Taking a Break: Hair Senioritis

Maybe it's the fact that I'm going to my 10 year high school class reunion in three days...

Maybe it's because I haven't had a trim in almost a year and detangling is a beast these days...

Or maybe it's because Natural is no longer "new" to me now. I will be 3 years in the game come October...natural is a part of life these days.

It could be any of the reasons listed above, but for some reason I have not had the time or energy to deal with my hair for the last..hmmm..month or so. TDavis inspired me with "low to no" effort style and I have rocked it out to Puerto Rico and back.

It works for work, home, and vacay...and lasts me for at least a week at a time. I think that I like having my hair "put away" from time to time. Hell, sometimes it's nice to put on my shower cap and just see my face for once.

This is really two pig-tails jazzed up with an off center curved part. I smooth with EcoStyler w/Argan Oil gel (can you believe the jar is almost empty..it does work when used alone). I split the ends of each pony into two and twist. Then fold each side over and secure with bobby pins.

Easy peasey lemon squeezey... and I can be lazy another week...lol!

Back in the Game Baby!!

I FINALLY GOT MY REPLACEMENT COMPUTER!!

In comparison to my HP Entertainment PC, it is some rachet BS, but it's a computer..lol! Thank you all for your patience because my posts have been falling off without it.

I have been trying products and styles and taking pics like crazy, so I should have a lot to post. Stay tuned :)

*Smooches*

Queenofthe4s

Product Review: Miss Jessie's Curly Buttercreme

Recently I tried out a sample of Miss Jessie's Curly Buttercreme. In my three years of being natural I have never tried any of their line because I have heard that it's essentially "hype in a jar." After seeing a $58 price tag on a jar of their Curly Buttercreme I said that I would NEVER pay that for a jar of hair product .

But I will try a free sample...LOL!

I was feeling particularly ambitious that evening and decided to flat twist my entire head with it. Applying to damp hair, the first thing I noticed was that it didn't feel greasy to me like I've read in most reviews. It was really creamy...but didn't have a lot of slip. Halfway through my hair I decided I would do single twists in the back, since the back of my hair is so thick that you can't really tell the difference in the pattern...or so I thought!

Once I took the twist down I noticed that the flat twists were frizzing horribly. My hair just will not do right with these things!! I was soooo glad that I didn't do my whole head that way. I retwisted the front into individual twists and allowed it to set overnight..

Below is the final result. The Curly Buttercreme did define the twists but as it dried it was noticably greasey and heavy. I don't particularly care for greasey hair so the Buttercream is a no-go for me (but I wasn't paying $58 anyways, so we already knew that..lol!).

I did try the Curly Meringue and I actually did like it. It was lighter and a lot less greasey but had more slip to it. I would buy it on a BOGO...

Chunky Twist Out w/ Mizani Coconut Souffle

This summer I've been swimming a lot which causes the need to style my hair a lot more frequently. I've found this to be my staple quick fix between swimming sessions. Allowing my hair to dry in twists keeps it from getting tangled between stying sessions.

Once I get out of the pool I immediately rinse my hair in the shower and apply Shea Moisture's Shea and Argan conditioner. I detangle and rinse in 4 sections and air dry to about 50% (usually my roots are drier and the ends damp). I break each section down in about 4 twist, applying the Mizani Coconut Souffle (MCS) before twisting each section. The MCS is very light, yet moisturizing so my hair is typically completely dry by morning. Using a lighter styling aid gives me fuller hair and the "chunky look", as opposed to twisting with a gel or heavy cream. Re-twisting each night will stretch this style for at least three days...and by then I am ready to hit the pool again.

Train Your Curls in the way that They Should Go

Happy Friday ladies!!

Just wanted to do a quick post with a helpful tip for your twist sets. I used to hate the way my twist sets looked because the ends were either frizzy...or too defined and didn't blend well. I stumbled upon this technique trying to pin my hair back to wash my face.

Once you have your twist all in, take the ones that frame your face and pin curl them the way you want them to fall. The rest of them I pin backwards before tying it all down underneath a mesh wrap or silk scarf.




