Anewme223

I am newly natural. I did the BC on 11-03-09 which was also my 8th wedding anniversary. My husband loves natural hair and actually helped me cut my hair.
I have wanted to go natural since I had my oldest daughter she is 7 now. During both of my pregnancies I wore braids and stopped relaxing my hair. My hair was thick and beautiful like when I was a child but having a new baby proved to be enough for me. Anyway both of my girls
are natural and I don't want them to put any chemicals in there. I want them to understand the beauty of their hair and how they can do so styles with their natural hair which is more difficult with chemicals. So I had to walk the walk if I was going to talk the talk. I thought it
would be a great time for us to go through this together.

Yesterday I did my youngest daughter hair (she is 4) and her hair when stretched is arm pit length. Today I did my hair and my oldest daughter hair (she is 7).Well yesterday and today was hair days. When there are three heads sometimes it takes several days. So yesterday when I washed Curly Kid #2 hair with Giovanni Smooth as Silk shampoo and then DC with a Bedhead Moisture Maniac and ORS Replenishing Conditioner. I used Giovanni Direct Leave In and a spritz bottle with water, rose water and glycerin to wet hair as I braided. I used my shealoe mix (shea butter, evco, aloe vera gel, and tea tree oil) for slip to braid hair.I then did what felt like a zillion braids in her hair.
On me I put on mixed Amla Oil and AO HSR as a pre-poo put a plastic cap on and my silk scarf and went to sleep. I washed my hair with Giovanni shampoo also and DC with ORS and Bed Head Moisture Maniac and left on for about 2 hours. I then put on giovanni Direct Leave In then aloe vera gel mixed with castor oil. I left it cause it was time to finish Curly Kid #1 hair.Today I washed Curly Kid #2 hair with Giovanni Smooth as Silk shampoo and then DC with a Giovanni Smooth as Silk Conditioner and ORS Replenishing Conditioner. I used Giovanni Direct Leave In and a spritz bottle of water to wet hair as I braided. I used my shealoe mix (shea butter, evco, aloe vera gel, and tea tree oil) for slip to braid hair.I then did what felt like half a zillion braids in her hair.

Sorry so long but I rarely post and guess I had alot to say today.

Welcome to the challenge!!!

Welcome and have fun here

Aww, I love that your husband helped you with the BC and that your daughters are natural.

Welcome

Here are pics of my girls hair after the marathon hair weekend.They love these mall braids cause they have movement and we can use hair accessories. I love them cause once they are in the morning go much better.

Thanks ladies...I think I am going to enjoy posting here daily. It is so wonderful to have a place to connect with other naturals. Gonna do my hair now will be back later to post the outcome.

Welcome to the challenge, the girls are beautiful!

I am posting what I did today so I don't forget. I cowashed with Bed Head Moisture Maniac, even though I washed yesterday it was a nice day and I just decided to co-wash. I then put a t-shirt on my head for about 30 minutes. Next I mixed aloe vera gel with a little castor oil to avoid my hair drying out then I out on Giovanni Natural Mousse and HE Set Me Up Gel. Not sure why I used 2 gels and also forgot to put on Giovanni Direct leave-In. So my hair looks great but will probably be hard later on. I will post pics later.

I have found I have to really plan what I will use and put them on the counter cause I will skip a step, put too many products on or both. I am PJ an want tp try everything. I am trying to find a routine and stick with it though and also find products I can easily get since I have 3 heads to do ordering things are not always easy or budget friendly.

welcome to the challenge!!!

anewme223 wrote:

I have found I have to really plan what I will use and put them on the counter cause I will skip a step, put too many products on or both. I am PJ an want tp try everything.

i have to do this to & lay everything out in order, or else I may get excited about a new product & forget what i'm doing in the first place!

anewme223 wrote:I am posting what I did today so I don't forget. I cowashed with Bed Head Moisture Maniac, even though I washed yesterday it was a nice day and I just decided to co-wash. I then put a t-shirt on my head for about 30 minutes. Next I mixed aloe vera gel with a little castor oil to avoid my hair drying out then I out on Giovanni Natural Mousse and HE Set Me Up Gel. Not sure why I used 2 gels and also forgot to put on Giovanni Direct leave-In. So my hair looks great but will probably be hard later on. I will post pics later.

I have found I have to really plan what I will use and put them on the counter cause I will skip a step, put too many products on or both. I am PJ an want tp try everything. I am trying to find a routine and stick with it though and also find products I can easily get since I have 3 heads to do ordering things are not always easy or budget friendly.

You definitely dont want to try to many products at once because you will not get true results of the product. Also, if something is drying your hair out, it will be hard to determine which product is doing it.

Believe me, I understand. There are so many products out there and every give great reviews on them and you feel like you need to try all of it. I am currently in a no buy challenge for 2 months. I hope once its over, I dont go crazy again buying products.

