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

Twists + Bantu Knot Out = Result!!!!!

when I first took down the knots
I had a curly fro!
i pinned it back and voila :)

Hey Guys,

I am so incredibly happy right now, yesterday I had a great hair moment! For those of you who don't know (and why would you since I haven't mentioned it lol) outside of education I'm a singer/songwriter. In a couple weeks I have a performance and I wanted to try something new with my hair. A while ago I watched this video and was intrigued by the use of shea butter and aloe vera gel. My twist outs never hold their curl and so I never wear them. I didn't want to add a curly butter/pudding to my list of things to find and so I was eager to try the shea and aloe.

On Wednesday night I was reading Curly Nikki she mentioned twisting the front bit of a twist section before twisting the whole twist (confused?) instead of securing the roots with a clip (which never worked for me) so again I was eager to try this. So on Thursday night I was thinking of what to do to my hair for my band rehearsal the following Friday and was like, I might as well try a mix of Kimmay's and Nikki's methods (I didn't want to solely use Kimmay's method because I was in absolutely no mood to tackle flat twisting my whole head ¬¬). It was eleven thirty, my bed was beckoning but I ignored it's call and sat in front of my mirror; here's what I did.

The Method:

• I put some coconut oil on my hands and took down my wash day flat twists. My hair was completely naked- no product in it whatsoever (I washed and steamed on Sunday, put some coconut oil on and flat twisted- that was the LAST time I touched my hair!)
• Separated a section hair to twist and finger detangled (my hair wasn't that tangled so this was quick)
• Applied Giovanni's Direct Leave In (this had to be worked in. I mean WORKED IN. My hair was dryyy but I didn't want to use my normal leave in (Kimmay's Leave in aka the Direct Leave In on steroids) because I didn't see the point of using ALJ and ALG together. This was the first time I'd used it on dry hair, I didn't want to wet my hair because I was trying to minimise shrinkage. 
• Worked in leave in: Rubbed in hands, stroked into hair, left for a few seconds, stroked some more= moisturised hair. If I didn't work it in my hair would just laugh at the attempt at moisturising and remain dry and crispy.
• Melted some shea butter in my palms and stroked onto hair
• Rubbed a tiny blob of ALG in palms and applied to hair

Now for the bit that's hard to describe

• I took a section and halved it (as you would to begin twisting)
• I then sectioned off a small bit of the top of a half section
• I did this for both half sections. So the original section has now become 4: two small and two big
• I took the small sections and twisted 5 times
• I then took the remaining half sections, one in each hand, and joined it to the ends of the small twist and twisted it all.

Does that make any sense?? The original sectioned hair become a big twist with a twisted front. At this point I am soo sick of the word section.

• Lastly I tied the twist into a bantu knot/china bump (I called them China bumps when I was a kid-didn't hear of bantu knots until NHCBs) and that was it.

Wrapped a satin scarf around my head, got into bed (It was like one in the morning at this point) and CONKED out! The next day when I showered I kept the scarf ON. I didn't want any steam getting in my hair and preventing definition. After dressing I stood in the mirror and took a deep breath. I've had many hair disappointments..the moment of truth had arrived. I rubbed some EVOO on my hands and took down the knots. OMG. OMG. Oh My Gosh!!!!!!! My hair was soft and curly (Is that a brand name?). Like FOR REAL!! I was weary of the shea butter because I tried using I when I first started wearing my hair out but we didn't mesh, but guys O how we mesh :)

This will definitely be revisited. That day I got so many compliments about my hair! And it stayed defined and moisturised ALL DAY despite riding my bike to and from rehearsal!! 

The pics don't really show how curly it actually was :( but, 

I feel very much like the cat that got the cream :)

Cat. Cream.

Here's a clip of me a few months ago

I hope this finds you well :)
Rels x