The Puff!! (Style Photo)

That's all :D

Embracing the FRIZZ!!

Do you ever see photos of women with natural hair and it's very...organic....frizzy...almost messy but OH so gorgeous? Whenever I see those photos I am inspired to experiment with my own hair. Now fast forward to me actually doing my own hair and it's a totally different story. I for some reason feel that my hair has to be really defined with no fly aways or frizzed edges. Forget about a chunky fro. It either needs to be purposely textured or fluffed out. No middle geound. Now why is that? On someone else it's beautiful. On me I feel like it looks like I either didn't finish styling it or the style got ruined. When that happens I usually just wash it out or comb all the texture out and end up with a fro or a puff.
Well that was the past. I've decided to EMBRACE THE FRIZZ people!! I want to look organic and afrocentric too. I think one of the most beautiful things about having natural hair is embracing new forms of beauty even within the natural hair community. That's just something that's been on my mind and I wanted to share that with you guys. I'll leave you all with some beautifully "frizzy" and or "organicly messy" coifs.

Style Photo: Bantu Braid Out

How I acheived this look:

*Washed with "Creme of Nature Ultra Moisturizing Shampoo" this time. This is the first time I've tried this one. I actually purchased it by accident but it wasn't bad. Not quite as good as the "CON Detangling Conditioning Shampoo" (which is my usual)but to be fair I should probably reserve judgement until I've tried it more than once.

*DC'ed with "Organic Root Stimulator Replenishing Conditioner" for 30 minutes under my homeade heating cap.

*I applied "Cantu Shea Butter Leave In Conditioner" which I absolutely LOVE. If you haven't tried this you should definitely do so. It's very cost friendly and makes my hair sooo soft. I applied this in sections and twisted as I went along. I've found that this leave in works really well if you allow it to sit for a few minutes.

*Next (and this is really 2 steps) I applied a tiny bit of Extra Virgin Coconut Oil to the section followed by my shea butter mix.

*Finally, the styling was simply braiding my hair in approximately 15 sections and bantu knotting them. I allowed this to dry overnight and when I took them down I was VERY gentle with unbraiding. I ever so slightly and gently pulled the braids apart and used a pick to lift my roots to cover up the parts. I really like how it turned out. It felt very dramatic and VA-VA-Voomish. Lol.

Oh I guess I'll post this pic of what it looked like after I unknotted and braided it but before I pulled it apart. Fair warning though: I look a bit rough. Dry lips and all. Lol Normally I put photos in successive order but I couldn't let that be the first photo ya'll see when you stop through. I might scare people away. Hahaha. Ok. Enough of all that. Enjoy, and if anybody tries this look I'd love to see pics and post them for others to see.

Recent hair discoveries

Since going natural I've become the ultimate diy-er. I do a lot of research on good hair practices and I get tons of tips and good info from forums, hair blogs and video sharing sites. With all that said, some things are learned purely through trial and error.
One of the most common hairstyles you'll find in natural hair are twists and twistouts. I personally LOVE twists. I am obsessed with them so you must understand that when I wasn't able to achieve a good set on my own hair I was rrally bothered. But as you will see I had many strikes against me.

* First of all my hair doesn't stay twisted in the back. About 10 minutes after I twist them they start to unravel. Whoever said that natural hair doesn't unravel didn't know my hair. I didn't want to use rubberbands and I tried for a long time to figure something else out but I eventually had to. That resolved that issue and you can barely even tell. Nothing too hard.

* Next, my hair would look beautiful in twists but once I'd untwist them for a twist out it would look like locs. Very coiled. It is actually beautiful, just not the look I was going for. Well at some point I realized what the problem was. I do kinky twists sometimes and when doing these there is a little bit of a difference in technique. You must twist the hair as you are twisting it. If that doesn't make sense I'm sorry. I'd have to dedicate a whole post and a video to that. Anyway, I somehow had started using that technique even when doing regular twists. So in other words. I was twisting too hard. Lol. I should really be embarrassed about that one but I'm just happy to finally get a REAL twistout. Well then another problem arose.

* My twistouts would frizz out after like 2 hours. Seriously! I went through the agony of leaving these twists in (beautiful as they are) for like 3-4 days just for them to frizz up in hours. All definition GONE. BTW: I say agony because for some odd reason if I have twists or braids in my hair I NEED to take them down so I can see the definition. I don't know if that makes sense but there must be atleast one person out there who understands where I'm coming from. But back to the matter at hand...and this is a HUGE discovery. For me anyway. I really struggled with this one. I didn't know what was wrong. I realized that the glycerin mix that I use on my hair was causing my hair to frizz out. One day when I had run out of mix and was being lazy I left that out of my routine. Magically, my hair didn't frizz out. I had a real twistout that lasted for several days!!! It makes total sense though since glycerin is a humectant, meaning it attracts moisture to your hair. I dont know that all humectants would cause frizz but glycerin does for me. So while I love love love my glycerin mix and will always use it for other things I won't be using it when I want a braid out or twist out.

I hope this helps someone as much as it helped me. I no longer have any issues with twistouts and braid outs and it only took me like 2 years to figure it out. Lol. But seriously, as I stated earlier I've learned so much from others who have documented their hair journeys and have made their own discoveries through trial and error. I hope that I am doing that for someone else.

Micro twists, twistout, and style.

I put micro or mini twists in my hair about a week and a half ago. For some off reason I didn't take a very good picture of it so the picture I'm showing now was a set I did about a month or so ago. They pretty much looked just like this.

After a week I took the twists down and had a fabulous twistout.

A few days later I was headed to church and decided to attempt to style it somehow. After a few bobby pins and some gel this is the result.

(For some odd reason I couldn't get my page to format properly so the pictures are all grouped together but I'm sure you'll understand the pictures just the same.)

My hiatus is OVER!!!

Yes, I am finally back. I was gone for a good little minute but never did I once forget about my humble little blog or my followers (be they few). Thank you to all of you. Even those silent readers. I truly hope that I provide some form of assistance or inspiration to take charge of your hair care and embrace your hair and make it as healthy as possible.
Needless to say, I have tons of updates and many hair pics to share with you guys. It's true that I wasn't blogging but I made sure to take photos so that when I returned I would be able to share them with you guys. I won't even try to do all that on one post but I will definitely be sharing those sporadically. This is going to be a short post but I will be back soon and regularly.
I recently straightened my hair and it turned out great. Here are a few pics. I'll post my straight hair regimen soon.
This is my hair washed, DCed and towel dried

Blowdried (I don't know what that goofy look on my face is. lol)

Blowdried side angle (whew that's a bush)

Blowdried back angle

And finally....


Well, I'll leave you with that. I hope everyone is blessed and doing well. I'm so glad to be back. YAY!! Ok, I'm gonna go calm down now. Lol