Frugality is my friend

So...when I first started my journey I was highly obsessed with the blogs, youtubes, articles on natural hair. Its an overload hearing and seeing so many techniques, products. You want to buy and try them all. That is...until you see the sticker. Many of the "favorites" in the natural hair community are upwards of $50 per container!

Now, I of course think I deserve the best, however, $50 for a hair product is not necessarily where I want to spend my dough. I made a pledge that I would not spend more than $20 for a product and I would attempt to find uses for the products I already had.

Of course in the beginning I tried the many conditioners, shampoos, gels, etc. raved about on many websites. But I soon learned...in the first maybe...year (I'm at 10 months now) of the hair game, my hair reacted to the $4 gel equally if not better than the $10 gel. So, why not make my dolla holla.

My favorite products right now are all under the $20 price tag and I wouldn't change them for the world.

1. Trader Joe Nourish Shampoo and Conditioner -

This combo lathers so awesome (shampoo and conditioner lather grate) that its going on 3 months and I'm still not done with the bottles. I'm pretty sure they each were less than $5 a bottle.

2. Kinky Curly Knot Today Leave In 

This is $12 a bottle and the most expensive thing in my arsenal. I could not live without it though. I've tried a few other leave ins and nothing detangles our (me and K) hair like this. Its perfect for blow outs, and poofing my wash and gos too!


3. Via Natural Brown Gel

This is the green tea gel, but I use the brown gel. I LOVE THIS GEL!!! Prior to using this I was an Ecosyler girl, but as my hair got longer, it would get flaky after about 2 days. This...I have got up to 4 days in a wash and go! For this huge bottle it is only $4! It last about a month or more depending on how much you use it. The only down side is it is only carried at 1 beauty supply store by me. So of course I have a stock pile of it!


4. Coconut Oil - (pix) 

It retails for about $8 per jar. I don't think the brand really matters, as long as its 100% pure, raw, virgin...all that jazz. I bought a jar similar to this at Vitamin World about 6 months ago and still have it! Its something I use almost daily on my hair and maybe 1-2 times a week on K's hair. Its amazing. Doesn't give me any build up. Smells wonderful. Its really like my base for any hair style. I love, love, love, love, love it.
5. Organics Smooth and Hold Pudding

It retails for about $6. I love this stuff. I was using it for my wash and go for a minute, so they wouldn't get that crunchy feel gel gives it. Only thing is when using it for wash and goes, its white and takes about 3-4 hours to set and dry. So me doing this in the am before work was whack, because for the first 2 hours at the office people wanted to tell me I had white stuff in my hair. Which I knew, but didn't want to disturb the process. If you have time before doing a wash and go/shingling, this works great and last about 3 days. I recently just used this mixed with coconut oil for my twist up do. Which worked awesome. It smoothed my ends perfectly and day one, so far so good with no residue. I like this better than any Ms. Jessie's products because before the end of the night, my hair was white with that stuff. My hair just doesn't absorb the Ms. Jessie's products well.

And there you have it, everything you would need for any natural hair style you could think of all under $13 bucks! You can be fab and frugal at the same time!