Curly Girl Method Update (Month 1)

I have been doing the Curly Girl Method for a little over a month now.  It has been great!  Why didn't I try this sooner. Check out this picture of my awesome twist out.

I have learned that twist outs look better when you hair is longer.  I have been trying to do twist outs for as long as I have been natural and they mostly turn out a disaster, not this time.  What did I did differently...The Curly Girl Method. 

This twist out look the same all day.  In Florida, the humidity has been terrible.  I was sooooo scared that I was going to have a big bird's nest on my head by the end of that day but I didn't.  The Curly Girl Method has given me the much needed moisture that my hair was dying for.  Now that it's mosturized I don't have to worry about it pulling moisture from the atmosphere. 

I love the Curly Girl Method.

Curly Girl Method Update (Week 2)

I am loving this curly girl method!  Ok I have been doing the curly girl method for the past two weeks and the most important question I have for myself is:  Why haven't you tried this earlier?  I am loving this.  My curls are popping!!!  They were not popping this much before I tried this.

My hair is soft to the touch.  This has never happened before.  Have you noticed that when you hair is wet is looks SOOOO good, but once it's dry it looks and feels like a desert.  Well, the curly girl method will change all of that!

The main product I use is Tresemme Naturals conditioner.  It is a silcone free conditioner.  I was also using eco styler gel but I decided to mix it up and use As I Am curling jelly.  Big mistake!  Once the products dried my hair was a white mess.  The curls were beautiful and shiny but there was a white residue.  I have come to find out that Tresemme doesn't work well with others.

My new routine will include co-washing with Tresemme Naturals and styling with Burt's Bees conditioner and As I Am curling jelly.  I will start doing that tomorrow.  Hopefully, that combination will not cause a white residue.  The Burt's Bees smells so goooood.

I will keep you updated on my progress.

Curly Girl Method

Well it's time to jump on another band wagon, lol.  I have started doing the curly girl method.  The journey began on Tuesday, June 5, 2012.

The curly girl method involves using conditioner as your shampoo and styler.  You are to do away with your comb, brush, hair dryer, etc.  You use your fingers to detangle your hair in the shower.  Well my hair didn't have much definition to it so I used some eco styler gel to get some curl definition.  I was really pleased with the results.

Some girls do wash and goes daily and others co-wash once a week or so and style their hair with conditioner and gel.  As for me, I have been doing wash and goes but that is going to get old real soon.  Next week I'm going to try and style my hair with the conditioner and gel.

The conditioner I have been using is Tresemme Naturals.  This conditioner is silicone free and has a very pleasant fragrance (sweet orange and lemongrass).  Immediately I notice some softening of the crown of my head.  This area has always been dry and rough regardless of the extra attention I have been paying to it.

I will post a picture on what my hair looks like on Saturday.  At that time I will be 4 days into my curly girl method journey. 

I will also try to do weekly post to keep you informed of the progress.

Thanks for looking.  If you have any questions, please ask.  ttyl

What Do I Do...

Ok, so I stretched my hair a few days ago.  Afterwards I didn't know what to do with it, so I did a dry braid out.  I left the braids in for 2 days.  Once I took the braids down my hair looked pretty good.  As I left home to go to work it was still looking good.  Once I arrived at work and looked in the mirror I almost screamed!!!  My hair had reverted and it looked like a bird's nest. 

I learned a valuable lesson that day, always have a back up plan.  Luckly I had a stretchy ban and I bunned my hair right there in my office. I believe the problem was moisture.  When I did the dry braid out I didn't dampen my hair with water and that was a crucial mistake. 

Soooo today, I did another dry braid out on stretched hair.  This time I dampened with water and also added a little more moisturizer.  Hopefully, tomorrow when I take it down it will turn out beautiful.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Son's Graduation from Delaware State University

Finally, I thought this day would never come.  It seems as though 4 1/2 years have just flown by.  When my son left home to go to college I wonder how in the world would I be able to afford to take care of my household and his, lol.  By the grace and mercy of God and help from my mother, we were able to take care of him and all of his needs.

He received a Bachelor's degree in Sport Management on May 20, 2012.  Currently he resides in Washington, DC and hopefully he will have a job within a couple weeks.  We (my mother, my daughter, 2 sisters and 2 neices) flew from Florida to Delaware to attend the services.  I snapped this great picture with him holding up his hands.  He was so excited as well as everyone else who was graduating. 

