Natural Hair Products

1. Mr. Hick's Edges (Edge Control of choice - can flake if too much is used. Remedy white showing my using less of other products on your edges and/or putting oil on top the edge control)

2. Curl Enhancing Smoothie ( as a Moisturizer and for Twist Outs and Sets)

3. Jane Carter Solutions (Grease - great for twists or just "greasing" hair and maintaining moisture)

Hair Essentials - Natural Hair Care Regimen

Good morning! I'm in a really great mood today, even though I was unable to workout this morning because I went to bed pretty late, BUT that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to talk about my natural hair care regimen. This is exciting because I have made past posts about natural hair updos, braided styles and protective styling, but I have not done a reflection post on what has been working. So here goes:


1. The onion wash (used only twice) & rosemary inclusion in every other wash has proven to be beneficial in hair growth (my hair does not feel stagnated at the same length) FINALLY!

2. I have found that I am a Wen girl! The Wen conditioning cleanser works well in helping my hair feel moisturized and lush. THE BIG BUT is the cost of the product and having to find a replacement for it when I'm finished with my second kit :-( very sad news, but I am up for the challenge and I'm glad you will be with me as I explore finding a cost efficient product for cleansing my mane

3. Trims, cuts, etc. I found that every 6-8 wks I trim my hair UNLESS (and this is important) my ends seem healthy. I put an alarm in my phone that reminded me that it was time to trim my hair about a week or two ago, but my hair was fine and didn't need to be trimmed overall.

Hint: I DO cut split ends and fairy knots as I see them, I DO NOT WAIT until trim/cut day

4. Twists has proven to be a very successful way to keep my hair moisturized and even though I may have HIH moments by myself or others, this protective style has been proven helpful in avoiding fairy knots. So winning!

5. I do deep condition my hair every other wash. There were a couple times where I went 2 wks before washing my hair, but I still kept up with the every other deep conditioning treatment during the wash. WHAT DID I USE TO DEEP CONDITION? The Wen re-plenish moisturizing conditioner...this product will also need to be replaced by a cost efficient product. So stay tune for that as well.

6. My winter regimen and summer regimen were pretty identical. I did oil my hair more in the winter I found and needed less JCO in the summer. I also used coconut oil in my roots and over the months this has proven to be helpful in keeping my hair shiny, but I still am staying away from using it as a sealant. JCO works for me, so no need to switch it up. I use Coconut Oil as I would grease (Current grease I use is Nature's Best and can be found at Yes! Organic Market)

7. I found an AMAZING moisturizer for my 3c-4b natural hair. Leave my hair texture alone! My hair has different personalities. But be that as it may, the Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie is a dream come true! I have used the Curly Cream too, but that leaves a more sticky like residue and doesn't work as well in maintaining the moisture in my hair. Shea Moisture can be found in Target, FYI. They have soooo many products, but as I am not really a product junkie, I haven't tried everything, nor do I intend to, lol. I just use what works. I only change products if it's to expensive to maintain or if it doesn't work or stops working. Keep it simple, you know.

8. Mr. Hicks for slicking them edges and not hardening my hair comes in as a winner for edge control! I love this product. After applying, just put a scarf to hold hair in place and all fuzzies will be laid to rest. Amen! lol

So, here I am with at least an inch of RETAINED growth, because even though my hair grows ever so slightly, it's RETAINING the growth that has become an issue. I think I have passed the point to where my hair usually tapers off and I'm enjoying being beyond that point. Time to continue cracking that ceiling and aim for the heavens. Do you have any other "must have' products? Tell me what works well in your hair (store bought product, preferably) that is cost efficient and has a lot of BANG for it's BUCK. I'd love to hear about it.I really enjoy my natural and I hope you do too!

Our Natural is Beautiful! MuAh & CiAo! Follow me at @livlyhood on twitter and IG.
 

Hair Essentials - Natural Hair Updo

Good Afternoon Y'all, this is a super late post. The day got away from me, but anyhoo. So I've been doing my twist outs for the past few weeks and wearing twist outs on Saturday or a twisted out style of some sort and then washing on Sunday morning after kickball practice. However, I wanted to skip a wash this week and see if my hair could deal. I figured my hair needed a rest, especially since its not dirty and I haven't been using too much product because of my new regimen. I decided to wear it in a natural hair updo for a couple days, try something new (I guess) and then I will return to my twist on Tuesday. Here's the pictorial below with brief instructions on how to create this final look. :-) Enjoy!