In the morning I release the pin curls and twists. Instead of having stiff little straight twists, I have a more curly swinging action going on. It's helped tremendously!

I feel like my hair has a better shape when I do this...without getting it cut! I've seen some naturals with a cut in similar shape, but I don't think my hair would be going for that. The curls are too tight and my wash-n-go fro would be a sight to see with different lengths of hair. O_o

Any of you ladies have methods of making your hair appear to have a different "shape"....dish!

*Smooches*

Sectioning Natural Hair

Here's a quick post on sectioning natural hair. Sectioning breaks the hair down into smaller, more manageable sections of hair for easier detangling and styling. So if you've ever read any of my post where I've said to "section in 4" ....this is what I mean.

I typically section after my rinse out conditioner is applied. Each section is detangled, twisted, and secured in a little bun. I rinse my conditioner out section by section, re-securing after each rinse. Once the conditioner is out I allow the sections to dry about 50% before I break each one down into smaller twists for my twist-outs.

Style Preservation: Chunky Flat Twists

In order to preserve my dry twist out using the Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie I resorted to three, big flat twist. This method was simple and effective. Most importantly...it was QUICK!

All I used were 3 bobby pins and my fingers. Keeping my center part, I just grabbed hair while flat twisting towards the back of my head. Once I reached the nape of my neck I stopped and secured with a bobby pin, leaving the ends out.

Below is what it looked like the next morning...before fluffing and pinning. You can see the twist pattern is still very defined. I typically rub some Mizani Butter Rich between my palms and fluff my hair, pinning the front with bobby pins to fall to either side.

Giovanni Smooth as Silk Conditioner: Leave Well Enough ALONE!

A few weeks ago I recommended that my coworker try out Giovanni's Smooth as Silk conditioner. I tell anyone who will listen that this is my Holy Grail conditioner for everything...conditioning, detangling, leave-in, and styling. She went out and bought one of the 33oz bottles from TJMaxx, tried it, and hated it. She actually gave me the whole bottle!! I was shocked, to say the least, but was glad that I had a new bottle of SAS to work with (I'd been working to use up some Giovanni 50/50).

That day I went straight home and co-washed my hair with it. First thing I noticed was that it smelled different. Then I noticed that it did not have the same slip that I'm used to...crazy. I chalked it up as a bad bottle or batch. I worked well enough for me and I continued to use it to this day.

Fast forward a few more weeks, and I find the Giovanni Facebook page. A quick review of the wall told me all I needed to know. People were complaining that that ingredients have changed in the SAS, and changed for the worse. I don't keep up with every ingredient like some do, but these people were LIVID! It was also noted that the packaging label has been edited from "Pure Organic Technology" to "EcoChic Technology." #REDFLAG

Sure enough, the bottle my coworker gave me is that of this new formula. Tisk tisk Giovanni. I am soooo disappointed. Now I feel like running out and finding every bottle I can find of the old formula. This is a HOT MESS!!

I will continue to use the new formula because I am not a stickler for "cones" and such, but I wish they would bring the old formula back.

#fingerscrossed

Happy 4th of July Ladies!!

*Smooches*

Product Review: Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie

I'm back with another product review! I recently posted that I got my hands on some Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie (SMCES). I used it last week for a dry twist out from a wash n' go.

I love the consistency and slip of it; it's a great product for twisting but I don't know if it would do anything for my natural curl pattern. It's on the thick side and very creamy/watery (those two terms are contradictory but it's the only way I can think to describe it!). It's the type of product that would require you to smooth it in with a Denman brush to get the "enhanced" curls it speaks of.

Starting out with dry hair, and using only my fingers to part and detangle, I worked in smaller sections. I was generous with the SMCES on each section and twisting was a breeze. I used about 1 oz on my entire head...this product definitely goes a long way! It took about two hours to twist my whole head (I watched the movie "Inception" from start to finish) and I let them dry over a days time.

Here's the end result (and the pic at the top of this post). I love the way it turned out! The best part is that it lasted for days and I was able to re-twist at night without adding water or product. I will post more on that next time.

