On the Road Again: Gearing Up For Our Next Move

With less than three weeks in Monterey, the hubby and I are gearing up for our next adventure:






That's right we're moving to Portland! The hubby will be doing his internship in Portland, Oregon from May until September. We are both excited for this new adventure and the chance to experience all of the great things Portland has to offer. I of course will be sharing all of those adventures right here on the blog. If you have any recommendations on things to do, places to visit or other insights on Portland, please share in the comments below!


Until next time!



~Adventures of a Nappy Chica

Wash Day Recap: I got 99 problems but my Fro ain't one of them

Ok, I don't have 99 problems but I thought the title was super clever and wanted to use it for today's post. As someone of you know, I celebrated my 1 year natural anniversary on Sunday. To celebrate I undid my twists and let my fro out all day Sunday. The plan was to do my normal wash day and then twist my hair for the week, which has been my routine for the past month or so.

[1] Pre-pooed with Hair Trigger for about an hour.

[2] Shampooed with Tangles and Beyond Rhassoul Whip Poo . I normally only shampoo once a month by I ran out of my Shea Moisture Coconut Hibiscus Co-Wash Cleansing Conditioner. I didn't realize that until I put the Hair Trigger on my hair.

[3]  Protein Treatment : ApHogee Intensive Two Minute Keratin Reconstructor . 

[4] Deep Conditioned with The Antidote by Tangles and Beyond for about 40 minutes. Unfortunately we don't have a microwave at our current place but I can't wait until we move. I'll be able to incorporate heat  again. This stuff is amazing! It's my first time using it but so far I love it!

[5] Detangled-- I wish I could say that I did but didn't. The good news is I didn't really need to. The Antidote made my hair soft and manageable, I honestly didn't need to detangle it.

[6] Tea Rinsed - I'm seriously slipping on my tea rinses. In my defense, we are leaving Monterey in about two and a half weeks. So needlessly to say life has been a little hectic. We already have most of our things packed #wearereadytoleave . Unfortunately my tea rinses have suffered because of the upcoming move.

[7] ACV rinse  No rinse this week because I didn't find my spray bottle until the next morning. But it will be back on the next wash day.

[8] T-shirt dried for about an 30-40 minutes.

[9] Applied my leave-ins: Jia's Caribbean Dream Cream  and Tangles and Beyond Deep Moisture Shea Butter.

[10] Stretched my hair-- I don't know if it was because of my hair anniversary or if I was just tired, but I didn't twist my hair. Instead I used my hair ties to stretch my hair over night. 

When I woke up the next day I was too tired to do anything to my hair so I decided to wear my fro out. My hair is longer, which means my fro is bigger. I was self conscious about wearing my hair out at work because it's not how I usually wear my hair but with the some pep talks from my hubby, I strutted into work proud of my fro.  I was surprised on how many compliments I received from co-workers, many of whom said they would love to see my hair out more.

My fro at the end of the day yesterday

A close-up 

Last night I stretched my hair again using hair ties. This morning I wanted to do a couple of braids but my hair was out of control. That's the problem with wearing the fro, once it's out it is hard to tame it (at least from my experience). Instead of fighting with my hair I rocked a frohawk today.

How was your wash day? Don't forget to join the linkup and share your #WashDayExperience.

1 Year Natural + Tangles and Beyond Giveaway

Today is the day! It's been exactly one year since I big chopped all of my relaxed hair and went back to my natural hair state. To say the year has been a learning experience is an understatement. During the past year there have been ups and downs but I'm grateful for everything I learned.

The first few months as a natural were overwhelming. Even with all of the research that I did beforehand, I still felt like I had no idea what I was doing. The day after my big chop I remember thinking, "What do I do now?". There was so much information out there about building a regimen, which products to use, how to grow my hair and how to maintain length, etc. It felt like I had to have everything figured out about my hair. But then one of my friends, a naturalista for 5 years, gave me some really great advice : keep it simple. And, just like that I realized that I was making things harder than they needed to be. Every month I reevaluated my hair regimen and chose one or two ways to tweak it for the health of my hair. Things were going pretty well until I had a bump in the road in September. I went to hair salon looking to trim my ends and ended up losing about 4 inches of hair. This caused a minor setback as far as length goes but I used the experience to start experimenting with products.

I remember watching vloggers on YouTube and not understanding why they constantly tried new products. I soon discovered firsthand that as my hair grew, some of my hair products no longer worked on my hair. Thanks to social media there is always a way to find about new products and natural hair companies. Today my favorite products include SheaMoisture and Tangles and Beyond. For now, I don't intend to switch products because my hair seems to be doing really well.