You definitely dont want to try to many products at once because you will not get true results of the product. Also, if something is drying your hair out, it will be hard to determine which product is doing it.

Believe me, I understand. There are so many products out there and every give great reviews on them and you feel like you need to try all of it. I am currently in a no buy challenge for 2 months. I hope once its over, I dont go crazy again buying products.[/quote]



@ ChrsLvsBks....Thanks for advice, I tell myself all the time I need to slow down the buying, but each time I read review I want to go out and buy it. I am waiting for my henna and Shikaki oil (spell check pls) to come in now. I think I am going to have to do what you do at least for 30 days, maybe I will for February it is a short month anyway (lol).

As far as my dry hair goes I am pretty sure any gel dries my hair but it also gives my curls definition, so I am not sure what to do. When I had relaxer I never really felt my hair was dry however it definitely is now especially the ends. My scalp is not dry though. Also I know some cones and animal (maybe wheat) protein makes my hair hard and dry. I had a relaxer for almost 30 years (I am 45) so I now that it will take awhile for my hair to show its true beauty.
Any thoughts or suggestions anyone has for her maintenance is appreciated. I have (I think) 4 a/b hair it is very thick course and dense. My 4 yr old could not get her fingers through it the other day. The ends are dry but the new growth seems to have more of a curl pattern and is much softer.

Welcome to the Challenge.

My Truth:

Well last night while reading post and looking at Fotki pics with everyone's beautiful hair I had my hand in hair. The ends as usual were and tangles. My frustration was rising again. I kept thinking what am I doing wrong.

Here comes the Aha moment: you have a twa with type 4 a/b/z hair (I guess). The reality is that no matter what is coming out of the roots I have to get my ends under control. SO..b4 I went to bed. I decided to wet my hair with my water and Suave naturals Tropical Coconut Conditioner I use to detangle my girls hair. I tried to detangle as much as I could but I was getting tired. So I spray my hair and massaged the ends than I took my detangler comb and combed it through.It felt wonderful (it was probably a week since I combed my hair) I have been trying not to comb or brush just use my fingers. I then put in Giovanni Direct Leave In and brushed it. This felt even better. Final step was shea butter rubbed in my hands to soften on hair and concentrating on edges. I put my satin scarf on then my bonnet and went to sleep.
When I got up this morning my hair felt soft and not the tight, hard, tangled mess it usually is. I took my shower and ran my hair through the water and then my fingers through my hair. I then put a t-shirt on my head and got some breakfast. I then stood and stared at all my products trying to decide what to do NOW!. So I did something different. I spritz my hair with my evoo, distilled water, lavendar and glycerin mix. I used my fingers first then my pic to lift my hair. It felt so soft. The real test though would be when it dried.

Well, my hair is still soft and my ends are not hard at all and it feels lighter. I have very heavy hair.

The conclusion: I have to do what works for me!
I am concerned about the combing and brushing but I think for now I will have to wet my hair daily and comb/brush to get the product through my hair (the fingers are just not enough).
I am sad cause all the products I have well they will probably sit for awhile because it seems I need really basic things as long as I apply them well. (I LOVE being a PJ though). I am gonna search for a better detangling comb and a denman brush. It feels great not to hear my hair pop when I put my fingers through it.

I think that is one of the things I love about being natural, you will learn what YOUR curls want and need, regardless to what works for someone else..Great progress..keep it going!

@sweetdrk1..thank you for the encouragement. All of you are such an inspiration.
I checked your hair journal and your growth is amazing. Love your avatar and the rod set. I will need to buy a hooded dryer eventually cause I definitely will be trying that style.

Hmmm... I just realized my post from last night is gone. Weird.

Well Hello Ladies I hope everyone had a great day!

So yesterday I pretty much did the same thing as I did on Tuesday. I only had to drop off and pick up my girls today so I decided to twist my hair. My hair is really too short (about 2-3 inches) to wear them out, also I am not that good at twisting my own hair. So I really just do them for the twist out look. I haven't gotten very good with them but practice makes perfect.

I cowashed with Bed Head Moisture Maniac and used my Denman knock off brush to detangle. I then put almond oil mixed with Giovanni Direct Leave In conditioner on and and let my hair air dry a little. Well I fell asleep cause the rain was so soothing I guess. So I spritz my hair with water and applied Bee Mine Curly Butter. Oh I also used a rattail comb for the ends and to part my hair.

I will take them out tomorrow before I go to volunteer at my daughter's school.

Well, I haven't posted in a few days. My 4 year old has strep throat she is much better how it was hard she was in so much pain on Saturday. The pain was better today but she has a serious cough now. Not sure if she will go to pre-k tomorrow.

