Mummy Put The Perm in My Hair

I've been reading a few bogs today and couldn't help noticing all the fingers pointing at dear mum. Mum who with the best of intentions took me to the salon after all my crave for permed hair, mum who finally decided I was old enough to get a relaxer, mum who paid for the perm, mum slaving with the flat iron to create that sleek look..........now becomes the bad guy.

Yes we're all saying mummy put the perm in my hair, but let's give mum a break, it was all out of love and for all the right reasons, we're all in the same maze or we once were. Some/Most of our mums still relax and re-touch every so often, but let’s remember as we re-discover our hair to love everyone regardless of how they chose to wear their hair because it's just hair. 

I wear my hair the way I do because other young women have encouraged  and inspired me to explore this unique aspect of my identity. It's not a fashion statement or a fad; I'm loving being this way. Some might think its crazy or bush, but I'm too in love with me to notice or care.

My hair might not be awe-inspiring for all but it's a blooming marvelous part of me, I hope mum will not feel too old to make this change someday, I love her anyway. Now that we're all strong and confident women I hope we can all give our mums an experience richer and more rewarding than getting a perm - the gift of being natural.

The Price of Being Natural

The weekend just gone buy I went looking for a new shampoo, condish, deep treatment and leave-in. Maybe its just me but most of the stuff out there are really expensive! I love to spoil myself every now and then, I love to indulge in things that make me happy, but I believe buying a bottle of good shampoo and condish shouldn't pinch.

My current regimen is fine and manageable, but I just couldn't resist the urge to try something else out there, you know what I mean.....

I've been using:

From Boots I buy:

Herbal Essences Hello Hydrations Shampoo (400ml): £3.49
Tressemme Naturals Conditioner (500ml): £3.99

Online and in local Afro-Carribean or Asian stores I buy:

Dudu Osun Black Soap (150g): £1.00
Henna (500g): £5.00

My BFF supplies my shea butter and I've got bottles of almond, tea tree, jojoba, olive, coconut, and vitamin E oils bought in August from Holland and Barrett for about £40.00.


Here's what I found on the shelf in John Lewis:

Aveda

Key Ingredients: Aloe vera and camomile

Brilliant Shampoo (250ml): £14.50
Brilliant Conditioner (200ml): £16.50
Damege Remedy Intensive Treatment(125ml): £21.00

Aveda recommends the brilliant range to add softness and shine to dull and dry hair, the be curly range is similarly price and is designed to enhance and define curls

Philip Kingsley

Key Ingredients: Cocoa butter, Almond oil, and Avocado Oil
Moisture Extreme Shampoo (200ml): £14.00
Moisture Extreme Conditioner (250ml): £17.00
Elasticizer Extreme: £25.00

PK recommends the following combination for coarse, curly and frizy hair:

Elasticizer Extreme(150ml)
Re-moisturizing Shampoo (250ml)
Re-moisturizing Conditioner (250ml)
Scalp Toner (250ml)

You'll have to part with £73.00 for this.

I'm curious about the PK Elasticizer, to help fight shrinkage. I really hate it when my 3 inch plus hair shrinks. I know shrinkage is only natural but shrinkage + dryness = breakage which I really need to avoid. I'll try this and write a review in the near future

If the result is unsatisfactory, I will try washing my hair only when braided till it gets long enough to put into 6 large braids to wash, should get there in 6 months hopefully.

Ojon

Key Ingredients: Ojon oil, Shea butter and Sweet almond protien

Ultra Hydrating Shampoo (250ml): £16.50
Ultra Hydrating Conditioner (250ml): £18.50
Restorative Treatment (150ml): £39.00

In the end I bought a box of Ojon range from John Lewis containing all 3 bottles above plus a leave-in conditioner on offer for £24.50.

I started off by applying the treatment to dry hair and left to rest for 20 mintues before following with an application of shampoo, then conditioner and finished with the leave-in.

On a scale of 1-10 I'll rate this product as a 6. Simply because I could have achieved the same results using black soap with Tresemme Naturals conditioner, which works fantistic for my hair.


I'm really eager to see natural hair products that don't break the bank, something around £4.50-£6.00 per 250m1 would be great. But until then the search continues, I'm quite happy to keep using the products I've got now, but the fun loving PJ in me will always want to try something new, just like buying a new pair of shoes, just got to have one more.


Do you think Natural hair products are unreasonably priced? What has your experience been?

Must Be Doing Something Right

Wow........look how much I've grown since I Bc'ed in August. I've gone from this:

To this:

And moved on to this:

To come this far in four months, I must be doing something right.

Anger is a BITCH!

