Has It Really Been A Year?

Well, things have been resolved and my hair is much happier. My university came seriously close to pretty much screwing my life over, due mainly to one stupid person and a rigid computer system, and though it has made things more difficult, it is resolved. I've also discovered that being a curly girl in the dorm room I'm in for the next three weeks is pretty much impossible. The bathroom/shower area is ridiculously small with no where to put anything (not cool when you have multiple products/hair towels!), and the electrical outlets are nowhere near the mirror! I have to sit in a weird position on my bed. It's a nightmare.

Which is why I'm glad to be home for the weekend! I had a pretty good hair day yesterday and soon I'll be able to see if it carried over into second day hair. I revisited pink boots and KCCC and remember why I fell in love with it back at Easter.

Ok, on to the next item... Has it really been a year? It's crazy to think about everything that's happened since I first started last summer. All the experiments I've had, the good ones and the bad. I've learned so much about so many things since taking the plunge - my outlook on life has changed. And I know that sounds ridiculous and naive, but it's true.

Just over a year ago, I remember being in the hair product aisle with a friend. She knows her ingredients. She picked up the bottle of conditioner I was considering, pointed to the ingredients and said "These are so bad! Don't buy this! This one right here can cause cancer!" to which I laughed and replied, "Mmm chemicals," and put in my basket. Now you can't get me near that with a ten foot pole. I'm constantly complaining about ingredients in my family's hair products. Or screaming at the tv when certain companies air false advertising. My friend introduced me to another website that led me to nc.com, and I always tell her she created a monster - I'm worse than her now!

I began with the book that many begin with, even though I did find nc.com before. While I'm grateful to her for writing it so that I might be introduced, I think it falls short in a lot of ways. There is so much more to caring for curly hair than anyone could have imagined. Sometimes it's more of a curse than a blessing, but that's life. Overall, my hair is in a much better place - as am I. As shallow and materialistic as it sounds to some, having curly hair that is healthy and well cared for makes all the difference. Curly girls endure more than their straighter counterparts. It really does have an effect on their psyche. And bad hair days = bad days, period.

Ok enough of the rambling - on to the pictures!

The last two pictures are of yesterday's hair. I had some issues with volume (as usual - and I'll add that the clipping picture is just one that I've tried, not using it right now) but overall pretty good! It's crazy to look at my pre-CG pics and see how far I've come! And things will only get better! Thanks to everyone that's helped me over the past year - I'm more grateful than you can imagine.

It's My CG Anniversary!

Yay! One whole year of being CG!

I had a whole post planned out, but some not so good things (as in screwed-me-over-in-life type things) have happened. I am not in the mood and I have pretty much no mental capacity right now.

Hopefully things will be straightened out tomorrow and I can post.

Jennifer

P.S. It was a bad hair day anyway - hopefully it will be better with take 2 tomorrow!

Yay Coconut Oil!

I got a small jar of coconut oil with my order from iherb the other day, so I decided to try it out last night. I used it as a mini-DT before low-pooing with GTTTT shampoo (my scalp has been stubbornly itchy for over a week now, no matter how many brown sugar scrubs I do).

I didn't notice much of a difference last night. I SOTC a little bit before doing a modified pineapple and going to sleep. This morning I scrunched out the rest and used a little bit of pink boots to smooth away frizz. It feels SOOOOOO soft! I really like it.

I was reading a magazine last night while diffusing and it said we should do weekly scalp and/or hair treatments with coconut oil to maintain scalp health and keep it shiny and soft. If these results continue, it may be a new weekly staple for me! Which is awesome because having such a high porosity leads to dry hair at the end of the first day and definitely the second day. I know it hasn't been a full day yet, but hair is still soft and happy! And it seemed to really absorb well. I'm a little weary after just getting over an oil build-up problem, but it does seem to act differently than other oils.

On another note, I updated the previous two posts with picture results. Still experimenting to see what will work best. Summer school starts tomorrow, so now I have to re-adapt to not only living in a dorm, but sharing a ridiculously small room with someone. I had my own bedroom in the dorm I shared during the regular school year... sigh.

Navigating Natural Products

I know I said I would update with pictures, but for I can't find the cord for the camera and the computer isn't reading the chip. So hopefully they will be up at some point. I had some really great clumps, which is actually pretty normal for KCCC.

My problem right now is with volume on top. I diffuse upside-down and to the sides until my hair is crunchy. This method is great for getting lots of curl towards the bottom, but the upper-middle is not as curly, and the top is usually completely dry - and flat - by the time I'm done. I then spray some water around my roots and clip with mini jaw clips. I've tried spraying this with Garnier Fructis' spray gel, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. The clips usually fall out and it's just horrible.

