Product Review: Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque

Jackpot! I think I'm inlove!

This product is the best thing that has happened to my hair since going natural, period. Ok, so for months now I've been complaining about the state of my hair. "It's thirsteeehhh!" You could often hear me scream. Nothing seemed to come close to quenching it except for the mixed chicks detangling deep conditioner. It does a good job of making my hair feel moisturized, but it still wasn't 100% what I needed. It is still a staple product in my hair regiment though. Anywho, whenever I would cry for help a sista friend, Lisa, would say try Shea Moisture. So finally I ordered the Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque from amazon.com last week and used it for the first time this weekend. Oh.My.Good.God. I'm totally inlove.

The consistency of the product isn't super duper thick, but it's not runny either. This satisfied me in two ways: 1) This made it easier to work through my hair and 2) It was thick enough that I felt like it was going to really moisturize.

The smell is so fantabulous! I kept waking up all night wondering who was wearing perfume and where could I buy it lol. Now, it's not heavily perfumed by any means...It's more like a mixture of different oils that smell great!

Now, I didn't use this product as a deep conditioner, but rather as a leave-in conditioner (it states on the package that it can be used in such a way) and my hair thanks me for it. I cowashed my hair, towel blotted, then added the Shea Moisture throughout. Loves it! Later in the day I was randomly pulling at my curls and thought man! My hair is super duper moisturized and soft! Even my husband commented on how soft my hair was. Now, I used it with an Aubrey conditioner and...well, that's another review in itself. Next I want to buy the Shea Moisture shampoo. The routine for next time will be:

Shampoo
Deep Condition with Mixed Chicks
Use Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque as a leavein

My guess is that my hair is going to be so moisturized and fantabulous that I'm not gonna be able to take all of the lusciousness!

Ingredients: deionized water, butyrospermum parkii (shea butter), argan oil, cetyl esters, sea kelp extract, panthenol (vitamin b-5), ammonium salt, essential oil blend, avocado oil, lonicera caprifolium (honeysuckle) flower and lonicera japonica (japanese honeysuckle) flower extract, tocopherol (vitamin e), hyssopus officinalis extract, salvia officinalis (sage) leaf and equisetum arvense extract, soybean oil, daucus carota sativa (carrot) seed oil.

Available at amazon.com and Target for $9.99

~HG

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway here!

FOTD: Pick It Out

The beautiful thing about living in my neighborhood is that there are always a lot of free events. Saturday my neighborhood hosted a day filled with food, music and fireworks in honor of the Cherry Blossom Frestival. After spending all of Friday night taking care of the kid, I so was not feeling a wig or doing anything extra with my hair, so after I washed it I decided to throw on some leave-in and pick it out a little. I didn't want a scary big afro, just a lil sumthin sumthin different, so I yanked at my hair with my fingers for a couple of minutes and voila!

I'm happy. Very happy indeed. Now, after I did mine I tried to pick out the baby's hair and...bwahahahaha! I died a little. Died I tell ya! That lil bouffant she had going on, on top of her head? Whew! That thing was pure hilarity. I won't shame her by posting a pic...well, not today lol. Whew! Ok, so you had to have been there, whatev...

Don't forget to enter my giveaway here!

~HG

Here We Go...Again: Hair Update

Sooo, having a baby and all kinda sorta had me backsliding in taking care of my hair. However, I'm ready. I'm ready to jump on getting a routine down and sticking to it. For the past 2 weeks I have stuck with a routine. So, this is where I'm starting:

My goal is to have at least two more healthy inches added to the length by the beginning of September. I am co-washing once a week, shampooing once every other week, and deep conditioning once a week. If my hair isn't out in it's natural state I will flat twist. Wish me luck ladies!

