TWA :(

I never thought I'd say this, but i seriously can't wait for my hair to grow out. Even though I think my natural hair will always look better while at this length and short, its just so damn hard to take care of at this length. So damn hard to find the motivation to deal with it. At this length and this texture, its hard to get through the thickness to moisturize, style, and when i do its so thick and dense that it takes years to dry

and when it dries, its time to start the process all over again.

its too hard. too hard. i wanna put it in hibernation until my year anniversary because its annoying me to no end. i have way way way too much hair for it to be this short. smh.

Banding, however, is the best and easiest technique if you are having the same problem as me. takes about 10 minutes and once its dry, take the bands off your sections and poof! your hair is stretched and lasting for a few days.

However, im still sick of dealing with this length. it needs to be put away.

Review : Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship Leave-in Split End Protector

I don't know what I have been waiting for but I didn't even think to write a review of my dear beloved. I've been using this since around month 3 of being natural and now at the beginning of my 8th month, It is still stapled to my heart.

At first it was kind of confusing as I read the label

"With a fusion of raspberry and satin"

Since satin is not exactly silk-- it is more so of a man-made effect of being smooth or glossy (if you were to look it up in a dictionary).

Upon the ingredients list one will find that this product contains Raspberry Juice and no sign of a "satin" so where is the "fusion of satin and raspberry"?

I'd say it lies between the Hydrolyzed Silk and Dimethicone--but belive me, when you try this you will literally feel the satin coating your strands.

I went on the Herbal Essences to read the reviews and there was one at the beginning of the list of someone saying that they have really long hair and they used this product in attempts to revive their dry brittle ends but instead it took hours to get a brush through them after applying this product and it left it feeling horrible, but the scent was great. In the end, she didn't recommend the product.

Well, if one has really long hair with ends this bad... its kind of hard to really comprehend that absolutely no product is going to revive something thats already dead. GET A DAMN TRIM. i mean, if it didn't do that to your entire head , just to your ends, chances are you have dead ends that can't come back to life. you need to trim it off then make your decision of whether this product is horrid or not.

This product is a "split end protector" which I guess one can take in several ways without doing research.

The woman who wrote that must have took it to believe it was going to revive her already blasted ends, somehow mend the dead ends and split ends leading to healthy hair.

the bottle, however says

"This is the beautiful beginning of the ends. Smooth them with a kiss of protective conditioning that strengthens your hair against split ends and breakage. I'll help keep your hair from splitsville with my quenching formula fused with extracts of red reaspberry & satin. I'm a tip treat with a silky finish that feels so good."

which leads to the directions:
"masage through we or dry hair. give your tips a big sip. leave it in and love the ending."

both statements lead me to believe that one would want to use this product only to PREVENT that horrid mess that was that girl's ends who wrote the bad review, not to try to give the ends CpR.

Now with the satin.... once you put this one your hair... omg. omg.
I swear it is literally like swimming in satin sheets. the product alone in your fingertips rubbed together feels so silky smooth and once it hits your strands it feels like your hair cuticles just said *aaaahhhhh* in relaxation as it smooths on out and with repetitive use (after every wash only) i noticed that my hair did indeed get smoother and stronger. especially on the ends where i concentrated application.

The scent is indeed amazing. A very light raspberry smell that isn't annoying or perfume-like. It is enriched from fatty alcohols derived from coconut, raspberry juice, silk and yes of course it is not natural and contains dimethicone and a couple of other hard-to-pronounce ingredients that i don't mind if my hair is getting what it needs to thrive.

I recommend this especially to curlies because if you are like me, your hair is so damn curly that you rarely even see your true ends! so to make sure your hair is protected and getting it's nutrition, even as the ends hide, Herbal Essences long-term Relationship Leave-in is the way to go at $2.97 U.S.D a bottle from walmart.

It is indeed the best leave-in I've tried and I probably wont stray again. I did stray for a couple of months and my hair wasn't the same, now that i went and bought it again I see that I shouldn't be using anything else.

If it works wonders on my like this without me using the shampoo and conditioner, I wonder what will be my results if i added the two to the mix.

I'll be sure to do an experiment with using those three products as my regimen in the future.

Banding for Stretching that Fro

But its winter time girls! I'm trying to keep my hair into hiding!.

But the braids came down early last week and I wanted to share my growth. I know alot of people from both blogger and youtube are amazed at how much growth i've gotten over this course of...7 months it is now. But when you guys ask what i do, it gives no insight really. Because I don't use growth aids or do anything differently. I don't believe hair grows faster or slower on anyone else unless you have a medical condition. I think I get the average growth of 1/2 inch a month.

