LinaBella's Hairtopia (BNB CHallenge)

Hi everyone -- this is one of my first posts and I am so excited to be sharing with such a great community.

I am excited to post here because I have just decided to run a marathon on Memorial Day next year and that leaves me with 23 weeks to train. This means that I will have to streamline all my duties as a new mommy, wife, student, and haircare mixtress/stylist!

Sharika let me know of the cool weekly giveaways and I am just blown away by all the people and information that is here! I looove henna and have been using it for more than 3 yrs already.. urrmmm you may know my pic from mehandi
http://www.mehandi.com/shop/african/index.html (petrolina)

I have gotten the lowdown from Sharika and so I will be ordering my henna from buttersnbars or my family friend who travels to India several times a year. I recently was a finalist in her HennaMe contest this summer, and now I am completely hooked!

http://www.butters-n-bars.com/HENNAME.html

People come to my house every two wks to henna their hair, and hubby calls me the hennaqueen, lol!

I do want to learn how to wear my hair in nice loose styles though, and so I really am liking the curly braidouts and twistouts CurlyNikki and others call the twist-n-curl... to preserve length i usually am in twists or braids

So...
here I am -- kicking up my heels!

Thanks for having me! I would love to answer any henna questions people may have.. not an indigo user as of yet, but Ive done it for clients.

Blessings!

Lina40

WELCOME LINA. HAVE FUN WITH THIS THREAD.

Welcom Lina!!

thanks Lynnieluve and IntelligentBeauty! I love your avatars - Intelligent beauty... is that a wet rollerset?

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome! I'm definitely familar with your henna photo! It seems to pop up everywhere! I'll be keeping tabs on you, I know I can learn a lot from you!

--Reese

thanks Freestyles! your hair is hot to def - loove those colored tips!

hey, there! i will be coming to you for henna advice, as i am flirting with the idea of henna-ing sometime in the middle of next year

no problem dajewel! I hope to have a deep luscious henna'd burgundy color by then

Welcome Lina. I'm a newbie. I just BC'd Wednesday. I bought some Jamila henna (in cellophane, not foil ) What should I do/mix it with the get the best results?

Yes Lina, my avatar is a wet rollerset and thank you.

Welcome I look forward to reading your progress!!

thanks for the welcome ladies! I really appreciate it!

@ adiaha -- welcome to the henna train
for Jamila henna and since it is your first henna experience, I would just make a mix of
50g (half the packet)
4-6 oz of yogurt.. a Greek yogurt or Dannon plain yogurt is fine.
if your hair tends towards dryness I would add a tbs of olive oil..

mix this together (i also like to add a sprinkle of dried spices to cut down the scent, dried ginger, coriander, cinnamon) and let sit at least 6hrs in a warm place.

Once ready, apply to detangled dry or damp hair ( i prefer not to cleanse my hair before I henna because my hair ends up being too dry, but you can shampoo beforehand) -- application is basically smoosh and smooth

-- smoosh the paste to the roots/scalp, then smooth it down the length.

when your hair gets longer you may apply it more like a relaxer,but to larger sections.

-- leave in for at least 1 hr, 2or more for staining or more serious deep conditioning.
-- rinse well, then cowash to get out any residue of the paste. With yogurt and Jamila, rinsing is soooooo easy! I usually cowash 2x after I rinse the paste out.
- apply your leave-in, detangle and let air-dry, then style.

You also do just plain water til it gets pasty and then add 1tbs of lemon juice and leave it for 6hrs or overnight. thats another simple one. my hair seems to loove yogurt treatments though, so thats how Ive been doing mine.

I hope you'll try my recipe and let me know how it turns out!
Blessings!

I have had my hair in yarn twists for the last 3 weeks in hopes of keeping it hidden away, but my scalp was not feeling right so I decided to take them down.. plus I have been seeing soo many beautiful twist-n-curl sets that I needed to try this style sooner than later.. so here's what I did:

pre-poo: amla-coconut hair oil, overnite with plastic cap, detangled on dry hair with scuncii paddle brush
cleanse: aveda detoxifier shampoo
deep condition: aveda damage remedy
blowdry: MamiVata protective oil
finish: Megasilk protective spray(olive oil version), very light flat-iron on 4 sections (FHI Platform)

results -- OMG my hair was the softest, bounciest, silkiest that I have ever seen it! I will have my friend come and blowdry my hair from now on-- whenever I did it my ends would be crunchy and brittle. It was stretched out just enough for me to run my hands thru to part, twist and even scratch my scalp (which was pretty dry)

I did do a twist n curl with seven twists, satin rollers and Aveda's curl control on the ends prior to rolling, but I see I will have to tweak that. the curls came out nice, but the twistout was non-existent. I wonder if shea butter would be a better setting choice..?

here's a pic or two of the results.. tnC set #1 Tell me what you think, and what kind of product you think I should use to reset it..? I just bought some Giovanni Smooth as Silk, and I also have some other creamy conditioners too..

