Haircut!

Today was full of hair-related happenings!

First, I actually got some semi-good results with my Revlon dryer and the horrible diffuser attachment. Typical. I've been using the dryer with the Sedusa attachment all week with mixed results. I like that I can fit all my hair in it and just dry it for 20 min, but I get some wonky "curls." Most of the time it seems to be for straighties who want "curl" rather than for curlies who just want to dry their hair.

A full hour after I finished drying my hair, my new dryer arrived! The diffuser bowl is different. It's like a mix of the one I had been using and can no longer attach to a dryer, and the Revlon diffuser. It's pretty heavy, but it's the quietest dryer I've used.

Then I got my hair cut. I haven't fully redone it with my own stuff, but so far I really really like it. She barely trimmed the length, so it's still long, but also added in a lot of layers. It's so much lighter! The shortest layer is just above shoulder length.

As usual, the only product used was KCKT. Wet cut. By the time I got home, it was almost dry (Sidenote: my hair usually takes 6+ hours to dry! Why does no product = dry hair in 15 min? Not cool!). So I spritzed the crap out of it with water, scrunched in some KCCC and Aussie gel, then diffused for a little bit with the Remington dryer.

The curls are skinny, but I have a lot of volume! And it did clump at the ends like usual. My hair is soft and bouncy. I don't usually like the skinny curl look, but I'm LOVING it right now. I might start using KCCC like this.

I'll probably redo tomorrow to get a true look. If I do, I'll post a picture or two.

Done

Ok, I'm done. No more spending any $$$ on hair products until at least the end of the year. I'm probably set for the next six months.

I did a lot of research and picked a dryer/diffuser. The Sedusa/Revlon combination is working ok for the moment, but doesn't really give me the curl enhancement that a regular diffuser does. I ended up going with the Remington D-2012 TStudio Tourmaline and Ceramic dryer. It had a lot of good reviews on Amazon and on NC.com. No idea when it'll get here though, since I ordered on Wednesday and it still hasn't shipped!

Look how pretty it is!

Sally's is offering free shipping for the rest of the month (code 555202). This is great, since my local store doesn't carry GVP CB. I also had a $5 coupon for renewing my beauty card a few months ago. So I got 3 bottles for the price of two!

That makes me set with rinse-out conditioners. My CJ Daily Fix will last for a long time and I still have half a bottle of V05 when it runs out. Stylers will last forever, no problems there. And a new dryer to round it out. No more PJ purchases!!

I've started shopping my make-up stash to cut down on how much I buy (because I'm already pretty much set for life where make-up's concerned) and I'm going to do it for hair products as well. Should be interesting to see what combinations I can come up with!

Diffuser Shopping

Well, I got my CJ products last week and had hoped to begin reviewing, but my diffuser had other ideas.

First, the Devafuser attachment that I've been using to attach a diffuser bowl to my Revlon dryer died. The little plastic pieces that hold the rubber attachment kept breaking off. The diffuser had been falling off at least three times during the drying process for about the past month. Last week, enough of the plastic pieces broke off so that I couldn't attach it to my dryer.

So I started using my mom's dryer, which is actually what the diffuser attachment I've been using came with. It was billed as being for fine hair, but I didn't really care. The diffuser is the part of the dryer that I care most about. The one that came with my Revlon dryer had short fingers that don't do much for curl enhancement. This was working fine until yesterday, when the dryer wouldn't even turn on. Apparently, it died. Which is great, considering I only bought it for her maybe a year and a half ago.

She went out and got a Conair Shine Ionic dryer last night. I tried it today and immediately came to the conclusion that I need to get my own. Now.

The holes in this thing were ridiculous. I might as well have just left the diffuser attachment off. Case in point: Less than two hours after I finished drying, all of my hair is completely dry. It usually takes at least four hours.

So I think I'll try my Sedusa attachment on my Revlon dryer while I'm researching new dryers/diffusers. I was thinking of just buying a better bowl attachment, but my dryer is two years old already and did not work well with the Sedusa in previous experiments (there were lots of sparks, if I remember correctly...).

CJ's Aloe Fix Light has not impressed me yet. I've only really used it yesterday and today, in the midst of diffuser problems. But still. Not good for morale.

Youtube

I'll admit, I spend a good amount of time on youtube during the week. Mostly for music and makeup videos (love Emily's channel!). Every now and then I'll find something hair-related that's relevant to me.

This is one of those times.

I just discovered naturallycurly.com's channel (and yes, it was because the website's down)!!

How cute is this?



Check it out!

Do you have any favorite youtube hair gurus?

KCSS: Take Three

After posting last night, I decided to do wash again and really bring on the moisture. I tried to get overconditioned (which is hard to do with a head of porous hair!). I think I hit the jackpot.

