Update on my hair

Picture from De Piramide

Heyo!

Sorry for totally being M.I.A on this blog. I'm here now, so.....UPDATE TIME!

Yeah, so, my hair is actually past APL (ArmPit Length) now. It's not quite ate BSL (Bra-Strap Length) yet. I'm so excited by it's length, though! Eeep!

I am currently stretching out my hair with some African threading which is awesome. I started stretching out after washing out my deep conditioner and showering and then before going to bed, I undid some of the threaded hair, separated it and rethreaded it for that 'super stretched' effect. My hair looks practically straight and like, y'all know I love big curly hair to bits so, I guess I probably will add a bit more texture to it before the New Year's party tomorrow (it's now the 30th in England) by bantu knotting it or something. Maybe I might even try out a new hairstyle.

So, yeah, here's what I've done with my hair post-take down (in case you forgot, I had crochet braids in and I normally would keep them in for about 4 months before I redo them):

• I took down my hair yesterday (day before yesterday) and it like took less than an hour to get all the extensions out and my hair down which was awesome. If you need tips on this, let me know 'cause like it took 30mins, if not less to take down my hair and it usually would take me over an hour to do that.
• I worked some Extra Virgin Olive Oil into my hair as I detangled it using a wide toothed comb straight after taking down my extensions. I still had my spray bottle of coconut oil and water nearby, but I didn't use that because, I experience A LOT of shrinkage when my hair gets wet (like my hair can shrink up to my ears) and, well, it's easier to detangle my hair when it's stretched out although I could easily hand-stretch it while combing or melt the tangles away with the water as my tangles melt away easily. However, I had a little it of dirt in parts of my hair from not washing it out as often as I should've with the extensions in (got way too busy with school and work and stuff) and I didn't want dirty water dripping everywhere.
• I put my hair in random twists, donned on a plastic bag covered by my satin scarf and went to bed. So, basically, I prepooed. I did this for three reasons. 1) I was lazy and didn't want to bother with my hair anymore that night so I decided not to wash it then, 2) My hair takes almost a full 24hrs to dry especially if I decide to wear it in a wash and go (which is rare for me, but....) and 3) I felt that prepooing will help melt away any tangles that might still be in there and make the washing process easier.
• This morning (yesterday morning), I woke up and went straight to my bathroom where I washed my hair with my BeeMine Botanical Shampoo (sulfate-free, 100% natural and organic ingredients) twist section by twist section. This made washing my hair much easier, faster and ensure that every inch of my scalp and hair was clean 'cause as y'all know, some times, people wash their hair and don't wash it properly so there are like a few random parts that have lint in them or something or parts that can make your finger feel sticky or your nail get dirty ("I ain't about that life").
• Next, I conditioned my hair with three different conditioners. Yup! I did. I first used my BeeMine BeeLovely Conditioner followed by some of the VitaNourish conditioner that was sent to me (to review) by Midas Naturals. I worked this in my entire hair and then rinsed it out. Why did I do this? No reason, really. I like MidasNaturals' products and I liked the results I got from them when I initially used them (for the review) so I wanted to use that HOWEVER, I was sent a small bottle of the product and I have a lot of hair so....yeah. With the BeeMine conditioner, I brought a practically empty bottle home with me and I hadn't used that product in a while so I decided to just use it too combined with the MidasNaturals conditioner. Moving on....
• After rinsing out the conditioner combo going on in my hair, I used some of my SheaMoisture Restorative Conditioner to finger detangle, further soften and condition my hair (I just felt that my hair needed some tender loving care). I worked in the conditioner and finger detangled twist section by twist section and then I rinsed it out without taking out the twists to rinse then retwisting. Why? 1) Too much work and 2) I'm not so big on thoroughly rinsing out conditioners from my hair especially when the conditioner contains just natural ingredients.
• After the whole process my hair had undergone so far, I decided to treat it to one of my favourite products and the only deep conditioner I have ever used on my entire head of hair since I went natural (y'all know my and my 100% natural ingredients thing so, yeah, I always made my own deep conditioners prior to trying this one (for the review) and I only used this on my entire head of hair back then because I liked its ingredients list (normally, I'll use <1x1cm section of my hair to try out DCs or products I'm sceptical about)). I used the MidasNaturals Shine Conditioner. I absolutely love this product! Its consistency is on point, its smell is on point and its results are ON POINT. A little goes a long way with this product. I don't have a lot of it left as I got a small jar sent to me (looking forward to purchasing a larger jar of it) and like I've said before, I have a lot of hair so, yeah, I was glad that I could still get awesome results from just using a little of it.
• I left the conditioner in for a little over an hour before rinsing it out. This was because I wasn't in the mood to get back to the bathroom to rinse it out as my head had been feeling weird and I had woken up feeling terrible (I think I had my scarf on a little too tight when I slept or the heat going on up in the plastic bag combined by temperatures rising here while I was asleep and under a thick quilt (aka continental quilt, duvet, doona or comforter) messed up with my body). So, yeah, I got some breakfast (at around 3:11pm), chilled on a teddy bear that's almost my height (and I am much taller than the average height for women here in England), listened to a friend and my cousin play the drums (at first, I couldn't stand it because of how I was feeling and then when I started feeling better, it became more appealing to me), texted a friend and then I went to rinse out the DC and have a proper shower (and change out of the weird clothes I had been in (disappointing combination)).
• After rinsing out the DC, showering and changing into sweatpants and a comfortable top, I began to take down the twist (I forgot to mention, I rinsed out the DC with my hair still being in twists (I applied the DC taking down the twists first, though)) and African thread my hair to stretch it out because like I said before, my hair shrinks A LOT and up to my ears. I'm not a fan of horridly shrunken hair on me, neither was I up for wearing a wash and go or having to detangle my hair again any time soon. So, yeah, I threaded my hair.
• Before heading to bed, I took down the threads individually and separated my hair using just my fingers before rethreading to get my hair from collarbone length to almost APL without being 100% straight.

