Spring Empties 2016

Now that it's officially summer, I wanted to share my spring empties. Since I started sharing my "empties" my hair stash has decreased significantly and I'm getting down to the bare necessities. Here is a list of my spring empties.

1. Mielle Organics Detangling Co-wash - Love, love, love this co-wash! It's gentle, keeps my hair soft, cleans my hair and helps with tangles/knots. I don't see this leaving my product stash anytime soon.

2. Mielle Organic's Advanced Healthy Hair Formula Vitamins (bottle #6 or so?) - As I mentioned in this post, I am enjoying these vitamins and I can see how my hair has improved. I'm currently at the end of my 3rd bottle and I just bought a four-month supply :)!

3. Mielle Organics Babassu Oil Mint Deep Conditioner-  Probably one of my favorite deep conditioners. This is still a top favorite of mine. My hair and scalp always feels amazing after using this conditioner. I personally like to pair this deep conditioner with my Hot Heads Cap for about 30 minutes. 

4. Soak My Body Muscle Milk Bath from Tangles and Beyond's BodyFrenzi Line-   Like Mielle Organics, Tangles and Beyond is my other go-to hair product line. All of the products are handmade, which only makes me love the line even more. A few months back I was curious about her body product line and decided to try those as well. Since I love working out (when my schedule allows), I thought the muscle milk bath was a great product to try. Check out my review for more of my thoughts.

5. Mielle Organics White Peony Leave-In Conditioner- Such a great leave-in conditioner! I have nothing but great things to say about this one. If you want a lightweight leave-in that will help retain moisture, decreases frizz and protein your strands, you should give this leave-in a try.

6.  Aloe Vera Juice from Lily of the desert -  When I started revamping my regimen back in the fall, I started looking for other ways to increase moisture in my hair. After doing some research I found that using aloe vera juice in my hair regimen has a lot of benefits like hair growth, reducing shedding, and helping with the pH balance of my hair and scalp. Read this to learn more about the benefits of aloe vera juice/

7. Jia's Caribbean DreamCreme (16oz)-  It only took me a year to use this bottle up! Lol. But in all serious I definitely got more than my money's worth out of this bottle. This leave-in has become an important part of my LOC method and the smell is to die for. 

8. Mint Almond Oil (8 fl oz)- This oil is my jam!!! I use it as part of my LOC method on wash day and on a daily basis to retain moisture. I'm convinced that my hair stays healthy because of this oil. And the smell is great :).

There were also a few products that didn't make the cut and had to be thrown away:

I really wanted to love this shampoo by Carol's Daughter. This particular bottle was gifted to me by Ulta as I was checking out. The first few times I tried it, I found that my hair felt a little weird after but I ignored it. Since it was my regular shampoo, I didn't use it very often. A couple of weeks ago I used the shampoo again and my hair felt horrible after. I don't know if was the expiration date but I knew this shampoo just wasn't for me. 

This was a gift from one my co-workers, who happens to be a hairstylist on Grimm. I used this product when I first went natural and loved it. But then I started using other products and replaced it with something I liked better. So when I got it as a freebie, to be fair they were cleaning out their stations at the end of the season and it was half a bottle, I figured it wouldn't hurt to use it again. Boy was I wrong. I used this along with the shampoo and it left my hair feeling fried and stiff. I think the product has too much protein in it and my hair hates it.

                                             What products have you used up recently?

Adding Oils To My Regimen

Happy Monday loves!

As I continue my natural hair journey, I am always looking for more ways to keep my hair healthy. I would love my hair to grow but hair health is more important to me. One of the things that I am still trying to get a handle on is finding the right balance of moisture for my hair. I hope finding this balance will also help with the pesky knots I'm still experiencing.

Last year I saw HealthyHairJourney72 's video on making her Aloe Vera Spritz for her hair. I remember thinking that I would try the spritz at some point in my journey. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when I made my own version of the spritz.


           

Now, I modified this a little because I didn't buy all of the oils that she uses in her video. I wanted to see if this spritz worked for me so I started out with just three oils: Sweet Almond, Grapeseed and Jojoba Oil.

It's only been a few weeks since I started using this spritz but my hair feels more moisturized. So far I like using it on my ends (usually one of the last steps on wash day) and also when I re-moisturize my hair/scalp midweek.

