Product Review: Bee Sensitive Oil Free Serum

Price: $15.00 for (8 fl oz)

Where I bought it: www.beemineproducts.com

Why I bought it: Finding products that help soothe my itchy, dry scalp has been a goal of mine. Incorporating ACV rinses on wash day has really helped with this problem. But, now that I only wash my hair once a week, I need a product that I can use during the week.

Product Description: Bee Sensitive-Oil Free serum was specially created for those with dermatitis, psoriasis, eczema and other sensitive skin conditions. It has been formulated to help calm the scalp and promote a healthy environment for optimal growth. The soothing and healing properties of organic aloe vera juice paired with select herbs can assist in alleviating the discomfort of many scalp conditions.

Directions: Use daily or every other day for best results. Please conduct a patch test on the back of your hand prior to full use. Please seek a doctor's opinion for any scalp condition.

Ingredients:   Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice (Organic Aloe Vera Juice), Aqueous (Distilled Water), Organic Emblica Officinalis Alma Fruit Powder (to help nourish the scalp,  encourage hair growth and even help with premature graying), Centella asiatic (Gota Kola) Powder (prevents hair loss and improves blood circulation in the scalp),  Organic Mentha piperita (peppermint = used to soothe dry or oily scalp), Symthytum officinale (Organic), Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (Organic),  Organic Arctiucm lappa (aka Burdock), Methylsulfonyl-methane, Fragance/Parfum (phthalates free), Phenoxyethanol and Caprylyl Glycol (Paraben & Formaldehyde Free Perservative)

* This product is also Protein Free
How I use it: As needed or every other day.

What I love about it:  Isn't it great when a product actually does what it claims? This product has stopped my dry, itchy scalp in its tracks. Unless you suffer from dry skin and eczema like I do, you might not realize how important this relief is to my sanity and the health of my hair. No more tapping my head to avoid scratching my scalp thus causing it to become more itchy and irritated. Even on the days when I forget to apply it, if I spray my scalp with the serum my scalp is alleviated right away. Since having a healthy, clean scalp is essential to promoting growth, this serum has been a great addition to my regimen.

Because this spray packs a great punch, you don't need to saturate your scalp with the spray. I like to spray it lightly on my scalp and sometimes I even massage it in with my fingers. The smell has an herbal scent to it but nothing overpowering or strong. It is light and refreshing on the scalp.


What I don't like:  This spray is amazing, so you won't hear any negative reviews for me. I only wish it came in a bigger bottle!

Final thoughts: I've been using this serum for a little over two months and I love it.  Armed with this serum and my ACV rinses, my scalp is clean and healthy. If you're looking to alleviate your itchy scalp, give this serum a try. It works great and you can't beat the price.

Have you tried the Bee Sensitive Oil Free Serum?  If so, what did you think?

*Disclosure: I purchased the item in this review with my own funds.  I have not received any monetary compensation for writing this review.  I do not have any connections with the brand or product that I mentioned. 

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

Wash Day Recap: First Wash Day in March + Another Updo

Happy Monday!!!

March is officially here, which means spring and my one year natural anniversary are just around the corner.

I enjoyed last month's updo challenge so much, that I've decided to continue doing updos/low manipulation styles until my natural anniversary. I will probably revisit a lot of the styles from last month and of course, I will try out some new ones as well. If you have any styles you think might work for my length, feel free to share!

Another one of my goals for this month is to minimize the amount of single strand knots. Up until recently, this wasn't an issue for me. But as you may have noticed, they have become a real nuisance and something that I've been trying to figure out. I'm going to experiment with a few things in my regimen to see if I can figure out the cause and find a solution.

Now on to yesterday's wash day:

[1] Pre-pooed with Hair Trigger Grow Elixir and Soultanical's Knot Sauce .  I haven't used Hair Trigger  in a couple of months and I missed it. I didn't experience any knots when this was a staple in my regimen and I'm hoping that incorporating it again will help in some way.
[2] Co-washed with Shea Moisture Coconut Hibiscus Co-Wash Cleansing Conditioner. I noticed that most of my knots seem to appear after I wash my hair. Hopefully washing my hair in sections will eliminate the tangles and knots.

I picked up these butterfly clips from Sally's over the weekend. I got a pack of 12 for $2.19, which is a great deal in my book. The plan is to use these clips to wash my hair in sections. 

[3] Deep Conditioned with Perfect Moisture Deep Conditioner by Tangles and Beyond for 45 mintutes
[4] Detangled with my shower comb (a wide tooth comb). For the past several months I've only used my fingers to detangle. While I don't want to use a comb, I think detangling once a week with a wide tooth might make a difference with my hair.
[5] T-shirt dried my hair for about 20 minutes. I didn't want to twist my hair at this point, so I left my hair dry in sections using the butterfly clips. 
[6] Leave-ins: Jia's Carribean Dream Cream (another sample from Tangles and Beyond) 
[7] Prepare hair for bed: Applied Perfect Moisture Shea Butter Blend, Argon Oil and Marguerite's Magic Restorative Cream and put on my bonnet.