*Smooches*

Product Teaser: Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie

See... this is what happens when I have a co-worker who is also natural and brings me products to try at work. You get a Product Teaser!

The random twist-out strand test above is brought to you by Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie. This stuff smells good enough to eat/roll around in/use as air freshener...all that good stuff. The results look promising. I applied a little bit to a dry section of hair, twisted, and took it down after about 10 minutes.

My co-worker supplied me with 4oz to try out, so I'll do a formal review later. I also have other products from their line that I have purchased and owe reviews on. I'm doing them as fast as I can, but I'm still without a personal computer for a while. Fingers crossed it shows up in the mail any day now.... *_*

*Smooches*

Product Review: Black Earth Product's African Healing Oyl

Back in February I was a hair model for Taliah Waajid's World Natural Hair Health and Beauty Show, and as compensation, was given a ton of product to try out. During on of her demonstrations, the ladies we raving over her African Healing Oyl (AHO) so I decided to put it to the test. Here I am a whole 4 months later with my review, so you know I know if it's worth the hype or not. The oil is all purpose and is meant to be used from head to toe, so I did just that.

I first tried it as a scalp oil. The bottle has an applicator tip that make scalp application a lot less messy. I do have one tip as to how you can avoid messy spills and such. Simply put, don't open it all the way. Instead of removing the foil safety seal completely, peel it back about halfway (or less) and then screw the applicator top back on. You do have to squeeze a little harder to get it out, but better that than having it tip and spill easily. I applied it to my freshly washed scalp before twisting, along each part. It sealed my hair very well, but over the course of the week I noticed my scalp was itching. More than likely this is because I never, and I do mean NEVER, put oil on my scalp because I've never had to since going natural. I think my scalp just likes to be free, so the AHO was a no-go here.

Next, I tried it as a body oil. It's always best to apply body oils right out of the shower or bath so you can seal in that moisture, just as we do with our hair. Also, the water drops on your body allows the oil to spread more evenly and less is needed. I've been using this oil almost daily for four months and I can really tell the difference in my skin. Some scars that I have had forever look noticeably lighter including (brace yourself) this corn scar that I've had for the longest time. I've been massaging the AHO onto my feet and tucking them into cotton socks every night before bed. My toe finally looks halfway like its normal self. I never did have "cute feet" but corns are not a good look. Ever. LOL!

(Second toe after four months of using AHO. It used to be a lot darker.)

(What said toe should look like...lol!)

As for the rest of my body a friend saw me recently and commented that my skin looked good. His actual words were "your legs don't look as ashy as they used to." O_o I'll just take that as a complement and keep it moving... :) If I'm wearing shorts or short sleeves, this oil give my arms and legs a nice sheen without looking too greasy. Another great benefit of the AHO is that once you rub it in, you don't have to worry about it rubbing off onto your clothes and leaving the dreaded "grease stain" you'd typically get with other oils.

So in my personal opinion the African Healing Oyl is pretty amazing! Definitely try it out. It runs about $8-9 per bottle and I'm *still* working on my first bottle. It's getting close to it's end and I already have bottle #2 on deck. I will not let myself run out of this stuff!

Have you ladies tried Taliah's African Healing Oyl?? What do you think of it?

EcoStyler Gel w/ Argan Oil: UPDATE

As promised, I have still been working with the EcoStyler Gel with Argan Oil. "Caracara" recommended trying it alone with no leave in for best results, so I tried my version of that.

I needed to jazz up a 2 day old wash n' go, so I used the gel on both sides before pinning them back to create a faux-hawk. I added the gel only to dry hair and pinned with bobby pins, using a boar bristle brush for maximum smoothing and sheen.

Now my hair did have some Herbal Essence's "Drama Clean" conditioner and EVOO dried into it from my wash n' go, but I'm thinking that neither mixed with the Eco because they were completely dry. Because my hair is prone to dryness and has such a cotton like texture, I'm scared to do the "naked hair" thing underneath a gel. In the words of Katt Williams, my hair would be all types of "crispity, crunchity, crackedy...." LOL!

