Lots of Experimenting!

I've gotten some new fun things to play with (too many for one post) so let's get right down to it!

DENMAN!
Why oh why didn't I buy one of these sooner?? This little brush is pretty fantastic. It has rows of smooth, nylon pins with no balls on the end like a paddle brush you'd typically see at any drug store (aka what I used to use). Those little balls on the end of traditional brushes like that may make your scalp feel nice, but they also contribute to split ends. Also, many drugstore brushes do not have smooth spokes. There is often a ridge where the plastic meets up to form the spoke in the mold. Running a plastic ridge over your curls = bad idea

So that leaves us with getting a nice brush, finger combing, or wide tooth combing. I have. until lately, been wide tooth combing or paddle brushing. Finger combing just doesn't work for me (kudos to those it does worth for those because it's very gentle!). I like to start with a sheet of soaking wet hair when I style. It's just personal preference.

So that leaves me with wide tooth combing or getting a nice brush. Wide tooth combing works. It'll leave my hair detangled and ready for styling. But it does nothing for my scalp.

Hence, we arrive at the Denman. Easily found on Amazon or at any of these stores in the US, this brush is the best of both worlds for me. It combines lovely scalp massaging spokes with detangling and gentleness. And, of course, on CurlTalk, there are about 17 million threads that tell you various ways to use the Denman for product distribution, getting clumps, etc etc. Great tool to have in your curly arsenal!

Posts to look forward to: Donna Marie MiraCurls Curling Jelly, Sally's GVP Condition and some Curl Junkie products!

50,000 Page Views!

Woohoo! We passed 50,000 page views today! This is absolutely incredible to me! I really never expected anyone to actually read this thing when it first got going to be honest :P So thank you thank you thank you to everyone who's read anything on here because this makes me feel all warm and happy on the inside :) Love you all ♥

Alright back to business!! Today I tried out two new things! I shall not tell you what they are because I'm saving this post for after I get this stinking organic chemistry exam on Thursday out of the way. So, until then, may your functional groups always be found in ring conformation because ring conformations are more like curls than straight chain conformations. Ok so I'm reaching..big deal.

Quick Update :)

I did my first cowash today since all I have to do today is study for my genetics and organic chemistry exams (oh the life of a premed student) and I didn't mind if my hair didn't look good since I won't be going anywhere today.

I decided to keep it simple and I went with Suave Naturals Coconut Conditioner as my cowash and I used my Curls Coconut Sublime Conditioner as a rinse out. Hair and scalp both felt clean and happy when I finished. Then, to keep things simple, I just scrunched in some Herbal Essences Totally Twisted Gel, scrunched out extra water with my CurlEase towel, and air dried.

It came out fine. Nothing special or worth noting really. Whew my hair is dry. Some of the underlayers have some shine, but the outer layers are dull dull dull. I know it's from sun bleaching (not intentionally mind you, I just work outside during the summer and can't help it), and from chlorine, and then obviously the sulfate usage. It's only the first cowash though. I'm going to keep on cowashing and maybe use my Curls Cleansing Cream once a week. I ordered a deep treatment last week and it should be here tomorrow so I'm excited to use that. So much to look forward to :)

I'm Back

For real this time. Obviously, my last post did not come to pass. I'm sorry for any false hopes. I did notice however, that in my hiatus, the number of page views for my blog is nearing 50,000! That's unbelievable. I imagine most of that is due to people checking out my CG guide from being linked to it by the lovely ladies of naturallycurly.com, so I'm super happy that even in my absense, the blog was helping some curlies out!

So here's the hiatus explanation. I had some serious hair issues this summer. My fair felt nasty and my scalp was a disaster zone. Not even my beloved brown sugar scrub could zap the flakes and gunk. I tried co-pooing (combining a cowash with a low poo), which worked for a while then quit. I tried low pooing exclusively, which really dried me out and made me tangly and nasty. Finally, I threw in the towel and started using Aussie Moist Shampoo (main cleaning ingredient: Ammonium Laurel Sulfate. Yikes) and Aussie Moist Conditioner (this is actually not too bad, the only non CG thing is a bis-aminopropyl dimethicone). I very rarely actually styled my hair since using CG products with a non CG routine just doesn't work for me. When I would style it, it was very obvious how dry it was. I really didn't want to be on CurlTalk during that time because it was very frustrating doing things that I knew were not good for my hair but seeming to have no other choice.

I think now that my hair has been sufficiently sulfate damaged yet again, my hair may finally be ready to try CG again.

Here's the gameplan. I bought some of the Curls Cleansing Cream and also their Curls Coconut Sublime Conditioner. I figured that going from using an ALS shampoo straight to cowashing would lead to some funky greasiness since when I'm on sulfates, my scalp gets oil build up (and I have to wash it every day). So, I figured I'd give a really gentle low poo a try for transitioning sake before I try straight cowashing with Suave Naturals Coconut again. And if straight cowashing doesn't work out, then I have a nice moisturizing low poo to fall back on/alternate with cowashing.

This stuff is a little pricey, but I tried them today and I've gotta say I'm impressed. I really like the texture of the cleansing cream. It's very thick, which is a good sign. Both of these products come in pump bottles, which is really nice. I like the conditioner, but my hair really ate it up. I think I was around like 10 pumps before I was satisfied. Hopefully the amount I need will slow down as my hair recovers from the summer, but I can see why the cleansing cream comes in an 8oz. bottle and the conditioner comes in a 16oz bottle! By the way, they both smell fantastic. Very coconut-creamy. Yum!

After I did my Curls washing and conditioning, I applied a nickle size blob of Kinky Curly Knot Today and then scrunched in some Curl Junkie Coffee Coco Cream. I'm airdrying for the first time in a longggg time. I forgot how long my hair takes to air dry even though it isn't long or thick. I'm at 2 hours now and I'm just starting to feel a slight bit of crunch forming from the Curl Junkie.

I have lots of exciting new products and techniques to try once I finish adjusting. I'm going to stick with the above routine for at least a week or so. Then cowashing, and hopefully an easy adjustment!