Purple and Violet Tailbone Senegalese Twists!!!!

YYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!! I did that, if I do say so myself!!! Finally I was able to install the Purple and Violet Senegalese Twists during Thanksgiving Holiday!!! How about it took me Two days to complete though!!! Yeah, I know .. THAT part !!! LOL. Just wanted to post this teaser so that you know what is in store!!! (^_^)

Back View

Front View

Hopefully I will be able to take pictures of the hair I used , and the items I used to make this style happen!!! Until then love bugs...

Tunc vicis vos !!! (^_^)

Garnier: Intense Washout Color Chronicals

Hey there ladies and gents...
So.... I have not written anything in sooo long I am going to have to try and update you on all of the new stuff that has been going on!!!

First , however... Let's begin with the Garnier. I have had the pleasure of trying the Garnier Intense Wash out colors in Blue, Red and Purple!!! The colors themselves are pretty rich in color. The interesting and great thing about them is that the moment water touches the colored strands, it washes right out. I never have to wash it more than once. And that is really saying something to have color that rich!!! Now... the bad thing is that you have to apply a pretty thick coat, and if you are manipulating you hair after the color has dried, it does flake a bit leaving specks of color on your shirt and other places you have been!!! But , thankfully it is not that bad. I just wanted to share a few pictures, so that you know what to look for, and what to expect color wise ( if you have dark hair like mine). Main thing that I would like to say is that , this dye is in no way shape or form permanent... unless you have damaged hair, it will wash out after the first or second wash. How does that happen??? Because the Dye itself is made of clay. So the color coats the top of your hair instead of breaking down the hair shaft and getting into the cuticle of the hair  ( What happens when you have to bleach your hair decomposing the natural structure in order to permanently change the pigmentation hue)


Well loves, this is a short but sweet blog about the new colors that I have been playing with!!! My next blog which will be coming very soon is going to be featuring my new install of tailbone length Senegalese twists in the colors Violet and Purple, but X-Pression hair!!! I am sooo excited to tell you about my new protective style for the winter... so you have to stay tuned!!! Hugs and kisses!!! (^_^)

What the Red clay dye looks like

Purple Hybrid ( Mixture of Blue and Red)

Just Blue

Just Blue

Mixture of Blue and Red ( Hybrid Purple)

Blue and Red ( Purple not listed , but I have that too!!! )



Legitimate Purple hair coloring!!!

Red



 

Red again






Experimenting with Color: Two different methods!!!

Hello there love bugs!!!

I wanted to make a very short and sweet blog about coloring my natural hair. First of all there are many different ways to do so without making the color permanent, or damaging your hair with various chemicals!!! I have watched many people on youtube, that have made tutorials on how to color your natural textured hair by using lipstick, semi-permanent colored hair spray, cream eyeshadow and one wash hair dye!!!

The methods that I have tried are the cream eyeshadow method.

How do I apply the color to my hair??? First, I use a cream eyeshadow and use my finger to smear some of the color of choice on the tips of my hair by rubbing the cream on the hair between my fingers ( middle and thumb ). I apply a generous amount of the eyeshadow cream so that the color is bright and vibrant. After I apply the color of choice, I coat my hair with my eco styler gel remix ( eco styler gel mixed with sheamoisture curling souffle and kinky curly curling custard ). The reason I do this is so that when I perspire on my face or get water on my face for whatever reason , the color does not start bleeding onto my face or onto my clothing. And then when it is time for me to co-wash my hair, the colors comes straight out. No lasting effects, and no permanent damage !!! Perfect scenario!!! 

Purple and Teal Color Tattoo cream Eye Shadow!!!

 

 

Here is what the purple looks like!!! (^_^)

Here is a look at the Blue!!! (^_^)

Here is a combination of the Purple  and Blue!!! (^_^)

 

Method that I am interested in trying next: One Wash semi-permanent hair dye

I was excited to discover that Garnier has developed a clay based hair color for people that would like to color large parts of their hair with really vibrant color , without the permanence of having to have the hair dyed deep into the hair shaft. Since the dye is clay based, it coats the hair versus striping and dying deeply into the hair!!! It comes in other colors as well, but that color that I chose is listed above (obviously!!! )

Anywho love bugs!!! I will take pictures and share with you how I like this new product soon!!! Til then enjoy this Fall weather and keep a sweater with you when you travel!!! (^_^)

Dasvidaniya (^_^)

The Good and the Bad After the Big Chop!!!

