Leaving it in...

So, I had to make a new leave-in on........ Sunday, it was, and as I was merrily mixing and combining, I realized why I never know what exactly is in my leave-ins/products - I'm always adding a dab of this and a bit of that and a little of 'Oh, I totally forgot I had this!' in until I get the smell/consistency/thickness that I want. Since all of my ingredients are good, the finished product is always love - but it's almost impossible for me to replicate!

So, I decided to write down what I used this go around and post it - and of course, I don't know where the scrap of paper that I wrote the list down on has gone, and it's at home, besides. I'm going to make my best guess/remembrance now, and see how off I was when I get home.

Mango Butter
Cocoa Butter
Shealoe Butter
Red Palm Oil
Oyin Burnt Sugar

(all of the above were melted in order to mix smoothly with the rest)

Avocado Oil
Castor Oil
MoeGro Oil
Vitamin E Oil

Honeyquat
Silk Amino Acids
Citric Acid

Elasta QP Intense Fortifying Conditioner
Eqyss Premier Cream Rinse

Lemongrass Essential Oil for the smell-good.

I think that's everything. I added the Burnt Sugar this time, because I felt like my leave-in needed some 'tackiness' in order to help hold my twists together better. Otherwise, I think that's pretty much a 'normal' list of stuff. I considered adding some hibiscus just for the color, but I opted not to because I don't know how well it would keep.

So far, I'm really pleased with this mix - my hair is soft, moisturized, smells wonderfully citrusy without being overpowering, and my twists are super stable - I'm going to have a FIERCE twist-out!

Also, I think that my hair is doing one of those sudden leaps in growth, or something, because it's getting harder and harder for me to tuck the ends of my flattwisted twists under themselves - the end of the twist that is 'loose' is almost as long as the whole twist on my head! Yay!!! So, I think that it might be time for me to figure out a new go-to style, still based on two strand twists. I'm kinda getting tired of the angled part, honestly, or I want it to be MORE angled, or something, and while the three sections are cute, I'm just - meh. I'm ready for something new. I've already browsed my style inspirations album, and nothing really jumped out at me. I think I'll review my subbed thread on LHCF, and see if anything tingles there, either.

Plus, of course, I've got combs and barrettes just itching to be used, too. Hrm. I don't think I have anything planned for this weekend, so I might play with my hair a bit then, and I'll try to take pictures of any successes.

The - interesting - part is that while it's getting long enough that what I'm doing now won't work for much longer, it's still not long enough to make a proper bun with all my hair. I know, I know, I'm picky, and realistically, I can make a bun now, I just think it looks like my head is .... attempting to complete the biological functions of elimination, and only pushed it halfway out. So, I won't wear a bun, now, though I seriously doubt anyone else would look at my head and think that. Yes, I'm strange.

But back to the point I was making - since my hair isn't long enough to do a bun, I have to figure out ways of putting my hair up that keep my hair more or less flat to my head - and while I do have a healthy amount of headspace, it's getting - messy, shall we say.

I suspect that I'll end up with just two sections, when it comes down to it, absorbing the back part upwards into the angled part - which I might makes a little shorter, too, and then have the sections meet a little back of my crown, and tucked/swirled/pinned in/under there. Hrrrm. Yeah, that would give me room to tuck 'down' all the way down the back of my head. I'll have to fiddle with the twist sizes, or figure out how to keep my roots neat (Oh!), but that might work. Heck, I might play with that thought tonight.

The Oh! was because I think I might have pinned down one of the reasons (besides just size) that my twists don't stay as tight on the roots - I realized that I'm not always getting my leave-in all the way down to the roots, and thus it didn't have any 'reason' to hold together. I tried to do better on this set of twists, and meh. *laugh* It's aiight. Not as tight, but I think there really might be an inverse relationship between root tightness and size of the twist.

Okay, off to dig for some styles.