Curlformers (My First Attempt)

Ok so in June 2nd (Saturday) I decided to do my first Curlformers set by myself.  I had Curlformers done on my in the past by one of my friends and it took a minute for her to put them in there.  The results were nice and done during the Winter time.  Nevertheless, I wanted to try it myself and see what I could do.  Now luckily, during this weekend, the humidity was low and the temp was about 70 (high).  So I figured, why not.  Prior to this, I purchased the Curlformers pack at Sally's Beauty Supply.  Click on the word Curlformers to learn more about this product or to order your own.
Curlformers

I am also a Beauty Card Club Owner so I did get this product at $63.99 price. I suggest if you love Sally's like I do, you may want to do the same.  The card costs $5 and you can get discounts on the products you buy instore as well as online.  Not to mention coupons.  But I'm getting side tracked here,lol...

Anyway, I figured it was an investment that would pay for itself since going to the salon and getting a rod set costs usually $65 and if I'm doing it myself, I don't have to get mad when the style I paid for doesn't quite look like I had imagined it would,lol...but more on not getting what you paid for later.  So on this particular Saturday in June, I actually co-washed my hair since I had done an Alma treatment the weekend prior (more on this later too). 

I detangled my hair and used a light leave-in on my hair.  I added a little water to my spray bottle and mixed in my Kimmaytube leave-in and then spritzed my hair.    You only need a light leave-in when you are doing a set.  The more products you place on your hair, the longer it takes for it to dry.

After this, I proceeded with the process of sectioning my hair into small sections, I added a little of my shea butter mix and some Eco-styler Gel to each section, then followed the package directions...

Feed the Curlformer onto the hook, with the hook facing upwards. Place the section of hair in the hook then withdraw the hook.

Sounds easy enough right, but it took some time.  I started around 2 pm and didn't finish until 5:30.  In between this I needed rest breaks and lunch,lol.  I'm sure it will be faster as I use it again, but it's not something you can rush through that's for sure. You will need your Saturday free in order to use this product. 
Well once I was finally finished, I looked like this...



I will have to get some longer ones as some of my hair was longer than the curlformer so I had to use rods for those parts.  Other than that, it was cool.

I sat under the dryer for about an hour under medium heat.   You can do this or let it set in your hair for atleast 6 hours if you don't want to use heat.

I let the set stay in my hair until bedtime. Once I pulled it out, my hair looked like this...

And that was it!  The curls stayed in my hair through Sunday to Tuesday and I did get compliments on it.   More on how I extended this style when it began to poof in my next post :).

The Natural Hair Diaries

Shea Butter Mix

Hey Everyone...

School has been keeping me busy but as of June 21, I was finally free to enjoy my summer and go back to some fun things that I had enjoyed doing.   Going back to my writing as well as updating my hair blog.  These next upcoming blogs will update you as to what I've been doing and trying since my last post.  I enjoy using natural products on my hair and I started incorporating some of my old products from the past and added some new ones as well. 

Shea Butter Mix

In May, I had found a shea butter mix on a Youtuber's site (Naptural85) that I had been wanting to try.  It required me to use a mixer to blend together some hair products that I already had.  Here's the link to where I got my recipie from...

The ingredients I used were...

-Unrefined Shea Butter at Room Temperature


-About 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil


-About 1 tsp Olive Oil


-About 1 tsp Lavender Jamaican Black Castor Oil (Tropic Isle Living)


-About 1 Tbsp Jojoba Oil


-About 1/2 tsp Vitamin E

I blended everything together and it was cool because I looked like cake batter, just a little harder to mix since the shea butter was a solid.  I guess it took about 4 minutes to mix everything together and my mix ended up looking like this...

I placed my mix in a plastic container and placed it in the fridge.  But there was not need for this because it just made it hard,lol.  So when I was ready to use it, I had to place it in the microwave for about 10 secs before using it.  Well lesson learned.  Now I just keep my container in my cabinet in the bathroom until further use.  Results on using this mix...coming soon.

The Natural Hair Diaries

My Press 12.22.11

Whenever it's time for a trim, I go and get it done by my trusted favorite stylist who will also press my hair afterwards. I usually have my hair pressed 2 times a year as I am not a fan of heat styling. It's also good to see how long your hair has gotten for growth purposes. So I asked my stylist to take a couple of pics of me and here I am at the top and I am pretty pleased! The back looks nice too :)

The Natural Hair Diaries...

7 years Natural and still growing... :)

My Latest Headband...

Check me out! This was a cool headband that I found at Tysons Mall in Fairfax. I got it at a kiosk but I can't remember the name of it. I plan to go back there again for sure so I'll have to post it when I do. It's sort of like a hat, but not really. It's actually a knitted headband and neck warmer. The back is out but it covered most of my head. I love this band. It was pretty cold this weekend and perfect for it. Can't wait for it to get cold again so I can show it off again.

