Deep Condition

Lately, I've been shampooing and deep conditioning with protein every 2-3 weeks. That's based off of whenever I feel that my hair needs to be shampooed. This week, I had a lot of product in my hair from doing a blowout ( I wore a wng but decided I wanted big hair. I used the Palmer's Hair Milk when I blow dry. I did a puff so I applied tons of gel. I ended up turning the blown out puff into a twist out and then into a twisted out puff. And yeah, all this was within a week. lol!)


I was really tired last night but I knew I had to do my hair. So I shampooed with Renpure and applied the protein dc mix that I previously told you about. I left that on for a few hours before rinsing. I then applied the moisturizing dc mix. I ended up putting a bonnet over my shower cap and sleeping with the dc mix in my hair. I was too tired to finish washing my hair. I put a tight headband over my bonnet to make sure it and the shower cap didn't come off over night. When I woke up, I rinsed and detangled with Renpure. I then applied a little HETT to shingle and leave in a little bit for hold. 


My hair turned out so great. It's soft and very  moisturized. My curls are tight and well defined. This was truly a great treat for my hair. I will have to do this every once in a while, especially in the winter. I took some picts and was amazed at how my curls looked. 

Hollywood Olive Cholesterol Deep Conditioning Creme

So this was the free sample size deep condish that came with my newly beloved Hollywood Olive Oil Creme. It has the same gross smell that all cholesterol conditioners have. Since I love mixing stuff, I made a crazy mixture with this.

First of all, I'm always confused as to whether or not cholesterol deep conditioners are supposed to be protein or moisturizers. I read something different on every site. I was in dire need of protein and I wanted to use this new condish. I also didn't want to use the entire container on one usage although that would have been possible since it was just a sample. I ended up using half of the Hollywood Olive Cholesterol (2 oz), about the same amount of Lustrasilk Olive Oil Cholesterol and about 3 oz of Nubian Heritage Coconut & Papaya Conditioner. (I'm not sure if I work about Nubian Heritage C&PC. It completely organic and 100% Black owned. It's unfortunately hard to find. Just like the moisturizer that I loved but haven't been able to get more of. I'm not happy about paying for shipping on a 4oz moisturizer that already cost $8. It has really strong proteins in it. Ingredients: Coconut oil, Jojoba oil, Olive oil, Filtered water, Veggie Glycerin, Kaolin Clay, Coconut Milk, Wheat germ oil, Aloe vera, Veggie Wax, Pro-vitamin b-5, Veggie gum, Papaya extract, Vitamin E and Rosemary extract. Proteins are in bold. It was expensive: &9 for 8oz but a great product.)

These 3 mixed together turned out really good. The Nubian Heritage has a very strong clay smell and the cholesterols have that chemical smell. I really didn't like the smell. They worked well together though. It gave me the protein and strength I really needed and when I rinsed, my hair was actually feeling pretty good. I have been staying away from protein because of how rough it makes my hair feel. It was not the case here. My hair actually felt soft and had some curl definition (normally lose that after protein also).

Even if I never purchase the Hollywood Olive Cholesterol, I will continue to mix the Nubian Heritage with a cholesterol condish. My hair was a bit easier to detangle after the protein treatment.

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!

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!)

My regimine...

well....sort of. It's wha't I've been doing for the past couple of weeks and I'm liking it. There will be adjustments along the way I'm sure but this is the basics.

Day 1: Co-wash for the purpose of detangling. Once detangled and rinsed, lightly towel/t-shirt dry (just enough for my hair to stop dripping). Apply deep condish. I don't use heat so I let it sit for an hour or two if I get sidetracked. Rinse with luke warm water. I do this at night so no styling necessary. Also, I shampoo every two weeks and protein dc once a month. Those steps are done after I detangle.

Days 2 & 3: Wash n gos. Currently, my hair is at this weird length where my WNG doesn't last a few days like it used to. My hair gets tangled and looks crazy even when I fluff and spray with water the next day. It's unbelievable frizzy and I can't make it looke good even the 2nd day. So, I usually end up cowashing both days.

Days 4-7: Some type of twist out style. I spritz my hair with water until damp, apply Herbal Essence Long-Term Relationship as a leave-in, apply moisturizer and sealer and then style. It can be simply a twist-out or it can be flat twist design with a twistout in the back. How I maintain this is by retwisting every other day or daily if I don't like how it looks on a particular day. I love doing this though because the more I retwist, the bigger my hair gets. I alternate between flat twistout and two strand twistout. for instance, on thursday I did two strand and that saturday, I did flat twist. My one issue is retaining moisture. My hair dries out really fast when stretched. I have to moisturize everyday. I need a better moisturizer!

Picture time!

This is how my hair looks when I first styled it. I'll retwist like this some nights also.

This is retwisting at night with bantu knots for extra curl.

This is how the style looks after 2 days. Big!!!!!

2010!!!!!!!!!!!

My resolutions for my hair:

1. Improve moisture. I don't know what I need to do but I have to work on this. My hair dries out entirely to quickly. It's truly worse since it's winter but I need to figure out something to cure this before winter ends so I know what to do next winter.

