It's probably been forever since I talked about MY hair.
This picture (s) was taken and edited last month, I believe. I had just redone my pink color over my blonde again, and it looked wonderful, as you can see. However, if you have dyed your hair before, then you know how fast reds and pinks can fade. LOL
So, I bought an Herbal Essences color shampoo and conditioner to see if they would hold the color in longer. I have yet to see if that's true or not. I am still experimenting with that.
As far as my hair health goes, my hair is in a really healthy state right now. It's flourishing and growing! I had mentioned in a Youtube video last summer that I wasn't gonna cut my hair at all for any reason for a while, and I hadn't. I only gave myself a light trim a few months ago, and that is only because the hair at the crown of my head is always way longer than the rest of my hair (kinda don't like that) AND those ends were kind of split. So I cut off like a half an inch and trimmed some split ends off the rest of my hair, which were probably caused by bleaching.
Just two years ago, I said that I would no longer dye my ends. Apparently, I lied. I love the way that ombre hair looks and I love having my bangs fully colored. I just have to take care of my hair BETTER than I did 2 years ago, when I was still preggo with baby Kyanah.
I have also learned more about my hair and I have been sticking to just TWO product lines as much as possible, as far as moisturizers. I will elaborate more on that soon.
Yesterday, I uploaded a video showing that my hubby has no heat damage from his first ever blow drying and flat ironing experience. I did a good job, I believe. Haha!
I didn't really expect for him to have heat damage, but I always put it in the back of my head as a maybe. I didn't put the temperature too high, I used heat protectant AND grapeseed oil, and I took my time, even though it was mega late. But that was the only free time that I had to get his trim done, while all 5 kids were knocked completely out for the night. That was the main reason why I wanted his hair straight to begin with. The trim was really needed. His hair is already kind of choppy and damaged from him previously having locs, so I'm working on getting it back to better health, starting with getting rid of dead, splitends.
I am impressed with this flat iron. It's still fairly new. I just got it this spring, I believe. So far, it's done well. I still have yet to straighten my hair with this thing really well, except for the one rush job I did back when our water heater was broken and I couldn't wash my hair too well. But the cooler weather is coming, so I will definitely be straightening my hair for real soon. I want to see the length and because of less humidity, I usually flat iron during the colder months anyway and don't have to worry so much about my curls reverting back.
Do you have a favorite flat iron? What is it? How often do you straighten your hair with it? Got any recent heat damage? How did you go about repairing it? Let me know!
Hey guys! I've been slacking on this blog again. I just can't keep up with all this social media with 4 kids. I am doing my best while juggling two YouTube channels and other things here at home. Forgive me... that's why I recently made my Twitter strictly personal.
I do keep up on my Instagram, though. I post there a lot, pics of hair, health, and homeschooling things and ideas. Follow me @curlsofinnocence.
I am the hair whisperer of my family, so I am upkeeping six heads of hair. Yes, six. Remember, my hubby has locs now! It's been two months for him so far. I have those updates on IG as well. Yes, this is a lot of work, but I put it on myself to let my boys grow their curls out, loc one of them, and take on the task of maintaining another set of locs. Yikes!
Locs are fairly low maintenance, but not so much in the beginning. LOL! Getting my hubby's super loose textured hair to loc has been a bit of a struggle for me. We're doing it, however.
Anyway, life has been super hectic and busy, as usual. But we're living and doing okay, Vlogging when I can.
For any info on the kid's wash routines or wash days, stay tuned to YouTube. Updating the page on this blog where their old routines are would take a very long time and I'm not sure that I am going to do it anytime soon. LOL! ;)
Hey, guys! I haven't had much time lately to keep up with my blogs, but anyway, I have something that I'd like to talk about today.
Remember when I said in my New Year's hair goals list that I would go back to the basics of hair care? Well, in my opinion, I had already been doing that to an extent. But now, with 4 kids, I really need to practice that more than ever. So here are some things that I've either learned or re-visited lately.
1. Leaving rinse out conditioner in the hair isn't going to kill it.People have been doing this since forever, and I've always had my own complex issue towards it because I had tried it in the past and always preferred to use a leave in. It just felt better to me. But nowadays, I am experimenting more with my on leave in mixture because it's cheaper and still works. That mixture consists of Suave Naturals conditioner, water, glycerin, and a number of my favorite oils. That, my friends, is the secret to poppin curls. The hold is perfect, too, depending on how you mix it. Haha!