~HG

My Natural Hair Journey - An Update

In the last 8 months I've learned a lot about my hair. The things I thought it loved I've discovered it actually doesn't. For instance, almost every product I owned had protein in it. I didn't think that was such a big deal. Wrong! I kept wondering why my hair would love a product the first two times I would use it and then renig by the 3rd time. Also, a lot of the products that folks are in love with my hair turned it's nose up at. Coconut oil? Forget about it! My hair doesn't want it anywhere near my head. I've discovered that there are 2 things that I need:

• Heavy, thick & creamy conditioners
• Jojoba oil for my ends

I have the latter, but I'm still working on finding the former. So far this year I have declared Mixed Chicks conditioner as a staple and that's it. I use it for deep conditioning and my hair seems to really like it. I still need to find a new co-washer and a new leave in conditioner so if you're a 4a/b like myself, and like really thick and creamy conditioners, please leave me your suggestions.

This was me last year around summer time:

and this is me today:

Although my hair has grown, it hasn't grown drastically. What has happened is that it has thickened up a lot! I love that! Unfortunately this fall I stopped taking care of my hair the way I use to and had to chop off 2 inches in November. I had to retrim my hair again last week because the ends were so dry and splitting. The reason for the second trim is that i was having a hard time keeping my hair moisturized. So much so that I was starting to go into panic mode! Now that I use mixed chicks as as deep conditioner, all seems to be right with the world. My hair can stand to be a bit more moisturized still, so the hunt is on. I don't think I will have to worry about trimming my hair so soon this time though.

My goal for the next 3 months is to find conditioners that really moisturize my hair, bun my hair as much as possible so I can stop playing with it and pulling strands out, and work on reaching APL by June. I should be able to do all of those things, I just have to be dedicated.

~HG

Trial & Error - Burt's Bees Hair Repair Shea & Grapefruit Deep Conditioner

The longer I'm natural the more I come to understand that learning about my hair in its natural state takes some serious patience. I've found products that my hair seemed to LOVE only to turn around and have it hate the same product two months later. That has been rather frustrating. How do I know my hair hated the product? Well it laid there feeling tough, not soft to the touch, like straw. It was not a good look and it felt God awful!

After speaking with some ladies in my social circle it finally dawned on me what the problem was - protein! Apparently my hair hates protein! Now, I wouldn't say I can't ever use protein again, but my hair doesn't hardly need it as much as someone elses may. Protein was making my hair feel harsh and disgusting. Everything I was using contained protein from my conditioners to my shampoo, heck, even my styling products contained protein. No wonder I was so baffled that products such as coconut oil did not work well on my hair when others sung their praises to it.

So, this week I pulled all of my products containing protein out of the cabinet and set it aside in a bag to give away. I was then left with...nothing...I had absolutely nothing left that didn't contain protein! So I had to make a mad dash for the store, and ended up picking up some Burt's Bees Shea & Grape Fruit Deep Conditioner. I literally just used it for the first time this morning, so take that for what it's worth.

The smell is great, I love it. It makes me believe my hair will be really clean and moisturized after using it. The feel of the product, however, left much to be desired for me. I need a heavy, creamy, luscious conditioner and...this wasn't it. It was a little thick, a little oily, but it was just...off some how. I worked it into my hair leaving it in for about 5 minutes before rinsing. I lightly towel dried my hair before putting some jojoba oil on the ends, and I waited. I waited for something that didn't come. While my hair felt clean, it did NOT feel well conditioned. I was disappointed. I don't doubt that this product is great for someone elses hair, but for mine? It failed. I will probably hold on to it until I get to try one of the Suave products that I'm being promised has no oil or protein, but as soon as I find something else suitable, I'm ditching it.

The other thing I didn't really like was the price. I paid $8 for this product when I pay less than half that for Herbal Essences Hello Hydration and I get what seems like much more product! For me this goes down as another failed attempt at finding something my hair loves.

However, I must say that if your hair appreciates a lighter conditioner (lighter than what I'm looking for), this may very well work for you, so give it a go.

~HG

My Flat Twist Out Results

I'm tired of wigs. I'm tired of wearing them, adjusting them, dealing with their heaviness...just tired. I made a decision last week that I have finally got to find a style for my natural hair that I like so that I can wear it out because I just can't do wigs right now *shakes head vigorously*. It was when I snatched my wig off that I remembered that I kind of like the look my hair has when I undo the twist I keep underneath the wig, so I decided to recreate it for my every day look to see how it would work out.

