Three Days Only - 25% Off Sale at Sally's!

Well, it's been a while. Sorry about that. My hair was kind of put on the back burner over the last couple weeks since school has been so busy. Fortunately yesterday was my last official day student teaching so I will have more (actual) time for my hair and this blog!

First, I never did find that camera cord. Oh well.

Second, my hair has been kind of blah, partly because of said back burner and partly because of FSG (I'm guessing). Volume has been non-existent and it was getting a little dry. Curl pattern was not consistent either.

Saturday night I did an overnight DT with coconut oil hoping to get some of the moisture back. Then Sunday I used Suave's Coconut conditioner as a co-wash, hoping to perk those curls up with some protein, and went back to good old KCCC for styling. It helped a little.

Wednesday night I used all my regular conditioners but used KCCC and pink boots for styling. I didn't feel like it was that great on Thursday, mostly because pink boots makes my hair a little too soft for sleeping on. But I got a lot of compliments, so something must have gone right.

That's another thing that's been happening lately. The "Oh My God, Does Your Hair Naturally Do That All By Itself? I Hate You!" compliments. Usually when it's not looking it's best. I don't understand.

Anyway, I'm about to wash again (taking some pictures today to send out with graduation announcements!) and am planning on using pink boots and KCCC again. They work so well together, especially when I don't have to immediately go to sleep after washing.

Ok, there's the update! Now on to sale news!

Today I woke up to a nice email from Sally's that gave me a promo code for 25% off an order (use code 555912). Here's what I'm getting:

GVP Conditioning Balm ($5.49 with Beauty Card)

My all-time favorite CG conditioner. It rocks. It keeps my porous hair hydrated and gives the right amount of slip. I'm not out of my last one, but for 25% off, I'm stocking up!

Salon Care Honey and Almond Conditioner (On Sale for $5.99! Reg. $9.49)

This is a leap of faith purchase. But it's on sale. I read a lot of good things about this conditioner on nc.com about a year or so ago, but never bought it because it does contain hydrolyzed keratin (protein). I don't do protein. But with my hair looking blah and not even reacting to Suave last week, I figure I can chance it. And it's on sale. That bottle of Suave was my only usable once-in-a-blue-moon protein source because my Giovanni products have oils in them. I finished it up last week, so I need a new source anyway. And it's on sale. Keratin also seems to be one of the better proteins. And it's a gallon. Did I mention it's on sale?

That's it for hair. I'm also getting a Palladio Tinted Lip Balm (in Golden Pink). I have one in Cotton Candy right now and LOVE it. I'm debating cheap nail polish right now. I like China Glaze but I don't want to dish out $5 on one bottle.

Anyone else taking advantage of this sale?

Stocking Up

It's been a really, really, really long time since I've bought hair products. After finding what works for me, I don't really feel a need to buy anything else.

[For the record, I am not a reformed PJ. I've simply transferred it. You don't want to see my make-up collection. I'm on a no-buy for blushes because I literally cannot shut my blush drawer!]

Remember when I had that hair emergency - my local Sally's had stopped stocking my beloved GVP Conditioning Balm - in like AUGUST? I have finally reached the bottom of my last bottle (I only bought two online). Is that cool or what? I made it almost five months before having to stock up again.

For those wanting to try, it is currently on sale for $4.99 on Sally's website. I got two. And a jar of Lustrasilk Shea Butter Cholesterol (the one I tried to order last time and was later told it was out of stock). The weather has been up and down lately, so hopefully this will work for me!

Last time it took like two days to get here. Hoping for that great of service this time (especially with UPS's prices!!).

Hair Emergency!

Once again, I let myself get to the bottom of a conditioner bottle before I even thought of buying my next one. "Oh well," I thought, "I'll just stop at Sally's on the way home and pick one up." Sounds like a plan, right?

Wrong. I walk in the door, walk straight back to the GVP section and lo and behold: no Conditioning Balm!

"WTF!" my mind exclaimed.

"Can I help you find something?" the employee asks. I explain what I'm looking for and she walks over to the Biotera section before turning around and replying "Oh, no, I know what you're talking about."

We look desperately (ok, I'm being a little dramatic) for the bottle of conditioner. It's simply not there. It's not even like there's a space for one and it's just empty. There is a whole row of GVP Matrix products, but this one is missing.