So, yeah, that's it.

I probably will leave my hair in the threads all tomorrow and in the morning of the day after to avoid manipulating my hair often and to retain this stretch for as long as possible (also, I need to be able to study and not worry about my hair).

I will be reinstalling my crochet braids (with new extensions identical to the old ones) before I head back to the west country (basically, back to college) and my aunt will be reinstalling them for me which is a process that makes me rather nervous haha (the pain!). I probably will go over to her place with my hair threaded to minimise the pain when she combs with a fine toothed comb (don't know why she does that) and does whatever she needs to do to install the extensions.

Anyways, it's really late now.

Gotta sleep.

Adios!

~Sammy

Detangling

Picture from GlobalCoutureBlog.net

I am here to give you hope about detangling.

Okay! So, I am still in a protective style at the moment, but I am going to talk about my experiences each time I took down my protective style (especially the last one).

As your hair gets longer, detangling gets easier. Like whaaaaat?! I never believed this till I experienced it. Okay! So, it's easy to detangle when you wear your hair short and then it's harder during that in-between stage (between long and short hair) and then it's easy again!

Last I knew, my hair was just a little past APL length. I took down a protective style (after protective styling for 4 months straight (I washed my hair while it was still in the protective style, don't worry) and like, I just needed a spray bottle with some ACV and water, my fingers and a shower comb to take out the tangles on the first day I washed my hair with the protective style out to detangle and then like, skip to the next time I washed it. Imagine super tangled hair that has been worn in all sorts of styles and has reverted and become all shrunken due to the ever present drizzle here in England. Yup! That was my hair. Guess what? I just sectioned my hair into 4 sections, got in the shower, turned the water on and as it went onto each loose section, I would hold my hair out gently (stretching it) and then run my hands down it with my thumb pressed into the section and my tangles are gone! Like, I just have to do the whole hand-thumb thing to get out shed hair! I don't need tools to get my hair 100% detangled anymore!