Looking ahead I'm excited to try new hairstyles and continue my quest for healthy natural hair. At this point in my journey I have no interest in wearing my hair straight. I don't see that changing anytime in the near future. I love my curls and want to continue to learn more about my hair.

1 Year Natural (after taking out my 3 strand twists. No fluffing at all).

Length Check:

Want to see more of my hair journey this past year? Check out my monthly check-ins along the way:

1 month natural

2 months natural

3 months natural

4 months natural

5 months natural

6 months natural

7 months natural

8 months natural

9 months natural

10 months natural

11 months natural


In order to celebrate, I'm hosting a giveaway. If you follow me on Instagram then you know that I am in love with Tangles and Beyond products. So, I'm giving away a mini pack of Tangles and Beyond. The pack includes:  Deep Moisture Shampoo, bottle of Jia's Caribbean DreamCreme, Deep Moisture Shea Butter Creme,  Deep Moisture Conditioner and Argon Oil. The retail value of the set is $15.

Once the winner is chosen (via Random.org) on Wednesday, April 29th , I will send an email to the winner to request shipping information. The prize will be shipped out on Friday, May 1st.

Here are the rules:

•  Must be 18 to enter
• Giveaway ends Wednesday, April 29^th

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What Does It Actually Mean to Be Sexy?

It’s funny how one word can invoke different meanings for different people. If you asked me to describe myself I would say, funny, cute, loyal, or even free-spirited but the word “sexy” would never cross my mind. Sure, I see myself as a lot of things, but I've never seen myself in that light.

In recent years my views about my body have greatly improved. I can honestly say that I love who I am. However, this word still makes me feel uncomfortable and uneasy. After my husband made a remark about how sexy I looked, instead of relishing in the comment, I felt embarrassed and a little self-conscious.

But why did I feel this way? Was it the word. or my own perception of the word that I had a problem with?

If you want to find out what being sexy means to me, visit Strong Is Our Sexy. While you're there be sure to check out the other great content for #BodyImageMonth . 

Wash Day | Chunky Twists

[1] Pre-pooed with Hair Trigger for 45 minutes.

[2] Co-Washed with Alba Botanical's Clarifying Shampoo.

[3]  Protein Treatment : ApHogee Intensive Two Minute Keratin Reconstructor for 2 minutes.

[4] Deep Conditioned with Soultanicals Knot Sauce for about 20 minutes and washed it out. This is used as a detangling conditioner or a leave-in but I decided to use it to deep conditioner.  I didn't notice any negative results from using it that way and my hair responded positively as well. 

[5] Detangled with my hair in sections with my Denman Brush for about 5 minutes. I did a quick detangle with the brush before washing it out

[6] Tea Rinsed - No tea rinse again this week.  I really just haven't had the time to do it. With two moves happening in in the next 3 weeks, life has been a little chaotic. 

Jia's Carribean Dream Cream

[7] ACV rinse  I sprayed my scalp with the rinse and massaged it in for a couple of minutes.

[8] T-shirt dried my hair for about an hour. For some reason my hair took a little longer to dry.

[9] Applied my leave-ins: Jia's Caribbean Dream Cream (I just received my package on Saturday and was super excited to get it) , Tangles and Beyond Deep Moisture Shea Butter and Argan Oil by Tangles & Beyond. 

[10] Styled my hair-  Twist my hair into chunkier twists this week. The goal is to wear my hair in twists this week and they wear a twist out on Sunday to celebrate my 1 year natural anniversary :)!

                             How was your #WashDay experience? Be sure to join the link up to share.

Final Countdown in Monterey Part 2: Hotel 1110 + Cupcakes & Champagne

Two weeks ago one of my friend's celebrated his birthday in style at Hotel 1110 in Monterey. When the hubby and I first moved to Monterey several people mentioned this at a must-see spot before leaving the area. Not to mention you can see the rooftop lounge as you drive up Del Monte.

We were lucky enough to have great weather so we could really enjoy the beautiful views. Definitely check out this spot if you find yourself in Monterey.

Getting the party started

Look at the view! I definitely will miss this seeing this everyday.

With the birthday boy :)

Cupcakes & Champagne

Sometimes girls just wanna have...cupcakes and champagne! Although we love the men in our lives sometimes it is nice just to hang out with your girlfriends. So a friend and I organized a cupcake and champagne themed potluck for the girls in my hubby's cohort. We supplied the yummy Pink Velvet cupcakes and the other ladies brought yummy champagne to share.

Our pink velvet cupcakes before we put icing on them. Yes, pink velvet cupcakes are a thing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Recipe courtesy of Paula Dean.

Yummy icing.

                              What are some of your favorite things to do in your city?

