Urmmm. Let's see - last weekend was SUPPOSED to be clarifying (it's henna time again, ALREADY??), but as I was out in the woods, dancing with the pagans, it was more of a sun-in time, and lots-of-water-time. I took it out on Saturday, as the fuzz was starting to eat my head, and I gently untangled it, got it good and wet, rubbed some HH into it, and rolled on. Since then, I've HH'd it twice, Elasta'd it once, and misted it twice daily. So, yeah. It's still out - I'm wearing a loose wild choppy fro - the one thing that DOES suprise me is the number of wavy hairs I have coated the top of my fro - there are a bunch of little flyaways.
And - I have some hair - the stuff right behind my ears - that isn't my hair. I don't know whose hair is growing out of my scalp - but um - it ain't mine. It's 3a - MAYBE - back there - possibly 2b. Which - um - huh? :lol: Soooo.... I plan on wearing it out all week, detangling, henna'ing, and - oh, going back into my usual style, I suppose. I've been thinking about maybe doing some two strand twists, but dammit, what I REALLY want are the yarnbraids.
Other good news - my breakage is still close to nil - even with me playing in my hair - I get the occasional 'clumps' of broken hair and I've got a couple of tangles that I know have broken hairs in the middle, but gentle contact/fingercombing is giving me NOTHING but shed hairs - so I'm VERY pleased with that. Tiny knots are really still my worst problem - though, my hair is getting long enough that I can SEE the knots on the ends, now. I notice that most of them are very red, still - and that I get more knots where the dyed hair is still hanging out - figures. But! Henna is starting to work - I can see a distinct reddish/orange overtone to my hair! :hollie:
Henna this weekend is going to be standard - I'm going to finally mix up a big bunch of it to freeze - thick henna + water paste. I'm going to leave a good bit still powdered, so that I can mix it with coconut milk & lime as needed (my next one should be - the June Henna, I think). Hrmmmmm. Yes, that sounds about right.
I think that my nape/hairline hairs have slowed down, and the hair in the center of my head is catching up - I don't see any changes in the overall length - but little things (like being able to see my ends) are telling me that my hair is growing. OooHH!!! It's been a year! Holy Cow! I've decided that the bleached blond hair picture is my offical starting picture - it's my version of bald. :lol: *whips out a ruler* roughly four inches in 12 months - that's what? 1/3 an inch, a month? Not too bad, not too bad at all. Slower than I hoped, but I'm cool with that - now, I can start thinking about topical potions. *wiggles eyebrows* I do still have sulfur AND MTG in my cabinent.
Hair!!!!
Picbacks...
So - this weekend was protien. I considered not doing it, since I did henna AND coconut milk - but I said no, I need to stick to my schedule, so I did the protien.
Looking back, urmh. I could have gone either way. I could imeadiately tell that my fine, fine, hair had too much protien in it, so I only left the protien in for about 2 hours, and then, put in doube moisturizing - the last of the Silk Elements (I'll never buy it again - I HATE the little grainy poppyseed sized things in it - ew!) and my love, my moisture, ElastaQP. That restored the balance nicely (thankfully). I then stretched it in the usual 2-strands with CoN....and then, I got the urge to try an old hairstyle, to see how much hair I've 'lost' by rigously trimming all of the color out of my hair.
This style:
has converted itself to this:
For one thing, it's DEFINITELY shorter. A good two inches shorter, I'd say. But! Much more importantly - it's also DEFINITELY thicker. I mean - HUGELY thicker - it's really amazing how much HAIR I have on my head - I truly cannot wait to see what it looks like as it gets longer. And it's healthier FEELING. Just looking at those two pictures - the second one looks - alive. It looks moist and rich and dense. *happy dance*
I think this is the first time I've REALLY been able to see a clear difference in the HEALTH my hair! The only real difference I was seeing was in length, and that was going the wrong direction.... but seeing this - I'm pleased.
Hrmm...
I'm in a mood to write here, but I haven't been up to much, so we'll see how far it goes.
1) Henna & Coconut Milk - I loved this - loved the result, loved the way it left my hair feeling, am a little nervous about how much curl it pulled out. I definitely think that mix will have to be a once every 3 months kind of thing - doing that everymonth would do odd things to my hair.
2) Weekend Hair Things - I didn't do much to the head this weekend - a nice deep moisturizer with the Elsta QP, and that was about it. I tried taking texture pictures again, and failed, quelle misrable. :lol: Urm. I used the CoN as the moisture this go around, and I only did two twists across the forehead, and then started going back & down. I'm considering two strand twists next time - but I don't know. What I REALLY want is braids/yarn twists, but I'm being right chicken about doing them myself, and I plain refuse to pay someone to do them, so we shall see.