2. The kid's hair doesn't HAVE to be washed every week. Really. I used to be on that every week, and swear by it because they always had their little heads on the floor, full of lint, dust, crumbs, and who knows what else. But now that Jamian's and Symari's hair have gotten so long and Syriah's hair is continuously past her butt, it's a lot of freakin work to make sure that each kid's hair is washed, conditioned, detangled, and styled every single week. And that doesn't include MY hair. Also, little Jalani is 8 months old, but his hair is rapidly growing and accumulating tangles daily. His routine is simple, but it still takes time as his hair gets longer. Here is his hair last month. Simple Baby Hair Care
3. I must deep condition MY hair every week because of the color.Forget the kid's hair! Their hair doesn't need that much conditioning compared to mine. I honestly don't have time anymore. If I do get the time to deep condition Syriah's hair, it'll be like, once a month. Because I have super light areas in my hair now, I need to focus on keeping heavy moisture and light protein treatments in my hair. I also need to get back to using my whipped shea butter. I've been kind of neglecting that lately. #epicfail
4. I MUST stop wearing my hair out so much during the winter!Yes, this is my ultimate weakness. I know the cold air is very damaging to my hair, but so far, whenever I go out somewhere, my hair just has to be out and wild and uncovered. Unless it's raining. Then I pin it down under a hood or something. But initially, I know that I shouldn't have it out and free when it's 30-50 degrees and the wind isn't very favorable towards my hair. I just love my hair big and wild, but I've been getting such terrible tangles and knots from doing this. I know; I fail miserably. I hate the cold weather. Come on, spring! lol
5. Gel is NOT for wintertime.Again, rocking a wash and go during the colder months really wreaks havoc on my hair, and that's probably because of the color. In the past, it didn't seem to do as much damage. But I have to remember, my hair is practically bleached now. Wash & gos with gel during the winter... NOT working for me. That combined with wearing my hair out: epic disaster. The style only lasts ONE day. That happened to me last week, and I was so pissed off. Plus, I don't own a blow dryer or a diffuser, so it's not like I could have 'set' my hair better before heading out. Nope, it had to air dry all night, and didn't properly do so, either. So, I need to leave wash and gos alone until the weather warms up. Seriously. LOL! 6. Keratin treatments might not be a bad idea for me. I used the last bit if an old ApHogee 2 step treatment that I had for a long time, and it made my colored hair pop and feel less 'crunchy' after washing it. I originally wanted to keep purchasing that stuff even then, but at the time, I couldn't afford to. I didn't see much of a difference in my hair then, but I knew that I'd have to keep trying it. However, now with this drastic color difference, that treatment is like butter to my hair! So instead of paying nearly 8 bucks for that, maybe I'll settle for a cheapie conditioner with keratin in it and see how my hair does.
7. Stop emphasizing styles too much on the kids!We all don't get out too much right now, anyway. I had been working on this for months, because like I said earlier, it's just too much damn work. It's not that serious. I was actually considering straightening Syriah's hair more often this year just so I'll be able to maintain it easier, but I said, nah. That'll do more harm than good and I know this. Me of all people know better. Before I let her hair become damaged due to lack of time, I'll sooner whack off the hair that Jam has and have him start over to take some of the workload off of me. He's a boy. It's not much of a big deal. So, now, both girls get their hair washed and automatically thrown into a few cornbraids or flat twists, or just two braids, period. Little Mari just had these box braids. They lasted for two weeks! Yay.
8. And last of all: Consistency is important, but don't overstress it. If I can afford one product this month that's working well but I can't afford it next month, then so be it. I need to work with what I have and what I know works. Honestly, I miss my Shea Moisture. But until finances pick up and are stable, I need to 'expect the unexpected'. That means the only hair products that I for sure can afford every month are Suave shampoos and conditioners, ONE sulfate free shampoo (right now, I'm using the Cream of Nature Argan Oil one and LOVE it), my cheap deep conditioner, one leave in, and my oils. The oils last almost forever because I buy huge bottle in bulk sometimes, for hot oil treatments, sealing, and mixing my Whipped Curly Butter.
So, that's pretty much what I've got as far as hair right now. I'm slacking on my videos a bit because of life being so busy, but I am getting it together. Between me
homeschooling two kids,
changing the other two kid's diapers and also
starting potty training with toddler,
preparing meals,
entertaining kids,
breaking up fights,
cleaning house,
feeding baby,
giving showers/baths,
blogging,
vlogging,
advertising,
photo editing,
video editing,
working out,
talking to hubby after work (and staying up late gaming because that's my only real 'me' time),
and forgetting to eat most times, everybody's hair is completely last on my list of things to do. Ha! Sue me if you like, but it's my hectic life. Hope you guys enjoyed this blog post. How do you manage your time with your kid's hair and yours? Learned any tips and tricks for keeping your curls in line? Please share! Thanks for reading. ;)
I do not view going natural as a political statement, because frankly, I do not care about politics. I believe that politics are fake, and that they only portray into the media what they want the masses to believe.