It's only been one wash day but I'm happy to report that I didn't have any major knots. I did have a couple but nothing that required shears. 


This morning I opted for a French Twist updo with a small pompadour in the front. I wanted to try a new style but I didn't research any styles and I didn't have any ideas. Plus, I really liked this look and didn't mind wearing it again. 

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

Until next time!

~Adventures of a Nappy Chica

Natural Hair Journey: 10 Months Natural

It's been 10 months since I went natural. I can't believe in two months it will be one year since my big chop!

Overall this month has been pretty easy. I decided to join the February Mini Challenge and have been wearing updos all this month. This allowed me to experiment with styles and give me a break from constantly manipulating my hair. 

Current Length: I'm not sure. Since I've been wearing my hair up this month, I didn't really focus on the length. My current plan is to do a length check in April.

My Go-to Styles this month: Updos 

 All of the updos that I tried this month were from YouTube. I always watched tutorials but thought I couldn't achieve a certain style due to my length. But, I learned that I change or adjust the hairstyles based on my length. 

         

                               

                  

Hair Regimen: This month I reduced the number of times I washed my hair each week. Instead of two wash days a week, I went down to one. At first I was nervous that my scalp would be greasy or dry but so far it's been okay. I also bought several new products that I am currently testing out. 

Plans for next month:  To combat my issues with single strand knots, I'm going to wash my hair in sections from now on. I will also need to look at my regimen to see what else might be the cause of the knots. And because I love trying out new styles, I plan to do that more as well.

Until next time!

~Adventures of a Nappy Chica

February Mini Challenge | Updo #4: French Roll/ French Twist with Bang

Happy Monday everyone!

Can you believe it is the last week of the February mini challenge? Crazy, right?! This week I wanted to have a little of my hair out, to spice it up a bit. So I chose the French Roll/French Twist with Bang by BlakIzBeautyful. I love her tutorials because they are easy to follow and the hairstyles are cute.

        


I'm going to wear this style for a few day, then take it down to moisturize it and put it back in the same updo. I had less tangles on wash day and perhaps adding more moisturize during the week played a part.

Front

Back

Side 1

Side 2

                                           What are your favorite updo styles?





Until next time!


~Adventures of a Nappy Chica

Wash Day Recap

[1] Exfoliated with Lisa's Hair Elixir Fortifying Spray. I  massaged it into my scalp and left it on my scalp for  five minutes before rinsing it out.
[2] Hot Oil Treatment with Lisa's Hair Elixir Restoring Oil + Soultanical's Knot Sauce  for 30 minutes.
[3] Co-Washed in sections with Shea Moisture Coconut Hibiscus Co-Wash Cleansing Conditioner.  In an effort to eliminate my single strand knots.
[4] Protein Treatment:  ApHogee Intensive Two Minute Keratin Reconstructor
[5] Deep Condition: Perfect Moisture Deep Conditioner by Tangles and Beyond for 40 minutes.
[6] T-shirt dried my hair for about 20 minutes.
[7] Leave-ins: Jia's Carribean Dream Cream (another sample from Tangles and Beyond) and SM's JBCO Leave-in Conditioner.
[8] Prepare hair for bed: Applied Perfect Moisture Shea Butter Blend, Argon Oil, Mango Serum with Sulfur. I also put in ponytail holders to stretch my hair.


There were a few less knots this wash day. So maybe changing my prepoo/hot oil treatment and co-washing in sections made the difference. I'm going to keep tweaking my wash day techniques and see if that continues to help.  Be sure to check back tomorrow to see the updo I'll be rocking this week. 

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

February Mini Challenge | Updo #3 Inspired by NaturalMe4C

Happy Monday Everyone!

At the end of yesterday's wash day, I still didn't know how I wanted to wear my hair this week. I had a few styles in mind but didn't know if I could pull them off. When choosing a hairstyle, I try to be realistic about my styling abilities. I try to choose quick and easy hairstyles for my hair. This week I went with a hairstyle inspired by NaturalMe4C:


          


     
Now, my results are a little different from the tutorial but I still love it.  One of the things I've learned during this challenge is that it's okay to adjust a hairstyle to make it work for you. My hair is shorter than NaturalMe4C's hair, so I tweaked it a bit.

My plan for the rest of the week: I plan to wear this style the rest of the week. To keep my hair moisturized I will spritz my hair every night and in the morning. I noticed I had a lot of single strand knots yesterday, which means I need to change a few things this week. I'm going to wear this style until Wednesday and then take it down to moisturize it. I'll redo the style and wear it until my next wash day (Saturday or Sunday).

                                              What styles are you rocking this week?