I know this because I eyeballed measured. (yea, thats what I call it.) I dyed my hair on my 6th month anniversary, then i put braids in the week after. Today a month later I checked and I have what seems to be exactly 1/2 inch of growth. Yup. 1/2 inch of hair that is not burgundy but a darker brown. It's all about RETAINING length and since I put in protective styles often and don't mess with or style my hair extravagantly or even at all everyday, i just retain more length than most.

Now, at the beginningwhen i first big chopped and was pretty much bald... I do admit, i think my hair grew faster than the average.
That's when I developed that lil theory of mine that since hair is put on the head to protect the scalp from cold and infection and all that horrendous stuff, once you are bald, shaven, or short haired, the body takes that and goes into repair mode like "quick, we need more hair! hurry! before he/she catches pneumonia"

But as soon as ones hair gets about ear or shoulder length it seems as if hair does slow down to the regular old 1/2 inch a month when it was probably 1 inch a month when they were just about bald.

That's my theory. probably wrong, but it seems right to me.

today I added something new to my regimen. Not a product so put away your wallets.

I've added a technique.

All the while I've been dreading taking my hair out of protective styling because I despise having to braid it every night for a braid out or twisting it and unbraiding or untwisting in the morning which took for-ev-err.

But. I've decided to try the banding technique. I love it! absolutely love it. Tonight was the first time I've done it and was thrilled that it only took a mere 20 minuts to moisturize, detangle, and band my entire head. This technique for stretching the Fro is definitely a staple.

After shampooing/cowashing,
I returned to my abode and divided my hair into sections, slathered on e.v. coconut oil, then cantu shea butter leave in, then unrefined shea butter onto wet hair... not sopping, but towel dried. Then I detangled, added more unrefined shea to my ends. ran my fingers through it and banded all the way down to my ends and repeated it with each section. It was a breeze to do all three post washing things all in 20 minutes.

The whole taking forever to twist or braid my hair whenever i needed a wash wasn't working for me. The mushed Fro in the morning that desperately needed water i didn't wanna put on my hair in this cold weather wasn't working. Wash n gos in warm weather weren't working either cuz i have way too many textures in the wrong areas..... hang time nearly straight hair in the back and sides and tightly coiled afro hair everywhere else?

Oh no hunny... not a good look.

So this is a staple and my definite go-to method for stretching my hair throught the winter when not in protective styling. HOpefully by my one year (april 6 2010) my hair will be out of this awkward stage and out of the twa stage... even though I'm more medium afro stage now... at least in my opinion since I almost reach shoulder length in the back when stretched and the tip of my nose in the front.


Happy 7 months to me!

Crotchet Earrings + protective Style challenge.

When I first learned to Braid with extensions they would last 2 weeks tops. The would get extremely Fuzzy and i'd just take em down. I am proudly working on my 3rd Week! Finally i am getting better at braiding. It is the start of week 3 of braids and no sign of fuzz at all. I have washed them and conditioned them as well 2 days ago and still there is no fuzz present. I am soooo proud. My goal is to be fuzz free for 4 weeks. If i can go longer, so be it. I still don't miss my hair which is unusual. i guess i really needed a break from it being that i can't do much now that my skin condition caused my sides to fall out in tremendous amounts. Still waiting for those to grow back in full and thick, then i believe i will start missing my real hair.

On to crotchet earrings... I officially am IN LOVE with these things! As we know, when people become natural, we don't exactly like blending in with the crowd, so what better way to express our individuality than with unique fashion creations right? So, i have these pair

Which can be bought :

HERE! HERE! HERE!

They are really cheap and BIG! of course. love the big earrings. i get alot of compliments when i wear em... screw that! who really cares about compliments right?? i love them on my own haha. They are the hotness.

Winter Protective Style Challenge

As you all know, I decided to finally try a cap weave. EHHHHH! HATED IT!
So uncomfortable. The wig cap was too tight, got headaches. Took too much to stretch it to get it on. And while it was an easy fix on the days I had surprise company or had to run errands and couldn't really style my hair fast enough, i definitely would not use that as a protective style simply because of the comfort issue. I'll use it when I need to conceal my hair and run out the house so i'll look cute, but wearing it for a month or so just isn't working.

So, I've decided to do a challenge. A growth challenge. I do these from time to time on myself when i am stuck in what feels like an awkward hair stage. Last time I did it was in the spring and summer time. It was a 100 day hair challenge where I keep my hair in a protective style for 100 days for growth. It worked wonders as you can see in my 6 month anniversary video. So, for the rest of the year (if not the entire winter) I'll be keeping my hair protected.