2. Retain length. This hasn't been an issue thus far but I want to keep the growing going.

3. Do a slight revamp to my moisturizing dc and protein dc (as well as decide how often to use the proteing dc). I really like my current moisturizing dc but a few months ago while I was experimenting, I liked it better. I will go back and review past post to see which condish I was using that I like the most. For the protein, every one of them makes my hair feel rough for a few days. I have 2 and will find a way to incorporate them together with moisturizers and see how that works.

And, I got a new phone which has a wonderful camera on it. I'm sure I'll be able to post more of the picts I take....such as these two! lol! These are picts of wet hair with no product.

Liquidy yet creamy

If you remember, last week I was talking about the SoftSheen Carson moisturizer I purchased and how it was too liquidy for my hair. I was contemplating whipping it or something to thicken it up. Reason being, I'm broke so even when I get a product that doesn't give stellar results, I'll work with it and see how I can make it work with my hair. I have only purchased 2 products that I haven't used (because they had mineral oils) and even those, I gave away to people who wanted to use them.

Taking the advise of other naturals, I decided to whip the SSC with shea butter. I didn't want to use too much shea butter because I feel it doesn't act as a moisturizer for my hair, but a sealant. I melted the shea using the double boiler method (Or in my case, double cups. I use a microwave safe cup to heat up some water. I scoop shea into a disposable cup and set that inside of the heated water until shea is mostly melted). I poured both into an emptied and cleaned jar that once held Cholesterol deep condish. Since the mouth of that jar is really wide, I was able to blend them while in the jar. I have a hand mixer so just had to remove one of the blades to fit in the jar. I mixed for about 5 minutes and them put it in the freezer to help set it.

Initially I was disappointed. It was still pretty liquidy. I let it sit for a few days before using it and it thickened up a little bit. The consistency right now it okay but it's still not creamy enough for my personal preference. I'm thinking of whipping it again but I'm afraid to add more shea and end up with no moisture making it to my hair.

I've still got quite a bit of this stuff left though. I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Lessons learned from both moisturizers: 1. research before purchase to make sure it's not a protein since my hair doesn't like that stuff. 2. ONLY purchase cream moisturizers as the liquid forms aren't thick enough to work.

A little bit straight

On Sunday I was bored. Boredom usually leads me to doing something with my hair. I deep condished Saturday so I wasn't going to do that again. I was feeling a bit unsatisfied because my hair still is getting the proper amount of moisture. I'm not sure what's going on but I'm working on it.

I eventually decided to try and flat iron my hair. I had previously decided not to do so until I was one year natural. I'm 6 months right now. But I was bored and did it anyway. At first, it was coming out extremely frizzy and looked crazy. Then i realized that I wasn't using enough product. I added more and it came out better. I used the Palmer's hair milk and HCO. They worked great together for straightening my hair. My hair was silky and soft.

The first day it wasn't that great, it was rather frizzy. The 2nd day, I had to flat iton again as it got frizzy overnight. It got better the 2nd day. Not frizzy at all. I took picts from the 2nd day. I'm going to wash today and go back to my curls. I'm not really feeling the straight hair and I don't want to flat iron everyday.

Picture time!

Moisture Control

After a week of dealing with dry and rough hair, I finally made a trip to Walmart to purchase a much needed moisturizer. I bought two new products. Palmer's Coconut Oil Formula Replenishing Hair Milk and SoftSheen Carson Strengthening Oil Moisturizer from the Roots of Nature Collection. *both items purchased without prior research*

As for Palmer's, I gave that a try first. Actually, I looked on some hair care forums while I was sitting for an hour with a deep condish in my hair.
What the bottle says: Formulated with Pure Coconut Milk and Coconut Oil, Palmer's Coconut Oil Formula Hair Milk is a lightweight hair lotion that replenishes essential oils and adds incredible softness and shine.
What the forums say: Although some like, most do not because this product has protein. Protein is not something that most naturals need. Permed heads do need it as the chemicals in the relaxers weaken their hair. Naturals don't have to balance this out as much so protein overload is easily caused from even small amounts.
What I have to say: Okay, I love the smell because it smells just like the Cocoa Butter lotion that we've all used at one time or another. The smell was just as strong and long lasting as the lotion. I was smelling it for days until I washed my hair and I only applied it once. The consistency also reminded me of the Cocoa Butter lotion which I personally found to be a bit watery; not creamy enough. The protein was unfortunately too much for my hair. When it dried, my hair felt rough and wiry. Also, when I applied pure shea butter to my hair after the Hair Milk, they didn't mix well and left my hair white for a while. I'll just be using this as a backup if I run out of moisturizer and haven't been able to make it to the store. But once this runs out, I won't purchase again. (But I really love the smell and how long the smell lasted!)

I'll review SoftSheen Carson's product on my next post.

Finally, protein success

I was informed the ORS pack I used was a moisturizing condish, not protein like I thought. So that kind of changed my prespective on it but only a little. I still like how soft my hair was but it pretty much gave the same results as the mixture I've made.

