Review | Aesthetica Cosmetics Makeup Brush Cleansing Glove

Hi lovies,

I'm back after another hiatus! Sorry about that, but I'm happy to say that I have a slew of beauty reviews coming up starting with the Aesthetica Cosmetics Makeup Brush Cleansing Glove. I purchased this glove from Amazon for $19.95. For those who don't know I'm an avid beauty lover, which means that rocking makeup is a regular occurrence for me. Most people HATE cleaning their makeup brushes, but it's something that I always look forward to. I'm a bit of a germophobe and I can't stand dirty makeup brushes caked with excess product buildup. Sunday afternoons are my normally makeup brush cleaning day. While I've been cleaning my makeup brushes forever I knew that my current methods weren't the most effective at getting my brushes clean. While watching YouTube (of course) I ran across several reviews for the Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Glove. The only problem was the almost $40 price tag. I don't mind splurging on beauty items, but a cleaning glove was not one of them so I went to my go to when it comes to finding dupes at a decent price with trustworthy reviews, Amazon! I ran across the Aesthetica Makeup Brush Cleansing Glove and after seeing the awesome reviews and 50% less price tag I decided to give it a whirl. let me say that this was the best $20 I've spent. This glove helps me to remove every speck of makeup from my brushes. I love the different groves and lines on both sides of the glove that I can use for my various sized brushes. It also helps me to clean my makeup brushes in half the time! As you can guess I would definitely recommend this product to anyone who's looking for a cleansing glove for their makeup brushes, but isn't quite willing to invest $40 for one.

 

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I Love My FitBit Charge HR!

Several of you warned me that once I got my Fitbit my life would be forever changed and I'm here to proudly say all of you were right! The hubby snagged the fitbit Charge HR for me a week and a half ago and I've spent that time getting the hang of all that the fitbit has to offer. So far I have to say it has really helped me step up my fitness game! I've made it a point to get in at least 10,000 steps during the work week even if I'm not at work. When I'm at work it's not that difficult, but this past Monday I was off and it was definitely a little more challenging, but I got it done. It has also helped me to accurately track my Shaun T25 workouts that I've been doing. Not to mention I'm now apart of a work week challenge with a few college buddies to see who can get the most steps by the end of the week. Nothing like a little competition to make things fun! However, I think what I'm loving the most are the weekly reports from Fitbit. Last week I walked a total of 28.2 miles and lost 3lbs!
Needless to say so far I've been loving my fitbit and it's truly helped me to take my 2016 health goals to the next level! Hopefully I'll have a health update up next week.

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Ulta & Sally's Haul

Ulta's Liter sale is what brought me into one of my favorite beauty stores, however 30 minutes later I left armed with several goodies!

1. REDKEN All Soft Shampoo- I was a bit leery of this shampoo because it has sulfates, but after reading the reviews I decided to give it a try. It honestly does what the title says. It leaves my hair clean yet soft. I believe I may have found a new staple shampoo and now I can't wait to try the conditioner!
2. Shea Moisture Oil Hydration Intensive Serum- Youtube made me do it! At first I tried to use this as a sealant after applying moisturizer and that didn't work very well. I then tried to apply it after my deep conditioner and that was a fail too. Then finally I decided to use it as a refresher on my ends when they start to feel a bit dry. Bingo!
3. Purity Facial Cleanser-This cleanser is all the rage on any social media site and also according to the reviews. After using it for about a week I really like it. It leaves my skin feeling clean, but not dry and the best part is it doesn't include a lot of the damaging ingredients that can be found in some skin care products.
4. Shea Moisture Post shave cream- I'm still testing this out.
5. End Papers-I love my perm rods, but they do not love my ends!
6. Castor Oil- Castor oil is the one thing that keeps my new growth soft and supple. I've been applying it every few days to my scalp and edges. I always have a major growth spurt when I'm consistent with this!

Can y'all believe that I went to Ulta and forgot to get the REDKEN Anti-snap leave in treatment?! No worries, I went back the next weekend and snagged it with my 20% off coupon. The cashier raved about it so I'll definitely be doing a review once I've used on a consistent basis for a while. Have you all picked up any goodies lately?

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Things I'm Currently Craving

2016 is off to a great start for me. There are a few things that I know can help me along with my goals and things that I just plain ol want to buy! I'm patiently waiting, but I know it won't be long before I eventually cave in.

