Wash Day While on Vacay!

So as most of you guys know between twitter, youtube, and my blog I'm on vacation! I'm having a fabulous time at home visiting my family and friends. I knew that I would be gone too long to just skip washing my hair all together so I packed my hair essentials (see the video here) and decided to go ahead and make today my wash day. I kept my wash day process very simple because I didn't want to spend 3-5 hours on my hair. First I applied my  Silk Elements Kera Minerals Deep Conditioner to damp hair and sat under the dryer for about 15 minutes. After that I hopped in the shower, rinsed, and followed up with my beloved hair one. Thankfully my mother has a great stash of conditioners and cleansers thanks to me! Next I followed up with some of the GVP version of the Matrix Biolage Conditioning Balm. I hadn't used this stuff in years, but decided to after seeing it under my mom's sink and was really surprised with how easily it detangled and softened my hair. I may pick a bottle up the next time I'm in Sally's since I received a Sally's Gift card as one of my Christmas gifts! After rinsing and detangling in the shower I wrapped my hair in a towel and allowed it to soak up as much water as possible for about 10-15 minutes. Lastly, I applied my leave ins which consisted of coconut oil, Giovanni Direct Leave in, and about a quarter sized amount of my GVP Chi Silk Infusion. Since it's pretty cold outside today I decided to go ahead and sit under my mom's hooded dryer on medium cool heat. Overall I'm pretty pleased with my results especially since I was limited to just using the bare essentials! Once my hair was about 80% dry I applied my normal daily moisturizer and sealed with coconut oil. I was left with soft, shiny, and fluffy hair with minimal frizz. I may use this as an option for weeks when I don't feel like rollersetting...we'll see. Here are my results!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hi guys!

For the most part I will be pretty quiet on here as well as on Youtube because it's the holidays and I am home with my family! I just wanted to take the time out to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year! I will see you all in 2013! As always love, peace, and blessings :)

How I Pack My Hair Essentials for any Vacation!

One of the things that I absolutely hate is packing! Not necessarily the idea of packing, but the fact that I can't pack everything, but the kitchen sink and take it with me! You never truly realize how many things you use on a daily basis until it's time to go somewhere! Packing the right hair essentials is one of the first things that I do when it comes to packing. Check out my video to see exactly what I pack and how I prepare it for travel!

Tropical Isle Red Pimento Oil

So for those of you who follow my youtube channel you already know that back in October I purchased Tropical Isle's Red Pimento Oil. 

This product promises: Try jamaican black castor oil serum with argan oil to stimulate hair growth, revitalize dull, dry and frizzy hair. Prevent dandruff and conditions scalp. Adds volume to hair. Slows graying hair.

Here's my review on the product! 

How I Overcame My Setback...

So as I was reading one of my favorite blog's Longing4Length (Heyyyy  EbonyCPrincess!!!) and I stumbled upon her post about her setback and how upset she was at the time and it brought back not so old memories about how I felt about my own setback. It took me a very long time to accept my setback and figure out what to do in order to move forward. I've narrowed it down to these following things:

• I had to come to grips with the fact that I'd had a setback. I was in denial for the longest, but every time I  looked in the mirror the truth was looking right back at me. *sigh*

• I figured out exactly what caused my setback. In my case this was a bad attempt at self relaxing and removing braids and not detangling properly. The water hit my hair and it was a hot matted mess. I had breakage everywhere. 

• The next thing that I did was let go of the damage. At first I tried to cut away at my damaged hair every relaxer, but after 6 months of cutting and still not seeing the health and thickness that I wanted I got fed up, found a stylist (that I love by the way) and got a professional cut (about 4" total). I cringe every time I think about the amount of hair that was cut, but it was absolutely necessary.

• I set new realistic goals for my hair. My first goal is to reach full APL, hopefully by August 2013 *crosses fingers* By setting realistic goals it gives me something to work towards without putting so much focus on my ultimate goal of having BSL-MBL hair. 

• I revamped my regimen and cut out all of the experimenting with different products and methods that I know for a fact hadn't worked for my hair in the past. I developed a very simple regimen that was easy to follow and fit into my schedule nicely. Now don't get me wrong I've experimented and adjusted along the way, but for the most part my hair has been experiencing consistency and is really enjoying it. 