"Well, it should be here. Unless we've discontinued it, which I didn't think we had. HUM."

DISCONTINUED? This is the ONE conditioner I can use - it's moisturizing enough and it does not contain any bad ingredients, like the usual silicones, protein, or oils.

Then, she walks away. Without any explanation. She sort of acted like she was going to the stock room, but turned at the last second and went back to whatever aisle she had been in before. And starts humming again. Ok...

So I looked around where it should have been for a temporary replacement. No luck, everything has silicones, protein, and lanolin.

"Are you finding everything?" another employee asks. Yes, I am. Obviously that is why I've already been asked and why I'm staring wide-eyed at a display of hair products.

Eventually I decide to stop wasting my time (because I've already wasted enough just by driving there) and walk out the door dejectedly. "Thanks!" the employee yells after me. Yeah, thanks for nothing.

So I race home and what do you know? It's on their website. So now I have to order online and pay shipping (I'm not having the store order it - not dealing with them again).

This time I'll order two, so it will be another three months until I have to deal with this again.

Allergic to Suave

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. Between school, visiting family, and an underwhelming birthday, I've been busy. In hair news, the repeated use of BB's Smoothie has finally built up on me. My hair is frizzy when wet and not curling as well as I know it can. It only has a small amount of palm oil in it, so I'm now weary of all oils. I was thinking about taking advantage of the 4th of July sales and getting some of the CJ DT, but I really don't want to spend that much on something that might make my hair look worse. Thankfully I have not used any of the samples I got from KM. That would have been a waste.

I'm so in need of conditioner right now, it's crazy. I'm out of V05, so I used Suave Lavendar for yesterday's co-wash. BAD IDEA. I stopped using Suave conditioners a few weeks ago, thinking it was contributing to my allergic reactions after getting out of the shower. I was right. By the time I had finished co-washing yesterday, some hives and red patches had popped up on my back. I'm not sure what it is about those conditioners (maybe a preservative?) but it's bad.

I'm also out of a rinse-out - well technically I have some of BB's Smoothie left, but I don't feel a great need to finish it. I wish I liked it, but unfortunately I don't. I think that about Jessicurl as well. Sigh. But I've been meaning to pick up some GVP Conditioning Balm for a few weeks now (!) and just haven't gotten around to it. Today or tomorrow for sure!

And of course, I'm thisclose to being done with my first bottle of KCKT. It lasted six months - that's a good thing right?

Off to do some shopping - happy 4th, everyone!

Pink Boots & KCCC Revisited

OMG - why did I ever stop using this combo? I'm in love! Frizz-free clumps with root curl and shine - what more could a curly girl ask for?

Did I mention our temps are in the high 90s to low 100s? With dew points in the 60s and 70s??

As I said in my last post, I revisited this combo on Friday (after my previous blog entry on the subject was referenced in a post on nc.com -whoot!). I had really good second day hair on Saturday (enough to get some compliments, which hasn't happened in a long time!). I wasn't feeling well yesterday, so it spent most of the day in a bun. I decided to wash last night, and it actually looked pretty good when I took it down. So potential 3rd day hair!

I washed last night, scrunched out most of the crunch, and put it up in a modified pineapple. It was AMAZING this morning! I didn't even have to do anything to refresh it! I'm really hoping for third day hair. Not only would it be awesome to accomplish, but it's a serious pain to do my hair in this dorm room. I have two more weeks (but home on Thursdays for the weekend) after this that I'm stuck here. If I never have to wash my hair here again, I will be one happy curly girl!

I really wish I had pictures to post. My hair looked very similar to the way it did at my sister's confirmation a few weeks ago (at which time I also failed to take pictures!). I think it also has something to do with GVP Conditioning Balm. I've been using BB's Smoothie and not getting the same results. I pretty much scraped the bottom of my last bottle last night. Really need to get some more!

Clarifying (Again)

So after discovering the oil build-up problem last week, I clarified with a sulfate shampoo. Things were kind of weird Sunday and yesterday, so I clarified again today. Then I co-washed with Suave Green Apple, conditioned with GVP Conditioning Balm, scrunched in BB's FSG, blotted, and scrunched in some KCCC. I haven't used BB's FSG in a long time, way before the dews went up. I figured it was worth a shot, especially since my hair doesn't look it's best after shampooing.