1. REDKEN Anti-Snap. I seriously feel like I NEED this product in my life! I ran across it while indulging in one of the GlamTwinz youtube videos and as soon as I heard the name I was intrigued. This product promises to 'helps fortify hair that's prone to breaking, splitting or snapping off, gently smoothes the cuticle, reduces friction from brushing and helps prevent further damage, and leaves hair healthy, shiny and resilient through a unique 3D Repair Complex of proteins, ceramide and lipids to help provide internal strength, cuticle reinforcement and protective resurfacing.' All of my healthy hair junkies out there...does this not sound AMAZING?!
2. I totally blame Kim of FancyFlairLady for this next item. The FITBIT Charge HR! I honestly hadn't heard of this particular fitbit until it was mentioned in her blogpost and now I must have it. As I stated in my previous post I'm not only trying to lose weight, but also live a healthier life period. I'm a huge fan of myfitnesspal and having a device that will truthfully track my activity both at work and during workouts is awesome. We'll see how long I can hold out before I grab this little guy.
3. NYX Cosmetics 2016 spring releases. As a beauty junkie I keep up with the various makeup releases and NYX has released so many beautiful products. I've been keeping myself on a strict budget for the month of January, but I have a feeling in February a little NYX haul may be in order. Of course I'll do some reviews of the things I try.

What are you guys currently craving?

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New Year Goals

I've been gone so long from the blogosphere until I don't even know where to begin. Let's just say life took over and I took some time away to enjoy the ride. I got married, traveled with the hubby, adopted a dog, had lasik eye surgery, and celebrated the holidays in our home with our family. Honestly 2015 was absolutely phenomenal and I enjoyed every second of it! Now that 2015 has come to an end it's a new year, which for me means new goals and aspirations. I'm totally a resolutions person and enjoy having something to work towards. This year I have several goals in mind and I'm ready to hit the ground running!

1. Lose my marriage fifteen. You know how people say that when you become a freshman in college beware of the freshmen 15. Well nobody warned me about the marriage fifteen! After the wedding and honeymoon we were exhausted and honestly have spent most of the year eating whatever we want whenever we want so the hubster and I have decided to recommit ourselves to our health. For me that includes losing 15-25 lbs. I plan to do that by using MyFitnessPal. I have great success when I track my food so that's what I'll be doing. Feel free to add me! My username is Courtnea2001
2. Recommit myself to exercising regularly. While 2015 was awesome it was not my best year in fitness. My exercise routine was sporadic at best and it's time to step it up. Not only will it help me to achieve my first goal, but I feel better when I'm exercising. I am planning to commit to 3-4 days per week minimum.
3. Travel. Last year the hubby and I got to travel some and it was awesome. I would like to continue that trend and travel more this year!
4. Maintain a positive outlook. Sometimes people and things can get the best of us and before we know it those people and things can have us feeling and thinking negatively. Not this year. I am determined to maintain a positive outlook no matter what!
5. DIY Projects. The great thing about being a homeowner is making the home your own. We love our home and have been slowly chipping away at the list of projects that we would like to do. This years projects include a fabulous spring garden, putting a door under our staircase for extra storage, back splash in our kitchen, and the perfect dining room set.
6. Blog at least once a week. I honestly have missed blogging and even when I wasn't posting I have always been reading and keeping up with the bloggers that I follow. It's a great outlet for me to share whatever comes to mind. So while life is busy I want to commit to doing at least one post a week!

What are your goals for 2016?

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My PRK Experience (Days 1-7)

Day 1:
Mild stinging and occasional watering of eyes.  The day was spent sleeping off and on and taking the prescribed eyes drops every 2 hours. Also went to the doctor for a post op follow up appointment, overall it was an easy day...vision is slightly more blurry than day 1. I made sure to keep my eyes closed as much as possible.

Day 2:
When I woke up my eyes were stinging and watering pretty badly. After taking my first dose of drops everything calmed down. My eyes do feel a bit heavier than they did yesterday so I'm trying to keep them closed as much as possible but overall my vision seems a bit clearer than yesterday. So far I haven't experienced any light sensitivity thank goodness, but I've made an effort to wear my sunglasses both indoors/and outdoors to give my eyes the best chance at light not irritating them. Towards the end of the day my eyes starting watering and it became a struggle to keep my eyes open. By the end of the day my eyes were really irritating me and becoming sensitive to light so I used a cold towel compress for a few hours and it really helped Hopefully tomorrow will be better although honestly today wasn't bad but it has been the worst day of recovery thus far.