Today I decided to try clipping before diffusing. Did not help much. They pretty much fell out (which is what I expected, but I figured I'd try). I think it's the clips. I switched to those about a month ago after trying the longer clips used in the Curlisto video. Last year I tried the square metal clips without much luck - they always fell out. Maybe I'll try the misfitcurls method next, though I need to get those clips.

Plopping doesn't help and wet-pineappling isn't much of an option because when my hair is wet, it needs to be plopped to help with curl formation. Which just gave me the idea of doing a wet plopped pineapple. Maybe I'll try this tomorrow!

Beyond that, I've used Botticelli Botanicals' Smoothie conditioner three or four times now. I have mixed feelings. When I put some in my hands and rub together to apply, it's like my skin absorbs a good amount. Then my hair absorbs the rest - I can't tell that I put anything in. It's not extra-detangling for me like LVPNG was (when I could actually use it...). There have been a few times where I had to use KCKT to help with detangling. I've also started getting bad knots, especially at the nape of my neck. I did an ACV rinse today, so hopefully that will help. However, after I finish detangling, it does have a decent amount of slip. And the scent (orange) is nowhere near as overpowering as the lemongrass scent of my BB FSG. So I don't know. It's pretty light - I actually think it would make a better leave-in conditioner. But it has a little oil in it, and I'm hesitant to leave that in after the recent oil incident. If the knots don't improve, I may switch back to GVP Conditioning Balm and save this for later in the summer when I don't need as much moisture.

I got an order from iherb today, so I finally have everything I need to make my own deodorant and specialized flax seed gel. I just finished making my flax seed gel and am very impressed so far! I hope it works well tomorrow!

I used:
- 2 cups distilled water
- 1/4 cup golden flax seeds
- a little more than 1 tablespoon of agave nectar
- a pinch of citric acid
- a few drops of sweet orange EO (which smells just like the oranges we pick off my grandpa's orange tree in California)

This overfilled my 8oz bottle, which was really surprising to me. With my old FSG, I would use the same amounts of water and brown flax seeds and make just enough to fill a 4oz bottle. Anyway, it seemed a little on the runny side, so hopefully the agave will give me enough hold. I may have to wash twice tomorrow!

I think that's everything. I'll try and update tomorrow with results and pictures.

* Edit *

Here are my results:

As you can see, there wasn't a whole lot of volume. I didn't blot or use a leave-in before applying, so I'm going to experiment with that. I did get some great spirals and clumps, but it was hard to get a picture of it (so I did resort to using the flash!).

I co-washed with Suave Green Apple (which I'm beginning to think I'm allergic too...), GVP Conditioning Balm as a rinse-out, homemade FSG, and Aussie Sculpting gel.

Getting Back to Normal

Just a quick update to say that my hair is pretty much back to normal. I had an AWESOME hair day on Sunday, which was even better because it was my sister's confirmation and all of our friends and family were there. I washed on Saturday night and used only KCKT, KCCC, and Aussie. I was worried because it was still a little wet when I pineappled to go to sleep that night, but it worked out in the end! I'd post a picture, but I don't think I have a good close-up. But I had awesome clumps and spirals, with curl all the way to my root!

I've been washing every-other day for the past two weeks. This is when that whole porous thing does not come in handy - my hair has been very dry every second day. They dew points haven't been as high as they were, so I think that has something to do with it.

I got BB's Smoothie conditioner the other day. I've only used it once, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'll use it again today and update later.

* Edit *

I don't usually take pictures with flash because I think it makes my hair look curlier than it really is. I couldn't help it this time though!

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!).

Done!

Yeah, I know, it's been forever. But the semester is finally over! It was a rough last three weeks, so it's definitely a relief. And as my brain and sleep suffered, so did my hair. I had so many issues, from regular frizz, to being super soft on day 1 and super dry on day 2, to frizzy when wet. My scalp was dry and itchy. It seemed to take forever to do my hair, and when I did it just sucked. Low-poos, vinegar rinses, and baking soda didn't help. I had no idea what was going on.

So I got some help from the boards and discovered that it was most likely oils building up on me. It makes sense that it would be super soft on the first day and then dry on the second, since moisture couldn't get through. I did a sulfate on Wed night and slept overnight with some Suave in. Didn't get around to washing again until today (checking out of my dorm yesterday was a PAIN). It doesn't look great, but that's to be expected with sulfates.

I don't know what I'm going to do product-wise. I'm pretty much out of AOHR anyway, so nothing will be wasted there. I may go back to what I did last summer, which was just Suave, Aussie gel, and sometimes CK or FOTE. That's what I used in my profile pic at the top. The dews are in the 70s and I honestly don't know what I'm supposed to do. I know CK and FOTE worked great last summer, but all this "don't use humectants in high dew points" or "use anti-humectants" is boggling my brain (which is still in recovery, lol).

So that's that. I'll be updating more often now and I have some experimenting to do, so things will be better!