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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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 | Preparing My Hair For Travel!

This week I'm traveling back home to take care of wedding planning details! I'm super excited to see my family and do all of the fun wedding stuff that soon to be brides get to do! I already know my trip home will be jam packed with appointments and spending quality time with my family. As a part of getting ready for my trip I decided to prepare my hair. Here's what I did:

• Rinsed my hair thoroughly for about 2 minutes with luke warm water
  
• Clarified my hair with the Suave Daily Clarifying Shampoo
• Rinsed and shampooed with the Keracare Humecto Hydrating Detangling Shampoo
• Followed up with a protein treatment using the ORS Hair Mayonaise (I sat under my Gold N Hot conditioning cap for about 15 minutes)
• Rinsed and deep conditioned with the Keracare Humecto Conditioner while I worked out. Check out my turban that I used to camouflage my shower cap! 
• Did a final rinse with cool water
• T-shirt dried my hair for about 20 minutes
• Applied my leave ins using the LCO method (L-Chi Keratin Mist, C-Kimmaytube Leave In, O-Macademia Healing Oil)
• Blow dried my hair (about 70 % dry) using the cool setting

Results: Thick, soft, fluffy, moisturized hair! And this was before moisturizing and sealing! It looks like the few extra steps I took in this wash day was just what my hair needed! 

Style: This weekend I rocked my go to style, a super curly caruso roller set. While away on travel I'm planning to rock this half up twisted bun. I will jazz it up with flowers, a cute head band, or a cute hat. The humidity this time of year in Louisiana is no joke so I will be bunning the entire time I'm home! 

How was your wash day? Have you checked out our wash day link up yet? Join us!

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Washday...Messy Textured Bun & Curls Galore!

I was so ready for this washday. I don't know about y'all, but I'm convinced that I only like flat ironed hair for length checks! Other than that I love curls and volume! I swear the bigger my hair got as it air dried the happier I was. Here's how my wash day went.

• Prepooed with coconut oil for 20 minutes (I just recently joined the Hairlista Coconut Oil Challenge. Check it out here).
• Detangled with Mane N Tail Detangler.
• Deep conditioned with Keracare Humecto Creme Conditioner on the length of my hair and Macademia Natural Repair Masque on my ends for about 30 minutes using my Gold N Hot conditioning cap.
• Rinsed and shampooed with Shea Moisture Retention Shampoo.
• Rinsed and applied a quarter size amount of the generic Matrix Biolage Detangling Conditioner.
• Did a final rinse and t-shirt dried my hair for about 20 minutes.
• Applied my leave ins using the L-Chi Keratin Mist, O-GVP Smoothing Serum, C- It's A 10 Miracle Leave In **Newbie Alert** method.
•  Air dried my hair for about 2.5 hours.
  

Style: On Saturday I had an early appointment so I just threw my hair into a textured high bun for the day. On Sunday I wanted some volume so I opted for flexi rods! I dry set my hair on 10 flexi rods using a bit of my Dark N Lovely Au Naturale Curl Souffle. The results were awesome. I had the softest curls with a soft hold that lasted all day!

How was your wash day? If you haven't checked out The Washday Experience Linkup yet join us! 

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Pause!...Things I've Changed About My Hair Regimen

Spring is FINALLY upon us! For me that normally brings about a few changes to my hair regimen. Some things that work for me in the winter aren't necessary in the warmer months and some things...well they just aren't working at all! In addition to putting some techniques on hold I also brought back a few that my hair is totally digging right now!







Pause/Stopped

• Midweek Cowashes - Winter was ROUGH on my hair. The constant wind, snow, & below freezing temperatures left my hair always feeling thirsty! Between the harsh weather conditions and my daily dates with the gym I added midweek cowashes in addition to my weekly wash day to keep dryness and breakage at bay. Now that the weather is warming up and I've discovered an awesome conditioner that keeps my hair moisturized for longer I'm able to get away with 1 washday a week! However if I see where my hair needs that midweek cowash I will definitely add it back into my regimen 

• Tea Rinses - Quite frankly I've tried to make tea rinses work for me, but I don't see where they do much for my hair and I hate the way they make my hair feel. Since this was a no go this was an easy step to eliminate from my washday. 

• In/Out The Shower - For a while on every wash day I found myself hopping in and out of the shower 2-3 times. I soon realized that for me that's annoying and time consuming. By slightly rearranging the order of how I do things or just doing in between steps with my head over the sink or tub I was able to eliminate that. I'm LOVING it! 

• Being a Mixologist With Conditioners - I used to really enjoy mixing oils and conditioners together to create a magic concoction for my hair. Currently I'm so not feeling it! Right now I enjoy conditioners that can be used on my hair with no add ins, but still give me great results! 

Started/Resumed:

• Deep Condition on Semi Damp Hair - Somewhere along the way I started DCing my hair after shampooing. I'm not sure why, but eventually it dawned on me that it's not only easier, but my hair responds better when I DC first on semi damp hair. 

• Detangle Prior to DC - I used to do this and stopped because the detanglers that I was using would leave a yucky film on my hair. Well ever since I've discovered Mane N Tail I no longer have that problem. It melts my tangles like no other and makes my wash days so much easier. 

• Messy Buns - As my hair continues to grow my messy buns keep getting better and bigger. The bonus is that it's a super easy low manipulation daily protective style. 