• I decided to stop having length checks so often. I've currently narrowed my length checks down to every other relaxer or twice a year. As tempted as I am to look at length comparisons I know it will drive me crazy. I'm more focused on maintaining the health of my hair. If I can do that then I know length will come! 

I think the most important thing that my setback taught me was to enjoy my hair at all stages. Before I was so concerned with making it to BSL as quickly as possible that I forgot to appreciate the little things like being able to make a bun, or having full thick ends, or enjoying a fabulous caruso steam rollerset. I'm enjoying the health of my hair. I know that if I stay focused my goal length will come and when it does as Kanye says "You can't tell me NOTHIN!" Until next time...

Please Pray For the Victims of the Sandy Hook School Shooting

Hi guys. I'm coming to you all today on an extremely serious and sad topic, which is the recent shooting that happened in Connecticut, which took the lives of so many beautiful children and adults. My prayers are with all who were and will forever be affected by this tragedy. Please pray that God lifts them up in this time of despair. Until next time guys...

Mineral Oil: The Black Hair Industry's Evil Sidekick

So yesterday I stopped by my local beauty supply store on the way home. I was looking for a thicker moisturizer for the winter months, but I also just wanted to look around because well I'm hair obsessed and it's just what I do! As I roamed from isle to isle picking up moisturizers that peaked my interest for the most part they all had one thing in common. MINERAL OIL! *insert scream here* What really bothered me about this was that the products that I picked up were from some of the top lines that supposedly cater to African American Hair (Optimum Care, Motions, Creme of Nature, etc) yet mineral oil was one of the top three ingredients. As I looked at each product and shook my head in frustration I couldn't help but think that it's no wonder I had trouble retaining length for years. Before I learned about healthy hair care practices I was one naive gal. I was that customer that always bought a product based on the promises written on the front and the pictures of the gorgeous black women with healthy shiny hair and actually expected it to work and yet I would always end up disappointed. If only I'd known then that so many of those products that are marketed towards African American women don't necessarily contain ingredients that are good for our hair. Now I'm not saying that products that contain mineral oil can't work for some, but I know for me personally they do NOTHING for my hair. Ultimately the point of this whole babble is to point out why mineral oil is not the best ingredient choice for hair products, in particularly moisturizers. Here are some fun facts about mineral oil:

• Mineral oil is derived from crude oil
• It coats the hair shaft instead of penetrating it, which allows the hair to appear shiny and moisturized
• Eventually the hair will dry out potentially causing more breakage and damage. 

I am so glad that so many hair care lines are starting to eliminate this ingredient from their products and that more importantly I've learned to read the ingredients list on any product before it touches my hair! 

Source: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5709026_petroleum-products-bad-black-hair_.html

Weekly Find: Elf Eyebrow Kit!!!

So a few weeks ago I was in Dollar Tree (1 of my favorite stores..can't ya tell!) and I ran across this Elf eyebrow kit. I've always had rather thin eyebrows and lately I've been wanting to learn how to fill them in and make them appear thicker. At $1 I figured it wouldn't hurt to give this kit a try. Apparently this same eyebrow kit is normally sold for $3 at Target. A $2 savings? I'll take it!

KeraPro Sale at Sally's Beauty Supply!!!

So thanks to Ebony C. Princess and Jenni from Just Grow Already I have been itching to get my hands on the Kerapro product line at Sally's for the longest, however I refused to pay $10.99 for each product! I've also been on the hunt for a nice light protein conditioner to put in rotation into my almost cemented regimen (post coming soon on that!). Finally Sally's heard my cry and decided to have a fabulous 2 for $10 sale on kerapro along with some other great products. Check out the ad here. I absolutely cannot wait to try these two products! So to all of ladies out there who are kerapro fanatics this sale will be going on all throughout the month of December!

This Weekend's Hairstyles...

So this weekend had some awesome ups and a few downs in my hair world. On Friday night I washed and roller set my hair. Saturday morning I wore my hair pinned up to run a couple of errands. Later on that day I decided to meet up with a couple of friends and not being a fan of extremely straight hair on me I decided to dust off my caruso steam rollers. My hair came out amazing and my layers were totally 'poppin'! I included a few picutres of my steam rollerset below...