Day 3
This has been my best day so far. My eyes are watering less and I've been able to do a few things around the house. The eye sensitivity I was experiencing yesterday is completely gone. Overall I'm just focused on staying on schedule with my eyes drops and remembering to rest my eyes and not do too much just because I'm feeling better. My vision is slightly blurry. Sometimes it focuses and then gets blurry again but I know as the days go on it will continue to improve. The great thing is even with the slight blurriness I can still see way better than I ever could before PRK!

Day 4
I finally feel like I'm able to drive although I'll probably wait until tomorrow to venture out...I iver did it yesterday and ended up with a headache from using the computer too much so I will try to take it a bit easier today. I get my contacts out of Monday and I can't wait! So far my vision seems a bit clearer today and more focused.
Day 5-6
Days 5 &6 weren't too exciting. I continued to use my eye drops and finally ventured out! I was so excited to get out of the house! Driving was interesting as my eyes were clear but would get blurry and the refocus. I felt like the contacts had a lot to do with that. Thankfully on Monday (July 27) I get them out!
Day 7
 I returned to the doctor for a 1 week post op visit. Today I get the contacts out!!! I'm currently reading 20/20 in my right eye and 20/25 in my left eye. Before my PRK procedure I was reading 20/200 in both eyes! My doctor was shocked at how quickly my vision has improved since my astigmatism was so severe. I give God all the credit! I was also cleared to resume all activities with the exception of wearing mascara for another few days (I don't wear it anyway).

Overview:
I was out of work for 6.5 days (only 4.5 working days not including the weekend) because I sit in front of a computer I wanted to give my eyes as much time to heal as possible. I am so happy and blessed to have had a successful PRK procedure with an awesome doctor and staff! The best things that I would recommend is to follow the doctor's instructions, take vitamin C, rest, and PRAY! I am so happy that I decided to go through with the procedure and didn't let fear win. I am enjoying being free of eye glasses and rocking sunglasses without contacts for the first time in my life! I will try to come back and do a 1 month update!

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My PRK Experience

I've been wearing glasses since the age of 5. Because of my severe astigmatism in both eyes complimented with near sightedness my eyes have continued to get worse. I've been interested in getting Lasik since I graduated high school, but didn't get up the nerve to take it seriously until now at the age of 27. After researching several places in the Hampton Roads area including a few places that were recommended to me by friends I decided on Tidewater Eye Center. After reading about their credentials, testimonials, and meeting with the staff I just knew that this was the place for me. When I called to make an appointment the secretary scheduled me for a consultation with Dr. J Tom Edmonds.  I've always had my heart set on lasik so imagine my surprise when I found out that due to my thin corneas and dry eyes I was not a candidate. Instead Dr. Edmonds told me that I was a candidate for PRK. He told me to research the procedure and come back with any questions. Me being well me, I read every single bit of information I could find on the internet via Google and YouTube. Imagine my surprise when I found out that there was not a lot of recent information documenting people's PRK experiences and the ones that were out there, well let's just say the bad far outweighed the good. I was terrified, but after praying and combing through as many PRK stories as I could find I decided to go through with it.

Pre-Op Appointment:

The day of my pre-op appointment basically consisted of having my eyes measured by several different machines, dilation, tear production test, vision test etc. It honestly was not a whole lot different from my yearly eye exams. After thoroughly reviewing all of the information Dr. Edmonds told me that I was still a PRK candidate although I was on the higher end of the spectrum as far as the severity of my astigmatism, dry eyes, and thin corneas.

PRK Preparation:

 I was told not to wear contacts for at least 2 weeks prior to the procedure which was fine because I hadn't worn contacts in months. It was also recommended that I start taking 1000mg of Vitamin C and I was prescribed Restasis eye drops twice a day to help with my dry eyes.An entire list of what I should do and when was provided to me and I followed it to the letter. I truly believe that this makes a huge difference in your recovery so make it easy on yourself and do what you can to help your procedure be successful!

