FIERCE!

That's how I've been feeling lately. I'm really starting to love and appreciate my transitioning/nappy hair more and more everyday. I was beginning to get really frustrated with it but I'm discovering that if I treat it right I can let it do what it wants to do and I don't have to coax it into doing something that it doesn't want to do. It does what it wants to do and looks great! I've also gained SOO much more confidence in myself. I don't know what it is about wearing your hair out but I put on my heels, some nice accessories, and "work it"! LOL. It feels so good. I was so afraid to wear my hair natural when I first started - was so worried what people would think, but I said the heck with it, I'm going to do what I do and not worry about the looks and comments.

I also think I've discovered my own signature style that works best for my hair. That's funny too because at first, I thought I wanted my twist outs to "hang" down, but I think I've mentioned before that I like it better as a big, spirally fro' - LOL! I definitely get a lot of attention but have received many compliments too. I went out to lunch a few days ago with co-workers and they just went on and on about how they loved my hair and how do I get it like it is - HA! And I've gotten lots of compliments on my big, pouffy afro puff when I pull it back into that style as well. This weekend I'm going to try either the messy side bun or two messy buns behind the ears. We'll see how that turns out. Always looking for different ways to wear it, especially when my twist out starts to fizzle but I'm not ready to restyle. I might even try a braid out this weekend after I wash and condition. We'll see. I am falling in love with my natural hair more and more. Found a couple of new blogsites that I think are just awesome. Check out this one, LITK ("Leave In The Kinks" I LOVE that!) and what she has to say. All I could say after reading her article was "DITTO"

http://www.leaveinthekinks.com/


TTYL!

Best Twist Out Yet

I think I've discovered my best twist out routine yet. I spritzed my hair with the water/coconut oil mixture, sealed with shea butter and applied a little bit of Organic Root Smooth and hold pudding. Then I flat twisted my hair into a total of 10 twists - one directly in the back one on each side framing my face, 3 on each side and one chunky two strand twist at the crown, twisted forward. I then secured the puffiness around the top twist with clips on both sides, rolled the ends of all the braids about midway up and put on my satin bonnet. This morning I had GREAT curls and definition and was very happy with the way it turned out. Also, when I took the twists out, I tried Curly Nikki's technique of seperating the curls from the root down the length of the curl but stopping before you get to the very end to prevent the frizzies. It works. I'm lovin' my hair today!

Now I'm trying to decide if I want to retwist tonight or just see how it looks if I sleep on as is with the satin bonnet. Maybe I'll just retwist. I really like how it looks ;) I'll try to get some decent pics on here to show you.

"There’s just an certain aura a woman exudes when she has natural hair. She walks differently. Her swag is on full tilt..."

The rest of the above quote goes, "...There's a sense of confidence and je ne sais quoi that emanates from her spirit. Whatever it is it's sexy as all hell and turns me on" Anslem Samuel.

I found that quote on another website. I liked it so much, I thought I'd borrow it ;)

I tried the flat twistout and clipped the ends instead of rolling them. Don't like it on me. At least not with all the perm I still have in my hair. The ends were just too straight. So, I pulled my hair back in a semi messy ponytail-like bun. No, actually, it's more like an afro "puff". It looks pretty good! I've gotten lots of compliments on it here at work today. Probably because it's smoothed back at the front and a more "controlled" look than my regular twistout - LOL! I don't care. Besides, I like the more poofy, bigger twist out on me anyway. I'll be going back to rolling the ends this evening and sporting the big twist n curl fro tomorrow, so look out! HA!

Lots to Share!

