The OFFICIAL 3m GROWTH CHALLENGE Pt 2..Sept 6-Dec 31

Hi everyone, just checking in... this is week 2 of my 1 month no shampoo challenge. So far my hair loves it. I havent had any dandruff, flaking, residue on my scalp or anything. Detangling my hair has been a breeze. My strands dont feel dry and stripped like they normally would after I shampoo. Even when I would shampoo then apply my leave in, my hair still felt stripped and detangling was very difficult. Well on Friday I DC'd with shea moisture dt masque, rinsed with LIVE GREEN Pomegranate Conditioner, applied Kimmay's leave in, moisturized with my own mix of stuff, sealed with shea butter/coconut oil and banded my hair in 4 sections. I dont have moisture overload (trust me I checked). I have a high intake of proteins that consist of, red meats, chicken, turkey, fish, nuts, soy milk, egg whites, oatmeal, beans, rice, protein smoothies, etc. This I think, gives me the protein/moisture balance that my hair needs.

Mini Update:

In this last week I've decided to go back to protective styling. I put in some mini twists last Sunday and I'm going into day 8 with the same twists. I've rinsed and shampooed my scalp this evening to get rid of the itchies and some product buildup. My scalp feels so clean and twists still look good. I'm going to keep them in the rest of this week and take them down Saturday. I plan to try bunning my hair after these to switch things up. Here are some pics of my twists.

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My twists started shrinking after day 2

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Day 5 -- Rocking the tam

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Day 6 -- Rinsed twists

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Crazy shrinkage after they dried!

I'm going dust my ends very soon. Hopefully this will combat the SSKs and fairy knots I keep fighting. Other than that, all good hair days. That's all ladies!

Hi ladies its been so long since i have posted,however i have good reason. I did manage to puut those yarn braids in and let me tell you they have been a lifesaver. I found out I am 8 weeks pregnant and sick as a dog I should be getting my bearings back in a few weeks. Keep up the good work ladies.

Lynnieluve wrote:Update: Yesterday was Wash Day

- Prepooed with AO GPB with heat for 10 minutes.

- Shampooed with KBB Conditioning Shampoo

- Conditioned/Detangled with Tresemme Naturals and Yes To Cucumbers (ran out of Tresemme Naturals)

- Deep Conditioned with Shea Moisture Deep Tx Masque for 20 minutes with heat and an hour after (had to cook dinner)

-Applied Kimmaytube leave in, Koils By Nature Hair and Body Butter, and Koils By Nature Eucalyptus gel

Style: small/medium twist (sorry no pics)

My hair felt weird before and after I deep conditioned. The Deep Tx Masque didnt seem to work as well as it has in the pass I will keep using it to see how it works when I dont use a protein conditioner. After moisturizing, my hair felt fine.

Here is pics of my hair this pass weekend:

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Bonus: My lovebug and I

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That's my update. I think my next style will be mini twist....I think. Have a good rest of the week curlies!!

So beautiful. Seriously LOVE your hair!!

Alanija wrote:Yeah on achieving a new record. What do you think you did differently that is now allowing your hair to last longer? Or do you think it's due to more length?

I think since I'm not using a lot of products in my hair that may be why my braids are lasting longer. I also don't have a lot of time to wash and dc my hair the way I would like, so that pushes me to keep it in a bit longer than usual as well. I've been wearing hats and scarves so the fuzziness doesn't really bother me.

How often do you typically wash your hair?

freckledmom4 wrote:@ oooop- thanks for the compliment!

My update: Yesterday was washday. Here's what I did

Pre-pooed with maka oil and a 10 minute scalp massage.

Shampooed with TJTTT

Detangled with YTTomatoes

Deep Conditioned with Amla powder mixed with Jessicurl Weekly Deep Treatment & Giovanni 50:50 condish for 1 1/2 hours

Leave in KCKT

I applied Qhemet's Amla cream to my scalp and small sections of hair then did big flat 2 stand twist to stretch with DB Vanilla Styling Cream.

