Sunday, December 26, 2010

Trying Something New...

Happy Holidays!!!  Well its that time of the year that we make appearances at holiday parties, take pictures and try our best to look great during it all.  During the holiday season we try to explore new looks since we have the opportunity to try display these looks in front of friends and family.  Now see I'm trying my best to do just that but I see its going to be more of a trial and error session than a change of things for me.

Since I'm going natural I want to try and wear my natural curls instead of straightening my hair all the time.  I know its a little to early to do so by itself, and I'm not yet ready to try different products because we may need more time to test them out, and I just don't have that time now.  So I went on line and followed different women going through their journey and found that a lot of them try bantu-twists.  This consists of two strand twists that are then coiled up and placed with hair pins.  It may be just too early to try this because it didn't come out exactly how I imagined.

So first we twist the hair.


















Again two strands.




Then we coil the hair.
We wait for the hair to dry then we uncoil the twists.





















Now here we were supposed to untwist and try to shape the twists into springy waves.







Well no matter which angle we try, it just didn't come out like I expected.  Now I think I played with it too much and I don't thing I had a great product to shape and hold the waves the way I wanted.  Another issue, if you look at the ends closely they're very straight which is because of the fact that I'm working with two textures and parts of my hair still has texturizer in it.  I want to give it another try.  Next time I think I will try to roll the twists in rollers instead of coiling them.  I also have to find some type of product that will give it better shape than it had.

Since I'm trying new styles, I think I have to get new tools as well.  Recently, I've noticed that once I straighten my hair it looks very dry and damaged.  I've been sticking to the same regimen when taking care of my hair and at first I didn't know why my hair was doing this.  That is until I glanced at my flat iron.  You see its not only ceramic but it also has tourmaline elements as well.  I've had a flat iron like this before but I let someone use it and since the dye in their hair wasn't of great quality, it damaged my iron and I had to get a new one.  However, after having this one for over a year it looks as though the quality of it was not that great because the top layer is stripping away down to just metal plates.  So now I have to replace it again.  I don't have the funds quite yet for a Chi or a Hai but I'll find something that will hold me over until then.  Well I'm going back to the drawing board.  I won't post again until after the new year so......HAPPY NEW YEARS ;)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Catching up.

Well it's been a while since I've posted an entry.  The holidays have gotten the best of me and I'm in the middle of a job search.  However, during this stressful time I have managed to stick to my new routine for my hair care. I've started to wash and condition my hair more than once a week.  This has helped minimize the breakage and has allowed my hair to look refresh more often during the week.  Also the process has become easier which allows me to wash more than once a week.

Now that I have taken an effort in cleansing my hair more often during the week, I also have to do more to protect as well.  I'll admit I haven't been one to wrap my hair but I think I'm going to have to get back on track with that aspect of my hair care.  I'm a wild sleeper so wrapping my hair each night should help with keeping it looking healthy.

Each time I wash my hair, I keep note of what state my natural curls are.  I can see that it's going to take some time and maintenance to get to the results that I'm looking for.  I don't think I'll go through the big chop that most do during their journey, but I will have to continue to get my hair trimmed on a regular basis.  I also think I'm going to have to start looking for a product to style my curls.  I want to try mouses but they just seem as though they'll leave my hair hard and crunchy.  Pomades seem to be a route to try out, I just hope its not too heavy on my hair.  I think I will have to start doing something since I've learned that I have to start training my hair on how to be in its natural state.

Well, I'm going to start a process of trial and error and let you all know how that's going.  Hope you're enjoying the holidays and I'll catch you next time.