And then came the small disaster on Sunday. Way back when I first cut my hair to ear length I used to rock bantu knots all the time and they looked so cute! Well this time not so much...I'm not sure if it's because my hair is longer or if it's because of the layers, but my bantu knots were sticking out in every direction and just looked unruly. So to try and salvage the hairstyle I added my moisturizer and sealed with coconut oil and then fluffed my hair out to create some sort of volume. Next I gathered the top half of my hair and clipped it back with my EZ Comb and went on my way. This is what I was left with. Until next time :)

Weekly Find!!!

Hey guys! So this week's Weekly find are the cute little 'Clean Jars' from Sally's Beauty Supply! I paid $3.19 with my Sally's card. I love these jars because it makes it easier to store smaller quantities of hair and skin care products. I chose to store my Trader Joe's Coconut oil in the bigger jar and my cocoa butter in the smaller jar. It's easier for travel and takes up less counter top space in my bathroom! I absolutely love reaching for my mini jar of coconut oil as opposed to that heavy glass jar. Until next time :)

Quick Winter Protective Style

It's the most wonderful time of the year! You know...when it's so cold outside that you don't even want to get out of your bed in the morning and the walk from the parking lot into a building seems like a 10 mile journey. Yeah that right...I'm talking about WINTER! In case you couldn't tell winter is definitely not my favorite season, but I digress. With it being cold and windy outside there is no time like the present to amp up protective styling. For those who may not know protective styling is any style that prevents your hair from rubbing against your clothing or anything else and your ends up and tucked away. Even though I'm able to wear my hair in buns it's still not quite at what I'd consider 'bun length' yet so I'm learning to have to be more creative with my protective styles for the time being. Now this particular style that I'm rocking in the picture below is actually a pin curl style gone all the way wrong...nice coverup huh? And it took me all of about 3-5 minutes to achieve. All I did was gather all of my hair except my bang towards the upper back part of my head and place a claw clamp or clip on it to protect my ends. I slicked down my edges to my liking with my Ampro Style Protein Gel and Elasta QP mango butter. I then placed this fabulous hat, which will probably be featured in my 'Weekly Finds' series over my hair and voila! There you have it...an easy winter protective style. Add earring to jazz up your look and your out the door!  

Where Have I Been?!

So I've been rather quiet the last few days on my blog, but I promise it's not without good reason! Besides enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday with family I've been hard at work remodeling my blog and making it a little more user friendly. I've changed my color scheme and layout in addition to making it a bit easier to subscribe as well as keep up with me on facebook and Youtube! So far I'm loving my blog's new look! Sooo now that I've got that out of the way I've got some really fun posts and videos coming up on rollersetting, my updated hair regimen, staple products, and of course weekly finds so stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I just wanted to wish all of my fabulous readers out there a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!!! Be safe and have a blast! As always...love, peace, and blessings :)

That's that stuff I don't like...Blogger Edition!

Well I've already done the youtube version of this tag so it's only right that I do the Hair Blogger's edition! Sending a big thank you to Sdestra for tagging all of her followers in this fun tag :)

• I don't like when someone who is completed uneducated about healthy hair care tries to give me hair care advice. I'm all for advice, but this really irks me!

• Extremely Expensive hair products. I'm all for splurging, but I just refuse spend $30 plus on a conditioner or serum. Thank God for Sally's GVP!

•  I don't like when a favorite product is discontinued. I still haven't forgiven Herbal Essence for discontinueing the None of Your Frizziness moisturizer. My hair loved that stuff :(

• I don't like when I am so excited to try a new product or styling method and it does nothing for my hair. Perfect example...my whipped shea butter mix fiasco. Left my hair greasy and my scalp itching for days!

• I don't like when I am just dying to get my hands on a particular product and Sally's is completely out of it. Can you tell yet that I'm a Sally's girl :)

• I don't like that I'm extremely shy about my healthy hair care obsession and don't share my passion with others. I'm slowly learning to get over this.

• I DEFINITELY don't like setbacks! But then again what girl on a healthy hair journey does *sigh*

• I don't like mineral oil or any product made with it. Mineral oil and my hair are like oil and water. THEY JUST DONT MIX!