Natural Hair Update

I know it's been a while since I have blogged about my natural hair.  It has been about 1 1/2 years since I big chopped.  Currently, my hair is about 8 inches all around and it grows around 1/2 to 1 inch every month.  Lately I have been doing a lot of protective styles, such as two strand twists.  I'll leave them in for a week then take them down shampoo and condition and redo it. 

A few days ago I decided to blow dry my hair using the tension method and to my suprise I had quite a bit of growth since the last time I stretched my hair (see picture below).  I turned the corner to go into the kitchen and my husband did a double take look and said "wow".    I was cheesing from ear to ear (not at what he said but because of the growth).

Protective Style...

I have a new protective style!  I got a lot of complements on it.  Most people thought it was my real hair, but guess what?   It's not my hair.  It's actually synthetic hair that I crocheted into my hair.

When you think of crocheted hair you think of the cute styles that mothers put into their little daughter's head.  Well this is pretty much the same concept.

I went to my local beauty supply store to buy some bulk braiding hair.  Ugh, they never have what you are looking for.  So I decided to get regular curly weave hair on the welf.  I cut the hair off of the welf and crocheted it into my hair.  It took me about four hours to do it but, it turned out a lot better than I thought.  By the way I only used one pack of hair.

Next time I will order some bulk hair from ebay so that the curls hang a little more.  But overall I am in love with this protective style.  I will wear it for about two weeks and I plan on redoing it again because "the girls" are going to Fat Tuesday in New Orleans in a couple weeks.  Holla...



I braided my hair back into 9 braids.

Happy New Year!!! Best Twist-Out Ever!!!

Happy New Year to everyone!!! 

I am kind of a product junkie (yeah).  Secretly I think a lot of naturalistas are product junkies, lol.  I have been on the grease band wagon, I have tried Miss Jessie's,  Beautiful Curls,  Curl Enhancing Smoothie and so many others that I can't even remember.

The last couple of weeks I have been revisiting some of those products.  The Cantu Shea Butter is going in the trash!  It makes my hair look dull and it feels dry so goodbye.  I retried the Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Smooth-n-Hold Pudding.  I can't stand the smell but I wanted to give it another try.  I did a wet twist out and a dry twist out with this and I really loved the results.  Once it dried I couln't smell it.  I did however notice that I had flakes falling from my hair.  I shampooed my hair and was back to the drawing board :(.

Will looking through my stash I saw some raw shea butter and I decided to do something with it.  I whipped up the shea butter with Jamacian Black Castor Oil, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil.  OMG!!!  I got the best twist out ever!  After shampooing I didn't use any leave in conditioner.  All I did was add the shea butter mixture to wet hair.  I don't know about you but when I go to bed with wet hair, I wake up in the morning with wet hair.  Not this time.  My hair was completely dry and super soft and it was soooo shiny.

The next night I dampened my hair with water and did some chunky twists and it turned out really good the next morning.

I think I have found my staple product.

I'm going to take a picture and post it soon.

Talk to you later...

Jesus is the Reason for the Season

Jesus is the reason for the season.  This means that Christmas is for Christ (Jesus).  My family has always celebrated Christmas as Jesus' birthday but when you are a child all you think about is receiving gifts.   Christmas was "the day" that we received things that we had been wishing for all year long.  As an adult I now know the real reason for this day of celebration. Even though Jesus was probably not born on December 25 we do take that day as a day of rememberance of His birthday.

Remember above all else that Jesus wants His birthday present.  Turn your life over to Him and receive the free Salvation that He has to offer.  Your soul is all He wants as a birthday present.  Turn it over to Hm so that H may present it to His Father (God).  Once Jesus hands you over to God no one and I mean no one can pluck you from Him.  Once God has you you are his forever.  Amen

Trip to Delaware

Sooooo my son plays football for Delaware State University.  He's been there for 4 years and I have never visited the school.  So this year he said he was going to be all alone on Senior Day and he wouldn't have any family members there to walk with him.  Guess what?  We went to Delware a couple of weeks ago.  We included Ms. RosieVelt (my sister), MommaVelt (lol), my daughter and myself.