I was actually really surprised. I had some nice ringlets while diffusing. It didn't last as long as I would have liked, but that could be because it took a long time to dry and I didn't use a super-hard-holding gel (crazy, I know!). So here's how it turned out:


I know it's not my best, but this is really good for hair that was just shampooed! I have tons of clumps and very minimal frizz. My roots are pretty flat - I'm wayyy overdue for a new clipping method. I ordered some of BB's Smoothie conditioner, and if that doesn't come in tomorrow I'm heading to Sally's to get some more GVP Conditioning Balm and new clips.

I'm also making my way into the world of homemade products. I haven't had time to do Jess' routine, and I'll be moving back into a dorm in three weeks (soo not cool!), so I need something that's easy to travel with, meets my skincare needs, but also is non-commercial. I ordered a book that also included haircare recipes, so we'll see how that goes! With the success I had today with FSG (the first since... the end of February?) I'm going to make my own FSG concoction as well. I'm pretty excited. And who knows, maybe I'll be the next BB (hey, I can dream. Especially with the year of student-teaching - and no income - I'm about to embark on!).

Lesson Learned: Protein Overload

So in my last post I wrote about the state of my hair after using LVPNG. Yesterday was much, much worse! It's still hard to believe that my hair reacted that violently to the small amount of protein in that conditioner. I mean, I know I'm protein sensitive, but I've never had that severe of a reaction.

I had to get up early to go to tutoring for one of my education classes, so I didn't have time to shower. My hair still looked pretty good from the night before, but it was definitely very poofy. I have thick hair to begin with, but the width of my ponytail doubled in size! I think I got one good picture before things went downhill, and it's on my other computer (which is still at home; I really need to send it away to be fixed).

Lately it's been very bright outside, so I've taken to wearing my sunglasses a lot. I don't take them off when I go inside, just perch them on top of my head. For some reason, this loosens things up a bit. Add that to the fact that my hair was becoming increasingly dry and tangly, and things start to not look so great. Last night I decided to scrunch in some FOTE for moisture. BAD IDEA!! My "curls" immediately got crunchy and even more tangled. We're talking rat's nest, which I haven't had since seventh grade (funny story, but I'll tell it later).

To make a long story short, I came back to school/work today with shorter hair that looked horrible. I had it half-up in my flexi-8, but I'm pretty sure there was some damage/breakage as I had to rip tangles apart just to get it up. I spent about ten minutes in the shower tonight detangling. KCKT alone doesn't cut it anymore, so I added GVP CB and brushed through with my Denman. I'm really hoping tomorrow works out better.

I really think this was just a combination of using protein with the icequeen clumping method. Doing everything upside results in curls in weird places - they don't lie down as they normally do and catch on each other. Would things have been better if I had only used one of these? I have no idea. Not sure I'll be finding out any time soon, either.

So bottom line: whether this was because I had used it after so many harsh shampoos, or just because my hair really doesn't like it, I'm not using protein for a long time! Lesson learned!

Loving my FSG

So lately I've been avoiding BB's FSG in favor of my own. Yeah, I know. Part of it is because I haven't been overly excited with the results the two times I've used it. And the rest of me is so happy with my own that I don't want to experiment with anything else. Yeah, I KNOW!

Here's today:

And of course, the pictures I took don't reflect what it looks like in person. The bottom one is as close as I got. These are with Suave Ocean Breeze (co-wash), GVP Conditioning Balm (rinse-out) and some Aussie Scultping Gel - as usual! It's a great combo!

I did break out of my FSG shell tonight. I needed to make a new batch, so I decided to add some honey to the first bottle. My other bottle is in the dishwasher, so I'll make the second batch tomorrow. I'm contemplating getting some golden flax seeds tomorrow. I need to go to whole foods anyway (I'm jumping on the Beauty Secrets of the Bible bandwagon to see how that works before ordering some more GOW products).

I'm in desperate need of a haircut. Will hopefully get that scheduled soon.

Temps today were in the mid-fifties with dew point of 44. Which is crazy (but of course, not surprising), because yesterday it reached the NINETIES. Dew point was almost SIXTY!

BB's Flax Seed Gelee Experiment Day 1

Today's experiment was supposed to be my flax seed gel and pink boots, but my plan changed. I got my order from Boticelli Babe (on nc.com)!! I got: flax seed gelee with agave nectar in lemongrass, brulee in cupcake, and the hair/body butter!