Hey Sexy Naturals,

Last blog I decided to do a big chop to remove all/ majority of the heat damaged hair I've been holding onto for the past couple two or three years ( i.e when I first started this blog and decided to stop using heat on my hair altogether). Now, I would like to update you on all of my progress. The good the bad and the ugly!!! (^_^)

First of all... I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new haircut I gave myself!!!  It's interesting , because as much as I enjoy having long hair sometimes I just like to start over with a nice cut. I know it sounds counter productive since this entire blog has been devoted to growing my 3b/4a hair to waist length. But , I'll give you a little background story about this that should shed a bit of light on the insanity!!!

Majority of my late teens and early twenties up til now I have maintained what most people would consider long hair by normal standards. It would pretty much hover above or right below bra strap length.

I had been maintaining my hair for years visiting a hair salon and having my hairstylist take care of my mane. But when I started doing my own hair sometimes I would damage it.So I would take some scissors and clip a couple of inches off. In 2009/2010 my hair was uneven and driving me crazy. So I had my sister and her friends cut my hair to the top of my shoulders. I loved it like that because it was a blunt cut and it felt good running my fingers through my hair after I had straightened it. They didn't particularly like the fact that I had cut off so much hair, but I certainly enjoyed the fact that they went ahead and cut off what I wanted anyway!!! Shortly after that I ended up moving to Chicago to work  with my producer on one of his friends albums. We arrived in the summer and left sometime during the spring, and in between that time period my hair grew like straight weeds!!! The humidity in the mid west and the moisture that is just trapped in the air helped me 1000% in maintaining healthy hair. Naturally since I was still using heat at the time I was still doing my part in destroying my tresses, but because of the moisture , I was getting some assistance in keeping the damage minimal! As it was , I was chipping away at the health of my hair during my stay in Chicago because when I would use hear on my hair , I didn't just use heat... I used flat irons, curling irons, hot combs and blow-dryers WITHOUT USING HEAT PROTECTANT!!! YIKES!!!

Fast forward to the year 2012, and I had been doing some research , reading magazines, blogs and youtube video's trying to find hair care products that were natural and did not strip my hair of the natural oils and nutrients that most standard hair care products would manage to do the moment I took the cap off the bottle. I had learned during that time that there were products lines like Aubrey Organics, Alba, Jason and Giovanni who specialized in not only natural hair care , but also natural skincare and in some instances other types of natural products for the entire body. But at this point I had not yet discovered how to naturally style my hair without using heat!!! So I searched and searched but I had discovered that my main issue was that my hair texture at the time was mixed up so much because I had 4 different grades of hair for one reason or another. There was the straight hair ( which I later found out was limp and lifeless/ dead hair derived from all of the heat damage), the undefined bushlike hair, the curly hair ( which was my favorite ) and then there was the complete BUSH!!! I didn't even try to attempt a wash and go because I know that I was ill equipped to deal with the ignorance that was my hair at that point in time. So I started doing double strand twists. But now, I can admit that after watching extensive volumes of various youtube video's featuring some of the popular natural women of color that styled their mane and had the perfect routines and the length I wanted, I had figured out what I was really looking for. I wanted to find the products that would define my curls so that I could literally wash my hair style it and leave the house whether it was wet or dry and STILL have a bomb hairstyle that did not explode into a frizz basket. It took quite a while to create the right combination of products and a routine that allowed me to achieve the look I have been aspiring to aquire, but I finally found everything I needed!!! YES!!!!!