We flew to Baltimore, Maryland and drove over To Dover, Delaware.  My daughter had to go through the metal detector three times and the finally had to use the wand on her.  She has on all this jewelry and a big belt, lol.  This was Ms. Rosie's and my daughter's first time flying soooo as the plane was ascending we were the only four people hollering, lol. 

We had an awesome time in Delaware and my son has a picture showing his mother and grandmother walking him out on the field on Senior Day!!!

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That's my son hugging the football coach while the

school's president is watching. My mom and I am standing

 behind my son and the coach (see the red cap, lol)

By the way we also drove over to Washington, DC.  We saw the White House!!!  We couldn't find a park so my sister, MsRosieVelt got out and took some pictures.  It was such a great experience.  We plan on going back again real soon.  He will be graduating in the Spring of 2012 and we all have to be there to experience it.

Talk to you later....

Checking In....

I haven't been on my blog lately, shame on me!  Well I'm back!!! 

Wow, a lot has been going on lately.  I reached my one year anniversary at the end of November.  I was very excited that I was approaching my anniversary and guess what?  I forgot about it and it didn't cross my mind again until today, Decemeber 2.  I missed it :(.  Anywho my hair is beautiful and florishing.

Wow, one year of growth!!!

I blow dryed my hair about 80% dry and this was the result.  I was very shocked at how much my hair has grown!  I hadn't straightened it since I flat ironed it a few months ago.  I started to flat iron it but I had flash backs from the last time and I said "naw, I'm not gonna do it". 

Now I'm rocking twist outs.  I finally have enough hair to have a successful twist out.  Look at the results below from a fresh twist out.  My daughter claims I only take pictures of myself at work, lol.

I'm loving this natural thang....

Update, Raves and Rants

I am loving this natural thing!!!  I spend a whole lot more time on my hair now that I did when it was relaxed.  I have not found a main style for my hair but I love wash and go's.  Pretty soon I am going to have to find a style for winter.  Any suggestions???

In the picture above I'm wearing a wash and go with eco styler gel.  I slathered on the gel and slicked down my hair towards the back.  Next I got in the shower and soaked my hair with warm water and attempted to shake out as much water as I could (can you say dizzy).  I dried it off a little bit with a tee shirt to removed more water and shaked my head some more.  I really loved the defined coils that I was left with.  It took all day for this to dry. 

If you looked at the post when I flat ironed my hair you will notice in the picture that my ends looked a little notty.  My sister MsRosieVelt though that maybe there were fairy knots on my ends sooooo guess what I did?  I dusted/trimmed my ends!  Since doing this I have noticed that my ends are much curlier and don't shrink as much.

Some people like to hold onto as much length as they can get and wouldn't dare trim their ends.  Me, I have no problem trimming my ends especially if it's going to give me better results.  If you can notice in the picture above most of the ends were curly but there were kit a bit of straight ones.

More to come soon....

Thanks for Comments and Thanks to New Followers

Thanks to my recently joined followers!!!  I was suprised when I signed in to check on my blog and noticed that I have 3 new followers.  Thanks again.

Also, thanks for all of the comments that I have received on this blog.  For some reason or another I am not able to comments on your comments (go figure...).  Maybe it's me or maybe its my computer or MAYBE its Google, lol.  Thanks for the comments.  I have answered and or replied to all of the comments by email so don't think I don't care, I care a lot!!!

I love talking about natural hair.  I dusted/clipped my ends (pictures to come in a day or so).  My sister MsRosieVelt said that maybe there were fairy knots on my ends so I just did the do.  This will be discussed in my next post.

More to come this weekend.

I did it....

Look at what I did.....

I flat ironed my hair!  I bought a blow dryer and a new flat iron.  I thought it was about time that I flat iron my hair just to see how much growth I have.  I used Silk Elements MegaSilk Olive Oil Heat Protection Spray before I used the blow dryer and before I used the flat iron (just to be safe).  

I was impressed with the growth!  Afterwards I wrapped it and went to bed.  The next morning I'm like "what am I suppose to do with this hair?"  My hair was straight but was also curly at the ends which made it kind of difficult to comb through.  So I decided to go back to what I know best, my curls.  I shampooed my hair and applied my leave in conditioner.   

