I have just started getting into make-up as well as hair and it’s one of those things: the more you know, the less you know you know. Apparently I’ve been putting mascara on wrong!!! So my friend Michael took me to Ulta for the first time in my life and tonight I am going for a bday hangout with my urban decay palette and smashbox powder and primer. I also discovered the solution for the liquid-liner challenged: felt-tip eyeliner pens. They give you that same liquid look. Not bad for a first attempt, huh?
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As this 80 degree DC day shows, summer is near! My favourite time! But before we slip into those bikinis I have to ask every naturalista’s favourite question: What hair products should I use? The only difference is….now I’m not talking about the hair on my head…
before i get sued: I am not saying Selita Ebanks uses this product…but she could!
Here’s a product with a naughty name and nice results. It’s called Coochy after-shave protection mist. It is an after-shave spray that I use on my bikini area, underarms-anywhere I shave-to prevent bumps and irritation and let me tell you, this product is the truth! Here’s a sad fact: curly-haired people are more prone to razor bumps and irritation.This is because instead of growing out, the hair curls back into the skin causing it to become inflamed much like it does when we have a splinter. For straight hair, however, it is easier to penetrate the skin’s surface as it grows. Think of a nail versus a screw: which one can push through a piece of wood more smoothly?
I have been using Coochy spray after shaving and waxing for about two years now to prevent and soothe inflammation and irritation. From the first use I noticed my bumps becoming fewer, smaller and further between. Now, after two years I use the spray less and less. I no longer have to use it after every shave. And who doesn’t love smoother skin? I once had a doctor compliment me on my wax. (Sorry am I oversharing? lol!) Coochy also has a shaving cream, which, I am told can also be used as a conditioner. The cream in my opinion is better than The Art of Shaving’s fancy creams but not as good as my trusty Aveeno. Coochy’s makers also now have a men’s cream (I haven’t tried) called Evolution, which I am pretty sure is just the same cream with a different scent and name because no guy wants to put some floral thing called “Coochy” on his face. Now you can recommend it to boyfriend, hubby, brother or dad. Otherwise could you imagine? “Hey Dad try this Coochy on your face.” *awwwwwkwarddd*
Disclaimer: before you click the link to buy this product, I warn you, the website is not for the faint of heart. However there are a number of legitimate beauty products on this site as well. (Stripper dust anyone? lol.)
Ok curlies, now that you know the secret: click, like, buy and please keep the dirty jokes to a minimum. My family sometimes reads this.
xoxo. Daria and Angela.
Cost and Value Tips
I’m a big believer in the Marshall’s slogan. “never pay full price for fabulous!” I got most of today’s outfit as hand me downs and I’ve already received quite a few compliments.
When it comes to hair products…that’s usually where I splurge. I don’t wear a lot of make up and 90% of the clothes I own cost me (note: cost me) less than thirty dollars.
So since I know a chunk of my pay is going to Shea Moisture etc. I am trying to figure out ways to save. When I am not reading hair blogs I’m typically checking out Daily Worth, Get Rich Slowly and I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
Here is some consumer advice.
Tip1-
Don’t throw it away just yet. If it’s broke- maybe you can fix it. I am not a fan of the ever popular kinky-curly knot today shampoo/conditioner. I bought a set a while back and have been trying to get rid of it for ages. I finally found a solution for that conditioner. It has done nothing for me in the shower but since it’s a leave-in I decided to add it to my usual spray bottle of water/ olive oil. It actually makes a great detangling/ moisturizing spray! Try using products in different combinations and ways. Don’t confine yourself to the directions on the bottle. This is not a pharmacy prescription.
2)Use products for household chores/ other purposes:
Did you know shampoo can help lift grease stains from clothes? Or that conditioner makes a great shaving cream? (as good as the real thing, if not better). Just because you’ve gone sulphate/ silicone free doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy those products in other ways. Most things have more than one purpose.
3)Stretch your products:
Add olive oil to a a hair product that needs a moisture boost. Add water to products that are too thick. Make them last. If you use Dr.Bronner’s Castille Soap, for example, note on the bottle it says that it can be diluted.
4)Use baby shampoo. Sulphate-free products like Shea Moisture get expensive. Using tip#3 and adding a little oil to a gentler product like baby shampoo may be the next best thing.
5) Comparison shop. Before trying a new product, check its reviews for gosh sakes! It seems obvious but before I learnt about natural hair I just bought what sounded good on the label. If your friend uses a product then you can ask to try hers before you buy a ten dollar bottle for yourself. Shop around for low prices and check the clearance aisle at your local Target. Lastly, remember to check the quantity of a product. If you have two similar products check the price per ounce. Is it worth it to save that dollar on the 8 oz. jar when the 12 oz. jar of a similar product is a dollar more?
