Hair Journey

I've been going through a great shed again and had to test it out to see if I still have hair. From the pix I guess I do lol!

Weird

As typically in my year things get weird. Right now  is a weird stage.  Weird doesn't mean bad, but just a little unusual, different, not typical of how things are regularly.

I haven't written to my online blog in months and mostly because I've been busy and that's good. Now I'm exhausted. I'm going to try to at least post something once a week. Even if its to say...Hey...this week is weird.

Below are my updates of whats been going on recently...

1. So, my hair. I don't even know.  It's going through a similar shed as mentioned (link) last year and I'm not unhappy with it...its just weird. I'm not really doing anything with it anymore. I just poof it or put conditioner on it. I've been considering braiding it or getting it professionally braided but I haven't been even putting a lot of energy in thinking about that monkey.
2. We've experienced the hottest summer in the history of all summer on this earth and more than one day with temperatures over a 100 degrees is doing the most. Mosting! Weird.
3. Work...one of the weirdest places to date.
4. Family, love them however, its getting weird.
5. Friendships...surprisingly weird too. Typically my friends are my source of entertainment but lately some of them.
6. My sleep...what sleep. That's not actually weird but the thing is now, I'm really tired. Seriously can't keep my eyes open long enough to drive home from the metro tired, however, when I get home I can't go to sleep. Weird right?

I could keep going on but then...that would be weird. I will just say, I'll be back with hopefully some article a little more focused and less weird.

Blow and Go

I'm 19 months into my journey! I decided to treat myself to one of the...or should I say THE best natural hair stylist in DC, the lovely Amanda of Bang Salon! She bangs...ok I had to do it!

I hadn't had my hair did since thanksgiving for my first end trim and since then winter and color have hit my hair. But I was surprised that I had virtually no damage! She just trimmed maybe 1/2 inch and blew it out and gave me the most awesomest flat iron ever. No going over pieces multiple times. This sister is bad!

My hair has so much body and movement. I'm so interested in seeing how long it lasts. I sweat so much in my head, but I'm going to try and maintain it without putting any additional heat.

Below are my photos. I'm so freaking proud of my growth!

Two strand twist out success

So I think I've finally mastered the two strand twist out! Finally only 18 months into the journey, lol.

I've been doing them on wet hair. I use herbal essences hello hydration mixed with castor oil and coconut oil. It my own made up leave in and works well to define my twist out.

The secret is... The blow dryer! I've finally figured out how to "stretch" it once I in twist it. This gives it great fullness and body. I'm so proud of this hair!

My 18 month check in...

I've been a horrible blogger and have so much to catch up on. I died my hair a reddish color and been having fun with it.

I recently tried a flexi set with 1/2 inch rollers. It was awesome the first day but the next day it got tragic. I left it in for about three days, but my wash was when it got bad! I lost so much hair and it was crazy tangled!

My hair hasnt been shedding much since I do my weekly castor oil and queen Helene conditioning. I am back to just chilling and putting my poofs back in. No more wet sets.

I'm happy for the growth I have. The front is finally gaining momentum, lol. It is starting to come around and look really full in two strand twist outs.

New Year New Color

So...I get bored and I start feeling like I've had the same hairdo forever. This prompted me to switch my style up. I colored it!

I did a lot of research which led me to basically do it my own way. I used dark and lovely #379. It was light enough with no booster which is good because I didn't want the extra damage.

It has been about 2 weeks and no damage as far as I can see! No extra breaking or dryness. Just new hair!

I've been DP with my queen Helene once a week and using castor out to seal. I'm still mostly wearing only poofs and using co wash and conditioner only to style.

I'm pumped and excited about the new look. Below is a photo montage of my new hair and my most recent trip home!

My Hairy Moments

Being that one of the main purposes of this blog was to follow my hair's moments, I feel I should recap where I'd been and where I am up to this point. Here is a photo montage of my hair journey which started a little before this blog...

Last Perm Circa 2009

Shaved it all off 2010

3 Months Into My Natural Hair Journey Nov -2010

4 Months Into Journey - December 2010

 5 Months into Journey Random Braids - January 2011

6 Months In Wash and Go - February 2011

6 Months Again - Late February 2011

 

9 Months In - May 2011

9 Months In - May 2011

10 Months In - June 2011

11 Months In - July 2011

1 Year Down! - August 2011

14 Months In - October 2011

 

14 Months In - October 2011

15 Months In - November 2011

16 Months In (My first straightening at a salon!) - December 2011

17 Months In (My first ponytail/bun so geeked) - Jan 2012

Happy New Year!