In the end, I was pleased with the results since I didn't have any flakes and the hold was amazing. Gelling hair always works best when you start with dry hair, but the gel has to be on point to get this look. Each side had one bobby pin, so the gel was doing most of the work which is great. Bobby pins can be bad for your hair and scalp...more on that later..I know from personal experience!

On another note, I'm still playing around with eyebrow shaping and eye color. I'm nowhere near as good as Tdavis, but I'm better than I was before :) I really need more shadow pallets. More than likely I'll be ordering the Matte 88 Palette from Coastal Scents. I have the shimmer palette, which is great, but matte colors have much more pigment and depth to them. The purple eyseshadow below is by E.L.F. and I have on Clinique's "Bamboo Pink" lip color. My eye lashes have grown in a lot more (I think I forgot to tell y'all that they'd fallen out about a year ago) because I have been babying them. All I will say is that waterproof mascara is the DEVIL! Especially when you mistakenly wear and remove it everyday. Now I only use Clinique or Lancome mascara and my lashes love me for it!

*Smooches*

Product Review: EcoStyler Gel with Argan Oil

As previously mentioned, I FINALLY got my hands on some EcoStyler Gel with Argan Oil. I'm a huge fan of the Eco Olive Oil gel because it gives great definition, hold, isn't as drying as other gels, mixes well with other products, and most importantly, does not FLAKE.

I wish the same could be said for the Eco w/Argan Oil.

If you know anything about argan oil, you would know that it is an oil with a distinct scent. The Moroccan Oil products are argan based and are heavily scented with it, as are some of the Shea Moisture products. This gel smells nothing of argan oil, nor does it have the "feel" that argan gives products. Argan has a lot of slip...well all oils do, but argan has a LOT! It almost feels like a hair serum, to give you an idea. Argan is the second to last ingredient on the list, as is olive oil in the OO version, but come on now!

I've mostly used the EwAO on my edges and at the end of the day, I would have flakes. I haven't seen flakes like this since my days of using black Ampro gel way back in the day. At one point, I felt the need to add some water to my hairline to get rid of the flakes.

I tried using it for a wash n' go, mixing it with EVOO like I always do and it did OK. The EVOO helped to keep it from flaking and my hair was very defined.

So in all, I won't go so far as to say it was an EPIC FAIL, but the flakes almost took it there. That's a gel's #1 no-no! Eco is obviously running with the "Argan Oil" hype like most of the other national product lines, but I know the difference. Since I have a pretty big tub of it, I will keep working with it to see what works best and report back.

*Smooches*

Type 4 Shrinkage: My Hair in all its Shriveled Glory

Just to look at my hair, you would never know that I am almost 3 years in the game of my journey through Natural Hair. Shrinkage is a "B" and then some!! It keeps me from having the voluminous hair that I long for without the use of heat. Some people actually see my hair as big hair...I can hear them whispering about "all that hair" when I walk past them. When I look in the mirror, I swear I can see straight through it! LOL!

The pic below is my true curl pattern from a wash n' go. The front is pinned with bobby pins. You see how tiny my fro is...

The pic below is a twist-out done on dry hair using the Mizani Butter Rich. A little more volume, but it still looks sparse to me...lol!

I believe it's time for me to try banding or braiding to stretch my hair out as much as possible before setting with the twists. I WANT BIG HAIR without using heat to get it!! But 3 years in, I am a little tired of the extra work it takes to make my hair do what it don't do...lol! I officially have Natural Hair Senioritis :(

What have you ladies tried to keep things fresh in the "relationship" with your hair??? DISH!!

Mizani Butter Rich: Dry Twist Out

Here are some pics of a dry twist out that I did using Mizani Butter Rich that I bought at the World Natural Hairshow. I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE this stuff! It softens my hair right on up for easy twisting. The consistency is somewhat watery when applied but you can feel the natural oils as you twist and when it dries. I would not recommend this if you are blowing your hair out with a blow dryer for a twist out because it dampens the hair quite a bit.

