Let's Play Ball

The hubby and I hit AT&T park to see the San Francisco Giants play a little baseball this weekend.
It was a beautiful day.

Once again, I didn't have time to take adequate pictures of my hair because we were on the move, but here are a couple of shots:

The Rundown:

Wash: 2 rounds clarifying shampoo & 1 round moisturizing one
Instant Condition: Paul Mitchell the Detangler
Deep Condition: Jessicurl
Leave-ins: Argan Oil & Kinky Curly Knot Today
Curlformer set: Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum & Motions foaming wrap lotion


The foaming wrap lotion is a new addition. I usually use some type of gel, but I decided to give it a shot. I liked how it worked this time, but I need to use it a few more times before I can sing or silence any praises.

I got day two hair, but barely held on for day three due to exercising. The scale still hasn't changed for me, but hubby continues to lose weight.  However, I am fitting into jeans that wouldn't move past my hips at the beginning of the year.  I am apparently losing inches around the waist and stomach areas.  I would show you my super buff arms, but you may not be able to handle it. LOL! I know I need to get better control of what I'm eating, but I'm a junk food junkie. I can't help it.

Bad Feel

Soooo...

The curls started out so perfect. I thought I was in love.  Day 2 was blah and Day 3 (pics of all three days are below)?  Well, I'm in a tuck & roll.

Something didn't go right during the last wash. At this point, I'm ok if the curls don't last because I using the curlformers to stretch that new growth (11 months of it).  However, my hair is hard. It feels awful. I truly wish I could do a mid-week wash, but I don't have that luxury.  *sigh*  I shouldn't even be typing this up, but I felt so bad about the feel of my hair that I had to get it out.  Now... off to get ready for work.

     

A Wild Day

Elephants, giraffes...

And...

                                                                             Curls!


I washed my hair this weekend. I didn't have time to take pictures of my hair right out of the curlformers.  We were rushing to get to the Oakland Zoo.  I used big bobbie pins to pin my hair up and keep it off my neck.  It was a beautiful day in the Bay Area.  My fingers are crossed for decent "day two hair."

A Nice Surprise

My Orlando stylist, Frenchie, sent me these lovely products.  It's been a little more than year since I left Orlando and the best darn salon EVER.  Aside from being cheap and trying to save money, Frenchie is the reason I'm on this D-I-Y hair journey.  Before I moved, we began talking about transitioning out of a relaxer. It had nothing to do with black power, she just truly believed in loving your hair.  She ultimately wanted to care for my hair in the way that would make ME most comfortable.

She is just truly a loving person.  Even though I haven't been in her salon since March 2011, she was nice enough to try to help me on this journey.

These products are from the Influance line and they include the Moisturizing Shampoo, the Moisturizing Conditioner with Shea Butter and Moisture Lock with Shea Butter.

Although I feel like I've been winning with my latest combination of products, I'm itching to see how these will work on my hair.

By the way, I am about a week away from being one year without a relaxer.

Adventures In Hair Washing Land

***Stretches arms and cracks knuckles***

I dumped an entire container of gel in the toilet, then I had to fish it out. Yes! This wash day was interesting. Thanks to my pj-ism, I had backup products. Ha!

Due to that mishap, I finally used up something. hooray!!! Just under a year after its purchase, the Bee Mine Curly Butter is gone. I won't buy more. It is a good product, but not worth $20 when I can get something like the loc & twist gel for three bucks (r.i.p, gel. I didn't mean for you to fall in the toilet).

Oh yeah.. I dumped the gel in the toilet by trying to shake out pieces of hair from the container. I didn't realize it had softened up and was no longer "glued" to the container. It was a dumb move and when I heard the splash, I said, "You deserved that."

So I set about 1/4 of my curlformers with curly butter and the rest with Aloe Vera gel.

The rundown:

shampoo: Quantum clarifying & Creme of Nature conditioning and detangling shampoo

condition: Paul Mitchell's The Detangler & Jessicurl Deep Treatment

Detangling: 90 minutes (that's actually good for me at 11-months post relaxer)

Leave-ins (I guess you could call 'em that): Argan Oil and PM Super Skinny Serum

Yeah, I have to walk the dogs in those things. It's pretty sad and embarrassing.

This is how they came out. I think I went too far with the Aloe Vera gel. Next time I'll use less.

I pulled my hair back into a loose ponytail to sleep and exercise the next day.  The curls barely survived. I was hurt when I did the day 2 "unveiling."

I had to fix things up:

Day 3 I did plyometrics and had so much sweat that those ragedy curls didn't stand a chance.  I ponytailed it up. LOL!

Side note: When my hair is 100% natural. it won't be curly. It will be NAP... I mean extremely kinky.
What I didn't realize early on when I started working out, is that curlformers help me.  They stretch out that new growth, so that when I sweat my hair is less likely to lock up. So if I can't use the curlformers, I'll have to start blow drying it. 

It's also not very good for me to wash every two weeks. It just didn't work for me. Who knows maybe I'll find a way for it to work in the future.  This Do-It-Yourself haircare is still evolving for me.

Update: Curlformers Bust

This is day 2 hair:

I'm not totally disappointed, but I'm not totally excited either. It kind of looks like I have frizzy locs?

 I slept by just pulling my hair into a pony tail and tying down the edges. I'm not going to get day three hair because I will be working out tonight.  However, I am pleased with how flat my 11-months of new growth is.  I am pretty sure that this set wasn't completely dry, which is why I didn't get excellent results.  I don't plan on installing 79 curlformers next week, so I won't get a chance to see if sitting under the dryer longer will help.  This was a weird styling weekend anyway.

Curlformers Bust

I love curlformers, but I was getting tired of the fat, juicy curls from the wide and long ones, also known as pink and orange. I lost my dang-on mind and bought the long and narrow (blue/green) ones.

I had to use 79... yes 79 of these things on my entire head.  The long and narrow curlformers are less forgiving than the pink/orange ones. You CANNOT stuff too much hair in them. I felt like I got them too close to my scalp so they pulled.  They were even more difficult to sleep in than the pink/orange ones and because I needed so many, they took forever to install.

When I took them out, I had elongated curls, which is a different look than the pink/orange. However, take a close look at my ends. 

They just didn't curl right or something.  Oh...and yes that is a Santa shirt.  Don't judge me:-)  

Now, this problem with the ends could be my fault. I thought the set was dry, but it may not have been. I spent the day in an overcast, windy San Francisco park.  I had a great time, but the curls were worse for the wear at the end of the day.  

I'm going to attempt second day hair, but I don't think it's going to work out.  Because I have so little faith in second day hair, I'm going to try a different way of sleeping to preserve them.  I'll let you know how it works.  Anyway...the hair is well stretched, so I'll be able to work something out. LOL!

Because installing these suckers took so long,  I will only plan to do the full 79 blue/green curlformer set for special occasions.  For my next set I plan to put the back in pink/orange and the front in blue/green.