PRK Day of Surgery
After reading so many mixed reviews on PRK I was a bundle of nerves on the day of surgery. I knew what to expect as far as the surgery was concerned but I was a bit nervous about the recovery period, discomfort, etc. I arrived promptly at 3:30 P.M with my hubby and mom in tow because I wanted needed them to be there! After I was called back my consultant explained to myself and the hubby what I would need to do post op, which consisted of several different types of eyes drops, etc. After that she gave me a small does of Valium to help me relax and I waited to be called back. After a few minutes Dr. Edmonds came in to explain exactly what to expect ( he also explained this to me during my pre-op exam) and then we went back. He checked my eyes one last time and inserted corneal tear ducts into each eye to help with tear production and then we went back to the operating room. Honestly the procedure itself was quite cool. They covered one eye, applied numbing drops to the other, applied an eye speculum to prevent me from blinking and got to work. I didn't feel a thing and the entire procedure for both eyes was over in about 15 minutes. There is a ton out there that explains exactly what happens during the procedure itself so I won't bother to explain it but all it consisted of me doing was staring at a red light. After the procedure was done on each eye a clear contact bandage was applied. Dr. Edmonds checked my eyes one last time and then the nurse taped the coolest looking clear goggles on my eyes and sunglasses and I was on my way! Once the procedure was over I was amazed at how much my vision had improved in just 15 minutes. My vision prior to the procedure was 20/200 in both eyes. I was told to go home and go to sleep, which I didn't think I would be able to do since I was wide awake on the ride home, but as it turned out the meds they gave me took care of that. I slept, woke up and ate dinner. Dr. Edmonds called me that night to check in and see how I was doing. After our chat I went back to sleep and slept for the rest of the evening.

Seeing as how this post is already rather long I will do a separate post including the first 7 days of my recovery. I kept a mini diary to document how I was feeling and what I experienced each day. Stay tuned!


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Then Life Happened

Gosh I've been gone a long time! I can't tell you how many times I've started writing this post only to save it for later. It feels super weird to even be writing now, but so much has happened in my life and it's about time that I share it with y'all. The best excuse that I have for being gone so long is that life just happened. Let's see I got married and the hubby and I purchased our first home! Between moving, last minute wedding details, getting settled into our home and day to day things that come up the blog took a back burner, but I'm back and I totally missed you guys! Here are a few pictures from my special day. Stay tuned because I will be back with pictures of our first DIY home project!

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Why Protesting Isn't Enough

Picture provided by: http://www.pickywallpapers.com

On Monday evening I sat and watched CNN broadcast the decision on if the officer involved in the death of Mike Brown would be indicted. Since then I've read Facebook statuses, Instagram posts, and Tweets verbally expressing rage, disappointment, sadness and just about every other emotion. I've seen powerful quotes by Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X recycled on every social media outlet. I've seen people vow to wear black on Friday in solidarity and support of the Brown family. Some have even vowed to not spend a dime on black Friday in support. Of course I can't forget about the rioting, looting, and utter destruction that I've seen in reaction to the decision to not indict. I've yet to understand how avoiding black Friday shopping or destroying any community helps to resolve or bring awareness to the issues at hand in a positive way. Candle light vigils and peaceful protests have been scheduled throughout various cities. . While watching all of this I've wondered so many things, but the first that comes to mind is if this case had not been so heavily publicized would as many people be so outraged. I've heard so many equally upsetting cases and for the most part I haven't seen the same sentiment of outrage if anything at all, however even if I put that aside the thing that most stands out to me is what are WE doing? Peaceful protests are great, but are we praying for our community. Are we involved with mentoring our youth. Are we giving back to the same area that we reside in every single day. Are we exercising our right as citizens to not only vote, but to research and understand the candidates that we are voting for? If the only thing we are doing is expressing our outrage on social media and attending a local protest or candle light vigil we are not doing nearly enough. So I'm challenging everyone including myself to get actively involved in something that can help your local community. I can promise you personally that it is life changing not just for others, but for you as well.


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Wash Day | Quick Flexi Rod Set

Now that I'm back in the groove of things this wash day went really well. Last week I bunned it up switched between pigtail buns, high buns, and low side swept buns. As I started this week's wash day I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew I wanted no parts of a bun! Here's how it went:

 

• Detangled in sections using my rake comb and Mane N Tail Detangler
• Wash my hair using the Suave Daily Clarifying Shampoo (diluted with water) to remove any buildup. This is the only sulfate shampoo that removes buildup without stripping my hair and turning it into a tangled mess!
• Did a second lather with my Keracare sulfate free detangling shampoo
• Applied a mix of Keracare Humecto DC and Mizani Moisture Fuse Conditioner
• DCed with heat for about 30 minutes.
• Rinsed and wrapped my hair in my turbie twist for about 40 minutes.
  
