Steam Treatment

Yesterday was such a very busy day for me. I had a hair appointment where I styled someone's hair in Marley twists, had to deal with car issues and finally do my hair. I was happy I was recently given a hair steamer which doubles as a face steamer to help moisturize my hair.

I happily set it up and used this opportunity to trim my hair. This is what I did.

Hair Essentials - Essential Oils

How My Beau Pimped my Natural Hair Game

So I was gifted with an array of essential oils (scent oils/essential oils & carrier oils)

I have used all of them on my hair and skin thus far. I just had to try them all. I'm finding combinations of things that work for my hair and skin. When I am happy with the results of my combinations I will share. Until then, I just wanted to share what I'm doing now. He purchased these oils from NOW online. They have a whole bunch of natural products online that are really affordable.

Happy with my oils and my natural styles and so is he :-) Thanks boo!

Enjoying that Sunshine and Shade Life 2013. MuAh & CiAo!

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.

Hair Essentials - Sealing Moisture in Hair

So as a much needed addendum to moisturizing dry hair, I figured I'd add a post about sealing in moisture in hair. I recently learned that yes, Spritzing my hair with water and oil is good, but I need to allow for the process to happen in order and with particular time. No wonder my hair still feels dry after adding a moisturizer and not sealing with an oil, or any other random procedures I do in an attempt to moisturize my hair.

Tips To Sealing Moisture in Hair

1. Add water, or even allow for the humidity of a shower (unless it's styled in some way that you do not want getting wet of course) allow the water to soak into hair for 15 minutes. 15 minutes, no less! Yes, the time matters. Wet the entire head. Feel free to gently scrunch hair to get additional water out and cover with a plastic cap.

2. Then, add moisturizer (i will come up with some brilliant concoction that i will start referring to as MM -my moisturizer, soon to come (-; )

3. Then add oils (jojoba oil is actually considered a wax, interesting huh and it has a low clogging probability. olive oil is good to. I use EVOO) Do this from root to tip (please pay special attn to the half ending of the hair shaft. For your natural hair oils usually are unable to get to the end of the shaft, thus the end of hair usually dried out.

Simple process huh? The order makes a difference, the time makes a difference. Even the moisturizer makes a difference.

In addition to this, I decided to go heat free, no hair dryer to dry my natural hair, and also go comb free (outside of getting my hair scratched for dandruff because that's just relaxing to me). So no combs, no heat. I will toss my combs in some draw and not look for it again until the end of August. With that said, there will be no major sculpted styles on my hair, just twists and twistouts with using water, moisturizer and oils. I'm certain with all this, I'll prob become a mixologists, lol. That egg, honey, lemon, EVOO mixture I did on my hair the other night was soooo dope! I can't wait to get the video together so I can post. So stay tuned for that.

That's all for now. MuAh & CiAo. Live on Purpose!

Hair Essentials - Air Drying Natural Hair

After I washed my hair and let them essential oils soak into my hair, I washed my hair out with my co-wash from Az I Am, which smells lovely and then I combed it out with my wide tooth comb and separated into 4 big sections, oiled my hair with jojobal oil and jamaican castor oil and braided it into plaits, not to be confused with cornrows/braids. After then I put a touch of jamaican castor oil on the tips of each plait. I need to be more careful with my ends. I've found that my hair grows, but due to breakage, I have to keep seeking and searching for these split ends, which leads to frustration and be chopping off inches of hair. Not cute.

Anyhoo, I won't have pics of my do until next week because I will not be putting it into twists until this evening. I may use the flaxseed oil for twist outs, but Idk how well my hair will coil and how well it will stay. I don't want a sticky film in my hair necessarily and I have found the flaxseed to be sticky which is why I just use moisturizer and oil. But I'll let you know what I do. I should try it just to see how my hair responds to it. Who knows, it just might work. Pics to come!

Until then, hair is some pics of some styles I have done in other people's hair the past few days. Sooo pretty! And yes, I charge for braided do's. If you would like a do, feel free to email me at niaimbue@gmail.com for pricing.

 I only did the braided do in the pic with the 3 chicas! Hey homies!!!!

All hair better be sweeped/braided away from neck, back and face. Thanks for letting me braid you guys up! MuAh!

See you guys next week! MuAh & CiAo! I promise to have pics of my wedding do posted next week as well. Live on purpose people!