6) Make your own: calculate- is it cheaper to buy groceries and make your product or buy the product itself? Example: $20.00 worth of groceries will be enough to make 4-6 times one Diva Smooth bottle (it’s called a caramel treatment. YouTube it) and still have some ingredients like grapeseed oil left over. However is it cheaper to buy and boil flaxseed or just get a tub of ecostyler gel? (I have never tried to do either so I couldn’t tell you) l guarantee there is a kitchen recipe or homemade alternative to almost anything you want to put in your hair. Just ask naturallycurly.com or even Mr. Google. Then compare the cost of buying vs. making. You can check the prices of groceries on many store websites like safeway.com. Usually these recipes can be made rather quickly.
Hope I helped, guys. Here is a pic of my hair, nicely slicked back after spritzing with the kinky- curly mix.
I will be updating this post, adding helpful links for these guidelines later today so stay tuned.
Xox
D
Mini Twists: The dramatic conclusion
A long overdue update:
After I created my mini-twist look I realised that, though they looked great they just weren’t- well- “mini” enough. I then decided to divide each of my twists into their two strands and retwist those so the twists were half their original size. They still weren’t as small as some others I have seen but they were respectable. Hell- They looked awesome- yeah I said it! My boyfriend walked in on me twisting and smirked “You look reeeeaaaalll Caribbean right now.” I thanked him for the compliment and reminded him that he had dreads. (Although here I think that just makes you look like a DC local.) All in all, it took about three hours to create those smaller twists. They looked like this…
…that is until they started to frizz up. I washed them once and felt like the shampoo and conditioner were not getting enough direct contact with my scalp to clean it thoroughly. My scalp felt flaky and itchy much like it does when I don’t wash for more than a week and a half AND my top twists still frizzed up so about 2 days later I had to redo them. I kept them for probably another 5 days after that. The times I’m giving are estimates but all in all the whole experiment lasted just over two weeks.
I did LOVE the look though. I even did a photo shoot with my photographer friend Michael while wearing this look (pictured above). I liked having long hair that I could fling about- hair that sleekly framed my face, hair I could manipulate with ease. I forgot what that looked like and I did get lots of compliments. The other cool thing was that I could put my hair in new styles. Creating a false side-fringe, for example, is a lot easier to control with twists than with single, wispy strands or untamed curls. (More on that in another post) and most importantly, my hair was just so controllable! As my hair has grown, I haven’t been able to roll out of bed and wear it as is. As much as I miss that, I am not sure I want to sacrifice the length I am gaining for it. With the twists I could just roll out of bed and go.
The twists were fairly easy to take out. There were a few problem strands where I must not have parted as carefully and some twists were so small I missed removing them completely (That is until I ran my comb through and snagged on them- OUCH!) For about two days after I walked around with my hair in a mini twist-out. Here’s a picture.
I do want to try this look again. I will try to keep it longer by:
- putting it on freshly washed hair so I don’t wash as soon
- wrapping my twists every night like I would a relaxer (I’m lazy but whenever I did it it made a huge difference!)
- washing with a braid cylinder instead of a stocking (has anyone tried this?)
- trying a dry shampoo to avoid washing as much. (If I can find a good one and not have my twists look all powdery).
Now I’m onto Naptural85’s Beach Wave look. I miss the twists but they will be back.
xox,
Daria and Angela
For more amazing photography check out mac13 on flickr.
Mini (well kinda) twists part 2…
Note: This was originally posted on 24 March 2012 to a different section of my wordpress. I apologize for not correcting this error sooner. The conclusion of this three part series is coming today.
After a one day hiatus I finished the second half of my head on Thursday. Turned out pretty well I must say.
I had a little more trouble with the back as anticipated. Since I hadn’t done this style immediately after a wash my scalp was starting to get itchy and not so nice within days so I followed Naptural85’s (I love this girl more and more every day) advice and washed my hair with an old stocking cap on, letting the shampoo and conditioner soak through. It worked fairly well. I may also try a modified version of the technique: washing with a braid cylinder, since the stocking cap was good but not perfect. I got a little frizz as you can see here.
and a lot of shrinkage.
The strands that were particularly fuzzy wuzzy got a quick re-twisting with my Shea moisture gel. I waited for them to dry somewhat first so the twists would hold better. That seems like a small price to pay when I consider the alternative: washing my open hair and retwisting from scratch.
To dry my hair, I mostly used my warm, high diffuser but those twists hold a lot of water and get pretty heavy so I very gently- so as not to cause frizz- squeezed ( not rubbed!) sections of my hair with an old, cotton pillow case.
As for shrinkage, I wrapped my twists around my head like I would a relaxer to stretch my hair. That helped somewhat but I was not completely satisfied so I just pulled it down into a tight, low ponytail so the ends of my hair will have a nice bounce and curl from the washing but the top should be stretched enough to give me the length I want.
So far so good! Til next time!
