Struggles, Revelations, Progress, and of course LOTS of pics

Thanks CCE. If it's one thing my hair is and has always been is full and thick. Lol.

LOOK at you!!!! That puff is all grown up...sniff sniff

Lol @ Sweet. They grow up so fast don't they. Lol.

Girl, I know all about full and thick. I have no choice but to use a knee high for my puffs. I haven't found anything else to hold the thickness down, LOL!

Hey JNB! My order with Qhemet is still pending and they haven't even taken the money from my account. Has your order been processed? Also, did you recv the invite for the meetup June 5th?

PR- I can see that. Your hair looks awesome in your avi. That's a whole lotta hair. I still don't know the knee high procedure. How exactly does that work?

CK- I'm not sure. I will have to check.

Alrighty folks, this will be another long post, but I have a few things so show you. First, Monday I washed my hair with the Original Fragrance Shop Conditioning Shampoo. So far I am loving these products. Would you believe that I actually got curl definition from a shampoo? Look.



If only you could leave shampoo in your hair. Lol. I followed this with the Hair Pudding Conditioner. It's a DT. The jury is still out about how it compares to my SheaMoisture DT, but I didn't notice any drastic differences.

Then, I sprayed my hair with my leave in mix, applied my EVCO/EVOO mix (which I will soon be replacing with castor oil), and sealed with Afroveda Curl Define Butter. Yay for the three steps to moisturization! Next, I separated my hair into about 20 large sections and banded. I forgot to take a picture of what they looked like the same day, but here's the next morning after I slept on them. The day before they stuck out more.



I just want to say that the results from this were awesome. My hair so so stretched and I really got maximum length from the banding. And not only did I get maximum length, It gave my hair the most beautiful waves. And it looked so silky and shiny. Please enlarge the pics to get the maximum effect.








Isn't that awesome. Now, what I love most about this technique is how much it stretched my hair and it required minimal manipulation and time. Twisting can be time consuming. This is a quick and easy way to stretch the hair. Especially if you want to wear and afro or a puff. Or even prep the hair for dry twisting, which is what I did. I would recommend this to everyone, especially those with type 4 hair or hair that has alot of shrinkage. The other thing is it actually created a form of definition in my hair. As you can see, it takes on waves depending on where the band are placed. I would like to work on perfecting this technique and being careful how far apart I wrap each turn of the band and make it more uniform. I also need to figure out what to do with the ends. If I can perfect this, it can become a staple style I can will just like twistouts, with much less time and effort.

Here is how stretched my hair was. This is before any picking or fluffing.



Sorry I look so crazy. Lol. Anyways, I'm in the twist challenge so after this I needed to twist my hair. But before I did, I decided to play around with some different styles while I had my hair at maximum length.





That was just a large puff with a mini pompadour in the front.

Next I just put a headband.




Look how big she's gotten. Next, I decided to put my hair up as far as it would go.







And then, enough fun and games, it was time to twist. First, I sprayed my hair with my tea spritz, just to make it easier to work with. Then I twisted with a concoction of Afroveda Pur Whipped Gelly, Afroveda Curl Define Butter, and Qhemet OHHB. I know I'm on a product challenge and I'm only supposed to use Afroveda. But I really love Qhemet OHHB. I think it's a perfect boost to products for extra moisture. Anyway, I'm not really feeling this set.






Now, the twists do look really juicy. However, the look overall didn't somehow come together. I tried a new parting technique, which I think will be best once perfected, but this time wasn't too hot.






See. Not the greatest. But I don't feel like redoing them. And I'm sticking to the challenge, so I'll be in hats all week. Lol.

That's it guys. Once again, I highly recommend banding. I will be incorporating this into my routine because I've learned that type 4 hair is best when stretched because it helps to reduce single strand knots. Especially when you sleep on your hair. That allows it to curl up on each other. I'm glad I've found something that doesn't take much time, so I will often do this at night to protect the hair. Those pesky knots were getting on my nerves. Sorry there were so many pics again. Hope this wasn't info overload. Lol.