Okay! So, like I said, I'm just posting this to give you guys hope! The struggle will soon be over. I am glad that I do not have to spend 1.5hours detangling my hair anymore! :)

Can't wait till my hair is even longer! (I do see some new growth under my protective style, though :) )

Being real with you

Hey,

Sorry for not posting in a while.

Okay, so I am going to be real with you guys. I am not going to give the impression that I have everything under control and that my hair is 100% healthy and moisturised because honestly, it's not. Well, I can get it there though. You see, I haven't really bothered with my hair in a while. I have been focussing more on work and working out and well, those are important especially the work bit as I teach a class at a prep school starting from 8am on Thursdays and Fridays, I've been made a charity representative so I plan a lot of charity events and host many of them, I have tonnes of school work as this is my last year of college, I recently took up a job in a place not so far from my school, I perform often, I have rehearsals twice a week till night for a musical I auditioned for a while back, I have rehearsals for other things too and my vocal coach recently signed me up for 3/4 competitions. I'm also ensuring my health stays up as for once, I am healthy. So, yeah, I've been neglecting my hair a little too much.

My hair is dry, I snap knots I feel in it some times, I fiddle with it a little too much at times and well it is growing, I have about an inch of new growth, but the health of my hair has deteriorated as I only have time for it during the holidays now.

So, this is me telling you all that I don't always have everything under control. I am not some superhuman natural hair blogger. I'm just like you, sometimes, I have everything down, other times, I don't.

I am going to nurse my hair back to health once everything settles down a bit (and I take down my protective style) and yeah, I will be happy with the condition of my hair once again.

I don't like neglecting my hair, but I'm not going to lie to you all or  deceive you and make you think that I never neglect my hair because I do at times.

This is me being real.
~Sammy

Midas Naturals Product Reviews!

Picture gotten from MidasNaturals.com

Yes! I've finally gotten the review up!

So, I didn't use all the products in the pic above. I just used the hydrating mist, whipped shea butter and conditioner so that's all I'm going to review (but I'll do a shampoo review once I receive the shampoo).

Overall Review:
I like these products because their ingredients lists are awesome. All-natural ingredients, amazing right? (the ingredients that don't look natural are naturally-derived (derived from plants) I also like that they did not leave my hair feeling weird or stripped both during and after application and please don't say, "oh, Sammy, a conditioner, hydrating mist and whipped shea butter can never leave your hair feeling weird or stripped," because I have used a conditioner that has left my hair feeling weird and stripped before.
I would SO be willing to try other products from MidasNaturals! :)

Individual Review:

Shine Conditioner
Price: £10.39 for the next 5 days (then it's back up to £12.99) for a 250ml jar.

Ingredients -  Aqua, organic shea butter (butyrosperumum parkii), avocado (persea gratissima), emulsifying wax NF, sweet almond oil (prunus dulcis amara), potassium oleate, potassium cocoate, potassium citrate, palm free vegetable glycerin, coconut oil (cocos nucifera), keratin amino acid, phenoxyethanol, anthem gum. PH balanced. Free from: paragons, silicones, sulphates, DEA, petrolatum, mineral oils, pthalates, gluten, fragrance

When I received this conditioner, I thought it was simply just a rinsing conditioner, but it's even more.

Okay! So, on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is "terrible" and 5 is "totally amazing!" I will rate this product on the following things:

• As a detangler - 2
• As a rinsing conditioner - 5
• As a deep conditioner - 5

The smell of this product is light and not bad, at all.

Applying the product is easy and most definitely not messy and unlike some products that drip uncontrollably from your hair, this product does not drip.

It's consistency is slightly thick which is good not just for application purposes but also because for my hair, it's perfect. Things that are too light basically do nothing noticeable for my hair and things that are too heavy....lets just say that both my hair and I hate them.

Oh! oh! Although my hair looks shiny often, on wash day (after washing), it doesn't look that shiny, but today, it did :)

*Would I buy this product: YES!

*Would I recommend this product: Heck, yeah!

Whipped Shea Hair Butter

Price: £10.79 for the next 5 days (then it's back up to £13.49) for a 250ml jar.