I'll be using kanekalon hair to braid myself. It's a cheap style, and I'm on a budget.

the hair is 2 for $5 dollars and it only takes two packs to do my whole head, and I braid it myself so it's free to get done. or my aunt does it and thats free also.

I'm tired of taking care of my hair so right now is the perfect time to start my growth challenge. last time, I would take my hair out of protection for 2 weeks to give it chill time then put it back up so it'll probably be the same deal right now as well.

If you want to join me hop right on in!

Just don't forget to take pictures of how your hair looks now, and pictures of your hair after.

This challenge for myself will span from tomorrow (or whenever i decided to braid my hair, either today or tomorrow, i'll keep you posted) and will probably last until the end of december or January 1st.

If i miss my hair, i will wear it out but i'll still be on the challenge.

happy hair growing!

Protective Style: Cap Weave

So i finally got the Cap Weave i wanted to try. I had been asking the subscribers of my other blog about it and they gave me great answers so finally, 10 months later, i got one haha. it was easy, no tension on my scalp at all. In case your wondering what exactly it is, its a wig cap that has the fake hair glued on.... pretty much a home made wig. i didn't get the cap sewed to my head so its removeable liek a wig.

my hair is corn rowed underneath and i take it off at night, & put it on only when I am leaving the house. the wig cap is very tight so you don't gotta worry about it flying off your head or someone snatching it off.... u gotta worry about headaches or circulation being cut off to ur brain! hahaha. that shit is so tight man.

It's great that its a home-made wig, but your head doesn't get hot underneath cuz the wig cap has tiny lil places for air to escape from unlike wigs where you have to wear the wig cap PLUS the wig which doesn't let heat escape at all.

I'll be missing this fro up there .... but for now I don't. Kinda tired of taking care of my hair lately. I have so many other things to think about and since my skin condition caused my hair to fall out on the sides, its hard to find a way to wear my hair out in public that doesn't involve twist outs, braid outs, and blowouts to conceal the areas. I have my Jamaican Black Castor Oil that I'm applying as part of the Castor Oil Challenge part3 on hairlista.com in order to grow my sides back thicker.... cuz theres absolutely NOTHING left, just shiny baldness haha.

But until then, i'll probably just be rockin protective styles. After this, i'll either get another Cap Weave but with long straight hair, or i'll get it as a sew-in, or i'll install some tiny braids.

Why Long straight hair? Because I'm not gonna spend money on weave hair that looks like my own. It makes no sense, i may as well be frugal about it and wear my own hair. I'm getting long straight hair to have something different for the money instead of the same as whats already growing from me haha.

6months later : Afro

I recently colored my hair with Revlon Colorsilk in Burgundy which cost me $2.50. No, it did not dry my hair out and no i don't have to moisturize even more often.... my hair feels like it doesn't have color on it, but it is DEFINITELY burgundy. I love it.

I also (on the same day as coloring: 6 month anniversary 10/10/09) i took about an inch and a half of hair off my ends for the fall. I won't do another trim until my 1 year anniversary on April 10th of 2010.




For the fall months I am going to keep my hair protected in a Sew in, then for the month of December I'll have my hair out, then probably keep it protected from mid january to the end of winter. I'll definitely have my hair out in Spring in April when my 1 year Anniv. is approaching :).

5 month Anniversary

I haven't gotten too much growth since last month. I did a length check and its still the same. odd cuz i haven't had that much breakage.. none really. but I guess because the length check was done between month 4 and 5 that I can't expect too much out of it.

I'm leaving to the military for bootcamp in 10 days so this will be the last post till I return.
I'm wearing a weave while I'm away there and cornrows and braids so I'm expecting plenty of growth pics to give ya when I'm back.

Peace ya'll.

New TWA hairstyllle :)

Ya'll know I learned how to cornrow right? Well I took advantage of that and attained my very first updo :)

Side

Other Side




Then, just pinned up in the back :).



gOT A LIL SEXY WAVY ACTION IN THE BACK! I LOVE MY FUCKING HAAAAIIIR!!!

I know the cornrowing is still a lil rough but BELIEVE ME its better and tighter than what it used to be. that shit used to be ROOOUUUUGGGH.

Cornrowing

Today I finally figured out how to cornrow / french braid. I always had the idea but never knew how to braid it so well that it stayed when I let go. Know I understand how to make it tight enough thanks to the youtube video by InnovativeThinking (her name on the tube). I mastered it right afterwards. Now I don't have to worry about what to do with my hair when I am on duty or if my weave doesn't last long enough to get me through basic training :). Cuz cornrows are allowed and I officially know how to do them! no more worries

(aside from the physical fitness aspect... i am a bad runner.)

gosssh im so proud of myself.