  
• Applied my usual leave ins (Chi Keratin Mist, Chi Silk Infusion, Kimmaytube Leave In mix).

Style: After I applied my leave ins I had no idea what I wanted to do with my hair but I knew that I wanted no parts of a bun. After staring in the mirror for about 5 minutes I decided to try my hand at a quick flexirod

set. I parted my hair and combed it straight down. I applied keracare wrap lotion only to my ends and used about 15 flex rods. I allowed my hair to dry overnight. It came out great the next day! I still haven't mastered pineappling or my hair just isn't long enough for it so I've worn it pined up everyday since then and put a few flexi rods in each night because with my intense workout my curls don't hold as well, but overall I've really enjoyed my bun break. Every other night I lightly moisturize and seal with Giovanni Direct Leave in and coconut oil. How was your wash day?

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Helloooooo November!



Source:http://www.gowaynecounty.com/blog/fun-fall-halloween-opportunities-this-weekend/fall-leaves/

 One of my absolute favorite times of the year is officially upon us! If you are a serious holiday junkie like me then you have probably been squirming in your pants just waiting for this month! I seriously only look forward to Halloween because it means that Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. As a child I always looked forward to this time of the year because it meant gifts galore, but as I've gotten older this time of the years means so much more to me. This is the time when I get to go home and spend time with my loved ones and see their eyes light up when they open their gifts. I get to bake all of the yummy desserts that I pin on pinterest. I finally get to break out my sweaters and cute winter boots. If I'm lucky a few snow flakes will come my way which means I get to play in the snow (as a Louisiana girl snow happens rarely so I still get excited everytime it snows on the Eastcoast). I make it a point to watch all of the cheesy Lifetime Christmas movies and ABC Family's 25 days of Christmas (the Mr. is most grateful that we have more than one TV during this time of the year). I blast Christmas music at obscenely loud levels and light my pumpkin scented candles. I decorate my tree and try to plug it in almost every night. But most importantly I'm reminded even more of how thankful I am to God for my life, my loved ones, and everything else that he continues to bless me with! Do any of you love this time of year as much as I do?!


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Wash Day

Y'all haven't seen one of these in a while right? Well as I promised in my previous post I am getting back on my healthy hair journey and the best way to do that is to hold myself accountable with the fabulous wash day link up! Here's how my wash day went:

• Detangled in multiple sections using Mane N Tail detangler and a jumbo rake comb.
• Shampooed using KeraCare Sulfate Free Shampoo
• Deep conditioned using a mixture of Keracare Humecto, Mizani Moisturefusion Silk Cream Conditioner, and Kenra Moisturizing conditioner. Why the weird mixture? Well I'm moving in about a month and I'm trying to use up as many random hair products as I can before I move!
• Wrapped hair in turbie twist for about 30 minutes.
• Applied leave ins (Kimmaytube Leave in Mix, Chi Keratin Mist, Chi Silk Infusion) and air dried for aobut 2 hours.
• Moisturized and sealed using Giovanni Direct Leave In, Coconut oil, and JBCO.

Style: Because of the recent damage that I suffered due to neglect I decided to keep it simple with my hair this week. I rocked a cute high side bun with my bangs twisted around it to jazz it up. How was your wash day? Join our washday linky party!

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Reigniting My Passion

While sitting in my stylist's chair staring into the mirror it was obvious to both her and myself that I have not been kind to my hair over the past few months. Again my ends were thinned out. I could blame it on some random product or the change in weather, but if I'm being honest with myself the damage was ALL my fault. I haphazardly moisturized and sealed my hair and when I did it wasn't in sections. Rarely protected my hair when lying around and without a doubt wasn't the gentlest when it came to detangling. Thankfully while my hair did suffer damage I'm grateful that I didn't lose any of the length I already had. After seeing the state of my hair it really reiginited my passion for healthy hair care and taking care of my hair to the best of my abilities. So what's my plan going forward?

• Getting back to regularly doing wash day posts to keep myself accountable and because they are some of my favorite posts!
• Moisturizing and sealing every day and oiling my scalp every other day at a miniumum.
• Clarifying my scalp every 2 weeks to prevent product buildup
• Airdrying until it's too cold
• Purchasing a human hair wig to help with the weeks leading up to my relaxer 
• Reducing the amount of manipulation with combs and brushes. I'm really trying to embrace the hair smoothing with my hands only life! 