So it has been a year since I first started this blog...man. Time didn't fly but I feel like I accomplished so much mentally in 2011. It was by no means easy. One of my most stressful years but great things are made through pressure. I pushed myself. I stopped wanting to do and did.

I'm proud of me...in those moments, and excited about the moments to come.

This year...I'm taking over. One blog post, one cupcake, one saying, one moment at a time. I'm continuing on with the psychology of making sure I have on my oxygen mask before i put on anyone else's.

Thank you for supporting year 1 of this moment and cheers to many more to come. Happy New Year!

Cake Baking

So over at Butter Scotch I've been crazy busy. I'm definitely not complaining. Butter Scotch "officially" launched at the end of October and I've been so blessed with requests almost every weekend. I'm so happy and have so much work to do to develop the company that it has taken away from other pots such as my hair pot, my weight loss pot, my laundry pot, my shopping for myself pot, and lots of others that shall remain nameless, lol.

One of the pots I think about all the time, however, not had the time to finish a post about is the political pot. I had an awesome post about Herman Cain, aka, the Cain train, aka the most wanted baby's daddy, aka the uncle who made you a lesbian, aka, Clarence Thomas' cousin, however I have stalled and his career is over before I could press the publish button.

Oh well, I have another one brewing on one of my favorite anal rapist Newt Ginchrich so stay tuned!

I'm going to publicly post my resolutions here as 1/1/2012 will be the one year anniversary of This Moment and I plan to celebrate by getting my sexy back and stop all the cake baking...well actually, the baking isn't the problem, its more so the eating.

I'm going to work on my version of the Herman Cain 9-9-9 plan which involves me doing 9 push ups, 9 sit ups and 90 minutes of cardio until Amber Rose peeks her pink and blond head back into my psyche.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and I know this post was mad random but so am I as of late. I have a lot of good hair, political, life topics coming to you soon...so please...believe in me, lmao.

Let's Get Straight!

So its T minus 20 minutes and I'm on my way to the hair dresser to get my hair straightened (blown out and flat iron) and trimmed for the first time since starting this journey. Aside from my quick little home projects that were #fails.

It has been almost 15 months into my journey and I'm quite excited to see how starting off with a bald head to now will go. I'm so nervous and my sphinture is tight...inappropriate I know.

I can't wait to post pictures of my before and after shots. It should be interesting. I really can't wait to just run my fingers through my hair for a couple of days. Its been raining here so hopefully it doesn't ruin it too.

Ahhhhh, if i could scream outloud I would but I won't but I want to...

Scared Straight

So, a couple of weeks ago I did this...



I straightened the fro! This is me in the city outside of work. I wore a hat most of the time I had it straight because I didn't love the thinness of my hair. I felt naked without my naps! I liked the look with the hat though and it worked for a couple of days.

I straightened it not because I wanted to, but because I needed to get my ends clipped. I went to Salon Revive in DC and they were ok. I went to them because they got good yelps but I felt my service was a little rushed. I've only been to the hairdresser in DC a few times and every time I've had to go home and do something more to it.

Anyhoo, I'm glad I went. My curls look great since I did it and I feel its so much easier to detangle! I will try to scare myself to straighten at least 3 or 4 times a year.

We'll see!

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

I just celebrated the 10th Anniversary of my 21st Birthday! Yes, time has gone by. I can't say its flown though, but its ticking away.

When I actually turned 21, I don't remember what I did. I barely drank back then. I'm sure my sister got me bottles of Moet (because she was just freakin' fly like that) and we had a random house party or something. My birthday's then were so uneventful and now...they are main events that last days, weeks, even the whole month!

This year my hubby treated me to a Cancun Vacation. It was absolutely breathtaking and amazing. I'd been to Cancun before with the bestie but we did it the hood way and didn't go all inclusive or allow ourselves any pampering. We just roughed it! It was def a trip that went down in our history, but this trip was its trump!

We stayed at the Fiesta Americana Condesa and I fully endorse this place. If you know me, I'm mad serious about reviews and this place consistently receives the highest reviews on trip advisor. I know why...they spoil the shit out of you. They make you feel like they are your bff's and they never want you to leave. I will remember this vacay forever...well whichever parts I can reember. Below is my photo montage of the birthday!

Including my random birthday party with my vacation friends...

And my smoking hot body in this bikini...I heart that bikini...

Its so nice going and being at an age where I don't care. I don't care about my tiger strips (stretch marks), cellulite, etc...I just cared about my glass staying full along with my belly!

I cannot wait to celebrate the 16th Anniversary of my Sweet 16 Birthday next year! Its going down!