Today I took out the flat twist and retwisted in small sections with the DB cream and Oyin Burnt Sugar and did a couple of smaller flat twist in the front because I got tired of twisting. Didn't take pics yet because I just finished but I will tomorrow. I did notice that my ends were frizzy and brittle and I had a few broken strands of hair. I am wondering if I need a protein treatment.

Do you think you are using too many products at 1 time?

kinksncurls wrote:My Hair Update:

I finally took my hair out of my five week natural braids a few days ago. I washed with suave clarifying conditioner. Detangled with tresemme naturals conditioner (this conditioner is seriously amazing for detangling), and put my hair in twists yesterday using shea moisture hair milk as my leave in and afroveda shea alma to twist

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I will probably keep these twists in for a week or two (depending on how long I can go without washing, and when I take them down, I'll either try a new style or braid it up again.

Envious that your twist can still look nice even after you wash them.....

Keisha wrote:Happy Sunday everyone. Just checking in, I purchased 2 new products this week: Yes to Cucumbers Leave In Conditioner (love it) and LIVE GREEN Pomerganate Conditioner (its alright, I gotta give it a few more tires before the verdict is in). On Friday I did a Hot Oil Treatment (HOT) with Amla Oil and set under my conditioning cap for some extra heat. Im putting myself on a 1 month no shampoo challenge. Shampoo leaves my hair dry and stripped feeling so this past Friday when I used conditioner only, OMG my hair felt soft, moisturized and was very easy to detangle. If anything after this challenge i'll probably just use shampoo twice or once a month.

Did you know that about shampoo and your hair prior to starting this challenge?

kurlegurl wrote:Hey Curlies,

Quick update, I washed and conditioned last Thursday and have had my hair in twists since then. So, I need a styler, I used the Shea Moisture Curl smoothie and sealed with my shea/coconut/olive oil mixture, and it has been very moisturized. Today it is starting to look a little fuzzy and I don't know if that is because of the lack of hold the shea moisture smoothie gives, but I need a good styler for the winter. I will post pics a little later, need some batteries for my camera...lol

I actually like the Qhemet Biologics Alma Olive Heavy Cream mixed with ECO gels. Works great on my hair (especially in the winter).

swoodward wrote:Hey all,

shampoo'd with tawaka cleanser with neem oil.
detangled with aussie moist and twisted in 6 sections
left the Aussie in and then added a little tawaka conditioner mixed with a raw egg. baggie'd then rinsed after 1/2 hour. Should have used less Aussie.
followed with BnB's Hair Masque (for moisture following protein treatment above)
rinsed after 2 hours. Put in about 2 tsp of avocado oil, 2 tsp of DevaCurl Moisture One, then twisted with Kimmay's leave-in recipe and sealed with QB Amla & Olive Oil. I put in about 14 twists.


Wore a twist out today.Would you believe my hair ate almost every drop of oil? My hair is soft but not greasy. Who'da thunk it?

retwisting (10) to sleep with my trusty satin bonnet.

I hate that greasy feel. How long did your hair stay soft before you needed to apply product?

Lynnieluve wrote:Here's my update.

My twist out from last week. I was pretty but I can do without the shrinkage
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I washed my hair last night.

Prepoo - used heat for 15-20 mins - Giovanni TTT and Giovanni 50:50 with honey and jojoba oil (I finished both bottles of Giovanni [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] I wont be purchasing them again)

Shampoo - Taliah Waajid Herbal Shampoo

Conditioned/Detangle - Aussie Moist ( I WUV THAT STUFF)

Deep Conditioner - Shea Moisture Deep Tx Masque with honey (with heat for 30 minutes) It just doesnt work the way it used too. I need a new deep conditioner

Applied Giovanni Direct Leave in, coconut oil and banded my hair to dry overnight.