On to hair....So my twist looked nice on Friday was tempted to wear them out but still too short for me. I did have great texture and curl pattern though. However my henna came on Thursday from www.mehndiskinart.com along with indigo and Shikakai oil.

Saturday I mixed the Jamila henna with water, acv and amla oil. I let it sit until 10 that night, then washed my hair, added honey to henna and applied it to my hair. I covered with plastic wrap, 2 plastic caps, scarf and bonnet. Then put a black towel over my pillow. I love the sheets on my bed and I didn't want a mess but didn't feel like changing the sheets either.

Next morning about 10:30 I rinsed out (just let water run over my hair for while), I then co-washed 3 times with Suave naturals coconut conditioner.

I then mixed indigo with water and applied to hair for about 2.5 hours. I then rinsed hair and co-washed with Suave again. I then DC with AOHSR, olive oil, honey and ORS replenishing conditioner. I left that on for about and hour. Rinsed and applied Giovanni Direct Leave-In

By now I was tired however the results were great. Hair color went from black with some gray (before), to black with reddish highlights, the gray was now copper (I actually really liked the color), to pretty much all black now with very few grays sticking through.

My hair feels great and very moisturized. Scalp feels better than expected cause it was feeling itchy when I woke up with henna. Ends feel good. Curl pattern in back may be slightly loser but that hair is generally loser anyway. Rest of the hair seems curls a separated a little more and springy.

I love the color and the way it feels, will definitely do it again.

How often do you think you will do the Henna and indigo?

@tiashauntee ....I am laughing right now cause I was on your blog Her Best Hair when I noticed an email alert for CN, I checked and you had written to me..weird ha?

Anyway about hair, I will probably wait 2 to 4 weeks to henna hair, I don't have alot of gray so I may use the indigo every other time since I understand there is no benefit to the hair except color. The color is good for now and I think come summer I will like the copper highlights (from the gray) on top of the black. Also I have 2 natural daughters (4 and 7) so I have to make time to care for all of our hair.

Onto your beautiful hair and your blog. I am lovin both. Lots of good info. I am going to try the aloe gro mix this weekend. I just watched the video do you have any additional suggestions.

Also how do you reduce shrinkage and retain moisture. I have a twa maybe 3 inches by the end of the day it is about an inch.

LOL, that's kinda scary.

I can't think of any other tips. Once you get the technique down, the pin curls are super simple.

As far as shrinkage-I try to DC and moisturize as much as possible to reduce the amount of shrinkage that I get-because I still get it. Sometimes I like sometimes I don't-because I like big hair. I retain moisture by sealing after I moisturize-that technique has made a huge difference for my hair. After a week or two of doing continuously is when I noticed a change.

tiashauntee wrote:LOL, that's kinda scary.

I can't think of any other tips. Once you get the technique down, the pin curls are super simple.

As far as shrinkage-I try to DC and moisturize as much as possible to reduce the amount of shrinkage that I get-because I still get it. Sometimes I like sometimes I don't-because I like big hair. I retain moisture by sealing after I moisturize-that technique has made a huge difference for my hair. After a week or two of doing continuously is when I noticed a change.

Thanks for the information. I see so many beautiful styles I can't wait to get the length so I can try them. Big hair is great!

I am glad you found a way to keep your hair moisturized.

Was this your first time using henna and indigo? I have quite a few grays and have used the two step henna and indigo at least three times. I need to do it again.

ChrsLvsBks wrote:I am glad you found a way to keep your hair moisturized.

Was this your first time using henna and indigo? I have quite a few grays and have used the two step henna and indigo at least three times. I need to do it again.

Yes, this was my first time using the henna and/or indigo. I am overall pleased however there are some things I will do differently next time. I am going to research other products to mix the henna with since my scalp was very dry. The front was almost painful it was very itchy and dry. I put some coconut oil on my scalp last night and it seems better today. I may try to mix it with yogurt but I want to do some more reading about it. Also I think I will do the process during the day. I don't think my scalp likes to be wet like that all night. Lastly, I have to detangle and do twist when I am done that seems to help my ends the most. Still trying to perfect the moisturizing process.

What is your routine when you use henna/indigo?

Hello I hope everyone has had a good week.

Okay, so how do you know if you had an allergic reaction to the henna or indigo? This is why...
Well an update on the henna I did Sat/Sun. The itching was "INSANE". I thought I would lose my mind. Monday night I used EVCO on scalp, I washed it Wed cause I was afraid I left henna or indigo on my scalp that is why it was itching. Wed night I sprayed my scalp with a mix of water, almond oil and tea tree oil and did twist with CD healthy hair butter. It was better most of the day but is itching now. I am gonna spritz my scalp again tonight and do more twist.

I may just take a benadryl too.

Also any suggestions for washing/conditioning this week to rid my scalp of this irritation? I am a little miserable right now and so dissappointed cause I do like the the color.