Hair Rinses, Trial April 30, 2012

This is an older post that I had forgotten about, hope you enjoy.

I’m going dancing with the hubby and after an exciting parade in which flowers were thrown in my hair (think broken daisy pieces in my twist-out), I needed a serious washing.

1. 0:00 Go downstairs to the garden to get a piece of rosemary for rosemary tea rinse
2. 0:01 Get distracted by garden
3. 0:10 Clip piece of rosemary
4. 0:11 Put rosemary in microwave with filtered water for 1:00
5. 0:12 While rosemary is seeping, add three squeezes of honey to water and stir with a bit of coconut oil
6. 0:15 Part hair into four sections
7. 0:18 Turn on shower to finally begin washing hair
8. 0:28 Finish stage one of hair washing in which I finger comb sections to detangle, then add conditioner to wash scalp, ran out of conditioner, used two drops of hubby’s shampoo to finish hair
9. 0:32 Finished stage two by pouring honey rosemary tea rinse over head and following up with vinegar rinse
10. 0:36 After finger combing coconut oil through hair step out the shower to hubby’s shocked face at the amount of stuff it takes to do my hair
11. 0:42 Put large clips in it to stretch the curls and look like a strange horror villain from an old movie.

Do you have any “strange” routines?

Coconut Oil & Rosemary Tea Spray April 11, 2012

Made some rosemary tea spray (brew rosemary and filtered water) and added that plus coconut oil to my hair before bed. It felt soooo soft and amazing. I need to do this more often.

I am loving my hair! It hangs down now more instead of head north. It still heads east and west though, so some days I’m rocking football shaped hair

I only plan on having it loose for about a week to a week and a half before twisting it up for a month. My goal is to try some flat twists or…maybe attempt a cornroll or two and twist the back.

I must keep in mind that my hair is WAVY not curly. It doesn’t do the cute little curlies, instead it waves with a few curls at the end. I am accepting that, since it’s hard to find hair examples like mine with tiny waves that don’t curl. It’s hard to describe, but then again, some say my hair is curly.

I am trying out banana clips instead of ponytail holders to see if they work just as well with less stress. Putting them in is hard, but with practice I’m sure I’ll get it.

Also, learned detangling/combing through my hair with my fingers is better, it clumps the curls and is gentler on my hair. I love it…except when I don’t. That’s when I really need to get rid of shed hair, I turn to my comb, but for wash and go’s, I finger comb for better clumping.

What are you loving about your hair?

PYE Week 10 March 18, 2012

I was debating about the trim since I tend to overestimate how “bad” my ends are. I decided to take the scissors to my head and do some snipping of split ends and single strand knots. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.

I am looking forward to the end of the challenge. I usually put my ends away, but not as religiously as this challenge. I would wear buns at work, then take down my hair and slap on a bonnet at home, or a ponytail. I’m also curious about my length growth, but I may not straigthen my hair until the end of May for an important event.

I have learned that my hair is happier in twists or braids, not loose in buns. Loose hair in a bun equals tangle city for me. I have also learned that certain sections of my hair get more single strand knots (SSKs) than others. I have a patch of wiry 4c hair in the back left (my kitchen) and it forever remains with tons of SSKs, almost like they’re those beads you wear in your braids when you’re little, at the ends of my hair. The front of my hair tends to get the most split ends, probably due to manipulation and that I don’t wear my hair out as often (which is sad since I love my curlies)

Some changes to my hair have been that the curls are clumping together more, not sure what is the cause of that, the challenge or the pregnancy and some of the curls are getting looser as well. It’s still soft and the back edges are growing out very fast. Also, hairs that I once thought were shed hairs since they stick out of my twists and seem abnormally long, are more often than not, my actual hair still connected to my scalp. So I have stopped yanking thoses out-ouch!

“Wet” hair from the shower, though I stepped from the shower, my low porosity hair actually still isn’t soaking wet :\

PYE Week 9 March 11, 2012

Checking in, nothing new, some medium twists pulled into a bun. Can’t believe only 3 more weeks!

Not sure if I’m noticing a difference in my ends, I noticed a “bunch” of split ends, so I need to trim I guess…but only in certain areas? Ugh!

PYE Week 8 and Ruts March 4, 2012

I’m in a rut. My hair has pretty much been in twists and buns, or braids and buns for the entire challenge except for the first week. Now I’m about halfway through the challenge and I really want to experiment with some other styles, but my hair really wants to be left alone. When I do a lot of manipulation, heck, when I wear a plain bun without braiding or twisting the hair first, I get tangle-city, or lots of split ends. This is probably because I don’t have a sealing routine down, but my hair hates oil and I’m still experimenting with the conditioner.

Currently I have a headful of medium twists that are in…yep, you guessed it, a bun on the top of my head. I plan on keeping the twists for about 2 weeks and maybe switching up if it’s in a bun or not.

How are you dealing with your ruts? Are you having any ruts?