This morning I twisted my hair using Uncle Funky's Daughter Extra Butter. So far so good. I like it. I will see how well it holds up over the next few days.

Here are my twist

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Really cute!!!! I need to DC more. Just lazy..LOL

swoodward wrote:I barely even chunky twisted my hair to sleep this week. I basically doused my hair with a little avocado oil at night, chunky twists (about with a satin bonnet, took it out in the am, put on a shower cap and showered, fluffed and added a headband. I did this until fri night at which point I just put on the satin bonnet, this morning capped for shower and fluffed with a headband!

I did baggie my hair every night this week for 1 hour though when I came home. Wanted to keep my moisture up.

I think I mentioned before - I had to trim a couple of weeks back because I had fairy knots (SSK's) on almost all of my ends - almost ALL!!! For the last week I have catching the ones I missed during the trim by conducting search and destroy missions at night before I got ready for bed. I cut individual hairs where I found the knots before putting on a plastic cap for an hour (baggie). I have no clue how I messed my hair up like that other than over inexperienced and poor handling during the transition and right after the BC. I have no growth to report because I trimmed my hair. I can report my ends are not see through. People have said this week they can't really tell I have had a trim. The beauty of kinky curls.

Thanks for the update!!

Keisha wrote:Hi everyone, just checking in... this is week 2 of my 1 month no shampoo challenge. So far my hair loves it. I havent had any dandruff, flaking, residue on my scalp or anything. Detangling my hair has been a breeze. My strands dont feel dry and stripped like they normally would after I shampoo. Even when I would shampoo then apply my leave in, my hair still felt stripped and detangling was very difficult. Well on Friday I DC'd with shea moisture dt masque, rinsed with LIVE GREEN Pomegranate Conditioner, applied Kimmay's leave in, moisturized with my own mix of stuff, sealed with shea butter/coconut oil and banded my hair in 4 sections. I dont have moisture overload (trust me I checked). I have a high intake of proteins that consist of, red meats, chicken, turkey, fish, nuts, soy milk, egg whites, oatmeal, beans, rice, protein smoothies, etc. This I think, gives me the protein/moisture balance that my hair needs.

Glad you are discovering what works for your hair!!

CurlsGalore wrote:Mini Update:

In this last week I've decided to go back to protective styling. I put in some mini twists last Sunday and I'm going into day 8 with the same twists. I've rinsed and shampooed my scalp this evening to get rid of the itchies and some product buildup. My scalp feels so clean and twists still look good. I'm going to keep them in the rest of this week and take them down Saturday. I plan to try bunning my hair after these to switch things up. Here are some pics of my twists.

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My twists started shrinking after day 2

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Day 5 -- Rocking the tam

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Day 6 -- Rinsed twists

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Crazy shrinkage after they dried!

I'm going dust my ends very soon. Hopefully this will combat the SSKs and fairy knots I keep fighting. Other than that, all good hair days. That's all ladies!

Your hair looks really nice. And LOL on the shrinkage. I can so relate.

ShortNSassie wrote:Hi ladies its been so long since i have posted,however i have good reason. I did manage to puut those yarn braids in and let me tell you they have been a lifesaver. I found out I am 8 weeks pregnant and sick as a dog I should be getting my bearings back in a few weeks. Keep up the good work ladies.

Congrats on your pregnancy!!! And thanks for the update.


Update on me:

Haven't washed hair since Nov 10. Wore twist from the 10th-15th. Been wearing twistouts ever since. Really loving how Qhemet Alma Oil n Heavy Cream is making my hair feel. I apply a lot during the initially twisting stage, so I've only applied cream 1x since them. Been retwisting hair at night (in large twist), and wearing twistouts in the morning. Planning on washing my hair sometime this week.


Have a great Thanksgiving!!!

Thanks Oooop2!

I washed my hair yesterday.

