Love.............

It feels awesome knowing you're all mine!

New Looks

As promised here are some shots of the looks I've been sporting, tell me what you think about them. I think I'm running out of tricks so I'll appreciate your suggestions of any quick and easy styles I can try. 

My hair somewhere in Month 7, clipped at the back and blow dried

I braided my hair when I ran out of ideas

Wearing a ponytail extension on pulled back hair

 

Two different twists, the picture to the right is made with damp hair, and below from blow dried

 

at my sister's graduation reception

another dry twist out 

not forgetting how far I've come, the BC.

Hello Again

Just want to say a big thank you to all who have been following my blog from my BC and welcome all my new friends.

Its been 10 months since I BC'ed and it has been a wonderful experience, being natural has been and is still an exciting experience for me. Since finding the courage to cut my own hair, I find my self daring to do more and more. Like getting into the pool and finally learning how to swim, getting a pedicure from fish, being bold about making progress in life, passionate about things that I love and keep me happy and staying away from things and people that tamper with my joy.

I can't wait to share pictures of my hair and update you on what I've been doing over the last few months.

How much time is too much?

I've got to ask, since the subject of the amount of time I spend on my hair has been popping up quite often. I know I'm not being obsessive but I'll tell you how my routine goes and you tell me.

So I've been reading tons of posts about the benefits of protective styling and all the hair challenges flying around, I decided to make a few changes to my routine. I started off going to the hairdresser to make my twists and the plan was to keep them in for two weeks at a time, but I find at the end of the week my twists look frizzy and are begging for a re-doing. I stretched the first twists I got to two weeks, but I had plenty of knots on the tip of my hair when I took them down and it made my head look small.

The next week I got a cornrow + twist in front from the hair dressers again but I took them out after a week because again it got very frizzy. That weekend I opted to twist my self and instead of medium size twists I made minis, it took me 7 hours spread over two days to achieve this, but on the Friday of the same week I took the twists down again and wore a puff and pompadour for the rest of the week, that's where the troubles begin.

When I sleep with my hair in a pillow or scarf I get bed head in the morning and I really don't like my hair caking up at night and spending extra time in the morning to get it back in style. To work around this I make 8-9 braids/twists at night and undo them in to morning for a braid out or puff. The twists/braids take me about 20 minutes to make and about 7-10minutes to undo in the morning. so last thing at night and first thing in the morning :-)

So in total I'll say about 30 minutes a day,  over the week it adds up to 3.5 hours which is ok by me.
But I know it looks like all I do is have my hand in my hair all the time. But what to I do? It comes with the territory of being natural but it also comes across as slightly obsessive.

What do you think ladies?
How can I improve on my routine?
Have you been accused of spending too much time on your hair?
How much time is too much?

Sneak Peak

I've been fighting a bad cold but I'm taking a break to put up sime pictures of my hair, so we can see how I've been doing!

I had mini twists I made myself last Friday/Saturday but for some crazy reason I decided to take them down, don't ask me why, the plan was to keep them in for two weeks. Anyway this is my puff today:

And these were the twists before:

Oh I remember why I took them down, I was trying to do this pin-up look with my hair

Looks like I need plenty of practice to nail this one, it doesn't look quite right.

Products

This week I added some leave in to my routine, I was after a light weight conditioner I could spray on my hair along with my oil and water mix in my spray bottle. I ended of buying 3 (PJ)  in the spirit of seeing which one works best for me. I got Pantene pro-v aqua light, Loreal elvive full restore and  Loreal elvive re-nutrition night serum. I don't fall for all that soft and shiny crap advertised anymore, I judge by how a product makes my hair feel.

Both leave-in conditioners from Loreal had a similar effect on my hair, they really added moisture to my hair and were very suitable for reviving dry hair in the morining, and the moisture lasts all day. The main difference between these products is that the full restore contains wheat protien and castor oil while the serum has evening primrose oil and royal jelly extract, I think in future I can use one or the other and achieve the same results.

I haven't used the Pantene pro-v yet, but it smells good looks light weight hopefully it will be just as good.

I've lost count of how many oils I've got in my spray bottle and I've made it worse this week by adding flaxseed, wheatgrem and lavender extract. One thing I've noticed is that after this addition the oil and water seems to blend a lot better and stays mixed for a significant amount of time after shaking.

So the mix started off as shea moisture reconstructive elixir, then some oil form curls got added in to refill, then some olive oil, jojoba, tea tree, sweet almond, beargamount.........and it keeps growing.

In the last few weeks my new routine has helped my hair improve, I'm not officially doing any hair challenge but I'll keep twisting, learning, sharing and practicing the healthy hair habits I'm learning from the natural hair community.

Feel free to comment and share your tips with me.

Re-visiting the Hairdresser

Honestly there are days when I wish I was a living mannequin, sometimes I want to unscrew my head give it to someone else to make my hair and screw it back on, this is how I felt last week. I was determined to make my own twists but as the day flew by, I started buying into the idea, well not screwing my head off, but letting someone else make mini-twists for me.

That's how I met the hairdresser, known to me in typical African fashion as "auntie". She was bubbly, enthusiastic and most of all happy to see my hair. She loved making my hair, no harsh pulling, no relaxer offered, she asked me what I wanted and gave me exactly that.

I felt happy that someone loved my hair the way it was, its been quite sometime since I had that feeling and comfort that my hair was in good hands, I'm grateful for this small blessing, it's good to know there's someone close by who can help me get the look I want for a reasonable price, with no fuss. I like the DIY but if I had a choice I wouldn't DIY! I hope to visit again in two weeks time for a deep treatment and a more interesting style.

So back to the twists, they were ok, but men in the morning I wasn't feeling it at all. All I kept thinking was, God please help me turn this into something nice. I didn't want to have to resort to a twsitout, which I didn't have time for and after all that money? Just to keep it in for one night, my blood was boiling hot in my chest.

Well, after agonizing for a considerable amount of time, and making my head a sea of bobby pins I came up with this look:

front/r-side

l-side

If this style could talk, I bet this do will be saying "at last", perseverance pays. This journey is taking an unbelievable amount of gut, obsession, patience and commitment, but the rewards make all the effort worth it.

This week I used:

The last of a V05 conditioner I had for a co-wash and used Kinky Coily Leave-in and a mix of my favorite oils.

How are you wearing your hair this week?

A Few Lost Strands

This week, I've lost a few dear strands, ok more than a few. I suspect that flat ironing two weeks ago was to blame and some dry combing too. But the situation is improving, I'm in control. Out of all the mayhem came this do:

It's quite simple, a puff and two flat twists in front.

This style is what I'll call a living breathing style: it suited me well in all my activities, it held up elegantly at work, stayed in place when I worked out and and survived my daily trips to the pool. It only took a about 7 minutes to re-style in the mornings, as I like to condition or rinse after a swim.

This weekend my plan is to make small twists, I'll like to use some flexi rods to curl them up but I haven't got any! I'm staying away from the high street, and trying to use what I've got to create the looks I want to achieve, so I'll have a look in my stash and see what I can come up with.

Here's a list of Products I used this week:

Pink oil
Ojon Hair Shampoo and leave-in
Herbal Essences Beautiful Curls conditiner
Giovanni Extreme Protien Conditioner.

What are your hair plans this weekend?