Saturday, June 29, 2013

KCCM Summer Challenge, Week 5

KCCM Summer Challenge, Week 5

1. What are your favorite natural hair styles? How long does it take you to style your hair this way? Which products do you use to get the best results of this style?
My favorite styles are twists, twist outs, and braid-outs. It doesn't take that long to fix my hair the previous night for a twist out, unless I feel like doing small twists or braids. I like to use my whipped shea butter on wet hair for definition and moisture. If I don't use that, I use Shea Moisture leave ins.
2. How did you do last week (week 4)? Did you follow through with your goals? Any challenges thus far? Did well as usual. I used the castor oil on my edges and scalp after wetting it.
3. Based on your length check pics, can you see a difference in thickness or length yet? For those of you focusing on your edges, are they growing in? Oh, yes. I see length already, and I am loving iiiiiit! ;)
4. Post your length check pics! Done! ;)




~Epic Realist~

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Simple Flat Twists

Heya, curly mamas! I have a simple flat twist style for girls that worked on my four year old. It surprisingly lasted for a week and looked awesome even until the day I took it out. She's rocking an awesome twist out from it right now!
I don't suck so bad at flat twists anymore. They've gotten pretty easy, and I've been using them on both of my daughter's hair as quick, simple, protective styles. I love these twists.


Hope you ladies enjoy. Keep practicing flat twisting if you can't get the hang of it. It's easier than trying to get cornbraids down! LoL!

~Epic Realist~

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Third Time Around: KCCM Challenge, WEEK 4

So, I'm doing the KCCM challenge yet again. Looks like I'm going to be continuously doing these until I win (hehe), so I might as well same some of my answers here to copy and paste for the future. If there are any changes, I will make them on the challenge page. 


1. There are so many products on the market, what are your favorites for washing? What are your favorites for moisturizing/styling? What qualities does a product have to have in order to become one of your favorites?
I LOVE all Shea Moisture shampoos. They are a staple for me until I actually feel like trying something else. I also love anything Shea Moisture... their conditioners, their deep conditioners, everything. I tend to use their deep conditioners as a leave in, especially the deep treatment masque in the tan packaging. A product has to be at least 90% natural for me to even consider it. No mineral oil, no waxes, sulfates, or parabens, and especially no odd colors.
2. Since using the castor oil, has your hair seen any of the benefits listed in the list above? Which ones?
Oh, yes. I have had lots of growth as usual, as well as baby soft hair. Since the last two challenges I've participated in, I have grown in my baby hairs very well, and dandruff is a thing of the past.
3. How did you use Castor Oil in your hair last week (week 3). Did you find yourself losing momentum or are you still going hard?
I never lose momentum. LOL! I am still going hard, using castor oil on my scalp every other day, on my edges, and on my ends.
4. (optional) Share a pic of your natural hair in one of your favorite styles!
Done! I LOVE braid outs.


I hope that you guys are getting great results as well with this. I love castor oil!

~Epic Realist~



Wednesday, June 19, 2013

You CANNOT Touch MY Hair!

Heya, guys! I am back with a hair rant. It's been a while. Haha!
There is this new movement going on nowadays that makes absolutely no sense to me. It's a movement where we as black women who have embraced our natural hair go out and supposedly educate other races about our hair by letting them... touch it. -___-
Now wait just a minute. I have several problems with this 'movement'.
1. It is not our place to 'educate' other races about our hair! Why are we doing that? What's the point? What are we trying to prove by doing that? So you think it's okay because you say that we need to expose other people to our way of life and what not... really? White people have always known what our hair looked and felt like since slavery, when they touched it without our permission after bringing us to the U.S. without our permission. I bet that no one's thinking about that, right?
2. Why is it that every time black people have something to be proud of, we like to flaunt it in everyone else's faces? Can't we like, keep this within ourselves instead of walking around to other races and be like, 'Yeah, finally we can grow our hair just as long as yours! Come feel it; it feels good, right?Black women are the biggest boastful people around. We've got to rid ourselves of this boastful mentality or we will never progress in anything.
3. It's utterly GROSS! Why the freak are we allowing complete (and several) strangers to touch our hair, anyway? I don't know where their hands have been. I don't like when people pet me like I'm an animal at a petting zoo. Either ask first or don't touch! Some people are okay with it, but I am not going to be standing in the middle of NYC, holding up a sign, telling people to come touch my hair. I am not an exhibition in a museum. Go pet your dog or something.
4. Other races are still going to try to 'out do' us, so why give them ammunition to do so? Why give them more of a reason to roll their eyes when they see us so they can sniff and snort and say, 'Oh. look, it's another one of those naturals. She thinks she's something'. We as blacks should already know that whenever it appears that we have something good to hold onto, some other races tries to take it from us. But what we don't realize is that we're allowing it to happen. It's our attitude; it's always about how you go about things.
There are races out there that LOVE our hair and they wish they had big, versatile curls. However, I don't believe in exploiting what we have. We're only giving them power to do things to bring us down in another way, but we don't realize it. There is no reason to brag about what we can do to our hair to other races. Yes, they've been bragging about theirs for years, more than likely. We've felt superior to their hair because we've been mis-educated about ours. But now that the tables have turned, we fell like we have the right to stoop to their level and flaunt what we've learned. All the other races are saying, 'Well, you guys had the power to grow your hair all along, so what's so special about it now?' Technically, some of them are laughing at us, really.
But that's not the point. The point is that we do not need to call ourselves educating other races about how our hair feels. Who really cares and what is the main goal? That is all I care about. I don't agree with it at all. You will never see me participating in a movement like that.
Sorry; I just don't buy it. You CANNOT touch MY hair! (unless you ask) LOL