Prepoo - Garnier Fruitis Triple Nutrition conditioner, Taliah Waajid herbal conditioner, honey and Africa's Best Herbal Oil (Used up the Garnier Fruitis I wont purchase it again) I sat under the dryer about 10-15 mins. Then I detangled and put my hair in 4 sections

Shampoo - Taliah Waajid Herbal Shampoo (only about 2 more uses left - I wont repurchase)

Conditioner - Giovanni Smooth As Silk

Deep Conditioned with AO White Camellia, honey and EVOO - used heat for about 20 minutes

Applied Kimmaytube leave in and chunky twist to air overnight. Sometime today, I will be doing 3 strand twist. I will post pics later.

Have a GREAT week!!!

I need to wash my hair in the WORSE way, but can't seem to find the time. Will try to do it on Wed, so my hair will look nice for Thanksgiving pics

Here is a pic of my current T/Os:

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Hey yall, I am still here just been crazy busy lately. Since my last check in, I wore a set of twist for 3 weeks. And for the past 2 weeks I've been wearing a twist out. I plan on wearing a twist out for one more week, or flat iron. Then I'll put in some mini twist for the second week in December. Here is a pic of my latest twist out:
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This was day 4 after fluffing it up. You can check out my Fotki for more pics and youtube for the quick tutorial. Me and the hubby had to take our oldest to a docs appt.

I'll check in again hopefully before December 31st with more pics and a starting and ending comparison.

CurlsGalore wrote:Mini Update:

In this last week I've decided to go back to protective styling. I put in some mini twists last Sunday and I'm going into day 8 with the same twists. I've rinsed and shampooed my scalp this evening to get rid of the itchies and some product buildup. My scalp feels so clean and twists still look good. I'm going to keep them in the rest of this week and take them down Saturday. I plan to try bunning my hair after these to switch things up. Here are some pics of my twists.

...

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Crazy shrinkage after they dried!

I'm going dust my ends very soon. Hopefully this will combat the SSKs and fairy knots I keep fighting. Other than that, all good hair days. That's all ladies!

Lookin' good!!!

ShortNSassie wrote:Hi ladies its been so long since i have posted,however i have good reason. I did manage to puut those yarn braids in and let me tell you they have been a lifesaver. I found out I am 8 weeks pregnant and sick as a dog I should be getting my bearings back in a few weeks. Keep up the good work ladies.

whoa, Big news!!! Wonderful!

Hi Ooop! My moisture lasted about 3 days before I had to moisturize again.

I bought a couple of books - Curly Like Me and Thank God I am natural. (Still trying to build up a decent collection of books. Surprisingly, I learn something new in each one.) I decided to try out stuff from each book. Make sure I am approaching this the right way.

Regarding the SSK's I figure I was doing something horribly wrong. I know though that the hair I cut had grown in after the last relaxer but before the BC. Maybe this was bad detangling or over- manipulation. Maybe I knotted my hair more recently when I rushed through coils. Either way, time for a change.

Sunday I hennaed. I'll write about that elsewhere. It went really well though.

Henna dries my hair out badly so this week I tried the Tightly Curly method. After my henna, I DC'd with Biofusion Hydrating Balm . I left that in 1 hour. I rinsed and put in a huge amount of Aussie Moist mixed with olive oil and Kimmay's leave in recipe. I did not rinse it out. I detangled with a wide tooth comb/denman depending on how difficult it was to detangle. Only a few spots needed a gentle comb first.

That denman helped to coat my hair in the conditioner. I then twisted my hair in a lot of little twists. I rubbed shea aloe mix on my hands and ran them over my ends.

My hair feels different than last week. Much stronger. I have had a lot of success by leaving conditioner in my hair but i had stopped because I wanted to see how my hair did without it since I already knew how it worked with it. I needed to know what my hair preferred.

I'll post pics later.