Since it's Saturday and I have no where to go tonight, I decided to use the FSG all by itself. I've never done that before, and had no idea what the hold would be like. I water-washed, used GVP Conditoning Balm as my rinse-out, and then used a BUNCH of FSG. I think all in all I used about an inch out of the bottle. I scrunched for a while, plopped for about ten minutes, scrunched in some more, and then plopped for five minutes. I noticed more frizz than usual while diffusing. After I clipped I let it airdry for about an hour.

Results:

I was really surprised! I had a LOT of crunch. I don't have the volume I'd like, but it's been like that for a while. I think that's mostly a weather/hair cut thing. But overall I really like this stuff. I definitely have some more experimenting to do!

For the record, today's temps were in the fifties, and the dew point is currently FIVE. I haven't been outside yet, but I'll definitely update this if that has any effect.

*Later*

Just got back from dinner. Before I could even order my food, I got "You have GORGEOUS hair!" ... Definitely not a bad hair day!

(That's the end of a telescope behind my head, lol)

Update!

Yeah, I know, it's been a while. School has been SUPER busy lately. And nothing particularly interesting or rant-worthy has happened (knock on wood!!).

After a week and a half of commitment to flax seed gel (even I was surprised!), I went back to pink boots for a night. Not the same. Granted the temps and dew points have risen, so that could be making a difference. Last week it was up to 80 with dew points in the 50s. Today was about 60. I'm hoping it stays like that for the rest of the week.

Tonight I tried something different. I used Suave Ocean Breeze to co-wash, GVP Conditioning Balm to condition (love this stuff!!), and then scrunched in some FSG and plopped. When I took down the plop, I didn't scrunch as much Aussie in as I usually do. I know I over-did it with the gel over the weekend at least once, so I wanted to see what less super-hold gel would do. After my second plop I added more FSG and diffused. I've started diffusing a little longer and it's definitely helping with curl formation. When I was done drying, my curls looked much happier! I'm currently clipped (trying a different way of clipping, so another new experiment!) and air drying, so no official results yet. I'll take some pics when I scrunch the crunch.

I'm pondering ordering some of the famous magical products of BotticelliBabe on nc.com. So far I'm liking the results of my own mixture, but I'm "hearing" amazing things about her products. In addition to the flax seed gellee, I'm hoping to order the brulee and butter. I haven't made any decisions on ingredients to add though. I'm leaning towards just agave for the gellee - don't want to mess with magnesium sulfate!

*Edit*

The results are in! For some reason they didn't photograph well. They look much better in person. And I took some interesting shots that will end up on facebook.

Flax Seed Gel

I've made my own flax seed gel off and on since going CG (in fact, there was one memorable incident where the plastic handle of my strainer melted and change shape, but that's a story for a different day), but I haven't actually used it consistently until this week.

I made a new batch after the superbowl. It was pretty runny, so I thought it wouldn't hold up as well for me. I spent the entire week experimenting with it, and my results seem to have gone from awesome to just ok. The weather has been changing (it's now in the 60s with dew points in the 50s) and I think I may need to do an ACV rinse tonight, so I think these have had some effects on my results.

I've been using it with various conditioners (and no leave-ins), and GVP Conditioning Balm seems to have the best results. I've also used it on dry hair to touch up on frizz and curl, and it worked better when the weather was much colder. I've always used some Aussie Sculpting Gel on top, though the amount has varied.

I'm really wanting to go back to pink boots to get my big spirals back. The first day with flax seed gel gave me some amazing ringlets, but I haven't seen them since then.

Weather changes suck. Just when I figure out what my hair likes, the weather goes and changes. It went from cold and dry to warm and humid. I used some KBB for my small dose of humectants and it didn't help at all. I'm hoping the ACV rinse takes care of these problems. Otherwise I may need to rethink my routine. Knowing our weather, it'll be back to freezing cold and dry by next week. I wish it was easier!

Note: I edited the blog entry about the modified pineapple. I'm getting better results by scrunching out the crunch before I put it in a pineapple. I think leaving the crunch in ensures that it is not fully dry, and that can mold some weird curls during the night. Thought I'd let you know, if anyone is interested...