Saturday, February 20, 2010

KinkyShea Does The Cherry Lola Treatment

Ok, I've been reading about this treatment for over a month now and I've been dying to try it. The Cherry Lola Treatment is basically a protien and moisture treatment for your hair. It's supposed to reduce frizz and help define curls and I can really use a lot of that right now. So the recipe for this is as follows:

Plain yogurt (2 Parts):
For the protien and conditioning properties

Baking Soda (1/2 Part):
To make hair more porous

Bragg's Liquid Amino Acids (1/2 Part):
More Protien

I'm going to give this a shot tonight and post before and after pictures tomorrow. Hopefully this works!!

Ciao,

KinkySheaPT

Monday, February 15, 2010

Keep It Simple Experement Update and Shampoo???


Ok, I ran my little experement for longer than the the month of January. This morning I took down my two strand twists and wore my hair out. Unfortunately, I haven't shampooed my hair in over two months and even with cowashing twice a week I noticed quite a bit of flakes in my hair. NOT SEXY!! So without enough time to shampoo/clarify and deep conditioner, I quickly pulled my hair up into a kinky curly pony and went about my day. Once I got home I made a B-Line for the shower and shampooed (in sections) with Giovanni Smooth As Silk Deep Moisture Shampoo. I rinsed each section and applied the Giovanna SAS Deep Moisture Conditioner and detangled each section and pinning it out of the way (without rinsing). I am now doing a d/c with my hair therapy heat wrap and the conditioner in my hair (I'm all out of my JessiCurl *grumbles*).  So out of my frustration what did I learn??

1. I need to shampoo at least once a week do avoid product build up. Although my hair felt soft there was some flakes and product buildup on my scalp and on the strands. Not good.  Although my hair was soft and mosturized the flakes were kind of embarassing (hince the pony).

2. Don't be afraid of shampoo. Ok, because of the harsh winter air and winds I've been so afraid of using shampoo because I've been paranoid of the shampoo making things worst. In my paranoia I ended up making things worse.

3. Don't be heavy handed with products. Sometimes less is more. I have a bad habit of going a bit overboard with my product application (which I'm sure contributed to the flakes and residue). Just because a product is good for my hair it doesn't mean that I should pile it on my head. Less is more.

So after washing, detangling, conditioning, my hair felt and looked a lot better! My looks to have thickened up since my KIS experement and the use of the Wild Growth Hair Oil. I think my experement did help to maintain my hair growth rate (didn't really grow faster or anything) but every little bit helps.

I now have my hair in flat two strand twists. I'm not sure if I'll take the twists out tomorrow (tomorrow is supposed to be very windy and I might just end up waring one of my caps). But I will say I've learned my lesson well. Shampoo is not my enemy and less is more....

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Mehandi.com Hair Sticks







It's official! I LOVE these hair sticks! I added two more to my collection and they look great. These sticks are the perfect accessory as they allow me to wear my hair up in protective styles without any elastics or harmful tools. The designs are beautiful, hand carved, and hold my hair like a dream. The best part is that the are SEAMLESS. That means no snagging, catching, breakage, or damage done to my curls. Again I can't say enough about these. I've been wearing them to work and they've garnered tons of complements. I can't wait for my hair to get longer so that I may try more styles with these awesome sticks. Thanks Mehandi!














Search and Destroy Mission



Today I trimmed my hair for the first time since becoming 100% natural in Feb. 2009. I know it's probably a gross neglect on my part however, I was completely nervous about trimming my hair as I've never cut my own hair before. I was afraid of loosing length or my hair ending up unevenly shaped and so on. I was also afraid of going to a salon and having my hair trimmed out of fear that the stylist might be inexperienced with trimming natural hair or would get (as my grandmother would say) "scissor happy".


So today I finally decided to take a look at my hair as I've been noticing the little "fairy knots" at the ends of my hair strands. Holding my hair up to the light I noticed quite a few of my ends were a lighter almost transparent color against the light. At first I thought it was the result of my henna treatments but upon closer examination I noticed that the strands were split! So I had to make a decision. Fear the scissors and risk greater damage or put on my "big girl panties" and get rid of them in favor of healthy hair. So I went with option B.


Luckily, I normally cut my husband's hair and pulled out the scissors from the kit. Taking a deep breath I began my search and destroy mission. I trimmed as many split ends as I could find being very meticulous about where I chose to cut. I kept my hair in twists so I'm pretty sure I didn't get them all but definitely got rid of the worst offenders. After my trim I applied a concentrated amount of my conditioner, water, and oils mix to the ends and over the rest of my hair and scalp. When I finished I tool a look at the amount of hair I trimmed and quite surprised. I'd barely trimmed a handful of hair. Not bad for my first try, I guess. Again, I know I didn't get all the offenders but at least I took care of the worst. My ends already look better. So I guess the Search and Destroy Mission was a success. I'll try another "search" in about two months and if need be I will employ a "destroy".