May 26, 2011

Twist Out Triumph!!

Oh my goodness!  I am so excited!!! Today, I have had/discovered my first successful twist out of my transitioning journey. I have attempted twist outs or curly twist/braid outs before and they failed amazingly.

Here's one to the left. I had hair with twist & curl but it was a frizzy mess of a fro-like bush.  Even the jacked up flat twist or cornrow (whatever that thing is) to the side couldn't save it. The results I had, of course, did not make me excited about trying it again and I was a little upset at finding that I was only going to be able to rock roller/rod sets or flat ironed hair.  Considering my desire to reduce my heat usage, that was not good news for me.  As the months have gone by I have found ways to experiment and vary my roller/rod sets so it wasn't the same thing over and over again, and in doing that, I gained some other skills...like learning how to flat twist.


So, a couple of days ago, after my having to co-wash out the Herbal Essences feeling in my hair, I opted to twist my hair instead of rolling it right away because I really had nowhere to go that I couldn't throw a hat on my head and go. When I decided to take the twists out, I was happy to have a much more attractive look to my hair...it didn't resemble a bush, thanks to the additional nappy growth.  But I still felt like something was missing.  Like if I added something to my prep work my hair would look like it had some life.  Using the setting lotion I have on hand did not make it lively at all.


Targe' to the rescue!  I drove my life-challenged twist-out to Target and spent quite some time looking at the natural hair products they had available.  I had 2 requirements for my search: 1: I wanted a cream-based product; 2: It needed to be a product that did more than just define curls.  I hadn't narrowed for myself what that "more" would be, but purchasing a product with 1 function was not my goal.

I went specifically looking for the Kinky Curly Curling Custard.  Why? Because just about everyone uses it and I haven't heard many poor reviews of it, so of course, I want to first examine what seemed to work for everyone else. The second product I looked at was the Taliah Waajid....and I'm totally spacing on the name of her loc gel, but she has two.  One is regular hold and the other is a tight hold.  Well, both of these are gel based products. I have gel, a big bucket of it. I don't need anymore gel. So I look further down the aisle and see the Shea Moisture line.  Now, let me say, I have not heard so many good things about the Shea Moisture line in general.  Certainly not when being compared to the KC line of products, but when taking into account that I wanted a cream-based product, that was reasonably priced and of all the products available, only one was cream based, Shea Moisture's Curl Enhancing Smoothie won the product battle. So, having used that, here is today's twist out result:
All I can say is THANK GOODNESS!!!! Now I have another style in my pocket!! Woo hoo!!!

Hello...Goodbye

The short version of this post is this: Herbal Essences Hello Hydration is NOT for me!!!!

The long version: Keep reading...

I am learning my hair...and its exciting me! I used to think that it was a little...weird to hear people say that they were masters of their hair.  Of course they  should be since it is, after all, on their head. I mean, who else would master it?! But after a few months on this journey, I can say it is quite real. If that makes me weird I guess I can just add that to a pretty long list.

As I am sure I stated in my product haul post, I have not bought many new products because I am determined to use what I have in stock already first.  Save the Herbal Essences, ORS deep conditioner, I have not bought any new shampoo or conditioner products.  So, what I have been using weekly to wash my hair has been an EVOO pre-poo, either overnight or for a few hours prior to washing, and the Dove Intensive Repair line of shampoo and conditioner.  Using this regimen has left my hair feeling healthy and...supple.  When I used the Hello Hydration this past weekend, still doing a pre-poo treatment, I could tell before washing the shampoo from my hair that the line was not for me.  My hair felt stringy and dry, even though it was saturated with product and water.  It didn't feel much better after using the conditioner either so I styled my hair as needed for the weekend, but later in the week, I co-washed to get it back to itself.  I don't know what I'm going to do with the product. I could use the conditioner on my dog (seriously, I used to condition her with Thermasilk) and it would be great for her fur, but I have almost a whole bottle of shampoo left. Oh well, I guess, but that is precisely why I was determined not to purchase new products willy nilly as soon as I started.

May 24, 2011

Fuzz Is NOT the Enemy!

Ok, so, of course, this whole natural journey has me thinking about matters of hair a little differently.  Today, I am dealing with some fuzz. Not frizz...fuzz.

When I was processing my hair, the slicker the hair, the better. If it didn't lay just right, then something was wrong or off with how I was doing my hair or what I was doing to my hair. I didn't have fuzz when I was processed and for the most part, I haven't had an issue with fuzz since I've been transitioning.  Thanks to the styles I've been doing over the last nine months, there hasn't been much opportunity for fuzz to present itself and by the time it did, it was time for me to wash my hair anyway or I would refresh my roller/rod sets to eliminate the issue.

Today, however, I am wearing (I can't say "rocking" because I'm slapping a hat on this head when I leave the house) twists in the back with flat twists in the front.  Guess what! I have some fuzz at the roots.  My first inclination was to pull out my big container of Eco Styler and slick that mess down, but then I thought better of it as I realized that fuzz may be unavoidable at some times and I have to become okay with that.  I think if I learn to embrace my fuzz that I will have an easier time in the future of embracing "big hair."  I still have an aversion to the 'fro.

So, I swallowed my desire to slap some gel on it as well as the thought to re twist the twists that have a little fuzz at the roots. Wearing my own hair in twists is absolutely brand new to me, but I'm going to do it more often because I need to be doing more protective styles for my hair, especially on days when I don't have to make an appearance in public for an extended time period.  I have been experiencing a little more breakage than normal over the past couple of weeks and I am sure that has more to do with my having my hair out and not protecting my ends more. Many people would attribute it to not chopping off my processed hair but I disagree because I have done a good job of preserving my ends, save for the normal shedding, up to this point.  I will see how these protective styles go over the next few weeks but I am hoping for & expecting great results.