I've been really lazy with my hair this last week and since it was around 70 degrees most of the week, I cowashed daily and put my hair in a puff. I also misted my hair throughout the day which helped to bring the moisture back. Last night, I added some amla to some frozen henna that I had in the freezer and applied that after I shampooed with CD Koret Amen Poo and detangled with YTTomatoes. I was so tired that I slept with the mixture in my hair-bad idea because the mix was too runny. Anyway the henna must have been old because there was very little dye uptake, but the amla had my curls poppin:) This morning I rinsed and dced with JCWDT (I am almost out of this and will not repurchase because I always have to add something to get more than average results). I added a little Oyin Burnt Sugar to my ends while I dced for about 2 hours. I rinsed and twisted with QBAOHC and put a little Burnt Sugar on the ends (the smell is simply intoxicating). I have about 20 chunky twist in my hair which I will take down tomorrow for a twist out when I go to see my family. This will be their first time seeing me since I did the bc back in June. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

CONGRATS Shortnsassie on your little blessing!

Hey everyone, hope you all had a happy thanksgiving... Just checking in. Me and the bun are still going strong. Today I did a scalp massage and a hot oil treatment with amla oil. I sat under the conditioning cap for 30 minutes then I shampooed my hair with pantene relaxed & natural shampoo<<< only using it because I hate throwing out products. Even though I put myself on a 1 month no shampoo challenge, after 3 weeks and product build up it was quite obvious that it was time for me to wash the gunk out so i'll probably shampoo once or twice a month until I run out of shampoo, then im going to try the bentonite clay treatments or an ayurvedic shampoo bar... anyway, after I shampooed, I applied YTCucumbers leave in condish, moisturized with a mix of moisturizing products (a mix of KBB sweet ambrosia, Bee Mine bee loved hair and scalp moisturizer, deva curl set it free, elasta qp mango and olive oil butter, shea butter, castor oil and jojoba oil) sealed with shea butter/coconut oil and banded my hair into 4 sections. On monday i'll unravel the bands and wear my hair in a bun for the entire week.

@oooop until recently I had no clue that shampoo was drying my hair out. I just think its the aweful ingredients in the shampoos thats causing the drying. Although I like the squeaky clean feeling I dispise the dryness that comes with it.

Yesterday I washed my hair

- Prepoo - Hairveda Vatika Frosting (2 1/2 hrs no heat - I took a nap )

- Shampoo - KBB Conditioning Shampoo

- Applied Nexxus Emergencee for about 3 mins

- Conditioned/Detangled - Aussie Moist

My scalp has been itching like crazy (it happened around this time last yr) so I decided to do a hot oil treatment. I used Africa's Best Herbal Oil. I wanted to do a two in one so I applied the oil to my scalp and applied my deep conditioner to my hair (Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque). Used heat for about 15-20 mins.

Applied Kimmaytube leave in and Pooka Hair Nectar and put my hair in chunky twist to dry overnight.

Can you say oil slick? I didnt do a good job of rinsing the oil from the hot oil treatment out. So this morning, I didnt add anything else to my super oily hair. I made the twist smaller and did a cute pin up do.

But first, here is my twist out from last week. This is my Thanksgiving hair

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Here is my pin up I will wear until Thursday...

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My birthday dinner is Friday night so Thursday I will take it down, blow dry my hair and retwist it in hopes of recreating my avatar pic.

Have a GREAT week curlies!!

Lynnie That is such an ELEGANT style. Your hair is gorgeous! And thick. If I did that style, there would be more scalp then hair.

But I am still going to try. Maybe I'll stagger the twists to cover the parts. Have a happy birthday.

Thanks!

by freckledmom4 Today at 11:24 am

Yesterday marked my 5th month completely natural. Here are my lenght checks.

Front on 9/30/10:
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front on 11/30/10

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Side 9/30
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Side 11/30:

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Although there is only about half an inch difference, I'm still happy with the amount of growth. I got pretty scissor happy during October because I had a lot of ssks and my twist kept unravelling so I thought I had some heat damage on my ends. Initially the trim helped a lot with keeping my twist together, but now that it is a month later, they are starting to come apart again in the front. So I guess that my curls loosen over time and I will always have to roll the ends to set them. I had hoped to have 6 inches of hair by my 6th month-that's not gonna happen, but I am very close:).