Henna How-To
Have I mentioned recently just how MUCH I LOOOOVVVEEE FNWL's henna? Hrmm? I haven't? Well, let me just say - the. stuff. ROCKS.
So. This is going to be my ultra detailed, wonderfully pictorial trip down Henna Lane
I started around 3pm in the afternoon or so - setting up my ingredients so that I could let the dye release before I slapped it on. I was trying something different this go around, so my ingredients are a little unique.
From left to right we have:
1/2 cup of FNWL Henna
about a cup of leftover coconut milk/lime/conditioner/honey mix that I made 02/24 and froze what I couldn't use.
My mixing bowl (which is actually a fondue bowl - all that matters is that it's NON POROUS and NOT METAL!)
a coffee cup full of hot hot tap water.
I normally don't use that much henna - but I normally also stretch my henna by adding a cheapie conditioner to it, and I didn't do that this time, as I wanted to see the results of the coconut milk mix on it's own. Normally, I'd use a 1/4 cup of henna, an equal amount of hot water, and just dump in enough condish to make it stretch after the dye releases.
I mixed the henna & CMLHC mix together first, then slowly added water and mixed, and mixed, and mixed until it looked like this....
Generally gross, and lumpy, and very green. Hey! That's another thing about FNWL's henna - it's not as strong smelling as others I've used. Henna to me, smells like tea made out of hay. FNWL's henna has a very light haytea smell. You can see about how much water is left in the coffee cup - barely any.
Now, the henna has to sit, to let the dye release.
While I was waiting for that, I figured I would have a little fun, and clarify my hair with the last of the Shikakai I had. I mixed about - oh, it was 1/4 cup I'd say, with some water to make a paste (I didn't expect it to be that color - reddish brown, very pretty!), and then added a LOT of White Rain conditioner (most likely the Citrus Energizing one). I also added a touch of baking soda (I like my hair to be as stripped/clean as possible before I henna, so my hair can get all the goodness out of the henna), and THIS happened.
The stuff foamed up, and turned into a thick, rich, mousse type stuff. I've seen that happen before when I mix citric acid & baking soda in with conditioner - I didn't expect the shikakai to react like that. Anyhoooow. I slapped that into my hair, and wandered around the house for an hour or so, before I went back to check the henna.
Once henna's dye has released, theres a subtle change in the COLOR of the henna itself - I meant to scrape through the top so it would be more obvious in the pictures, but I forgot. You can kinda tell that the edges have gotten oranger, and that little 'scrape' in the middle is darker though. This is how I check to see if the dye has been released:
Take the palm of my hand, stick a fingertip into the henna and gob a spot of henna on my hand, walk around for 2-4 minutes, rinse my hand off. If I've got orange - the henna is ready to go!
Now, comes the fun part! First - the preparations.
Not one, but TWO latex/rubber gloves. Trust me on this. :lol: If you notice, I'm wearing a towel - that's solely for the sake of the picture. Normally, I'm nekkid, as it's easier to henna that way.
You also want about three paper towels still stuck together, and folded into thirds lengthwise( or more, if your head is bigger than mine - which is a stretch!), and a healthy bit of saran wrap - enough to wrap it all the way around your head.
And of course, the henna. :lol:
FNWL's henna is sticky, and gooey, and gloopy. These are all VERY good things.
See? It's really nasty looking, but that's okay. You don't wanna eat it, anyhow. I just stick my hand in, scoop a glob out, and squish it into my hair. Oh yeah, I rinsed the clarifying stuff out of my hair right after I tested that the dye had released - my hair is slightly damp, and that helps the henna spread a bit more.
All done! I don't care about getting henna on my skin around my hairline, as I'm dark enough that it just blends in. Lighter skinned folx - beware! You might need to put some sort of barrier - vaseline is a popular one - around your hairline to avoid looking like the orange ghost of who did what and WHY, sweet goddess, WHY??!! My hair is short (and stubborn) enough that it stands up on it's own - those with more 'floppy' hair, might have to sacrifice a couple of claw clips (if they are plastic, they are porous, and they will get stained) to hold your hair up.
This is why you want gloves. Your hands will be this color if you don't wear them, and it'll take about a week to wear off. Don't say I didn't warn you. :lol:
That's also a way to tell how 'strong' your henna is - if it doesn't dye your gloves, it might not dye your hair!
CAREFULLY take the gloves off, and toss them.
