Lesson Learned: Boxing?

Today's lesson:

Don't do 20 minutes of advanced boxing on Wii fit just prior to washing your hair.

I can barely lift my arm. It's a co-wash day AND it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to diffuse. I'm a goner.

The Secret DT

I guess this starts with Sunday night. It was then I decided I needed to wash my hair, because I usually skip Sundays and throw my hair up in a bun or flexi-8 on Mondays. I wanted my hair to look normal for my Monday class. So I washed.

I decided it would be nice to try out a new conditioner. I took my mom to Whole Foods on Friday night to pick up stuff for our awesome new skin care routine. Some of the stuff we needed just happened to be in the same aisle as the hair stuff, so I looked. I ended up dropping Nature's Gate Herbal conditioner in the basket. I remember reading good reviews, and it was cheap, so I had to pick it up. As I applied it on Sunday night, there wasn't really any slip. In fact, it was almost the opposite. But it felt soo nice when I rinsed it out. The smell seemed a little strong, but I figured it would fade away as most rinse-outs do.

WRONG.

Yesterday afternoon, I was still going strong. And it wasn't a good smell... My entire head smelled like really really bad cologne. I don't know the radius of that smell, but I'm hoping it wasn't enough to where others could smell it. It was embarassing.

Anyway, I was really tired and busy last night, so I didn't re-wash. I know, the one time I should have and I don't. Instead, I woke up this morning and wet it down. Then I added in some Jessicurl Weekly Deep Treatment. The bad cologne smell was faint enough that the Island Fantasy scent completely overpowered it (yay!). Then I put my hair in a low ponytail and secured it into a messy bun with some bobby pins. It looked really cute and as so easy to do. And there you have it: the secret DT.

Why didn't I think of this during the winter? No idea, but it's something I'll continue to do as needed. I like getting the extra moisture and having a little secret is a great bonus!

Porosity: Where Products Come Into Play

Last week was very frustrating for my hair. After two straight weekends of success with KCCC, I couldn't understand why I kept getting crappy hair during the week. I live on campus during the week and return home on weekends because I'm tutoring a family friend's son for a reading assessment class I'm taking.

I was so ready to post a blog on Thursday about how my hair hated my dorm for some reason, and how it wasn't fair that it didn't look good for the majority of the week. Then I washed my hair on Friday. It was gross. I was at home; why didn't look beautiful and clumpy like normal "at home" hair?

Then I realized what I had done wrong. The first weekend I had success with this product, I blotted my hair before applying KCCC. Yes, I've been doing this every time since, so why was this time special? Because I had blotted more water out. I remember the panic of that first time because I thought I had taken too much water out. So each time after that, I didn't blot out as much. BIG MISTAKE, as I found out Friday.

So for me, blotting a lot = awesome hair with KCCC. Anything else is gross. There was a thread posted recently on nc.com about KCCC where people could post their tips. After posting about my experience with blotting, some others seemed very surprised that this worked. For those people, they need the extra water in their hair for KCCC to work it's magic.

This got me to thinking... Why does the amount of water in your hair with this product matter so much?

My theory: Porosity.

I have coarse and highly porous hair. My hair soaks up soo much water it's ridiculous. I plop twice just to get most of the water out (and my first towel is usually soaked!). When I do a DT and leave it in for a while, it will literally disappear in my hair. I had a crazy experience with coconut oil a few weeks ago that did this almost immediately. It really freaked me out - I had never seen porosity in action like that.

So for some reason, something in KCCC needs to be applied to hair that is less wet, but more moisturized, if that makes sense. I have to use more of a leave-in than I normally would, but also have to take out way more water than I do with anything else. My first thought is that this is because of the aloe. That first time I had success, my hair soaked it up. It felt dry, just like aloe had started doing to me. I'm going to experiment with this after the "less is more" experiment.

I think that for people with normal to low porosity, they need what they can get. Or really, their hair soaks up the perfect about of water for KCCC success. Then it's just a matter of how much to use. They don't have to worry about blotting at all.

