one big, huge, supersize update

I am a lazy blogger. It's true. Partially that's because I'm a lazy blogger. But additionally, it's because I have been trying to figure out the easiest, most seamless way to update the look & feel and navigate-a-bility of the blog. Any suggestions? I had looked into Wordpress a while ago, but I'm not sure.

[Back on topic]

Here is everything that has happened since my last post.

This is from late October...

...after the co-wash & deep condition I detangled (using Qhemet Biologics Olive & Honey Hydrating Balm and my Denman D3) and put my hair in 5 mini-puffs.

This time I braided the roots and THEN did the 2-strand twists. It prevented them from being puffy at the roots, but it made the take-down time super long!

I twisted using Qhemet Biologic's Amla & Olive Heavy Cream (YUMM!!!) and QB's Hairbush Tea (which is basically a very light gel). This stuff is like Manna from Heaven, y'all...I'm telling you!

...I thought I was really doing something! (CLICK on the pic above to see the detail.) It took 7 hours this time and I think that's because of the braided roots. It took a while for me to get the hang of that and I never did really get into a groove like when I just do straight twists. Oh well, better luck next time...

(CLICK on the pic above to see the detail.)

...the hot roller experiment (it wasn't terribly successful)...I went out and got some of those mesh rollers instead & they worked much better. because of my length, the hot rollers just made the twists stick up a little. the mesh ones made it do more of a spiral-y thing and it was much cuter. I'll have to get more so I can jazz up my future twist styles...

That's some pretty serious shrinkage!

BAM!!! Now you can't tell me that twist-out ain't hot like fire!

This was a labor of love, I swear. I used those same Qhemet Biologics products...

...not exactly my original plan for how the back would look, but OH WELL! By the time I got done with the front I really didn't care WHAT happened back there!

I held on to this style for 2 weeks. Surprisingly it held up fairly well.

Those flat twists unravel very nicely. I like how they maintain the length, unlike the 2 strand twists...

This was the next last-minute-emergency-my-hair-is-staaaaank project. I'm getting pretty creative, huh? :-)

Unfortunately, I didn't love it. The only reason is because of the back. Now how pissed off was I: I have like 4+ inches in the back. But when I did this style, those twists barely came up off the back of my head! It was ridiculous!! So it was reasonably cute in the front and in the back I looked like a 1 year old boy. So, since I had a holiday function to go to & I couldn't possibly go looking like a baldheaded hoe (well, I guess I didn't exactly look like a hoe...I wonder what hoes look like exactly...is there a look, per se?.......)

So this was the resulting twist-out. Cute, huh?

I was knocking 'em dead at that holiday party!

I was so impressed with my hair that after 3 very big, very strong drinks, and a long night of bowling, chatting, and generally being cute, I re-twisted about 80% of it, so it would still have some definition today. Not bad...not bad atall!

I can't believe how much my hair has grown sometimes.

This was my very first twist-out, back in May of this year...the 28th, to be exact. All I can say is WOW! What a difference a few months makes.

here and there and everywhere

I don't have much to say. Just a few things here & there to keep you in the loop.

ROUTINE

My routine has pretty much stayed the same as the last time we spoke. At a minimum I wet my hair every day. At least every other day, I put in a reasonable amount of MotownGirl's L-IC.

Lately I have also added a small amount of Carol's Daughter Mimosa Hair Honey to my fingertips also, for some additional moisture & sheen. If I don't use a ton of it (like no more than a dime sized scoop) I don't have the allergic & acne reaction to the stuff that I did when I first got it. I definitely can't use it every day, though. It's way too heavy for that and it does drip down my face if there's too much on there. The rule of thumb has become, one dime-sized application of CD MHH between each co-wash. Anything more is a recipe for disaster. The results have been nice though.

The Clairol Herbal Essences None Of Your Frizziness is working so well, I added it to my latest batch of MotownGirl's L-IC. It is still doing amazing things to my curls!

HAIR STYLES

My hair style has been fairly consistent since we last spoke, but here's a few pix anyway...


(this one above is a good texture shot to click on, if you're not sick of looking at my curls!!)