Grease is Back!!!

YEAHHHHHH!!!

So if you follow natural hair blogs, you will see grease is all the rave right now. I remember a few months after I first started my journey Nikki Mae put out a "taboo" post about using mineral oils and this was like forbidden fruit. Now Curly Nikki has come out and said it and its like, secret grease users are coming out the wood work. People confessing to using vaseline, Dax, Blue Magic...its a revolution. And I love the revolution!!!

I was a big grease user pre BC. Me and Lil' K swore by Blue Magic's Coconut Oil (BMCO). I loved it for her hair, it kept it moist long, however, I would do the naughty and grease both our scalps. Which I learned through being natural actually causes our dry hair. I stopped doing that and we both benefit from a little raw coconut oil on the scalp after a wash.

Now that grease has been tried and true by naturals I love, I had to give it a try. And what better time to try it before going to Cancun, Mexico for my bday with the hubby! I did a wet twistout with my BMCO and whalah! Best twist out ever!!

The reason I don't do twist outs much is because its too much frizz for me and they don't come out that good, but this was moist, shiny and great! It was so soft. I didn't even use a hold product. Just Giovanni Direct Leave In and a lil dab of grease on each twist!

Even when we got to Mexico I decided to pull it up and put it in a puff and whahlah! Best puff ever!

It maintained a curly look and not super dry and uneven. I love this grease factor.

Of course after washing everyday and getting in the pool, ocean, the BMCO was no match, but my hair still did well (better than I thought) for 5 days in Mexico. I wore it up mostly with one quick lunch down (i'd just washed it and didn't feel like putting it up).

So I stamp my approval, grease has helped me get the hair I want and seal in the moisture like only Blue Magic can do! I'm so glad its back in full effect!

My Natural Soro: Monique

Before I took the leap to natural hair, sometime in June/July of 2010, I saw this young lady on facebook. Now, she is not just some regular random lady, she is f'ing amazing! She is from my hometown Detroit and we went to high school together. We both used to rock the old Halle Berry hair style back in the day  and I always loved her spirit. She was always so sweet, but you knew she didn't take no stuff...and today, she took that amazing spirit and is now a lawyer in California! I love to brag on my Detroit, Cass Tech (fired up) folks. Detroit gets a bad wrap, but I know so many successful men and women who are born and breed in the D!

I saw Monique and her hair on facebook and it was like, wow! So beautiful. She has what I call good hair! Thick, full, and healthy! Mo is so creative with her styles. She became one of my first natural hair crushes! Its my pleasure to bring to you her interview. I'm sure we can all learn a lot from this fierce Chica!

How long have you been natural?
I have been natural since October 29, 2009; so almost 2 years now.

Did you transition or just big chop?
I transitioned for all of 2 weeks. I had zillions for about 3 months before those transitional 2 weeks. After removing the zillions I decided that I wouldn’t perm my hair anymore and started transitioning. After another 2 weeks of dealing with 2 different textures, I couldn’t take it anymore and took the scissors to my head one
day after work.

Why did you go natural?
I live in Southern California... Orange County to be exact. Needless to say resources for black hair care are few and far between. It was very difficult for me to find a stylist to maintain my permed hair. And even when I finally did you know nobody does hair like they do it in the D  or even the Chi for that matter (which is where I was living before I came here). So, though my hair was growing, it was thin, limp and just plain not fly lol. So I decided to get zillions to tide me over till I finished studying for and taking the Cali bar exam. After I finished that, I took the zillions down and saw this mass of multi-textured hair atop my head and I said to myself, why not try to rock your natural texture? So I went for it.

It also helped that one of my best friends has been natural for about 8 years now and has the absolute flyest curls on the planet. I really wanted to see what my hair would do in its natural state.

Were you attached when you made the decision? If so, did your mate have an opinion?
I was engaged at the time (now married) to a wonderful, understanding and open-minded man! My husband is white, not that it matters much, but I think that made him more open to embracing all the different sides of me. He didn’t really have a preference of which hair style I rocked as long as I was happy so there was no bias there towards relaxed or natural, he just wanted me happy. So he was very encouraging. And then once I went natural – oh Lord!!! He quickly developed an opinion – which was and is still DO NOT EVER PERM YOUR HAIR AGAIN lol! He LOVES my natural hair, which is so funny cause let me be perfectly honest in saying that I don’t have that cute, curly ringlet natural hair – I’ve got that break yo comb, straight up kinky with a twist natural hair lol. And he loves every bit of it! Couldn’t ask for a better mate!