• Weekend Hair Break - During the winter I was protective styling practically 100% of the time because between the wind and the harsh materials that winter clothing is made of it seemed best. However now that winter is gone I'm back to protective styling 5 days a week and enjoying the heck out of my hair on the weekend (usually with a dry flexi rod set or caruso steam rollers). I'm all for length retention, but a girl's gotta have a little fun too! 

Have any of you taken a pause on some things within your regimen? 

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Bun Life | How to Create A Full High Bun Using Kanekalon Hair

Hi guys!

Some of you may remember  in my 'Back To The Basics' wash day post me promising to post a video tutorial showing how I created my high bun using kanekalon hair. Well the video finally went live on my YouTube channel. Please bare with me as this is my first ever video tutorial. I hope you all find it helpful! Until next time :)

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Listening to My Hair (Wash Day)

As many of you know this past week I totally enjoyed rocking my curly updo and have been throwing all kinds of things into my wash days (clear rinses, tea rinses, prepoos with random conditioners, etc). However each night as I moisturized and sealed I started to notice more broken hairs than usual and my hair just felt a bit more dry than usual. Now seeing as though my breakage has been little to none for the past few weeks I had to figure out what suddenly caused the change in my hair. As I pondered through out the week it finally dawned on me on Thursday that I'd missed my monthly egg protein treatment! *slaps hand across forehead* How could I forget the best protein treatment I've discovered to date for my hair! I was only 1 week past my monthly protein treatment however my hair had no problems letting me know that I was late and needed to fix the problem as soon as possible. Needless to say this wash day I listened to my hair and gave it what it was asking for! Here's how my wash day went:

• Prepooed with 1 egg mixed with some of my One N Only Deep Restorative mask for about 15 minutes using NO HEAT (there will be no scrambled eggs in this hair)! 
• Rinsed with COOL water and then shampooed with my Shea Moisture Retention Shampoo. 
• Rinsed and wrapped my hair in a towel for about 20 minutes to soak up most of the water
• Applied my Kenra Moisturizing conditioner and sat under my heating cap for about 30 minutes.
• Rinsed and applied my Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Daily Treatment for about 2 minutes. 
• Did a final rinse and wrapped my hair in a t-shirt for about 30 minutes. 
• Applied my leave ins using the LCO method (CHI Keratin Mist, Kimmaytube Leave In mix, Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum). 
• Sat under my hooded dryer for about 25 minutes.
• Moisturized with my Giovanni Direct leave in and sealed with coconut oil and JBCO on my ends.  

Style: I head into the salon to get my hair relaxed this weekend so I opted for a relatively quick and painless style that will get me through the week with minimal fuss. I gently party my hair down the middle and created two low ponytails. Using my kanekalon hair I made two jumbo two strand twists making sure to entwine my hair with the kanekalon hair and crossed each twist to the other side and secured with bobby pins. I call this style the infiniti bun. Of course I will keep my tresses moisturized with my homemade moisture mist. Friday evening will be dedicated to prepping my hair for my relaxer. Stay tuned for my relaxer update and a length check! Can you believe it's been 5 months since my last length check?!





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Traveling In Style!

Between traveling home for Christmas and a recent business trip I've had the opportunity to rock some fun low manipulation and/or protective styles. As many of you know one of my hair resolutions for 2014 was to become more creative with my protective styles and I think I'm off to a great start so far! The great thing about these styles is that it allows you to still rock a cute hair style while protecting your hair as much as possible.






Low Manipulation Styles:

Flexi Rods On Rollerset Hair: Before leaving for Christmas I stopped by the salon to get a rollerset. I love how it makes my ends super smooth and allows me to really show off my length. Unfortunately I just don't have that 'unwrap and Go' kind of hair. Instead of dwelling on that I decided to throw a couple of flexi rods in my hair and rock it that way for my first few days home. I absolutely loved it. To jazz things up a bit I threw a cute flower in.

Perm Rod Curly Updo: On a whim during last weekend's wash day I decided to create a cute curly updo inspired by an instagram picture. Using a headband comb and a few perm rod I was able to achieve beautiful curls and loved the style so much that I decided to rock it on a recent business trip. I loved the ease of this style. Can you say low maintenance?!






Protective Styles:



Curly High Crown Bun: While away on business last week my style of choice was my perm rod curly updo, however after a few days the cold, wind, and rain started to get the best of my updo so I decided to remix my style by creating a curly high crown bun. To achieve this style I swirled my curls in a circular motion and used bobbi pins to secure my hair.







Low Bun Twist: While enjoying my time away with family during the Christmas holiday I chose 'no fuss' hairstyles that I could rock for a few days before having to restyle. One of those styles was my low bun twist. I took a section of Kanekalon braid hair and did a jumbo two strand twist making sure to entwine my hair and secured it with bobbi pins. I added a side part to make things a little more interesting.  





Twisted Donut: This is another style that I rocked while away during Christmas. I gathered my hair into a ponytail in the center of my head. Using my beloved kanekalon braid hair I created two separate two strand twists and twirled each in a circular motion until I created a donut bun of my liking and of course I secured it with bobbi pins!






Each of these styles were fairly simple to create and allowed me to look cute while protecting my hair as much as possible. I used my homemade moisture mist to keep my tresses moisturized and soft. I plan to rock a lot more styles like this until winter is over because this cold dry weather is doing the most and my tresses and I do not have time for that!

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