (I'm using shea and ic fantasia gel to twist) I must say, I'm doing a pretty good job. My hair is looking better than it did last Saturday. Hardly any fuzzies at all! So although I'm upset that I paid for a style that should have lasted 3 months and barely lasted a week, I learned how to do Senegalese twist!

Silver lining people....silver lining.

Love...hate...LOVE

I haven't written anything in a long time. It actually feels weird that I haven't. So...my last couple of posts were about the fight I was having with my hair. I wanted something different. I wanted my hair to be pinned up or something that looked different than the wash n gos I'd been doing. I was over it. When it wouldn't (because I'm too impatient to wait for it to grow), I got upset with it. I was even tempted to scrap some funds together to purchase a really good flat iron to straighten it out. (This being bad because I promised myself no heat until at least next spring. Maybe even longer.)

Once I got over the fact that my hair isn't ready for all that, I got realistic. I tried to create another flat twist design but that didn't work. It was really hard. I started looking at my fav blogs and photo galleries of the natural hair groups on Facebook. I came across a tutorial I'd seen before on flat twist with bantu knotted ends. I got up and tried it. It came out ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy because my hair did something I wanted it to do. I loved it! (of course i forgot to take picture.) I retwisted a few times because I took them loose while one side was still damp. That lasted a week.

After I wore a wash n go for one day, I flat twisted again. This time I did more twist, trying to get more definition. And I used HE Long Term Relationship conditioner as a moisturizer (I'm having moisture issues which I'll talk about later.) and a small amount of Shea butter and IC Fantasia gel. I loved the definition, however, doing them smaller meant more parts to cover. That was an issue considering my hair is short. Plus, more twist meant more knots which is cool but again, with short hair, it made for a wierd shape that I couldn't fix. I was doing too much manipulation and making my twistout frizzy. So I pulled it back with a headband. Above awesomeness. It looked great. I wore if for 4 days and it looked better with each day. I have learned that humidity from the shower helps make my twist outs better. Here's a pict from day three:

Shower caps, combs and other randomness

I've been working on not wetting my hair everyday. So today, I'm getting ready to get in the shower and I look over at the shower cap that I use when I do deep condish. I look at it and debate whether or not I should put it on. I mean, I'm not wetting my hair. But then I decided not to put it on. I'd just let the steam from the shower refresh my curls. I'll probably only use a shower cap for condish. Wonder if other natualistas use shower caps in the shower.

I was in the shower and looked over at a wide tooth comb. It has been sitting in the same spot for a month and a half. I haven't touched it since I decided to finger detangle and use more HEHH (which btw I love b/c it enhances my curls). It's the only place in the house that actually has a comb and it's just sitting there all lonely. Maybe I'll use it again when my hair gets longer.

Almost wondering why I still have an umbrella. The only time it's come out of the truck since my bc was when permed friends have asked to use it.

Speaking of my lovely permies, they all ask me the same question: "How do you deal with nappy edges." I've read a few blogs where the women are always devising ways to get their edges to lay flat. They use gels, shea butter, head wraps and a multitude of other things. One of my friends who has no understanding of natural hair is always telling me to use brown gel or that Jam crap to lay my "baby hair" down. (I truly hate the term baby hair, we are adults!) I actually don't think about my edges. They blend with the rest of my hair. Nappy and curly. I do use gel for certain styles but for the most part, I don't even think about making my edges lay down.

Okay, think I'm done with randomness.

Twist and Shout

Reading MSatch's blog about winterizing her hair made me realize I still had no plans as to what I was going to do. It had been getting colder over the past few days and I realized these wet my hair everyday styles are not going to cut it any longer. I'm not ready for the Senegalese twist that I love to wear because I love seeing my hair right now.

So I stood in the mirror and stared at my hair for a few minutes. I decided to do a twist out. I spritzed some water on the back of my hair, applied a little gel and shea butter and started grabbing small sections for two-strand twist. My hair was shrinking really bad and I knew my hair would look really short. I untwisted and went to a section of dry hair. I started grabbing and twisting dry hair. It was stretching my hair as opposed to shrinking. I ended up doing dry twist all over and it only took a few hours!

Once finished, I wet my hair. Some of it started to unravel. I rubbed Hollywood Castor Oil and IC Fantasia gel over each twist and coiled them to tighten them back up. Once dry (I did have to use the diffuser a little bit) I carefully untwisted. I didn't seperate the twist, just untwisted. I used a pick to fill in the parts of my scalp that were visable. My first twist out came out FAB!

Puff

I needed a new style for my TWA so as usual, I started browsing YouTube. The Naturalists there are the best at showing styles and now they achieve them. I saw a style that I don't have enough hair to acheive but revamped it and make it work for my curls.

After a cowash, moisturizer and sealer, I applied IC Fantasia gel to the back and side of my head. I took a stretched out headband and wrapped it around my neck twice. I pushed it back to the crown of my head. Since part of my hair had gel, that part slicked down and pulled into a nice mini puff. I used a rat tail comb to pull the front of my hair out of the headband. I stretched it and it gave the appearance of a hump. This was the result:

Today's Randomness

I went to the BSS yesterday and purchased something I wanted and needed. I needed more gel as I had used almost all of what little I had left doing kinky twist on my friend this weekend. I've been dying to try the IC Fantasia because I have NEVER heard anything bad about it. I also bought some hair so I can practice Senegalese twist on myself. It's much harder to braid/twist my own hair. So I parted a small section of hair and applied some of the gel (I was doing this to practice a twist) and my hair curled sooooo well! OMG! The back of my head has hardly any curl, never has. But this gel....DAMN! I love it already. Can't wait to apply to the rest of my hair.

I am getting a bit frustrated with my hair. It seems the back is getting curlier, producing tighter curls while the front is getting straighter. Uugh! I am getting so irritated with front and crown of my head. My best friend has been telling me to relax and just see what happens as it grows. When the hair gets heavier, the texture will change. She's right but I'm just worried about how it's going to come out as this will affect how I am able to style my hair. I'll probably twist my hair a lot sooner than I intended to so this will stop driving me crazy.

I was mixing together some stuff trying to figure out what to do for a moisturizer. I don't really like the mixture and won't bother to post ingredients. I noticed the few times I've used it that my hair feels kind of hard and sticky. I've used it 3 times and only made a small amount. It occured to me last night that I used too much honey. It's making my hair sticky. That was a "duh" moment. Lol!

And I came across something interesting when reading a blog The Golden Sparkle. She was talking about PJs (product junkies) and how she's trying not to become one. She came up with a great challenge to stop herself from accumulating a lot of products. I am totally not a PJ but thought her challenge was cool. http://thegoldensparkle.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-challenge.html