FINAL LOOK

Gather things needed: comb, bristle brush, moisturizer of your choice, edge control or gel to slick edges, castor oil to seal hair after moisturizing, pins to pin hair

Section hair out at shown. Place a high ponytail in the back, twist hair and pin it forward to the other section of hair

Separate section in the front into as many sections as you'd like and twist the half of the shaft t the end of the shaft. I used three sections, obviously.

Pin the hair under each section of hair. The one on the top I pinned under itself, the other two I pinned towards the middle of my forehead

That created a cute puffy style on the top

LOL, sorry for the side eye! Hope you enjoy the pics! :-)

I have some exciting news to post soon, so look forward to that and more styles to come.

Our Natural is Beautiful Campaign 2013. MuAh & CiAo!

Hair Essentials - Twist out Gone Fro

It seems I've been rocking a fro much more these days. I really love my fro. Not quite sure what I'm going to do to it tomorrow, but this fro started out with medium sized twists. I rocked the twist out on Sunday fresh after a wash a few hours before that and then I retwisted that night and wore as twists yesterday. today I took the twists out and separated each twist. Needless to say I can't easily retwist it tonight, so retwisting is not really an option tonight. I may just pull into a loose ponytail on the top of my head and then take a steamed shower and release hair, moisturize and seal and see how that lasts...this heat is ridic and I'm afraid it will dry it out, but we'll see how great my moisturizing techniques are.

I just took this pic. I call it workflow fro, lol.

Anyway, what's your best fro to rock?

 

This is a cute fro for work! Too bad fros like this is like a cracked humpty dumpty! Can't be easily put back together again at the end of the day. Oh wait. I can try the baggy method, but i'll pass on that for tonight and try that method another evening. :-) Anyhoo, time to leave work.

 

Our Natural is Beautiful 2013. Live on Purpose, MuAh & CiAo!

Hair Essentials - Rocking that Fro

It's just that kinda summer and I'm enjoying rocking my fro. I threw away the idea of shrinkage and all the other mess and allowed my hair to roll into it's natural curls and just be free. No hair pins clipping nothing, no styling nothing. Just rocking a straight fro and I love it! My normal winter hair regimen is washing with conditioning cleanser every 5-10 days depending on how it's styled and then twisting hair into about 6 big two strand twists throughout hair. Then I moisturize each section and twist each twist into about 2-4 smaller twists with JCSolutions (Jane Carter Solutions)hair nourishing cream, then seal moisture with JCOil (Jamaican Castor Oil). Then I put my night cap on and I'm good to go. True, natural hair care!

Now, I'm realizing that this lovely regimen I ahve created for myself during the Fall and Winter months need to be tweaked since it's now the Spring/Summer months. The one week when it was a scorcher, my hair was pressed so I forgot that I needed to get my Spring/Summer regimen together. I have no idea what I did last year! So, now I'm tasked with finding out what I need to do to maintain moisture in my hair and relieve my hair from being dry throughout the summer months. I know I did lots of smaller twists. I may hev to go back to doing smaller twist for the time being until I figure something else out.

I also thought of putting my hair in braids BUT i know that synthetic hair cuts my hair strands. I'm not certain what I'm going to settle with. We'll have to wait and see. Until then, I'll just rock my cut shrunken fro!

Our Natural is beautiful! MuAh & CiAo!

Follow me at livlyhood on Instagram and Twitter for more hair pics

Hair Essentials - Natural Hair Updo (4c)

So, I braided and styled my bff's hair. She usually combs and styles her own hair. I can probably count the number of times I've done her hair on my one hand. Anyhoo, here goes:

Prep Time: 1 hr   (includes consulting)
Style time: 2 hrs (includes consulting while styling and catching up on each other's lives)