First I detangled my hair by separating it into 6 sections, slathering Organic Root Stimulator Hair Mayonnaise onto each section, and brushing each section tip to root with a denman brush. I let the hair mayonnaise sit there for an extra 30 minutes before washing out.

Next I shampooed my hair with Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Creamy Aloe Shampoo, then conditioned with Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Conditioner. I left this on my hair for two minutes, then rinsed.

I then towel dried my hair (I know some folks prefer using a t-shirt, I don't, I just don't rub the towel on my hair but squeeze instead) and then applied Sebastian Potion #9 leave-in conditioner. I started to flat twist my hair (about 9-12 flat twist), applying Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Smooth-n-Hold Pudding to each section (this product DOES contain mineral oil, so beware if that's a big no no for you) before twisting.

I left the twists in for a full 24 hours before unraveling. I moisturized my hands with jojoba oil and began to gently unravel my twists. Once they were all I pulled my fingers through the base of my hair to give it a little more volume, stuck a bobby pin on the side to give it some kind of style, and voila!

I really like my hair like this AND I'm wearing my natural hair out today at work for the first time. I've gotten soooooo many compliments! I'm happy because I think this style is here to stay for a while!

I so heart this video! I want to show it to every little brown girl I know to boost their hair confidence. It sure boosted mine!



Hair Update

So as most of you know, it has been hot as Hades on the East Coast and I just can't take it. I can't take having hair anywhere near my neck I just want it away! So I've decided to put microbraids in my hair for the remaineder of the summer. Mind you, I don't go to get my hair braided; I have too many traumatic memories from my childhood. Hair pulling, scalp puckering, bumps forming all along my hair line, oh the horror! I learned at a fairly early age how to braid my own hair, and I'm very thankful for that. I'm not really hoping for a certain amount of growth or anything while doing this, I just want my hair to be safely put away while I sweat this summer out. I've noticed that it's gotten thicker more than longer, and I can appreciate that. So here are some pics of my hair now

Hopefully by September it will be even thicker, and healthy!

~HG

I Want to Know My Hair Again

Lately I've been all about my hair. Fussing with it, putting weave it in, taking weave out of it, contemplating what to do next. I want to manipulate my hair as little as possible this summer, so I've been anxiously trying to decide what to do with it. While browsing the internet looking at natural hair posts, I came across this and it really touched me. I hope it touches you too.

By Paulette M. Caldwell
I want to know my hair again, to own it, to delight in it again, to recall my earliest mirrored reflection when there was no beginning and I first knew that the person who laughed at me and cried with me and stuck out her tongue at me was me. I want to know my hair again, the way I knew it before I knew that my hair is me, before I lost the right to me, before I knew that the burden of beauty -- or lack of it -- for an entire race of people could be tied up with my hair and me.

I want to know my hair again, the way I knew it before I knew Sambo and Dick, Buckwheat and Jane, Prissy and Miz Scarlett. Before I knew that my hair could be wrong -- the wrong color, the wrong texture, the wrong amount of curl or straight. Before hot combs and thick grease and smelly-burning lye, all guaranteed to transform me, to silken the coarse, resistent wool that represents me. I want to know once more the time before I denatured, denuded, denigrated, and denied my hair and me, before I knew enough to worry about edges and kitchens and burrows and knots, when I was still a friend of water -- the rain's dancing drops of water, a swimming hole's splashing water, a hot, muggy day's misty invisible water, my own salty, sweaty, perspiring water.

When will I cherish my hair again, the way my grandmother cherished it, when fascinated by its beauty, with hands carrying centuries-old secrets of adornment and craftswomanship, she plaited it, twisted it, cornrowed it, finger-curled it, olive-oiled it, on the growing moon cut and shaped it, and wove it like fine strands of gold inlaid with semiprecious stones, coral and ivory, telling with my hair a lost-found story of the people she carried inside her?

