I'm Excitedddddd!

I just got the email notifications that I have two packages waiting for me and I know they both contain hair products :)

One of them is an order from amazon.com (since it's hard for me to get to a store without a car and all) containing Lustrasilk Olive Oil Cholesterol and Lustrasilk Shea and Mango Cholesterol

Lustrasilk has lately become all the rage on naturallycurly.com because it's super super cheap ($3 for a 20 oz tub *dies of frugal happiness*) and there are reports of it being a winter leave in holy grail product for several curlies in cold and dry climates.

Then the next package will have my Flax Seed Gelee by BotticelliBabe on the forums. This wonderful lady has started up a little business where she is sending people some of her homemade products. I think this is awesome because she's an at home mommy who is taking something she's passionate about (ie: ingredients and curly hair care) and using her skills in homemade product making to help out other curlies and make a little extra money. I totally applaud her efforts, and lots of ladies on naturallycurly applaud her products (especially the flax seed gel). So I'm super excited to give this a whirl.

The tradgedy is that I washed yesterday, so no flax seed gel or lustrasilk as a leave in for tonight. BUT I will do a deep treatment with lustrasilk and let you all know how that goes.

I'm a happy product junkie :)

A Quick Thank You!

I check the hit-counter at the bottom of my blog every so often and today I saw that I have passed the 5000 page view mark. I think that's pretty amazing since I didn't think anyone would actually read this thing!

So instead of what I was going to talk about (some new products that I've ordered and I'm waiting to try) I think it's appropriate to thank everyone who's read any part of my blog. I never really expected much out of blogging, but it's become a great way for me to communicate some of my experiments and thoughts about hair care to an interested audience. I hope that I've helped someone think of something new or helped to explain something over my couple of months of blogging.

Thank you for reading! You guys are awesome :)

A New Favorite Winter Combo???

I'm very excited curlies!!! I seem to have stumbled upon a very very awesome combination of products today. I'm currently in the process of just trying all sorts of combos (I have a lot of options haha) and today I found what seems to be a very successful one.

I cowashed with suave, used LVPNG to condition, and then raked in Kinky Curly Knot Today, raked then scrunched in about a dime size amount of re:coil (a note on this amount: some say that they can't use more than a pea size drop without feeling dry from the mag sulfate...I have not found this to be the case for me), and then raked/scrunched in about 2 dimes worth of Donna Marie Coco Curly Butter. Then I scrunched in some LA Looks Sport Gel for hold.

Wow am I sad I have nothing to do tonight but read philosophy! Soft, frizz-free, defined spirals :) Crunched scrunced out very easily as well. It's looking like a combo worth remembering. I'm hoping that a quick spritz of my mix of aloe and water will perk up these curls and leave them not frizzy for tomorrow!

How I Plop and My GDLI + Boots Experiment

I saw a question on the boards the other day about plopping with a t-shirt. I know lots of curlies use special towels and stuff, but as a broke college student, I've found that using just an old crummy cotton long sleeve t-shirt works just wonderfully for me.

So someone asked a question about how to plop with a t-shirt, and I suggested trying a long sleeve t-shirt for ease of tying, and I found in my written explanation I was confusing myself and I do it every time I wash!! So I thought, well since I've got a webcam and I had a plop going at the very moment I was responding to this question, I'll just make a quick video.

Just for ease of future access, I thought I'd post in on here in addition so that when the thread on nc.com inevitably gets buried, it will be here if anyone needs it :)



Now, on to more exciting matters than my crude attempt at a quick video :P

I had very nearly given up on Giovanni Direct Leave In (GDLI; available at Target, Rite Aid, Kroger, and Whole Foods) after my very first go with it. It really really seemed to elongate my curls and pushed them into uniformly 2c waves rather than the 3a spirals I aspire to achieve. That was when I tried it with KCCC.

I had a thought while I have been trying this slightly drying curl enhancers like Boots and re:coil that perhaps the GDLI, which had seemed so overly moisturizing and heavy when I first used it (despite the bottle's insistence that it's weightless), would work to balance out the dryness that's inherent in products like re:coil with magnesium sulfate (epsom salt).

So I figured I'd try it with boots first since I'm completely in love with this product and will use it any chance I get. Unfortuneately, I had to do my styling last night (as opposed to the afternoon when I normally do) because my Thursday class schedule makes me want to hurl messy things off a roof, so I had to sleep on slightly wet curls. This is normally cause for sadness because I am not one of those curlies who likes their second day hair more than the first day hair.