I'm wondering how this would work with other products. Would I get much better hair days if I did this with all my products? Or is KCCC just special? Something to experiment with.

Some other happenings:

I'm really liking Curl Junkie Curl Fuel Spray. It's awesome for revitalizing my clumps the day after using KCCC (admittedly the only thing I've tried it with so far!). It doesn't work all the time - my hair was in a bun or a flexi-8 all week. But as long as the hair was good to begin with (a good first day as opposed to a crappy one), it works out well.

Today my hair was not looking good. I washed last night and then did an extra modified pineapple (much different from what I posted a few months ago - it's been modified for shorter hair). It really looked like it was going to be a flexi-8 day when I took it down. I sprayed CJ and scrunched, but it wasn't up to par. So I remembered something someone on nc.com had said about what she does with frizz and multiple day hair. She uses a "spritz, smooth, and scrunch" method with CK. I had nothing to lose, so I tried it. I'm so glad I did! My clumps are revitalized and my frizz is minimal. Of course I'm about to head out into the 30 mph wind (we had 54 mph on Thursday! Like my curls had a chance!), so it may not last. But thanks to whatsercurl for the suggestion!

More to come this week. I'm thinking about trying out a secret DT should my hair decide to not cooperate. Sounds exiciting, huh?

And thanks for the compliments :)

Quick Update on KCCC

I may have finally figured out KCCC (knock on wood!). I've used it a few times and had semi-ok days. I used it yesterday afternoon and had spirals eveywhere! This is the first time in long time I've seen spirals form before plopping.

So far I've been getting better results by applying a leave-in (KCKT) and then blotting/scrunching out some water. I've been getting a little frizz and I think this may be from taking out too much water. Scrunching in KCCC is the weirdest feeling. I think it may be the aloe, because it's similar to what FOTE did the last few times I've used it. My hair sucks it up and it almost feels dry. It's the weirdest thing. Especially because it's pretty wet when I take it down from a plop. So I'm going to experiment a bit with that and see how things go.

I got the Curl Junkie Fuel Spray on Friday and finally got a chance to use it this morning. It really perked up my curls! It was amazing! I'm excited to use this stuff during the week. Here's a picture of the KCKT/KCCC combo with CJ FS.

Yesterday I was planning on doing a DT. My dad was near Whole Food and offered to pick up some AOHR. Unfortunately, he got the shampoo (fail). So my sister is now the proud owner of both AOHR shampoo and the rest of my LVPNG. I told her if she got some HE mousse, her waves would probably come out to play. We'll see how that works for her. Anyway, I got some Burt's Bees Super Shiny Grapefruit & Sugar Beets conditioner for a DT. Not sure how I liked it. My hair does seem more moisturized, but that may have happened with any conditioner. So more experimenting to do!

All PJ-ed Out!

And would you believe I only bought ONE hair product?!

Just a quick update to confess some PJ sins. I have been looking around for a curl refresher-type product for the mornings since I usually wash at night. I settled on Curl Junkie Curl Fuel Spray since the dews are getting to be in the CK range. I have high hopes for this one!

I realized that I'm almost out of my Oyin Handmade Funk Butter (lol). This is probably the best natural deodorant I've tried. Totally worth the processing & shipping waits. The Juices & Berries didn't work out too well for me (we'll see once it's summer), but I really like supporting a smaller company. And their podcasts are pretty cool. I use this over a crystal stick. So there went some more hard-earned money...

Then I realized (seeing a pattern?) I'm running low on hydrosols. So I ordered a few from Garden of Wisdom. I really liked the neroli last time, so I got that again, plus three others. So I'll be set for a while.

Mind you, this was all done in a fifteen-minute span! Is that a record or what?

THEN, I was lurking around a forum a few minutes ago when I stumbled upon a 50% discount code for another mineral company. They had some pretty colors, so I couldn't look away. They had full-size eye shadows for about $2.50 each. What a deal!

