What's my hair doing?

So it's been 6 months since my last post as I said in the previous post and what's my hair doing? It's growing! (and retaining length)

freshly flatironed

Shortly after my last post in October I got my hair straightened with the main purposes of trimming my ends and seeing my progress.

my hard press about 2 days later

I went to kinhairitage salon in pleasantville and Vicki gave me a protein treatment (I noticed some breakage where I had it bleached), a trim, and she flatironed it. I wore it like that for a week or so. Vicki did a great job. It looked good and there was no heat damage; it reverted right back without issue.

After that I basically wore twists and twist outs through the winter. I made a couple forays into using curlformers to stretch my hair for dry twist outs.

curlformer time, don't I look happy?

In February, I went to DC to experience A Taste of Damn. There's a salon based out of Atlanta called The Damn Salon and from time to time they travel to different cities where they offer their signature styles. I got a set of Urban twists installed. Hair was added to mine and twisted. With these I was able to achieve a longer fuller twist out.

"fresh" urban twists

urban twist out

I don't think I'll do that again though. They were very expensive. Like more than a Coach bag expensive. And I mean a nice size Coach bag. And I only wore them for 3 weeks. Yeah, that was a waste.














After that I was heavy into dry twist outs with smaller twists. This produced the most amazing full, defined twist outs. Loved those! But I think these and wash and go's have given me an abundance of single strand knots.

4 hrs of this...

...yields this awesomeness

So what have I been doing lately?  I still try to make a point to shampoo my hair weekly.  I have to use shampoo because my scalp is an itchy mess otherwise.  I detangle with conditioner in sections in the shower when I'm not lazy.  I then deep condition with shea moisture deep treatment mask for about 30 minutes with a heating cap.  I apply kinky curly knot today and then seal with shea butter or a castor/coconut oil mix.  I then twist with ecostyler argan oil gel.  I wear my twists for a day usually and then wear twist outs all week.  I vary my styles as the twist out ages from buns to french rolls to frohawks.

I gave myself an aphogee 2 step protein treatment recently (just because) and I plan to do one of these monthly to help strengthen my strands.  I'm also going to stop using henna because i may want to color my hair in the near future.  I've learned from bleaching my hair that the two don't mix!

my newly acquired bun

twist out 

Lastly, I plan to get my hair done professionally more often, at least once a month if I can afford it.  I just got my hair trimmed and am currently wearing it in a cornrow style.  As I post, I am now 20 months natural!  Who knew I would last this long?

Styles for miles

So I'm doing a quick post (because I can--thanks blogger iPhone app!). While I wait for Tarus to get back so we can hit Sakura for dinner.
Like I said before, I'm trying to save all my hair talk for the blog, thus sparing the fine folks I like (and who like me) on Facebook the rigamarole.

I just wanted to gush about how I've been wearing my hair lately because I lub it veddy mush. I think I will be able to retain a great deal of length over the fall and winter months, while also staving off boredom because it is so very versatile.

So what is this revolutionary style? 4 flat twist on each side and the rest of my hair in loose twists. I love it! I picked this gem up from simplYounique ala YouTube and glamazini also has a variation of the style (she actually calls it a twisthawk I think). You can see it in my iPhone pix post with the twists intact and out.

With the twists in, I've worn the front pinned up in a hump, the back pulled, into 1 and 2 pigtails, and the twists braided into 2 French braids (awesome professional look).

With the twists out, the front can be pinned up, the back can be pinned up, (if you have the length) and the back can be pulled into a puff.

Through watching lynnieluve on curlynikki, I've discovered pinning the twists up. (also good for professional encounters).

Yes, this hairstyle reminds me of my monifc convertible dress, I can wear my hair at least 20 different ways.

Hopefully, this easy, low manipulation style will allow me to retain length over the next few months. It's awesome! Thanks for letting me share, lol!

10 recent photos from my iPhone

So I totally stole this idea from glamazini, but I tweaked it a bit. Most of my recent pictures are of me so I skipped a couple. If I do this again, I'll be sure to have more interesting stuff =). Also, I didn't take all of the pix, some were sent to me, some were "stolen", lol.  Anyhoo, it gives me an opportunity to try blogger's new iPhone app so here goes:

1. Twistout results of my flat twist/twist style a la simplyounique/glamazini...meh.  My hair is much shorter than theirs, but it works.   I thought it would be a little cuter, but I sure did rock it to the Olive Garden though, lol!