Mostly, I want to love my hair the way I loved hers, when as granddaughter among grandsons I stood on a chair in her room -- her kitchen-bed-living-dining room -- and she let me know her hair, when I combed and patted it from the crown of her head to the place where her neck folded into her shoulders, caressing steel-gray strands that framed her forehead before falling into the soft, white, cottony temples at the border of her cheekbones.

Cotton. Cotton curled up in soft, fuzzy puffballs around her face. Cotton pulled out and stretched on top of her head into Sunday pompadours. Cotton, like the cotton blooming in August in her tiny cotton field. Cotton, like the cotton that filled the other room in her house -- the cotton room -- the storehouse for September's harvest, a cradle to shield her pickings from wind and rain, to await baling and ginning and cashing in. Cotton, which along with a cow, a pig and a coop of chickens, allowed her to eke out a husband-dead, children-gone independence in some desolate place, trapped in the bowels of segregation. Here, unheard, unseen, free, she and her beauty and her hair could not be a threat to anyone.

~HG

Janet Jackson Gets the Big Chop!

*courtesy of TMZ.com

Now this is true get it girl style! I love it. Janet Jackson is cruising around London au naturale aka sans weave! It is my belief (being the weave wearer/detector that I am) that Janet's hair was not this short while wearing weave. It was actually longer than this. Janet has always had fab hair (I'm thinking back to her Penny of Good Times days), so it's nice to see her weaveless and free. What you do you think ladies and gents?

~HG

My dream hair?...

She has it.

*Swoon*

~HG

What a Time to Feel Self Conscious - The Natural Hair Ordeal

Since going natural I've paid more attention to my hair than I ever have before in my life. This means having standard days for co-washes, deep conditioning, etc. etc. Typically I co-wash on Tuesdays, and DC on Saturdays. This past saturday was no different. I jumped in the shower and co-washed my hair, then I jumped out, towel dried quickly, threw some DC on it, and contemplated about what to do next. I took a huge gulp as I realized what I was about to do. I decided to wear my natural hair in all of it's glory for the rest of the day, eep!

What you must realize is that the world has not seen my natural hair since, oh, I dunno, 2006? I never wear it out. Well, I have a few times, but very rarely, and never EVER to the mall! This is mainly due to the fact that I have not one clue what to do with my hair in it's natural state. I don't like twists, or knots, or any other braided up style. I want to be able to wear my hair with little product and just wildly tamed, if that makes sense. Plus I'm not the girl to spend a million dollars on hair products just to see if they work, so I don't have many products for styling my natural due. However, I started to twist my hair back so that I could throw on my wig and go when I took a look and thought hey, this is actually kind of cute! Maybe I should... ehhh, I don't know. Yes, I had a whole conversation with myself about whether or not I should leave my hair out.

The problem is, I have a big face and two chins. I'm so use to having long hair to make my face look less full, and my second chin slightly less noticeable. With my hair drawn up in tight coils, everything is there for the world to see. No hiding! But then I thought to myself "heeey, no hiding...that sounds really good!" So, I did it! I stepped outside with no one else's hair on my head except my own. Imagine that! I was so proud of myself, but then....

Everyone kept staring at me! W.T.F.! I was so self-conscious. I was like oh dear God, I look like a bald headed oompa loompah! I'm never doing this again! I walked into the mall and up to the Bobbi Brown/MAC counter to return a product when suddenly multiple women started coming up to me saying "your makeup is GORGEOUS!". Normally that would send me over the cloud, but I couldn't even concentrate on that. All I heard was "people aren't staring at you because of your hair". That's all that mattered to me. Wait, could India Arie possibly be right? Am I truly not my hair? For the first time in a long time, I got it, and I'm going to keep it. I am NOT my hair. I'm ok just the way I am.

Don't get it twisted though. I love my lace fronts. Lurve the versatility and I will rock them supremely for a very long time. However, now I feel much better about letting my hair be it's natural free self in public.

So, help me natural hair gurus. What products should I use to help my hair stay curly, not frizzy and poofy? I need some major natural hair care h.e.l.p. And don't send me a product that costs over $20 because I can promise you it's not for the kid ;~)

~HG

Hair Update: Going Natural Never Looked So Good!