PYE Week 7 and PIH February 26, 2012

Not much to update. The PYE challenge is going well, did a simple bun this week. Nothing new, no new styles or products or routines, just staying with what works. My PIH has been improving, been using AMBI and cocoa butter cream. Also the makeup has kept my hands out of my face, plus being stuck on the couch sick also helps

 

PYE Week 6 February 19, 2012

Week 6 was great. Hair is still doing well, not doing a lot to it. Found that large braids pulled into a bun is a simple, quick do that keeps my ends detangled and allows me to rinse without worrying about matting from twists. Nothing much to add. Hair is still amazing, I have been switching detangling methods. One week, I’ll finger detangle since it leaves such amazing clumpy curls, the next week I’d use a comb to detangle since my hair is very fine and I don’t want to worry about matting.

Braids have helped tremendously with matting. I am still slow with braids, so I haven’t worked myself up to making small braids, though that would be a nice hairstyle for 2-3 weeks, especially since it doesn’t seem to tangle and mat as much when I rinse my hair in braids.

Hair is nicely moisturized and I’m trying to resist the temptation to do more. Do more styles like the other challengers, do more oil treatments, mosturizer treatments, try new products, etc. My hair seems to like this plain and simple routine of wash weekly, add conditioner, install 6 big braids and pull into a bun. Repeat. My hair is amazing, honestly, the curls pop so much and they are clumping in bigger sections now, it’s like a new head of hair…though other RL issues are going on as well, so maybe that has a lot to do with it too.

Other things have been going on as well, I’ve been getting crafty a’la Jen over at BabyMakingMachine and making a cool shirt project that I can’t wait to share. Also started sewing with a friend, our next project is a baby blanket which should be fun.

PYE Week 5 February 12, 2012

Week 5 was much better. My hair has finally “rebalanced” and is soft and moisturized. I was able to keep the last braids for almost two weeks before washing them and my ends are amazing! The generous trimming has been paying off, but not in terms of length, but at least my ends are healthy and shiny and smooth like seaweed.

I wore six big braids this past week that were wrapped around each other towards the back and placed in a low bun. Flowers made the bun look a bit different each day, though I need to experiment more with scarves.

To be honest, I haven’t had my mind on my hair that much, other RL things are going on. This is probably a good thing for my hair as well, since I tend to do the braided bun and leave it alone aside from spraying my rosemary spray daily.

No length check, I plan on doing that at the end of the challenge. I have noticed that my curls are clumping more and that some of them are hanging lower than before, but nothing official yet.

PYE Week 4 Check Up & PIH February 5, 2012

Week 4! One month down, two more to go! 1/3 of the way through the challenge!!!

Pretty much the same as Week 3-braided multipony, sealed with conditioner, rosemary spritz daily or every other day. I’m not doing a length check until the end of the challenge to minimize breakage from stretching/heat. The rosemary spray is awesome, don’t know why I stopped doing it…o, I remember, I wouldn’t use the whole batch and then I’d get mold in the bottle-gotta love no preservatives Well, my hair loves that it’s back, I don’t even have to rinse my scalp as often, just spray daily and no more itch

For my PIH, I have been wearing makeup in public, which keeps my hands away from my face and the next goal is to start a backing soda & lemon facial scrub. I am trying to do more natural treatments of the acne and PIH and there is hope that if I can keep my hands away from my face and picking my scars (I know, gross) everything will fade away successfully. ow do I know that? Thanks to my nostril pimple-LOL! I got a pimple on my lower nostril where the nose meets the mouth area, it’s a hard to read place and getting a pimple there was really odd. It left the usually dark spot (bummer) but it faded really quickly, maybe four weeks. Mostly because it’s so inconvient that my fingers and hands don’t go there. So now I need to find ways to keep my hands away from my face and skin, which is a never ending battle. Any tips?

PYE Week 3 January 29, 2012

Week 2 of the PYE Challenge wasn’t that good. At all. Thankfully my hair was tucked away. Unfortunately, my hair was tucked away, so it was later in the week when I realized just how dry and “icky” my hair felt. So Week 3 of the PYE Challenge was focused on rebalancing my hair.

To help remedy that, I did a baking soda deep treatment.

Basically, I cowashed my hair.

Then I applied a baking soda-conditioner mix. 1/3 baking soda to 2/3 conditioner.

I applied the mixture to my hair and cover with a plastic bag.

After 30-45 minutes, I rinse the mixture out and follow with a light AVC rinse.

I did twelve big braids and then flat braided those braids together to go around my head and meet in the back. I then made a ponytail, braided the end and tucked the ends.

I did the multipony tail again with the big braids.

So far, much less tangles and scalp more moisturized thanks to my rosemary spritz. Next time I do the baking soda deep treatment, I don’t think I’ll follow with the ACV rinse, my hair was so soft after the DT, but then the ACV rinse made it feel “squeaky”. I almost feel like I’m relearning my hair for this challenge, which is odd since it didn’t give me any trouble in terms of moisture and dryness the entire latter part of the year and I was wearing the multipony weekly and keeping my ends tucked away. Perhaps less is more and the braided multi-pony with rosemary spritz is all I need. The whole sealing my ends with oils hasn’t worked so far and left my hair worse than before, so I’ll be returning to sealing with conditioner after I cowash. Wish me luck.

Have you tried anything new in your hair that didn’t work out as planned?