O.K. so, I'm starting to figure my hair out in terms of styling and what to do with it. I've come to the realization that if I spritz it with water and coconut oil (mixture in my spray bottle) and seal with shea butter, then flat twist it and curl the ends tightly (up to my scalp), I end up with a kinda curly "fro" twist out. (duh!). If I leave the curled ends dangling, then it's a smoother, more stretched twist out (Rocket Science, huh?) Also, if I do a dry flat twist, while I'm transitioning, my permed ends don't like this and the curl definition ends up very weak. I've also discovered that when it doesn't turn out exactly the way that I want, I should just let it do what it wants to do instead of trying to make it do what I think it should look like i.e. if it turns out too short or a lot of shrinkage when I take the twists out, instead of trying to stretch it to look longer, and getting all frustrated when it doesn't, ending up with a lot of "frizz" - just go with the curly fro! Or, I can always throw a headband on and do the curly puff or messy bun if all else fails. I guess that's part of listening to your hair and working with it instead of against it - LOL! (By the way, I need to get the book pictured above).

I never realized how many versatle styles you can get with your hair like this. It's kind of exciting to wake up every morning not knowing exactly what you're hair's going to do but waiting to see how it turns out and rocking that style for the day. I'm loving it! Much better than just slicking it back into a straight ponytail or bun or french twist everyday.

I think when I wash and condition my hair this weekend I'll try the flat twists with no rollers at the ends - just put clips on the ends to keep them from unraveling. We'll see. I'll post more pics soon.

I also "co-pooed" for the first time this weekend (no shampoo, just wash scalp with a light conditioner. - I used Suave's Humectant). I then did a deep condition with Pantene's Relaxed and Natural Hair Mask and used Herbal Essence's "Totally Twisted" as my leave in conditioner. I think I like this because my hair seems to be much more soft and moisturized than when I use shampoo. I will still shampoo, maybe once a month, just to make sure I'm getting rid of any build up, but for my terribly dry hair, this seems to be working great so far. I will eventually Big Chop, but I'm not ready for that yet. I'll see where we are at the 6 month stage. I'd like to try and transition for at least a year but we'll see how that goes. I'll also need to start trimming every time I wash my hair, in order to start getting rid of of some of this permed hair. ;)

I also went on the http://www.tightlycurly.com/ website and went through the answer bank and realized that I can't do the curl-defining techniques that she suggests (finger twirling or "doodling" and smoothing) because I still have too much perm in my hair. Those techniques are for totally natural hair. So, the best way for me to define my curls right now is the two strand twist or two strand flat twist or french braids. Actually, one other website said that the two strand flat twist works best for transitioning hair. I can and do still follow all of the other techniques on the tightly curly site, for washing, combing and conditioning my hair.

I've been reading a lot of different sites and posts about the whole "controversy" over the wave of women going natural these days. People keep trying to say it's political. I don't think it is. At least not for me, anyway. I'm not trying to make any type of political statement at all. If people want to be straight, curly, nappy, whatever, I say let them do what they want. Live and let live. I decided to let my natural hair grow out and stop perming because it was destroying my hair and I was tired of doing nothing but pulling my hair back into a ponytail or bun. Where's the fun in that? Now, I'm really getting to know my hair and looking forward to seeing it natural. I'm not pushing my agenda on my daughters (15 and 22), they both have long beautiful permed hair and that works for them. They both also take really good care of their permed hair, go to a hair dresser regularly, etc. I didn't do any of those things when I was perming. I did it myself. I refuse to sit in a beauty shop for hours every other week (as they suggest), wasting my Saturdays and dropping $60 - $100 bucks everytime, then avoiding rain and water like the plague until the next touch up. I'm more of a do-it-youself person. So, the natural thing just works better for me. Not political at all. Just lazy and selfish, really. LOL!

Well, that's all for now.TTYL!

Yiiiiiikes!!!!

Near disaster this morning! I washed, deep conditioned and flat twisted my hair last night. Left it really wet in spots, but applied the shea butter (miracle product!), Organic's "pudding" stuff for hold and coconut oil spritz. I put on my satin bonnet and went to bed around 11:45 pm (I was waiting to pick my daughter up from her basketball game that was an hour and a half away. They didn't get back in town until almost midnite!) Love this barbie, by the way!