Another way that I've incorporated oils into my regimen is by adding them to my scalp. After applying all of my leave-ins on wash day, I massage Sweet Almond Oil into my scalp. I also use the oils for my pre-poo. Lastly, I add Jojoba oil to my deep conditioner, which helps make my hair softer and gives it more shine.

Want to add oils to your regimen but don't know where to start? Check out this post from Kinky Curly Coily Me to read about three oils that can be incorporated into your regimen.

What oils do you use in your regimen? Feel free to comment below.

Old Faithful: Three Strand Twists | The #WashDayExperience

Summer is here and as always I'm looking for easy no fuss hairstyles. Before yesterday's wash day I rocked a half down, half faux updo. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures but I will share pics next time. Although I love wearing my hair out my hair gets extremely tangled. Which is why I'm only wearing my hair out once or twice a week.  Anyway here is a recap of yesterday's #washdayexperience:

                                           

Pre-Shampoo: Hair Trigger for 45 minutes . I like to do a little finger detangling during this step. Plus, this leaves my hair so nice and soft after.

*My hair has been shedding a lot recently. Has anyone else experienced this lately? Is it because it's summer? I swear I'm finding little hairs everywhere. Lol.

Co-Wash: Shea Moisture's Cleansing Cowash Conditioner

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

Deep Condition: SheaMoisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque + Tangles & Beyond Deep Moisture Conditioner for 35 minutes under a plastic cap. I had a little bit of the Deep Treatment Masque left and decided to mix it in with the Deep Moisture Conditioner. Once I started using it again, I realized how much I love this conditioner! I started to use the Denman brush to detangle but opted for my wide tooth comb instead. With all of my recent shedding I thought it would be more effective.

ACV Rinse: I sprayed the rinse in my hair and massaged it into my scalp for a couple of minutes.

Tea Rinse: For this week's tea rinse I used three bags of Earl Gray (my gray/silver strands on the side have been laughing at me recently) and two bags of green tea. I usually pour the mix over my head and repeat until it's gone. But this ends up being so messy and I'm not sure if I get all the black tea in my hair. I'm going to go back to putting the tea rinse in a spray bottle and applying it that way. #nomess #nofuss . I apply a cotton t-shirt on my head for about 15 minutes to catch any excess liquid.

Leave-ins: SheaMoisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil and SheaMoisture Coconut & Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie

 

I think this might be my best three strand twist. Before I started twisting, I put my hair in five sections (front, middle, back and one for each side). Instead of waiting until the end I did the front section first. Then I did the sides, the back and finished with the middle section. And guess what, this made the whole twisting process so much better! I know, some of you probably already do this, but hey, this was a breakthrough for me. Lol.

                    How was your wash day? Join the link-up and share your #WashdayExperience

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

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 Experience: Letting My Twists Hang

Saturday's wash day was pretty straightforward. Here is a recap:

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

[2] Washed with Tangles and Beyond Rhassoul Whip Poo. It's been a month since my last shampoo and I knew it was time to fix that. This shampoo just like the other products from Tangles & Beyond smells amazing. I had to remind myself that it was shampoo and not chocolate. 

Rhassoul Whip Poo- Doesn't it remind you of chocolate ice cream?

[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. I ran out of my Tangles and Beyond Deep Moisture Conditioner last week so I had to go back to my old faithful. But I am totally hooked on Tangles & Beyond and I hope to score some more conditioner on the next drop sale.

[5] Detangled with my hair in sections with my Denman Brush with the deep conditioners still on my hair. 

[6] Tea Rinsed - No tea rinse again this week. I just didn't feel like doing another step on Saturday night.

[7] ACV rinse  I sprayed my scalp with the rinse and massaged it in for a couple of minutes. I'm finally learning how not to burn my eyes with the rinse. Lol. It's all letting the excess drip enough in the shower before reaching for the t-shirt to put on your head. 

[8] T-shirt dried my hair for about 30 minutes

[9] Applied my leave-ins: Jia's Caribbean Dream Cream (I'm almost out of this as well :(  ) ,Tangles and Beyond Deep Moisture Shea Butter and Argan Oil.

[10] Styled my hair-  After pinning up my three strand twists for the last few weeks, I decided to wear them down. I noticed that there are a few twists (mostly in the back and a couple on top) that are way longer than the other twists. It is interesting that I have different growth patterns/rates for each area of my head.

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

Until next time!