Now that I've got your attention, this is what I mean to say.

There is a word for every season and today my heart turns to these comforting words of scripture: " Be angry and sin not.... Eph. 4:26"

There will always be times when those we love or maybe hate, lol, cause us to experience emotional turmoil. For me my default plan is always to suppress my feelings. 

Anger like the more positive emotions of love. joy and happiness is a legitimate emotional response and it's meant to be expressed, so yeah, go a head and smash a few dishes, it helps. I said few, don't go breaking them all, but if it helps well....

Seriously, be angry but sin not, vent but don't blow anything up, scream but don't scratch! And at the end of the day, let it go and give yourself a break, anger is exhausting. Don't let the sun go down on your anger, Eph 4:26 continues, I see this line as a reminder that keeping anger will only hurt one person: me, and bitterness is bad for anyone's well being.  Don't want to be sick from being mad, so what do I do, focus on things that will give me a huge rush of endorphines ( is that how it's spelt?) and a good rush of dopamines. Letting go of anger will help to re-energize your mind, body and spirit, it's all about you, give you a chance to be happy, go to bed happy.

And if you wake up still angry, remember to vent but don't blow anything up, then let go again, till it's all gone. Remember, if you believe, He's there with you helping you through it, it's going to pass because He's there.

OK back to my fro, my henna treatment went very well, it was very hard to wash initially but I love the results, and my hair is still black, phew! My new motto for this week is grow and retain, I strongly  believe that as long as my hair doesn't break or shed unnecessarily, it will grow longer. Much love to all my natural sisters especially the Hair's a thought (HAT) family on facebook, these are a bunch of really inspiring and supportive women, click on the Like button to enter this beautiful world of natural women, you will be amazed at what you'll find, my dear there is a lot to learn. 

I hope you've enjoyed reading, please share your thoughts either here or on facebook.

Happy birthday Daddy, I love you, will always be your girl.

Henna Deep Treatment

I'm doing a henna deep treatment this weekend, so I thought I'll do a bit of research on the web about the benefits and I stumbled on Henna For Hair. It has plenty of information about henna; what it is, how it works on different hair types and colours and most importantly for me is how to mix to achieve the desired results.

Henan works by releasing Lawsone into the hair shaft when applied as a paste.

The term dye is relative as natural henna will produce results relative to the colour of your natural hair. So blonde hair will appear red after an application while dark hair will sometimes come out even darker or have a tint of red colour in the sunlight. Also henna has been known to elongate the curl pattern and make hair feel heavier, this is down to the additional molecules that binds itself to the hair shaft during application.Natural henna can be applied as often as necessary as it is chemical free.

What I would like to achieve using henna as a deep treatment is to get thicker and fuller hair, more shine, and retain length. I bought my henna from buy whole foods online uk, 500 grams only cost £4.93 and this should last for about five weeks as I plan to apply weekly.

This is how I plan to mix my henna following recommendations from  Henna For Hair:

100g of natural henna powder
1 bag of green tea diffused boiling water
lemon juice
honey

The honey is from Curly Nikki's Henna tutorial and more mixes can be found here

Have you used henna as a deep treatment before? What was your experience? Any tips/tricks for me?

Scripture Inspiration for Today

God has reminded me today that there is great strength to be found in confidence and quietness that grows from knowing him. As Isaiah 30:15 says

"For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:"

I know you're here for me Lord, I feel you and I'll rest in your arms.

Products and Regimen

I'm learning that for my hair less is actually more, My regimen is really simple, it goes like this:

Pre-Wash:V05 Deep Nourishing Elixir Hot Oil Treatment

This is a keratin based oil treatment, I run it under a hot tap for  few minutes then apply to my hair before washing. It only needs to stay on for one minute before rinsing off, it helps to reduce breakage from combing, brushing, heat and adds shine to hair.

Wash: Dudu Osun (Black Soap)

Black soap in an elixir for afro hair, and a little goes along way. I noticed very little or no shedding since I started using black soap for washing instead of co-washing. Since then my hair has changed dramatically from being coarse and dry to soft and moisturised.


Moisturise and Seal

I use coconut oil on wet hair and scalp after washing to seal in moisture, I follow this up by using my butter mix which contains shea butter, olive, almond, jojoba, vitamin E,  tea tree and bergamont oils. I leave to air dry and then section before de-tangling

De-tangle: Paddle Brush

I've found the paddle brush to be quite effective in de-tangling hair very quickly with minimum casualty to strands, all I do is gently run the brush in an  upward motion through each section. The great thing about de-tangling this way is that it creates volume without using heat and it removes single strand knots.

What's your regimen? Please share with me.