I really love how soft my hair feels. Its been a while since I have had hand-in-fro disease, lol!

Bless up!

heres the pictures!http://public.fotki.com/okorolina40/cg_technique_year_1/year-5--hair-topia--/latedec09hair-004.html#media

http://public.fotki.com/okorolina40/cg_technique_year_1/year-5--hair-topia--/latedec09hair-007.html

http://public.fotki.com/okorolina40/cg_technique_year_1/year-5--hair-topia--/latedec09hair-011.html

That twist and curl looks great.

I also do an amla/coconut oil pre poo -- it makes my hair ridiculously soft as well. I think we're onto something with that.

Yes Courtney - i think so!! also, my hair is a lot darker too- only the greys have the henna red glow on them...

I'm toying with using henna, but there's something about it that's putting me off...I hear it can really dry the hell out of the hair and that's the last thing I need...

if you use too much lemon juice in your paste that can happen. You can always add a tbs or two of olive oil to be on the safe side. I had dry hair the first time because i used too much lemon juice, then didnt cowash enough times to get all the paste out, and i used a crappy henna from the indian store that was super grainy, yuk! So make sure your henna is sifted, and if you want to completely avoid dryness issues, use yogurt for your mix. its acidic enough for release, plus the milk proteins and lactic acid really benefit the hair. i used it once last year and that is my staple method now.

thanks...I think this will be very helpful. Now to get the courage to buy it and try it haha

i have a HUGE stash girl - let me know

Happy New Year!

I posted the resolutions as a new topic, not knowing it wouldnt show up in my thread.. oh well. Ive copied and pasted it here instead.

Hope you all had a great Christmas holiday! I must say that three was the charm! I did my 3rd twist-n-curl for Christmas and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! I will post pics when I can get them off the new camera.. My in-laws just loved my hair and hubby thought it was really pretty. I used shea butter to set and perm rollers on the ends. Any other products have not given me the bounce and softness that I had then.. so the regimen and nightly shea butter is my new plan for 2010.

Recap:
- pre-poo with coconut oil overnite with plastic cap
- wash with Aveda detoxifier
- rinse hibiscus honey infusion
- deep treat with Aveda damage remedy,1 hr, detangle and twist
- rinse well, cold rinse
- ayurvedic oil on hair in sections, airdry or blowdry
- set style with shea butter blend

Ok. here are my 2010 Resolutions
Resolutions


by lina40 Today at 11:49 amThis
year has been aggravating already, but in a good way, I guess - there
are soo many things that are utterly irritating to me right now that I
think its God's way of telling me that I need to really change.

so here are five resolutions for each area of focus:

Hair..
1. Deep conditioning weekly - no exceptions
2. Minimize product stash down to ONE bathroom!
3. No hair length goals - focus on healthy hair and ends
4. Be consistent with postings, comments, and updates
5. Expand product line with a paced effort

School/Work
1. Find a way to manage stress without internalizing the conflict
2. Take my vitamins and drink water regularly (this really helps me study better!)
3. Communicate more effectively and clearly with others (dont be afraid to say NO)
4. Reduce anxiety and fear by tackling projects right away
5. Give myself small goals to set daily and reward myself with quality "me" time
6. Think about alternate paths for PhD coursework, minor field
7. Schedule time for focused reading/writing in the AM

Fitness
1. Renew personal training certifications
2. pick up the rest of my volunteer hours for exercise phys. licensure
3. Lose 20 lbs and run a marathon by the end of 2010
4. Find activities to include hubby and baby
5. Encourage hubby to make a fitness goal

Home/Spirit
1. Reorganize my house - CLEAN OUT, SELL and GIVE AWAY (no more hoarding)
2. Set aside time for prayer and bible study with hubby
3. Create a SAFE babyspace upstairs and downstairs
4. Eat and store healthier meals in kitchen area (resume raw food routines)
5. Be honest with myself and others in sharing my thoughts/views (its ok to disagree)
6. Increase our savings and reduce spending to essentials

Here are mine.. The main goal for 2010 is to REDUCE STRESS and stop WORRYING

Are there 5 things that aggravate you right now? Can you morph them into 5 resolutions for the year? Please share.

When you figure out how to get your hubby to make fitness goals, please share it with me.

Lina,

Congratulations on training to run a marathon. I plan to do one by the end of the year. For now, I will still with my Half Marathons.

@ Lynnieluve -- yes girl I will let you know... usually when I am close to my goal that is when hubby is inspired to take action.. but I dont want him to wait until then.

@ Pinkrage - that is awesome -- i have never even run a half-marathon.. do you have a routine that you use for training? I was a sprinter and hurdler in college, so the most I have EVER run (in practice) was 3 miles straight.. this is definitely going to be a challenge for sure.. but I had a baby last year and I never thought I could do that, so things are definitely possible AND plausible