Thursday, June 30

The men in your life & your natural hair....

So I know some women who take a lot of heat from their DH, boyfriend, siblings & other important males in their life when they decide to go the natural hair route.  It seems to be even rougher for those of us with hair that is more kinky than curly.  When we really need the support & the positivity, we sometimes just don't get it from the males closest to us.  Oddly enough, strangers provide the positivity.  But now it seems, that maybe, as we continue to proudly rock our hair, our men become accustomed to it...the more resistant men even reach a point of no resistance.....
That being said, my DH never was unsupportive of my hair transition, I knew he preferred my hair straight, but he never said too much negative stuff, just some odd looks here and there.  He didn't like the wash & go look, but other than that the most he would say is "So how do you want your hair to look like when you reach your goal?" .....He would play with my hair sometimes initially, now he's always touching my hair.
Getting to my point now....Saturday was our wedding anniversary and we had dinner reservations.  My hair was right at being a hot mess on Friday, so I had planned to wash, blowdry & twist it Saturday morning instead of my normal Sunday, for a twistout saturday evening.  So I got up Saturday morning, slapped a bunch of conditioner on my hair & put a head band on while I ran errands. When I returned home, DH announces we have to go out for breakfast & then we can hit the Outlet Mall. 
At this point this was my hair:




I was like really? do you see my hair?  He stated my hair was fine. I was really stunned by his response, or I guess lack of a response!  So I pulled out a matching headband & off I went.   Apparently my DH has become accustomed to my natural hair, in even it's shrunken state. 
Guess beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

Monday, June 13

Blowout Twistout

So I rocked my blowout for one day LOL, then I decided it was just too much.
I decided to do some chunky twists.  I used some castor oil with Devacurl Set It Free.



The humidity has persisted resulting in shrinkage & frizziness as soon as I hit the door.  Anyway here are my results:




Sunday, June 12

A Big Blowout

Since we finally had a few low humidity days in the forecast after weeks of high humidity, I decided to do a blowout.  I pulled out my Conair Tourmaline Ceramic Blowdryer, the straightening attachment gets my hair straighter than my regular blowdryer.
My regimen this week:
  • Giovanni 50/50 Shampoo
  • Combo of Giovanni Tea Tree Conditioner, Giovanni Smooth As Silk Deeper Conditioner& Rasta Locks Island Oil with heat for 20 minutes
  • Aphogee Keratin & Green Tea Restructurizer
  • Alba leave-in conditioner( I forgot and left my bottle of BWC at work)
  • Detangle
  • Avocado Oil for sealing (just a light touch of the ends)
  • Giovanni Straight Fast Elixir
....ok, that's a lot of stuff when looking at it all lined up....
anyways here is the outcome...I was really amazed at HOW BIG IT HAS GOTTEN!!





I was definitely doing the hair shaking dance!  It is something how it gets bigger in appearance first instead of longer.

Saturday, June 11

Blood Orange Juice Martini

I wanted to share my recipe for one of my seasonal all-time fav martinis.

Blood Orange Juice Martini

2 1/2 ounces mandarin vodka
1 1/2 ounces blood orange juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup

Dip the rim of your chilled martini glass in orange juice & then in sanding sugar (or the sugar of your choice). 
Place above ingredients in a shaker 1/2 full with ice cubes.  Shake. Shake. Yep Shake it. (I hate it when bartenders don't sufficiently shake a martini to get a thin layer of ice crystals immediately after pouring into the glass).  Pour into prepared glass.  Enjoy!



Tuesday, June 7

Summertime Bantu Knotout Results

Humidity is just amazing.....




Sunday, June 5

Summertime Bantu Knots

So after over a month of wet twistouts, I was wanting something less... bulky.  But the humdity today is off the charts, so I knew almost any blowdrying efforts would fruitless unless I did a tight bun & tied my hair down with a scarf.  After some thought, I decided to do Bantu knots after blowdrying as that would keep my hair stretched out...or so I hoped!
My regimen this week:
  • Giovanni 50/50 Shampoo
  • DC with ORS pack & Motions CPR
  • Leave-in BWC
  • Sealed with Shea Oil (YES LIQUID SHEA OIL)
  • Applied Fantasia Frizz Buster Serum
  • Blowdried each section about 75% dry
  • Applied just one spritz of Set It Free to each section
  • Twisted section in knot.....
  • For some reason today, the knots were loosening, so I used a hairpin on each & every one of them.
  • Of course, I had to remove the pins for sleep, but my hair was staying in place by then.
  • In the morning, I took them down, but a few spots were still not 100% dry, so I went to work like this LOL:
  • Pics to come of work fluff out