YOU KNOW HOW THAT GOES! lol

**I also completed her natural hair profile and natural hair goal plan which added an add'l 45 mins to the prep time**

1. She washed and sectioned off her hair in about 10 twists (5 on each side). I took over from there.
2. I untwisted each section and combed each section as I went along.
3. Next, I used Carol's Daughter heat protectant moisturizer and rubbed it into her sectioned hair from root to tip and blow dried each section and re-twist.
4. I repeated steps 2 & 3 until all the twists were completed.
5. Then I moisturized with JCS moisturizer and sealed with jojoba oil
6. Then I sectioned hair into 4 big sections, re-twisting 3 of them and started braids from the untwisted 4th section.
7. With each part, I further moisturized and seal with JCS nourish and shine product (GREAT FOR BRAIDING HAIR)
8. Then repeat step 7 for all other sections, leaving some hair out in the front (as much hair as desired)
9. With loose hair in the front, I moisturized with JCS nourish and shine product and loosely twisted it and rolled the twist under and secured with a pin.
10. I repeated step 10 until it was all twisted and pinned down the way I wanted it to be.

Here are the results:

 

 

 

Two important things! PLEASE COMB AND SECTION HAIR OUT FROM ROOT TO TIP. Do not take any shortcuts, it creates more breakage and tangling when attempting to comb out for styling later. Also, it doesn't allow for product to get to the root properly. And properly combing hair out especially when having type 4c is imperative to maintaining a healthy head of hair.

** Also Important - brush hair on either side of the section parted to braided all the way through so that the parts are more defined. Some hair is more stubborn to braiding and does not seem to hold a defined part. With more training, hair will work just fine **

This was a nice style, no additional hair was used and I think my bff looks gorg!

Our natural is beautiful. MuAh & CiAo! :-)

Hair Essentials - Another Pressing Moment

It's that time again to trim my hair, espeecially after the recent harm I caused to my hair over the thanksgiving weekend, I owe it to my hair to blow it out, press it with a hot comb, yes a hot comb and secure the ends and go about my business tomorrow. I plan to flat iron it with my coriliss on Friday evening..I also need to trim the ends. So, I was going to go to hair cuttery to get it trimmed again, but I don't want to spend money. and I'm used to trimming my hair, just being lazy...realist natural hair woes, and yet i love my hair. so i'm going to trim it after I iron it out though, not after the blow dry....possibly even trim it after the flat ironing is finished. Just so it cld be a bit more even. My hair naturally grows in layers, so it's not as though it needs to be even all the way around. I'll take pics and post tomorrow. :-) MuAh & CiAo for now.

Hair Essentials - Deep Conditioning Treatment

So last night I decided to do a deep conditioning treatment to continue with the repairing of my "frayed ends". I used cantu leave-in conditioner, honey, olive oil and i added the hair repair olive oil thing.... :-/ next time i won't use that hair repair thing. I don't know why I keep adding stuff to my already amazing deep conditioning recipe. It wasn't completely awful to use.

What I did was wet my hair first and spread the mixture from root to tip, massaginging it into my hair and scalp...then i put on a plastic cap and sat under my hooded dryer for about 20 minutes to let all that marinate in there. Yes, i said marinate. It felt....okay...not as good as it felt yesterday, but water is always the best moisturizer...so I rinsed the treatment out with warm water and used the rest of my awesome cowash by As I Am, added jojoba oil and rinsed with warm water again. i used a wide tooth comb to untangle my hair (wait, have i mentioned that untangling my hair has been the easiest thing I have had to do the past few months?) Consider it mentioned, if I hadn't. My hair felt very clean...but still not as moisturized on the ends of my hair as I would like it to be.

So, after I got out the shower, I searched and destroyed any fairy knots and split ends that I could find and moisturized with JC Solutions Moisturizer and Nature's Best grease. Right before I parted my hair in a big sections (which later became for big sections) I put Jamaican Castor Oil drectly on the ends of my hair, then worked from the root to tip and pulled sections of my hair out and twisted. My hair is a little longer now, so instead of using small twists, I went to medium-small twists. Here's a pic from my whack phone.

I didn't glam it up or anything, just put the twists in my hair and pulled it back by twisting the twists around each other and secured with a pin near the center of my head. Then, I repeated that for the other side. I attempted to take the pic of one side so you can see how it was pinned. My hair is dried now, but still is bouncy. I can tell when my hair is portraying traits of normal porosity when I can pull my twists and it bounces back to it's place. If you pull it and it sags and is dry, you have low porosity, if you pull it and it sag and lays limp and feels mushy, it's high porosity. Remember: Treat low porosity hair with moisturizing treatment and treat high porosity hair with protein treatments.