• I don't like when I log onto youtube and I don't have any  new videos to watch...I watch Youtube more than I watch regular TV!

• I don't like when someone comes to me with a hair related issue. I give them advice only for them to not even attempt to listen and then come back fussing about it again a few weeks later -_-

I'm tagging any and everybody who reads this post and wants to participate! 

Weekly Find

So I've decided to do a series of post on weekly finds. These weekly finds will just be random deals that I run across and won't always be hair related or posted every week, but I thought it would be fun!

So this week while cooking I noticed a few utensils missing from my cooking arsenal and decided to hit up Dollar Tree to grab what I needed. Often times people thing of Walmart automatically for anything that they need, but sometimes Walmart is not always the cheapest. 

I got my rubber spatula and potato masher all for a whopping 2 bucks! Now that's a find! Until next time...

Back on Bun Status!

I'm so excited! Back in August when I first got my cut the one thing I could not make that I missed so much was a BUN! In fact the one thing my little ponytail reminded me of was a...

Yep that's right a big fluffy make up brush. But fast forward 11 weeks and I am back on bun status! No it's not a very big bun, but for now I'm just glad that I can make one again :)

Rollerset Success!!!!

Ok so I finally decided to stop being a chicken and giver rollersetting a try. My hair came out amazing. This is the first time I've ever gotten something close to salon results!

I deep conditioned with my Silk Elements Kera Minerals Smoothing Deep Conditioner and used my tropical isle red pimento oil for my hot oil treatment for about 15 minutes under my Gold N Hot Conditioning cap. Then I hopped in the shower to rinse my hair and followed up with my Hair One cleansing conditioner. Lastly I applied my beloved TRESemme' Moisture Rich conditioner and detangled under the shower. 

After this I blotted my hair with my turbie twist and hunkered down armed with my leave ins to begin the delicate task of rollersetting my hair. For leave ins I used my Kimmaytube leave in conditioner with twist, kera care wrap-set lotion, and about a dime sized amount of chi silk infusion. Oh and of course a huge bottle of water. No frizzy ends here! Fast forward an hour and a half and I ended up with the results below. 

I'm slightly OCD so that crooked roller at the start of my mohawk in my picture is really bothering me...I'll have to work on that! Anywho, finally I was ready to sit under my Gold N Hot bonnet dryer (review coming later) for approximately 1 hr 30 min. 

I took out my rollers and wrapped my hair, placed a plastic shower cap on, and then threw on my silk scarf on top of it (my version of a saran wrap) for another 5-7 minutes. Once I was done I unwrapped my hair and was greeted with soft, supple, bouncy, shiny hair! *dreamy sigh* Check out the results below...

I loved my hair so much that I threw on some clothes and went Christmas shopping just so I could have an excuse to show it off! I know that with time my results will get better and better. Oh and the best part is that I seemed to experience less shedding from rollerwrapping than air drying..hmmm... Until next time.

Rollersets Here I come!

Ok so as I mentioned in my previous post rollersetting is on the brain. I'm so over the frizzy air dried hair look...especially since my setback cut. My fabulous salon results made me want to challenge myself to see if I could achieve the same thing at home. I'm gotten all of my supplies. I'm 1 week post relaxer right now and I'm so excited to wash my hair and see how it comes out. After countless rollersetting videos I'm ready for the challenge! Of course I'll post pics...Stay tuned!

Relaxer Update #1!

Hey guys...check out my relaxer update video. This is the first relaxer I've had since my big cut. I'm so pleased with the results! 

More Videos coming soon and Randomness!

Hey guys! Excited because I am on a different shift at work this week, which gives me time to record videos! I've gotten a few goodies as of lately and finally have a little time to start cranking out my product review videos! 

On another note I was sitting on the boo's sofa yesterday watching one of my favorite youtubers/bloggers Tracyee from KISS and my boyfriend was in the bathroom cutting his hair. He heard her voice and yelled out 'Hey babe who are you watching...little bit?' LOL I just cracked up laughing because I watch youtube videos so much that he already knew who it was just from her voice. He called her little bit because he knows that she is short like me. I thought that was just too cute! Oh and speaking of my favorite youtubers/bloggers I've recently been inspired to try rollersetting again thanks to Jeni of JustGrowAlready. I'm so excited especially because as much as I enjoy airdrying I'm tired of frizzy ends so I'm taking matters into my own hands! 