Has anybody else fallen off the wagon a bit? If so what are planning to do to fix the situation?

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The Day We Got To Play Photographer

I've been mulling over the idea of taking engagement pictures for a while now. What photographer to use, figuring out an awesome location, outfits, etc. After lots of pinning my heart away on Pintrest the fiance and I decided to try our hand at taking them ourselves. Luckily the Mr. has become a bit of a photography fanatic within the last 2 years so this seemed like as good of an opportunity as any to put his big ol camera and multiple lenses to good use. After finally settling on the idea of taking the pictures ourselves we had to find a location. I wanted something full of nature, which is ironic considering I'm not a fan of the bugs that come along with nature. Again the Mr. came to the rescue with a fabulous place that he remembered fishing at. I decided to keep the outfits simple because it just seemed best to go along with our nature themed pics and because I'm really just a simple girl. Black skinny jeans with a denim top and chunky brown ankle booties did the trick. I glammed up the look a bit with pearl stud earrings and a gorgeous pearl statement necklace. For outfit changes I only switched shirts and shoes. After scheduling my hair appointment and frantically checking the weather it was clear that God was on our side! We couldn't have had more beautiful weather for our pictures! Although we googled tons of 'engagement poses' we really just went with whatever came to mind. It was a ton of fun and work! Here's a sneak peak of our engagement photoshoot. I'm already envisioning having these pictures printed on canvases and hanging them up in our home! 

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The Lessons My Scale Taught Me



Source: CocoaReport.com

 I woke up this morning so nervous....mulling over and over in my head if the numbers would move and how I would feel if they didn't. Finally I worked up enough courage to crawl out of bed and get it over with. After a week of hard work I just knew my scale was going to be good to me. After inhaling deeply a few times I looked down with one eye closed...blinked and looked again. The scale had not budged from last week's weigh in. This must be a fluke so of course I logically stepped off of the scale and stepped back on. Nope. It wasn't a fluke...I had not lost a thing since last week. Overwhelmed with frustration I immediately started feeling like all of my hard work meant nothing. After letting a few frustrated tears fall I went about my morning, but my scale kept pulling at my thoughts. I kept wondering 'What could I have done better?' 'Will next week's weight in be the same?' 'What if I can't lose any more than what I've lost?' 'Why do I have to work so hard to lose weight?' 'I wish I was just naturally skinny and could eat whatever I want.' You see part of why I was so frustrated is because I thought I had this weight loss thing all figured out. I'd lose about 2 lbs per week and since I only have about 6.5 lbs left to go I should only have to do this for 1 more month then I could go into maintenance status.

Finally after I finished throwing myself a pity party it dawned on me that 1. I know better and 2. This is a journey. I've lost weight before so this isn't new to me. Any journey has it's ups and it's downs, but if you keep pushing you will get to where you want to be. So today I'm choosing to keep pushing forward, to make adjustments where needed, and to enjoy this process. Somehow my scale managed to teach me a lesson that couldn't have been learned if this week had gone exactly the way I wanted it to.


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Life In Transition....Finally Growing's Rebranding

As most of you know I just recently finished part 1 of a 2 part moving process, which caused me to seemingly drop off the face of the blogosphere for a few weeks. While I was away I thought about how much my life has and is changing since I first started Finally Growing. Healthy hair care became the topic of choice and at the time that worked best. However fast forward two years and I have so much going on (upcoming wedding, beauty, home decor, life lessons) that I want to share with you. During my hiatus I realized that while hair is still and will always be a passion of mine, it's not my only passion and I want to be able to share as much of my life (as I see fit) with you guys. In order to do that I realized that I needed to completely overhaul my blog and do a rebranding, which is part of why Finally Growing has gotten a complete makeover. I worked tirelessly for hours (I'm a bit of a perfectionist) to get the perfect look for the revamped Finally Growing! From now on this blog will not only share the ups and downs of my hair care journey, but so much more. It is such a freeing experience to know that this rebranding will allow me to give so much more of myself to each of my readers. To all of my fabulous Healthy Hair Divas don't worry my healthy hair posts aren't going anywhere! Finally Growing is just growing, expandning, and turning into a space where I can talk about life as I know it! 