I was still wondering what to do for a deep protein condish. I had almost enough LustraSilk Cholesterol left for one use. I added the rest of the ORS pack, EVOO, honey, and some HEHH (only added because there wasn't enough of the other 2 condishs to cover my hair). I remember the condish breaking down a lot when I added salt so I didn't want it to be in the mixture too long. I mixed it in just before application. I let it set, no heat, for an hour.

As I rinsed, I was pleased that my hair didn't feel as rough as it normally does when I rinse out LustraSilk. It's not the normal softness but it felt really good. It was almost 230am by the time I rinsed and I wanted it to dry faster. Being very horrible to my hair, I rubbed a towel over my hair to absorb most of the water. My hair was poofy and curls were pretty much non-existent. I generously applied Nubian Heritage Coconut & Papaya Hair Butter. Some of my curls came back but it will require some work to look good tomorrow.

My hair is about 95% dry. It has never felt so soft after protein. I'm going to stick with LustaSilk Cholesterol as my protein. I realize now that I just have to add a really good moisturizing condish.

Oh and I had been thinking my hair was breaking off from lack of protein. When I rinsed my hair, I took the time to check out the hair I lost. Hardly any of it was broken hair, it was mostly shed hair. I saw the white bulb things on the ends so I knew there were shed. All of the strands looked really thick and strong.

My ORS experience

Okay so as I was saying earlier, I'm using the ORS protein conditioner today. I love the citrus smell. I felt like I needed to add something to it but didn't really want to use the other products I have. So, I took this opportunity to try the salt. After I mixed it, the condish became very runny. MSatch told me this happens with every condish when she adds salt. I added a little more condish straight from the pak because I didn't feel like it was coating my hair well due to it being runny. I let it sit, no heat, for an hour.

I just rinsed it out and I'm on the fence about it. I'm really pleased with the fact that my hair doesn't feel hard and rough. That is why I didn't like protein. My hair feels really soft and my curls popped! I'm very very happy with the way my hair responded to the ORS. The downside, I tried to rinse with lukewarm water but it couldn't get the stuff out of my hair. It felt coated and sticky. I had to rinse again with warmer water to get it all out. Tha't's not really a big deal though. I probably didn't need to follow this up with my moisturizing deep condish mix but I am. I want to keep with my regular routine of protein and moisture deep condish on the same days.

I like it a lot and I'll be using this on a regular basis.

OMG!!!!!

I did my protein deep condish yesterday. I put the protein condish on dry hair, letting that sit for about an hour. I rinsed it out with luke warm water. Since protein makes my hair feel rough, I followed that up with a moisturizing condish mix I put together:
Hello Hydration (A little over the normal amount I use to cowash)
Shea butter (partially melted down so it would mix better)
Honey (I think I used about a tbsp. I know it was a lot)
EVOO (Probably abt a tbsp. More than I've ever used)
Coconut & Papaya Hair Butter/CPHB (This was very random. I just added b/c I felt I should add something more to the mix. Only a dime sized amount)

I let this sit on my hair for about and hour also. (No heat or shower cap with either). Once I worked the moisturizing condish into my hair, I immediately noticed that my hair was getting very wavy and curly. The not so defined/practically straight hair in the front was VERY well defined. The spirals that have been forming through out the crown and rest of my hair popped! The ones that were kind of frizzy and not so great were even fabulous. My hair was so curly. I couldn't believe it. I rinsed with luke warm water and the curls were still looking great. I blotted dry with a towel, applied some CPHB to moisturize and a litte bit of shea to seal. My hair loved that mixture! My mother saw me and said, "Wow, it looks like you did something to your hair." (Sounds a bit harsh but was a compliment.) She followed that up with several statements on how my hair has never looked that great. I have to agree, this is the best my hair has looked. She even said something about it this morning and that it was a shame I didn't go out last night so that people could have seen my hair.

My hair got smashed and a little dry over night but my curls are still looking pretty good. Some water and moisturizer should get me looking close to yesterday's perfection. Will definitely continue this treatment on a weekly basis.

Protein issues....

*sigh* This has got to be the hardest thing to figure out. I'm having issues as is MSatch. Mine isn't nearly as complexed as hers. I'm very hair lazy. She works hard to develop and stick to a regmine and I've seen the benefits she gets from it. I on the other hand, just randomly do stuff and my hair is rebelling.

My lazy routine has not consisted of deep conditioning or protein. What I considered deep co was putting HEHH on my hair when I first got into the shower. Letting it sit with the steam as my heat for a few minutes while I did my shower stuff. I realized the other day that I had not done a real dc in over a month and this also means no protein because my dc is the only protein I use. I didn't like using it because it made my hair feel hard and rough. In response, I've notice a lot of shedding and breakage when I wash and detangle. I went from having maybe 3-4 strands shedding to have a lot of breakage. And I mean A LOT.

I talked with MSatch and realized what I was doing. I just really don't like the protein because of how my hair feels afterwards. But clearly it is necessary. So two days ago, I used the dc by it self. Let it sit for 30 min. Then I followed up with a mixture of HEHH, EVOO and shea butter, letting that sit for 30 min. My hair didn't feel as hard but it was still rough. This will be my weekly dc from now on though because I have to get that protein in. I'm considering getting a different protein dc. I'm not sure if my hair likes this one.