I started off with a good amount of GVP CB after spritzing with water. Then I spritzed with Oyin's Juice & Berries (Found this in my stash on Thursday, more on this later!). After fifteen minutes, I used my usual V05 Raspberry conditioner to co-wash, then applied about a quarter-sized amount of KCKT before detangling. After rinsing upside-down, I scrunched in a nickle-sized amount of GVP CB as my leave-in, followed by two pumps of Kinky-Curly's Spiral Spritz. Blotted as usual, then scrunched in a little more KCCC then usual (which still isn't really much at all). Finished up with Aussie Instant Freeze gel.

I tried to diffuse using cold air only, but after five minutes it didn't seem like it was doing anything. So I switched back to hot. Clipped afterward, but of course that didn't do anything. I waited about four hours before SOTC, and immediately regretted scrunching it out so thoroughly.

My hair had actually curled pretty well, even in the back. It was soft and VERY shiny (thanks, KC products!). And best of all, it was fully moisturized. It was pretty late at this point, so I pineappled and went to bed.

Things looked good when I took it down this morning. All I did was spritz in a little water and smooth. Now it's gone pretty flat. Which is ok. I was going for moisture, not curls. And I definitely got it.


I feel like I'm closer to knowing how to use this product. I think it needs to be paired with a strong-hold gel, which I am in the market for. I don't think my Aussie gel is strong enough anymore. I also feel like it's a product that doesn't need a leave-in. And it's so heavy on my hair that I'll have to rotate it. Hopefully I'll be able to try it again next week sometime.

Biting the Bullet

So I've decided to bite the bullet and order some Curl Junkie products.

I'm really unhappy with how my hair looks and feels right now. I don't think the dryness I'm experiencing right now is related to protein sensitivity, but rather my porosity. And my hair shouldn't be this dry what with washing it consistently and taking advantage of the S&C method. It has to be a product issue. I've done two DTs since my last post, and while it's curling better it doesn't feel moisturized at all.

I'm also reconsidering the CG method. Conditioner-only washing has been great, but what if my hair needs something more? There have been a lot of ingredients that my hair hasn't been able to handle with this method and I've always ended up using a sulfate shampoo to remove them. This is a lot worse than using a milder surfactant.

So I'm about to place an order for:

• Daily Fix conditioner
• Curl Rehab
• Aloe Fix Lite

I priced it out, and aveyou.com has the best deal for these three products. I'm boycotting CurlMart. I absolutely refuse to order from them and pay $13+ in shipping/taxes. They're not far enough away from me to warrant $10 in shipping charges. I have no problem ordering from the CJ site, but I found a great coupon code for AY, and they have $1 shipping for orders of $50+.

Anyway, I'm hoping this solves my recent hair problems. I did a lot of research before settling on these. The price was a lot to swallow for being unemployed, but my hair needs to look good for interviews, right?

Thursday Tidbits

I felt a need to update, so here are some thoughts going through my mind today:

• My scalp is being weird. I've been pretty good about co-washing every-other day lately, but it's started getting greasy. And itchy. I have no idea what's going on. I used to go every three days and be fine (more dry than anything, actually). It started doing this a few weeks ago and I blamed it on the Coconut Curlada conditioner. Now I'm not so sure.

• My hair is not as curly as it was two weeks ago (using my regular techniques). I used a lot of protein that week and have since when back to a moisture-rich routine. My hair is really dry and it feels like protein overload.

• I reread the original Spritz and Condition thread and decided to start using the method as originally described by Del. This means scrunching conditioner in, finger-combing instead of Denman-ing, and doing the entire routine upside-down. Curls got a lot better, but like I said before, it's really dry. I'm interested to see how this goes after the protein damage dies down. It's also interesting because my hair isn't as clumpy as it usually is. No ringlets. Curls are skinnier but more defined? It's definitely a trade-off. I'm not sure which I prefer, and though I've asked for opinions, apparently I'm the only one in this house who notices a difference!
  

• I recently cleaned and reorganized my hair/skincare/makeup area in the bathroom and discovered my other diffusers at the bottom of the pile. I've been experimenting with how I diffuse my hair lately, and I'm thinking about starting a diffusing experiment. My hair's long enough for the Sedusa again, and it would be cool if I could get the DevaFuser to work for me. If nothing else, it gives me something to blog about!
  

• I'm thinking about trying some Curl Junkie products again. I've been reading Marsha's blog and trying to figure out if it's something my hair could do. I'm very weary of oils, especially since the summer oil experiment failure. But I've been reading a lot of great things about the formulation of her products and overall quality. The only other problem with this is my current unemployed status and the expensive nature of those products, especially compared to the ones I'm currently using. Winning today's giveaway would solve that problem, but those winners also won't be announced until next month.

• I lost my Curly Girl book. I really want to reread it since it's been a while and a few discussions on the topic have caught my eye on NC. I know I had it in my last dorm room (spring 2009), but it's not with the other stash of books from that time. I guess I need to spend some time digging in the garage. Fun.

• I think I need a trim. But I really don't want to go back to my stylist. I'm thinking about doing it myself, and that kind of freaks me out, lol. The ends just need to be trimmed and a little shaping wouldn't hurt. I like my long layers, but I need something to help with volume up top. Decisions, decisions...