Yoghurt Pre-poo and other hair shenanigans...

Prepoo: Greek Style Yoghurt, Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner, Honey, EVOO, Castor Oil and Coconut Oil. 

Shampoo: Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat Shampoo

Conditioner: Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner

Moisturiser: Crown Pride Naturals Organic Hair Milk

Sealant: Castor Oil 

So this wash day was not as successful as the last one which was disappointing because I finally felt like I was making progress in my mission to make managing my hair easier.
This sess. I wanted to experiment and try a yoghurt prepoo. I don't really do protein treatments mainly because my hair doesn't seem to need it, but I thought to myself: "Rels, it's been a nearly a year since your last protein treatment, surely you must need one". So I did it. *sigh*

My hair had been in the flat twisted bun for about two weeks so I knew my ends were gonna fight me when it came to detangling, but I was optimistic. I felt prepared, surely my stubborn ends were no match for the thick creaminess of the yoghurt. How naive I was. I took a section of hair, applied the mix and reached for the comb expecting a win. My hair LAUGHED at me. Like i'm sure I heard my strands saying: "Is this chick serious?? she thought *snigger*, she actually thought yoghurt would help her BWUHAHAHAAA".

It took 4 hours to detangle my hair that night guys. 4 whole hours. I felt so disheartened, exhausted and just generally fed up. I was like "hair shouldn't be a struggle", it's just not worth it. Afterwards I donned a plastic cap and went to bed.

The next morning I was NOT looking forward to washing my hair, I had no idea what the yoghurt had done to it and didn't really want to find out, but there were no other options. When I took off the plastic cap I was pleasantly surprised. My hair felt soft. It was as if my strands felt my pain and were like "you know what chick, we'll give you this one". I jumped in the shower, shampooed my scalp, rinsed, and then applied conditioner down the length of each twist. (Oh did I mention my hair was in twists? No? Sorry.) I flash rinsed with cold water and then wrung out my hair.

At this point it was like 8:45, I had a class at 10 and no idea what to do with my hair, the twists that I washed in were way too big to style in any way and I hadn't even moisturised yet but I was like one step at a time. I took a twist, untwisted, moisturised and sealed the hair with castor oil, and then split it in two and twisted again. I did that all over my hair and by 9:50 I was done. Still had no clue what to do with it though, but during the process I had put the front half of my hair in a loose bun to make accessing the back easier. When it came to styling I realised what I had done and was like hmm, this is kinda cute- which is strange because I never have my hair all the way back, I don't normally like the way it looks on me, but for some reason this time it worked. I did the same with the back half, pinned a few misbehaving sections and by 10 I was done.

Sure I was late to class but I didn't care. I had conquered. I felt like a champion. It didn't matter that I am yet to solve my ssk, mid shaft splits problem because that morning I styled my hair in under 5 minutes. I had the biggest smile on my face as I was walking to class.

Smell that guys? That is victory.

I'll post the vid for the style next.
Hope this finds you well,
Rels x

Flat Twisted Bun, How I love thee

This bun changed my life and refreshed a stagnating hair relationship. I don't even know where the idea came from for this, it was a complete eureka moment- light bulb and all.

My hair has been long enough to bun for a while now, and I love the look of buns but two things have stopped me from wearing them. 

1) because my hair is so dense, putting it in a normal ponytail results in a unbunnable stubby piece of hair. 

2) In the event that said stub is bunnable and a bun is created (either by twisting the stub and pinning the end or not taking the whole length of hair through the hair band) my ends run wild and i'm left with a SSK breeding ground. *sigh*

The bun started to become a fantasy, a myth something completely unattainable, then I had a revelation. "Why don't I flat twist the ends?" The idea became a reality and my life has never been the same since lol. 

So here's how I did it, I started on freshly washed dry hair and sectioned off the front for flat twisting. Once those were done I put the middle of my hair in a ponytail then brought the back of my hair up to the ponytail and made a new ponytail. Next it was time to see if my theory would work. I split the ponytail in half and then flat twisted each half. So let's take the left half for an example- While I flat twisted I drew the hair from the centre-y part of the ponytail (but still in the left section) and pulled it to the edge, so that way the flat twist leaned to the left. I did the same on the right and then pinned the ends round the bun. 

I can't believe it worked! I loved it, everything about it, finally I had a bun, a chunky, protective bun!! This is definitely going to become one of my go to protective styles.

As always, I hope this finds you well!

Rels x

Wash day!

I had a really good wash day(s) this week. I was surprised at how smoothly it all went because my hair was in a terrible state after a run in with a blow dryer. Never again smh.
Post traumatic blow dry encounter my hair had been in 4 flat twists (2 going across my head at the front with a side part, and two going back) for about 2 weeks. The style was actually really cute, I'll do a post on it the next time I do it again but my poor hair was in a tangled tangled state.
I had been putting off washing my hair but it was time to face the music so here's what I did.

Prepoo: Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner, Honey, EVOO and Coconut Oil. 