Now, it's saran wrap time!
Stick one end to your forehead, and carefully wrap the saran all around your head - this is the first step in the battle against drippies.
Once you are done, you should have a very attractive shiny cone head. Fold the top in so that it covers your hair (this also helps to hold the heat in), and cut your earholes (if you want them). I get really - squirelly if my ears are covered/bound up, so I have to do this. Just take a pair of scissors, and CAREFULLY cut a backwards angled slice into the saran wrap, and stop right below the top of your ear. You should then be able to pop your ear out, while leaving your hair covered.
Now, it's time for the paper towels - the main line of defense against drippies. Just grab, wrap so that the ends overlap in the front, bobbypin them together, and cut an earhole, and you're done!
Next, slap a showercap on top of the whole thing. I do this for two reasons - one, to help hold heat in better (that encourages ALL of the dye to release from the henna, and I need every bit I can get), and two, to catch any drippies that might escape.
Finally, so that I don't look like a crazy plasticheaded woman walking around the house, I slap my handy dandy doo-rag on top of everything, and I'm done!
Depending on how I'm feeling, sometimes I'll hop in the shower to rinse the henna off of my shoulders, but most of the time I'll just grab a (dark!!!) washcloth, and rub it off.
This whole process take a heck of a lot less time to DO than it did to write about. *LOL*
I'd say from dye release to all done takes me about 30 minutes. I don't count the dye release time, as 90% of the time, I'm not making my henna fresh - I make up a HUGE batch, put about 2-3oz into a ziploc bag, and freeze them. The morning of the day I want to henna, I pull it out the freezer, stick it in the fridge, and by the time I get home from work, it just needs to sit on the counter for 15 minutes or so, and it's ready to go.
Yes, it's cold. as. hell. But - it warms up after about 5 minutes on your head.
Silly me, I didn't take any pictures of the un-hennaing process - but with FNWL henna mixed with a little conditioner, it's stupid easy. Wait however long you can stand - the minimum is about two hours, I left this particular one on for 24 - yes, A full day. I was working around the house, so it didn't matter.
Take off the scarf and the showercap. Un-bobbypin the paper towels, and use them to pull the saran wrap off your head. Dump the whole thing in the trash (and if you don't use bags in your bathroom trashcans - don't dump it in there, unless you want an orange trashcan). Get into the shower, and rinse with warm water.
Yup. That's it. FNWL's henna is almost like rinsing out conditioner alone, it's that easy. And if it's easy to rinse out of MY curly, will-hold-onto-a-particle-of-ANYTHING-hair, it'll definitely come out of everyone elses just fine.
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Personally? I LOVED the coconut milk/henna mix. My hair - which had been out, in a fro, for a WEEK, before this - combed out like a dream. My curls were DEFINITELY loosened (maybe a bit more than I really wanted them to be - I might be nervous about doing this regularily - but I'll have to see how it looks the end of the week), and my hair - as usual - had the lovely henna thickness and sheen.
Shhhhhhheesh. That was a BOOK.
What else did I do hair related this weekend? I think that about it. I finally took a halfway decent picture of my current style (as I don't have a SCRAP of red left in my hair, my old siggy pic was starting to bug me), and that's about it.
Oooh! Something new I've been doing - I have a BUNCH of palm kernal oil that I got from a swap on here, and since the weather has gotten warmer, it's melted. I dip my horn comb into the palm oil, and then comb through my hair with it - nicely spreading the oil all through my hair. It's wonderful - I'm using that as my two strand twist moisturizer/sealer, and then using either WP or the CoN as the final moisturizer when I actually flattwist it.
Okay.
I think I'm done now.
Seriously.
*thinks*
Yah, I'm done.
Hmmm, yes, it's high time to start detangling the hair. I've got a couple of small knots in the back, and my number of fairy knots has just gone through the roof. Hopefully some water and conditioner will get them out. I think the glycerine doesn't help either, as it's slightly - tacky - and thus attracts lint, and if my hair has something to twine around, it will. Hrrmmm - I think that just means I HAVE to do daily rinses - whether in the morning or at night, to be sure that the glycerine doesn't hold onto any lint - cuz my hair DOES love my mister mix - gylcerine, jojoba, tiny bit of TTO, and a splush of HoneyHemp, and water. Ooh, I added some rosewater too this last go around, to sweeten up the smell of the TTO. Man, but that stuff (TTO) is strong!