Ingredients -  Aqua, organic shea butter (butyrospermum parkii), avocado oil (persea gratissima), coconut oil (cocos nucifera), emulsifying wax NF (cetearyl alchohol & polysorbate 60), olive oil (olea europaea), argan oil, crambe seed oil (abyssinica), organic palm oil (elaeis guineesis), stearic acid, xantham gum, phenoxyethanol, vanilla cream fragrance oil. PH balanced. Free from: parabens, silicones, sulphates, DEA, petrolatum, mineral oils, pthalates, gluten

I first tried this while I still had my crochet braids in. I used it on my edges and liked it so, I couldn't wait to use it on the rest of my hair.

On a scale of 1-5 where 1 is "terrible" and 5 is "totally amazing!" I will rate this product on the following things:

• As a styling product - 4
• As a sealant - 5

Although the product description refers to the butter as, "thick," I don't consider it to be thick because I have a jar of shea butter my grandmother sent over to me from Africa and that thing is THICK! I would describe this product's texture as nice and fluffy, not too thick and not light.

It's smell is light and nice.

Application is easy, HOWEVER, it is hard to get the whiteness off like to work it into your hair fully. However, if your hair was damp during application and you worked it in till you decided to just let it be, the whiteness will go once your hair dries (or is 90% dry).

*Would I buy this product: Yes

*Would I recommend this product: Yes

Hydrating Hair Mist

Price: £9.99 for the next 5 days (then it's back to £12.49) for a 250ml bottle.

Ingredients - Organic aloe vera leaf juice (Aloe Barbadensis), solubizer, blackberry extract (rubus fructicosus), rich vanilla cream fragrance PH balanced. Free from: parabens, silicones, sulphates, DEA, petrolatum, mineral oils, pthalates, gluten

I will start by saying that I love that this comes out like a mist and not like the Niagara Falls. There are many times I have expected something to come out as a mist and instead it's like I'm being fired with water pistols that let out quite a lot of water, but this isn't like that.

I first tried this while I had my crochet braids in too and when my edges felt dry, I used this to hydrate it especially if I'm in a rush. I can't remember if I ever used this alone (I think I always quickly followed up with the whipped shea butter after working this in).

Anyways, on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is "terrible" and 5 is "totally amazing!" I will rate this product on the following things:

• As a hydrator - 4
• Balancing your hair's natural pH value - 5

This product smells okay.

Water is said to be the best hydrator however, I wash my face with just water and my face goes right back to peeling if I don't get some oil or something on it quickly. Water sometimes, makes my hair feel hydrated and moisturised, but I think this does a bit of a better job than the water that comes out of the taps and showers here.

I like that using this, my hair does not really revert even though this product is in the form of a liquid. Like, the other day, I was remoisturising my hair (I had it stretched out using threads) and this mist barely did a thing to revert my hair while a tad bit of my conditioner (not by MidasNaturals) made it revert a whole lot and that wasn't even a leave-in conditioner!

I like that most of the product is aloe vera juice because my hair just adores anything from the aloe vera leaf!

This product does not drip off of your hair after application.

*Would I buy this product: Yup

*Would I recommend this product: Mmh-hmm

En Fin

Like I said at the start of this, I would love to try other products by MidasNaturals and there is a high chance that I'll purchase these products the next time I'm restocking on hair products. There is a higher chance that I'll buy the Shine Conditioner than I will the other products (no particular reason).

I love these products!

To any company manufacturing and selling natural hair products, I am willing to review your products and if your products has all-natural ingredients, there is a high chance I would not use it on just a small portion of hair on the back of my head, but on my entire head of hair (just being honest). Contact my via the email address on my Contacts page on this blog if your would like me to review your products.

I will not purchase your products to review if you ask me to review them as there is always the possibility that my hair might dislike them so, please, if you would like me to review your products, send me a trial-size/sample bottle or container of them.