What is your favorite style so far?
Given the texture of my hair I’ve come to the determination that curl definition is not something that is meant for me lol. So I’m partial to twists. But my hair is also still fine and thin so individual 2 strand twists still don’t quite look right on me at the moment – maybe with a little more length they will look better. So my go to style is often flat twists going up the back and the sides with single twists in the front.  I love this style:
 1) because it lasts me about a week or two and
 2) it’sa great protective style.

I can untwist the front to make it a little funky or leave it in twists and be on my way. Very low maintenance. The only problem with it is that my hair is very dry so when it is up in flat twits it gets even more dry because
I’m not able to get in their and really moisturize. But now, I have figured out how to keep my hair moisturized during while in twists – I drench my head while in the shower (still twisted), then rub jojoba oil or shea butter on my hair or use qhemet biologics burdock root butter cream and then put a plastic cap on and put my heat therapy wrap on for about an hour. I do this once a week and simply spray with an oil/water mixture in between treatments.


So you recently had a baby, congrats mama! He looks adorable! Tell us about your hair during your pregnancy and afterward.

During my pregnancy, I’d been rocking a puff simply because I didn't have have the energy to spend the 2 hours necessary to do flat twists lol. As of today (10/21/11) I am now 1 week away from being natural for 2 years and I’ve given birth to a beautiful baby boy who is now 7 weeks old. I am happy to say that, though I didn’t get the benefit of the pregnancy hair growth spurt, I also haven’t experienced the hair shed either. About a week after giving birth I decided to revisit the whole head two strand twist style and am happy to say it looked sooo fetch! I rocked it for 3 weeks!!!!!! Now I am back to my flat twists for a few weeks – basically anything low maintenance works best for me at the moment.

What are your favorite products?
As I said above, I’ve been wearing a puff a lot lately. I don’t really use any products on it, just water to refresh. So I don’t really have a “favorite” product. I have tried so very many products over the years that I can tell you which ones I DON’T like quicker than I can tell you which ones I do lol. For instance, my hair HATES Carol’s Daughter and Miss Jessies – neither do anything beneficial for my hair, in fact I think they make it a bit worse. I used to like Kinky Curly Knot Today leave in but after a while my hair seemed to get used to it and the benefits stopped so I stopped using it. I do occasionally use Organic Root Stimulator's Loc and Twist Gel and this other pudding that they have to do my twists – I like the hold that both products provide and my twist outs are defined and moisturized and I can actually achieve 2nd day hair with them (but nothing longer than that). I also like Qhemet Biologics Burdock Root Butter Cream as my moisturizer. I still haven’t found that mixture of perfect products that always work for me, I just find that every couple of months I have to switch it up. I’ve also been relying heavily on the “Now” brand shea butter – I find that it emulsifies the best.

What is your regimen and what do you do with your hair at night?
Again, pregnancy laziness is brutal lol. I’m lucky if I wash my hair twice a month. Depending on how I’ve been wearing it and whether I’ve been putting products in it, I will shampoo or co-wash. Post pregnancy – my hair is usually in twists so I just wrap it up with a satin scarf and go to bed. In the morning I spritz it with an oil/water mix.

Do you have any advice for newly naturals?
Going natural is not for the faint at heart so be sure that its something you really want to do. Don’t compare your hair to anyone else’s – hair envy is the most discouraging thing about being natural so love YOUR hair for what it is and you will find joy and fall in love with it the way I did with mine. Also get to know YOUR hair, what it likes, what it doesn’t like, etc. and be careful who you let in your head – I made the grave mistake of trusting a “natural hair stylist’s” jjudgment over my own, despite knowing that my hair doesn’t like excessive heat. It resulted in major damage to my hair and a HUGE setback for Cleo’s (that's my afro's name) growth, I am still cutting off straight pieces that never curled back up from being straightened in March!!!! It’s OCTOBER!!! Also, there are a TON of natural hair resources out there so you are not alone – Curly Nikki is my go-to place for info.

What have you learned about yourself throughout the journey?
I have learned to see the beauty in myself that I never saw before. It was a very long and difficult journey filled with dips in my confidence, hair envy and doubt, but then I came out on the other side with such a feeling of fierceness, self awareness and love that it was well worth the journey. Today, I can truly say “I am not my hair” and really mean it. After I realized that, the door opened to so many possibilities, allowing me to become more creative and adventurous and funky with my hair and I’m loving every minute!!

Will this thing last forever eva?
Fa eva eva, fa eva eva lol!

Thank you again Monique for sharing your story! I wanted to put "I heard that" in so many sections of her interview, but I will just say one big "I heard that" right now!

I heart her hair!!!