I've been m.i.a. for a while as well. I'm just super busy trying to find a job in this horrid economy.

Anyways I'm back in natural braids (I've had them in for a week already) and plan to stay that way for the next three weeks, then I'll probably do another set. They are just really convenient for me right now, cause all I have to do is get up in the morning, spray them and pin the front up.

I did another trim (another 2 inches off) so I'm back to where I started the summer at. I keep getting those SSK's no matter what I do, so I've put myself on a no trim challenge for the next 6 months so I can retain some length. I think the SSK's happen when I wash (even though I wash in sections etc). If anyone has any tips to reduce them, do let me know.

Hi all. I have been M.I.A as well. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgivining.

I purchased a steamer over the weekend and it arrived yesterday. So I put it to use last night.

I Co-washed with Pantene Curls mixed with Tulsi and Shikaki powders

Mini-detangled with my fingers, rinsed, DC with Shea Moisture Deep Moisture Masque mixed with honey, olive oil , Amla and Brahmi powders. Sat under the steamer while watching Y&R. When I was done, my hair was very soft.

I bought Taliah's Protective Mist Bodifier at the BSS because I read it suppose to help with detangling. But this stuff is hard to get out of the bottle (it should not be in a spray bottle). It worked o.k but I may have to mix it with something next time.

Sealed with vatika oil and put Koils By Nature Shea Butter on the ends. Twisted in eight large twist to dry overnight.

Today, I retwisted and curled the ends. I have been staying in twists for the majority of the week, and doing twist outs for the weekend and then re-doing my hair. I have less SSKs but I notice that detangling is a lot harder. Does anyone have any suggestions?

NhappyJackie wrote:Hey yall, I am still here just been crazy busy lately. Since my last check in, I wore a set of twist for 3 weeks. And for the past 2 weeks I've been wearing a twist out. I plan on wearing a twist out for one more week, or flat iron. Then I'll put in some mini twist for the second week in December. Here is a pic of my latest twist out:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
This was day 4 after fluffing it up. You can check out my Fotki for more pics and youtube for the quick tutorial. Me and the hubby had to take our oldest to a docs appt.

I'll check in again hopefully before December 31st with more pics and a starting and ending comparison.

Thanks for the update. Can't wait to see ending growth!!

swoodward wrote:Hi Ooop! My moisture lasted about 3 days before I had to moisturize again.

I bought a couple of books - Curly Like Me and Thank God I am natural. (Still trying to build up a decent collection of books. Surprisingly, I learn something new in each one.) I decided to try out stuff from each book. Make sure I am approaching this the right way.

Regarding the SSK's I figure I was doing something horribly wrong. I know though that the hair I cut had grown in after the last relaxer but before the BC. Maybe this was bad detangling or over- manipulation. Maybe I knotted my hair more recently when I rushed through coils. Either way, time for a change.

Sunday I hennaed. I'll write about that elsewhere. It went really well though.

Henna dries my hair out badly so this week I tried the Tightly Curly method. After my henna, I DC'd with Biofusion Hydrating Balm . I left that in 1 hour. I rinsed and put in a huge amount of Aussie Moist mixed with olive oil and Kimmay's leave in recipe. I did not rinse it out. I detangled with a wide tooth comb/denman depending on how difficult it was to detangle. Only a few spots needed a gentle comb first.

That denman helped to coat my hair in the conditioner. I then twisted my hair in a lot of little twists. I rubbed shea aloe mix on my hands and ran them over my ends.

My hair feels different than last week. Much stronger. I have had a lot of success by leaving conditioner in my hair but i had stopped because I wanted to see how my hair did without it since I already knew how it worked with it. I needed to know what my hair preferred.