~Adventures of a Nappy Chica

Natural Hair Journey: 11 Months Natural

I think I officially hit my groove this month. The past 11 months have been filled with learning about products, techniques and natural hair. Now, I actually have a sense of what my hair needs and products that work for me.

My motto for this month has been: keep it simple. For me, that means wearing low manipulative styles and keeping my regimen simple with just the basic necessities.

Current Length: I haven't really been focusing on length in recent months. In fact, since the February Mini Challenge I haven't worn my hair out. The only time I "see" my hair is once a week on wash days. I will say that the hubby has been commenting on how big my fro is getting. I can definitely tell that it has gotten fuller.  While I want to retain length, I don't want to become obsessed with the it. Instead I want to focus on healthy hair practices and remain consistent.

      

My Go-to Styles this month:  Three Strand Twists

There wasn't much variety with my hairstyles this month but I'm okay with that. After some research and trail & error, I realized that wearing my hair in three strand twists decreased single strand knots. To spruce up my twists, I like to wear flower accessories.  Thanks to NaturalMe4C 's review I scored a couple of new accessories and I can't wait to wear them (once they arrive).

Hair Regimen: Washing my hair once a week has worked out well. My scalp has been doing well with the help of Bee Sensitive Oil Free Serum  . I'm also currently in love with three products from Tangles and Beyond: Deep Moisture Conditioner, Jia's Carribean DreamCreme and Deep Moisture Shea Butter Creme. I will be posting a review of these products in the near future.  Other than that, things are pretty much the same. Oh and after some research, I may have found out how to prevent single strand knots

Plans for next month:  My plan is to keep my hair in twists until my 1 year natural anniversary. I have a giveaway to mark the occasion, details will be posted as we get closer. 

Until next time,

~Adventures of a Nappy Chica 

Wash Day Experience: Revisiting The Basics + 3 Strand Twist

Happy Monday!

As I approach my 1 year natural anniversary, I'm really focusing on my regimen and making improvements along the way. One of the issues that I've been dealing with is single strand knots. This recent problem has plagued my wash days as of late. So, this month I'll be focusing on ways to help reduce this problem. I'll be doing some research and trying out different methods/suggestions to see what works. Be sure to stay tuned for that. But for now, on to the recap of yesterday's wash day:

                                           

Part of my arsenal for this past wash day

[1] Pre-pooed with Virgin Coconut Oil and JBCO  for an hour, paying attention to my ends. I used this time to try to get rid of shed hairs and did some light finger detangling in the process.  I wanted to use Extra Virgin Coconut Oil but Trader Joe's was out of it due to a strike. So I headed to Safeway and picked up the virgin coconut oil instead. Hopefully the strike ends soon and I can get back to my EVCO.
                                                         

[2] Co-washed with Shea Moisture Coconut Hibiscus Co-Wash Cleansing Conditioner in sections. This seems to help keep my hair from tangling around each other. It also gives me a chance to focus on one section at a time.

[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 Perfect Moisture Deep Conditioner by Tangles and Beyond for 30 minutes.

[5] Detangled with my hair in sections with my Denman Brush (with the deep conditioner still in my hair). For now, I think the Denman brush gives me the best results and I will probably use it from now on. 

[6] Tea Rinsed with my black and green tea mixture. For this week's rinse, I used 3 black tea bags and one green tea bag. I like to massage the rinse into my hair for a few minutes leaving it in.

[7] ACV rinse = I really focus on my scalp making sure that I don't have any buildup and I like to leave it in as well. 

[8] T-shirt dried my hair for about 30 minutes

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

[10]  Put my hair in sections and did 3 strand twists. Whenever I twist my hair my goal is to not have too many twist but that never happens. I think it took me about 2 hours or so to do my whole hair.

At the end of wash day my hair and scalp felt fantastic after, not to mention there were only a few single knot strands! Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I will be rocking low manipulation styles until my 1 year anniversary. Instead of doing an updo, I went for something sort of in between. Because stretching natural hair helps prevents knots, I opted for a style that would achieve that goal, 3 strand twists. 

Honestly, I think this is my best 3 strand twist ever. I don't know if I'm imagining it but I swear I can see the difference in length since the last time I wore it this way. For now, the plan is to wear it like this the rest of the week. I'm going to use the Bee Mine Sensitive Oil Free Serum for my scalp and the moisture my ends using the LCO method.

                           

 How was your wash day? Be sure to join the linkup and share your #WashdayExperience

Until next time!

~Adventures of a Nappy Chica