I went natural for two reasons. For one, I was sick and tired of society's view on bashing black women who did not keep their hair straight and 'manageable', and secondly, I already had a passion for 'naturalness' my whole life but I didn't really know it yet.
I got tired of buying lotions and hair creams that 'didn't work' for my hair and skin because they were full of chemicals. I would complain to my sister about commercial lotions that we'd buy and use, and the next day, we were so ashy, it was as if we put nothing on at all.
I would get utterly frustrated when I got a cream for my hair, lather my hair in it, twist or braid it up, and the next day, it would be as dry as the Sahara Desert. When I did get perms, I only got them every 4-6 months, so I was pretty much wearing my hair natural and curly, anyway. I went to college with my hair still wet a lot, and people called me 'white girl' because my hair was long and wet, and still looking good, even though it was damaged. So 'big chopping' after transitioning for two years wasn't hard for me and it wasn't a hassle.
I did, however, have to learn how to really take care of it, and that's what I continuously do today.
The rise of natural hair products has definitely made me feel better as a black woman, knowing that we no longer have to succumb to buying crap in the stores because that's all there is. We can wear our natural hair as we have been so afraid to do for years and not have it break off due to overuse of parabens, sulfates, and petroleum.
Going natural is like going on a choosing a healthier diet; you cut out a lot of the bad things, but you have to learn what healthy things you should substitute for and put into your body as well as how to care for your body. You can't just say, I want to eat healthier but I'm not going to research how to do it, so you continue to eat the same way and not exercise. Sorry, not going to work. You won't get anywhere anytime soon with that kind of mentality.
It may seem that going natural is harder than being relaxed, because in a way, it is. Everything that we are supposed to be doing right is automatically going to be harder. That's just life. We were born natural, so taking care of our curls is what we were born to do. Growing your own food will automatically be harder than just going to the supermarket and picking up any type of food you want with no hassle, because that's the way the world was originally supposed to work. We've just gotten lazy over the centuries, and we don't want to do any more work then what we are allotted to do. Constantly spritzing, detangling, moisturizing, twisting, parting, and styling seems to be harder than just going to the salon for a relaxer every six weeks or so, but that route has it's share of hard work as well.
Technically, your hair may require more care with a relaxer than our natural curls, only because the chemicals wear our hair down, but hey. Either way you rock your hair is still work to look nice and be as healthy as we can.
Natural hair maintenance can be super hard work, but it's worth it, ladies! Peace out till later, curly mamas! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Curls-of-Innocence/256662627753918
My home made supply of shea butter is finally running really low. It actually lasted over a month and a half; that's with me using it on our hair and skin! Great price for the amount I got at this website. http://bulkapothecary.com/ So it's time to get some more. I ordered another pound yesterday, along with jojoba oil and grape seed oil. This time, I'm going to try a new concoction and see how it works. I'm getting more and more excited to be going deeper and deeper into what really belongs in our bodies. It's so intriguing! All this time, people have been putting so much chemicals into their hair and not even realizing what the chemicals are doing. But it's time out for my family and I suffering the same fate. I'm changing hair products, soaps, lotions, etc. I've even purchased PerioBrite and PerioWash, an all natural, fluoride-free toothpaste and an alcohol and chemical-free mouthwash to match. Hubby and I love it already.
Making the transition is expensive and can be tedious, but that's where the research comes in. I'm glad that I have time to read up on what's good and what's bad, what's the best deal for my money and all that. I've realized that going natural as far as hair isn't all that expensive if you know how to use what you get sparingly. Getting that shea butter and those oils only cost me thirty-three bucks... for another month and a half/two months! That's much more worth it than buying some cheap moisturizer at Walmart like I used to do, just because it's the cheapest thing up there. Those things had so many chemicals in them that I was getting more and more pissed off every time I realized that we were almost out of hair cream and I had to settle for the cheap stuff. But now, things are different and we're able to get the better, all natural stuff. In approximately two days, I will get an ultrasound and finally know what gender our new baby is. I'm hoping for another girl, but if it's a boy, then so be it. I already have the best of both worlds. This child will be so lucky because now that I know a whole lot more about natural products, that's all that's going to be on their body. This child won't have chemicals of any kind touch their little heads, and certain things I used to do with Syriah's hair won't happen to this child. I know a lot more about natural hair care now and the do's and don't's. So, yeah, I'm very excited, about the ultrasound and also seeing UPS arriving with my new package of hair goodies. =)