So I'm pretty much PJ-ed out. I did dig around the old hair product stash before my shower tonight. There is a LOT of protein stuff in there. I was thinking about trying L.A. Looks Sports Gel again (only used it once, pretty much right after going CG), but it has a bunch of protein in it! That'll probably go to my brother. Suave Coconut, Elucence, and Giovanni conditioners are also hiding in there. Which reminds me, I need to take some pics of my stashes (yes, I have multiple stashes). My soap bar stash was pretty out of control in December, but I gave some stuff away. And it would totally figure that I can't use soap bars...

Ok, think that's about it. I used KCCC again tonight, so we'll see how tomorrow compares to the weekend experience.

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!

Weird Day

So I have some things to blog about, but I realized I haven't posted hair cut pictures yet. So I guess this will be extra long.

Here is my hair after the cut. Shampoo and [most likely] silicone-laden conditioner touched my head, and there is NO product in my hair (scary!):

Is it weird how much these look like my pre-CG pics? If you ever needed incentive to stay away from sulfates, this is it.

Here's the first wash after:

I got about four inches off (I think?). It's very different from long hair. It feels weird when applying product and diffusing. Not sure I have a sleeping routine down yet. It would really suck if I have to give that up and wash in the morning. She also cut with my side part, if I didn't mention that in my last post. I was worried but it turned out well.

* And now to our regularly scheduled blog entry *

I woke up this morning (well, it technically was morning), proceeded to make lunch and start the laundry, and then got called in for emergency babysitting (that sounds so exciting and dangerous, but not a good situation). No time to wash my hair. It was up in a bun for the majority of the day until I finally got a chance after dinner.

For whatever reason, I decided to experiment a bit. I used: Suave Green Apple for co-wash, LVPNG for rinse-out, KCKT for leave-in, KCCC, and Aussie Sculpting gel. Adding protein probably wasn't a good idea, but it's been so long since I've had anything, and it's almost the last ingredient. I did the icequeen method for clumping. I did a cold water rinse at the end, and then scrunched in some KCKT.

Then I had a DUH! moment. During the summer, I used to use two t-shirts in my routine. One for plopping and the other for scrunching water out of my hair before adding gel. I'm not sure why I stopped, other than because everyone was recommending adding products to extremely wet hair. Then I moved into a dorm, where it's easier to plop before walking five steps back to my room, then have wet hair. Though I guess that's not much of an excuse. Anyway, I totally forgot that I used to do that back when I had awesome hair.

So I hung my flour sack towel on the shower and blotted a bit before adding KCCC. Which was WEIRD. As soon as I started scrunching, my hair felt very dry. I had clumps and spirals everywhere, but it was dry and frizzy. I'm not sure what exactly caused it. On one hand, I did use protein. But that hardly every feels bad in my hair when it's wet. KCCC makes some sense, since I noticed it as I was scrunching that in. But I've used it before (and always with no success), and never felt this before. So I'm not sure.

Anyway, I decided I really could not plop for very long. I ran out of the shower, scrunched in ASG as usual, and then plopped in my Curl-Ease for five minutes - just long enough to get dressed. When I was applying gel right-side up, my hair decided to part down the middle. I half-attempted to move it back to the side, but didn't want to create more frizz. Then I diffused. Which was weird. Again. Each section looked great immediately after diffusing. Then it would droop a little. And it was obvious it was wet. Which was weird, because my hair was very dry when I scrunched in KCCC. After diffusing, I had some major clumpage going on. And my hair randomly decided to go back to a side part, which was weird. I clipped and air dried for a few hours.

Just took out the clips and scrunched the crunch. The back is kind of weird looking, but I do have curl all the way to the root! And volume! There's one clump that is literally three inches wide, which looks crazy. I scrunched most of my products in upside-down, so I'm guessing that's why. But this is crazy. I've never had anything remotely resembling success with KCCC.


So I'm pretty happy. Especially because this is hair that went through a low-poo and two sulfate shampoos in the span of four days! If this doesn't look great when I wake up, I may experiment tomorrow with some of BB's FSG. It's been a while.