My hair post-crochet braids takedown

Picture gotten from HerCampus

So, I took my hair down a week ago, on Monday, and got too lazy to wash it so I detangled it the next morning finger detangling first then spritzing with apple cider vinegar, working some coconut oil in and running a comb through working in small sections and holding my hair in a stretched position. It was a pretty easy detangle. I've never had a detangling experience that good! I washed it immediately after using my BeeMine Botanicals Shampoo and then conditioned it with my BeeMine BeeLovely Conditioner followed by my Shea Moisture Restorative Conditioner then I deep conditioned with my Terressentials Mud Wash (hehe ;) ) and worked out while deep conditioning to ensure some "steam" goes on in that plastic bag. I rinsed out the mud and reconditioned using a little of my Shea Moisture Restorative Conditioner. I worked in small sections throughout and always retwisted and bantu knotted after working on each section to keep my hair stretched and make it easier to work with my hair.

Okay! So my mum African threaded my hair that night and I was too lazy to take out the threads the next day or to redo it for a "super-stretched" look so I left the threads in for two days and then took them down on Saturday, combed out my hair which was hanging down my back already and left it like that. However, my hair got big, like REALLY BIG and looked like a gigantic afro within a few hours. It looked pretty awesome and pretty cool and I'm pretty glad it retained its stretch even after doing that.

That night, I put my hair in random braids to retain the stretch, donned on a satin scarf and went to bed. This morning, I combed it out and held it up in a puff with some bangs and tried slicking down my edges. My puff looked pretty good. It was HUGE!

I love my hair!! :)
Gaah! :)

~Sammy

p.s Going to try out the product sent to me by Midas Naturals this coming weekend! :) SO EXCITED!!!! :)

Beauty Vlogger Donates Her Hair To ‘Locks Of Love’ Before Cancer Treatment [VIDEO]

Written by Ty Alexander of HelloBeautiful

I’ve always admired beauty vlogger, Meechy Monroe. She started blogging in 2010 and has managed to turn what most call a hobby into a lucrative business that has her traveling the world to talk about her natural hair story. But recently, that story took a drastic change that she could have never expected.

I sat and admired Meechy’s pictures for hours this morning. I read her blog post over and over again. Then I watched a tearful yet fearless video that she posted on her Youtube channel. The flood gates opened, I cried uncontrollably. Instagram is literally going bonkers, and rightfully so, surrounding the hashtag#GetWellMeechy. After being absent from her blog and social media for months, Meechy announced that she had been diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer.

It all started with a mysterious life-changing stroke which led to two brain surgeries, radiation and chemo therapy. This also left Meechy with Aphasia, a disturbance of the delivery of language not linked to a loss of intelligence.

But what happens next is selfless, courageous and speaks volumes to the meaning of humanity.

Putting aside her own needs and feelings, she managed to think about the millions of other individuals plagued with cancer. Meechy carefully shaved her gorgeous tresses, which made her a popular Youtube sensation, and donated them to “Locks Of Love.”

Most of us never think we could ever survive an unthinkable experience like Meechy’s. We assume that we’re never strong enough to go through something like this. But if you’re like me and you believe in the power of human connection than you know we are all capable of the unthinkable with the helping hands of our friends, family, and even strangers. Even from afar we can all support Meechy and let her and her family know that she is not alone.

SO, HOW CAN YOU HELP MEECHY:

• You can help support by donating here  http://bit.ly/donate-meechy-monroe
• You can also send her encouraging notes and letters using this email address:GetWellMeechy@gmail.com
• You may send tokens of sympathy or written letters to: P.O. Box 286621, Chicago IL 60628.

#TeamBeautiful sends our well wishes to the Monroe family.

Meechy's Medical Expense Fund

Hey naturals,

So, incase you don't know Meechy, she's a natural hair and beauty YouTuber and so happens to be MsVaughnTV's sister.

Meechy has been sick for some time now and a couple of months ago, it was discovered that she has a rare form of brain cancer.

So, readers, please, please keep Meechy in your prayers.

Also, if you can make a donation on her GiveForward page, please do and if you can't please pass the link on to others.

Thank you.

~Sammy