New Hair Regimen

Hello everyone, I'm back with my latest update on my blog and I wanted to share what I'm doing now with my hair. This weekend I decided to try a honey conditioning prepoo treatment. I like to do prepoos (sounds funny I know) because it cuts down on the in and out of the shower routine. You can also call this dry conditioning, where you are basically putting a conditioning treatment on your hair prior to washing. So for my treatment this weekend I did a Rosemary Honey Moisturizing treatment. I always wanted to use honey as a treatment in my hair so I decided to give it a try. This recipe was one I found at http://www.motowngirl.com/ site. The ingredients are...

1/2 cup of honey

2 teaspoons of warmed olive oil

4-5 drops of Rosemary essential oil.

Mix together and apply on hair prior to washing.

Leave on for 30 mins under dryer and longer with out the dryer.

(Rosemary is good to help hair grow and honey adds shine and softness to natural hair. )

In fact, check out this site I found that talks about the benefits of honey on hair as well as for your whole body at http://honeyfanatic.com/honey-facts/honey-good-hair/

Next I warmed a towel in the microwave and paced that along with a plastic cap over my head for about an hour. I was watching the Kings of Comedy on Comedy central and got sidetracked but it was cool 'cause the longer the better for my hair.

I realized that 1/2 cup of honey is alot of honey to use for a treatment. I only needed about half of that for my hair so I am saving the rest in the fridge for the next time. (Note to self, remind hubby not to throw out my treatment in the fridge,lol...)

Afterwards, I washed my hair in the shower with Curls Creamy Curl Cleanser (from Target).

I liked this cleanser because it doesn't contain sodium Lauryl sulfate, which is a drying agent in many shampoos. Smells great too.

Afterwards, I applied my leave in (mixture of olive oil, aloe Vera juice, Kemi Oyl (old school), and Knot Today's Leave in Conditioner). I liked this mix and I started using it after I heard about it from Kim Love's YouTube site over a month ago. You can check out the recipe for her Leave in on there. Just type in Kim Love on YouTube and look it up. She doesn't use Kemi Oyl but you can use what ever oil you'd like.

Next, I twisted my hair in two strand twists all over. I am doing more protective styling this Winter vs. wearing my hair out. It's time for a trim so I will probably break my routine to go in for a trim and press and curl this month. I'll post pics of this as well.


Results...the pic below shows it.

I liked it! My hair felt soft and moisturized. I am definitely going to do this more often.

Next hair blogs to look for...

• Trim and press at the Salon


• Protien Treatment


• Henna Gloss (Really excited about this one)

More to come later...until then, be blessed and stay natural.

I'm baaaaack!...Did you miss me? :)

Well, it has been a while...since Jan. 2011. But the bug has hit me again to write about my hair journey. So much has happened since the last time I've written on here, but now that I'm back to a regular schedule (somewhat), I wanted to update my site. So since last January, I've gotten married. In fact, November 19 will make it 3 months...YAY!. Wedding preparations can take on a life of it's own. That will be a blog for another day though,lol. So we are here and I wanted to post up some pics of my hair recently. I'm going to try really hard to update this blog at least once a month. If I can do it more than that, that will be even more exciting.

I'm working on trying something new for the fall/winter season...Protective styling. Whooohooo!,lol...Apparently, after researching some hair blogs, it's all the rave to retain hair length. I had somewhat done this in the past. But I would eventually wear my hair out more often, which during the colder months, tends to dry out my hair. Wearing natural hair out during the colder months will dry out natural hair so protective styling is key to retain moisture and length. So the picture above is an example of one of my protective styles. I am rusty as I am having trouble moving my pics on here,lol...so that means I'll be doing this more often as I have forgotten how to strategically place pictures on here.

I supplement with a cute Goody Ouchless barrette and a headband in the 2nd pic and I actually am going old school, using a banana clip in the first one. I like to try different types of headbands and hair accessories when I wear my hair like this. Plus it saves time for me in the morning. You can see the back in these pics. I'm still tweaking how I want the front to look so you will see that later :) I like to take pictures in general, especially hair pics. I am working on my fall/winter hair regimen and I will post those later. Until then, enjoy and as always, there's more to come...soon.

The Natural Hair Diaries

7 Years and still growing :)

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone! Well it's been a while, (actually a little over a year) but that's fine because I will have lots to talk about in this new year. I have a wedding to plan for, I will be talking about my hair, stuff that goes on from time to time, and new hair products that I will try. I am excited and ready to get back into my blogging. So I thought I'd start off with showing off my latest style...I had it done in Raleigh, NC. It is a blown out, two-strand twisted, up do. I love this style and get it done when I can get an appointment down at my fave stylist in the NC. Leave a message if you'd like the stylist's info. Anyways, here's my latest style. I tried to put some cool new background on my pic using my photo software but it couldn't come up so maybe next time for the dramatics. I have the front and the back as I took the pic on my phone right after it was done. That way you see it in it's newness. Well that is all for now...I will have more info up as I talk more about hair and other interesting topics that come to mind. Until then, I leave you with a question...

What is your favorite natural style or style period to wear during the winter months? I'd love to hear about it as I may try them myself...Talk with you soon...

The Natural Hair Diaries

6 years Natural and Still Growing...