KCCM SPRING Castor Oil Challenge! Week 1

1. How long have you been natural? Did you Big Chop or Transition? Why did you choose this method? If you are not natural, do you think it is something you would consider in your future, why/why not?

I transitioned for two years and then big chopped my hair to my ears in 2010, so I'm almost 3 years ALL natural. I chose this method because my hair was already long (17 inches) and I didn't want to get rid of it all at once. I love long hair! I do not plan on big chopping again... ever. My goal is to attain waist length hair. Once I reach that, then I'll see what I feel like doing with it. lol! Complete hair journey here. http://www.curlsofinnocence.bl...

2. Is this your first time participating in the Castor Oil Challenge?

Nope. It's my second time. :D

3. What is motivating you to participate in this challenge?

I just love a challenge. Being held accountable for the health of my hair is fun, and doing my hair is therapeutic. I love seeing the growth and the effects of the castor oil. I'll probably keep participating in these challenges for a long, long time. lol

4. (optional) Do you ever wear your hair Naked? Post a pic of your naked hair after you wash it.

No, I don't wear my hair completely naked. It would be hell to de-tangle and style if that were the case. LOL! But I do have a pic of how my hair looks straight out of the shower. :-) 

Merry Christmas & a New Shampoo!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I have a new shampoo! Now before you get all excited, this isn't a giveaway or anything. One day, those will come when I can afford it. LOL! But I got this two days ago from Walmart and I am in love with it.
It's another Shea Moisture shampoo, but I like it better than the one I was previously using. I couldn't wait to try it, so on Sunday, which I have officially named as my wash day, I tried it. It was absolutely awesome!
Truthfully, this stuff didn't even feel like a shampoo. It was so silky, it felt like a conditioner, like I was co-washing my hair instead of actually 'sudsing' it up. As usual there are all natural ingredients in it, and no sulfates! I'm so in love with this shampoo.
Wish that I had the money to get the conditioner to try along with it, which was also $9.99. Some people have said that the conditioner doesn't do as good of a job as the shampoo does, but I want to see for myself one day.
So I washed my hair in two sections, towel blotted it, and applied my castor oil and grape seed oil mixture on my scalp and ends. Then I used some of my Tresemme conditioner (which is almost gone) in my hair as a leave in and de-tangled with my wide toothed comb. I don't usually do this, but it has been doing wonders for my hair's epic dryness lately. I did my usual 6-8 twists in and tied it up to in a scarf to air dry.
The next day, Christmas Eve, I spritzed it with water, finger de-tangled it, and applied my whipped shea butter. Replaced the fat twists with braids so I could get the roots pinned up and not knotted together like they always do after one day of wearing fat twists. The JBCO has been making my roots so much thicker, so when I do twists, after one day, not only is there a bunch of frizz near on the top of my head, but the roots sometimes get tangled within one another. Sometimes braiding is better, even though it takes longer. But it creates a lot of stretch!
As of now, we're not going anywhere for Christmas, but I'm still going to play around with my hair and Syriah's and create some 'holiday style' just for fun.  xD

Until next time...
Happy Holidays, curly mamas!

~Epic Realist~

Shower Hair

Hiya, guys! Hope everyone had fun on Thanksgiving yesterday. =)

I just wanted to make a random post about how my hair looks straight out of the shower. It was detangled in the shower with my Tresemme conditioner, and then rinsed out. My hair is still drastically falling out, but I think it may be getting better because of the castor oil. Not sure yet; still in testing phase.
I don't really have much of a set routine as of lately. The only thing that is for sure is that I wash my hair every week, and the shampoo that I use has not changed. I still use my Shea Moisture Curl and Shine shampoo. I haven't really gotten hip to co-washing, mostly because I'm not in love with the Tresemme conditioner and the fact that I don't have much time to co-wash in the middle of the week. I do spritz my hair with distilled water throughout the week, though, and add an oil such as coconut oil or castor oil on top of it.
My hair never feels too oily until the end of the week on wash day, when there is some product build up from other products.
I haven't flat ironed my hair in ages... almost a year, probably. I am dying to see my real length, but recently, when I was going to flat iron it, the darn thing shorted out on me when it was plugged in for five minutes. So it on longer came on at all. I had to throw it away. Cheap thing. I'd only had it for year. it was brand new and it was a gift from someone. It was a Revlon iron, so I thought it was of good quality, but apparently not! Now I have to wait until I can get a new one, a much better quality one.
Right after a shower on wash day, I dry my hair with an old T-shirt and apply castor oil directly to my scalp, and give myself a 5-6 minute scalp massage with my fingers. It feels great and the oil absorbs in well. It doesn't make my scalp itch like everyone else says it does. LOL! It's probably because they put the JBCO on dry hair instead of on wet hair.
Any oil is best used on wet hair, and JBCO doesn't work best at all on a dry scalp.
This is a new thing that I added to my routine, and I'm looking forward to seeing more hair growth.
After I do the massaging, I separate my hair into four or six huge sections and gently detangle with my wide toothed comb, then just twist or braid each section. Then I wrap it into a silk scarf before bed. The next morning, my hair feels soft, fluffy, and amazing, and ready to style into whatever style I want.
Well, that's my little hair wash routine for now. I'll be back with more hair tips/styles. Peace curly mamas!