To my surprise the curls did not snap right back!  So decided to shingle my hair with my trusty Eco Styler Olive Oil Gel.  Slowly the curls began to reappear.  I love the results I got!  My curls are not as tight as they usually are.  My hair is hanging to the side instead of puffing up into an afro.

I don't plan on flat ironing again anytime soon.  

Until next time.... 

Results of Twist Out

The twist out was a success!!!  I have attempted a twist out on several occassions but this is the first one that I would go out of the house with.  The curls were really defined but I did take some out to early (last night) and that's why it's frizzy on the top otherwise I loved it.  I will be using the Jamaican Mango & Lime Locking Creme Wax again.

Well......

Well the wig thing lasted for about a week, lol.  I got tired of all of that hair and the pressure that it was putting on my head.  But it wasn't all the hot under the wig because I wore it mostly at work and it's always so cold in the office.

Last Saturday I did a great little style and work it for the full week.  I braided the front and did little plaits in the back.  It was cute but it was a pain to take them out.  You have to be very careful when removing plaits.  It took about 2 hours to put them in and about 3 hours to take them out so I won't be doing that again anytime soon.

I went to the store today to but some more Elastra QP Olive Oil and Mango Butter Moisturizer and I saw the Jamaican Mango & Lime Locking Creme Wax and I though hummm, why don't you give this a try?  So I bought it. 

I came home shampooed and conditioned my hair and put big braids in to stretch it.  After about 2 hours I took out the big braids and did a few smaller braids in the front and put some 2 strand twists in the back.  I applied the wax to each section of my hair and started twisting.  After I finished I knew I had used too much.  Well you live and learn!

The first few ingredents are no no's in the natural community.  The first one is Petrolatum, the second is mineral oil and then Microcrystaline wax, D&S yellow#11, (and then the good stuff) Mango Butter, Lime Extract, Virgin Coconut Oil, Chlorophyll, Green Tea Extract and Fragrance.

I think I'm going to have a great twist out tomorrow.  I will post pictures tomorrow if its successful.  Next time I will not put as much product on my twists. 

Until then.....

Protective Mode!!!

No, this is not my hair, lol.  I am going to give my hair a rest and rock this wig for a couple of months.  I'm in protective mode.

Lately I have been manipulating my hair a lot (blowout, stretching, afros, etc.) so I decided to let it rest and see how much it will grow.  Currently my natural hair is braided.  My plan is to keep it braided for a week.  Every Saturday I will take it down, wash it, condition it and put it back in its protective style.  Before braiding it back I will moisturize it with either my whipped shea butter (I made it) or the Elastra QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer.  I love the Elastra QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer.  Its one of only a few products that I have used up entirely and will have to purchase some more.  Both products are very moisturizing.

Afro, or should I say Afro puff

Check out the afro puff.  Before I put on the band my afro was hugh (in my sights).  This photo also shows some of the shrinkage I experience that day. 

The night before I washed my hair and conditioned it with my two best friends.  Afterwards I applied my whipped shea butter (I made it) and braided my hair while it was still damp.  I braided it to stretch my hair because I did not want to use heat.  In the morning I undid the braids and picked it out.  It was fully moisturized all day by the whipped shea butter. 

Look at the Fro

Look at the Fro!

My New Best Friends

Well after all of my ranting about needing different products I decided to go out an do some "me" shopping.  Look at what I found at Walgreens:

Nourishing coconut milk shampoo and conditioner.  I bought these because  they were buy one get one free and they had 50% more product for free.  So for $7.99 I think I got a pretty good deal.


I immediately went home and washed my hair!  Must I say that I really, really love these products.  I went back to Walgreens to purchase another set but all of the bonus sizes were gone so I didn't purchase anymore.

I also purchase some Elasta QP products from Walgreens.  The Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer (bonus size 80% free) was about $3.99 and the Glaze Conditioning Shining Gel (50% more) was about $3.49.  This was a very good day for me.  I love, love the Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer.  It smells yummy, kind of like mango ice cream.

I used these products to do finger coils in my hair.  It turned out pretty good.  Usually I would use gel to do these coils and like I said earlier I was looking for other products (not wet ones) to do styles with.  I think I have found that product!  My hair is shiny and it's very soft but it holds the styles perfectly.  I'm going to see how long I can rock these coils.


More to come later...