I used Suave Naturals to cowash, then Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose to condition, then about a nickle size amount of GDLI raked in then given a few scrunches, then two dime sized blobs of Boots Curl Creme scrunched in. I then scrunched in some LA Looks Gel for hold.

I plopped for around 45 minutes, then without scrunching out the crunch, I pineappled and went to bed.

When I woke up this morning, to my dismay the crunch was gone so my curls looks rather lifeless. I have been experimenting lately with a concotion of half aloe and half water in a spray bottle to wake up 2nd day curls. So I sprayed my hair very liberally and the curls really sproinged back to life.

I'm very happy to say I would use this combo again. After the aloe spray dried (after my forms of reasoning class) I scrunched out the tiny bit of crunch and there were well defined, frizzless curls. As expected, Pink Boots saves GDLI from an uncertain fate! Pink Boots is one fierce product. Too bad there is only one really lousy photo of the actual product on the internet. I think I'll take some artistic liberty and use this picture to refer to the product instead

I Must Be Crazy

If I thought it was bad that I tried two new products at once, I should be very mad at myself today because I just did the most seemingly random combination of products and a couple of them I hadn't tried before. But before I get into that, I want to explain what I meant at the end of my last post about my hair being weird lately

I can't really decide what the problem is but there is one. My hair has been feeling rather dry and frizzy lately, but no where on par with protein sensitive straw so it isn't that, and I haven't used mag sulfate in a while so it's not that either.

On top of the dryness and increased frizz I've been having, I've also had some buildup issues of late. Not like silicone build up because I know for 100% certainty that all of my products are CG friendly. It's not thick and I don't feel particularly gunky. However, I have noticed I've had to use more intense products to coax out the spirals and I've noticed that my hair is looking a bit oilier faster than normal

Here's my theory: I think that now that winter dryness (dewpoint hasn't been above 15 in the last week) has truly set in for me for the first time, my hair is going a little whacko. None of my products, with the possible exception of KCCC, which I feel may be weighing me down a bit actually with it's repeated use (hence the bout of experiments lately to find other suitable routines), are particularly moisturizing. That being said, I tend to shy away from overly moisturizing things because I'm 2c/3a and I have a tendency to get close to that fine line between moisturized and overconditioned and to get weighed down. So my conclusion is that the winter dryness is causing me to feel the effects of the glycerin in my products and from just a long time without anything but cowashing, I've been getting coincidental build up that needs to be zapped.

So that will serve to explain all of my choices for today. Today I used my Giovanni Triple Tea Treat Shampoo (sulfate and silicone free, so it's a low poo) which I've only used 1 other time. I don't really love it, but the cocamidopropyl betaine (a secondary surfactant) in it did a nice job of removing the build up I had that one other time I used it, so I've kept it around for the occasional build up removal.

After my low poo, my hair felt very very dry, as I expected it would after not being exposed to a surfactant in about 2 months. However, it did feel especially clean, which tells me that any build up that was there is gone, and so if I'm still feeling that build-up feeling, I'm going to have to start analyzing which of my products is doing that to me.

To take care of the dryness induced by the low poo, I turned to Aubrey Organic's Honeysuckle Rose. If moisture could be put into a bottle, they'd call it this conditioner. It's very very very rich, almost like a thick icing consistency straight out of the bottle. Smells very organic and I actually liked how earthy I smelled after using it with the giovanni (although no smell compares to my VO5 strawberries and cream <3). So I used a healthy amount of the AO and after that I detangled, rinsed with cool water, and got out.

Now to the styling. I believe outside of KCCC that my new Donna Marie Coco Curling Butter is the thickest, most moisturizing product I have. So I decided to try a relatively insane experiment and use this straight on my hair. I raked and scrunched this in, then topped it off with some Herbal Essences Totally Twisted then about 3 sprays of Set Me Up scrunched in for good measure.

So that makes today's routine Giovanni + AOHR + DM Coco + HETT + HESMU.

Like I said, I must be crazy. But everything I used I used to try and take care of a specific problem. The Giovanni for buildup, the AOHR and DM for moisture, and the two gel combo for frizz control.

I'm currently plopping, so I have no results for you yet, but I will update my post later once I do. I'm thinking it'll either be great or a total disaster haha. Or it could be fine. We shall see

VO5 Strawberries and Cream + KCKT + Donna Marie Honey and Aloe Curling Jelly + KCCC

I did a very bad thing yesterday. I've been feeling like I may be teetering on the brink of overconditioned lately, so I decided to whip out my bottle of Vo5 Strawberries and Cream conditioner because it's lighter than suave and use that for cowashing. The bad thing that I did is I also used a new product today. As a rule, I never like to change more than one thing in a given wash because then how am I supposed to know what change caused whatever results I see?