As most of you know I've been natural for more than a year now. I didn't go the usual route that everyone else seems to take. In other words, there was no big chop for me. After growing my hair out for approximately 6 months without a relaxer, I chopped off all the hair that was below my earlobe. Since then I have gradually cut off all of the relaxed hair. Today I am completely relaxer free. I can't say, and won't say that I loved every bit of this journey. It has been hard! I've worn wigs for more than I'd ever care to. However, for me my hair has to be between armpit length and bra strap length when straight in order for me to feel attractive when wearing it curly. Don't judge me.

Since discovering what will make me feel comfortable, I have been on a mission not just to grow my hair, but to make it as healthy as possible while doing so. I've tried a gazillion products, and have learned what my hair does and does not like. For instance, my hair loves cremes. Loves loves loves them. Oil? Not so much. So I learned to just use oil to seal. So far, nothing makes my hair feel more moisturized than the Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil products. Currently I'm using these three:

I've tried using coconut oil as a prepoo, and also to seal, but yeah, no, it does nothing for me. These three products are the only one's that have worked for me thus far, but I'm very open to other suggestions.

This is the healthiest my hair has EVER been! I haven't thought about going back to the creamy crack once because my hair feels so friggin good! It's letting me know that this is the way it desires to be, and I'm listening. Anyway, the journey has been tough at times, but I love seeing the transformation of my hair. Seeing it go from a 3b:

to a 4a/b:

has been amazing. I have no clue what has caused it to change texture, but the more it grows, the tighter the curls get.

So here are my current hair pics. Any advice from the natural hair gurus will be welcomed with open arms:

~HG

Natural Hair Care Woes

I've never been one to want to go the hair salon. In fact, I hate it. Even when I found a hair dresser that would get me in and out in an hour, I still dreaded going. All that money and for what? I rarely wear my own hair. Mainly because I have struggled to keep it healthy and growing. Normally the back of my hair grows, but the front...well, the growth is quite stunted. So in January, I decided I would go natural. No more relaxers. That way I could care for it at home more, and just go to the hair salon when I needed a trim.

Since that time, things have honestly gone quite well! I had half of a "big chop" in May. I got my hair cut to about earlobe length to get rid of half of the relaxed hair. Then I would deep condition and co-wash twice a week. Since then my hair has grown about 2.5 inches, and I've gotten about an inch of growth in the front! How exciting is that!

But I'm lazy. When it comes to girlie things, I'm pure lazy. The only thing I can get myself excited to do is my makeup. But hair? nails? facials??? Ha! Yeah, I'd prefer to watch tv. As a matter of fact, I slacked off for about 3 weeks with my hair, and I'm paying the price. I washed and conditinoed it and when it dried, it DDRRRIIIEEDDD! I mean, it felt so dry and brittle I was afraid that it was all going to snap off! I didn't understand what it wanted. It hates plain oils. It prefers creams. I tried giving it that, but nope, still wasn't satisfied. Well, today I decided I would try again. I co-washed with Organiz Shea Butter Conditioner, and then DC'd with Protectiv MegaGrowth Deep Strengthening Growth Conditioner for about 30 minutes. I rinsed, gently massaged Organics Root Stimulator Olive Oil Moisturizing Hair Lotion in it and let it air dry. It feels much, much, MUCH better!

I got kind of frustrated with myself for not staying on top of my hair. My dream is to one day wear only my own hair, and have it be natural and beautiful, whether I wear it curly or blow dried straight. However, I need something to keep me on track so I can stay committed! That's when I remembered reading about a challenge on the K.I.S.S. blog. You can read more about that here. The hair part of the challenge is as follows:

Deep Condition at least 1x weekly


Heat no more than 2x monthly

Moisturize and seal nightly
 
I can do that. I WILL do that! I HAVE to do that, if I ever want to have my hair be all me. The challenge also has a fitness and spiritual component to it, so check it out!
 
Here's to loving my hair so that it will love me right back. Wish me luck!
 
~HG