Mini (well kinda…)twists: Part 1
Angela is getting a little unruly. She’s too long for a fro. She gets in my face and is really floppy so when my hair is out I look like the guy from LMFAO. BUT I don’t want to cut her. I want to see how long she can grow and I want to try different things. I did some research on the great scientific resource that is YouTube and looked at some styles. I thought about a blowout but DC in Spring is a very damp place. I didn’t want to do all that straightening for nothing. I turned to one of my favourite vloggers, naptural85 and revisited her mini twist videos.
I had tried to little avail to twist my hair in the past: They unravelled. They were too thick and puffed up. They didn’t fall the way I wanted… Sigh. But I checked out a few videos and got a pretty good idea of how to do it.
First thing I needed was to blow out my curls just a little. Just to stretch them. This would stop them from puffing up so much in the twists. This was pretty simple. I had washed my hair Monday night and worn my hair in my go-to protective style that Tuesday (bun with a flat-twist across the front) so my hair wasn’t completely dried and was somewhat stretched already. It’s best I detangle your hair with a wide toothed comb before blow drying. Then, for the first time ever I used the comb attachment on my blowdryer. I started on cool and high settings and went to warm and high settings- NEVER hot. I also started at the ends and went to the roots just like I would if I were combing. I discovered my hair had some good length with just a little bit of stretching.
Hair all blown out
Then I parted my hair into four sections (front to back and side to side) and followed the video instructions, parting each section into tiny rows and being careful to make clean, tiny parts. The main product I used was my Shea Moisture curling soufflé.
I only did the front half of my head and it took just over 2 hours ( I could hear housemates watching SVU in the background.lol.) I tried to do my hair in a cool half-up/half-down look that looked great until I stepped outside. I had put vegetable glycerine in my hair before I decided to twist and it was misty outside so the combination of a humectant product and the moisture in the air had my nicely stretched hair proofing up in 2 seconds! I put it into a bun.
Will have to blow it out again tonight.
I anticipate the second half will take longer because the back is harder to reach and I can’t see what I’m doing. Wish me luck!
To be continued…
PINEAPPLES!!!
Ok so we all know when I’m not “fro-ing” it up I’m all about the twist-outs/ BKO’s (bantu knot-outs). But in the beginning, I couldn’t figure out how to protect them from a second-day slump. How did I keep my curls from getting crushed in my sleep and sending me running back to the shower to re-wash and re-twist? Enter the pineapple method…
It’s simple to do. Your curls will not be perfect the next morning but they will be workable. Your curls will stretch somewhat, which will give you added length. You can control how much stretch/length you give them to an extent.
I will use this flat-twist-out, reborn the next day, as an example.
Step one:
Gather your hair in a loose bun/pony at the top of your head.
Step 2
Tie a satin scarf around your head. I tend to tie it around the back and in the front, leaving the top open.
Step 3
GO TO BED!!!
I’m going. I’m going…
…the next morning…
This method is also great for preserving certain updo’s like the pompadour. Wrap it in the same way and watch it shine the next day. (lol I’m corny).
Peace, love and curliness,
D
A little late but…thought it was cute.
My site has moved to www.hairvalley.com
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HAIR IS VALENTINES DAY
Time for some TLC
Day 1…
This has been a rough week on my hair (partly my fault, I’ll admit). The weather’s been terrible and I haven’t been detangling. I have just been slapping some moisturiser (curl enhancing smoothie) over it. Despite some efforts to at least oil my scalp, it’s still feeling a bit dry so I’ve bought some Shea Moisture African Black Soap Balancing Conditioner (what a name!) I put it on my scalp and (lightly spritzed) hair to seep in overnight, then wrapped it up in a satin scarf. Tomorrow I will do my regular yoghurt routine and let you know how it turns out. We’ll see how my scalp feels at the end of the week but here are my first impressions:
It has a thinner consistency than my restorative shea moisture conditioner and it smells like black soap (which smells like plantains since that’s what it’s made from). Now I love plantains but I’m not sure I want to walk around smellin’ like Sunday lunch. However I will say my scalp feels so far so good. Even when I put coconut oil on my scalp it helps only minimally. This is better so far. This conditioner is not a leave-in they say. However I use rinse out conditioners as leave-ins all the time. (see my “emergency wash n go” post) As Kanye says “who’s gon’ stop me huh?!” 😛
Day 2…
I was too lazy to do the yoghurt and figured, as it said on the bottle, the conditioner was a good enough pre-poo on its own. By the time I washed my hair this morning my knots had melted away. I washed, and used the last of my moisture retention conditioner and some of the new black soap conditioner (both by Shea moisture). Then dried with an old cotton pillowcase (I use satin ones now but waste not, want not!) then did my usual coconut oil (mostly on the scalp), curl smoothie (tinier bit than usual) and gel (kccc).Then scrunch and I’m off. Seems to have a good shape so far and my hair is as soft as if I’d made one of my usual Deep Treatments. So I guess I’ve found a lazy solution. Let me know what you think.
xox D
thecaribbeancurly 
