Winter Hair Care: My Winter Hair Routine

Okay, lovelies! It's almost that time...Long sleeve sweaters, high heel boots and....dry hair!? In the winter we have to go to extra lengths to protect our kinky curly manes. The air is dryer, colder and the harsh winter wind blows like no other. Here's a video explaining what you will need to do to protect your hair this winter:


Now, what products will I be using and what styles will I be using? for moisturizing my hair I will stay with my whipped shea butter mix and my organic virgin coconut oil. My clarifying shampoo is black soap and I usually use that 1 per week but I'm going to cut back to 2x a month. For conditioner, I have just fallen DEEPLY in love with Giovanni deeper moisture conditioner. Love it! I will be doing a product review so stay tuned. I don't really have a deep conditioner yet, but since the Giovanni line seems to be working for me I will be trying their deep conditioner. As far as protective styles go I don't have a set idea yet but as of right now it will be braids and twists. However, I am thinking of "locking" my hair for the winter. I will be purchasing some extra silk/satin scarves and some rasta (over-sized beanie) hats to protect my hair when I go out. Mind you, I do live in SC and it doesn't really get as cold as most places so I may not be doing this routine until the later months. If things go according to plan I will be moving up north early next year and therefore I will need to start this routine. Stay tuned! Peace and Blessings.

My Miss Jessies Curly Pudding Experience

As you know I don't really favor curling puddings or gels, but I do these reviews for my viewers/readers. Now, My experience with Miss Jessie's Curly Pudding (MJCP) was far better than my experience with the Kinky Curly Curling Custard (KCCC). Although I was hesitant to use it at first because of the price ($22 for 8 oz) and the ingredients. I heard people say that the ingredients were low quality for the pricing and that it contained mineral oil. The ingredients are as follows:
Water
paraffinum liquidum- aka mineral oil! (ahhh!)
glycerin
fragrance - some fragrances can be skin irritants
triethanolamine- making emulsion with mineral and vegetable oils, paraffin and waxes (to blend the oils, and shea butter)
carbomer-help to distribute or suspend an insoluble solid in a liquid. They are also used to keep emulsions from separating into their oil and liquid components. Carbomers are often used to control the consistency and flow of cosmetics and personal care products.

PEG-12 dimethicone- a very harsh cone; the heaviest; very difficult to wash out; used to condition hair but actually dries it out for some people.
dipropylene glycol- used as solvents and viscosity decreasing agents in cosmetics and personal care products; low-toxicity

silk amino acids- adds softness and repair hair structure; A natural water-soluble source of acid derived from liquid silk
aloe barbadensis leaf extract- aloe vera leaf extract
avocado oil
shea butter
sweet almond oil
jojoba seed oil
macadamia seed oil
oleth-5- helping water to mix with oil and dirt so that they can be rinsed away. These ingredients also help to form emulsions by reducing the surface tension of the substances to be emulsified and help ingredients to dissolve in liquids in which they would not normally dissolve.
ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate- protects cosmetics and personal care products from deterioration caused by UV rays. (preservative)
disodium EDTA- helps prevent the deterioration of cosmetics and personal care products. It also helps to maintain clarity, protect fragrance compounds, and prevent rancidity. (preservative)
DMDM hydantoin- prevents or retards microbial growth, thereby protecting cosmetics and personal care products from spoilage. (preservative)

ext. violet 2- coloring (why it's purple)

So as you see, most of the ingredients are synthetic. They disguised the name mineral oil because they know most people are hesitant to buy any products containing it and are most likely not going to look it up. And I'm also wondering why they need 3 preservatives? Anyways I am very disappointed in the ingredients. I expected more from a $22 jar. As far as what it does for my hair, I like it. It didn't make my hair feel hard like the KCCC. It smells pretty good, but that's probably because of all the fragrance in the product. I applied it 3 times, each time differently. The first time I applied it to damp hair. It didn't really do anything. It defined my curls only a little bit and I still experienced frizziness. Next, I applied it to wet hair, applying my shea butter mix first, towel blotted my hair and then applied the Curly Pudding. It came out nice, and I had few problems with shrinkage. I still had some frizziness because I believe the shea butter acted as a barrier to the Pudding. Last I applied it while wet in the shower. First I applied a leave-in cream and then applied the Pudding while my hair was still. My curls were really defined and I had almost no frizz (click here for the video). However, I did experience more shrinkage than I would have liked. All three times my hair was not hard or felt crunchy like KCCC. KCCC is all natural, and MJCP isn't. I wonder if all the synthetic ingredients have something to do w/ that. Anywho, the picture at the top is my second experiment with the MJCP using the shea butter as a base. I also tried this with twists. My twists were completely dry the next day. It wasn't brittle dry but it wasn't moisturized in my opinion. I would not recommend this product to people who are sensitive to cones or over-priced products. Hope this helps someone! Peace and Blessings.

References for the ingredients come from
Wikipedia.org and cosmeticsinfo.org

The Frohawk: 2 Styles

Hey my lovely natural hair divas! I'm coming at yall with another natural hair style.
This one is the flat twist frohawk. Two styles can be achieved with it. The first if the hawk in twists giving yourself a stylish protective style. The second is the twists taken out giving you a nice style for a night out on the town.
How I achieved the twist style:

After I sectioned my hawk and the sides I added some of my whipped shea butter creme and did some flat twists on the side. Then after I did each side, I did individual twists on the hawk (middle section). To achieve the twist out style I applied coconut oil to the individual twists as I un-twisted them. Then I secured my flat twists with hair pins before taking the ends our tails of those twists out. In order to get a fuller look I pulled apart some of the twist out pieces/strands in order to get a messy look. For more details click here for my youtube video. Hope you like it and hope this helps someone! Peace and Blessings.