Oh wow...your hair stretched a lot! I'm going to try banding then twist this weekend! Thanks J&B!!!

OOOHHHH Thanks for the banding technique. I will be trying that when Diva is released. I to have 4 hair and the shrinkage kills me. But I will try this technique on day soon.

I recently discovered what banding does to my hair. I really like it, especially when you want to air dry your hair overnight, but don't want shrinkage, it's great. I was watching a YouTube video of this girl who's African, and she demonstrated how her mother would band her hair with some type of hair thread. It comes out even more stretched than with hair ties. I'm going to try it once I buy some hair thread.

Thanks Coco and KT! I definitely think you should try it. Just like Eden said it's great for drying your hair overnight. Before, when I couldn't twist same day, I just slept on my wash n go. But I don't think that's a good idea for type 4 hair. Plus when you wake up it's all smooshed. That defeats the purpose of a dry twistout if it's gonna shrink anyway.

Eden I actually got the idea to try it this weekend based on the video from LaBella you posted in your thread. So thanks! Do you have the link to the thread video?... although that sounds a bit complicated. I'm only an amateur. Lol.

Yes that is how I wake up with my hair. I was wondering how you sleep (and why you not sleep this late). I sleep BAD!! Like I think there is a point that I actually sleep on my head. I wake up like who was I fighting in my sleep last night my hair looks like it was pulled and beat up on.

JNB- I just buy knee highs from Walgreens (2 for $1) and wrap them around my puff. I learned it from Lia 81. Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/user/lia81#p/u/16/DGf6SHb9qgY

wow your hair is really growing....and it stretched alot! i gotta try that one day...and the pomp/puff was really cute

I like this and I will have to try this when I dry twist again, Thanks.

i like ur new profile pic!!!

First, I saw your av and ran over here to find out what you did. That av has me ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!! But, reading through, catching up, and learning what you did and I love it!!!! That strecthed out puff is beautiful and look at that head of hair of yours....It's growing up

I see that growth!!! get it!!

I am gonna try banding. I think I will try it this weekend.

Love the results! And your avi had me CRACKIN' UP. Your hair is GROWING girl. Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!

Hey JnB...

I tried banning back in January. I totally did not know what I was doing.

I twisted last night, and by the time I was done twisting, and re-twisting my hair was almost dry. I only used shea butter (Oyin) and I don't have much shrinkage at all...a lot of frizz, but not a lot of shrinkage.

I used Oyin's shea butter because water is NOT one of the ingredients. When I was all braided I did some research and discoverd with our type 4 hair we will have up to 80% shrinkage. So I figured I would have better results with twists if I could find product to twist with that didn't contain water.

I'm some what pleased with my results...just food for thought!!!

I sent loveself a PM about the June 5th meet-up. I plan to be there...hope you can make it!!

KNH

Hey JnB!

Wow your hair really stretched! Cool technique, I will definitely try this! & look at your growth...Looove the avatar as well, too funny!

That thread LaBella used, do you think it's hair weaving thread? I really want to try that!!!

The quote function would really make things easier...

Thanks everyone! I think my shrinkage is like 99.9999%. I go from BAA to TWA in a matter of moments. Lol. I really encourage all to try this method. It really allows you to see the full length of your hair.

KNH- I've tried the twist, untwist, retwist method, and I've used non-water based products. However, my hair is so dense and not long enough to make large twists for the first set. So I still have to do quite a few twists and it ends up taking me too long. With the bands, it holds my thick dense hair together, and it is much quicker. I think you should give it another shot.

PR- Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

Muz- my hair dries very quickly, so it wasn't a problem. It was a wee bit damp in the morning, but nothing major.

Coco- I'm not sure what LaBella used. I'll investigate.


Update: Today my hair is sooooo soft. I usually don't have HIH when my hair is in twists. But my hair is so moisturized (not greasy) I can't stop touching it. I can't attribute this moisture to the Afroveda products alone as they were not like this last time I used them. However, this time I did all the steps to moisturization (water, oil, creamy). So, it makes me wonder if it's not just that products aren't working, but that they aren't being used correctly...

Glad you all found my avatar entertaining! Later!