First, the VO5. This stuff smells amazing. After I had smelled the conditioner in the bottle for about 5 minutes, I finally poured some into my hand, then proceded to smell it some more. I then affirmed by observation what I already knew: this stuff is definitely thinner than suave. It smells really amazing though. So I cowashed and used about the same amount of it that I would use of my suave for comparison's sake. I feel like my hair felt a little cleaner or at least less conditioned right after my cowash (before I used my rinse out). Oh by the way, it smells like strawberries and cream and that smell is amazing. Detangling went well; I feel like even though it's very clearly lighter than suave it still did a very good job of getting the tangles out. I think I'll be using this for the next couple of washes...and the amazing smell lingered subtely which is amazing :D

So after the shower, I raked then scrunched in my normal amount of KCKT after finger combing. Then I used about a nickle size of the Donna Marie Honey and Aloe curling jelly. I admit I was a bit surprised at the color (a sort of brownish tinge) and the consistency of the product. I expected it to be a bit thicker than it actually was, but as the label says, it goes on light. I scrunched it in entirely rather than raking, treating it almost like a curling cream despite it's more thin gel like consistency. I then scrunched in slightly less of my normal KCCC amount and plopped for 45 mins and air dried the rest of the way.

Results: a tad bit of frizz but overall I'm pretty happy. Considering that I used a less moisturizing cowash I expected a bit more frizz and I think that's what caused it but it definitely wasn't some kind of cause for despair. I'd rather have a little more frizz on the first day than oily-ness by the end of the 2nd day.

Here are the pictures:























Basically, I'm happy with the combo and I will use it again.

I'm in a very strange state of hair right now. I think I'll save that for the next blog though.

KCKT + Boots + KCCC

Sorry for the lack of updating. This experiment is a few days old but I've been busy with other things lately. I promise to make up for it by posting again tomorrow on my outcome with my Donna Marie Honey and Aloe Curling Jelly and my experience with using a VO5 conditioner for a cowash.

Ah the much discussed combo of Kinky Curly Curling Custard and Pink Boots. This combination has its own personal thread on naturallycurly.com. Since I've already discussed boots and KCCC and KCNT in detail in previous posts, I'll make this quick and get right to the results.

I felt like my hair was a bit drier when I used the Boots in either situation I've used it in so far. It's been a tad on the frizzy side, but the curl shrinkage is too good to ignore. I'd much rather, as a 2c/3a, have tighter curls than frizz free curls. I can get frizz free with lots of things; I can't get tighter curls from very much though.

I really did like the combo and I even used it when I went to Band Prom (a semi-formal awards banquet for my college marching band). Actually, I got several compliments when I used this combo the last few days. My roomie's mom was in town and she hadn't seen me since the beginning of the fall (before I went CG) and she asked me if I got a perm haha. Then people at Band Prom were shocked to learn that my curls were natural and that I hadn't "done" them. Hair compliments are the best :)

So for comparison's sake, here are some pictures.




















Oh by the way, I don't actually wear that jacket as much as it looks like I do in these last posts haha. It's just something I wear when I have downtime in the dorm and it's cold. Plus I think wearing it in these pictures makes it so the only real difference between the pics is my hair. That's why I take them in the bathroom too; it's a closed room so there is no change in lighting whatsoever

KCKT + Boots + LA Looks

Lucky lucky British! I was sincerely hoping that Boots wouldn't work for me. I received a wonderfully generous sample from a lovely lady on naturallycurly.com of this London concoction available readily at drugstores in London and available for an arm and a leg of shipping to US curlies. I was hoping that I wouldn't get wonderfully formed curls and good root curl and no frizz.

Sadly that is not the case. Boots was amazing!! This product has a bit of a learning curve I hear, but on my first try it seems I got it right. Thanks to the work of others, I already knew that it needs to be emulsified before use (rub your palms together vigorously with the product on them until it coats your hands in white). I knew a little goes a long way, and I knew it could work with scrunching (my preferred method of applying non-leave in products). Well thanks to that legwork my first go at Boots was a rousing success. The picture on the right is my hair after I scrunched out the crunch.

I still have a couple of ounces of this stuff to play with, but as soon as some comes on the swap board, I'm buying. So if any curlies reading this blog happen to have some Boots lying around that they don't want, lemme know!! I will take it off your hands gladly!