~Epic Realist~

Epic Dryness! O_O

The weather has been wrecking havoc on our hair lately. It's abnormally cold here in Georgia this year so far, and I'm trying to keep my hair and Syriah's hair pinned in up and moisturized at all times. Definitely no fros!

I love trying out new random styles in Syriah's hair. It seems like I never do the same style twice... except if it's just two strand twists for bedtime. Haha!
We're all struggling through a bad cold at the moment, yes, all five of us, so I've been slacking with everything. But I shall get back on things soon enough!
For the dryness, I've been doing the simple stuff... my shea butter and water. I spritz distilled water on the hair until it's damp, and use the shea butter mix to twist. With my hair, I don't have time to take down my twists every minute and re-do them. So I just spritz my hair while it's in twists, rub the shea butter on my palms, and smooth it into my hair. Very little manipulation. If Syriah's twists are not too frizzy, I'll do the same for her.
Last week, I washed my hair with fat twists still in for the first time. It greatly helped. I didn't have to worry about serious detangling, and the massive hair loss that I've been going through did not show up in the shower drain again. I washed and conditioned with the twists in, so when I was done, it was easy to apply shea butter and re-twist while wet.
I think that I will be sticking to this for the winter... or at least for now. Thanks to YouTube, once again!
Oh, and I ordered more of the Jamaican black castor oil!  Kinky Curly Coily Me (https://www.facebook.com/KinkyCurlyCoilyMe?fref=ts) is having a castor oil winter challenge starting in December and I have joined. I really want to see how castor oil grows your hair.
There's been a huge rave about this stuff, and I just ran out of the one that I'd bought at the hair show. I had already seen some growth then! My edges have gotten thicker since using it. I'm already amazed. Ha! Maybe it'll make my hair stop shedding. Hopefully.

Peace out, curlies!

~Epic Realist~

Protective Styles, Shea Butter Smiles, and Hair for Miles

Hey! I wanted to post these new protective styles that I came up with in the last two or three weeks for Syriah's hair. I love experimenting and playing in her hair and being creative. I'm naturally a very creative person, so why not use some of that creativity for hair?
The last style is the best because all of her ends are protected, which of course, is the best way to do a protective style. The cold months are approaching, and I need to have her hair as well as mine pinned up more, out of the crisp fall air to prevent more dryness.
This second picture is my third ever batch of shea butter... it's only my third because I buy five pounds of unrefined shea butter at one time. I use about two pounds and store the rest for later. In all, it takes about 4-5 months for every drop of it to be gone. But that's a great thing, because it lasts forever and it's used for hair and skin. This stuff's gonna' be great for winter skin.
This time, it has the shea butter, coconut oil, Jamaican black castor oil, EVOO, grapeseed oil, and the usual lavender oil. The castor oil is a new addition. I hear that it's GREAT for hair growth.
I mixed it a different way this time... I melted all the shea butter in the oven down to a complete oil, and then I added the other oils. I hand whipped the stuff (because I didn't feel like using my blender, so darn hard to clean this stuff out of it) for a long time... about 5 minute intervals for about 15 minutes. My hands felt like they were about to fall off, but it was great exercise. I see what the women from back in the day went through when they hand-mixed things... but they had a hell of a strong arm!
I honestly didn't think that it would stay soft, but it finally did! I completed my quest for getting shea butter to remain soft daily! As you can see in the picture, the result was still super soft a week later, and it's still soft now. It's an awesome consistency. Woo hoo I did it! So proud of myself.
Now if only I could find this same enthusiasm when I need to mix something to eat, I'd be a great baker. But I'm just not much of a sweets person. Sue meh.

Oh, and one more picture. MY length check. I had done the kid's checks but I hadn't done mine. I finally got a clear chance to get my husband to take a good picture of my hair from behind while I held it. I didn't realize that I was almost BSL (bra strap length)!
Even though my hair has been shedding like a cat because of what I think may be an under active thyroid problem, my hair has still been growing like a weed. Very grateful for hair that grows no matter what. Hubby and I have always had fast growing hair, so yeah, the kids... no comment.
Woe unto me if we have another girl one day. Gonna' have to put daddy on hair duty... teach him how to do some simple, cute styles and help a sister out! LOL!
 Syriah's hair is actually getting thicker and thicker by the day... Yikes!
Well, that's all for now, folks. Gotta go feed the little boogers lunch. Working on revamping my schedule so I can have more time for myself in the morning and what not. Peace out, curly mamas!

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~Epic Realist~