~Epic Realist~

Monday, June 10, 2013

╰☆╮Curls of Innocence ☆╮POPPIN' Braid-Out!

Hey, guys! It's late, but I just finally got done uploading my new video featuring the Whipped Curly Butter. Hope you enjoy! Rate, comment, subscribe.
Sigh... I cannot embed the video again. It won't show up on the YouTube option... don't know why. Oh, well. Here's the link. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzyoYW652w8

~Epic Realist~



Saturday, June 8, 2013

Clarifying Shampoo With LCO Method

Hola, guys! Last week, I got a new shampoo. Yes, I actually got something other than Shea Moisture. I didn't have the money to spend on getting their black soap shampoo, and I desperately needed something to clean my scalp raw because I hadn't done that in... over a year. -__-
I initially wanted to use apple cider vinegar for that, but I couldn't find any to save my life. So, instead of breaking the bank, I got something cheap from Dollar Tree. I haven't used any VO5 products in years, and I mean since I was a teenager. I got a shampoo and a cheap conditioner to go along with it. I didn't care. Hey, it was a dollar and it had sulfates. I just needed something to make my scalp and hair squeaky clean.
It worked, all right. My hair was smelling good, and it squeaked like mad. It felt so weird because I hadn't used a sulfate shampoo in over two years now, and my hair felt completely stripped. But that's how it needed to feel. I read  a lot of hair advice still, and products can get built up on your scalp and hair and nothing but sulfates will be able to remove them. I've known this for a long time, but I was never serious about implementing it.
So now I finally have something. My hair was as dry as ever afterwards, though! LOL! I was laughing and freaking out at the same time. I used both of them, and when I came out of the shower, I immediately threw some of my SM Deep Treatment Masque in my hair as a leave in and put castor oil on top of each section and de-tangled with my paddle brush. Then I braided them up.
I have been experimenting with the LCO (liquid, cream, oil) method rather than the LOC (liquid, oil, cream) method. Some people say that the LCO works better for them. I'm beginning to think that my hair likes the LCO method better as well, because with the oil on top, it really penetrates my hair better than it being put on before the cream. Still playing around with it so I can know for sure.
My hair still wasn't as soft as it used to be when I took the braids out two days later, so I did a deep condition with SM Anti Breakage Masque... for about six hours. Loved the results. My hair was back to normal softness and fluffiness. Panic attack was over. Haha!
I've decided that I'm going to use this shampoo once a month only just to clarify my hair from crap. It's an addition to my hair regimen. My hair is in a good place right now, and I'm super happy with it. Growing a lot, no more major shedding, very minimal breakage and split ends, no heat usage, no comb usage (except parting and wash day) protective styling, soft, fluffy, and... being grabbed by my almost one year old daughter. :-) My hair nowadays reminds me of Naptural85's hair. She's one of my favorite hair bloggers. Yay for hair health!
Here's some recent pics of my hair in a braid out. Yesterday was my anniversary, and that's the pic of me in the blue shirt. <3 



Check out what I've been homeschooling meh kids! uncagedlearning.blogspot.com

Peace out, curly mamas!