This style was achieved on a one day old wash-n-go. I didn't part, just grabbed sections as I went, applying the Butter Rich and twisting to the ends. I allowed it to dry overnight under a silk scarf, but my hair was still a little damp the next morning. When taking the twists down, I didn't fluff or separate for this reason to avoid frizz. Here are the results...

The next night I re-twisted in larger sections as Tdavis recommended. I literally took four twist and twisted them into one (without messing up the original pattern) and it took maybe 5 minutes. The next day my hair was bigger ( a little..dare I say...WILD, even) and I think I liked it more that way. Trying to get 3 day hair out of this set re-twisting with EVOO each night and applying Eco gel to the edges.

Oh, yeah! I finally got my hands on the EcoStyler with Argan Oil. More on that later. Have you ladies tried Mizani Butter Rich? It retails at about $19.99 per jar at most local BSS.

Good News/Bad News

I got good new and I got bad news...

The bad news is, I don't have my personal computer anymore.

The good news is, I just saved a lot of money by switching my car insurance FROM Geico... (j/k...but for real, I did save $$ by switching to Nationwide!)

No, the real good news is that I will be getting another laptop for free due to a class action lawsuit that I was eligible for. I bought an HP laptop in 2007 that had a graphics chip made by NVIDIA that has been the cause of problems ever since. They have to replace my laptop (a whole 4 years later!) but it will take close to 8 weeks to get it.

I appreciate your patience if my posts become somewhat sporadic until I'm back in business. It really does feel like I've stepped back into the stone ages. There should be some time to do some quick posting at work to keep you all up to date on products and techniques I'm working with. Meanwhile, feel free to catch up on the whole blog or re-read some of the favorite posts (listed to the right).

*Smooches*

Queenofthe4s

GLAM Weekend: World Natural Hair Health and Beauty Show

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the World Natural Hair Health and Beauty Show, hosted by Taliah Waajid Black Earth Products. The show has grown exponentially...so much so that I don't think anyone expected the increase in show attendance. Thankfully the my girls, Tdavis and Ebabs-J, and I decided to attend on Sunday which was a lot less crowded. On the downside...most of the national retailers were completely out of product at 2:00om (the show was scheduled to end at 7:00pm). I was sooooo disappointed at that At one point, the Ms. Jessie's reps were passing out empty bags with no samples in them..tisk tisk. Now they should have known better along with SheaMoisture, Jane Carter Solution, and Hair Rules. They missed out on some serious money and I felt that it left potential customers with a bad taste in their mouths.


I did get my hands on some Mizani that I have been wanting to try. I got the Butter Rich and Coconut Souffle, along with some natural soaps, and some more African Oyl from Black Earth Products. I also got a lime green tee that has a fro and says "Black Barbie." It's too cute!


All in all, we had great time. We made a full weekend of it having dinner, drinks, and getting all GLAMmed up for the show. Tdavis provided us with some awesome make-overs, I styled our hair, and Ebabs-J had us covered with the liquor :)

Here are some tips to working the show and getting the most of the deals there:


1.) Attend and purchase as a group. A group of 4 to 5 works perfectly as most of the vendors have deals like 5 for $20 ect. Everyone pics their product and combine the purchase. Make sure to have cash broken down into 5's and 1's to make this process a lot easier. Most vendors only take cash, and no one wants to front you on their check card during group purchases...#imjustsaying


2.) Walk the show before making purchases. - Usually there will be several vendors selling the same (or similar) products. Take the time to check them all out to compare quality and pricing before making a purchase.


3.) Decide the best date/time to attend.- This is typically hit or miss, but I will never...ever...EVER attend a show at the start of the first day. You are just *asking* for chaos. There may be people lined up for hours to pay for one day tickets and you will be tired before you hit the exhibit floor. About 3 hours after the start time is pretty safe. Most shows it's best to attend on the second day as vendors are not as tight with the product samples and you can find some last minute close out deals. Vendors would rather sell product than pay to transport it back (if they are not local).


4.) Have fun! - Rally the girls (and the liquor if ya'll drink), the makeup, and the hair products. Get dolled up, go to the show, and WERK!

Smooches-

Queenofthe4s