I haven't used any Lenzi's all week - I realized that would be WAY too much manipulation of my loose hair, and I would regret it come the end of the week. However - since skipping the Lenzi's, I've noticed that my scalp doesn't itch AT ALL. So - is the Lenzi's too heavy for my scalp, or am I just too heavyhanded with it? I think I'll try to lighten up on the Lenzi's a little - still use it, but use much less.
I think I might henna tonight - though - I HAVE said that I don't wanna sleep on Henna. I might jsut have to bring the old pillows to bed. Hrm, no - I take that back. I'm going to Amla/Shikaiki/Conditioner my hair tonight, Henna tomorrow, practice yarn twists tomorrow night, leave it alone Saturday, and then do the yarn twists Saturday night and Sunday and Monday.... That SHOULD give me enough time to finish before I go back to work on Tuesday, along with everything else I plan on doing.
I'm switching up my henna recipe this go around, after a question/thought was raised on LHCF about mixing coconut milk, lime, and henna together - the ultimate natural decurler. I don't THINK it'll do much - but I'm willing to try. I actually have some of the coconut/lime mix in my freezer left over from last time. I think it has some conditioner in it, and some honey too - so that'll be a perfect mix to add my FNWL henna to. I'll use the leftover C/L stuff as the liquid (I'm not going to heat it up - I'll jsut leave the henna on the porch - it's warm enough for that again!), and make my usual thick as all get out mix. Then mix in extra condish to make it hair worthy, and freeze the rest again. I've also promised (Hi Just_Isabel!!! :lol:) pictures of my head wrapped in saran wrap, so I think that I'm going to do a photo montage of my hennatype adventures - have to remind DH to leave the camera home.
Hrrmmm. It's taken me almost an hour to write this, as I take pauses to work, read other forums, play in my hair (the breakage is still close to NOTHING - I get a few, but they are either red, or obvious splits, so I'm happy - shedding is about 4-5 caught a day.... I'm sure it's a whole HORDE of shed hairs waiting for me) - but it's almsot time to go home.
I'm sure I'll be back. :lol:
Hairsta la Vista!
Lazy Weekend....
I had a really lazy weekend, and totally did NOT feel like combing my hair - so I didn't. I'm rocking the same wee fro that I've had all weekend - and I'm actually kinda liking it. I didn't take pictures of my products either. I didn't use the amla/shikakia either. :lol: I clarified with some BS & conditioner - though really, I used it to get my hair as curly as possible.
My mullet is more or less gone in the back - I can FEEL that the hair is two different textures, but it's at least shrunk up about to its limit. Interestingly enough, I also have mulletworthy hair on the sides, right above/behind my ears. I can pull that behind my ears (thankfully), but it likes to puff out. In general though, shrinkage is AMAZING. My hair looks like it's about 3/4 of an inch long - prompting several of my coworkers to ask me how I liked my new hair cut. :lol:
I'm playing in my hair, of course, and I'm VERY VERY pleased with how it feels and how much hair is coming out.
I've switched up my mister already - water, a tiny bit of TTO, glycerine, Humectress, and some jojoba :oops:. Yeah, there was some tucked in my cabinet too. I like how my hair feels - it's smooth and soft, but not too soft. And when I pull it straight, it boings right back into place. And it's DENSE - dear god, is this dense. Talk about a fabulous sunscreen. I've got this funky cool little patch of red hair right at the front top of my hair too - it's interesting. Looks like I did highlights, but I didn't, actually.
I'm debating leaving my hair like this all week - kind of a reward for having gotten so far with it, as well as to give my hair some 'breathing' time before I do the yarn twists. Also, I'm lazy. :lol:
hrm. I thought there was something else, but I can't think of it, so oh well.
I'm insane, really I am.
I just added a RIDICULOUSLY long intro section to my first entry. Am I going to keep up with it? We shall see. I always love it when I go to people's diaries, and they have those sort of things there - if I can ever get some good pictures of my texture, I'll add them there too. It's a CliffNotes to the madness that is me.
And ya know, I think that I will always be public....because I want (so not about to be humble here) I want to be an inspiration to other black women who are trying to grow their natural hair - whether they are members here or not. I'm hoping to have hair down to my ass one day, and this journal will be the record of how it got there. *grins* I want to give back whatNymphe gave to me.
Hm. That reminds me, I need to back this journal up.
In less self-centered, more hair-related news - it's FRIDAY!!! :hollie: Which of course means, that the hair is out. Seriously, by Friday, my hair is BEGGING to be set free. I realized this evening as I was slowly picking out my twists, that locs would drive me INSANE right now - just - *shudder* crazy. Not because they were bound together, but because I KNEW I couldn't take them apart.