2. The style before I took down the twists. I liked it alot.  But I will say shrinkage for me is murder!  The freshly done style on damp/wet hair and the style when it dries are so different! I let the front hang down, I pulled the back twists into one and two pigtails, I pinned the front back, and I put the back twists into two French braids which gave an elegant, professional look. I think I've found a new, low manipulation, signature style!  Simplyounique's youtube tutorial can be found here.

3. My friend Tunisia took this picture of me and Tarus at a friends wedding. It was definitely a good hair day for me. Just a twistout with the sides pinned up. And I love the color yellow.

4. Got this pic off the Internet. I sent it to my younger brother for his birthday. Even though I'm almost 35 and he's 32, we still call each other names. I call him "chimpanzee face" and he calls me "Campbell's soup" (there's a story there). He won the war when he sent me a funny video featuring him and my nephew (unfortunately I deleted it).

5. My frohawk--wore my hair like this to my partner's barbecue. I love it. I remember last year this time trying to slick my sides up into one (epic fail!). This is my current Facebook profile pic.

6. Tartar mid-bellyrub in the throws of ecstasy.  She's a rub whore and doesn't care who knows it!

7. My 4 pineapple sleep routine. The four ponytails are supposed to keep my curls from flattening when I sleep. It works for the most part, it just make my hair stick up ala Don King. I have to use shower steam to coax the front and sides down. (work in progress). That was a day 2 wash n go (I think).

8. Tartar waiting to pounce on the wawa gas attendant.

9. My nephew Mikey. He was playing basketball with his grandmom (who sucks, lol) with the new basketball I bought him right before hurricane Irene hit. (I was supposed to be buying supplies, lol).

10. My unity candle burning during the hurricane Irene induced blackout. Don't think I've burned it since my first anniversary. I mean to burn it every anniversary, but I forget = (


There you have it! I may do this again, but I have to take more interesting pix than just ones of my hair. My thoughts on the blogger app? Just ok. It's good for starting posts, especially when I want to use pix from my iPhone. But I will ultimately have to go on my computer and edit and tweak before publishing if I'm posting multiple pictures like this post.  The app just lets you insert pictures at the end, not within the post.  (I had to come to the website and move all these pictures where I wanted them).  I guess it will be good for quick posts involving one or two pictures.

Do You Know What Today Is?

january 2011                     june 2011

Sept 2010                                August 2011

It's my nappiversary!  To those who do not know, my nappiversary is the day I became natural.  At the risk of sounding redundant, last August I made the conscious decision to stop relaxing my hair and to wear it in it's natural, kinky state.

On that date, I went into my hairdresser to get my hair done, and when she pulled out the tub of relaxer, I not only said "no thank you maam", I also said "please get out the clippers and shave my hair off".  Now, I know your mouth may be gaping due to the latter comment, but close it.  She refused to shave my head.  But, she cut my already short hair to about an inch on top and cut the sides close.  I wore my hair like that for a couple days before I took scissors to it and chopped off more.

Being natural has been an interesting experience.  It has made me love my hair more.  Now, I loved, no, absolutely adored my hair when it was relaxed.  It was long, thick, and very healthy.  My only bane was the chemical burns that I, like many of my other relaxed sisters suffered from on touchup day.  This went hand in hand with my constantly dry, itchy scalp, which I scratched nonstop, which would in turn cause the burns to my scalp.  It was a vicious cycle.

Having natural hair appeals to my nerdy and creative sides.  It was constantly an experiment intially to figure out what combination of products produced the best results.  And I love twisting it, curling it and configuring it into interesting styles. When I was relaxed, I never did my own hair.  I went to the hairdresser weekly to get my do done.  I've been to the hairdresser once this year to get color added to the front, and I will probably go in for a trim in the next couple months.  But I don't predict anymore hairdresser trips in the near future.

