NEW DISCOVERY

Experimented a little last night with olive oil in my hair, it felt soooo soft and it was looking so good, the curls all clumped together.
UNTIL it dried... oh man, not pretty. apparently, my hair does not like olive oil! it was more frizzy than normal, greasy looking even though i rinsed well and my scalp itched a little. i will upload pics of it soon!

WEEK TWO

Today marks two weeks of being natural! I am beginning to like what I see. The first day of my second week I used honey with my rinse out conditioner, it was amazing! I went a little overboard with it but I didn't just get second day hair, I got third day hair! It was insane! Then I started feeling greasy again because as I said I am still in the beginning of my transition and that happens. I am also wavy and a lot of wavies use what we call a low poo. A low poo is a shampoo that is organic and doesn't have any sulfates or harsh chemicals but it still clarifies your hair. However, even a low poo can dry you out so only use it as needed. I went out and bought one because I figured I needed it to feel better. I bought Giovanni triple tea tree oil. I think that's the name, it felt so good and it smells kind of nice. Then to compensate for using a shampoo, I deep conditioned that day with lustrasilk shea butter cholesterol with mango. Okay that lustrasilk stuff is AMAZING. You get a big tub of it for only 2.79 at Sally's and the texture feels nice and it smells beautiful. I loved it and as I rinsed it out, I decided I wanted more and used it as a leave in conditioner as well. Since then, my hair has felt extremely soft! As I begin my third week, I notice that my hair isn't getting so greasy anymore. This was my hair yesterday... I liked it so took two pictures.




You can tell that my hair looks a lot more shiny and not so dehyderated. Also, that triangle shape seems to be going away because I use clips on my roots as the hair is drying. I've also been plopping and most of the time, I don't even use gel or mousse which is really surprising to me. My frizz is down probably 70% but I don't know if that is because it is nice outside and not humid for once or because of the routine! Who knows?
I will post more this week hopefully. If not, I will see you next week!

p.s. sorry for all the smiley pictures, I don't know how else to pose, also I will start putting make up on for the upcoming ones haha.

WEEK 1

Well I've been meaning to update but have been extremely busy, I have just found the time and barely considering I have a sleeping baby on my arm as I type.
Anyway, December 28th was my last shampoo using a sulfate shampoo. My hair felt the same as normal and I didn't wash until the 30th again. Here is my hair that day:



As you can see, my hair is pretty weighed down but the curls look a little more defined. Apparently, going natural is sort of the same as going natural as in foods. Like when you go from a normal diet to a raw food diet, your body has to adjust. Same thing goes for your hair and because I always used shampoo which dried out my hair, my scalp had to overcompensate oil. Well, this is normal and your scalp has to get used to what it is SUPPOSED to do. So my first week was pretty oilly and gross and all I wanted was to wash my hair with shampoo!! I didn't cave in, I use the V05 passionate fruit smoothie as my cowash and makes my hair feel so good and I feel as though it really cleans my scalp well then I just use garnier strong and long (i think that is the name) for a regular conditioner.
I read the book and I have realized that the message boards at naturallycurly.com are a lot more informative! the book was still good though and it gave me a confidence boost about doing this!
Here is my hair at the end of the first week, it was so oily that it almost looked straight.

I'm really not crazy about the way my hair looked. They say you should give this process up to six weeks and you will notice more drastic changes that are pleasent. Because as of the first week, I was not really feeling it.
Sorry for the blah post, I'm just late so I wanted to explain how it was.

p.s. I told my mom about this who has straight hair and she thought it was disgusting that I'm not using shampoo. I forgot that it does sound gross and I just said it casually haha. Whatever, I know I'm clean and that is all that matters, right?

Practice makes perfect

Well, I am still using up my silicone products. For some reason this weekend I have felt guilty about knowingly ruining my hair. When I was clueless, it was just whatever, but now I know what these products are doing and it kind of sucks. Even though I am damaging my hair, I am practicing for the curly girl method with my current products. So I use my normal shampoo with sulphates :( and then condition my hair. Normally, I would just leave conditioner in for a few minutes then brush my hair when I am out of the shower but the curly girl method says to use a wide tooth comb in when conditioner is in and rinse with cool water so i did that. then when my hair was soaking wet, i threw in my products (full of silicone) and plopped. Plopping is another part of this method. It encourages your curls to curl by getting all of your hair on the top of your head using a t-shirt or a microfiber towel. I just used my sons baby towel. This video describes it well. The other days this weekend I did everything without plopping and my hair did look better BUT today i plopped and oh my god... my wavy hair is CURLY. Of course, I have not gone outside since my shower and it will probably be frizzy tomorrow, but already there is a difference in styling based on this method so when i convert to the new way of hair care, I feel there will definitely be results.
Anyway, I plopped for thirty minutes and then let it down and threw some spray gel in. With this method, you are not supposed to touch your hair because that can lead to frizz and I'm finding that very hard to do considering I have a six month old who cannot keep his hands out of my curls. Hopefully, I can figure out a way to do this.
The book 'Curly girl : more than just hair-- it''s an attitude' has been shipped to my local library and will be there tomorrow. Tomorrow is my birthday so I am at least hoping it will be there :)
Here is my hair done without plopping, you can see the notorious triangle shape that curly's have to deal with, flat on top and curls weighing your hair down.

Here is with plopping, you can see how much fuller it is at the top and my curls are more defined.



Hopefully I will be onto new products soon, I will update the progress, until then--- I will practice.

Giving up silicone...

I just heard about naturallycurly.com and have been researching it. My whole entire childhood was filled with mushroom head and afro jokes from older siblings and straight haired friends. Naturallycurly.com is a place where people like me feel welcomed. I have always categorized my hair as wavy and frizzy but that really isnt' what it is, that is what shampoos and conditioners have done to my hair apparently. Instead of letting my hair get to it's natural curly/wavy state, I have masked it with straightening and products. I have all kinds of "anti-frizz" products and have used shampoos and conditioners promising me sleek and shiny hair. When I throw all of this junk in my hair, it does temporarily behave but the days that I don't want to do anything to my hair (most days), it is out of control. I've envied all of those girls with straight hair for too long and I have decided to embrace my curls and go natural. I will record the progress on this here blog when I do begin but first... I have to give up silicone. The main points of this method are no brushes, no shampooing and no silicones. There are tons more that I will find out but I'm currently on the waiting list for the book by Lorraine Massey at the library.
No silicones? I thought that will be easy, I don't use that. But then I read that if you look at the ingredients on your products and if any of them end in -cone, -conol or -xane, there are silicones in the product. Well I did and apparently all of my products contain this. It makes sense because silicones do temporarily relieve frizz bit does not repair it. The only thing that takes silicones out of your hair is sulfates which is in most shampoos which are really harsh. The same sulfates that are in laundry detergent and dish soap are in your shampoo which is too harsh for sensitive, fragile curls.
Anyway, I am a totally cheap person and love my silicone products so before I give them up and enter my hair rehabilitation , I am going to use them to death and destroy my hair in the process. I know you aren't supposed to, but I want to use them all first just as a junkie would with drugs. That is the only way I can describe it. So until my last product is empty, I will be reading the book and back on here to begin my journey into natural curls. I will include pictures of my progress and details on the outcomes. Hope you will join me...
Thanks,
Jackie