I'll post pics later.

Thanks for the update. Let us know how you like the books. I purchasef a TGIN tee and love it!!!

freckledmom4 wrote:I've been really lazy with my hair this last week and since it was around 70 degrees most of the week, I cowashed daily and put my hair in a puff. I also misted my hair throughout the day which helped to bring the moisture back. Last night, I added some amla to some frozen henna that I had in the freezer and applied that after I shampooed with CD Koret Amen Poo and detangled with YTTomatoes. I was so tired that I slept with the mixture in my hair-bad idea because the mix was too runny. Anyway the henna must have been old because there was very little dye uptake, but the amla had my curls poppin:) This morning I rinsed and dced with JCWDT (I am almost out of this and will not repurchase because I always have to add something to get more than average results). I added a little Oyin Burnt Sugar to my ends while I dced for about 2 hours. I rinsed and twisted with QBAOHC and put a little Burnt Sugar on the ends (the smell is simply intoxicating). I have about 20 chunky twist in my hair which I will take down tomorrow for a twist out when I go to see my family. This will be their first time seeing me since I did the bc back in June. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Thanks for the update. I need to henna my hair in the worst way. Hopefully this week...

Keisha wrote:Hey everyone, hope you all had a happy thanksgiving... Just checking in. Me and the bun are still going strong. Today I did a scalp massage and a hot oil treatment with amla oil. I sat under the conditioning cap for 30 minutes then I shampooed my hair with pantene relaxed & natural shampoo<<< only using it because I hate throwing out products. Even though I put myself on a 1 month no shampoo challenge, after 3 weeks and product build up it was quite obvious that it was time for me to wash the gunk out so i'll probably shampoo once or twice a month until I run out of shampoo, then im going to try the bentonite clay treatments or an ayurvedic shampoo bar... anyway, after I shampooed, I applied YTCucumbers leave in condish, moisturized with a mix of moisturizing products (a mix of KBB sweet ambrosia, Bee Mine bee loved hair and scalp moisturizer, deva curl set it free, elasta qp mango and olive oil butter, shea butter, castor oil and jojoba oil) sealed with shea butter/coconut oil and banded my hair into 4 sections. On monday i'll unravel the bands and wear my hair in a bun for the entire week.

@oooop until recently I had no clue that shampoo was drying my hair out. I just think its the aweful ingredients in the shampoos thats causing the drying. Although I like the squeaky clean feeling I dispise the dryness that comes with it.

Yeah..I like a clean scalp also, so I now poo every 2wks. Seems to work for me.

Lynnieluve wrote:Yesterday I washed my hair

- Prepoo - Hairveda Vatika Frosting (2 1/2 hrs no heat - I took a nap )

- Shampoo - KBB Conditioning Shampoo

- Applied Nexxus Emergencee for about 3 mins

- Conditioned/Detangled - Aussie Moist

My scalp has been itching like crazy (it happened around this time last yr) so I decided to do a hot oil treatment. I used Africa's Best Herbal Oil. I wanted to do a two in one so I applied the oil to my scalp and applied my deep conditioner to my hair (Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque). Used heat for about 15-20 mins.

Applied Kimmaytube leave in and Pooka Hair Nectar and put my hair in chunky twist to dry overnight.

Can you say oil slick? I didnt do a good job of rinsing the oil from the hot oil treatment out. So this morning, I didnt add anything else to my super oily hair. I made the twist smaller and did a cute pin up do.

But first, here is my twist out from last week. This is my Thanksgiving hair

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Here is my pin up I will wear until Thursday...

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My birthday dinner is Friday night so Thursday I will take it down, blow dry my hair and retwist it in hopes of recreating my avatar pic.

Have a GREAT week curlies!!

Really pretty. And that greasy feel is the main reason I hardly do oil rinses. I just can't stay feeling a lot of oil in my hair.

freckledmom4 wrote:by freckledmom4 Today at 11:24 am

Yesterday marked my 5th month completely natural. Here are my lenght checks.

