Lazy Days

I feel bad I haven't been updating this as regularly as I used to. A lot of it is that I'm just not doing my hair as often as I did. The end of the semester is turning into a rush of projects and papers (oh how I wish I could relax like that dog!!). I have six days of class left and then three finals the second week of May.

I've been really tired. Doing my hair everyday takes a lot out of me. It's takes about an hour from the minute I step in the shower to when I finish diffusing, and then at least an hour and a half before it dries all the way. It's been feeling more like a chore lately than something fun to do. And as a consequence of that, my scalp has been acting up. I used Flowermoon's Dairy Whip on Sunday but it didn't help much. I might have to low-poo over the weekend.


And while I was comfortable with KCCC and a new routine, the dews have reached the 60s. I realized that I haven't been using many humectants. My curls don't last and I get frizz. So I'm going to start experimenting with CK again and possibly looking into anti-humectants. CK worked well last summer, but I have no idea what the dews were and I've since become sensitive to many ingredients, so I don't know what to expect.

I got to use Ohm's Avocado Custard on Sunday. I really liked it! I used a very very small amount to SOTC. It wasn't greasy like KBB cream and my hair was soft and defined. I know I need to use it more than once to make a decision, but I'm glad it worked well once and I got it for more than half off!

I do have some KCCC pics on my other computer that I need to upload, so I'll do that this weekend. I've been doing some updos, so I'll try and post pics of those too!

PJ Adventures and an Update

So I thought I would update since it's been a while. I'm still having good hair days with KCCC, so long as I wait at least an hour after diffusing to SOTC and my hair still has some moisture in it when I apply gel. Temperatures have been in the 80s/90s (hot!) with dew points in the 50s. I have great clumps and I'm soo happy I finally figured out how to get KCCC to work for me! I need to take pictures one of these days (or at least get my computer fixed so I have a webcam at school!).

I came by two great PJ deals today that I couldn't pass up. It's been about a month since I bought anything (hair-related at least!), and I've been diligently using up conditioners that I've had for a while (finally got through a bottle of Suave Green Apple I bought last July!).

First, Aziza is having a sale on Ohm Body Crown of Glory Hair Custard. It's usually $18 but currently going for $9. Plus there is a 15% discount for anything you buy - coupon is OOPS. So with shipping, it was still $4 cheaper than the original price! I've never tried it before, but at that price I figured, why not?

Next, someone posted a thread on nc.com about Ricky's giving out coupons in NYC. I had never heard of them, but then someone else posted they have a 25% discount going on at their site right now. The coupon is DAILYRICKY. I figured I'd stock up on KCCC. The discount brings it to around $20, but with shipping it would be the same as the original price. So I guess it's like getting free shipping. They do have a free shipping offer if you spend at least $49.

It's funny, I've bought a few books and makeup stuff the past few weeks (nothing super expensive) and had it sent to the house. So whenever I go home on the weekends, I have at least one package. My dad told me that I must be supporting the economy all by myself! I think he's just jealous of all my packages!

KCCC & Pink Boots

I tried this combo out for the first time on Saturday. I had heard good things about it and wanted to see how well they played together so I could possibly use it for Easter Sunday (more so for impressing my curly cousins than for the whole Easter thing. It sounds bad, but the few times I'd seen them in the past couple months my hair had looked like crap - and they have BEAUTIFUL curls without even being CG!).

After applying a leave-in (Curl Junkie's leave-in), I blotted moisture out and applied a thin layer of pink boots. It was about the amount I would use on its own - barely covering my hands when emulsified. I scrunched this in the usual way (I do everything à la mysteryflavored, including diffusing). Then I scrunched in KCCC the same way. Plopped, scrunched in Aussie Sculpting gel, plopped again, diffused, and clipped.

We actually ended up going over to my aunt's house anyway to do an Easter egg hunt because we were getting bad weather on Sunday. And I had about forty-five minutes in between when I finished diffusing and when we left. So needless to say, I was worried. I usually have at least an hour and a half before I scrunch the crunch. I had diffused on high power a bit, which I don't normally do. I'm having trouble figuring out how much water to blot out of my hair. It's easy to over-do it, but so easy to not get enough out. Saturday I ended up getting just the right amount out.

It ended up looking really good! It had some hold, but the pink boots made it pretty soft. I also do the icequeen method, so I had root curl and spirals everywhere! My cousins really liked it and we did a high-five for curls, lol. So I was very happy with it.

I did the combo again today and did not have as good results. I think most of it is due to the blotting issue. I guess I have more experimenting to do to figure out how much to get out. I took out too much water, and I think pink boots may have soaked up some as well. By the time I got to the point where I needed to scrunch in gel, my hair wasn't squeaking when I scrunched. So dry! I attempted to wet it down with a spray bottle, but that didn't do much. So I ended up with some fluffy curls in the back. And any hold that I had sort of dwindled by the end of the day.

I tried using CJ Curl Fuel Spray at various times to save it. I have learned that if I use too much, even if not at once, this stuff can turn on you. I get a greasy, build-up feeling. Like right now, I'm having the urge to go co-wash. But I'm experimenting with doing my hair in the morning right now, so it'll have to wait. For some reason, and it may be related to dropping an unneeded medication, I get about six to seven hours of sleep now. I wake up automatically at about 8am every morning, where it used to be 9:30am. Now that I have time in the morning, I can actually do my hair. My sleeping methods hadn't been that great with KCCC, so this works out.

So the overall verdict on KCCC + pink boots: Good, but I need to experiment more. If you want soft curls, don't need mega hold all the time, and happen to have both of these products, give it a shot. Otherwise you might find that it's not the best.

I've also heard good things about mixing them, so I may try that at some point. Right now I think I'll play it safe and go back to just KCCC.


Oh, and as for my previous post - I did make it through my wash routine, including diffusing. I was actually surprised! Then I got to make-up time and I literally could not lift my right arm. It was crazy! I'm still not sure why it was the right, since that's my dominant arm. I guess it could be because I haven't used those muscles in a long time. I marched cymbals in high school and left arm is more dominant than right. I woke up Saturday with pain in both that lasted all through Sunday. I'm so excited to play again when I get home though! I like punching for some reason (loved Tae Bo!).

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!