Now that my hair is like this, I plan to grow it out, for the next 5 years anyway.  I think I will celebrate my 40th birthday by really shaving it off.  I always wanted to see what I would look like with a low, brush cut.  I should have done it in college when the urge hit me.  It's growing nicely and by the time I'm 40 it will probably be down my back.  Right now I have just under six inches of hair, so I'm fairly on schedule with the average 1/2 inch per month growth pattern.

If anyone is considering going natural, I say do it!  It's work for sure (unless your blessed with enough money to let someone take care of your hair for you, but there is absolutely NO fun in that) but nothing worth it is ever easy.  Having curls and kinks is great because if you want your hair straight, just straighten it.  You can go back to your kinks and curls whenever you want.  I personally believe we should all spend a little time with who we really are at least once in our lives.  You never know, you may fall head over heels in love with the person you see.

I'm going to have some cake now.  Hey, what anniversary would be complete without cake?  And honestly do I need a reason to have cake?

Off the Top of My Head

One of my most favorite topics of late has been my hair.  Those of you who know me well know how obsessed I am with the curly stuff that is currently coming out of my head, hell, I was obsessed with this glorious stuff when it was the straight stuff coming out of my head. I spend countless hours regailing (my mom mostly) but really anyone who will listen with the fascinating developments of my crowning glory (when I'm not talking about the equally fascinating shenanigans of the always exciting tartar--the amazing yorkie).  I am truly having a love affair with my fro (don't tell my husband ;-)

This love fest wasn't always the case though.  Let me start from the beginning (cue wavy flashback lines).
The time, some time in the 80's.  The place, somewhere in Atlantic City.  There was a little girl who lived to follow her brothers around and play "roast beef", "hide the belt" (don't ask), kickball (boy could I whale the ball!), and other diversions that occupied youth's time back then.  But while my brothers frolicked outside, where was I?  I was in the house, sitting between my mom's legs getting my hair cornrowed.  On special occasions I was sitting on the high stool getting my hair pressed by my grandmother or great-grandmother, the marcel iron mavens.  I did enjoy the straight hair when I had it, but it was always short-lived because I could sweat out a hard press like nobody's business!  My mother had a penchant for putting beads at the ends of my cornrows, it was the style back then, and I had a penchant for shaking my hair in the middle of Illinois avenue ( beads flying everywhere!)  I longed to wear my long hair "out" like all the cool girls did, but when i undid my four braids and "whipped my hair back and forth", the whipping gave way to drawing up and my hair became "nappy as the back of a cooter bear's ass" as my mom would say.  The combing was murder and frankly, I just didn't like putting my social life on hold to get my hair done.  Why couldn't I have that get out of bed and go hair like I saw on tv?

When I got older, I got a relaxer, it was my junior high graduation as a matter of fact.  (we will gloss over the jeri curl years--nothing to see here!)  I got my usual press and curl, but I wanted the ever popular french roll with the pump in the front and according to the hairdresser, you couldn't get that without a relaxer.  I liked, no loved having straight hair though straight hair didn't always love me ( it broke off a couple times).  The thing with relaxers is they cost money, so you can put in your own and risk the consequences (see "it broke off a couple times"), or you can pay the money and spend all of your high school/ college CVS/ dining hall wages on the upkeep of your awesome mane, which I did.

Fast forward 10 years.  I'm a grown professional independent gal who can afford the weekly hairdresser sessions or before that the bimonthly 2 hour drives to my college hairdresser after graduating I required to keep my do fresh.  But I eventually got bored.  Two people I know went natural and natural hair looked so good on them, I wanted to do it too.  I spent two days immersing myself in natural hair.  I looked at blogs over and over and you tube over and over. I got up the nerve to tell my hairdresser to get out the clippers and shave it off!  I wanted that cool, breezy, meshell ndegeocello caesar.  But womp womp, it was all anticlimactic because she refused to do it.  (I only had 2 inches of hair on top, so I just cut it off myself).  That was a year ago, and I am here today totally loving my natural, awesome hair.  It's like nothing else!  And surprisingly, it's not as nappy as I remember it to be...hmmm...

sometime around my not so big chop

me at almost 1 year natural