Lastly I've gotten my first relaxer since my cut. My hair has grown out so nicely and although I'm not doing an official length check until January I'll post a picture of my current length for you guys to see! 

Always have a backup plan...

So last week I was happily steaming my hair under my steamer like I do every week when it suddenly clicked off. I'm not sure what's wrong with it...the honey is supposed to look at it later, but for now I have no steamer *insert angry face here* But luckily I still had my trusty Gold N Hot professional heating cap! Sooo I pulled that sucker out and continued with my normal wash day routine. So the lesson here is...always have a backup plan!

The CUT!

Soooo I'm almost 2 weeks posts which means I've been rocking my cut for 2 weeks now! First of all I have to say I LOVE it! This is the first time that I've gotten a cut that I actually wanted and asked for! I love my new beautician. She's amazing...has a great personality and she explained everything she was going to do before she did it. She only cut what was necessary, which was at least 4 inches, but I was so sick of having damaged hair that I was happy to let it go!  As far as my regimen goes I've been keeping it very simple and consistent. So here's what I do...

• Wash: 1-2X per week
• Deep Condition: EVERY wash
• Moisturize & Seal: 2x per day
• Protein: 1x per month
• Clarify: 1x per 10 weeks
• Hot Oil Treatment: At least 1x every 2 weeks 

Products I use: 

• Conditioner: Tressemme Vitamin E Moisture Rich Conditioner
• Shampoo: Hair One Cleansing Conditioner
• Protein Treatment: Aphogee 2 Min Reconstructor, ORS Replenishing Conditioner, Joico k-pak (whatever I have)
• Moisturizer: Garnier Fructis Anti-humidty leave in conditioner
• Sealant: Coconut Oil
• Moisturizer for new growth: Elasta QP mango butter 

Here are my pictures...

 Stay tuned!

Where Have I Been?!?

I know I know....I've been gone for quite a while now. 1 day turned into 1 month and voila before I knew it we were half way through the month of August! I've officially made my goal weight and now fluctuate lovingly between 143 and 147. Working on getting back closer to 143! I think one of the main reasons I have been away is because I have been fighting a losing battle with my hair. A while back I got braids and attempted to wash them after I took the braids out. Well my hair matted and I had severe breakage around the crown of my head and around the back of my head. Needless to say I've been trying to do consistent trims to get rid of the damage and have finally come to terms with the fact that I need professional help so tomorrow I am going to get a professional cut/trim. I know that I need to get rid of at least 4 inches of hair (I cringe everytime I say it out loud), but it must go. I am only willing to let go of that much for right now. I will do another trim in October if it's necessary. But I am SICK and TIRED of looking at this damaged hair when I know how healthy my hair used to be and how healthy it can be again. It's time to LET IT GO. So if that means chopping off 4 inches as nervous as I am...I'm ready to let it go!

So this brings me to my next point. My future hair goals....I would love to say that I'll be BSL in a year...but it probably won't happen, but I do know that that is my long term goal. So my short term goal is to reach healthy full APL by August of next year and Full BSL by August of the following year. That seems doable and since I've learned how to take care of my hair in between relaxers once I let go of this damage that seems achievable.

I'm nervous about this cut, but I'm also so excited to get rid of the damage and have healthy hair again! I'll make sure to post pics and let y'all know how my salon experience goes :)

Wet N Wild's Mega Last Polish..New and Improved Formula!

Ok so for all you nail polish junkies like myself! This is something that you really may wanna try! I've tried wet n wild nail polishes before and was not very impressed, but being the youtuber and blogger that I am the new and improved Wet n wild megalast polish kept coming up! Soooo at $1.98 I had to try it. The color that you see below is 'I Red a Book' I LOVE the color. It's so bright a vibrant! Not to mention Wet N Wild has a new and improved manicure brush that just glides onto your nail so beautifully and provides so much coverage with just one stroke! This nail polish claims to last up to 5 days with no chipping. I have no idea if it will live up to its word, but so far I am absolutely smitten with this nail polish!