Those twist-y things in the front take me between 10 and 15 minutes to do, but I am so lazy, once I put them in, there's no taking them out. It's really kinda sad. But oh well...


RESOURCES

I have to take a moment to acknowledge that I have given in and started reading the Nappturality forums. When I initially BCed, I had folks tell me about Nappturality.com. I went & checked it out but didn't care for the format (not to mention it runs slow as molasses on my home computer). But I have been going there recently and it would be wrong for me not to at least give a shout out to that community. Those ladies have been extremely helpful, inspiring and entertaining. It is a fantastic resource and I'm glad to have re-discovered it.

So if you haven't already, check it out.

.....and last but not least.....

GROWTH!!

(can you tell I'm excited??)

I have decided that every now & then I will do a growth check in these same spots on my head. Unfortunately I don't have much of a comparison. I have done the front on 2 separate videos (the first time was on "i'm parched (& wordy...and possibly drunk)" and the second time was on "catch up"). But I don't think I have any pix of the side length or the top length, except the ones below. I'll do better...swear!







After 8 months that's how long my hair is! And this (below) is all I've got for comparison (from week 1 and 2):





[EDIT]

and scrolling through old posts, I found this pic from July




That GNC UltraNourishHair is doing it's thang!

snow day

There's about 1 million feet of snow outside my door this morning! Even though I pay my little $85 Homeowner's Association Dues on time each month, I cannot count on waking up to a shoveled parking area & walkway. Sure enough, there's so much snow out there I can hardly see anybody's tires on their cars. Long before my boss called to tell me the office was closed today, I knew I wasn't going anywhere.




So I immediately got back in the bed. And as I laid myself down (again) to rest (some more) I realized that staying home meant I had a whole day to PLAY IN MY HAIR!!!

Well, actually, I did a bit of playing last night, truth be told. Ok, the night before, too. I guess I'll start there.

Monday I decided to make myself a pre-shampoo conditioner aka shrimp marinate using:

approx 1/2 cup honey
approx 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
approx 1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 extremely ripe banana

I put all of this in a spray bottle & went to work. I sprayed this shrimp marinate on my hair, wrapped it up in a plastic curl bag and went to sleep.

Lessons learned...

First of all, no matter how ripe a banana is, one probably ought to put it in a food processor or blender or something before adding it to a spray bottle & attempting to spray it onto hair. My spray bottle got clogged 2 or 3 times (I just flushed the pump with warm water to un-clog).

It's Wednesday, I've shampoo'd, I've conditioned, I've rinsed, I've combed...and I'm still finding little pieces of banana in my hair.

The gel I bought at the salon last week is making my hair dry.

I intend to re-work this formula a little (starting with a blender for those bits of fruit!) and try it again. I think the biggest reason I didn't see any real noticeable results is because of that stupid gel sucking all the moisture out of my hair. I have since bought over $50 worth of other styling products & will provide feedback as I have it...

So Tuesday was not my best hair day ever. Getting my thick, curly, carpet-like tresses to lay down is not easy. My 'fro was a little lumpy yesterday, but what are you gonna do?

One of the products that I read about over & over again on other folk's blogs/websites/journals is Vegetable Glycerin.



There is lots of talk of "defining the curl pattern" on these other sites. It took me a couple of days to figure out what that meant. But once I (thought I) did, I ran out and bought some. Last night I made a Leave In Conditioner that Aldrea has posted on her site:

1 part glycerin
1 part conditioner
3 parts water

I put all of this in a spray bottle & went to work. I could feel my curls curling up immediately. I wrapped my head in a bandana & a bonnet & slept on it. When I woke up, my hair was still extremely moist; not wet, but moist! So I did a little finger-comb...






then added some water (in a spray bottle) so I could get a comb/pick through it...







It's been over an hour (probably closer to 2) and I can still comb through my hair and boy, lemme tell ya, that glycerin is making my kinky-coily-curls super curly-coily-kinky! It's soft to the touch, although very slightly sticky (I probably need to add a little more water to my mixture if I'm going to use it as a leave-in).





Thank God for snow days!

[yawn]
I'm going to sleep now.