Wash Day Recap

Now, that we have about a month left  in Monterey I'm soaking up time with friends and enjoying the scenery before our next adventure. So as a result my wash days have been cut a little short. Oh, well sometimes you have to enjoy life. Anyway, here is a recap of yesterday's wash day.

[1] Pre-pooed with Hair Trigger for about 30-40 minutes

[2] Co-Washed with Shea Moisture Coconut Hibiscus Co-Wash Cleansing Conditioner in sections. 

[3]  Protein Treatment : ApHogee Intensive Two Minute Keratin Reconstructor . 

[4] Deep Conditioned with Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque for 15 minutes.

[6] Tea Rinsed - No tea rinse again this week. I just didn't have time :( .

[7] ACV rinse  AI sprayed my scalp with the rinse and massaged it in for a couple of minutes.

[8] T-shirt dried my hair for about 30 minutes while walking the dogs. 

[9] Applied my leave-ins: Jia's Caribbean Dream Cream ,  SheaMoisture's JBCO Leave-In Conditioner, Tangles and Beyond Deep Moisture Shea Butter  . 

[10] Styled my hair-  Before I braided my hair I detangled briefly. And when I say briefly, I don't even think I spent 10 minutes detangling. But the good news is I didn't have any tangles or knots.


On a side note, I have 13 days until my 1 year natural anniversary! I'm so excited to celebrate that milestone and share the great giveaway that I have planned.

           How was your #WashDayExperience? Don't forget to join the linkup.

Wash Day Recap | Easter Sunday Edition

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you had a nice Easter/ Resurrection Day with your family and friends. My goal was to wash my hair on Saturday but I decided to be lazy and pushed it back to Sunday. Because we're far from our family and friends, we planned a Skype date to connect with some of our family on Easter. Now, we originally set the Skype time for the early afternoon (West Coast time) but the call happened while I was in the midst of washing my hair. Oh, well.  Here is a recap of yesterday's wash day:

[1] Pre-pooed with Hair Trigger for 45 minutes.

[2] Co-Washed with Shea Moisture Coconut Hibiscus Co-Wash Cleansing Conditioner in sections. 

[3]  Protein Treatment : ApHogee Intensive Two Minute Keratin Reconstructor . I left it on for two minutes and then rinsed it out. 

[4] Deep Conditioned with Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque for about 15-20 minutes. As soon as I put the conditioner in my hair, we got the call to push up our Skype date. So, I had to shorten this part of wash day.

[5] Detangled with my hair in sections with my Denman Brush for about 5 minutes. I did a quick detangle with the brush before washing it out

[6] Tea Rinsed - No tea rinse again this week. My plan is to start the rinses up again this week.

[7] ACV rinse  After our call (which lasted about an hour), I sprayed my scalp with the rinse and massaged it in for a couple of minutes.

[8] T-shirt dried my hair for about 30 minutes while walking the dogs. Yes, I had a my t-shirt on my head during our walk. Luckily my hoodie covered it up pretty well, it just looked like I had a really large head. Lol. 

[9] Applied my leave-ins: Jia's Caribbean Dream Cream , Tangles and Beyond Deep Moisture Shea Butter, Marguerite's Magic Restorative Cream   . I also detangled a little here because my detangling session got cut short.

[10] Styled my hair-  No surprise here, I opted for my three strand twists again this week. This week, I'm pinning them back a little just to spice it up a bit.

How was your wash day? Join the #WashDayExperience linkup and share your experience.

Final Countdown in Monterey Part 1: Point Lobos

I can't believe in 5 weeks and 5 days our time in Monterey will be over! It's so close I can taste it! The past 7 months have been difficult  interesting to say the least. While I'm thankful for the friendships and experiences (well some of them) during our time here, it is time for this city girl to move on to bigger pastures. So, to honor celebrate the final weeks, I'll post some of my adventures in Monterey. First up is our recent trip to Point Lobos.

As much as I dislike the lack of diversity in this city town, I have to admit there is plenty of beautiful scenery in Monterey. Being so close to the water and experiencing the breathtaking landscape as been the best part of this whole experience. With our time winding down, the hubby and I are trying to hit all the great spots before we leave. After hearing both the locals and our friends talk about the Point Lobos, I decided to check it out for myself.

Point Lobos is known as the "crowning jewel" of the California State Park system.  Located south of Carmel-by-the-Sea, this area refers to the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, Point Lobos State Marine Reserve and Point Lobos State Marine Conservation Area. In addition to the amazing views, there are numerous hiking trails and a whaling museum to explore. Here are some of the pictures from our little adventure.

The hubby before he cut of his winter beard

If you're ever in Monterey, be sure to visit Point Lobos and expereince the beauty for yourself.