Anyway, I bought everything from curlformers which would give me more of a press and curl look which was great, but didn't last very long ( introduction of that product is in one of my earlier blogs in 2013), to Flexirods which would give me the perfect ringlets and has also been my favorite method of producing perfect curls ( also listed in a previous blog in 2013). I even managed to discover the beauty of the super tight coils that were produced by using perm rods. Since chopping more than 5 1/2 inches of hair off, I have only managed to try one of the tools. Here are a couple of pictures from some perm rods and a twistout, but they did not look as good because I did not have the right type of gel in my hair to hold the curls!!!Well, the twistout did, but not the perm rods!!!

This is my very sexy twistout using Kinky Curly curling custard!!! It only lasted a couple of days because the gel started to flake on me.

My first attempt at using perm rods... Had the wrong Gel!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From "Black and Blue" to "Short and Sweet"

Hello ladies and gents,

Once again it has been a super long time since I have had the time to write to you all. In April right around my birthday, I installed another set of Twists. This set was Black and Blue as you can see here in this picture listed below:

I will double back later and tell you all about the process and what it took for me to get that together, as well as post many pictures about this last set of twists.

Well, last week I removed  my Black and Blue Caribbean Twists ( hair by Black N Gold both colors) that I had installed for my birthday around the 16th of April. So I had them in for just about 3 months like I did with the red kinky twists I had put in. Unlike the Burgundy and Red kinky twists, I noticed that I suffered lots of knots, tangles and clumps of hair basically forming soft locks. My definition of soft locks  is natural hair that has clumped together but can still be detangled with careful finger detangling, BUT, if left alone will turn into permanent locks that one CAN NOT detangle. Well, suffice it to say... I had never had this type of experience while my hair was done in twists or braids. The second time I washed and styled my hair after I had removed the twists, my scalp became itchy, inflamed. painful to the touch and sensitive in multiple different places. One place I am used to having this feeling in my scalp ( that happens to be my bald spot, and it acts up every so often) but this was different. So for that I purchased some Burdock Root and Nettle hair oil to see how that will deal with the scalp issues. I will update you on that when I get it in the mail!!! Eventually I am going to go to the dermatologist and have them tell me what is going on and do tests and the whole 9.

Now, lets move on the the second part of this post ... the "Short and Sweet" part. Well, some months back I tried to wear my hair in a was and go style and discovered that that was not a possibility for me. Mainly because there was so much hair that I had that was still damaged from heat years ago. It has been growing out, but still remains since I do not cut my hair anymore!!! I have watched all these women with amazing hair that curls from root to the ends. And some of my hair would NEVER do that ... for reasons that I explained earlier. SO... I decided that I was just going to hack it all off and get that big chop thing out of the way!!! Here are a few pictures of what I did!!! 

My hair before picking up the scissors!!!

Left Side

Right Side

Those pictures listed above are the before pictures ( obviously). Here are the after pictures:

All Nice and Cut!!! 

Left Side 

Right Side

I have to admit that after I cut my hair I noticed how full my hair seemed to feel. Not to mention how much easier it was to comb through and detangle!!! I am certain that it will not take long for me to see the growth start to take place!!! Here is the thing though... How about I must have cut off like 5-7 inches of hair!!! Like... SERIOUSLY??? Yeah... like that!!! I got tired of the straight hair messing up my look all the time!!! So, I just took the plung and chopped it off!!! When I stretch my hair it is still past my shoulders. It just looks really really short because all of my hair can curl up to maximum capacity now, unlike what it used to do. Mind you... I still have a few spots where there is still about an inch or so of straight hair, but for the most part, I have taken care of the most messed up parts!!! NOW... let's see how long it takes me to grow my hair to waist length!!! Hmmm. I might have been close, but by the way my hair looked before the cut, it just was not healthy enough to do it's best I think. Anywho, I hope you have enjoyed my update. Hopefully some time soon I can give you the measurements!!! 

Cut Sooooooo much hair!!! 

Will you look at that ??? I can't believe I did it!!! Actually , yeah I can believe it !!! (^_^)

Well , that is all I have to share for this blog!!! I will be logging back on to share some of my new hairstyles to see if I can pull off a wash and go now!!! Stay tuned!!!

Adios love bugs!!! (^_^)

6 Month Length Check Update!!! Part Two

 

Hello there love bugs!!!

