Something new soon

The air is getting a little chillier around my way, so I'm about to be researching lots and lots of protective style options. Last week I just did three flat twists on the side and twist-n-curled the rest, so it looked slightly pinned back on one side and free and curly all over the rest of my head.


What I've discovered, though, is that co-washing with the Tea Tree Tingle conditioner from Trader Joe's hasn't been cleaning my hair and scalp enough before I put on the deep conditioner and add my moisturizers and stuff. To fix that problem, I headed over to Target today and got some Giovanni 50:50 Balanced Hydrating-Clarifying Shampoo to try tomorrow night. I also grabbed the Smooth as Silk Deeper Moisture Conditioner I've heard people rave about. I'm going to give this combo a try and see if I haven't found my new 1-2 punch combo for deep conditioning Sundays.


Another thing I discovered last week is that sealing my ends with jojoba oil truly does work wonders. When I was twisting-n-curling my style last week, I did the twists then put jojoba oil on my fingertips and caressed the twist all the way to the end before I rolled it up in the rollers. The next day my hair came out so touchably soft from root to tip it was amazing. I fought HARD against hand-in-head syndrome all week.

I'll definitely be doing that again this week. I want to try my hand at a curl-hawk, but I think I've twist-n-curled my poor little hair quite a bit over my last month and some change of transitioning, so I'm going to give my curls a little break. This week will be all braid-out and stretching styles so at the end of the week I can pull it up into a wild-looking puff or something like that. I'm also leaning toward putting kinky twists in my hair in the very near future. We'll see.

I've been working on a kinder, gentler way to handle my hair, and so far it's been going very well. I'll keep practicing though. I also need to get myself in gear and find some fabric and flowers and start accessorizing my fabulous hair. I did a semi-length check, but I can't really tell if there's been any growth or not. I focus too much on what my hair feels like that I don't really measure it very much.

Maybe I'll try to focus on taking better pics. Ha ha ha. I can't hardly tell what's going on in there! I believe it is growing and thriving mainly because when I reach my fingers in there I feel REALLY defined curls. The growth will be more noticeable soon I'm sure. We'll check again next month...around my birthday!!! Yaayyyy!

P.S. - I'm excited about my upcoming birthday because I'm going to celebrate it with someone very special in my life. Yes, this blog is the absolute only place I can share even that much about it. I can't stop smiling, so I'm going to go ahead and get on that protective styling mission. LOL.

All smiles

I am a very happy camper right about now. I have some exciting changes going on in my life right now, and in the hustle and bustle of it all I forgot to come here and blog about the little style I gave myself this week. I wanted a "french twist" type of style with flat twists, two-strand twists and some twisted-n-curled ends. Want to see how it turned out?

I loved it INSTANTLY, and not just because I'd worked on it all night. It felt sassy but still presentable. Clearly I wore this to work that day. It wasn't difficult to do at all. The hardest part was making my parts straight. Ha ha ha. I used Elasta QP Mango Butter and aloe vera gel to set the twists. I've been refreshing and recycling this style all week, and it has held up well under the pressure. My friends at school told me they liked it better on day two than on day one...but that's because it resembled tousled beach hair and we're a bunch of pseudo hippies. Hahaha.

I put flat twists on both sides, which is why the straight parting was such an ordeal. I prefer to part with my fingers rather than with a comb -- more out of laziness than out of the more noble intention of protecting my delicate hair. In fact, while I'm experimenting with styling and such, I'm also learning to be much more gentle with my hair. While I'm washing and conditioning and detangling and twisting and oiling and all that I am constantly having to remind myself to be mindful of how I'm handling my hair. I struggled with pulling too tight when doing the flat twists (so I had to correct myself) and rolling the curling rods too tight (more correction). I've got a year in transition to get this right. The more I do it the better off I will be.

So, the twists met in the middle then I twisted them upward and pinned them into place. Here you can really see what I meant about those parts, right? A little crooked and uneven, but I think it gives the style a little character. Ha ha ha.

I curled the ends of the twists, and I two-strand twisted-n-curled a section of hair I'd left out at the crown. Slept on that then unraveled everything in the morning with coconut oil on my finger tips and voila! Couldn't tell me much of nothin' that day.

I know I was supposed to do something in the way of a length check, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll be deep conditioning tomorrow, so I'll try and remember to do it then.

Monday I'll do a simple little style while I try to think of another more protective style to rock. I'm considering putting some kinky twists in, but we'll see how that goes. I've never done them before, but I've always thought they looked really cute.

Things are semi-crazy in the school world (I have a quiz in Spanish and an exam in physio Wednesday), and I'm in the process of moving, and I'm starting a new chapter on what we'll call a "refreshed portion of my life." I am as happy as a woman can be right now, and I'm going to just keep the positive energy going.