Front on 9/30/10:
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front on 11/30/10

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Side 9/30
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Side 11/30:

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Although there is only about half an inch difference, I'm still happy with the amount of growth. I got pretty scissor happy during October because I had a lot of ssks and my twist kept unravelling so I thought I had some heat damage on my ends. Initially the trim helped a lot with keeping my twist together, but now that it is a month later, they are starting to come apart again in the front. So I guess that my curls loosen over time and I will always have to roll the ends to set them. I had hoped to have 6 inches of hair by my 6th month-that's not gonna happen, but I am very close:).

Great job with the growth. Can't wait to see end results.

kinksncurls wrote:I've been m.i.a. for a while as well. I'm just super busy trying to find a job in this horrid economy.

Anyways I'm back in natural braids (I've had them in for a week already) and plan to stay that way for the next three weeks, then I'll probably do another set. They are just really convenient for me right now, cause all I have to do is get up in the morning, spray them and pin the front up.

I did another trim (another 2 inches off) so I'm back to where I started the summer at. I keep getting those SSK's no matter what I do, so I've put myself on a no trim challenge for the next 6 months so I can retain some length. I think the SSK's happen when I wash (even though I wash in sections etc). If anyone has any tips to reduce them, do let me know.

Yeah..We all get those knots. Do you think wearing your hair in braids for prolonged periods of time and washing while in braids is contributing? Also, are you keeping your ends properly moisturized? I know when my ends aren't moisturized, my knots seem to increase.

newday wrote:Hi all. I have been M.I.A as well. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgivining.

I purchased a steamer over the weekend and it arrived yesterday. So I put it to use last night.

I Co-washed with Pantene Curls mixed with Tulsi and Shikaki powders

Mini-detangled with my fingers, rinsed, DC with Shea Moisture Deep Moisture Masque mixed with honey, olive oil , Amla and Brahmi powders. Sat under the steamer while watching Y&R. When I was done, my hair was very soft.

I bought Taliah's Protective Mist Bodifier at the BSS because I read it suppose to help with detangling. But this stuff is hard to get out of the bottle (it should not be in a spray bottle). It worked o.k but I may have to mix it with something next time.

Sealed with vatika oil and put Koils By Nature Shea Butter on the ends. Twisted in eight large twist to dry overnight.

Today, I retwisted and curled the ends. I have been staying in twists for the majority of the week, and doing twist outs for the weekend and then re-doing my hair. I have less SSKs but I notice that detangling is a lot harder. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks so much for the update!!

time for an update..

so I am now officially 4 months natural!!! and have about 3 inches of growth..Ive been doing nothing but twist/twist outs for about 2months now and will continue to do them over this cold cold winter
(can u believe it its 43 degrees outside in SC!! in the south!! this winter is going to be crazy!!)

I cant wait till Dec 31 to see every bodies growth updates and mines as well!!

Girl please, I am in Atlanta and it was 28 this morning when I took my daughter to school!! TWENTY-EIGHT!!!!! LOL

Oh and congrats on your 4 month mark!!!! keep it goin RayRay!!!

Small update:

I washed and styled my hair this weekend. I diluted my shampoo with water which helped cut down on the tangling. Also now I am washing my hair, applying a leave-in conditioner and then letting my hair dry in plaits. The next day when my hair is almost dry I remove the plaits and I twist my hair up. I used Koils by Nature Shealoe leave-in as my leave-in conditioner and the next day I used Qhemet's Amla and Olive heavy cream with the Olive and Honey Hydrating Balm for my twists.

I am coming to the realization that since my hair is coarse it doesn't like a lot of protein in the first ingredients in my products. I will no longer be doing heavy protein treatments unless necessary and I am making sure that if my products do have protein in them its towards the end of the ingredient list. Here is a pic of my twists:


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