Are you surprised that I was able to get back here and write the continuation of my length check info complete with pictures??? Well if you aren't , I certainly am!!! LOL

Well. I can tell you that there was definitely some growth going on... and I am stoked about this 100%.

I took hair measurements from 3 different pieces/ strands of hair from the same section. I measured super curly hair ( as you can seen in the pictures ) so it is not going to be 100% accurate, but I am pretty sure it is as good as I could possibly get it considering how I had to try to get it done ghetto/ creative style!!!

The measurements that I came up with are as follows ( pictures are posted below without captions because ... I can't seem to caption them ):

• Front Middle Section: 19/17/18 = 18
• Right Front Section: 15/12/17 = 14.6
• Left Front Section: 17/14/15 = 15.3
• Left Side Section: 15/17/18 = 16.6
• Right Side Section : 17/18/16 = 17
• Middle Section : 19/17/18 = 18
• Left Back Section : 10/12/12 = 11.3
• Right Back Section : 12/13/15 = 13.3
• Middle Back Section : 11/12/14 = 12.3

Below are literally some random pictures of me trying to photograph my length using measuring tape. You should be able to see the tape measure , and where my hair stops in most of the images. As you can see in the pictures my hair towards the end is not as thick as the hair at the top of my hair. It sort of tapers to the end. My hair is going to look like that for at least a couple of years because as I had mentioned in my previous blogs, I am not going to trim my ends anymore. The reason the hair looks that way at the end is because that is the hair that is still straight from heat damage that I caused by flat ironing my hair extra hard without a heat protectant. But since the objective of my challenge is to achieve waist length hair, I intend to only cut the ends of my hair after I achieve the length that I am striving towards. At that point I will probably chop off a few inches just to make my hair even. What I did find remarkable about this investigation is that my hair towards the back grows quite a bit slower than the hair in other sections of my head. So weird!!! LOL


Back Left Side




Back Left Side




Right Back Side

 

Right Side/ Middle Back

 

 

 

 

 

Well... I have to say that this concludes the second portion of my Length check post!!! Oh... I forgot to mention, I have not flat ironed my hair or used direct heat on any of my hair for 1 year and 10 months!!! (^_^) I am more than certain that has a great deal to do with the fact that my hair has begun to attain length.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this post!!! I will have more for you soon!!! (^_^)


Until then,

Bonjour !!! (^_^)

 

6 month length check update!!! PART ONE!!!

Hello there ladies and gents!!!

I was looking through the various posts that I have made  and realized that it has been quite a while since I have done a length check.

The last length check I managed to complete was in August and it is now the end of February. So if I can, I will do a current length check, and post pictures of the measurements here for you all to see.

Since I had never really been intelligent about the process of measuring my hair, I did not pin down the idea behind taking specific section and measuring them. SO... There will be several sections that I will specifically measure:

1. Front Middle Section
2. Left Front Section
3. Right Front Section
4. Left Side Section
5. Right Side Section
6. Middle Section
7. Left Back Section
8. Middle Back Section
9. Right Back Section

All measurements will be performed on hair that has not been flat ironed. As a matter of fact , it has been like close to two years since I have last had my hair flat ironed, or used a heat device on my hair. Yay me!!! Since I have also refrained from trimming my hair, my assumption is that I should see a bit of growth. In addition to that idea, I have also realized that after I removed my hair from the kinky twists , I did not actually measure the length of my hair then either. So, at this point I should be able to legitimately determine if my hair was able to grow / benefit well from remaining in that particular protective hairstyle for 3 months.

According to the last hair check that the following discovery was made:

• Majority overall length fell between 15 - 16 inches long
• Longest strands ( mainly the middle of my head ) were between 17 -18 inches long
• Shortest strands (mainly the nape of my head. back of the neck) 14 - 15 inches long

So... with that new task, and the purchase of my trusty little tablet, I should be able to give you all a few pictures of what I discover!!! I am pretty excited!!! (^_^)

Well... that is all I have for you for the time being... I had better get to the good stuff. I shall return soon  for part 2 of this blog.


Until then... Adios (^_^)