I'm extremely curious to see how boots would play with re:coil. I think that shall be my next experiment. Of course, by then I may have my other two Donna Marie products to try, and let's not forget Donna Marie Lock and Twist is sitting patiently in my cabinet. Oh the choices a PJ must make! But really, I do want to see how the Boots plays with re:coil first and since Saturday should be my next wash, what a perfect opportunity to try. Anyhoo, just for the sake of comparison, here's a picture from the back. I'm trying to take very similar pictures so I can see the subtle differences between the products I've been using lately.

KCKT + Re:coil + LA Looks Gel

Ok so I lied. I thought that next wash I'd try the boots, but since I woke up this morning at 7am and had a 9am class, that meant a few things. First, experimenting before class when exhausted isn't ever a good idea. Second, I'd have to diffuse and not plop for as long as usual after I got out of the shower, which scared me a bit with trying a new product in a really important position in my hair. Also, I wanted to give the KCCC a break, so that would've meant using boots with a gel, and then in that case I have 3 gels to choose from (HETT, HESMU, and LA Looks)

So I decided to go light on the experimentation this morning while still having something new to blog about. Since I already determined I can get decent results with re:coil, I decided to pair it with a new gel, LA Looks sport. This stuff is neat. It's blue and bubbly and comes in a giant bottle for like $2. It's amazing in terms of bargain hunting.

Here's how I used it. I cowashed with suave, used LVPNG as a rinse out, then raked through a nickle size glob KCKT, then raked/scrunched about a dime size of re:coil,then I applied the gel much as I would KCCC. I took about a dime size and I leaned to one side and scrunched in the gel, then I got another glob and did the same with the other side. Then I got one last glob and scrunched it in upside. I plopped for nearly 30 mins, then took the plopped down, fixed my part, and diffused until 90% dry. Ordinarily I wouldn't do it that much, but if you were about to leave and go outside into sub freezing temperatures, you'd be worried about haircicles (hair + icicle) too.

I walked to class with the crunch so the wind wouldn't give me frizz, although there really wasn't too much crunch; it just looked a tad wet really. Then I ducked into the bathroom in the philosophy building to scrunch out the crunch and wow! I'm loving this combo even more than the KCCC + re:coil combo. I've finally found a routine I can rotate with KCCC. Obviously, the results are slightly scewed because I diffused, but I'm perfectly fine with diffusing if it gets me this kind of volume! Fantastic volume, also nice shrinkage.

Here are some pictures to compare to re:coil with KCCC in the previous post






















Looking at these pictures makes me realize that my hair has grown in incredibly fast since my Deva cut. It's definitely starting to pull on the curl at the root more than it used to. I think over spring break I may have to go get another cut

KCKT + AG Re:coil + KCCC

So I got three products today in the mail. I'm back at school now so I was finally able to pick up my AG Re:coil, my sample of pink boots, and my Donna Marie Lock and Twist came today as well. I'm in product junkie heaven!

I decided that since I've been feeling like my curls are too loose lately that I would try re:coil first. Some have found that the magnesium sulfate (epsom salt) in this product made their hair feel a little dry with repeated use and I really hope that doesn't end up being the case for me because I'm loving this product right now.

I decided that for my first go with this I would just insert it into my tried and true routine of KCKT leave in followed by KCCC. Here are some things I know from others and I have discovered on my own:

1) You shouldn't use a lot of this product. I've read that a pea sized amount works for a lot of people. I decided that since I really wanted to see what the coiling power of this product is that I would use a glob that was more like 2 large peas.

2) It's much thicker than I thought it would be. Well, I guess thick isn't the right word. It's hard to describe. I guess I should say it's difficult to spread and distribute. I don't think I'd try this product without some kind of slip-giving leave in underneath.

3) It can be raked or scrunched. Even though it's a little tricky to rake through, it can be done. I did a combo of raking and scrunching to make sure I hit everything. I raked it through a few times, then I rubbed my hands together again to redistribute the product on my hands, then I scrunched it into my hair via the mysteryflavored method.

4) I didn't add any weight to my hair which is awesome. I was worried about layering in another product because I don't want my desperately-trying-to-be-3a curls to get pulled down into 2c loose S wave-curls. My hair feels very light and bouncy now that I have scrunched out the KCCC crunch

5) Curl tightness = wow! I can definitely tell that there's improved shrinkage today versus yesterday. I'm very excited to keep using this product and I'll be trying some different combos to see what works best. I've been worried that the KCCC might be weighing me down a bit after so much repeated use, so next time I use this I'm going to try it with a leave in, then re:coil, then gel. I will of course keep you posted. But the next wash will go to either boots or L&T

Here are two pictures of my hair when it dried:

I Have No Self-Control

I sold a bunch of old clothes on eBay recently, and so I had some money sitting in my paypal account. Well that balance is now diminished.