Shampoo: Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat Shampoo

Conditioner: Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner

Moisturiser: Crown Pride Naturals Organic Hair Milk

my hair + the mix

The Method: I took a medium sized section of hair, briefly finger detangled and then spritzed with water. Then I smoothed the mix onto my hair; i'd apply the mix to the middle of the hair and then work it down to my ends and then I'd take a bit more, put it on the roots and then work it down to the ends again, then i'd go back and squeeze the section from roots to ends.

Next I finger detangled again and then went through the hair with my large wide toothed comb and then once more with my small wide toothed comb.

Finally I twisted the section and moved on.

By the time I finished my whole head it was late so I donned a plastic bag and called it a night. 

drying my hair- I actually
liked this bun...

The next morning I rinsed out the prepoo, shampooed my scalp and conditioned with the twists still in. When I got out the shower I wrung out my hair- literally lol- and then blotted with a t-shirt. I added some moisturiser, a bit of coconut oil and left my hair to dry in a bun.

My thoughts: Now I don't know whether it was the new condish or the honey or both but detangling my hair was so much easier. I couldn't believe it, I was fully expecting to have to cut yonks of my hair because of how tangled it was but the session went so smoothly!! 

Next i'm going to work on getting my hair to dry feeling moisturised as opposed to dry. So instead of adding my moisturiser straight after washing, next time i'll add it when my hair is like 80-90% dry and see if that makes a difference...

I guess that's it for now!

Just to let you know

I'm going to be posting more regularly as of...well- now.
And i'm thinking I might start posting some videos as well!
I have tons to tell you about
Like the castor oil challenge!
And my two week affair with some mini twists I did in January.
My blow out FAIL.
My favourite 10 minute protective style.
and much more!!

I should have a new post up at some point this week. If I don't I just might slap myself =/
So yeah, watch this space :)

x

Really 5 months??!! *hides face*

I just posted on my other blog that I feel like a neglectful spouse, but in this case I feel like an absentee spouse. Like maybe a trial separation was involved or something. Or even a runaway bride. The point is I can't believe it has been so long since I posted. How ridiculous! This will NOT happen again. :(

Alot of it was because I didn't have anything to say and then it had been too long since i'd last said anything to just jump back in with something I did have to say...
The long and the short of it is I am a crappy blogger and I will try to be better in the future.

Now for the hair talk. There are pros and cons going on. The back of my hair is collarbone length- pro, the front of my hair is borderline shoulder length- pro and despite kinda ignoring my hair for the past couple of weeks ( deadlines *sigh*) I still have hair on my head- pro.

The cons however get me down, like i'm fighting a loosing battle: dryness- CON. Like seriously? still? I feel like a broken record. Remember NaturalCurls from some posts ago? My hair scoffed at that ish, and it smelt medicinal o_O no bueno. I then moved on to the infamous Giovanni direct leave in which to be fair does something, esp in the detangling department, but that moisturising feel doesn't even last a day!

Will I never have moisturised hair?

I came across a product line that was based here in the UK called Crown Pride Naturals. I ordered their Hair Milk, Avocado Conditioner, and samples of their gel and pomade.
I am trying, despite my hair fighting me every step of the way!
I feel like if this doesn't work then nothing will ( ._.)

Yes I know that i'm overreacting but i'm feeling weary!!
Don't even get me started on mid shaft splits (despite eliminating combing), SSK's, and how drying my hair in a bun resulted in stretched roots but matted, tangled, shrunked ends. CON, CON, CON!!!

Other than that I seem to have master the canerow and flat twist out

Skip to 7:35 to see me, not a plug!! This flat twist out was done on just washed, wet hair which is why it was so shrunked. I used GDLI, shea butter and aloe vera gel, in that order.

Thats one thing I love about natural hair though, I can have it short and compact or big and wild just by changing whether I style it wet or dry.

Thats all for now dearies
but more soon, I promise!

Canerow/ Cornrow outs, my new love..

It has NOT been four months!
Ok it has, but I can't believe it's been four months since I last posted ¬¬
I don't even know why...for a long time I wasn't really doing anything special with my hair and then.. I dunno. But i'm here and i'm going to talk braid outs.

Now I don't do twist outs because my hair is not a fan of twists. My roots get really matted in large twists and i'd have to do really small ones to stop this from happening and to get my hair to fall in the way i'd want.

So a few weeks ago I had a performance. And I was thinking of how to do my hair for it. Twist-out weren't an option and a braid outs don't really fall right either because my roots are so thick so I thought to my self: let me try a canerow out.

I moisturised with Giovanni Direct Leave-In and sealed with shea butter and aloe vera gel.
With a side part at the front of my head I braided the front section. 4 canerows on each side of the part going from part to ear. Then I braided the back; 6 canerows going straight down to my neck. I donned a satin scarf and visited slumberland. The next day I put some oil on my hands and carefully took down the plaits.

The results were amazing! I never knew my hair could look like that.

And it stayed that way all day! I got sooo many compliments about my hair lol, but nobody was more surprised than I was.

I've experimented with different sized braids, different amounts and even different canerow patterns.
It nice to have a go-to style :)

Oh and the back of my hair is now collarbone length. When did that happen?

Rels x