Anyway, I woke up this morning and much of my hair was still wet when I took the twists down! (Womp, Womp!) And I didn't have time to blow dry it. So, I left my hair in twists with rollers at the end, put on a scarf, grabbed some snap clips, hair bands and hair pins and dashed to work, hoping that it would be dry by then, but totally expecting to have to pull it back in a big, messy ponytail. I got to work, avoided contact with ANYONE and dashed into the ladies' room. No luck! Started to untwist my hair and spots were still damp, others were still very wet! Ugh. Luckily, I was able to clip the front back (the front and top are the longest parts of my hair and take the longest to dry so they were still very wet, no curl at the end!) It actually turned out better than I thought, the ends were a little stringy in spots were it was still wet, but I did notice that with the shea butter, coconut oil and pudding combination, my hair is very soft and shiny and the curls that were dry, were very defined. Even my new-growth roots had taken on a bit of a wave. I'll try it again, maybe this evening, but may do a dry twist or just mist it a bit with a spray bottle and not get it so wet this time.

By the way, I tried a couple of products that have been suggested on several natural websites and here's my take on them:

Herbal Essence Hello Hydration Shampoo - It was alright. I wasn't impressed with it much, just the smell. I still like my "Motions" shampoo better. Thought I got much better results from it - even if it does contain "cones".

Pantene's Relaxed and Natural Deep Conditioning Hair Mask - I liked this pretty well. Made my hair really soft. Wish I had left it on a little longer than I did, but it was late and I didn't feel like sitting around for 15-30 mins with conditioner on my hair last night.

Herbal Essence Totally Twisted Conditioner - I used this as a leave in. Liked it o.k. Smells great. Again, though, I still think I get a better feel to my hair with my "Motions" conditioner as a leave in. I will admit, though, that my curls were more defined and shinier this morning. But I don't know if it was because of the Herbal Essence or the shea butter and coconut oil (??) Guess I'll have to keep experimenting!

Hot Six Oil Hair Mist - I LOVE this stuff! Awesome. It produces a fine mist and is very light. Great stuff!

Don't have to be perfect!

You know, I didn't twist up my hair last night, just slept in my satin bonnet and my hair still looked pretty good today. I've decided to stop trying to make my twist outs look "perfect". Every curl doesn't have to fall in place and it doesn't have to look uniform from all angles, as I've always believed a hairstyle should. I'm just gonna let my curls do what they want to do. If it looks a little wild, then so be it - LOL! I think part of going natural has to do with changing your mindset and your preceptions about you hair. That's almost as important as the hair change itself. (I love Syesha's "wild" look - see pic above)

I'm also going to stop comparing the way my twist out looks to the way others' looks. Everybody's hair is different and unique and mine doesn't have to look like anybody elses'. I've got to rock my own style ;)

'til later....

Two strand flat twist-out "fro"

So, I finally got some recent pics posted. I think this is my best 2strand flat twist out yet. The pictures that I posted yesterday don't look as good as I think it does in real life but I discovered that if I do just a 2 strand twist in the front going away from my face, I get a better result and the style is more flattering - to me anyway. It's really more like a curly "fro" since I do the twists and then roll the entire twist all the way up to the scalp. My hair turned out really big on the top so I had to pin the front down a bit with a bobby pin - I actually like the really "big" look, but I thought I'd better tone it down a little for work. I've freaked enough people out as it is with my new hair - LOL.

It's amazing how different your hair turns out depending on the way you twist it, how many twists you make etc. I've discovered a couple of other hairstyles that I can rock when my twist-out starts to fade and I don't feel like retwisting for a few days. I found these on "curlynikki.com" website (which I love, by the way). I'll post my hair in these styles as I wear them.

One I wore this weekend was a fat, loose ponytail. I'll post a pic of mine the next time I wear it, but here is Curly Nikki's:

I really like this look.