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Wash Day Post/Hair Update

Hi lovies! So I know I kinda disappeared for a few weeks, but I have a really great excuse....MOVING! I forgot how much I hate moving. All of the time and energy it takes not to mention all of the accumulated stuff that seem to have. Yeah...needless to say it kind of took over my life for a few weeks, but now I'm back! Since I've been gone for a bit I thought I would do a wash day post and hair update rolled into one.

Here's What I did:

• Briefly detangled (I went to the salon last week therefore detangling was a lot easier).
• Shampooed with the Keracare Hydrating detangling shampoo
• Deep conditioned with the Keracare Humecto conditioner for about 20 minutes.
• Rinsed and towel dried my hair
• Applied my leave ins using the LCO method (L-Chi Keratin Mist, C-Kimmaytube Leave In, O-Chi Silk Infusion).
• Blow dried my hair using the cool setting
• Moisturized and sealed using Giovanni Direct Leave In and Coconut Oil.

Style: At first I rocked a bang, but on a whim this weekend I decided to french braid (very messy braids because I'm not that great at braiding!)

 

my hair into 2 pig tails. I pinned them up and pin curled my bangs just to jazz up the style. I think I'm going to redo this style every 2 days and rock my hair this way for the rest of the week. It's starting to get a bit cooler outside so I want to protect my ends as much as possible.

Update: I'm currently 6 weeks post and have quite a bit of new growth, which I believe is due to these new Gummy vitamins especially formulated for women, which a lot more biotin *SCORE!*. My old multivitamin on had 10 mg of biotin versus the 300mg I'm getting on a daily basis now. My hair definitely seems to appreciate it :) Other than that I honestly haven't been doing too much to my hair. NO length check updates or anything. I think I'll do an official length check update around February. I'm thinking of possibly trying my first sew in this winter, but we shall see. I'd like to get a feel for how sew ins work since this is how I'm hoping to style my hair for my wedding. I think that's about it for now!

How was your wash day?


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Washday | Uncharted Territory...Spiraling Out of Control

This past Saturday I headed to the salon to get a touch up. The same products were used, but since I've got some new readers (Heyyy y'all!) I'll go ahead and mention them below. Here's what my stylist did:

• Based my scalp
• Applied the Mizani Sensitive Scalp relaxer. Total processing time was about 20 minutes. 
• Rinsed and applied protein treatment for about 30 minutes. 
• Rinsed and shampooed several times. 
• Applied leave ins (Keracare foam wrap lotion, Chi Silk Infusion) 

Style: I decided to try somethng different (which so happens to fit this week's wash day them

perfectly). Instead of my usual rollerset I decided to get a spiral rollerset. At first I was unsure of how I felt about the style, but as my curls fell the more I liked it. I tried the pineapple method to preserve the curls, but the next day the boo and I went to a theme park where it was ridiculously hot and humid and I ultimately decided to pin up the back of my hair. By day 3 my curls were barely holding on so I set my hair with flexirods overnight and my curls are back in action! How was your wash day?

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How To Cheat Your Way to Perfect Pin Curls!

When I first started my hair journey I saw countless blog posts and youtube videos about pin curls and how it was a great way to get curls without using heat. Well I tried and tried and TRIED, but for the life of me I couldn't get my curls to look like they were worth anything. Everytime I would take down my pin curls I was left with bumps and honestly my hair didn't resemble anything close to a curl! Eventually I gave up and decided that maybe pin curls just weren't for me. Fast forward a few years and a setback later I decided to give it a try again, but this time I had a little bit of help.

On Saturday I went to the salon to get a wash and set, however the weather was not too kind to me. It was quite humid so my hair frizzed. Normally in the past I make a failed attempt to wrap my hair and I say failed not because I can't wrap my hair, but because it does nothing for me as far as preserving my style and helping my hair to hold a curl. Wrapping has and never will work for my hair. Instead a light bulb went off and I decided to set my hair with my beloved caruso steam rollers. Doing this helped me to create the perfect pin curl with minimal effort. To hold my pin curls in place I opted to use double prong metal clips instead of the traditional bobby pins. I find these hold the pin curls in place without leaving horrible bumps in my hair. Lastly instead of wrapping a scarf around my head I threw on my bonnet which protected my hair without squishing my curls!

That was a lot so here's a quick recap!  

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