Okay. I'll talk about this weekend's plans first.
So! It's Clarifying weekend! I was planning on doing my usual baking soda/citric acid two step, but then, as I was rooting around for SOMETHING in my cabinent, I stumbled across a box of Amla, and a box of Shikakai! Mind you, I thought I had used both of them all up in the CASH oil, but noooo!
I've been thinking about something herbal, to give a little 'boost' to the cleaning action - esp. since I'm actually using some sort of product EVERY day (cone/petro free or not) - and it's starting to get warm - so I might need a little something extra.
Then, I saw a thread - not sure if it was here or at LHCF (I think it was there), where they talked about mixing the herbs with CONDITIONER. Now, doesn't that just sound RIGHT up my alley? So - I think I might do that this weekend. I'm going to Ostara Ritual tomorrow, and I think I'm going to rock a wee, not pushed back fro, and then wash my hair when I come home afterwards.
Also - speaking of finding lost herbs, I'm going to finally take pictures of ALL the hair stuff I have. :oops: *hangs head in shame* You see, I collected all this stuff over a long period of time and well.... well, you'll see. I'll take the pictures tomorrow when DH isn't here - he's already ribbing me on my 'mild' hair obsession - I don't need to give him anymore ammunition! :lol:
Urm.
I'm seeing a BIT more breakage this week than last - I'm thinking that my decision to not follow up with a moisturizing conditioner after the protien was a bad one - next go around, I'm definitely going to finish it off right. However! Still WAY less than before, and still a healthy number of shed strands vs. broken ones, so I'm still content. I've noticed though, that the roots of the shed strands look lighter COLORED - almost blond. Am I going gray? Wouldn't that ROCK!??! I would have the reddest.hair.EVER. :hollie:
One thing that DID drive me batty this week was the shrinkage! My hair literally SHRUNK it's way out of the twists (esp. after I got it all nice and wet) and I had to redo one on the side (which saved it) but the back was a lost cause. I'm thinking about shifting the 'hair rinse' to THURSDAY morn, that way, I'll only have to get through one more day. But - I think my scalp would be screaming by Wednesday - esp. with the weather changing. Hmm. I can live with a severe case of the fuzzies on Friday - esp as since, as it gets longer it should hold together better.
I'll leave it on Wednesday, for now.
Also, I'm thinking about tweaking my misters. I've got the one with the strong TTO, conditioner and water - that one will stay the same - and I might even take out the conditioner and add some jojoba oil (which I really DO think I'm out of - but I could be wrong. :oops: ) since that mister main focus is the scalp. Or... ooooh. I wonder if I could use a lil MTG? I wonder what that would SMELL like though - ugh. More pondering required there - I'll stick with replacing it with jojoba oil next bottle.
The moisturizing one though - I'm thinking of doing 1/3 water, 1/3 glycerin, 1/3 conditioner - maybe the Oyin, and a fre DROPS of TTO (more for the anti-bac aspect) to use to soak my hair at night. It's starting to get warmer again, and I'm driving with the windows down, and I need someting a lil more intensely moisturizing on a daily basis. And :oops: I'm seriously starting to think about taking something to work with me, to give my hair a lil refresher in the midday. I'm not saying I WILL - I'm just - considering it, is all.
Sooo!!
I had originally taken next Friday and Monday after next off so that me & DH could go someplace Smmoopppy and LovelyDovely for our anniversary but *fondglare* he has to work. I'm not really ALL that upset, as it's just one less reason to spend money we really don't need to be spending ANYWAY. :lol:
However, I've already put in (and been approved) for vacation, so um, yeah. I'll have a 4 day weekend!!
And I'm seriously considering spending a good portion of it putting in some yarn twists. The weekend was already clear, because I planned on being laid up in some hotel room somewhere. In fact.... *sh* you guys are the only ones who know that we AREN'T going somewhere - it's going to be WONDERFUL (as if I'm really that popular! :lol: )
I said I wanted to do this once I had all the red out, and - well it's a 4 day weekend that I plan on spending at home (garden, house, hair - esp. garden as I'm taking my seeds in to be blessed at tomorrows Rit!) - so I can do the twists in bits and pieces over four days. My main concern was whether I would be able to continue with my moisture regimen - and apparently, that's one of the main reasons that you HAVE to use acrylic yarn - so that it doesn't soak up moisture like a natural yarn would, and wick it away from your hair.
Soooooo.... :smirk: I might be doing that next weekend.
And really, I think this forever long entry (number 2 of 2 tonight) is finally DONE.
Sheesh.