On curltalk lately, there have been a couple good threads popping up about the Donna Marie line of products. Now, you must understand, I have zero ability to resist a raving review. It's even harder when those reviews are coming from established CG veterans who have provided me with so much advice and guidance through my CG journey.

So like a recovering addict, I've been avoiding the threads. I've been so good too.

Then a new thread popped up on the board about how a product that had sold out within hours of it first going online, the Donna Marie Honey and Aloe Curling Jelly, was now available again. Now I tried to reason with the PJ demon. I tried to tell it that I didn't really need it persay, and that even though I love aloe and have been super curious about honey, I could just enjoy my Lily of the Desert aloe and pick up some honey later.

But no, of course, the PJ demon wins out. I have the control of a cat looking at a thanksgiving turkey. So when I was looking at the donna marie thread on the product review board and saw a 15% off coupon code for a website that carries the products, I ordered Lock and Twist pudding from them. Then of course, I figured, well why stop there? So I went to the Donna Marie site and ordered the Honey and Aloe Curling Jelly and the Coco Curling Butter

Stockpiling, New Gel to Try, and My Ever Patient Boyfriend

Today I had a bunch of errands to run for the mother unit. Among the stores I needed to stop at was Kroger, which has recently expanded their CG friendly stuff (yay!). I was looking for a gel when a red sticker caught my eye. Much to my dismay, I saw a sticker under my beloved L'oreal Vive Pro Nutri Gloss for Medium to Long Hair that's Wavy/Curly that said "Close-out On This Item Only!" and it was marked down to about half-off ($2.49/bottle). I wanted to cry, but I decided to get 4 of the 7 bottles that were there. This way, if the "close-out" means that L'oreal is trying to empty their shelves so that they can reformulate it with 'cones, I'll be prepared for a couple of years (I have 3 bottles stockpiled at school as well, so I now have 7 bottles and I don't go through it that quickly) while I look for a replacement.

In other news, I was looking at reputed CG gels (the herbal essences gels, some of the aussie gels) when my eyes wandered to a blue bottle. I knew L.A. Looks Sport Gel was CG, but I didn't know that it had such a big bottle and I didn't know it was under $3 for said big bottle. Honestly, I think I could get a good year out of it. So here's hoping it works. I'll give it a try when I get back to school.

And finally, I'd like to thank my wonderful patient boyfriend, who has been sitting with his arm around me while I've been typing this short little entry, waiting to take me out for mexican food (yum!). Actually, we've really been waiting to see if the stuff that's in the dryer will be done before 5:30, but that's another story. Anyhoo, thank you darling for being patient with me and my curly hair obsession! Love you! :)

A Product Failure and Other Thoughts

Much to my dismay, Wet Set Pudding by Curls by Sistersmith is simply not working for me. It makes my hair feel gunky and coated and sticky. Not good. It really nice wet, but dries very frizzy. I think instead of swapping it though I'll continue with my product hoarding and save it until the summer. Since glycerin is such a huge component, I'm going to blame the bad results on that and stash this product away until the summer. I'm especially sad since the scent was cinnamon vanilla...absolutely devine :(

In other news, I've decided I'm going back to school on the 11th. I've been having the most gloriously unproductive winter break, filled with sleep, couch time, and eating yummy food. When I do get back to school though, on the 12th the mail room should be open so I can go get my Boots sample from a lovely lady on naturallycurly.com and my re:coil that I ordered. I'm very excited to try both of these. Ah PJ experimenting :) My roomie at school is always telling me that it's silly that I order new products when what I'm doing (KCNT and KCCC) looks really good. I tell her I'm just tweaking things. The reality is that I need to know how everything works for my hair. I've yet to find one ingredient that my hair really hates. I can handle gobs of protein (as evidenced by my Aubrey Organics GPB), gobs of moisture (AOHR), and from my pre-CG days I know I've used products with magnesium sulfate (epsom salt; this isn't one of the bad detergent kind of sulfates) so I think I should be ok with it now (of course, I won't know for sure unil I try re:coil).

If I don't stop with the experimentation someday though I might end up with this in my bathroom!